On 8 June, leaders from the largest advanced economies will gather for the annual Group of Seven (G7) summit to discuss the most pressing challenges the world faces. Most of the items on the agenda – from climate change to inequality – resonate particularly strongly for people living in urban areas, who comprise 54% of the world’s population. And yet, municipal governments will not be represented in any official capacity during the G7 meetings.

As officials from the United States (US) and North Korea prepare for the 12 June summit meeting between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un, nuclear experts must come to terms with a significant question: If Kim commits to dismantling his nuclear stockpile, how can the world be sure that he is following through?There is no question that North Korea poses a unique challenge to the nuclear nonproliferation regime; the political context for advancing disarmament globally is very different.

Asia is aging fast: by 2040, 16 percent of the region’s population will be older than 65, more than double the 7.8 percent share in 2015. While the rise in healthy life expectancy is a positive development, this demographic shift poses a serious threat to many economies, which are already losing vitality.A consistent supply of young, skilled workers was an essential ingredient of Asia’s rapid economic catch-up process over the last three decades.

Governments around the world are engaged in a series of talks that could fundamentally alter how the movement of people across borders is managed. One dialogue is focused on the protection of refugees; the other on migration.These discussions, which are being led by the United Nations (UN), will not result in legally binding agreements. But the talks themselves are a rare chance to forge consensus on contemporary migration challenges.

The world’s leading democracy, the United States (US), is looking increasingly like the world’s biggest and oldest surviving autocracy, China.

Every year on May 3 – World Press Freedom Day – news producers and consumers pause to reflect on the state of global media. This year, as journalists and government officials gather in Ghana for the event’s 25th observance, attention will turn to the myriad pressures and challenges confronting the profession worldwide, and how official and state-sponsored hostility toward the press is threatening democracy.But these concerns, though certainly valid, are not the entire story.

On April 17, Bloomberg reported that China had overtaken the United States as Vietnam’s largest export market. According to figures cited by the news organisation and tallied by the International Monetary Fund, Vietnam’s exports to China amounted to US$50.6 billion in 2017, compared to US$46.5 billion in exports to the US.If these numbers are accurate, they would represent a significant shift in the triangular relationship between Vietnam, China, and the US.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un seems to be setting the stage for an historic deal with US President Donald Trump that would allow his country, like Myanmar and Vietnam, to reduce its dependence on China and move closer to the West.

Last month, US President Donald Trump enacted steel and aluminum tariffs aimed squarely at China. On April 2, China retaliated with tariffs on 128 American products. Trump then announced 25% tariffs on another 1,300 Chinese products, representing some $50 billion of exports.

When the United Kingdom became the first country in the world to undergo large-scale urbanisation in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the process transformed its economy and society. Today, India is facing a similar transformation, only it is happening at 100 time the pace.