By Simon Tay For The Straits Times In five months, Americans will elect their president. Predictions vary whether incumbent Donald Trump can win a second term. While much of the attention right now is on the Trump administration's responses to the Black Lives Matter protests, the effects...
By Simon Tay and Jessica Wau For South China Morning Post The coronavirus pandemic has been global in reach and impact, yet cooperation has been anything but. National governments largely fend for themselves, for better or worse. The absence of global cooperation is, moreover, not a simple...
By Simon Tay and Kevin Chen For The Jakarta Post Over the past week, Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia started easing restrictions taken against the COVID -19 pandemic, and Singapore is poised to do so as well in the coming weeks. Such moves come as welcome relief for...
By Chen Chen Lee and Gan Meixi For The Business Times As governments around the world reel from the impact of the coronavirus, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has issued a bleak outlook for Asian economies: zero growth for 2020 - a first for the region in 60...
By Simon Tay and Jessica Wau For The Straits Times Some critics may say that Asean has so far done too little in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. But as cases mount, each country in the regional group is now trying to address the situation. In addition...
By Chen Chen Lee For Bangkok Post The global number of Covid-19 cases is now over 1.3 million with no sign of abating. Within Southeast Asia, Indonesia and the Philippines lead the region with 209 and 163 deaths respectively. While the number of Covid-19 cases in the...
By Simon Tay and Jessica Wau For The Business Times The Covid-19 outbreak has morphed into a global pandemic with not only healthcare priorities, but also concerns about the economy. Against this context, just five weeks after the S$4 billion "stabilisation and support" package in the 2020...
By Simon Tay and Jessica Wau For China Daily Policies of governments around the world have been changing quickly to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. As the epicenter of the outbreak has moved to Europe and the United States, there is a greater need for positive cooperation. Responses...
By Simon Tay, Wu Hui Juan and Aaron Choo For The Straits Times Fires have raged across the world in the past year. The haze from fires in Indonesian provinces affected not only Indonesia but also Malaysia and Singapore. The trans-boundary haze situation was the worst since 2015 and...
By Oh Ei Sun For Channel NewsAsia The biggest surprise from political developments in Malaysia over the past month is less the uncertainty Mahathir Mohamad plunged the country into with his shock resignation or the rapid turn of events that culminated in the Royal Palace swearing in...