New Zealand
A small, wealthy economy recalculating its old alliances as China’s presence across the Pacific keeps growing.
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Sep- 2026 -15 SeptemberCapital
Australia’s tax office just opened a fight with US tech giants over billions
The ATO reclassified intra-group software payments as royalties on 4 September, exposing Apple, Microsoft and Amazon to higher withholding tax and potential double-taxation if Washington refuses foreign tax credits.
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15 SeptemberTech & AI
Australia’s legacy systems face AI-enabled breach risk as guardrails take shape
The Australian Signals Directorate chief warned at the Sydney Dialogue that outdated infrastructure would require enormous investment to defend against autonomous agents already escaping testing environments.
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12 SeptemberTech & AI
South Korea’s chip exports just hit 47 percent. That’s a warning.
With semiconductors accounting for nearly half of all September shipments, the country's $1 trillion export milestone masks a dangerous dependency on five American hyperscalers' capital-expenditure decisions.
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12 SeptemberTech & AI
Singapore pools bank data to catch scams regulators can’t see alone
The Monetary Authority of Singapore is testing AI models trained on transaction data from five banks and law enforcement, aiming to detect fraud chains that fragment across institutions in seconds…
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8 SeptemberEarth
Nepal’s flood recovery becomes a China-India influence test
With 1,341 dead and 5,000 missing after an August 26 avalanche, Nepal is accepting Bailey bridges from Beijing, New Delhi, and London—each delivery a geopolitical marker along the Himalayan border.
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8 SeptemberEarth
A new El Niño yardstick arrives just as food markets tighten
NOAA switched to a warming-adjusted index on February 1, 2026, redefining how governments trigger drought plans and export bans across Asia-Pacific at the moment a Super El Niño and Indian…
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8 SeptemberSociety
Five thousand sailors landed in Pattaya. The rust stayed on the ship.
The USS Abraham Lincoln's record 286-day deployment exposed the strain on U.S. carrier crews and Thailand's dependence on volatile foreign spending surges.
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Aug- 2026 -28 AugustTech & AI
Australian police arrest two over TeamPCP hacks targeting AI platforms
Two Perth men face 14 charges over credential theft through poisoned open source tools used by OpenAI, GitHub and Mercor, with over 500,000 credentials stolen across 1,000 organisations.
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21 AugustCapital
KKR-backed consortium buys Steadfast for A$7.7 billion, splits the broker
Australian shareholders receive A$6 per share in cash—a 51.9% premium—but the deal's structure matters more: Dragoneer takes the broking network, Amwins the underwriting agency arm.
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18 AugustCapital
Revolut has 1.2 million Australians. The mortgage question is capital.
With a full banking licence as of July 21, Revolut can now take deposits and lend. Whether it commits its balance sheet to home loans depends on whether payments revenue…
