When Joe Biden took the oath of office in January 2021, many expected him to be the “placeholder president.” His mandate: heal the country’s wounds after four turbulent years of Donald Trump. Don’t try to be a transformative figure. Then hand the reins to a capable successor. Fast forward to 2024 and there’s room for […]

The post If Biden stands down before the election appeared first on Asia Times.

As expected, Donald Trump won the New Hampshire Republican primary on Tuesday, and he did so convincingly, 54.2% to 43.7% for his only remaining opponent Nikki Haley – or 136,000 votes to 109,000, when 75% of the votes were counted. No surprise. No drama. It’s done.  The conclusion: The presidential election on November 5, 2024, […]

The post New Hampshire goes for Trump appeared first on Asia Times.

The battle to keep the government open may feel just like the crisis of the day. But these fights pose immediate and long-term risks for the US. The federal government spends tens of billions of dollars every year to support fundamental scientific research that is mostly conducted at universities. For instance, the basic discoveries that […]

The post US political paralysis thwarting CHIPS Act promise appeared first on Asia Times.

News headlines reporting Donald Trump’s victory in the Iowa caucus on January 15 give the impression of a much larger victory than should sensibly be drawn from this first expression of American electoral opinion in 2024. Iowa grabs attention because it’s the first of the 2024 election primaries, but the historical record also shows that […]

The post Why Biden thinks he wants Trump to win the GOP nomination appeared first on Asia Times.

Of course, on the day of the first nominating contest for the 2024 US presidential election, there was a storm. In Iowa over the weekend, blizzards described as “life-threatening” by the National Weather Service brought with them temperatures well below freezing, up to 25 centimeters of snow and ferocious winds. In these terrible conditions on […]

The post Trump’s victory in Iowa was a foregone conclusion appeared first on Asia Times.

In November 2023, Russia’s withdrawal from the 1990 Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) treaty marked another milestone in the unraveling of agreements between Moscow and the West. The CFE, designed to limit weapons in Europe, symbolizes the steady decline of Western-Russian cooperation. Citing NATO expansion, Russia previously suspended CFE operations in 2007, and in […]

The post Where Russia and the West are still barely cooperating appeared first on Asia Times.

The United States government recently stated it had thwarted a plot to assassinate a Sikh separatist leader in the US and issued a warning to the Indian government. According to media reports, US authorities say they successfully stopped a plot to assassinate Sikh separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun on American soil. Pannun is a US-Canadian citizen […]

The post US-India ties dangle darkly on Sikh separatist kill plot appeared first on Asia Times.

When former President Bill Clinton showed up at the White House in early 2023, he was there to join President Joe Biden to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Family and Medical Leave Act. It was hard to avoid the fact that it had been three decades since Clinton was in office – yet at […]

The post Gerontocracy: Why are US politicians so old and refuse to retire? appeared first on Asia Times.

A recent US Congress report urges a strategic defensive posture review of simultaneous near-peer conventional and nuclear threats.   This month, the Congressional Commission on the Strategic Posture of the US released a report urging the country to be prepared for a two-front conflict against China and Russia. The report says that US defense strategy […]

The post US preparing for a two-front China-Russia war appeared first on Asia Times.

As a former member of the United Auto Workers Union (I worked in UAW factories for three summers during college) and as a former labor reporter (I covered organized labor for The Wall Street Journal in Washington from 1977 to 1980), I can empathize with the auto workers who are on strike against Detroit’s Big […]

The post An uncompetitive Detroit risks becoming even more so appeared first on Asia Times.

Thirty years after the infamous Battle of Mogadishu, the US military is still conducting operations in Somalia. Popularized in the US by the 2001 film “Black Hawk Down,” the Battle of Mogadishu occurred on October 3, 1993, and saw the downing of two US helicopters and the deaths of 18 American soldiers. Some of their […]

The post Somalia: US’s hidden and forgotten forever war appeared first on Asia Times.

The US House of Representatives on October 3, 2023, did something that had never been done before in the nation’s history: It ousted the speaker of the House. Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican, lost his job in a vote of 216 to 210. (In breaking news, Steve Scalise of Louisiana, number two in MaCarthy’s Republican […]

The post Jordan, Scalise seek ousted US House speaker’s job appeared first on Asia Times.

“[We] underscored [our] unwavering support for the peaceful resolution of [South China Sea] disputes in accordance with international law, without the threat or use of force,” declared US President Joe Biden and Vietnam’s paramount leader Nguyen Phu Trong in a joint statement after their recent meeting in Hanoi.  The two sides affirmed their shared commitment […]

The post Biden all about realpolitik in Vietnam and India appeared first on Asia Times.

Nearly 30% of Americans say they have no religious affiliation. Today the so-called “nones” represent about 30% of Democrats and 12% of Republicans – and they are making their voices heard. Organizations lobby on behalf of atheists, agnostics, secular humanists and other nonreligious people. As more people leave religious institutions, or never join them in […]

The post ‘Nones’ still no match for US Christian nationalism appeared first on Asia Times.

The US military faces an unprecedented recruitment crisis, with health, education, political and societal challenges undermining the force’s combat readiness against near-peer adversaries including China. In March 2023, American Military News reported that a 2020 Pentagon study revealed that 77% of young Americans do not qualify for military service without a waiver due to drug […]

The post 77% of US youth unqualified for military service appeared first on Asia Times.

The New York Times described him as promising “to exert breathtaking power in ways that Donald Trump never did.” An article for Time magazine called him a “rockstar for those who think cancel culture is threatening every corner of American life.” Well-spoken, polemical and supremely self-assured, it’s no surprise that the Trump-loving Vivek Ramaswamy has […]

The post Ramaswamy: GOP candidate who’s more Trump than Trump appeared first on Asia Times.

Fox News, flipping the bird at the concept of “public interest,” hoarded its feed so effectively that non-subscribers to the cable channel were thwarted in our efforts to watch live the first debate among US Republican presidential candidates of the 2024 election cycle. Some hardy bootleg YouTubers attempted to place us viewers from around the […]

The post Debate watch: GOP hopefuls united on China but not Ukraine appeared first on Asia Times.

When Republican presidential hopefuls take the stage in Milwaukee today, August 23, 2023, for the first debate of the 2024 campaign season, attention of course will center on how the candidates position themselves vis-à-vis former President Donald Trump and his four criminal indictments. But what candidates say about foreign policy is another critical issue. Republican […]

The post Republican debate could redirect US foreign policy appeared first on Asia Times.

Dear readers: Like it or not, it’s time for us to resume the occasional coverage of politics in the US state of Georgia that Asia Times was offering in election year 2020. Georgia is a long way from Asia, you might say – but try telling that to the enormous Asian diaspora communities in the […]

The post Georgia on my mind appeared first on Asia Times.

An Atlanta, Georgia, grand jury indicted former US President Donald Trump on Aug. 14, 2023, charging him with racketeering and 12 other felonies related to his alleged attempts to overturn his 2020 election defeat in the state. Eighteen of Trump’s allies and associates, including former Trump attorney Rudolph Giuliani and former White House chief of […]

The post Georgia law and Trump’s new Fulton County charges appeared first on Asia Times.