Natural disasters may hit harder, too. One low-cost USAID programme, SERVIR, used NASA data to warn countries about climate-related extreme events. In 2023 the early-warning system alerted people in Bangladesh to a category-four cyclone, which limited the death toll to 145 people. Two decades earlier, a similar storm killed 138,000 people.

It comes as Trump’s latest tariff concessions failed to calm a market that has seen many policy reversals over the past two months.

India and Thailand could face higher reciprocal tariffs from the US due to their elevated tariff rates and non-tariff barriers. Nomura's analysis suggests significant trade disruptions in key sectors like agriculture and transportation if these tariffs are enacted.

US President Donald Trump called Russian President Vladimir Putin and told him that the US government is committed to a peace process in Ukraine. As part of the deal, Trump’s administration made it clear that sections of eastern Ukraine and the Crimea would remain in Russian hands.

This article is authored by Pravesh Kumar Gupta, associate fellow (Eurasia), Vivekananda International Foundation, New Delhi.

TOKYO/WASHINGTON (Reuters) -When President Donald Trump sat down to lunch with his Japanese counterpart this month, talk turned quickly to how Tokyo could help realise a decades-old proposal to unlock gas in Alaska and ship it to U.S. allies in Asia.

Asian markets traded mostly higher on Thursday, following overnight gains on Wall Street after US President Donald Trump delayed tariffs on select automakers. Japan’s Nikkei 225 led the region’s gains,