The US is pulling a "Khrushchev" on Europe. Trump's push for "peaceful coexistence" with rivals, paired with a new US strategy retreating from global hegemony, mirrors the Soviet pivot that betrayed Mao in the 1960s. Europe, like China then, is the stunned junior partner realizing its senior ally's commitment was always conditional.

America's Khrushchev moment

There is no more tired cliché than Mark Twain’s quote “history rarely repeats itself, but it often rhymes”.

#usa #europe #geopolitics

Automatically translated preprints from the Chinese arXiv (ChinaXiv).

ChinaRxiv

ChinaRxiv

Machine-translated preprints from ChinaXiv (Chinese arXiv)

#science #technology

Fed Chair Powell says raising wages is the key to solving the cost-of-living crisis. However, the job market has stalled, pay growth is slowing, and rising tariffs threaten to reignite inflation, which could erase any wage gains. The path to affordability remains unclear. https://www.cnn.com/2025/12/15/economy/affordability-jobs-inflation #usa #economy #uspol

Three years after a spinal cord injury left him paralyzed from the waist down, a patient has become the first person in China to receive a brain-computer interface implant billed under the country’s new national pricing scheme. The procedure was performed at Tongji Hospital in Wuhan, where surgeons implanted a device designed to link neural signals to hand movement and sensory function. The surgery cost 6,552 yuan ($925), fully covered by research funding.

#SixthTone

China Performs First Brain Implant Procedure Under State Pricing

A patient has received a brain implant to help with hand function, the first BCI procedure billed through China’s new regulated pricing system.

#china #tech

China proposes an "ElectroYuan" strategy: using its green tech dominance (solar, EVs) to make the yuan the world's primary currency for financing the energy transition. This offers the Global South cheaper loans and technology, but risks creating new dependencies and intensifying geopolitical competition with the West.

APRI

The Petrodollar vs. the Electroyuan

Is the Electroyuan set to replace the Petrodollar? This article unpacks the global shift in power and finance as clean energy rises and climate goa...

#china #technology #cleanenergy

VW gears up for first production closure in Germany in its 88-year history.

Client Challenge

#europe #economy #germany

No 'out-of-pocket expenses' for childbirth in China from 2026. https://www.reuters.com/world/china/no-out-of-pocket-expenses-childbirth-china-2026-2025-12-15 #china

The 2025 US National Security Strategy is a panic manual for a declining empire. It confesses the old model of global exploitation failed, hollowing out America’s own industrial base. the solution it proposes is a brutal shift enforcing a "Trump Corollary" for colonial control of Latin America, demand Europe fend for itself, and wage total economic war on China. This is the blueprint for capitalism’s new, zero-sum phase.

America's Panic Manual

The 2025 Blueprint for a Zero-Sum World

#usa #geopolitics #capitalism