Global demand for personal luxury goods has been steadily increasing for decades, resulting in an industry worth US$308 billion in 2019.However, the insatiable desire for consumers to own nice things was suddenly interrupted by the coming of the COVID-19 pandemic, and experts are predicting a brutal contraction of up to one-third of the current luxury goods market size this year.Will the industry bounce back?

In my final speech as Hong Kong’s governor on 30 June, 1997, a few hours before I left the city on Britain’s royal yacht, I remarked that, “Now, Hong Kong people are to run Hong Kong. That is the promise. And that is the unshakable destiny.”That promise was contained in the 1984 Joint Declaration, a treaty signed by China and the United Kingdom (UK) and lodged at the United Nations (UN).

Public opinion in the United States (US) pins the blame for the COVID-19 pandemic squarely on China. After all, that’s where the virus started. And President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have fanned the flames by accusing China of covering up the outbreak and knowingly allowing the novel coronavirus to spread.

The global backlash against China over its culpability for the international spread of the deadly coronavirus from Wuhan has gained momentum in recent weeks. And China itself has added fuel to the fire, as exemplified by its recent legal crackdown on Hong Kong.

Indonesia made history just two years ago by reaching the milestone of a single-digit poverty rate for the first time since its independence in 1945. The percentage of those below the poverty line – with incomes of less than US$2.50 per day – fell below 10 percent (9.82 percent) at the national level for the first time in March 2018. Following the COVID pandemic, there is concern that poverty could once again rise and reverse years of positive work.

Nok (not her real name) is from Thailand and works in a hotel in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The COVID-19 pandemic has led to the hotel laying off a number of its staff. Nok was spared being laid off, but she has to go on unpaid leave until December 2020; with a provision that if she can resume work earlier then her new pay would be 25 percent lower than before.

The Philippines at the moment is not only confronted by the threat of the COVID-19 pandemic, rather it is also faced with a huge controversy surrounding one of the most influential media networks in the country, ABS-CBN or popularly known as the “Kapamilya” (Family) Network. The reason for the whole controversy is due to the expiration of its congressional franchise on 4 May, 2020 followed by a “cease and desist” order (CDO) issued by the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC)

ASEAN member states have a unique opportunity to meaningfully address the digital gender divide through their COVID-19 recovery plans.

Among its many other effects, the COVID-19 crisis has intensified the pre-existing geopolitical rivalry between China and the United States (US). This tension has led many to warn of the “Thucydides trap,” a term coined by Harvard’s Graham T Allison to refer to the heightened risk of conflict when an emerging power threatens to displace an established one.

Last month, Sheuly rushed into a Dhaka hospital in need of emergency treatment. The 25-year-old Bangladeshi woman had just given birth at home – thinking it a safer setting than the hospital during a pandemic. But as she began to suffer from post-partum haemorrhage – one of the leading causes of maternal death worldwide – avoiding exposure to COVID-19 was the furthest thing from her mind.