The 2019 Oscar-winning film Parasite attracted a global audience for its arresting portrayal of South Korea’s stark income inequality. The movie’s rendering of a low-income household’s acute sense of alienation resonated widely, no doubt because similar sentiments are palpable in many other countries.

The official campaign period for the 9 May, 2022 Philippine elections started last Tuesday (8 February, 2022), though, as early as the last quarter of 2021, hopefuls for national elective posts have already been campaigning.

Few parts of the world paid as high a cost during the Cold War as Southeast Asia.

Last year marked the 30th anniversary of The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-China Dialogue Relations. The two sides, ASEAN and China, have come a long way since the establishment of the ASEAN-China Dialogue Relations in 1991.

Recent talks in Geneva between Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and United States (US) Secretary of State Antony Blinken regarding the crisis over Ukraine achieved little. Russia asked for a written response to its demands, which include a halt to North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) enlargement.

Earlier this month, the United States (US) Supreme Court blocked President Joe Biden’s attempt to mandate that businesses with more than 100 employees require them to be vaccinated against COVID-19 or else wear face masks and be tested regularly. Was the Biden administration guilty of overreaching? In some countries, including Austria, Ecuador, and Indonesia, governments have imposed COVID-19 vaccine mandates on the entire population, or at least on all workers.

One of my favourite cartoons shows an elderly, professorial-looking man talking to a much younger fellow, possibly a student. “Those who don’t study history,” says the old guy, “are doomed to repeat it.” He then adds, “Yet those who do study history are doomed to stand by helplessly while everyone else repeats it.” Like many jokes, this one works because it contains a kernel of truth.

China and the Philippines are close neighbours across the sea, sharing time-honoured bonds of friendship and kinship.

In the war on disinformation, the enemy can be hard to determine. Journalists, politicians, governments, and even grandparents have been accused of enabling the spread of online falsehoods. While none of these groups is entirely innocent, the real adversary is more mundane.

World leaders came together in Glasgow last November to map out a path to mitigate the worst effects of climate change. But while the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) was undoubtedly a historic moment, most countries are just beginning their work to meet new goals to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions.That is why the announcement by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Indonesian and Philippine governments at COP26 stood out.