Podcasts about Northeast Asia

Eric Olander, editor-in-chief of the China Global South Project, joins the pod to discuss the developments on the other side of the globe. From Ho Chi Minh City, Eric explains how the Global South actually sees the US-Iran war, why nobody expects China to ride to anyone's rescue, and how Vietnam's tariff and energy shocks became a never-again moment. He and Jacob dig into the myth that tariffs can implode China, America's fading China literacy, and why the next order won't be Chinese-led - but China will be its transformational character.*Note: There are some weird buzzing sounds in the pod, we know! There was some sort of issue uploading the audio, we're on it.--Timestamps:(00:00) - Welcome and Guest Intro(00:46) - World Cup Travel Chaos(02:01) - Soccer Politics and Tensions(03:33) - Meet Eric Olander(05:32) - China's Transformation Story(07:54) - Global South Views of China(10:26) - China as Daily Operating System(13:12) - Pew Poll Surprises Explained(14:10) - Southeast Asia vs Northeast Asia(17:32) - Why Philippines Aligns With US(20:10) - Japan Taiwan Flashpoint(21:15) - Supply Chains and Sea Lanes(23:36) - Japan Rearms for Post US Era(28:19) - Japan's Regional Influence(30:38) - Japan as Counterbalance(32:04) - Drone Age Security Shift(33:05) - South China Sea Alarm(33:28) - Iran War Global South(38:37) - China Gains and Risks(40:46) - No Alliance Expectations(43:51) - ICBM Test Explained(47:40) - Decoupling and US Pragmatists(50:35) - People to People Breakdown(54:41) - China Blowing Europe Window(58:56) - Mutual Misunderstanding Finale(59:55) - Closing Thanks and Signoff--Referenced in the Show:--Jacob Shapiro Site: jacobshapiro.comJacob Shapiro LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jacob-l-s-a9337416Jacob Twitter: x.com/JacobShapJacob Shapiro Substack: jashap.substack.com/subscribe --The Jacob Shapiro Show is produced and edited by Audiographies LLC. More information at audiographies.com--Jacob Shapiro is a speaker, consultant, author, and researcher covering global politics and affairs, economics, markets, technology, history, and culture. He speaks to audiences of all sizes around the world, helps global multinationals make strategic decisions about political risks and opportunities, and works directly with investors to grow and protect their assets in today's volatile global environment. His insights help audiences across industries like finance, agriculture, and energy make sense of the world.--Mentioned in this episode:Check Out Future Hindsight!If you enjoy our podcast, check out our homies over at Future Hindsight! It's an award-winning weekly podcast that takes big ideas about civic life and democracy and turns them into action items for you and me. Learn more at www.futurehindsight.com/

China's suspension of rare earth exports to Japan has now entered its seventh month, with shipments in June again falling to a fraction of their level a year earlier. The restrictions are one sign of a broader collapse in relations between the two countries since Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi took office last fall. The relationship, long marked by tension, deteriorated sharply after Takaichi said that Chinese military action against Taiwan would "threaten Japan's survival." Since then, ties have continued to worsen. William Yang, senior Northeast Asia analyst at the International Crisis Group, joins Eric to explain the politics driving this increasingly dangerous confrontation and why its consequences will be felt across Asia.

The latest news from home and abroad, with a close eye on Northeast Asia and the Korean Peninsula in particular

The latest news from home and abroad, with a close eye on Northeast Asia and the Korean Peninsula in particular

CIOs across Southeast and Northeast Asia face a brutal budgetary paradox today: board-mandated surges in AI and cybersecurity investments clashing directly with flat overall IT expenditure. According to IDC and Forrester, while regional tech spending is rising, geopolitical risks and inflation are eroding real purchasing power. Consequently, technology leaders are forced into aggressive reallocation. They must defer legacy ERP upgrades, consolidate SaaS contracts, and renegotiate vendor support to fund digital priorities without expanding the top-line budget, turning run-rate IT optimisation into a critical strategic lever for margin protection. This shift is redefining the CIO role.In this PodChats for FutureCIO, we explore why IT budget strategies need to shift from cutting waste to driving innovation. For more on this, we are joined by Seth Ravin, CEO of Rimini Street.Setting the Macro Context1.       With overall IT budgets remaining largely flat across Asia despite surging AI demands, how are CIOs fundamentally restructuring their 2026 budget cycles to accommodate these new priorities without asking for more money?The Core Trade-off: AI vs. Legacy 2.       In your conversations with customers, when boards ring-fence AI and cybersecurity spend, which specific legacy IT projects or 'run rate' operations bear the brunt of the cuts?3.       You have highlighted the deferral of ERP upgrades; what are the operational and technical risks CIOs are willing to accept by pushing these critical modernisations down the line?Executing the Cuts: ERP, SaaS, and Cloud 4.       How are enterprises leveraging third-party enterprise software support models to immediately free up capital. Is this shifting from a tactical cost-saving measure to a strategic boardroom lever? 5.       Beyond traditional on-premise legacy systems, are we now seeing CIOs aggressively consolidating SaaS contracts and even renegotiating hyperscaler cloud commitments to fund AI initiatives?Regional and Sector Nuances 6.       CIOs at different sectors: manufacturing, healthcare, logistics, and financial services, approach how they manage their IT budgets. Are there distinct budget-cutting patterns or unique pressures specific to these sectors in the Asian market?The CIO and CFO Dynamic 7.       How has the conversation between the CIO and CFO evolved in the region? Are finance leaders now driving IT vendor renegotiations, or is the CIO leading this charge to protect innovation budgets?Strategic and Financial Implications 8.       Looking beyond 2026, if AI and cyber costs continue to scale without a corresponding increase in overall IT budgets, is the current model of funding them purely through legacy cuts sustainable?9.       Let's round out what we've covered so far. Our topic is IT budget strategies for focusing on innovation and not cost-cutting. What are your top 3 recommendations for IT budget strategies for focusing on innovation and not cost-cutting?

The latest news from home and abroad, with a close eye on Northeast Asia and the Korean Peninsula in particular

The latest news from home and abroad, with a close eye on Northeast Asia and the Korean Peninsula in particular

The latest news from home and abroad, with a close eye on Northeast Asia and the Korean Peninsula in particular

The latest news from home and abroad, with a close eye on Northeast Asia and the Korean Peninsula in particular

The latest news from home and abroad, with a close eye on Northeast Asia and the Korean Peninsula in particular

The latest news from home and abroad, with a close eye on Northeast Asia and the Korean Peninsula in particular

The latest news from home and abroad, with a close eye on Northeast Asia and the Korean Peninsula in particular

The latest news from home and abroad, with a close eye on Northeast Asia and the Korean Peninsula in particular

The latest news from home and abroad, with a close eye on Northeast Asia and the Korean Peninsula in particular

The latest news from home and abroad, with a close eye on Northeast Asia and the Korean Peninsula in particular

The latest news from home and abroad, with a close eye on Northeast Asia and the Korean Peninsula in particular

The latest news from home and abroad, with a close eye on Northeast Asia and the Korean Peninsula in particular

The latest news from home and abroad, with a close eye on Northeast Asia and the Korean Peninsula in particular

The latest news from home and abroad, with a close eye on Northeast Asia and the Korean Peninsula in particular

The latest news from home and abroad, with a close eye on Northeast Asia and the Korean Peninsula in particular

The latest news from home and abroad, with a close eye on Northeast Asia and the Korean Peninsula in particular

The latest news from home and abroad, with a close eye on Northeast Asia and the Korean Peninsula in particular

The latest news from home and abroad, with a close eye on Northeast Asia and the Korean Peninsula in particular

The latest news from home and abroad, with a close eye on Northeast Asia and the Korean Peninsula in particular

The latest news from home and abroad, with a close eye on Northeast Asia and the Korean Peninsula in particular

The latest news from home and abroad, with a close eye on Northeast Asia and the Korean Peninsula in particular

The latest news from home and abroad, with a close eye on Northeast Asia and the Korean Peninsula in particular

The latest news from home and abroad, with a close eye on Northeast Asia and the Korean Peninsula in particular

The latest news from home and abroad, with a close eye on Northeast Asia and the Korean Peninsula in particular

The latest news from home and abroad, with a close eye on Northeast Asia and the Korean Peninsula in particular

The latest news from home and abroad, with a close eye on Northeast Asia and the Korean Peninsula in particular

The latest news from home and abroad, with a close eye on Northeast Asia and the Korean Peninsula in particular

The latest news from home and abroad, with a close eye on Northeast Asia and the Korean Peninsula in particular

The latest news from home and abroad, with a close eye on Northeast Asia and the Korean Peninsula in particular

The latest news from home and abroad, with a close eye on Northeast Asia and the Korean Peninsula in particular

The latest news from home and abroad, with a close eye on Northeast Asia and the Korean Peninsula in particular

The latest news from home and abroad, with a close eye on Northeast Asia and the Korean Peninsula in particular

The latest news from home and abroad, with a close eye on Northeast Asia and the Korean Peninsula in particular

The latest news from home and abroad, with a close eye on Northeast Asia and the Korean Peninsula in particular

The latest news from home and abroad, with a close eye on Northeast Asia and the Korean Peninsula in particular

The latest news from home and abroad, with a close eye on Northeast Asia and the Korean Peninsula in particular

The latest news from home and abroad, with a close eye on Northeast Asia and the Korean Peninsula in particular

The latest news from home and abroad, with a close eye on Northeast Asia and the Korean Peninsula in particular

The latest news from home and abroad, with a close eye on Northeast Asia and the Korean Peninsula in particular

The latest news from home and abroad, with a close eye on Northeast Asia and the Korean Peninsula in particular

The latest news from home and abroad, with a close eye on Northeast Asia and the Korean Peninsula in particular

The latest news from home and abroad, with a close eye on Northeast Asia and the Korean Peninsula in particular

Shopify wants to be the checkout layer under every AI agent, and its Spring 2026 edition shipped 150-plus updates to prove it. Meanwhile air freight spot rates climbed 41% year over year while demand grew 4%. Somebody is paying for that gap.Shopify Spring 2026: building the plumbing for agents Checkout now runs inside Microsoft Copilot, paid with Shop Pay. There's a universal commerce protocol built with Google. A new agentic commerce plan lets brands sell across ChatGPT and the Shop app without ever being on Shopify. Native B2B is getting pushed down to every plan, aimed at a $36 trillion market. The bet is clear: own the merchant-of-record layer before the agents do.Kimberly-Clark: $3 billion to fix the supply chain Two years into a five-year productivity program. CFO Nelson Urdaneta points to simpler manufacturing, a redrawn distribution network, and more automation. A $1 billion automated DC is going into Beech Island, South Carolina, plus an advanced plant in Ohio. The Kenvue merger closes in the back half and lets them pack trucks tighter by mixing heavy and high-volume goods.Amazon's Peter DeSantis at VivaTech: AI is nowhere near done DeSantis says models need to get 100 to 1,000 times more efficient before they're genuinely useful. The next leap comes from speed: a 40-millisecond reaction time to match human conversation. His fix is a flywheel where chips and models get designed together to drop cost and lift performance.Air freight: 41% up on 4% demand Spot rates hit $3.40 per kilo in May. Surcharges, fuel swings, and Middle East instability are doing the work, not volume. Northeast Asia is up 39%, Southeast Asia up 33%, and Europe to North America has softened. Most of that cargo is data center hardware and semiconductors.The Investor Minute contains 5 stories this week.The Watson Weekly is sponsored by Avalara. It works with platforms like Shopify, BigCommerce, and WooCommerce, helping teams manage compliance faster and scale with confidence. Learn more at avalara.watsonweekly.com.

The latest news from home and abroad, with a close eye on Northeast Asia and the Korean Peninsula in particular

The latest news from home and abroad, with a close eye on Northeast Asia and the Korean Peninsula in particular