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For more than two decades, the South China Sea has been the focal point of competing claims, maritime frictions and delicate diplomacy. What was once envisioned as a stabilizing framework—the Code of Conduct (CoC)—has itself become a symbol of ASEAN’s struggle to balance sovereignty with pragmatism.  From the time ASEAN and China adopted the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in 2002, negotiators worked on multiple drafts of a binding code, only to spend 23 years distilling them into a single text. The question today is no longer whether a draft exists, but whether its contents can meaningfully prevent clashes…

Oil majors are betting big on liquified natural gas (LNG), throwing down the gauntlet to predictions of peak gas by the end of the decade. Britain’s Shell , a leading player in the global LNG market, has identified the super-cooled commodity as a primary focus amid the energy transition. France’s TotalEnergies said it expects LNG volumes managed by the company to grow by 50% between 2023 and 2030, while BP , which recently doubled down on fossil fuels as part of a green strategy U-turn , has significant LNG investments. Stateside, Exxon Mobil is seeking to double its LNG portfolio…

U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 28, 2025.Nathan Howard | ReutersLONDON — European stocks opened in mixed territory on Monday as traders look ahead to a meeting between regional leaders and U.S. President Donald Trump to discuss Ukraine.The pan-European Stoxx 600 index was flat 20 minutes after the opening bell, with no consensus movement seen among sectors and major regional bourses.European leaders, including German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, are traveling with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy to Washington to meet Trump at…

The artificial intelligence boom has brought with it hundreds of billions of dollars in investments and promises of economic growth . But the infrastructure required is demanding massive amounts of energy and resources. One lesser-known example of that dilemma can be found in the southern tip of Malaysia, which has quietly become one of Southeast Asia’s fastest-growing data center hubs amid the heightened compute demands of AI. The country’s state of Johor — with a population of about 4 million people — has attracted billions’ worth of projects for such data centers in recent years , including from many of…

(COMBO) This combination of pictures created on February 25, 2025 shows US President Donald Trump (L) on February 22, 2025, and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky on February 12, 2025.. Ukraine has agreed on the terms of a minerals deal with the United States and could sign it February 28, 2025, the two countries said, a move Kyiv hopes will lead to future security guarantees from Washington. Alex Wroblewskitetiana Dzhafarova | Afp | Getty ImagesU.S. President Donald Trump said Sunday the onus to end the war between Moscow and Kyiv is on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.In a post on Truth Social, Trump said…

MELBOURNE, Austalia (AP) — Google has agreed to pay a 55 million Australian dollar ($36 million) fine for signing anticompetitive deals with Australia’s two largest telcos that banned the installation of competing search engines on some smartphones, the U.S. tech giant and Australia’s competition watchdog said.The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said in a statement it had commenced proceedings in the Australian Federal Court on Monday against the Singapore-based Google Asia Pacific division. The court will decide whether the AU$50 million ($36 million) penalty is appropriate.Under the anticompetitive agreements, which were in place for 15 months until March 2021, Telstra…

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) — When 19-year-old Nigus Yosef told his parents he was going to leave home in Ethiopia’s Tigray region and try to get to Saudi Arabia, they begged him not to go.Two of their children had already made the crossing, via the Gulf of Aden and then war-torn Yemen. Yosef’s brother is now in jail in Yemen for entering that country illegally. His sister made it to Saudi Arabia, also illegally, which means it will be difficult for her to leave.On August 3, 2025, Yosef and five friends from his town of Adi Qeyih boarded a boat…

U.S. President Donald Trump (R) and Russian President Vladimir Putin arrive for a press conference at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson on August 15, 2025 in Anchorage, Alaska. Andrew Harnik | Getty Images There was no deal when U.S. President Donald Trump met his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Friday.That was not unexpected. The summit, which was initially arranged to discuss a ceasefire to Moscow’s war in Ukraine, was on Tuesday reframed by White House Spokesperson Karoline Leavitt as a “listening exercise” that allowed Trump to get a “better understanding of how we can hopefully bring this war to an end.”Prior to…

MIAMI (AP) — A stronger and bigger Hurricane Erin pelted parts of the Caribbean and was forecast to create dangerous surf and rip currents along the U.S. East Coast this week.It reintensified to a Category 4 storm with 130 mph (215 kph) maximum sustained winds early Monday and moved closer to the Southeast Bahamas, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami.Around 5 a.m. Monday, Erin was about 105 miles (170 kilometers) north-northeast of Grand Turk Island and about 915 miles (1,470 kilometers) south-southeast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. The storm was moving northwest at 13 mph (20 kph).The…

BANGKOK (AP) — World shares were mixed ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump’s meeting later Monday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other European leaders. Markets showed scant reaction to Trump’s inconclusive summit meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday. Investors are also watching for cues from an annual meeting in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, of top central bankers later this week.In early European trading, Germany’s DAX lost 0.2% to 24,303.26, while the CAC 40 in Paris dropped 0.5% to 7,881.74. Britain’s FTSE 100 was little changed at 9,137.31.The futures for the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average…