tier-1



STORY OF THE DAY • May 18, 2020 • 8 min read

Tales of the Pandemic Reflecting on face masks as Vietnam enjoys Covid-19 ‘liberation’

By Alex Sheal • May 18, 2020
Against the odds, Vietnam has become a global success story in combating Covid-19 as its started to open up once again. Hanoi resident Alex Sheal has been present for Vietnam's latest "liberation", and believes attitudes towards the humble face mask highlight the difference between his new home and the West

STORY OF THE DAY • May 18, 2020 • 2 min read

Covid-19 Thailand’s economy contracts for first time since 2014

By Agence France-Presse • May 18, 2020
Thailand's economy looks set to be among the hardest hit by the global economic downturn in Southeast Asia after its first contraction in six years. 2020 economic forecasts are also predicting the kingdom's sharpest drop since the 1997-98 Asian Financial Crisis

STORY OF THE DAY • May 18, 2020 • 3 min read

Peaking inside newsrooms, cheap narcotics and turtle conservation

By Chia Chi Hsu • May 18, 2020
Thanks for joining us on this incredible journey. This past week, we’ve covered stories from poets and newscasters, bureaucrats and garment workers. These headlines will take you to the front-lines of Southeast Asia’s ‘war on drugs’, to the farm fields of Cambodia and the lonely elders of locked-down Singapore

May 15, 2020 • 7 min read
Regional cooperation

ASEAN’s Covid-19 response: United in name, divided in practice

In keeping with ASEAN's recent history of divided responses to regionally important issues, the bloc's collective efforts to combat Covid-19 have proved far from unified. But an institution in which individual members are placed above the collective, should observers have anticipated any different?
By Alexi Demetriadi • May 15, 2020

May 15, 2020 • 7 min read
Covid-19

Singapore’s social recession: Are the elderly the hardest hit?

As social distancing measures have been implemented in Singapore, many businesses have closed and the economy has suffered. But along with the financial hardship, there's also a social recession going on, impacting the city-state's already isolated elderly hardest
By Lee Ying Shan • May 15, 2020

May 15, 2020 • 4 min read
Cox's Bazar

First Covid-19 case found in Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh

Bangladeshi officials announced on May 15 that a first person tested positive in the Rohingya refugee camps in Cox's Bazar. The world's largest refugee settlement and home to one million people living in overcrowded conditions, fears are that it will rapidly spread
By Shafiqul Alam and Sam Jahan/AFP • May 15, 2020

May 14, 2020 • 6 min read
Human rights

Amnesty International: Cambodia’s war on drugs an ‘unmitigated disaster’

In 2017 Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen announced a crackdown on narcotics in the Kingdom. Three years on, rights group Amnesty International says the campaign has been a failure, resulting in rampant rights abuses and overcrowded prisons
By Andrew Haffner • May 14, 2020

May 14, 2020 • 9 min read
Conservation

How protecting forests and their communities can prevent the next outbreak

The Covid-19 pandemic highlights how human health is intimately connected to animal and ecosystem wellbeing. As we reassess our relationship with nature, researchers say we must empower those best positioned to protect forests – local communities
By Carolyn Cowan • May 14, 2020

May 13, 2020 • 7 min read
Refugee rights

Once a safe haven, anti-Rohingya sentiment in Malaysia is growing

Malaysia, once a safe haven for thousands of Rohingya, is witnessing a shift in attitude towards the persecuted and displaced minority group from Myanmar. Fuelled by misinformation and government rhetoric, anti-Rohingya sentiment is growing online
By Andrew Haffner • May 13, 2020

May 13, 2020 • 13 min read
Opinion

Did China turn off the Lower Mekong? Why data matters for cooperation

Recent reports claim definitive proof that the 2019/20 Mekong drought was caused by China – they do not according to researchers at AMPERES. Will the controversial analysis further polarise stakeholders, or could the crisis shift regional cooperation into more productive spaces?
By Tarek Ketelsen, Timo Räsänen, John Sawdon • May 13, 2020