The China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) is a mere start-up among development lenders – but already has a global footprint. [...] As tension between the Trump administration and China has ebbed and flowed over regional trade and security, the AIIB has eased, for now, initial fears that it was set up to extend hegemony over its neighbours. The bank has presented itself as a key part of the multilateral global system that Chinese President Xi Jinping has vowed to defend.

With global leaders heading to the United Nations for a major conference in June on the protection and sustainable use of the planet's oceans, the UN today announced that the inaugural World Ocean Festival will kick off the week-long event, with activists and enthusiasts taking to the streets - and waterways - of New York City to raise their voices to reverse the declining health of our oceans.