In any normal year, I would be in New York City now for the annual opening of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). The event represents the greatest concentration of global policymakers in one place and is the high point on the diplomatic calendar. But this year is far from normal, and “UNGA week” is going virtual with events held online – a familiar format for us all in recent months.

COVID-19 has brought the worst economic impacts in the modern era, hitting the world from both, demand and supply sides simultaneously. By 18 September 2020, COVID-19 has infected more than 543,180 people in ASEAN which consists of the 10 member countries that are Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore, and Vietnam.

Now almost in its tenth month, the COVID-19 pandemic is still wreaking havoc on economies and lives around the world. But while the end of the crisis seems as far away as ever, the fact is that we are approaching a potential turning point. World leaders now have an opportunity to seal the deal on a global framework that puts international cooperation above vaccine nationalism in stopping the pandemic. The moment of truth was at midnight on 18 September.

The Duterte administration’s “war against illegal drugs” thus far is one among many controversial issues that has received a great deal of media attention both, locally and internationally and has earned extra attention in foreign policy circles and among local and international human rights organisations. The elimination of the drug problem in the country is one of Duterte’s campaign promises from the 2016 national elections.

As governments, research organisations and pharmaceutical companies race to find viable vaccines for the novel coronavirus, a recent survey published in the Lancet found that only 67 percent of the United States (US) population would accept a vaccine for COVID-19 if it was recommended for them.  Within weeks of the survey, a major vaccine trial at Oxford University was paused after a participant fell ill.

Boundaries between academic disciplines are always artificial creations intended to facilitate analysis, given our limitations. But as the economist Albert Hirschman once argued, there are times when it is incumbent on us to trespass them. The ongoing battle against COVID-19 and its economic fallout is such a time.

The industrial meat system is out of control. Not only does it contribute to the destruction of the climate, biodiversity, soil, and forests, but it also poses a direct threat to human health. Until the COVID-19 pandemic, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) warnings about zoonotic diseases – caused by pathogens that are transmitted from animals to humans – were largely ignored.

The plight of the “boat people” has come to the attention of the international community for a long time now. The world thus far has reacted to this cataclysmic humanitarian crisis that is even said to be tantamount to genocide.

Japan’s parliament is scheduled to confirm Yoshihide Suga this week as the country’s new prime minister. He will replace Shinzo Abe, who announced his resignation last month for health reasons, after almost eight years in office. Japanese and international observers are now asking whether the Abe government’s economic-policy course (dubbed “Abenomics”) will change significantly under Suga, and if so, how. The answer will have important geopolitical implications.

The pandemic that United States (US) President Donald Trump has handled so disastrously – over 200,000 deaths from COVID-19 are expected in the US by Election Day – is persuading an unprecedented number of voters to cast their ballot by mail rather than expose themselves at the polls.