Author: HeraldStar

By Qaiser Nawab, Chairman BRISD Just after midnight in Beijing, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order that secured TikTok’s immediate future in the United States. The announcement ended months of speculation about whether the app—used by over 170 million Americans—would be banned outright. Instead, a compromise was reached: TikTok would continue to operate under a new structure designed to address Washington’s data security concerns. The deal, valued at $14 billion for its security arm alone, is being described as a landmark in how governments handle foreign digital platforms. Yet beneath the headlines lies a deeper story—of global power…

By Qaiser Nawab, Chairman BRISD Global finance is entering a new era. The long-standing dominance of the US dollar is showing signs of strain as political conflicts and financial sanctions push countries to seek alternatives. The world needs a multi-polar international monetary system to strengthen resilience and safeguard stability. In other words, no single currency should unilaterally dominate. Recent evidence suggests this vision is taking shape: investors hit by volatile US trade policies are being prompted to seek alternatives to dollar-based investments. For instance, six major banks – including Standard Bank and First Abu Dhabi Bank – recently agreed to…

By Qaiser Nawab The protests in France—burning barricades, resignations, disorder—are more than political noise. They are another signal that an order long thought durable is creaking. But France is not alone. Across Asia, from Kathmandu to Dhaka, discontent is boiling. The theme is strikingly similar: people are stepping into the streets, demanding not just reform but legitimacy, transparency, and dignity. On the surface, these eruptions look organic; viewed closely, they also bear the fingerprints of a more complicated political theatre — the making of a modern “colour revolution.” In France, the political centre has become a revolving door. Prime ministers…

By Sania Afzal Goldman Sachs’ September list of top stock picks looks less like a vote of confidence in American dynamism than as insurance against its fragility. As part of its routine monthly adjustment, the bank added McDonald’s, Walmart, and Valero Energy to its “most favored” list, alongside Cadence Design Systems. With two defensive consumer names alongside an energy major, does it suggest investors are quietly preparing for a weaker economy? Looking at the surface, America still projects strength. GDP growth in the second quarter clocked in at an annualized 3.3%, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA),…

How a Giant Stumbles, and the World Recalculates By Sania Afzal “Sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something,” Donald Trump once quipped, dismissing worries about the collateral damage of his tariffs. Eight months into his second presidency, America is gulping down the medicine in heavy doses: sweeping tariffs, tax cuts, an avalanche of reforms, and more than 200 executive orders—already surpassing his tally from his entire first term. For a brief spell, the treatment seemed to work. After contracting by 0.5% in the first quarter of 2025, GDP grew by a buoyant 3.3% in the second. Yet behind…

Brussels, Belgium – Qaiser Nawab, Chairman of the Belt and Road Initiative for Sustainable Development (BRISD), participated in the exclusive talk and reception titled “Euractiv Defence Pro: Navigating the Future of European Defence” hosted by Euractiv at the BELvue Museum, Brussels. The event brought together senior policymakers, experts, and thought leaders to discuss Europe’s evolving defence strategy in light of emerging geopolitical and security challenges. During the session, Mr. Nawab had the opportunity to briefly share the vision and initiatives of BRISD in advancing sustainable cooperation and dialogue across regions. He engaged with Mr. Andrius Kubilius, European Commissioner for Defence…

By Jameela Mateen In Madrid earlier this month, delegations from China and the United States struck what officials described as a “framework understanding” on the future of TikTok’s operations in America. Soon after, Presidents Xi Jinping and Donald Trump confirmed the arrangement in a phone call, setting the stage for months of regulatory and contractual fine-tuning. For now, TikTok remains on American smartphones, but the episode underscores a deeper contest—less about data protection and more about global narrative control. For years, Washington has cast TikTok as a looming national-security risk. Legislative pushes, executive orders, and courtroom battles have kept the…

In the spy romance series Tempest, Jun Ji-hyun, one of South Korea’s biggest stars, plays a diplomat trying to uncover the truth behind a deadly assassination. “Why does China prefer war? A nuclear bomb could fall near the border,” her character says in one episode of the new Disney+ series. This fictional scene led to real consequences over the weekend, with many Chinese social media users taking it to be a malicious mischaracterisation of China as belligerent. Many are now calling for brands to sever ties with the Korean actress. The uproar has also reignited debate over an unofficial Chinese…

Taking a page from the private insurance industry’s playbook, the Trump administration will launch a program next year to find out how much money an artificial intelligence algorithm could save the federal government by denying care to Medicare patients. The pilot program, designed to weed out wasteful, “low-value” services, amounts to a federal expansion of an unpopular process called prior authorization, which requires patients or someone on their medical team to seek insurance approval before proceeding with certain procedures, tests, and prescriptions. It will affect Medicare patients, and the doctors and hospitals who care for them, in Arizona, Ohio, Oklahoma, New…

TotalEnergies (TTEF.PA), opens new tab has won a 4.5-billion-euro ($5.30 billion) contract from the French government to develop and build a 1.5 gigawatt wind farm off the Normandy coast in a consortium with RWE, it said on Wednesday. The French energy major expects to make a final investment decision in early 2029, with power production to begin in 2033, according to a statement. Total said the project represents an investment of 4.5 billion euros, with the tariff set by the state to be 66 euros per megawatt-hour. The wind farm would produce six terawatt-hours of electricity annually, supplying the equivalent of 1…