News
Endangered River Dolphin Species' Numbers on the Rise
It’s 5:30 p.m., and several tourist boats linger in the middle of the Mekong River. A blood-orange sun casts a warm glow across the milky brown water, making it the ideal time to photograph the rare Irrawaddy river dolphins that congregate in deep, swirling pools. ...
Stefan Lovgren
If we care about plastic waste, why won’t we stop drinking bottled water?
For all the innovation and choice that define the food and drink industries, if you want to make money, you could do a lot worse than bung some water in a bottle and flog it. A litre of tap water, the stuff we have ingeniously ...
Simon Usborne
Mine Lar’s Sut Lway jetty seeks to shed its bad image
Hidden deep in the forest about 250 kilometres from the notorious sin city of Mine Lar in Shan State is the decrepit Sut Lway jetty on the Mekong River. Despite its tumble-down appearance, Sut Lway is the gateway for an illicit trade in luxury motor vehicles and ...
Nanda, Chan Thar
Myanmar’s future journalists confront the meaning of freedom of expression (Part I)
Marie Puyessegur explores events in part one of a three-part series conducted as part of the MEMORY! Heritage Film Festival, an annual event in Yangon. The festival’s 2018 edition focused on the theme of Freedom of the Press and Democracy in their representation through cinema, and was ...
Marie Puysségur
Thai Foundation Partners with Global Fund to Eliminate Drug-Resistant Malaria in Greater Mekong
The Dhanin Tawee Chearavanont Foundation today became the first private sector partner to support the Global Fund’s largest regional initiative to eliminate drug-resistant malaria in the Greater Mekong. With a contribution of US$2 million over two years, the Thai-based private family foundation will support the Global ...
Mekong Delta attempts to combat saltwater intrusion
Saltwater intrusion in the Mekong Delta is expected to increase between April 28 and May 6 as the volume of water flowing southward from the Mekong River will decline, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development’s Irrigation Department. High tides from the sea are ...
Coal-fired power plant development must come with environmental protection
Phạm Trọng Thực, deputy director general of the Industrial Safety Technique and Environmental Agency under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, talks to Công Thương (Trade and Commerce) newspaper on the national plan to develop coal-fired power plants What is the current state of Vietnamese coal power ...
The World Lost a Belgium-sized Area of Primary Rainforests Last Year
The tropics lost 12 million hectares of tree cover in 2018, the fourth-highest annual loss since record-keeping began in 2001. Of greatest concern is the disappearance of 3.6 million hectares of primary rainforest, an area the size of Belgium. The figures come from updated data from the ...
Mikaela Weisse and Elizabeth Dow Goldman
Southeast Asia to suffer intense, more frequent drought without government action: UN and Asean report
Drought in Southeast Asia may become even more frequent and intense if countries do not take steps to reduce its impact, according to a joint study from the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and ASEAN. “Ready for the Dry Years: ...
China Digs Deep in Landlocked Laos
Laos, a country of 6.8 million people roughly the size of China’s southern autonomous region of Guangxi, is often overlooked in China’s outreach to Southeast Asia. This year marks the 10-year anniversary of the upgrading of Chinese-Lao relations to a comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership and ...
