Southeast Asia

And finally, Singapore's place at this year's Miss Universe pageant remains uncertain because of a dispute over franchise rights.

JKN Universe, which holds the legal rights and licensing to the Miss Universe brand, says agreements covering Singapore and five other Southeast Asian countries are not recognised.

But Miss Universe Singapore National Director Sean Wong says he expects Singapore's winner to compete in Puerto Rico on November 24th.

He says Miss Universe Eastern, which owns the franchise rights for the six Southeast Asian nations, has the authority to assign the Singapore rights.

Around 50 candidates have attended auditions, with the Singapore final set for October 13.

And finally, Singapore's place at this year's Miss Universe pageant remains uncertain because of a dispute over franchise rights.

JKN Universe, which holds the legal rights and licensing to the Miss Universe brand, says agreements covering Singapore and five other Southeast Asian countries are not recognised.

But Miss Universe Singapore National Director Sean Wong says he expects Singapore's winner to compete in Puerto Rico on November 24th.

He says Miss Universe Eastern, which owns the franchise rights for the six Southeast Asian nations, has the authority to assign the Singapore rights.

Around 50 candidates have attended auditions, with the Singapore final set for October 13.

The British Empire after the Seven Years' War, it encompassed most of the East Coast of North America, parts of the Caribbean.

venturing into India and Southeast Asia, and of course, the British Isles.

And central to this sort of notion to be British was that they were a Protestant nation.

Now, that was understood in a religious sense.

And that was a fantastic experience, both personally and professionally.

And we could work there and we could travel extensively between New Zealand, Southeast Asia and Australia.

Then when we came back after this year, we relocated to Annecy, close to the Geneva-Suisse boundary.

And I found a job in HR too, in a private bank.

He's got the swag.

He's from Mayan Mars, so he's harnessing, you know, Southeast Asia.

He's got a whole community there with him.

He's got a little smirk and smile on his face like he already knows.

And the decision is that you then build your research group.

And one of the things they said that I found a bit of a turnoff was that I'd been doing a lot of work in Central Asia, East Africa, Southern Africa, and Southeast Asia that was really making a difference.

and in basically getting chemicals out of agricultural systems, helping farmers to understand, and extension agents.

There's a whole network of people that are involved in pushing pesticides on farmers.

Think supply chains.

Headquarters in Germany, critical plant in a floodplain in Southeast Asia.

One river overruns, and a global product vanishes for a quarter.

Quarterly earnings crater, guidance gets slashed, the stock sells off.

This is pure geopolitics.

Europe is trying to hook up with ASEAN, the political and economic union of the Southeast Asian countries.

The goal? To remove its supply chains from China's control.

Contracts binding to ensure raw materials are much more stable than rain subsidies.

It anchors the European Union's commercial pivot toward ASEAN.

That is the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, a major political and economic union in Southeast Asia.

The goal is clear.

The European Union wants to diversify its supply chains away from Chinese dominance.