Nearly 50,000 men volunteered to enlist this year, according to the Royal Thai Army, a 22% increase compared with 2025 “Bored of your wife? This April, come and enlist in the military,” says a recent online post from the Thai military, ditching its traditional, stuffy tone for online memes ahead of the recent annual draft season. It is not known how effective the campaign has been, but nearly 50,0...
Nearly 50,000 men volunteered to enlist this year, according to the Royal Thai Army, a 22% increase compared with 2025 “Bored of your wife? This April, come and enlist in the military,” says a recent online post from the Thai military, ditching its traditional, stuffy tone for online memes ahead of the recent annual draft season. It is not known how effective the campaign has been, but nearly 50,000 men volunteered to enlist this year, according to the Royal Thai Army, a 22% increase compared with 2025. This marks a continuation of a trend seen over the past five years in Thailand, and is a marked contrast to countries such as Japan, which are struggling to enlist military personnel. Continue reading...
Mises, Rothbard, & Libertarian 'Just War' Theory In The 2026 Iran War Authored by Daniel Lacalle, As of April 2026, the US and Israel are still at war with Iran . The war began on February 28 with surprise bombings that killed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and other high-ranking officials. Since then, attacks on infrastructure have continued, leading to significant disruptions in essential services ...
Mises, Rothbard, & Libertarian 'Just War' Theory In The 2026 Iran War Authored by Daniel Lacalle, As of April 2026, the US and Israel are still at war with Iran . The war began on February 28 with surprise bombings that killed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and other high-ranking officials. Since then, attacks on infrastructure have continued, leading to significant disruptions in essential services and escalating tensions in the region. Iran has attacked targets in Gulf nations and tightened its grip on the Strait of Hormuz as a result. The conflict has damaged the economy around the world , driving inflation and supply chain disruption fears. The war is often considered a way to protect Israel, the Gulf nations, and, ultimately, the US against a brutal, theocratic dictatorship that was looking to build nuclear weapons and was the main financier of terrorism in the world. However, there is a common libertarian question: Do libertarian ideas support sending troops to other countries to stop tyranny? Ludwig von Mises, writing during the fight against Nazi Germany, supported quick military action. In Omnipotent Government: The Rise of the Absolute State and Total War (1944), Mises stated that etatism, socialism, and autarky lead to absolute state control, which always leads to violence. Nazism was not an anomaly but the inevitable outcome of such policies, and compromise was unachievable. Mises said Nazism was not only a German problem but also a threat to Western civilisations. The reader may observe strong parallels between the Iranian regime and its political and terrorist links to other totalitarian regimes, as well as its “death to America” and “annihilation of Israel” policies and its expansionist intentions toward Sunni nations. Mises believed that if Nazism were not destroyed, the result would be total totalitarianism, reducing people to “slaves in a Nazi-run society” where the individual is rightless. “The reality of Nazism faces everybody else with an alternati...
One of Oaktree Capital Group LLC ’s most senior investment professionals for Asia is set to leave the firm in the coming months, according to people familiar with the matter. Pedro Urquidi , who heads opportunistic credit outside North America, moved to Hong Kong in 2019 to help grow the firm’s Asia platform as global investors increasingly targeted distressed debt in the region. He has been with ...
One of Oaktree Capital Group LLC ’s most senior investment professionals for Asia is set to leave the firm in the coming months, according to people familiar with the matter. Pedro Urquidi , who heads opportunistic credit outside North America, moved to Hong Kong in 2019 to help grow the firm’s Asia platform as global investors increasingly targeted distressed debt in the region. He has been with Oaktree for more than two decades, according to his LinkedIn profile . The firm declined to comment, and Urquidi did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Oaktree has been stepping up activity in India while dealing with investments that struggled in China. The firm is among the most active players in Indian private credit, having deployed more than $4 billion since 2018, according to its website . In Greater China, challenges have included recouping capital from some bets. After taking over a tourist resort and partially built residential project from defaulted borrower China Evergrande Group, the firm still holds two largely vacant residential land plots and is now operating the resort while managing the unfinished project. Oaktree last year announced the final close of a new global opportunities fund with approximately $16 billion of commitments. Urquidi joined the firm’s London office in 2005 and went on to build and lead its European and Asian Opportunities teams.
Overseas funds’ trading of Chinese onshore bonds via Hong Kong hit a record last month, underscoring growing interest for yuan assets amid escalating Middle East tensions. Monthly turnover on the so-called Northbound Bond Connect reached an unprecedented 1.22 trillion yuan ($179 billion) in March, while average daily volumes also climbed to an all-time high of 55.6 billion yuan, according to a sta...
Overseas funds’ trading of Chinese onshore bonds via Hong Kong hit a record last month, underscoring growing interest for yuan assets amid escalating Middle East tensions. Monthly turnover on the so-called Northbound Bond Connect reached an unprecedented 1.22 trillion yuan ($179 billion) in March, while average daily volumes also climbed to an all-time high of 55.6 billion yuan, according to a statement from the Bond Connect Co. on Thursday. Policy financial bonds and Chinese government bonds were the most popular types, accounting for 59% and 24% of the trading volume, respectively. The spike in turnover points to rising foreign engagement with China’s bond market as global volatility sparked by the Iran war forced investors to reposition portfolios and seek alternatives. The milestones also reflect the growing use of Bond Connect as a key access channel, reinforcing Hong Kong’s role as a gateway to Chinese markets. The numbers indicate “a pickup in trading activities” after the Lunar New Year holidays in February and suggest that the Iran war spurred trading interest in Chinese bonds, said Stephen Chiu , chief Asia FX and rates strategist at Bloomberg Intelligence. However, they do not necessarily reflect that foreign investors have “a straight buy and hold” strategy when it comes to the securities, he added. Read more: Foreign Investors Keep Selling Chinese Bonds Despite Resilience Yuan-denominated bonds have outperformed global peers since the war, supported by the nation’s ample liquidity and economic resilience to the energy shock. Launched in 2017 , the Northbound Bond Connect acts is one of the official channels for foreign institutions to access Chinese bonds. Other venues include the China Interbank Bond Market (CIBM) channel and Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor (QFII) program.
Asian refiners have grown increasingly reliant on US crude as oil-starved fuel makers scour the globe to replace Middle Eastern supply and stave off shortages that could ripple through the broader economy. Buyers in Japan led the charge to purchase May-loading cargoes from the US early in the month, with South Korean, Singaporean and Thai processors also among customers, said traders familiar with...
Asian refiners have grown increasingly reliant on US crude as oil-starved fuel makers scour the globe to replace Middle Eastern supply and stave off shortages that could ripple through the broader economy. Buyers in Japan led the charge to purchase May-loading cargoes from the US early in the month, with South Korean, Singaporean and Thai processors also among customers, said traders familiar with the matter. At least 60 million barrels of grades from the US Gulf were bought for loading next...