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Xi Jinping’s Cultural Diplomacy in Cairo
Commentary Ryan McGrath Commentary Ryan McGrath

Xi Jinping’s Cultural Diplomacy in Cairo

By Deborah Lehr, Chair and CEO

When President Xi Jinping arrived in Cairo this week for his first state visit to Egypt in a decade, trade, investment and geopolitics were inevitably high on the agenda. But Xi also made something else unusually prominent: culture.

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Tech and Trade Strategic Insights: Beyond the Headlines
Ryan McGrath Ryan McGrath

Tech and Trade Strategic Insights: Beyond the Headlines

By Jake E. Jennings, Chair of Technology and Trade

Canada’s Section 338 Tariffs Take Effect as Commerce Narrows Auto Relief and Bundles in Security: Commerce Secretary Lutnick’s late narrowing of Section 232 auto tariff relief to light vehicles, paired with a security-adjacent package on export controls, critical minerals, and defense, drove the talks’ collapse.

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Between Security & Commerce
Talking Points Ryan McGrath Talking Points Ryan McGrath

Between Security & Commerce

By the Basilinna Team

President Xi Jinping’s state visit to Egypt, his first in a decade, highlights China’s deepening economic and political engagement across MENA. But this does not mean the region is shifting from the United States to China. The U.S. remains the region’s primary defense and advanced technology partner, while China is increasingly central to trade, infrastructure, manufacturing and investment.

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Monitoring Report: 2026 Iran War
Monitoring Report Ryan McGrath Monitoring Report Ryan McGrath

Monitoring Report: 2026 Iran War

By the Basilinna team

The interim U.S.–Iran memorandum of understanding signed in June remains suspended as a formal ceasefire but still provides the principal diplomatic framework for negotiations. Since late July, however, the conflict has entered another volatile phase in which military escalation and diplomacy have proceeded simultaneously.

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Tech and Trade Strategic Insights: Beyond the Headlines
Ryan McGrath Ryan McGrath

Tech and Trade Strategic Insights: Beyond the Headlines

By Jake E. Jennings, Chair of Technology and Trade

Tariff Risk Is Shifting Across Legal Authorities: Companies should map product-level exposure across Sections 301 and 338, preserve records supporting exclusions, and adjust contracts and sourcing before new duties take effect.

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Adaptation Is No Longer Optional
Commentary Ryan McGrath Commentary Ryan McGrath

Adaptation Is No Longer Optional

By Deborah Lehr, Chair and CEO

Recent geopolitical shocks have forced a fundamental reassessment of risk. War, supply chain disruptions, and rising fragmentation have shown that resilience can no longer be assumed, but it must be built. While attention has focused on geopolitical risk, climate risk, equally consequential, is now converging with it.

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Tech and Trade Strategic Insights: Beyond the Headlines
Ryan McGrath Ryan McGrath

Tech and Trade Strategic Insights: Beyond the Headlines

By Jake E. Jennings, Chair of Technology and Trade

Parallel Tariff Actions Require Flexible Planning; Importers should prepare for multiple duty scenarios by modeling procurement and pricing strategies against overlapping trade actions that could quickly alter landed costs across major sourcing markets.

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