Showing 1 - 10 of 198
Living in Thailand's age of impunity
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 17/01/2026
» There's no place like Thailand. Joyscrolling TikTok and Reels reveals dozens of clips made by international visitors lamenting having to leave our lovely country and return to dreary Europe or joyless America. "Nobody talks about how hard it is to go from this" -- insert a cut of a wonderful beach in Krabi -- "to this"--cut to a drab, damp suburban street somewhere in the West. Add a crying-face emoji. "I want to move here!" the traveller announces. True, everybody loves Thailand.
Exit the Snake, enter the Horse
News, Curtis S Chin and Jose B Collazo, Published on 30/12/2025
» As we bid farewell to 2025, and welcome 2026 -- and soon, the lunar Year of the Horse -- we once again highlight the winners and losers of the year gone by in Asia.
Three shocks that shook us in 2025
Oped, Yanis Varoufakis, Published on 24/12/2025
» This was the year that the remaining pillars of the late-20th-century order were shattered, exposing the hollow core of what passed for a global system. Three blows sufficed.
Climate disasters demand swift action
Oped, Genevieve Donnellon-May, Published on 10/12/2025
» Southeast Asia is in crisis. Less than a week after the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30) concluded in Brazil, the region is grappling with devastating floods and landslides, underscoring the urgent climate challenges that countries have repeatedly raised on the global stage.
Crackdown theatre masks border graft
News, Paskorn Jumlongrach, Published on 06/12/2025
» The thunderous explosion that sent a 12-storey building crashing to the ground in the border backwater of Shwe Kokko at midday on Wednesday sounded like a major accident, if not an earthquake.
Trump's doubling of tariffs is hitting India hard
Oped, Shashi Tharoor, Published on 05/12/2025
» US President Donald Trump's doubling of tariffs on a wide range of Indian goods, from a steep 25% to a catastrophic 50%, is reshaping India's export economy. Half of what India sells to the United States -- its largest trading partner -- is now prohibitively expensive, and ordinary Indians are suffering as a result.
Nepal's young protesters drive a political reset
Oped, Barbim Karki, Published on 27/11/2025
» Nepal announced fresh elections to be held on March 5 next year following a week of deadly violence in September as an interim government headed by the country's Sushila Karki, the first female prime minister, takes charge.
Rising heat needs urgent response
Oped, Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana, Published on 24/11/2025
» 2024 was the hottest on record globally. In Asia and the Pacific, Bangladesh was the worst-hit country, with about 33 million people affected by lower crop yields that destabilised food systems, along with extensive school closures and many cases of heatstroke and related diseases. Children, the elderly and low-wage earners in poor and densely populated urban areas suffered the most, as they generally had less access to cooling systems or to water supplies and adequate healthcare. India, too, was badly affected, with around 700 heat-related deaths mostly in informal settlements.
Rethinking identity from the start
Oped, Watcharin Ariyaprakai, Published on 29/10/2025
» Thailand has made history by recognising same-sex marriage, affirming the right of adults to love and marry freely. This will rightly be celebrated as a triumph for equality and human dignity. Yet, in the same society, another group remains voiceless: newborns born with Disorders of Sex Development (DSD).
Dispel steel bar doubts
Oped, Editorial, Published on 27/10/2025
» The decision by the Thai Industrial Standards Institute (TISI) to release 40,000 deformed steel bars, confiscated in the wake of the State Audit Office (SAO) collapse, has stirred controversy. The move came only shortly after the new government took shape, raising questions over timing and transparency.