The African National Congress (ANC), the political party founded by Nelson Mandela, which ended apartheid in South Africa and has ruled the country for the last thirty years, lost its parliamentary majority in elections last week. While they are still the largest party, they will now have to form a coalition with competing parties to govern. This signifies a shift for South Africa, which needs to look forward with policy that addresses its rampant crime, inequality, and poverty.

Donald Trump was found guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records in a Manhattan state court. We run through the somewhat complex reasoning behind the crime and then analyze the political and institutional fallout.

The Financial Times reported that a deal for a new gas pipeline from Russia to China has stalled over pricing talks. China not only wants heavily subsidized domestic prices for Russia's gas, they also want only a small percentage of the total capacity. The reality is, Russia needs China, but China doesn't need Russia.

A new report cites sources close to Vladimir Putin saying he wants a ceasefire in the Ukraine war with the lines frozen at current areas of control on the battlefield. Is this true, or is there another reason this information leaked to the press?

The state of Colorado passed four new housing laws meant to address their housing shortage. There's one in particular that excites us. Tune in to find out what they did.

Over a year ago, the term "vibecession" was coined. It refers to the concurrent phenomena of a very strong U.S. economy according to all the typical measures (unemployment, GDP growth, stock market gains) and a populous that mostly thinks the economy is doing poorly. This isn't the first time we've discussed this topic, but a new poll brought us back here. So we wonder: why is the vibecession still so strong?

Two days after the inauguration of Taiwan's new president, The People's Liberation Army (PLA) of China ran joint navy and air force drills on the northern, eastern, and western sides of the island. We discuss their reasoning for these drills and how they might play into a future invasion of Taiwan by China.

After winning a unionization vote at a Volkswagen plant in Tennessee, the UAW sought to keep their momentum going with a win at a Mercedes plant in Alabama. However, they lost the vote, with 56% of votes going against unionizing. We discuss how it went down, and whether this will affect future unionization efforts.

Chinese businesses are facing headwinds everywhere in the world at the moment. At home, they're struggling with weak demand, as their consumer base doesn't want to spend money because of the real estate crisis and low confidence. Abroad, buyer markets like the U.S. are becoming more and more protectionist as they look to carve out space for their own manufacturers to compete on the world stage.

Ebrahim Raisi, president of Iran, died in a helicopter crash last week. We discuss how this affects Iran's government and politics, and whether it will have any effect on the U.S.'s posture towards the country.