News
Water Becomes a Weapon in China’s Geopolitical Chess
Modern China seems to have learned the ancient master’s lesson well. It has unleashed water wars on Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand. Even as China’s neighbors deal with COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, they are experiencing their worst drought in living memory. The mighty Mekong ...
Mayank Singh
East, Southeast Asia drug markets expand despite pandemic
The market for synthetic drugs in East and Southeast Asia is growing despite the COVID-19 pandemic, with the price of methamphetamine dropping to its lowest levels as supplies surge, the global anti-drug watch group said. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) warned in ...
EI EI TOE LWIN
All coronavirus patients recover in Cambodia, no cases for weeks
Cambodia’s last patient who was being treated for the new coronavirus has been discharged from hospital, in a recovery that left the country with zero active cases, according to the health ministry. The 36-year-old woman from Cambodia’s northwest Banteay Meanchey province was on Saturday released from ...
Thais 'most anxious' over virus
A global survey by Singapore’s social research company identified Thailand as the most anxious nation during the Covid-19 pandemic as of last month, but the kingdom is also optimistic about its economic recovery. Although citizens across 23 countries are largely unsatisfied with their own governments’ responses ...
How protecting forests and their communities can prevent the next outbreak
Clear-cutting forests may provide short-term monetary gains, but the true costs of mass deforestation could be steep. The novel coronavirus that has caused the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic is believed to be zoonotic, meaning it first spread from animals to humans. Not only is that a common ...
CAROLYN COWAN
Agriculture ministry, FAO, WFP ease COVID-19 food insecurity impacts
Food Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations, the World Food Programme (WFP) are cooperating with the Lao Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry to draft a response plan and provide direct assistance to farmers continuing to produce food for their communities. FAO, WFP now are completing ...
Times Reporters
Trafficking warning in Asia as coronavirus pummels economies
Before lockdowns, curfews, and safe distancing, Thodsapone Kitta would go door to door, visiting low-income families in Thailand’s northern Nan province, a poor, mountainous region home to hill tribes and rural farmers where people are vulnerable to trafficking. For Thodsapone, a member of The Freedom Story, ...
Caleb Quinley
COVID-19 can fuel more anti-Chinese resentment than Mekong dams
The pandemic is likely to make life worse for Thai fishermen as well as Vietnamese and Cambodian farmers. Restrictions resulting from the virus could limit food supply. The food security of 60 million people in the lower part of the Mekong River is in danger. The ...
Vietnam’s low-cost COVID-19 battle shows the world what can be done
Daily, a staggering quarter of a million people use the public bus network in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam’s largest metropolis. This week, just a month after services were suspended, the distinctive green vehicles are back on the roads. That’s good news for the millions ...
Misha Coleman, Margaret Sheehan
Myanmar fisheries sector nears collapse as orders tumble
Myanmar’s fisheries sector will face its largest loss in history if demand does not pick up very soon, said U Myo Nyunt, secretary of the Myanmar Fisheries Products Processors & Exporters Association (MPEA). “Exports have collapsed. All international orders have been cancelled and we have not ...
CHAN MYA HTWE
