“The UN (United Nations) was not founded to take mankind to heaven, but to save humanity from hell,” the UN second secretary-general, Dag Hammarskjöld, once said. The hell he had in mind, of course, was World War II and the Shoah, next to which most of today’s challenges pale in comparison.

Britain on Friday began a new year and life outside the European Union's (EU) single market, with the first trucks crossing the Channel by ferry and rail largely reporting few difficulties despite new customs rules.Brexit, an all-consuming issue in Britain since it voted in 2016 to quit the bloc, became reality an hour before midnight after nearly five decades of integration with Europe.Prime Minister Boris Johnson was bullishly optimistic, writing in the Daily Telegraph that Brexit pres

Investors pushed Asian markets higher Friday on continued optimism over vaccines and on signs of progress on a new United States (US) stimulus, though surging infections and deaths highlighted the painful, immediate reality of the coronavirus crisis.While the consensus is that the world can begin to get back to normal – and the economy recover –from next year as people are inoculated, observers warn lockdowns and other containment measures in place now are crippling businesses and jobs.The US

The coronavirus pandemic has heaped pressure on the troubled World Trade Organization (WTO), a WTO leadership candidate said, warning the crisis could spell the end of rules-based international trade altogether.Liam Fox, Britain's first post-Brexit international trade secretary and one of eight candidates vying to become the WTO's next director-general (DG), voiced concern that countries might turn their backs on its multilateral trading model."The reaction of some countries to

Britain on Friday ended almost half a century of integration with Europe, finally making its historic departure from the European Union (EU) to begin a new – but still uncertain – future, with emotions running high following years of wrangling and several false starts. At the clocks strike 11:00 pm (2300 GMT) – midnight in Brussels – Britain becomes the first country to leave the 28-member bloc and will go it alone for the first time since 1973.Prime Minister Boris Johnson has backed

There has been no closure to the Brexit issue since the 2016 Stay/Leave Referendum when the United Kingdom (UK) voted to leave the European Union (EU), until recently when British Prime Minister Boris Johnson won an outright majority of 80 parliamentary seats at last year’s general election on 12 December, 2019.

While growth in Southeast Asia remains robust, data from the first half of 2019 indicates it has been slower than forecasted. The most recent Asian Development Bank (ADB) data suggests that Southeast Asia has grown less than anticipated, resulting in slight downward revisions to growth forecasts which now stand at 4.8 percent (2019) and 4.9 percent (2020), down from 4.9 percent and 5.0 percent, respectively.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson locked horns Wednesday with his rivals in a fiery launch to an unpredictable early general election aimed at breaking Britain's protracted Brexit deadlock.Johnson's sparring with the main opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn came a day after MPs backed the premier's call for Britain's third election in four years.The December 12 poll was decided just a few hours after Brussels extended this week's Brexit deadline to give London mor

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Thursday proposed settling the Brexit crisis through an early election on December 12 that could help Britain finally find a way out of the European Union.The Conservative leaders' offer comes with his party leading opinion surveys and the opposition split over whether to back a snap poll or to seek a new EU membership referendum that could undo the one triggering Brexit in 2016.It also suggests that Johnson has all but given up on his repeated pledge t

British MPs have again ruptured the Brexit process by withholding their support for Prime Minister Boris Johnson's new divorce deal with the European Union (EU).The House of Commons voted for an amendment making approval for the text conditional on parliament passing legislation to ratify the treaty before Britain leaves the EU.The failure to clearly back the deal triggered a law forcing Johnson to ask EU leaders to delay Brexit for a third time – though he vowed Saturday following the v