Global Governance

More than eight years after over 750,000 Rohingya Muslims fled Myanmar for sprawling camps in Bangladesh, the crisis remains unresolved.

This was the first major disaster to strike since the Trump administration suspended US foreign aid to Afghanistan in January. While Washington released statements of sympathy, it has made no formal pledge of direct financial assistance to quake relief.

The United States has issued eight key recommendations to bolster financial transparency in Bangladesh, following critical findings in its 2025 Fiscal Transparency Report released by the US State Department.

UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said in a statement this week that the continued exclusion of girls from classrooms was “a tragic violation of their fundamental rights.” She warned that the ban is denying an entire generation the opportunity to learn and jeopardizing Afghanistan’s future.

The Taliban government in Afghanistan says it has reached an agreement in principle with the United States to carry out a prisoner swap.

At the Sixth Trilateral Foreign Ministers’ Dialogue held in Kabul on 20 August 2025, Afghan Acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, and Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar reached a landmark agreement to extend CPEC into Afghanistan.

The new NDA will recommend and authorise projects under Article 6.4, including activities ranging from renewable energy and green hydrogen to green ammonia and carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS).

The report says that US consumer spending slowed significantly in the first half of 2025, decelerating from the robust pace seen in late 2024.