War and atrocities

PERSPECTIVE

Bombing Iran’s Great Mosque could cost the world

The US knows what can happen when its monuments are destroyed. Who can foretell the consequences if Isfahan’s mosque suffers irreparable harm?

It is still possible that a ground invasion is ordered, or someone reaches for the nuclear button in pursuit of a quick end to the Middle East conflict.
THINKING ALOUD

Nothing should be ruled out if Iran war drags on for much longer

Religious convictions on every side are also weighing on the willingness to fight

Anthropic has insisted that its technology is not to be used for domestic mass surveillance of Americans, nor to develop or operate fully autonomous weapons systems.
THINKING ALOUD

When principle meets power: the Anthropic-Pentagon stand-off

What is the future of AI governance – especially in military and national security contexts?

Damaged residential buildings in Manama, Bahrain's capital, following an Iranian drone attack on Mar 2.

From targeted strike to regional firestorm: how the US-Israeli attack on Iran escalated

It is now a regional war – fought across at least seven countries, with missiles falling on civilian airports, naval headquarters and residential districts

In November 2025, Anthropic partnered with Palantir Technologies, a data analytics company that does a lot of work for the Pentagon, turning its LLM Claude AI into the reasoning engine inside a decision-support system for the US military.

Claude AI helped bomb Iran. But how, exactly?

The lack of visibility on how artificial intelligence is already being used in war is deeply troubling

Resolving the Maduro problem will help the US address Trump’s priorities: migration, drugs and China, said one analyst.

Trump’s Maduro capture is about drugs, immigrants and China

The US military operation neatly unifies three aims of the Trump administration

Domestically, Indonesia's strong stance on Gaza resonates deeply with its population. It also reinforces the government’s Islamic credentials without compromising its secular constitutional framework.
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

China's rise to power has the potential to be either a growing source of tension with Washington and the wider West – or, just possibly, a more productive partnership.

Growing geopolitical risk jars global economy

By 2027, the world’s GDP growth may average just 2.5% in the 2020s – the slowest pace of any decade since the 1960s

Previous conflicts between Israel and Iran over the last year had limited impact on oil prices, on a medium-term horizon, says an analyst. A key reason behind this is that the US is now a major producer of crude oil.

SGX-listed energy stocks surge, regional names mixed, as oil prices rally on Israel-Iran conflict 

Analysts doubtful that oil prices will jump further; attacks on US assets or regional oil production pose danger