FIFA President Gianni Infantino on October 26 unveiled a new football tournament for Southeast Asian nations at the 47th ASEAN Summit and Related Summits in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

An “unusual holiday” has descended upon hundreds of thousands of US federal employees, as the government remains shut down for nearly a month due to the ongoing deadlock between the Republican and Democratic parties in Congress over the passage of a temporary budget bill.

With 237 votes out of 465 valid ballots, Takaichi Sanae, the newly elected President of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), was officially chosen by Japan’s House of Representatives as the nation’s 104th Prime Minister - without the need for a second round of voting.

A group of finance ministers from 35 countries has recently proposed increasing global climate finance to 1.3 trillion USD per year. This is a key demand of developing nations ahead of the COP30 climate conference, scheduled to take place in Brazil this November.

The World Food Forum (WFF) 2025 is taking place at the headquarters of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in the Italian capital city of Rome, sending a message to strengthen global solidarity to ensure food security.

Syrian Interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa has just visited Russia, opening a new phase for Russia-Syria relations. The positive movements taking place in the Middle East have further contributed to increasing the confidence and support of countries for the process of economic reconstruction, post-conflict social healing and international integration of Damascus.

Public debt, the technology market bubble, and protectionism are casting a shadow over the agenda of the annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB), which are currently taking place in Washington, the US.

More than a decade after applying for ASEAN membership, Timor-Leste’s steadfast efforts have finally borne fruit. The 47th ASEAN Summit, scheduled for October 2025, is expected to mark a historic milestone for both sides, as Timor-Leste becomes the 11th member under the ASEAN “common roof.”

The war in Gaza has entered its third year. After much disappointment, hope has been rekindled with US President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan. The international community has expressed a strong determination to seize this opportunity to end the conflict, even though the process is expected to face many challenges.

Emerging security challenges are not only exposing vulnerabilities in Europe’s defence system but also testing the region’s unity, as military capabilities, budgets and security priorities differ significantly among member states.

The rapid development of information technology and artificial intelligence (AI) has created a historic turning point for the world economy but also opened a fierce war against cybercrime. Ensuring cyber security has become a common challenge for all humanity.

The budget allocated to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is severely short by trillions of US dollars, sounding an alarm about the risk that many countries will miss the 2030 targets set in their SDG commitments.

Around 16,500 people have lost their lives due to unusual heatwaves in Europe this summer. In total, 181,000 people in the continent have died for the same reason over the past three years. These heartbreaking figures once again show that climate change is causing unpredictable impacts and immeasurable consequences for humans and the Earth.

The fragmentation and division of the global economy due to trade barriers, protectionism, or conflicts of interest are a major risk to sustainable development.