China, which has now become the largest trading partner to over 130 nations in the world, is able to exert influence for its own political and strategic interests by using its vast market power.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine shook the liberal international order of the 20th century as well as the confidence-building process in Europe since the end of the Cold War.
On February 15, 2025, news flashed across the world: a Japanese teenage boy had been rescued from the depths of Southeast Asia’s criminal underworld. The 17-year-old was freed from a fraud compound in Myanmar’s border region, operated by an international cyber scam organization. According to authorities, he had been lured to Myanmar by a Japanese man and forced to participate in fraud schemes once there.