News

The United Nations Refugee Agency has urged countries in Southeast Asia to rescue some 200 Rohingya refugees whose unseaworthy boat has been reported drifting in the Andaman Sea. The UNCHR said in a statement on Thursday that it had received reports that the Rohingya had been ...

Some countries in Asean have made moves or expressed an intention to acquire nuclear power in a bid to meet their burgeoning energy needs and fulfil their commitment to net-zero carbon emissions. Asian Insider looks at why countries in the region have been hesitant over ...

Pangolin scales at US$160 a kilogram, monkeys and wild cats for sale – the online trade in protected and rare species is thriving in Laos, a key Southeast Asian gateway to the insatiable Chinese and Vietnamese markets for animal products. As world leaders gather in Egypt ...

Vietnam will achieve the highest growth in the digital economy in Southeast Asia between 2022 and 2025, a report by Google, Temasek and Bain & Company has forecast. It will grow at 31% followed by the Philippines with 20% and Indonesia with 19%, according to e-Conomy ...

Rice crops in Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar have taken a hit from flooding and conflict this year, casting a shadow on a mostly sunny outlook for Southeast Asia’s output of the key grain as the region deals with other potential longer term supply troubles, farm ...

From cries of “fake news” in the United States and Brazil to the Marcos family’s return to power in the Philippines, the growing role of misinformation and disinformation in the global political landscape is a very real concern. The spread of deliberately deceitful and unintentionally ...

Southeast Asian nations are eyeing Beijing nervously as it fiddles with the water taps that control their economies. But their citizens are alarmed at failed fish migrations and wildly fluctuating river levels. Now they’ve taken their anger to the world. After four years of drought, the ...

For the last couple of years, virtually every news feed or broadcast has included images of mask-clad people or health workers suited up as protection from COVID-19.  While the images might be ephemeral, those masks and personal protective equipment (PPE), along with used test kits and ...

Climate change and myths about natural disasters Because we are powerless to prevent natural disasters from occurring, catastrophes become extraordinary experiences that must be learned, understood, and lived with as a normal part of daily life. When calamities strike, there is a chance of injury, death, crop ...

As the Biden administration begins its second year in office, it is evident that its focus on the Indo-Pacific and geopolitical competition against China remains uneven. There are two small but strategically important countries that have been all but ignored by the administration so far: ...