COVID-19 has disrupted labour markets around the world, causing a global manpower shortage. Lockdowns in the early months of the pandemic triggered an exodus of millions of rural migrant workers from booming megacities like New Delhi and Dhaka.

Ever since then-United States (US) National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger visited China in 1971, engagement with the People’s Republic has been a fundamental feature of US diplomacy. Yet the deterioration of US-China relations in recent years suggests that this policy may have reached its end. Last week’s virtual summit between US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping can be interpreted as a last-ditch attempt to save the bilateral relationship.

The South China Sea (SCS), one of the most in-demand waterways in the world, is the object of contention of several claimant states with overlapping territorial and maritime sovereignty and sovereign rights claims over the disputed waters. The dispute is still unresolved today and can be dated back to the 1950s.The six-primary claimant states of the contested waters of the SCS are China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines, and Taiwan.

United States (US) President Joe Biden has been basking in the glow of his US$1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill, which he signed into law on 15 November.

Leaders from almost 200 countries worldwide came together in Glasgow, United Kingdom, to help advance concrete actions addressing the climate crisis. After a one-year delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) commenced on 31 October to 12 November 2021 with the hope to secure global commitments in mitigation, adaptation, and finance.Among the participants, leaders and delegates from ASEAN countries were present to neg

In early 2021, the consensus forecast for Chinese gross domestic product (GDP) growth this year among 25 major global banks and other professional forecasters was 8.3 percent. In contrast, the Chinese government’s own growth target was around six percent, lower than the best guesses of 24 out of the 25 institutional forecasters. Did the government know something that outsiders had missed?

Women account for 43 percent of the agricultural labour force in developing countries, but account for only about seven percent of investment in the sector. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations (UN), investing more in female farmers could increase agricultural yields by up to 30 percent – almost enough to offset the decline in output expected by 2030 because of climate change.

The strategic folly of United States (US) President Joe Biden’s Afghan policy has been laid bare in recent weeks. First, the country came back under the control of the Pakistan-reared Taliban. The announcement of the interim government’s composition then dashed any remaining (naive) hope that this Taliban regime would be different from the one the US and its allies ousted in 2001.

This year marks the 30th anniversary of ASEAN-China Dialogue Relations.

After India’s recent defeat by Pakistan at the T20 World Cup cricket tournament, Indian bowler Mohammed Shami confronted vicious trolling on social media. It was the latest display of the Islamophobic bigotry that has consumed Indian society under the rule of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Shami had performed poorly in the match. But so had 10 other Indian players in the rout by Pakistan. Shami was singled out because he is Muslim.