South China Morning Post • 1st January 2023

Fates of Rohingya boats across Asia spotlight crisis of refugees ‘left to die’

Rohingya advocates fear that interest in the group is waning, as regional authorities were slow to respond to rights groups’ multiple calls for help and information on vessels.

South China Morning Post • 23rd December 2022

Bangladesh braces for more unrest, as PM Hasina rejects calls to step down

Bangladesh’s main opposition party has been demanding Sheikh Hasina step down amid rising costs of living, power cuts, fuel price hikes, and allegations of financial corruption.

South China Morning Post • 10th December 2022

India start-up workers brace for lay-offs amid global tech slowdown

A tech slump hitting firms from Amazon to Twitter has spooked investors whose cash fuelled aggressive hiring in the tech sector during the pandemic years. Tech workers in India have not been spared as global tech giants cut back.

South China Morning Post • 5th November 2022

#NoFilter: Can Elon Musk’s Twitter thrive under Asia’s cyber laws?

Navigating Asia’s stringent internet laws will require agility from Twitter and its new owner, observers note, at a time of stricter regulation of social media platforms

South China Morning Post • 21st October 2022

Hungry for truth: experts hit back at India’s criticism of hunger report

Analysts say government seems caught up in the contradiction of a fast-growing economy when malnutrition, food insecurity remain high, and say talking about ‘misinformation’ is not factually correct.

South China Morning Post • 11th October 2022

‘Time for a change’: India’s Kerala state wants women to feel safe after dark

The Indian state of Kerala launched a “Girls Night Out” initiative to encourage women to feel safe being out after dark.

South China Morning Post • 9th October 2022

Banks look to ‘powerhouse’ India as Russia and China growth prospects dim

Bankers have cited India’s stable political environment and strong growth prospects amid global uncertainty. India is also reviving trade pacts and last year saw its highest annual foreign direct investment inflow of US$85 billion.

South China Morning Post • 23rd September 2022

Are Hindu-Muslim tensions in India behind mob violence in UK city?

While some observers say the tensions may be fuelled by India’s rising Hindu chauvinism, community organisers in the UK have emphasised that the clashes involved provocative acts by both sides.

South China Morning Post • 19th September 2022

Rise in smuggling of drugs, exotic animals in India due to Myanmar coup

Volume of drugs and other smuggled goods, such as exotic wild animals has “increased substantially since the military seized power,” an excise and narcotics department official told Indian media.

South China Morning Post • 18th September 2022

Is India’s latest crackdown on Chinese firms part of a decoupling plan?

India’s strategic decoupling from China may be part of New Delhi’s plan to build its own domestic manufacturing base and assert itself as a global alternative to China for foreign investments.

South China Morning Post • 16th September 2022

‘India, not Hindia’: row over India’s languages heats up during Hindi Diwas

India has 23 official languages but PM Narendra Modi has long pushed for Hindi’s dominance; political heavyweight M.K. Stalin has now weighed in, criticising government policy to make Hindi the primary language, and calling for an Indian languages day.

The Foreign Correspondents' Club, Hong Kong | FCC • 15th January 2022

A Deep Downward Spiral: The State of Press Freedom in Southeast Asia

Since Maria Ressa won the Nobel Peace Prize this autumn, press freedom in Asia has come under scrutiny. FCC Fellow Amy Sood surveys a fraught situation.

In October, Maria Ressa – one of the Philippines’ most famous journalists – and Dmitry Muratov from Russia jointly won the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize. Both have come under fire for “efforts to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace,” wrote the The Norwegian Nobel Committee in its selection announcem

CNN • 16th September 2021

Jakarta residents win battle for clean air against Indonesian government

(CNN) A Jakarta court on Thursday ruled the Indonesian government had failed to uphold citizens' right to clean air, in a landmark judgment campaigners hope will force authorities to take action on the city's notorious smog.

The long-awaited decision ends a two-year legal challenge brought by 32 Jakarta citizens against Indonesian President Joko Widodo, three cabinet ministers, the Jakarta governor, and two provincial leaders. The court ruled that the defendants were guilty of "committing "unla

CNN • 1st August 2021

Families are at war over a wedding tradition India banned decades ago

(CNN) Vismaya Nair had been married for just over one year when she was found dead in the bathroom of her husband's family's home in India's southwestern Kerala state.

Initially, police had no reason to view the 24-year-old student's death on June 21 as suspicious, until her family made a complaint under the country's "dowry death" law.

The law allows charges to be brought against people for causing the death or suicide of a woman within the first seven years of her marriage in which the famil

CNN • 3rd July 2021

These countries used Chinese vaccines and still have Covid-19 cases

Hong Kong and Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia (CNN) In Mongolia, hospitals are overwhelmed. In the tiny archipelago of Seychelles, more than 100 new Covid-19 cases are being reported each day. And in Chile, a nationwide lockdown was lifted this week -- but the country is still reporting thousands of daily cases .

What links these countries is that they have each fully inoculated more than 50% of their populations, largely with Chinese-made coronavirus vaccines. And that's raised questions over the vaccin

NBC News • 26th April 2021

Chinese social media bypass censors to support Chloé Zhao's Oscars wins

Social media users in China got creative Monday to celebrate Chloé Zhao's historic Oscars victory after the Chinese government censored mention of her name.

Zhao, who was born in Beijing, won the Academy Award for best director Sunday for "Nomadland," but searches for her name and for the film were few and far between on Chinese social media platforms. "Nomadland" also won the award for best picture and similarly got the silent treatment.

On China's Twitter-like Weibo, users bypassed censors b

CNN • 14th July 2021

Almost half of this capital city's population may have contracted Covid-19, survey finds

The survey, published July 10, tested for coronavirus antibodies in the blood of about 5,000 people across the city from March 15-31. The results showed 44.5% of those tested had antibodies, indicating they had been infected with Covid-19.

Jakarta has a population of about 10.6 million, government figures show. According to the researchers, as many as 4.7 million people may have been infected in the capital by March 31.

"Through this survey, we can estimate the proportion of Jakarta residents

South China Morning Post • 27th November 2022

Who is PAS, the single biggest party in Malaysia’s new parliament?

PAS, one of the parties in ex-premier Muhyiddin Yassin’s Perikatan Nasional coalition, has long unnerved Malaysia’s minority groups with its hardline Islamist stance.

South China Morning Post • 18th November 2022

Party coup, angry king, jailed Najib: Malaysia’s tortuous journey to snap vote

Umno’s last two years in power have been anything but stable – with the rise and fall of three prime ministers, an economy only just recovering from the pandemic and top party leaders mired in corruption charges and scandals. Photo: AP

South China Morning Post • 16th November 2022

Malaysia election 2022: A quick guide to what you need to know

Malaysia’s tumultuous political scene, coloured by corruption and politicking, is further complicated by racial policies, the rising cost of living, economic uncertainty and an election held during monsoon season.

South China Morning Post • 16th October 2022

A look at Singapore and Hong Kong’s property cooling measures

Recent measures in Singapore aim to slow pace of price increase for resale HDB flats, while Hong Kong has stuck to its policies despite home prices being in the midst of a five-year low.

South China Morning Post • 4th October 2022

Can crowd disasters like Indonesia’s football tragedy be prevented?

Fight-or-flight response triggered by radical change in environment, crowd density among key factors for disasters, experts say.

South China Morning Post • 30th September 2022

What does a weaker UK pound mean for Asian tourists, students and businesses?

Asian consumers are snapping up the pound in anticipation of lower-cost holidays but it is a less rosy picture for UK-based workers and for Asian firms dependent on exports to Britain.

NBC News • 5th May 2021

Oxygen trains in India are racing to save patients amid growing crisis

Oxygen supplies are being rushed by train to New Delhi amid shortages across hospitals in the nation's capital, as India's Covid-19 crisis deepens.

The country confirmed a record 3,780 deaths Wednesday, a day after it became only the second country after the United States to pass 20 million total infections.

Piyush Goyal, the minister for railways, called the trains "Oxygen Express" in a tweet and said they would “provide a continued supply of oxygen for Covid-19 patients in the capital.”

He

NBC News • 28th April 2021

India surges past 200,000 Covid deaths amid record new cases

India passed 200,000 Covid-19 deaths Wednesday, becoming only the fourth country to do so, as it battles a devastating second wave of infections.

The surge in new infections has stretched hospitals across the country to a breaking point, with widespread shortages of medical oxygen and beds. Patients and their loved ones desperately search for hospitals with intensive care units that can make room for them, turning to social media to find access to vacant beds and oxygen online.

Increased infec

NBC News • 3rd May 2021

Modi's party takes electoral hit as virus cases spiral

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party lost a key state in elections over the weekend amid mounting criticism of his handling of the country’s worsening Covid-19 crisis.

On Monday, India recorded more than 300,000 new cases for the 12th straight day, bringing the country’s total infections to nearly 20 million, according to Health Ministry figures. Experts fear that the real number may be 10 times higher in the nation of over 1.35 billion people.

The country also reported over 218,000 dea

NBC News • 24th May 2021

'Black fungus' strikes fear in India as Covid deaths pass 300,000

India became only the third country to record 300,000 Covid-19 deaths on Monday amid growing fears about a potentially fatal fungal infection striking some of those who have battled the virus.

Over 8,800 total cases of the so-called black fungus, known as mucormycosis, have been recorded across India, the country's minister of chemicals and fertilizers, Sadananda Gowda, said in a tweet Saturday.

Although Gowda did not share the official number of deaths caused by mucormycosis, The Associated P

NBC News • 12th May 2021

Bodies found floating in the Ganges as India battles second Covid wave

Dozens of bodies have been washing up on the banks of the Ganges river as hospitals and crematoriums across India remain overwhelmed by the country's rampant second wave of Covid-19.

Officials in the east Indian state of Bihar said in a statement Tuesday that at least 71 corpses washed up in the city of Buxar, adding that they were likely coming from India’s most populous state, Uttar Pradesh. Similarly, officials in Uttar Pradesh said Tuesday that dozens of bloated and decomposed bodies were f

NBC News • 10th March 2021

India Covid rates plummet, experts struggle to find explanation

India’s Covid-19 infection rate plummeted, but experts still don’t know why. NBC News’ Janis Mackey Frayer explains the factors scientists are looking at in India’s comeback.