BANGKOK/YANGON -- With Myanmar's currency weakening against the dollar since the military takeover in February, its central bank has reinstated a set exchange rate for the kyat, tightening the regime's grip over financial transactions.

According to a state-owned newspaper, the Central Bank of Myanmar held an online conference on Aug. 4 and said that the regulation -- under which banks and money changers have to keep the kyat-dollar rate within 0.8% of a reference rate it sets -- is

MANILA -- The Philippine central bank on Thursday said it will stop accepting digital bank license applications next month and will cap the number of players to seven for now.

The move will allow regulators to monitor the performance of the new players aiming to challenge the country's traditional lenders, central bank Gov. Benjamin Diokno said.

The new category, introduced late last year for online-only banks, has attracted interest from so-called neobanks backed by foreign investors as well as from traditional banks pivoting to digital services.

Ian Bremmer is the president of Eurasia Group and GZERO Media and author of "Us vs. Them: The Failure of Globalism."

The botched withdrawal from Afghanistan is the first major foreign policy crisis of the Biden administration. The decision to withdraw is not to blame.

This was a failure of execution rather than strategy. The American presence was increasingly unsustainable. The U.S. had already withdrawn a significant number of troops, the Taliban were rapidly gaining territory, and few Americans cared anymore.

President Joe Biden inherited

HO CHI MINH CITY -- The warehouse manager at Truong Thanh Furniture near Ho Chi Minh City did her best to avoid the virus. For weeks, she worked and slept at the factory alongside 200 colleagues, with few people allowed in or out.

Truong Thanh Furniture was complying with a government order for factories to keep workers on-site or else shut down.

It provided meals and blankets, but the measures were not enough; the virus slipped past the company's defenses and infected the manager.

Truong

DUBAI -- After years of feuding, Iran and Saudi Arabia are ramping up efforts to bridge their longtime hostilities as the Taliban's takeover in Afghanistan threatens to spread chaos beyond Central Asia and destabilize the Middle East as well.

As Middle East power brokers, Iran and Saudi Arabia see the Taliban as a shared threat. With the U.S. also planning to withdraw troops from Iraq, the countries could seek even deeper cooperation to fill the power vacuum left in the region.

Iraq has invited both Iran and Saudi

TOKYO -- Mayoral candidates in Japan do not usually receive endorsement from a sitting prime minister.

But in the increasingly heated Yokohama mayoral race, Hachiro Okonogi, a former national public security chief, is running with the full backing of Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga.

Sunday's election in Yokohama, Japan's second-largest city and Suga's home turf, has turned into a proxy battle for national politics, with ruling and opposition parties going all-in to support their candidates. Okonogi's main opponent is

NAGOYA -- Toyota Motor will reduce its global production for September by 40% from its previous plan, Nikkei has learned.

In its latest plans formed in July, the automaker had been aiming to build a little under 900,000 automobiles for the month, but that number has been reduced to about 500,000 units as the global chip crunch affects supply chains.

The delta outbreak across Southeast Asia has also impacted the company's procurement of auto parts.

The production

DUBAI -- After years of feuding, Iran and Saudi Arabia are ramping up efforts to bridge their longtime hostilities as the Taliban's takeover in Afghanistan threatens to spread chaos beyond Central Asia and destabilize the Middle East as well.

As Middle East power brokers, Iran and Saudi Arabia see the Taliban as a shared threat. With the U.S. also planning to withdraw troops from Iraq, the countries could seek even deeper cooperation to fill the power vacuum left in the region.

Iraq has invited both Iran and Saudi

KARACHI -- With the fall of Kabul and the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan, terrorism is expected to decline in Pakistan. The Pakistani Taliban, known as the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), and Baloch separatists who used Afghanistan as a staging ground for attacks in Pakistan are expected to face a clampdown from the new Taliban regime.

Zabiullah Mujahid, the Taliban's spokesman, said at his first news conference on Tuesday that the Taliban would not seek retribution against former soldiers and members of the Western