Wall Street bulls charge into China’s opening markets

By William Pesek
The 27-year bet Goldman Sachs has been running on China’s financial sector isn’t just paying off. It’s suddenly becoming a remarkably crowded trade. A who’s-who of Wall Street royalty is rushing China’s way even as geopolitical currents pull Washington and Beijing apart. JP Morgan, BlackRock and others are defying geopolitical risks and storming into the yuan zone.

Ghosn speaks his mind on Renault-Nissan’s fall

By Roger Schreffler
In the second part of an exclusive interview with Carlos Ghosn, the fugitive former Nissan boss recounts how he restructured the Japanese automaker and became a national hero in the process. His massive business success made news of his sudden arrest and incarceration on November 19, 2018 all the more shocking.

St Petersburg Forum maps out Eurasian century

Subscribe to AT+ premium to read Pepe Escobar’s story on the eye-catching panel at this year’s St Petersburg International Economic Forum, without which it would be impossible to understand the finer points of what’s happening on the ground in Russia and across Eurasia, business-wise.

China’s hold on Cambodia hard for Biden to break

By David Hutt
The narrative surrounding US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman’s visit to Phnom Penh last week was that Washington eyes a possible reset of relations with Cambodia amid rising Chinese influence there. But it’s unclear how the Biden administration reckons it can succeed when the previous administration attempted the same to no avail.

Why the Covid lab-leak theory has new life

By Benoit Barbeau
The hypothesis that SARS-CoV-2 originated in a leak from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) is now being taken seriously. The WHO, Biden and Fauci, among others, are calling for further investigation of that hypothesis, and the gain-of-function studies on animal coronaviruses at WIV is central to these inquiries.

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Guangzhou, Shenzhen scramble to squash viral variants

By Frank Chen
Covid-19 has crept back into China where it first emerged and spun out of control worldwide more than a year ago. Two clusters are growing in Guangdong, the nation’s most populous province and the largest provincial economy. Road barricades, community lockdowns and paramedics in hazmat gear are back in the megacities Guangzhou and Shenzhen.

Benign neglect: Why Biden prefers the Quad to ASEAN

By Richard Javad Heydarian
Southeast Asian leaders anticipated a reset in relations with the United States under Biden, but the administration's strategic priorities are elsewhere – namely, shoring up Washington’s partnership with Quad allies, seen by many as paving the way for a de facto “Asian NATO” aimed at containing China.

Iran’s favored candidate races to a hollow victory

By Kourosh Ziabari
Iran’s presidential election campaign has commenced in earnest, with seven Guardian Council-approved candidates vying to replace President Hassan Rouhani after his eight-year tenure. Ebrahim Raisi, the Islamic Republic’s Chief Justice, is widely viewed as the frontrunner in a field of candidates critics say has failed to capture the public’s imagination.

Pakistan Taliban on a renewed warpath in Balochistan

By Salman Rafi Sheikh
A surge in religious-nationalist militancy is turning Pakistan’s province of Balochistan into a new hot-bed of armed conflict, with waves of new violence aimed to hit the government’s plan to bring a “wave of development” through the China-backed Gwadar Port project and a possible US military return to the region.

New cluster exposes loophole in HK quarantine

By Jeff Pao
A cluster of three people who were infected with the Alpha variant of Covid-19 has exposed a loophole in the quarantine system for incoming travelers in Hong Kong, breaking a 42-day streak of zero new untraceable local infections in the territory. If a new cluster triggers a large-scale virus outbreak, it could become the fifth-wave of epidemic in the city.

Belarus hijacks Biden-Putin summit

By Tatsiana Kulakevich
The Biden administration has signaled a desire to build a stable, predictable relationship with Russia. Then came the extraordinary May 23 interception of a Ryanair flight carrying Belarusian opposition journalist Raman Pratasevich and 132 other passengers over Minsk, the capital of Belarus, which has lowered expectations for the upcoming US-Russia summit.