Author: Anara Egemberdiev

(9/3 – 125) Kazakhstan is gearing up for snap elections of the lower house of parliament on March 19, and there is a sense of anticipation in the air. President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, who came to power in 2019, called for snap elections in the wake of the deadly street protests in January 2022. The elections are part of the president’s ambitious reform agenda, Jana Kazakhstan (New Kazakhstan), which aims to usher in a new era of political liberalization. The parliamentary elections are stage two of Tokayev’s program, following his re-election winning 80 percent of the votes last November. The coming…

The economic crisis in Sri Lanka has left many hanging dry. From job cuts to facing a high cost of living to feed children less, the crisis has hit almost all households across the island with the heaviest brunt on low-income families. The youth today are also in search of suitable employment to meet their costs. While many wait eagerly to leave the shores for greener pastures, there are those who prefer to remain here to feed themselves and their families. The latest survival method which some families turn to, to earn a living is sex. While more females are…

The Sri Lanka Retailers’ Association (SLRA), the apex body of organised retail in Sri Lanka, recently concluded the annual Sri Lanka Retail Forum under the theme ‘Redefining Retail: Future Proofing the Forward Journey’. The Forum was opened by Murali Prakash, President of SLRA, who addressed the importance of navigating the challenges faced by the retail industry and the imperative need to foster constructive dialogue by multiple experts from varying fields in the retails sector, onleveraging emerging trends, technology and navigating the prevailing economic crisis. Ganaka Herath, Managing Partner of McKinsey & Company in Sri Lanka, who was the Guest Speaker…

Myanmar’s economic crisis has grown increasingly dire over the two years since the military coup, marked by rising commodity costs, a weakening of the kyat and a loss of public trust in the banking system. A World Bank report published in mid-2022 described the country’s financial sector as having returned to levels of stagnancy associated with previous periods of military rule prior to 2010. To better understand the state of the economy under the military regime, Myanmar Now spoke with Sean Turnell, Australian economist and former economic policy advisor to Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) government.…

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said that India’s G20 Presidency has tried to give a voice to the Global South. He also said that issues like financial crises, climate change, pandemic, terrorism and wars ‘clearly shows’ that global governance has failed and added that multilateralism is in crisis today. “Financial crises, climate change, pandemic, terrorism and wars ‘clearly shows’ that global governance has failed in achieving the objectives of the post-world war architecture of global governance,” he said while addressing the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting. “After years of progress, we are at risk today of moving back on the Sustainable Development…

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said in an interview with the BBC that he would not make territorial concessions. According to him, a compromise on the status of Donbass, Crimea and the southern territories will be a “bomb in the center of Europe.” “We are going to Europe, Ukraine has chosen this path. All this cannot be lost. Ukraine wants security guarantees, we all want it – we are united. Therefore, any territorial compromises will only weaken our state,” the President of Ukraine said. He also rejected the opportunity to compromise with Russian President Vladimir Putin. “The question is not…

Kyrgyz lawmakers have approved in the initial reading on January 19 a bill that would oblige all state entities, local self-governing bodies, enterprises, institutions, and organizations, regardless of the type of ownership, to use Kyrgyz only as their working language. The bill must go through two more readings and, if approved, will need President Sadyr Japarov to sign it into law. Russian, which dominates many spheres of everyday life, has the status of an official language while Kyrgyz is the state language in the Central Asian nationsource: rferl

After twenty years of war, there are thousands upon thousands of soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines who have spent Christmas in a combat zone. Many have spent multiple Christmas Days overseas over numerous deployments; still, fewer have had the poor fortune of missing two Christmases back-to-back in the days of eighteen to fifteen-month deployments, unexpected extensions, and rapid turnarounds (let us not forget the record-setting 22-month deployment by the Minnesota National Guard’s 1st Brigade, 34th Infantry). Top Storiesby Task & Purpose But fewer still, I would wager, can brag of having two Christmases serve as the bookends to a year-long deployment in Afghanistan. This,…