Global Outlook

After almost a year of being community COVID-free, Fiji Islands, one of the popular tourist destinations in the Pacific, is currently experiencing an exponential increase in active cases since the Delta variant, second wave of the Corona virus, landed on her shores in April 2021. The outbreak has recorded, to date, a total of 22,443 active cases and 177 deaths over the past three months.

More than 1/3 of those tested for Covid-19 in Myanmar now test positive. The crematorium in Yangon can hardly handle all the bodies. Many health workers remain on strike since the February 1 coup. When they try to help people on a voluntary basis, they risk arrest. Social media is full of desperate requests for oxygen.

Given North Korea’s stronger nuclear arsenal, the pervasiveness of anti-North Korean sentiment in the US, and the intensifying rivalry between the US and China, another North Korean nuclear crisis at this point might not be manageable.

With the advance of algorithmic technologies, the international legal regulation of fully autonomous weapons systems has risen up the international security and humanitarian agenda in recent years. But calls for the outright prohibition of such systems seem both premature and destined to fail.

India witnessed two devastating cyclones, Tauktae and Yaas, hitting west and east coasts within a span of two weeks in May 2021. Such extreme weather events impact the lives of millions, both immediately and long after they have passed. The calamities occurred simultaneously as the second phase of the Covid-19 pandemic was claiming lives in the thousands daily. The cyclones and the pandemic together presented an ominous future of an unmitigated climate change.

The confrontation between the United States and China is deepening. China was the main actor in the shadows behind the G7 summit held in the UK from June 11 to 13. The common theme of the summit was "Build Back Better". The joint declaration covered a wide range of topics, including measures to combat the COVID-19, the economy and security, and climate change, all with China in mind.