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Why ASEAN Holds the Key to the Global Clean Energy Transition

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Why ASEAN Holds the Key to the Global Clean Energy Transition

ASEAN’s commitment to net-zero is crucial for global environmental targets, despite its current fossil fuel dependency. The region faces an energy crisis but has strong decarbonization goals. With abundant renewable resources and raw materials for clean energy, ASEAN can transition by reforming policies, dismantling fossil fuel subsidies, and attracting investment. International support is vital to ease the financial burden.

Abstract

  • ASEAN, the world’s fourth-largest energy consumer, faces pressure to decarbonize while meeting growing energy demand. With fossil fuels comprising 83% of its energy mix, most member states have committed to net zero by 2050, though the transition requires significant policy reform, removal of fossil fuel subsidies, and a stable investment climate.
  • The region holds natural advantages, including abundant renewable resources and raw materials such as nickel, bauxite, and rare earth elements critical to clean energy. International financial support and investment are considered essential to easing the transition, with equity and climate justice increasingly central to global cooperation on decarbonization efforts.

By embracing clean energy, ASEAN can achieve sustainable growth and contribute significantly to meeting the Paris Agreement goals, transforming current challenges into long-term prosperity and a healthier planet.

  • The actions of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) will be critical to meeting global environmental targets.
  • The region is still heavily dependent on fossil fuels, but states are committed to achieving net zero.
  • The international community needs to support states in making that transition.

We are in the midst of an energy crisis the likes of which we haven’t seen since the 1970s. The decisions leaders make now about decarbonization will determine our collective future. Get it right, and we can transform short-term upheaval into long-term sustainability. Get it wrong, and we will struggle to meet our environmental targets, specifically the Paris Agreement target of global carbon emissions reaching net zero by 2050.

The Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) is South-East Asia’s regional trading and political bloc. Its actions are vitally important to how we get through this crisis, and could be a deciding factor in humanity’s future. ASEAN is the world’s fourth-largest energy consumer. Its current energy structure is skewed towards traditional forms of power generation, with fossil fuels making up 83% of its energy mix, and energy demand is expected to increase.

This means that the energy crisis has disproportionately affected the bloc, exposing ASEAN member countries to increasing economic, energy security and geopolitical risks. The conundrum that the bloc’s leaders now face is how to secure energy supplies to develop the region’s economies, while also decarbonizing them.

The good news is that many of ASEAN’s 10 member states show a strong commitment to achieving net zero by 2050. Only the Philippines has not yet committed to net zero by 2050, while Indonesia has set a target of 2060. All forecasts – and just the sheer practicalities of such a large transition – suggest achieving net zero won’t be easy. There is no one solution, and each country will have to pursue its own policies, depending on its priorities. A major shift away from the emissions generated by coal power generation sits at the center of change, the step change in efficiency and deployment of low carbon technologies can complement the transition.

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ASEAN is also rich in the raw materials required for clean energy products. These include bauxite, nickel, tin and rare earth elements, which can variously be found throughout the region, particularly Indonesia, Myanmar, the Philippines and Thailand. In addition, Malaysia and Viet Nam are among the world’s largest solar modules’ makers.

To capitalise on these – and other – advantages, ASEAN’s leaders will have to show an unwavering commitment to supporting and funding the green agenda. Investors will be looking for energy sector reform, including the dismantling of fossil fuel subsidies, and a hospitable investment and regulatory climate. This is important because international support and external investment will reduce some of the financial burden and risk that comes with developing and scaling up new technologies. This is emerging, as evidenced by the arrangements other countries are making with those ASEAN states that are piloting green hydrogen systems for power provision.

As the recent COP27 meeting underlined, those nations that have the means to invest in, and support, emerging economies in their policies to accelerate the energy transition should do so. Equity and justice are becoming interwoven into climate action, along with help to develop and implement clean energy policy and mobilize finance for clean energy schemes.

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Top 5 India-focused offshore equity funds and ETFs in Q1FY27. Check details

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The Economic Times

India-focused offshore funds and ETFs delivered returns of up to 32.7% over three months, outperforming the MSCI India USD Index, which fell 12%. Taishin India led gains, followed by Aditya BSL, SBI Resurgent India Opportunities, AsahiLife Neuberger and Wasatch.

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U.K. steps up defense supply-chain checks after naval drones signal China

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New Avengers Doomsday Trailer Drops at D23 Showing Robert Downey Jr as Doctor Doom

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Meghan Markle

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Marvel Studios unveiled a new special-look trailer for Avengers: Doomsday on Friday during Disney’s D23 event, giving fans an expanded view of Robert Downey Jr. as the villain Doctor Doom and the multiversal conflict that drives the December release.

Kevin Feige, president of Marvel Studios, introduced the footage on stage alongside Downey, Chris Evans and Hayley Atwell. The presentation marked one of the major moments of the Disney Entertainment Showcase at the Honda Center.

In the trailer, Pedro Pascal’s Reed Richards confronts Downey’s Victor von Doom amid the ruins of a destroyed city. “Victor, did you do this?” Richards asks. Doom replies in voice-over, “All of you have lived stolen lives,” before adding, “But now you must give them back.”

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Vanessa Kirby’s Sue Storm provides additional context on Doom’s transformation. The footage includes her describing a man who “used to be different,” “used to be kind” and “used to be caring,” until “everything he loved was taken from him.” She continues, “I knew he was lost, but I did not realize that he was broken.”

Doom displays significant power in the sequence, leaping from a window and landing with force. When Thor, played by Chris Hemsworth, attempts to intervene, Doom easily overpowers him. The trailer culminates with Doom raising an army of Sentinels from the ground and declaring, “Hell answers to me, for I am Doom.”

The special look also features brief appearances by a wide ensemble drawn from multiple corners of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and related properties. Among those shown are Paul Rudd’s Ant-Man with his daughter Cassie, Joseph Quinn’s Human Torch holding a young Franklin Richards, Patrick Stewart’s Professor X, Ian McKellen’s Magneto, Evans’ Steve Rogers holding an infant, Hemsworth’s Thor with Love, Tom Hiddleston’s Loki, Letitia Wright’s Shuri and James Marsden’s Cyclops.

Avengers: Doomsday, directed by Anthony and Joe Russo, is scheduled for theatrical release on Dec. 18, 2026. The film is positioned as a major team-up that brings together heroes from three distinct universes to confront an existential threat. It is expected to lead directly into Avengers: Secret Wars the following year.

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Tickets for the film went on sale nationwide following the D23 presentation, expanding beyond premium large-format screens. A new theatrical poster featuring Doom was also released in connection with the event.

Downey’s casting as Doctor Doom was first publicly confirmed in earlier promotional materials and the initial full trailer released in July ahead of San Diego Comic-Con. That earlier trailer introduced his voice with a distinct accent and offered the first proper look at the character in costume. The D23 footage expands on both the character’s motivation and the scale of the conflict.

Evans, returning as Steve Rogers for the first time since Avengers: Endgame in 2019, joined Downey and Atwell on stage. Atwell reprises her role as Peggy Carter. The appearance of the three actors together underscored the film’s connections to earlier chapters of the franchise while pointing toward new alliances and threats.

The trailer arrives as Marvel continues to integrate characters from the Fox X-Men films into the main MCU timeline. Stewart, McKellen and other actors from those earlier movies appear in the new footage, signaling the broader multiversal scope of the story. Additional confirmed cast members include Anthony Mackie, Florence Pugh, Simu Liu, Sebastian Stan, Winston Duke and members of the Fantastic Four and Thunderbolts ensembles.

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Feige has previously described the Multiverse Saga’s concluding films as among the most ambitious projects in the studio’s history. The Russos, who directed Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, returned to helm both Doomsday and the subsequent Secret Wars installment.

The new footage maintains a tone of high stakes and personal loss while showcasing large-scale action sequences and the assembling of disparate hero teams. It stops short of revealing major plot resolutions, consistent with Marvel’s approach of using convention trailers to build anticipation without spoiling key developments.

As of Saturday, the special-look trailer was circulating widely online following its D23 debut. Fan discussion focused on the implications of Doom’s personal tragedy, the presence of Sentinels, the interactions between characters from different universes and the continued presence of legacy heroes such as Rogers and Thor.

Avengers: Doomsday represents a significant commercial and creative pivot for the franchise after several years of expansion into new characters and storytelling formats. The December release date places it as a major year-end theatrical event, with the potential to set up the larger narrative resolution planned for 2027.

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The D23 presentation also included other Marvel announcements, but the Doomsday trailer served as a centerpiece for the studios’ film slate. With production having advanced sufficiently for multiple trailers and on-stage talent appearances, the project appears on track for its scheduled opening.

Further marketing materials are expected in the coming months as the December premiere approaches. For now, the latest footage reinforces the film’s central conflict: a powerful and motivated Doctor Doom facing an unprecedented coalition of heroes drawn from across the multiverse.

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Royal Biographer Claims Meghan Markle Sees King Charles Reunion As Path To Money

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Meghan Markle

A royal biographer has suggested that Meghan Markle’s motivations behind a recent private family reunion with King Charles III extend beyond simple reconciliation, arguing the meeting could serve as a pathway to greater financial opportunity and public influence for the Duchess of Sussex, though the claim remains a single commentator’s interpretation rather than a confirmed account of Meghan’s thinking.

The comments follow a previously reported private meeting between Charles, Queen Camilla, and Prince Harry and Meghan at Highgrove House last month, which also included the couple’s two children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet. According to sources who spoke with Vanity Fair, the roughly hour-long gathering was arranged on short notice and kept tightly under wraps, with one source describing the meeting as “completely cloak-and-dagger, orchestrated by the King.” Another source told the magazine that Charles had specifically wanted to see Harry and the children, and that the meeting’s timing had been unusually last-minute for the monarch, with all involved sworn to secrecy to preserve its privacy.

Royal biographer Angela Levin, writing on X, argued that the reunion should not be interpreted purely as an emotional family moment. “It’s not a dream reunion. It is a pathway to gather money, power,” Levin wrote, framing the meeting as something Meghan in particular could stand to benefit from strategically rather than only personally.

Levin has a long history of public commentary on Harry and Meghan, dating back to a 2018 biography she wrote about Harry based on conversations she had with him before his marriage. She has periodically offered critical assessments of the couple’s choices in the years since, including previous commentary describing what she characterized as increasingly self-centered behavior following their departure from royal duties in 2020. Her latest remarks continue that pattern of skeptical commentary toward the couple, though, as with much of the reporting surrounding the family, her characterization of Meghan’s specific motivations has not been independently confirmed by Meghan, Harry or their representatives.

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Levin’s comments followed separate reporting that Harry has privately expressed hope of one day appearing publicly alongside his father at the 2027 Invictus Games in Birmingham, the international sporting competition for wounded and ill service members that Harry founded in 2014. An unnamed source familiar with that speculation told RadarOnline that a joint public appearance between Harry and the King would carry considerable symbolic weight. “It would be an enormously powerful image,” the source said, adding that such a moment would likely shift public attention back toward Harry and Meghan after years in which their strained relationship with the royal family has dominated headlines.

The Highgrove meeting marked the first time Archie and Lilibet had seen their grandfather since celebrations surrounding Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee in 2022, months before the late queen’s death that September. Harry had separately traveled to Britain the same month to attend an event marking one year until the Birmingham Games, though Meghan did not accompany him on that specific trip, reportedly due to security considerations. During that visit, Harry took part in a goat yoga session in Warwickshire, a lighter public moment that contrasted with the far more secretive Highgrove gathering that followed.

No official account of what was discussed during the Highgrove meeting has been released by Buckingham Palace, Kensington Palace, or representatives for the Sussexes. The secrecy surrounding the gathering stood in sharp contrast to the often highly publicized nature of Harry and Meghan’s relationship with the royal family since 2020, a dynamic shaped significantly by the couple’s Oprah Winfrey interview, their Netflix documentary series, and Harry’s 2023 memoir, “Spare,” all of which aired detailed grievances involving Charles and Prince William and exposed private family tensions to a global audience.

Harry is expected to return to Britain again in September for the annual WellChild Awards ceremony, an event he has attended regularly in his role as patron of the children’s charity, offering another potential public appearance to watch for signs of continued engagement between Harry and his father following the Highgrove reunion.

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With the 2027 Invictus Games still more than a year away, and no confirmation from either side that Charles intends to attend, whether the King and Harry will ultimately appear together publicly at the event, or whether Levin’s characterization of Meghan’s motivations reflects anything more than speculation, remains to be seen. For now, claims describing the reunion as strategically motivated should be understood as one commentator’s interpretation, offered without direct confirmation from anyone involved in the meeting itself.

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Mutual funds deployed over Rs 9,700 crore across 11 IPOs in July. Check key details

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Mutual funds invested nearly Rs 9,789 crore across 11 IPOs in July, with INDO-MIM attracting the highest allocation at Rs 3,622 crore, followed by SBI Funds Management and Manipal Health Enterprises, highlighting strong institutional appetite.

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Crusading India state food safety chief targets Eternal, Swiggy, Zepto in sweeping crackdown

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Crusading India state food safety chief targets Eternal, Swiggy, Zepto in sweeping crackdown

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Pershing Square Inc. (PS) Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

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OneWater Marine Inc. (ONEW) Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Operator

Good day, and welcome to the Pershing Square 2026 Second Quarter Earnings Call. Today’s call is being recorded. [Operator Instructions] It is now my pleasure to turn the conference over to Jill Chapman, Head of Corporate Investor Relations for Pershing Square.

Jill Chapman

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Thank you, Tara. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Pershing’s Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. Joining me today are CEO and Chairman, Bill Ackman; and CIO, Ryan Israel. Yesterday evening, we issued our earnings presentation and letter to shareholders, which are available on our website at pershingsquareinc.com under the Investors section. We expect to file our 10-Q after market close today.

Before we begin, I would like to draw your attention to the legal disclaimers at the end of our earnings presentation. Today’s call may include forward-looking statements, which involve risks and uncertainties and are not guarantees of future performance.

Actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements due to a variety of factors described under forward-looking statements in our earnings presentation and IPO prospectus filed on April 30 as updated by our most recently filed Form 10-Q. We do not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements. We may also reference non-GAAP financial

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Adani Enterprises, HDFC Bank among 10 stocks with highest increase in mutual fund holdings in value terms

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The Economic Times

Mutual funds increased holdings in 10 leading Indian companies during the June quarter, with ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank seeing the largest value additions. All 10 stocks gained, led by Adani Enterprises, InterGlobe Aviation and Bajaj Finance during the quarter.

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KFin Technologies among top 5 smallcap stocks that saw highest mutual fund buying in July

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The Economic Times

Mutual funds stepped up buying in five small-cap stocks during July, led by IDBI Bank, Pine Labs and Force Motors. Godawari Power and KFin Technologies also attracted fresh buying, according to Motilal Oswal Financial Services data.

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The Global Layers Of The AI Investment Cycle

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The Global Layers Of The AI Investment Cycle

The Principal Financial Group (The Principal®) is a global investment management leader offering retirement services, insurance solutions and asset management. The Principal offers businesses, individuals and institutional clients a wide range of financial products and services, including retirement, asset management and insurance through its diverse family of financial services companies. Founded in 1879 and a member of the FORTUNE 500®, the Principal Financial Group has $519.3 billion in assets under management1 and serves some 19.7 million customers worldwide from offices in Asia, Australia, Europe, Latin America and the United States. Principal Financial Group, Inc. is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol PFG. For more information, visit www.principal.com.
Insurance products issued by Principal National Life Insurance Co (except in NY) and Principal Life Insurance Co. Plan administrative services offered by Principal Life. Principal Funds, Inc. is distributed by Principal Funds Distributor, Inc. Securities offered through Princor Financial Services Corp., 800/247-1737, Member SIPC and/or independent broker/dealers. Principal National, Principal Life, Principal Funds Distributor, Inc. and Princor® are members of the Principal Financial Group®, Des Moines, IA 50392.
Investing involves market risk, including possible loss of principal.

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