The MAGA Crack-Up Is Overrated. MAGA Is Here to Stay.
Some will point to Republican politicians bucking Trump as a reason to believe that the whole circus tent is about to collapse. Marjorie Taylor Greene is leaving Congress, and it is…
Section
Culture
America’s Three Media Crises and How to Fix Them
You can watch this episode of Right Now With Perry Bacon above or by following this show on YouTube or Substack. You can read a transcript here. There are three crises afflicting America’s…
How Labor Scored a Surprising Win in the GOP-Controlled House
Something unusual happened last week that didn’t attract sufficient attention. It concerned the latest in what’s been a heartening recent series of House Republican rebellions against…
Transcript: America’s Three Media Crises and How to Fix Them
That’s not good for diversity. And so most democracies figure out ways to diversify media ownership, to make sure that you have a wide range of voices and views represented in your media.…
The New Republic’s Books of the Year 2025
Some of the books we chose this year touched familiarly big themes: the place of the United States in the Americas; the weakness of democracy in the U.S. and what it would take to shore it…
This Nobel Prize–winning chemist dreams of making water from thin air
Yaghi envisions a two-pronged product line. Industrial-scale water generators that run on electricity would be capable of producing thousands of liters per day on one end, while units that…
Ford cancels EV battery deal worth 9.6 trillion won with South Korea’s LG Energy Solution
South Korea’s LG Energy Solution said on Wednesday (Dec 17) that Ford Motor has terminated an electric vehicle (EV) battery-supply deal worth about 9.6 trillion won (S$8.4 billion). The…
Singapore stocks slip despite improved 2026 growth outlook; STI down 0.1%
Singapore stocks ended lower on Wednesday (Dec 17), even as private-sector economists turned more optimistic about the Republic’s growth outlook for 2026. The benchmark Straits Times Index…
Trump Press Sec Goes Off Rails as Susie Wiles Fiasco Takes Worse Turn
White House chief of staff Susie Wiles gave numerous interviews to Vanity Fair that were way too candid about, well, everything. That prompted press secretary Karoline Leavitt to offer…
Fearing a layoff? Channel your inner doomsday prepper
“Season’s greetings” aren’t as cheery when it’s a season of layoffs. November marked the eighth time this year that job cuts were up over the same period the year before, according to…
This guy’s obscure PhD project is the only thing standing between humanity and AI image chaos
It’s rare that your esoteric, impossible-to-pronounce, decade-long research project becomes a technology so crucial to national security that the President of the United States calls it…
Warburg Pincus to invest up to US$1 billion in corporate services firm Acclime
The private equity firm beat rival firms Carlyle Group, Blackstone, KKR and TPG in a bidding race American private equity firm Warburg Pincus on Wednesday (Dec 17) announced that it has…
Warburg Pincus invests in corporate services firm Acclime, valuing it at US$1 billion
The private equity firm beat rivals Carlyle Group, Blackstone, KKR and TPG in a bidding race American private equity firm Warburg Pincus on Wednesday (Dec 17) announced that it has signed…
Hong Kong’s financial resurgence fuelled by surge of offshore wealth
Strong net fund inflows of HK$7 trillion brought the city’s managed assets back up to HK$35.1 trillion at the end of 2024 The turnaround in Hong Kong’s financial stature has come swiftly,…
Thai central bank cuts policy rate by 25 bps, as expected
The reduction is the fifth since October 2024, with rates down by a total of 125 basis points Thailand’s central bank cut its key interest rate on Wednesday (Dec 17), as widely expected,…
Top Glove Q1 profit surges more than 600% as costs fall
The glove maker reports a drop in operating expenses to RM842.9 million for the quarter Malaysian glove maker Top Glove on Wednesday (Dec 17) reported a 605 per cent jump in net profit for…
Top Hong Kong crypto exchange HashKey makes market debut
Hong Kong’s biggest licenced cryptocurrency exchange began trading on Wednesday (Dec 17) as the city pushes to become a global hub for the technology despite Beijing’s tough stance on it.…
High coffee prices are changing how consumers take their daily brew
The median price of a regular cup of coffee on menus across the US has risen almost 20% since early 2023 Global coffee prices rose to record highs this year, sending the cost of…
Singapore to pilot ‘overhang’ solar power structure, as it nears deployment target
The Republic is more than halfway to its 2 GWp target, equivalent to the annual electricity needs of about 350,000 households Industrial landlord JTC on Wednesday (Dec 17) launched a…
Apollo weighs potential US$12 billion sale of Atlas Air
Apollo Global Management is exploring a potential sale of its aviation company Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings, according to sources familiar with the matter. The US investment firm is in the…
Quadria Capital expands into the Middle East with new Dubai office
Healthcare-focused private equity firm Quadria Capital has expanded into the Middle East with a new Dubai office. This comes on the back of its partial exit from its portfolio company…
Asian markets drift as US jobs data fails to boost rate cut hopes
ASIAN equities fluctuated on Wednesday as mixed US jobs data did little to boost expectations for another interest rate cut next month, while oil rallied after Donald Trump ordered the…
Tada commits S$1 million to put brakes on high-commission ride-hailing models
The initiative aims to reverse falling driver earnings and rising ride-hail prices Ride-hailing platform Tada is challenging rivals such as Grab and Gojek with a new S$1 million pilot…
Bessent sees one or two more Fed chair interviews this week
Trump is slated to interview the central bank governor Chris Waller on Dec 17 for the chair job Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said there are one or two more interviews this week for the…