For most people, globalisation has for decades been another name for across-the-board liberalisation. Starting mainly in the 1980s, governments allowed goods, services, capital, and data to move across borders, with few controls. Market capitalism triumphed, and its economic rules applied worldwide. As the title of Branko Milanovic’s latest book correctly states, capitalism was finally alone.

The World Bank’s Global Economic Prospects (GEP) report, published twice a year, is the most important source for evaluating the current and future outlook for emerging markets and developing economies (EMDEs). The recently released June edition is especially significant because of the warnings it contains. Someone reading this report too quickly could easily miss the bad news, because, as with all publications by international organizations, it comes sugar-coated.

In their latest communiqué, NATO leaders declared that China presents “systemic challenges to the rules-based international order.” The response from China’s mission to the European Union (EU) was clear: “We will not present a ‘systemic challenge’ to anyone, but if someone wants to pose a ‘systemic challenge’ to us, we will not remain indifferent.” Such a tit-for-tat rhetoric is unnecessary, and most of the world’s population probably does not want it to escalate.

In a recent essay on Samantha Power, President Joe Biden’s new administrator of the United States (US) Agency for International Development, Michelle Goldberg of The New York Times writes – correctly – that Power’s “first big test … lies in what America does to help vaccinate the rest of the world against COVID-19.” And Power herself is quoted as saying that, “It’s about a very, very tangible, results-oriented agenda.” Results seemed to follow.

This month’s G7 summit seemed to confirm what has long been apparent: The United States (US) and China are entering into a cold war similar to the one between the US and the Soviet Union in the second half of the 20th century. The West no longer views China just as a competitor and rival but as a civilisational alternative.

The 2021 G7 summit took place in the United Kingdom (UK) at Carbis Bay in Cornwall. Since the 1970s, the G7 has met each year. The G7 is an informal bloc of industrialised democracies consisting of the United States (US), Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United Kingdom (UK). The group meets annually to discuss global economic issues, health emergencies, international security, energy policy, climate crisis, and the like.

Since its inception for commercial purpose in early 1900s, palm oil has been promoted as a major agro-based industry in Southeast Asian economies like Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand.

On 1 July, the Communist Party of China (CPC) will stage a patriotic extravaganza to celebrate the 100th anniversary of its founding. Among the achievements it will celebrate is the Baihetan Dam, located on the Jinsha River, on the south-eastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau. The dam will start operations on the same day. The CPC loves a superlative. It is the world’s largest manufacturer and exporter, with the world’s largest foreign reserves.

The latest G7 summit was a waste of resources. If it had to be held at all, it should have been conducted online, saving time, logistical costs, and airplane emissions. But, more fundamentally, G7 summits are an anachronism.

When will the world have vaccinated 80 percent of all adults, the level presumed by scientists to produce herd immunity against COVID-19?