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Asia’s oil buyers face US$100-per-barrel risk as Houthis threaten Saudi blockade
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Asia’s oil buyers face US$100-per-barrel risk as Houthis threaten Saudi blockade

A Houthi blockade could disrupt Saudi oil flows through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, leaving Asian buyers with fewer options Analysts said any serious disruption in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait could leave Asia with fewer alternatives for Middle Eastern crude, threatening Saudi shipments and increasing the risk of oil prices rising above US$100 per barrel again. In a statement on Monday, the Houthis said the blockade threat was retaliation for what they described as Saudi Arabia’s 12-year restrictions on the movement of food, medicine and other essential goods through Yemeni crossings, ports and airports, as well as the plundering of local resources. A full closure of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, the southern gateway to the Red Sea, could disrupt petroleum flows of about 7.4 million barrels per day, or roughly 7 per cent of global oil output, according to Kpler data cited by Reuters. The Saudi-led coalition in Yemen vowed to respond firmly to threats against commercial shipping and said it had begun implementing measures to protect vessels transiting the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.

July 21, 2026
Suspect in German mass shooting kills himself in jail
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Suspect in German mass shooting kills himself in jail

The man was suspected of killing six welfare workers at a shelter for mothers last month A man suspected of fatally shooting six child welfare workers at a shelter for mothers in Stade in northern Germany last month died by suicide in jail on Tuesday, officials said. The suspect, who has been partially identified in German media as 45-year-old Fatih Khan G., was found dead by jail staff in his single cell early Tuesday, the Lower Saxony state justice ministry said in a statement. The ministry said there are “currently no indications of third-party involvement” in the suspect’s death at the jail, and that both his relatives and the relatives of the shooting victims had been informed. Four women and two men were killed in the shooting on June 29 at a shelter for mothers and their children in the northern town of Stade. The mass shooting is among the worst such crimes in recent German history. The suspected gunman had arrived at the centre on June 29 for an appointment to discuss future care arrangements for his three-month-old daughter.

July 21, 2026
UK’s Burnham eyes lower energy bills in first move as PM
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UK’s Burnham eyes lower energy bills in first move as PM

This is the first of several early moves to ease a cost-of-living crisis and quell anger over previous governments’ failure to bring change British Prime Minister Andy Burnham said on Tuesday he would cut taxes ⁠on electricity bills, the first of several early moves to signal his intent to ease a cost-of-living crisis and quell anger over successive governments’ failure to bring change. On his second day in his new job, Burnham said his government would remove the value-added tax from domestic electricity bills from October 1, cutting around £45 from the average annual bill of around £1,862 that households pay. With bond investors watching closely for how any fiscal support would be paid for, he said the move would be funded by savings from the cancellation of a £1.8 billion (US$2.42 billion) digital ‌ID programme, announced on Sunday. “We’re taking immediate action to cut taxes on energy bills, put more money in people’s pockets and bring back hope,” he said in a statement, having pledged to give people more “breathing space” in their lives. Burnham, a 56-year-old former mayor of Greater Manchester, wants to move quickly to show people he is “serious about helping them out”.

July 21, 2026
Taiwan opens door to Starlink – but now it must wait to see if Elon Musk is ready to enter
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Taiwan opens door to Starlink – but now it must wait to see if Elon Musk is ready to enter

Changes to the telecoms law remove barriers to foreign satellite internet firms and could help protect communication networks during a war On Tuesday, the island’s legislature approved an amendment to the Telecommunications Management Act that would exempt satellite communications operators from foreign ownership caps and the requirement to have a Taiwanese chair. The exemptions – which are subject to security and public interest checks – are widely seen as removing the biggest legal obstacle that has prevented Starlink, a subsidiary of Elon Musk’s firm SpaceX, from operating in Taiwan. Negotiations with the island’s regulators collapsed in 2021 over the company’s insistence on operating a wholly owned local business. For Taiwan, the significance went far beyond attracting another telecommunications provider, according to Chieh Chung, a research fellow at the Association of Strategic Foresight, a military think tank in Taipei. Taiwan already works with Britain’s OneWeb to provide low Earth orbit satellite services, but Chieh said this would probably only be enough to support core military communications and those of some government agencies during wartime.

July 21, 2026
Philippines taps combat veteran to lead armed forces amid regional tensions
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Philippines taps combat veteran to lead armed forces amid regional tensions

Lieutenant General Antonio G. Nafarrete’s career has been closely tied to the restive Mindanao region, which is preparing for polls The choice points to continuity in security policy and puts the Armed Forces of the Philippines under an officer whose career has been closely tied to Mindanao, which is preparing for its first parliamentary election in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) on September 14. Nafarrete replaces General Romeo Brawner Jnr, whose three-year term as armed forces chief ended on Tuesday. Veteran defence and security analyst Manuel Mogato told This Week in Asia that Nafarrete’s 36 years of combat experience against Muslim rebels, Islamists and the communist New People’s Army might have strengthened his case for the top military post. Nafarrete, 57, had been viewed as a contender alongside his Philippine Military Academy Class of 1990 batchmate, air force chief Lieutenant General Arthur M. Cordura. Mogato said the Bangsamoro election was “critical” for the future of peace in the Muslim south.

July 21, 2026
Zhipu shares surge 37% as firm builds giant data centre powered by Chinese chips
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Zhipu shares surge 37% as firm builds giant data centre powered by Chinese chips

The Chinese AI firm’s stock price has rebounded amid reports it has completed a 1-gigawatt computing centre using only domestic chips Meanwhile, the Beijing-based company had also completed the acquisition of Chinese infrastructure software developer XCore Sigma, a company spun off from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the interviewees said. XCore Sigma focuses on heterogeneous computing software, including compilers, runtime systems and inference engines that help improve the utilisation of AI chips from different vendors, reduce inference costs and accelerate model deployment. Z.ai did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday. The move, together with the new data centre, is set to address computing power constraints and improve AI inference efficiency for Z.ai.

July 21, 2026
Europe’s incoherent ‘China threat’ posture is a threat to itself
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Europe’s incoherent ‘China threat’ posture is a threat to itself

Until its governments own the choices that follow from their actions, Europe will keep diagnosing power while others decide its fate Beijing is cast as an enabler of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, while its “assertive behaviour” in the South China Sea threatens European and Indo-Pacific security, stability and prosperity. The document, “Common Understanding: The Threats and Challenges We Face”, was approved by foreign ministers on July 13 among a long list of decisions. Yet as of now, China’s industrial scale, technological ambitions, commercial leverage, control of critical raw materials, Russia partnership and Indo-Pacific conduct form a single threat assessment. In March, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Kaja Kallas suggested that this position paper will underpin the forthcoming European Security Strategy, linking defence, energy and supply chains.

July 21, 2026
Chinese AI agent outperforms Anthropic’s Claude Code in autonomous research
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Chinese AI agent outperforms Anthropic’s Claude Code in autonomous research

Zhejiang University’s Qiushi Engine topped the ResearchClawBench leaderboard, but it can’t reliably make new discoveries yet ResearchClawBench tests the ability of AI agents to independently carry out research and compares their results against reference papers written by humans to see if they can reach the same conclusions or even outdo the original authors. The benchmark, created by a team led by the Shanghai Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, was designed to assess whether agents can really conduct the kind of tasks their creators say they can handle. Qiushi Engine, which was officially launched by a Zhejiang University-led team last week, is a large language model-based agent designed to perform scientific research in real physical environments. Its developers said that unlike some other existing systems that could be limited to performing specific tasks, Qiushi Engine was capable of “end-to-end autonomous scientific discovery”.

July 21, 2026
Internet personality ‘Mr Ho’ jailed for 2 months over stabbing wife several times
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Internet personality ‘Mr Ho’ jailed for 2 months over stabbing wife several times

Ho Huen, 79, admitted attacking Ye Xiuding on May 30 last year as their whirlwind romance unravelled and she decided to move out An elderly Hong Kong man known on the internet as “Mr Ho” has been jailed for two months for stabbing his much younger wife upon learning she was returning to mainland China after their relationship turned sour. The District Court sentenced 79-year-old Ho Huen in his absence on Tuesday after learning the defendant, who missed an earlier hearing due to an undisclosed medical condition, was still in hospital, with no expected date of discharge in sight. Judge Stanley Chan Kwong-chi decided the case should be concluded as early as possible given the time Ho had already spent in custody, while noting that his health might worsen further. Ho earlier pleaded guilty to wounding with intent for using a folding knife to attack his 45-year-old partner Ye Xiuding, known online as “Mrs Ho”, as she was leaving his public rental flat for good on May 30 last year. The couple’s whirlwind romance became the subject of online gossip after they appeared on a prime-time television programme in 2024 sharing their story and displaying luxurious gifts, which sparked debate over their eligibility for public housing.

July 21, 2026
Indonesia further cuts budget of president’s free meals scheme
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Indonesia further cuts budget of president’s free meals scheme

More cuts are possible to the original US$15 billion initiative, officials say Indonesia ⁠has further reduced its ⁠budget for President Prabowo Subianto’s ⁠signature free school meals programme to 229 trillion rupiah (US$12.81 billion) from 268 trillion rupiah and more cuts are possible, senior officials running the project said on Tuesday. The programme is Prabowo’s most important ‌and expensive election campaign pledge and has been central to wider concerns about Indonesia’s fiscal health. Originally, it was allotted 335 trillion rupiah in 2026 with a target by the end of the year of reaching 83 million recipients – roughly 30 per cent of the population – consisting of students and pregnant women. ⁠But that budget has been gradually reduced in an effort to boost efficiency. Reuters ‌last month reported that the National Nutrition Agency, which runs the project, was targeting a budget cut of more than US$2 ‌billion, with reductions in the number of beneficiaries and kitchen operators.

July 21, 2026
China-made robots claim 70% of global quadruped sales
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China-made robots claim 70% of global quadruped sales

By continuing to browse our site you agree to our use of cookies, revised Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. You can change your cookie settings through your browser. At WAIC 2026, multiple homegrown robots showed off. China's homegrown quadruped robots claim 70% of global sales. Click for more!

July 21, 2026
Qatar’s example of how to prolong World Cup legacy
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Qatar’s example of how to prolong World Cup legacy

By continuing to browse our site you agree to our use of cookies, revised Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. You can change your cookie settings through your browser. A close-up view of Lusail Stadium in Doha, the host venue of the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, February 21, 2026. /VCG The final curtain has fallen on the World Cup in the US, with Spain hoisting the trophy. According to FIFA, this year's tournament injected a massive 17 billion dollars into the American economy. But as the stadium lights dim, how can such a legacy be sustained? Perhaps the current hosts can take a page out of the playbook of their predecessor: Qatar. The 2022 World Cup may be over, but Qatar's stadiums have never gone quiet. FIFA announced that starting in 2025, the U17 Men's World Cup would become an annual event. And Qatar has secured the hosting rights for five consecutive tournaments—from 2025 through to 2029. On top of that, the 2025 FIFA Arab Cup is also returning to Qatar, lighting up six of its iconic World Cup stadiums. What's more, as Ali Salem Afifa, deputy director general of Qatar-based Aspire Academy points out, the local clubs are also participating in Asian and Gulf region-level competitions.

July 21, 2026