COMMENT: Can BRICS deliver beyond the rhetoric? experts weigh in

BRICS has evolved from an emerging economies club into a coalition Trump sees as threatening enough to warrant tariffs. Experts reveal tensions between China's dominance and multipolar goals, with institutional gaps but growing Global South support.

Fitch upgrades Trump’s effective tariff rate to 19.4%

President Donald Trump’s evolving trade policy is set to sharply increase the United States’ effective tariff rate (ETR), with Fitch Ratings warning of substantial rises as new duties take effect on August 1.

Geopolitics is weighing on FDI, capital chasing certainty over scale – study

The world is living through turbulent times, but investors are still chasing returns which has affected the flows of international foreign direct investment.

ASEAN in 2025: still relevant, but only just

Founded on August 8 1967, in Bangkok, ASEAN has long prided itself on unity in diversity, guided by the principles of non-interference and consensus-based decision-making.

Timor-Leste’s ASEAN accession: A milestone moment despite deepening dilemmas

Timor-Leste’s road to ASEAN has been a protracted one. After over a decade of evaluations and delays, including a pandemic, ASEAN granted “in-principle” approval in 2022. The final decision was confirmed during the 46th ASEAN Summiit.

ASIA BLOG: The global fallout of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan

There have already been rumblings in Taiwan that self destruction of key infrastructure would be preferential to Chinese takeover.

Biofuel development in Southeast Asia: a region turning greener by the day

Prabowo’s France visit marks a milestone in 75 years of Indonesia–France relations

Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto has concluded a state visit to France, in the process reinforcing the deepening strategic partnership between Jakarta and Paris.

IMF: The debate over falling fertility

A decline in global population later this century may threaten human progress, or it may lead to better lives.

UNFPA survey reveals why millions can’t have the families they dream of

A growing global crisis in reproductive agency – not overpopulation or declining birth rates – is one of the most urgent demographic challenges of our time, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) said.

Melting icecaps will cause more and bigger volcanic eruptions, study shows

As the weight of melting ice is lifted off volcanos, eruptions will become more common and more violent, according to a new study of volcanos in Chile’s Patagonia region.

Tipping Point: when populations peak – Statista

As July 11 marks World Population Day, celebrating the approximate date that the world's population reached 5bn in 1987, we're taking a closer at one of the population trends that will affect many countries sooner or later in the 21st Century.