Reuters

Water wars: Mekong River another front in U.S.-China rivalry

The Mekong River has become a new front in U.S.-China rivalry, environmentalists and officials say, with Beijing overtaking Washington in both spending and influence over downstream countries at the mercy of its control of the river’s waters. It’s a confrontation in which the Trump administration – ...

Kay Johnson, Panu Wongcha-um

Fishermen without fish as Cambodia's river reversal runs late

Crucial water flows to the Tonle Sap, Southeast Asia’s largest lake, have been delayed for a second consecutive year according to river experts, severely disrupting fishing and threatening the food supply of more than a million people. The river reversal vital for Tonle Sap Lake may ...

Prak Chan Thul; Writing by Panu Wongcha-um and Martin Petty, editing by Ed Osmond

U.S. court asked to force Facebook to release Myanmar officials' data for genocide case

Lawyers bringing a case before the World Court accusing Myanmar of genocide against its Rohingya Muslim minority have asked a U.S. district court to order Facebook to release posts and communications of the country’s military and police. The International Court of Justice based in the Hague ...

Anthony Deutsch

Laos pushes ahead with sixth Mekong River dam project

Laos has submitted plans to build a new hydropower dam on the Mekong River, with construction expected to start later this year, the Mekong River Commission (MRC) said on Monday. The Sanakham hydropower plant, with an estimated cost of $2.073 billion (£1.7 billion), will be developed ...

Reporting by Panu Wongcha-um; Editing by Kay Johnson and Alexander Smith

As loggers exploit virus, Cambodian forest protectors defy state ban

A Cambodian conservation group has warned that logging in the protected Prey Lang forest has ramped up during the coronavirus pandemic, vowing it would continue to monitor the destruction despite government threats of legal action to stop that work. Members of the Prey Lang Community Network ...

Matt Blomberg

After aggressive mass testing, Vietnam says it contains COVID-19 outbreak

Businessman Phan Quoc Viet was making his usual prayers at a pagoda in Tay Ninh, a province in southern Vietnam, when the government official’s call came. It was late January, just after the Lunar New Year. Vietnam had detected its first two cases of the new ...

Khanh Vu, Phuong Nguyen, James Pearson

Deserted Thai beaches lure rare turtles to build most nests in 20 years

Thailand has found the largest number of nests of rare leatherback sea turtles in two decades on beaches bereft of tourists because of the coronavirus pandemic, environmentalists say. From wild boars patrolling the Israeli city of Haifa to deer venturing into London suburbs, virus closures are ...

Jiraporn Kuhakan

Mekong river groups urge China to show transparency after dam report

Groups working to protect the Mekong River have called for greater transparency and cooperation from China after a report that Chinese dams held back water during a damaging drought in downstream countries last year. China has disputed the findings of the U.S. government-funded study and said ...

Reporting by Panu Wongcha-um in Bangkok, and Prak Chan Thul in Phnom Penh, and James Pearson in Hanoi; Editing by Matthew Tostevin/Mark Heinrich

Chinese dams held back Mekong waters during drought, study finds

China’s Mekong River dams held back large amounts of water during a damaging drought in downstream countries last year despite China having higher-than-average water levels upstream, a U.S. research company said in a study. China’s government disputed the findings, saying there was low rainfall during last ...

Kay Johnson

Climate stress and coronavirus gang up on world's vulnerable

With friends falling ill, another passing away and his movements restricted, coronavirus had already stretched Giordano Alpi physically and mentally when another disaster struck his 30-hectare farm in Emilia-Romagna in northern Italy. A sudden plunge in night-time temperatures to below zero in late March caused extensive ...

Thin Lei Win and Michael Taylor

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