Reuters
OPINON: Under cover of COVID, new laws in Asia threaten environmental and social protections
In addition to its devastating toll on public health, COVID-19 has exacerbated global food insecurity and economic crises. These costs have been particularly acute for Indigenous Peoples and local communities on customarily governed territories and lands. Yet some of the worst impacts have originated not from the crisis, but from ...
Kundan Kumar
China notifies Mekong River neighbours it is holding back waters
China has notified downstream neighbours it is holding back the Mekong River flow at a hydropower dam on the waterway’s upper reaches for 20 days, as part of a new data-sharing pact, the Mekong River Commission (MRC) and Thailand said on Wednesday. The statements came a ...
Panu Wongcha-um, Kay Johnson
Anti-Myanmar hate speech flares in Thailand over virus
“Wherever you see Myanmar people, shoot them down,” read one Thai comment on YouTube after a surge of coronavirus cases among workers from Myanmar. The outbreak, first detected at a seafood market near Bangkok, has prompted a flare-up in such online hate speech as well as ...
Reporting by Shoon Naing in Yangon; Writing by Matthew Tostevin; Editing by Sam Holmes
Chinese dams under U.S. scrutiny in Mekong rivalry
A U.S.-funded project using satellites to track and publish water levels at Chinese dams on the Mekong river was announced on Monday, adding to the superpowers’ rivalry in Southeast Asia. The 4,350-km (2,700-mile) waterway – known as the Lancang in China and flowing south through Myanmar, ...
Kay Johnson, Matthew Tostevin
China commits to share year-round water data with Mekong River Commission
China on Thursday signed an agreement with the Mekong River Commission (MRC) to share year-round data on the flow of its portion of the vital waterway amid concern that Chinese dams may be causing drought downstream in Southeast Asia. A push for more data from China’s ...
Reporting by Kay Johnson; Editing by Ed Davies, Martin Petty
Thai farmers brave bullets, prison for community land titles
Somruedee Bunthonglek has not repaired the bullet holes in the pickup truck her husband was driving when he survived an assassination attempt barely a year after her father was shot dead on the same communal farm in southern Thailand. The grey truck, with about half a ...
Reporting by Rina Chandran @rinachandran; Editing by Zoe Tabary.
Land to lose: coronavirus compounds debt crisis in Cambodia
As dark clouds approached her village in northwestern Cambodia one afternoon in July, Set Sreylon prepared for the monsoon that threatened to flood her new family home. While the rains were a concern, the 37-year-old feared a bigger threat to her property – the daily visits ...
Matt Blomberg, Mech Dara
U.S. to give $153 million to Mekong countries for collaborative projects
The United States said it would provide at least $153 million (119.43 million pounds) to Mekong countries for collaborative projects in the region, Vietnamese state television (VTV) reported on Friday, citing U.S. State Department officials. The pledges, made at the first Mekong-U.S. Partnership ministerial meeting, will ...
Reporting by Phuong Nguyen; Writing by James Pearson; Editing by Catherine Evans
Myanmar’s Suu Kyi vows victory in election as campaign starts despite virus surge
Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi launched her re-election bid on Tuesday ahead of polls set for November, vowing victory at a scaled-down ceremony in the capital after her original plans were scuppered by a surge in coronavirus cases. “Today, our victory campaign has begun,” she ...
Facebook shares data on Myanmar with United Nations investigators
Facebook says it has shared data with United Nations investigators probing international crimes in Myanmar, after the lead investigator said the company was withholding evidence. A Facebook representative told Reuters on Tuesday it had given the Independent Investigative Mechanism on Myanmar (IIMM) data from pages and ...
Poppy McPherson