Leon Hadar

The US Capitol in Washington, DC, US, on Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025. Nearly one year after his electoral victory, President Donald Trump faces a striking political reversal driven by deteriorating economic conditions that threaten both his agenda and his party’s prospects in the 2026 midterm elections.
THE BOTTOM LINE

Economic headwinds undermining Trump’s political capital

A growing class divide, among others, creates a partly difficult dynamic for a president who appeals to working-class voters

How Mamdani translates his electoral mandate into governance will shape both the city’s trajectory and the national conversation about urban progressive politics for years to come.

NYC mayoral election 2025: Historic shift in city politics

The first candidate in 56 years to surpass the million-vote threshold, Zohran Mamdani will also be the first Muslim mayor and the...

The US Supreme Court building. The dispute centres on whether the president can use the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to unilaterally impose sweeping tariffs without explicit congressional authorisation.

US Supreme Court finally asks: Who really has the power to tax?

In this high-stakes case, even conservative justices signalled scepticism towards Trump’s sweeping tariff authority

New York has reinvented itself repeatedly throughout its history, surviving fiscal crises, crime waves, and economic downturns while maintaining its position as America’s economic capital.

New York’s mayoral election could reshape financial capital’s global standing

The new mayor must steer New York out of its affordability crisis that threatens its economic vitality just as surely as high...

The Trump-Xi meeting represents successful crisis management rather than strategic reconciliation, says the writer.

Trump-Xi meeting: An economic truce born of mutual pain

The world’s two largest economies have discovered that neither can afford unlimited confrontation – at least for now

US President Donald Trump is pictured next to Malaysian national flags before he departs on Air Force One from Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Sepang on October 27, 2025. (Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP)
THE BOTTOM LINE

US engagement at Asean Summit signals renewed focus on S-E Asia

Trump’s visit offers both validation and a reminder of Asean’s pivotal position in great power competition

FILE PHOTO: People take part in a protest in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza on the second anniversary of the war that began after Hamas' attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, outside the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia, October 7, 2025. REUTERS/Ajeng Dinar Ulfiana/File Photo
THINKING ALOUD

Indonesia’s support for the Gaza ceasefire: A strategic and moral imperative

Jakarta portrays a rising middle power seeking to shape, not merely respond to, international developments

What the meetings between the IMF and World Bank have consistently failed to deliver is clear, coordinated political will to address economic challenges, says the writer.

Little reassurance from IMF-World Bank meetings

The global financial system is adapting too slowly to a world of higher debt, lower growth, trade fragmentation and climate urgency

China has deliberately avoided military overcommitments and nation-building ventures in the region.
THE BOTTOM LINE

China in the Gulf: stakeholder or hegemon?

Beijing’s transactional approach to the Middle East presents a new strategic reality which Asean nations must navigate

The current US approach fails to extract concrete Chinese concessions while creating the very economic uncertainty the administration claims to want to avoid.

US mixed signals on China trade will cause private sector paralysis

The most significant cost of this whiplash approach isn’t a single tariff or trade restriction, but the perpetual uncertainty it creates