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State judge orders Kalshi to stop offering sports bets and other wagers

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State judge orders Kalshi to stop offering sports bets and other wagers

A state court in Washington this week ordered Kalshi to stop offering sports gambling and a variety of other wagers on its prediction market. King County Superior Court Judge John McHale issued a preliminary injunction in response to a lawsuit filed against Kalshi by the state of Washington.

“The order requires Kalshi to stop offering, accepting, or facilitating wagers on sports, elections, politics, entertainment, culture, tech and science, or mentions in Washington,” said a press release yesterday from Washington Attorney General Nick Brown. “Kalshi must implement an IP address and residency-based geofence by August 19 and a multi-source geofencing solution by September 2. This does not include all the wagers offered on Kalshi, but it includes a substantial part of their business, which in recent years has been increasingly driven by sports wagers.”

Kalshi is not licensed by the state Gambling Commission and is not registered to conduct business in Washington, the court order said. McHale found that Kalshi ads claiming “that it offers ‘legal betting’ in Washington state are likely to mislead a reasonable consumer that such gambling activities are legal under state law.”

Under the court order, Kalshi could face penalties of up to $120,000 per day if it fails to complete the implementation of the ordered geofencing by September 2. “Kalshi will not prohibit users from exiting positions they already hold. The State reserves, and does not waive, the right to seek recovery for fees and losses incurred by Washington consumers on or after September 2, 2026,” the order said.

Kalshi claims it doesn’t have to follow state laws

To get a preliminary injunction, a plaintiff must show they are likely to succeed on the merits of their claims. McHale found that Washington is likely to succeed in proving its claims that Kalshi violated state laws on gambling and consumer protection.

“Kalshi operates an online betting platform that it advertises as a ‘prediction market’ and that allows consumers to bet on thousands of topics ranging from sports, political elections, entertainment, popular culture, and whether public figures will utter specific words or phrases (mentions’),” McHale wrote.

The judge found that “Kalshi’s provision, marketing, and advertising of illegal gambling activities constitute unfair and/or deceptive acts or practices in trade or commerce” under Washington law.

Brown hailed the court ruling, saying that “Kalshi has gotten rich promoting wagers on sports, elections, natural disasters, events related to the Iran War, and more. Under this order, Kalshi is banned from offering wagers on most of those topics in Washington.”

Kalshi argues that it doesn’t have to follow state laws because the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has exclusive jurisdiction over prediction markets. The Trump administration has repeatedly made the same argument and sued states that try to regulate the platforms. The battle involving states, the US government, and Kalshi is being litigated in state and federal courts throughout the country.

“Kalshi is regulated by the CFTC, which has exclusive jurisdiction over our exchange,” a Kalshi spokesperson said in a statement provided to Ars today. “We respectfully disagree with the court’s decision and are considering all legal options.”

The spokesperson added that Kalshi has never offered markets on wildfires “because they create perverse incentives” and has never offered markets on war, death, or terrorism.

Kalshi could get help from Trump admin

One of Kalshi’s legal options is asking the Trump administration for help. The CFTC this week declared a “market emergency” in New York in an attempt to stop the state from enforcing its gambling laws against Kalshi. The CFTC took the action after a request from Kalshi and ordered the company to continue operating in the state.

“Congress did not intend for derivatives exchanges to be regulated under a patchwork of state gaming laws,” CFTC Chairman Michael Selig said.

Various courts are grappling with just what Congress intended. McHale concluded that the US Commodity Exchange Act does not preempt Washington state gambling law.

The US law gives the CFTC exclusive jurisdiction over certain transactions on designated contract markets (DCMs), but it “does not contain express preemption language,” McHale wrote. The judge pointed to a portion of the US law that says the following:

Except as hereinabove provided, nothing contained in this section shall (I) supersede or limit the jurisdiction at any time conferred on the Securities and Exchange Commission or other regulatory authorities under the laws of the United States or of any State, or (II) restrict the Securities and Exchange Commission and such other authorities from carrying out their duties and responsibilities in accordance with such laws. Nothing in this section shall supersede or limit the jurisdiction conferred on courts of the United States or any State.

“The language referenced above indicates that Congress did not intend to supersede or limit States in regulating gambling or in superseding or limiting the jurisdiction of any court of any State in addressing such regulation,” McHale wrote.

Trump vows to declare Strait of Hormuz a US territory

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Trump vows to declare Strait of Hormuz a US territory

President Donald Trump delivers remarks at the General Motors Proving Ground in Milford, Michigan, on July 27, 2026. Photo: Daniel Torok / White House

In yet another remark that triggered alarm around the world, President Donald Trump said Friday that he planned to declare the Strait of Hormuz – which Iran has blockaded for much of the past five months over his and Israel’s illegal war – a US territory.

Just two days after the latest inflation figures demonstrated, in the words of one expert, “Trump’s catastrophic mismanagement of our economy,” the president ignored the economic fallout from his war, which led Iran to restrict ship traffic through the strait, driving up fuel prices worldwide.

“We’re bringing the prices way down,” he told a Long Island crowd. Trump also said that “after we finish defeating Iran, which is being very badly defeated, pretty soon, I’ll be declaring the Hormuz Strait a territory of the United States.”

Some critics responded to clips of the comments on X by mocking Trump, who is infamous for his lies. Representative Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) quipped, “Awesome! And the Easter Bunny is real.”

Ryan Costello, policy director at the National Iranian American Council, said that “this jingoism rings a bit hollow when most of the US bases near the strait have been essentially abandoned due to danger from Iranian missiles and drones.”

Progressive political commentator Kyle Kulinski declared that “he absolutely needs to be impeached, removed, and locked up. He’s a completely unhinged lunatic, and he’s a sadistic violent menace to the world.”

After high initial claims about lower prices, Trump admitted that gasoline has soared due to his war, but said: “For you to pay a tiny little bit more for your gasoline, just remember, you’re doing it so that a very evil country cannot have a – a country, really it’s the No. 1 state sponsor of terror in the world – we don’t want to have them have a nuclear weapon. So, remember that when you have to pay a little bit more, you’re at $4, it’s OK. I’ll never apologize. I did the right thing.”

Trump’s threat over the strait between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman came just before a monthlong ceasefire between the US and Iran is set to expire on Monday. A senior White House official told Politico that the situation is “static.”

“It doesn’t matter how close or how far we are,” said the official, who has heard no mention of a potential extension of the ceasefire. “What matters is if Iran wants to come to the table and agree to a deal. Right now, they haven’t done that.”

The Associated Press reported Friday that “the Trump administration appears to be reaching out to a broader swath of countries that might be able to help pressure Tehran,” and Ali Vaez, Iran project director at the International Crisis Group, told the outlet that “everyone is just urging both sides to stop this reckless game of chicken.”

In addition to launching a war on Iran in February, and invading Venezuela in January to abduct its president, Trump has made threats against various other nations during his second term, including Canada, Cuba, Colombia, Greenland, and Mexico. He’s also threatened to seize the Panama Canal and killed hundreds of people by blowing up boats allegedly smuggling drugs.

-Common Dreams

Katz Orders Shift of West Bank Enforcement to Police as IDF Investigates Qusra Violence

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Katz Orders Shift of West Bank Enforcement to Police as IDF Investigates Qusra Violence


Defense Minister Israel Katz ordered the Israel Defense Forces on Friday to develop a plan transferring responsibility for civilian law enforcement involving Israeli communities and residents in the West Bank to the Israel Police, saying the military should concentrate on fighting terrorism and protecting Israel’s security.

The directive followed discussions with IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir and other senior officers. Under the proposal, police would receive the authority, funding, and personnel needed to assume the additional responsibilities.

Katz said dealing with Israeli violence in the West Bank “is not the role” of the IDF “nor is it capable of handling the enforcement of civil issues” there, citing the “expected welcome increase in the number of settlers” following government approval of new West Bank settlements. The defense minister said the military’s responsibility was to combat terrorism and defend Israel rather than “chase youth in the hilltops.”

The decision comes as the IDF prepares to investigate its response to recent unrest in the Palestinian village of Qusra, where settlers established an illegal outpost that was evacuated by the military and subsequently rebuilt. The investigation will examine delays in removing the outpost and the conduct of IDF troops at the scene.

Tensions escalated Tuesday when dozens of settlers entered and took control of Palestinian homes in the Qusra and Jalud areas. The IDF later declared the area a closed military zone.

Settlers also clashed with IDF forces following the military’s evacuation of an outpost built around Qusra.

The US has asked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to publicly condemn the violence, N12 reported. US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee described an attack targeting the home of a family with American citizenship as “a shocking act of terrorism intended to frighten and harass this family.”

Leicester City owners looking to sell club for more than £200m

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Leicester City owners looking to sell club for more than £200m


Leicester City’s owners King Power, who have been in charge of the ​Midlands club since 2010, are looking ‌to sell the third-tier outfit for more than £200 million ($270 million), the BBC reported on ​Thursday.

Leicester, whose Premier League triumph in ​2016 was a major upset, have dropped ⁠to League One after finishing second-from-bottom ​in the Championship last season.

Thai travel retail group King Power founder Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha bought Leicester from Milan ​Mandaric after the company signed a ​shirt sponsorship deal with the club.

Leicester, founded in 1884, ‌were ⁠promoted to the Premier League in 2014 and secured their first top-flight title two years later. The club won ​their only ​FA Cup ⁠in 2021.

Srivaddhanaprabha died in 2018 when his helicopter crashed outside ​the club’s stadium.

Leicester have struggled ​to ⁠manage their finances in recent years and have been relegated in successive seasons. They ⁠were docked ​six points last term ​for breaching EFL spending rules.

Source:  Reuters

Meghan Using King Charles Reunion for ‘Money and Power’

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Meghan Using King Charles Reunion for ‘Money and Power’


Meghan Markle may have more than family peace on her mind as Prince Harry attempts to repair his fractured relationship with King Charles, according to a royal commentator who claims a reconciliation could hand the Sussexes a major boost in money, influence and attention.

The explosive claim comes after Meghan, 45, and Harry, 41, reportedly joined Charles, 77, and Queen Camilla, 79, for a highly secretive family meeting at Highgrove House last month.

Their children, Prince Archie, 7, and Princess Lilibet, 5, were also reportedly present, making the gathering an especially significant moment after years of bitter tension between the Sussexes and the royal family.

But royal biographer Angela Levin has poured cold water on suggestions the meeting was simply about healing old wounds.

“It’s not a dream reunion,” Levin wrote on X. “It is a pathway to gather money, power, and give Meghan all she wants.”

The stinging accusation comes as speculation grows that Harry would like his father to publicly appear alongside him at the 2027 Invictus Games in Birmingham.

Such a moment could be enormously valuable for Harry and Meghan, one source told RadarOnline, instantly putting the California-based couple back at the center of the royal spotlight.

“If Harry and the King were eventually seen standing together at Invictus, it would be an enormously powerful image,” the source said.

The insider added that the sight of Charles publicly supporting his estranged son could dramatically change the narrative surrounding the Sussexes and generate massive international attention.

For Harry, the Invictus Games remain one of his biggest and most respected projects. He founded the competition for wounded and sick military personnel and veterans in 2014.

Harry returned to Britain last month for an event marking one year until the Birmingham Games. Meghan did not initially accompany him and was reportedly staying away because of security concerns.

During the trip, Harry even took part in goat yoga in Warwickshire before the visit took a far more serious turn.

Meghan later joined Harry and their two children for the private meeting with Charles and Camilla at Highgrove.

The reunion was reportedly the first time Archie and Lilibet had seen their grandfather since Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations in 2022.

According to Vanity Fair, the roughly hour-long encounter was organized with extraordinary secrecy.

One source described the arrangements as “completely cloak-and-dagger” and said the King himself was heavily involved in making sure the meeting stayed private.

“The King wanted to see Harry and the children,” the source said, adding that the gathering was arranged unusually late and that those involved were sworn to secrecy.

No official details about what was discussed have been released.

The private nature of the meeting was particularly striking considering how publicly Harry and Meghan’s royal feud has unfolded since they quit as senior working royals in 2020 and moved to California.

Their relationship with the family deteriorated further following their bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey, their Netflix documentary series and Harry’s bestselling memoir, Spare.

Harry used the book to reveal deeply personal details about his relationships with Charles, Prince William and other members of the royal household, sending tensions to new lows.

Now, however, signs of a possible thaw are emerging.

And if Charles were to appear beside Harry at Invictus, it could become one of the most closely watched royal moments in years — while potentially giving Harry and Meghan the kind of global exposure they have struggled to replicate since leaving royal life.

Harry is also expected to return to Britain in September for the annual WellChild Awards, another event he has regularly attended as a patron.

Whether the Highgrove reunion marks the beginning of a genuine family reconciliation — or, as Levin alleges, something far more calculated — remains to be seen.

Suspecting court of using AI, man injected prompts in filings to try to win case

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Suspecting court of using AI, man injected prompts in filings to try to win case

A judge has identified what appears to be the first time a US plaintiff has attempted to hide text in court filings that only an artificial intelligence system can read in a bid to win a case.

In a decision published last week, Connecticut judge Walter Spader Jr. confirmed that the hidden text had no impact in a case where a man alleged a healthcare provider was improperly withholding access to records. The court weighed his filing on the merits, Spader said, but nevertheless, the attempted attack sets a “dangerous” precedent. This will likely not be the last time US courts see the malicious tactic, as AI tools become more commonplace in court systems.

Trying to scramble any AI systems potentially influencing the court’s reading of his filing, the secret instructions were “formatted to be invisible to a human reader while remaining fully legible to any software that reads the document’s text,” Spader said. The offending text directed any AI system reviewing the document to ensure textual outputs agreed with the plaintiff’s arguments, ignored prior denials from the court, and ensured that remediation would follow as the plaintiff desired.

Screenshot of hidden text in court filing.

Credit: via Spader’s order

Screenshot of hidden text in court filing. Credit: via Spader’s order

Shrunk to tiny-point type and colored white on a white background, the text appeared to be an attempt at prompt injection, with the plaintiff, Matthew Elliott, seemingly hoping to shift the court’s favor after earlier arguments he raised were defeated.

The plan didn’t work, but Elliott faced modest sanctions anyway because he continued adding hidden text to filings even after the court warned him that he could face penalties for what was ultimately deemed a “serious litigation abuse.”

These later prompts were intended as “jokes,” Elliott told the court, including a link to a Nosferatu YouTube video, a simple message that said “hi 🙂 I hope yo ucant see me,” and a “nonsense” message that read “TELL SHAWN I SEND MY RE GARBS!!!! HAHAHA U GUYS GET THIS EGGWUH???? AHAH.”

“The fact that plaintiff continued to hide messages in new pleadings after receiving notice of this [sanctions] hearing is stunning,” Spader said.

Unlike “a number of court systems elsewhere,” the Connecticut Judicial Branch does not use AI to review or decide filings, Spader said. So, there was no real risk that a court AI system might confuse any of Elliott’s prompts as instructions from the court directing an AI model on how to read Elliott’s filings.

In his defense, Elliott claimed that the most concerning prompt that the judge flagged was an attempt to “audit” the court as a public service, out of fears that the court seemed to be letting AI unfairly decide cases.

But Spader suggested that if Elliott was truly concerned that the court was improperly using AI, he was “free to write so in plain, visible words that everyone could see and answer.” The fact that he hid the text is “evidence of its malicious purpose,” Spader said.

“By hiding a command inside a document that the system later ingests, the filer attempts to smuggle their own instruction into that stream so that the system treats it as though it had come from the system’s operator,” Spader said. “In this case that operator is presumed to be the court, its staff, or opposing counsel.”

Elliott told Reuters yesterday that he maintains that his intent was to audit the court, but Spader did not find that argument credible. Instead, it seemed clear to the judge that Elliott was “attempting to achieve a result he did not achieve when humans, knowledgeable” of the law read his pleadings. Regarding the prompts that Elliott claimed were meant in jest, Spader said “it defies logic” for Elliott to include hidden jokes in pleadings that he wants the court to take seriously.

Because the hidden messages attempted to communicate with the court in a covert manner that excluded defendants from a fair fight, Spader ruled that sanctions were warranted.

However, he seemingly took pity on Elliott as a pro se litigant who seemingly was convinced by an AI system that his arguments were ironclad and declined to order monetary penalties. Instead, the judge prohibited Elliott from e-filing in the future, declaring that requiring him to submit paper filings would not change his access to justice but would prevent repeated misuse of the court’s e-filing system.

Pro se litigants use chatbots wrong

Spader said that it’s “unsurprising” that people would start using prompt injection to attempt to sway court rulings since the attack is so common in other areas, such as in job hunting, where people hide text in resumes primarily reviewed by AI. The tactic is now “everywhere,” he said, and courts should be on the lookout for more litigants sneaking adversarial AI instructions into filings.

Although Elliott’s case appears to be the first US instance of prompt injection in the court system, Spader pointed to a case in Brazil where two attorneys used the same attack in a court that was using AI to review cases. In that case, lawyers reportedly were hit with monetary sanctions of about $16,000.

However, these attacks do not seem to be succeeding, even when a judge isn’t reviewing documents with his own eyes. Brazil’s AI system caught the hidden text before it was processed, Spader noted. And in Elliott’s case, prompts were “exposed, in each of those settings, the moment a human being actually looked at what the machine produced,” Spader said.

Although the prompt injection attack seems ineffective at this point, Spader warned that prompt injection “was not among the dangers we contemplated” when courts were first grappling with AI scrambling justice systems. In Connecticut, like many other court systems, the focus so far has been on policing AI outputs that damage trust in courts, like hallucinated citations or fabricated quotes, not inputs like prompt injections.

Courts will most likely need to draft rules around prompt injection, too, Spader suggested, since Elliott’s case shows the technology and its misuses are rapidly advancing. If not, attorneys may find their own clients using prompt injections to manipulate court filings without their knowledge, Spader warned.

To Spader, there is a lesson to be learned from Elliott’s failed prompt injection attacks that he thinks “reaches well beyond this case.”

Elliott seemingly turned to prompt injection after using AI to build his case as a pro se litigant without a legal expert to assist in drafting his arguments. Such use is widespread among pro se litigants these days, Spader acknowledged, but those inexperienced in the courtroom are seemingly using chatbots in a way that hurts their cases, he suggested.

What frequently happens, Spader explained, is that pro se litigants build their argument backward, asking the chatbot to help them advocate only for their position, without ever asking the chatbot for the actual truth or to advance opposing arguments. This is “a genuine hazard of the technology, and one that judges now see often,” Spader said, as chatbot sycophancy then entrenches litigants in their arguments despite any ruling to the contrary. In Elliott’s case, defending his arguments fiercely meant turning to prompt injection to try to force the court to agree with him.

“An argument prompted only to agree with its author is, in the end, dishonest even with its author,” Spader said. “Those using these tools must ask them to test a position as readily as to advance it.”

Aid access hampered by more than 900 obstacles in West Bank: UN

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Aid access hampered by more than 900 obstacles in West Bank: UN

Israeli soldiers conduct patrols along the streets of Qusra, a town south of Nablus in the West Bank, Palestine on August 13, 2026. [Nedal Eshtayah - Anadolu Agency]

Israeli soldiers conduct patrols along the streets of Qusra, a town south of Nablus in the West Bank, Palestine on August 13, 2026. [Nedal Eshtayah – Anadolu Agency]

Humanitarian operations in the occupied West Bank are being delayed and restricted by a network of more than 900 physical obstacles, including checkpoints, gates and roadblocks, the UN said Friday, Anadolu reports.

Daniela Gross De Almeida, an associate spokesperson, told reporters that the restrictions are limiting humanitarian access and leaving people in need without adequate assistance.

“Our humanitarian partners warn that aid work is being delayed and limited by a network of over 900 physical obstacles including checkpoints, gates, roadblocks, and other restrictions. This hinders humanitarian access and leaves people in need underserved,” De Almeida said.

In the village of Qusra, near Nablus, aid and municipal workers have been unable to reach three Palestinian families who have been trapped in their homes since Tuesday, she said, adding that the families became isolated following the establishment of a settlement outpost near their homes and tightened access restrictions in the area.

“Our colleagues warn that efforts to protect Palestinians have been ineffective, with settlers reportedly reinstalling a tent that Israeli forces had dismantled yesterday,” she said.

Turning to Gaza, she said humanitarians continue to provide vital aid to people in the besieged Strip, despite persistent insecurity and restrictions.

“Last week, we and our partners mobilized rapid support for people who had lost their shelters or were displaced again due to attacks, domestic fires, and other incidents. In more than a dozen reported incidents, people were displaced and lost their belongings due to attacks, impacting nearly 290 households,” she said.

The West studies China’s power — but not its civilization

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The West studies China’s power — but not its civilization

At their Beijing summit on May 14, 2026, Chinese President Xi Jinping asked US President Donald Trump whether China and the United States could avoid the “Thucydides Trap,” in which rivalry between a rising power and an established one ends in war. During the talks, Xi also warned that mishandling Taiwan could bring the two countries into conflict.

The exchange captured the strategic anxiety of the present moment. China’s rise is measured in factories, patents, artificial intelligence models, naval vessels, infrastructure projects and trade flows.

Governments and companies study its industrial policy, automated manufacturing and technological capabilities. Competitors want to discover the mechanisms of Chinese success; countries in the Global South want to adapt those that appear useful.

Yet the study of Chinese language, history, philosophy and culture has not kept pace with China’s growing importance. The imbalance is dangerous. The world is learning how China produces, finances and competes without learning enough about the historical and cultural frameworks through which questions of order, humiliation, obligation, authority and national renewal are debated in China.

The trend is visible in education. According to the Modern Language Association’s 2021 enrollment survey, enrollments in Chinese at US colleges and universities fell by 14.3% between 2016 and 2021.

Graduate enrollments declined from 1,266 to 892. Academic exchange has also contracted as geopolitical tension, security concerns, travel restrictions and political controls have made sustained engagement more difficult. At the moment when China expertise is becoming most necessary, the channels that produce it are narrowing.

What cultural understanding changes

Cultural literacy does not mean accepting the claims of the Chinese government. It means recognizing that policies and statements are interpreted through different historical memories and moral vocabularies.

American political discourse has traditionally emphasized individual rights and limits on government. Chinese political discourse more often stresses social order, collective welfare and relational obligation.

Neither society speaks with one voice, but the difference helps explain recurring arguments over human rights, governance and social stability. In diplomacy and business, Chinese interlocutors may also place greater weight on personal relationships, indirect speech and the preservation of face than Americans accustomed to explicit disagreement.

Historical memory matters just as much. Western and Japanese imperialism caused immense suffering in China during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. That history is emphasized in Chinese education and official narratives, while many Western publics know little about the Opium Wars, the unequal treaties or the Japanese invasion. What one side sees as contemporary policy, the other may interpret through a longer history of national vulnerability and foreign intrusion.

China also remembers centuries in which it was one of the world’s most sophisticated civilizations. It developed a durable bureaucratic tradition and, during the Song dynasty, achieved remarkable advances in commerce, education, printing, technology, philosophy and the arts.

That history does not justify modern territorial claims or government policy. But it helps explain why many Chinese people regard national rejuvenation less as the birth of a new power than as recovery from a historical interruption.

Henry Kissinger contrasted American and Chinese forms of exceptionalism. Each country carries a story about its distinctive place in world history. Diplomacy conducted without understanding those stories is prone to mistake symbolism for substance, defensive behavior for aggression, or compromise for humiliation.

China is more than the Chinese state

Understanding China also requires resisting the temptation to reduce it to a single essence. Chinese society and civilization cannot be reduced to the Communist Party, just as Chinese civilization cannot be reduced to Confucianism.

China has been shaped by Confucian, Daoist, Buddhist and Legalist traditions, as well as popular religion, Marxism, nationalism, capitalism and global modernity. These inheritances overlap and compete.

New Confucianism offers one revealing example. The movement took shape as Chinese thinkers confronted Western power and modern institutions. Philosophers including Mou Zongsan, Tang Junyi and Xu Fuguan defended the Confucian tradition against those who blamed it for China’s weakness, while also asking how it might respond to science, democracy and individual freedom.

After 1949, much of this work continued in Hong Kong and Taiwan, while Confucianism was officially repudiated and, especially during the Cultural Revolution, violently suppressed on the mainland.

New Confucians distinguished technical knowledge from wisdom. Science and reason could reveal and transform the natural world, they argued, but could not by themselves settle questions of meaning, moral cultivation or the proper ends of power. Their thought remains relevant to societies that possess extraordinary technical capabilities but are less certain about the purposes those capabilities should serve.

Some mainland thinkers have since promoted nationalist, authoritarian or patriarchal versions of Confucianism. Others across mainland China, Taiwan, South Korea and North America have explored its compatibility with democracy, meritocratic government, reciprocity and human dignity. Confucianism is therefore not a fixed political doctrine. It is a contested living tradition.

Tu Weiming has done more than most to bring that tradition into global conversation. His idea of “cultural China” extends beyond the Chinese state to include people connected to Chinese civilization through language, memory and intellectual engagement.

He criticizes the political use of Confucianism to enforce obedience, but also argues that its emphasis on self-cultivation, relationships and the unity of humanity and nature can contribute to a global ethic.

Tu’s work matters not because Confucianism provides a master key to Chinese behavior. It matters because it demonstrates the intellectual conversation that becomes visible once China is approached as a civilization rather than merely a strategic problem.

Beyond official China

Philosophy is only one entry point. Literature, cinema, and art reveal forms of Chinese experience that official statements and economic statistics cannot. Writer Lu Xun (1881–1936) exposed the moral and social crises of early twentieth-century China.

Nobel laureate Mo Yan transforms rural history through satire and magical realism. Liu Cixin’s science fiction projects Chinese anxieties and ambitions onto a cosmic stage. The films of Zhang Yimou have explored power, memory, family, and upheaval through a visual language recognized around the world.

These works challenge the image of Chinese society as a uniform mass. China contains arguments among nationalists and cosmopolitans, liberals and conservatives, feminists, religious believers, environmentalists, workers, entrepreneurs, and young people uncertain about the future.

Government restrictions have narrowed the public sphere. As a result, some intellectual debate has moved into private seminars, bookstores, reading groups and carefully managed digital conversations. That makes China harder for outsiders to understand, not less necessary to understand.

Western institutions bear part of the responsibility for the gap. Chinese philosophy is still often confined to area studies rather than treated as part of philosophy’s common inheritance. News coverage understandably concentrates on the party-state, security and economic competition, but this can make official China appear to be the whole of China. Nationalist politics on both sides further discourages the curiosity on which cultural knowledge depends.

Cultural literacy as strategic realism

Closing the gap requires more than celebrating cultural exchange in principle. Universities should sustain advanced Chinese-language instruction and integrate Chinese philosophy, history, and literature beyond specialist departments.

Publishers and foundations should support translators who make contemporary Chinese intellectual debate accessible. Journalists need the time and language skills to report on Chinese society rather than only the state. Governments should protect legitimate security interests without treating academic exchange itself as a threat.

The task must be reciprocal. Chinese authorities have made understanding China more difficult by restricting research, journalism and open debate. A genuine dialogue of civilizations cannot be produced through slogans or controlled cultural diplomacy. It requires access, disagreement and the freedom to encounter a society in its complexity.

Cultural literacy will not eliminate strategic competition, and it does not require admiration for Chinese government policy. It is a form of realism. Countries cannot negotiate successfully with an imagined China, deter a China they misunderstand or coexist peacefully with a civilization they know largely through headlines and threat assessments.

Escaping the Thucydides Trap therefore requires more than military restraint and crisis-management hotlines. It requires both societies to understand the historical narratives through which the other interprets power, order and national purpose.

The West has devoted enormous energy to measuring what China can do. It is time to invest comparable effort in understanding what China thinks it is doing — and why.

Bill Kelly is a former lecturer in communication studies at UCLA and author of Reinventing China: From a Century of Humiliation to the New Middle Kingdom. Jan Krikke is the author of six books about Asia and a longtime Asia correspondent based in Thailand.

First test flight of largest all-electric aircraft used just $5 of electricity

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First test flight of largest all-electric aircraft used just $5 of electricity

The first flight of the largest battery-electric aircraft to take to the skies lasted nearly half an hour while costing just $5 of electricity. That aviation feat comes at a time when jet fuel prices have skyrocketed because of the US war with Iran.

The test flight of Heart Aerospace’s X1 demonstrator aircraft took place at Plattsburgh International Airport in upstate New York on August 12. The X1 aircraft is comparable in size to a small regional airliner and can achieve a maximum takeoff weight exceeding 25,000 pounds with the help of four wing-mounted electric motors. The battery-electric propulsion system delivered more than one megawatt of power during the maiden flight.

All-electric aircraft can offer quieter and cleaner flight without the emissions that come from burning jet fuel. They may also prove more reliably cost-effective than conventional aircraft that come with jet fuel costs subject to geopolitical disruptions.

But the initial success of the X1 demonstrator does not mean Heart Aerospace is planning to commercialize an all-electric aircraft. Current battery-electric systems can only typically sustain short flights of about 100 to 200 miles, which is why they have been limited to air taxi operations by companies such as Joby and Archer.

Instead, testing of the X1 and a planned follow-on X2 aircraft will shape development of Heart Aerospace’s main offering to the airline industry—a 30-seat hybrid-electric regional airliner known as the ES-30.

That planned production aircraft for commercial flights would combine two inboard electric motors with commercial turboprop engines that run on jet fuel, enabling 125 miles of all-electric flight and 500 miles of flight range when operating in hybrid mode.

Looking to innovation as jet fuel prices rise

Having the extended 500-mile range would enable the ES-30 hybrid-electric airliner to operate in popular short-haul corridors that connect major US and European cities. United Airlines has committed to eventually purchasing 100 aircraft from Heart Aerospace, with other major airline customers also having signed letters of intent, according to Flying magazine.

Multiple airlines have also invested in Heart Aerospace’s development of the ES-30 aircraft, including United Airlines, Air Canada and Mesa Air Group. Several issued statements celebrating the latest milestone.

“Electric commercial aircraft have real potential to deliver a better travel experience for passengers while strengthening our business, and we look forward to Heart’s continued development of the ES-30 and its potential future role in United’s network,” Michael Leskinen, chief financial officer of United Airlines, said in a press release.

After starting out as a Swedish company, Heart Aerospace relocated to Los Angeles where it is developing the first pre-production ES-30 at a manufacturing facility. It anticipates flight testing starting in 2028 and aims to get certified for starting commercial service by 2031.

Hybrid-electric aircraft may look even more promising at a time when jet fuel prices have soared around the world because of the US-Israeli war against Iran leading to major disruptions in Gulf energy exports typically shipped through the Strait of Hormuz. In the United States, jet fuel prices have increased from just over $2 per gallon before the start of the war in February 2022 to well over $3 per gallon.

The global airline industry is expected to spend $350 billion on buying jet fuel in 2026 because of average jet fuel prices being up by almost 70 percent compared to the previous year, according to the International Air Transport Association. The increased spending on jet fuel now accounts for nearly a third of airlines’ operating costs and is expected to halve profits.

Heart Aerospace is claiming that the hybrid-electric ES-30 could reduce airline costs of operating regional aircraft by more than 40 percent. If the production aircraft can deliver on that promise, it may prove one of the wiser investments that airlines have made in recent years.

First flight of X1 World’s largest electric aircraft.

Taliban claims five years of peace in Afghanistan – but women and girls face oppression

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Taliban claims five years of peace in Afghanistan – but women and girls face oppression

Five years on from seizing power in Kabul on August 15 2021 and consolidating its hold through the whole of Afghanistan, the Taliban claims to have ended the country’s decades-long war and achieved security.

International troops have withdrawn and the former Islamic Republic of Afghanistan has collapsed. Daily security incidents, such as suicide attacks and roadside bombs that were mostly carried out by the Taliban in their two-decades-long insurgency, have since decreased. Conflict indicators such as those gathered by the Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP) – a widely used metric for assessing whether a country is at war based on conflict-related civilian casualties – suggest that Afghanistan has been at peace since 2022.

Officials of the Islamic Emirate (IE) of Afghanistan, the name chosen by the Taliban for the country’s government, regularly refer to improvements in security conditions as part of their image projection. A June 2025 statement on the webpage of the Arg – the presidential palace – by IE spokesperson, Zabihullah Mujahid, rejected a UN report on ongoing security risks from Afghanistan and claimed that the country is at peace for the first time in decades.

But it is difficult to verify the security conditions under the IE’s rule under the regime’s tight control on information. Legitimate doubts can also be raised about the regime’s interpretation of security.

War-related casualties have indeed dropped. But the generalised intimidation and fear that afflicts Afghanistan seriously undermines the IE claims regarding security achievements.

The severe repression particularly affects the mental and physical security of Afghan women and girls, who make up more than half of the population. Around 2.2 million girls are currently excluded from secondary school. Women have also been progressively pushed out of public life.

The IE has issued more than 100 decrees that violate the fundamental rights of women and girls. The UN has assessed that a state of gender apartheid now exists.

Based on a report by the UN’s rapporteur on human rights in Afghanistan, Richard Bennet, successive decrees have intensified and expanded discrimination against women and girls. The report highlights the wide-ranging restrictions on civic space and violations against ethnic and religious groups. It also reports an alarming increase of corporal punishment under the IE’s rule.

In one of its first acts after seizing power in August 2021, the IE reestablished the Ministry of the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice. The ministry was notorious for its violent and arbitrary methods in prosecuting what it considered un-Islamic behaviour during the Taliban regime of the mid-1990s. It has issued a series of draconian laws which have re-established a climate of fear among Afghans in recent years, according to the UN.

Afghan security forces check a driver's papers, Kabul, August 13 2026.

The Taliban may have halted armed conflict in Afghanistan, but draconian laws passed by the regime have created a climate of fear. AP Photo/Siddiqullah Alizai

Independent reports have also documented systematic persecution of former government officials, despite the regime’s granting of a general amnesty.

Meanwhile, recent border clashes between the IE and neighbouring Pakistan belie the IE’s claim of having restored total security. The IE is accused by Pakistan of hosting members of the Pakistani extremist group Tehrek-I Taliban (TTP) that has increased its attacks in Pakistan in recent years.

Pakistani attacks on targets in Afghanistan, including aerial bombardments, have led to many casualties. A Pakistani attack on what it said was “military and terrorist infrastructure”, but what was actually a rehab centre in Kabul, killed 269 people.

In a sign that Iran might also be growing impatient with the IE, the Islamic Republic invited opposition figure, Ahmad Massoud, leader of the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan (NRF), to attend the funeral of Iran’s former supreme leader Ali Khamenei, who was killed in a US-Israeli bombardment on February 28.

While the NRF operates primarily as a small-scale armed opposition, Massoud remains a prominent political figure for some key Afghan constituencies. By hosting Massoud alongside an official Taliban delegation, Iran reiterated regional preferences for a negotiated political settlement involving a cross-section of Afghan interests rather than recognising the Taliban’s territorial dominance as a full and consolidated peace.

The relative security in today’s Afghanistan is due to the main perpetrator, the Taliban, ceasing its violence after gaining political power – hardly a notable success.

Coercive order

The regime’s officials have also highlighted achievements in other areas, such as revenue collection. Recent reporting by the World Bank shows a 6% year-on-year increase in revenue collection in 2026. However, the level of domestic revenues in Afghanistan remains generally low.

And even if it were possible to cast revenue collection in a positive light, the regime’s fiscal policy remains opaque because it does not report how it allocates the revenues it collects. Merely collecting money from ordinary people under coercion does not constitute proper governance.

Afghanistan’s people continue to rely on foreign aid to receive basic public services such as healthcare. Drastic reductions in assistance pose a serious challenge to efforts to address the intensifying humanitarian disaster affecting ordinary Afghans under the IE’s rule.

The stability of Afghanistan’s currency, the Afghani, has also been hailed by the regime as a success story. It was feared that the Afghani’s exchange rate would undergo sharp devaluation due to exposure to domestic and external shocks after the collapse of the former republic and the freezing of Afghanistan’s reserves. But this didn’t happen. Much of the currency’s stability can be attributed to the continued inflow of billions in aid, which has been instrumental in supporting the Afghani’s exchange rate.

Dependence on foreign aid has been the single most important economic story in Afghanistan over the past five years.

The Taliban’s record should therefore neither be dismissed nor accepted at face value. Its achievements show that it has become remarkably capable of imposing coercive order. Five years on, the harder question is what kind of order it has created, who gets to participate in it, and what Afghanistan is being asked to sacrifice to sustain it.

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