The World from PRX

Southeast Asia

Conflict & Justice
The Arakan Army is making gains against the Myanmar military. What does it mean for the Rohingya?
4:22
A woman sitting on the floor of a home
Conflict & Justice
Cambodia farmers displaced by sugar plantations proceed with landmark international class action suit
White Sand beach on Boracay Island, in the Philippines.
Business, Economics and Jobs
The return of Chinese tourists restores hope in the Philippines’ tourism industry
President Joe Biden participates in the US-ASEAN Special Summit to commemorate 45 years of US-ASEAN relations at the State Department in Washington, Friday, May 13, 2022.
Foreign policy
US ‘walks fine line’ at Southeast Asia summit to strengthen ties
US Vice President Kamala Harris takes part in a roundtable at Gardens by the Bay in Singapore
Global Politics
Southeast Asia allies express concern over US commitment amid Afghanistan crisis
A sole woman waits in an empty movie theater-turned vaccination hub for her vaccine at a mall
COVID-19
Filipinos hesitant about getting COVID jab after dengue fever vaccine debacle
A sole woman waits in an empty movie theater-turned vaccination hub for her vaccine at a mall
COVID-19
Vaccine hesitancy: A nationwide challenge in the Philippines
A scaly pangolin with small, brown eyes and a pointy nose forages for food near some greenery.
COVID-19
Pangolin smuggling: The next coronavirus time bomb?
A man cast his ballot during the early voting ahead of the Nov. 8 general election, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) spread in Yangon, Myanmar, Oct. 30, 2020.
Elections
Myanmar prepares for a remarkable but messy election 
Sihanoukville, Cambodia, has become a construction site in recent years, with dozens of Chinese projects to build business and apartment high-rises, and with roads under construction around town.
On China's New Silk Road
Opening the door to Chinese investment comes with risks for Southeast Asian nations
Military tanks pass by a building featuring traditional Chinese architecture.
Critical State
Misusing culture in international politics: Part I
Chemicals seized during Asia’s largest-ever drug bust in Myanmar. 
Global Politics
A massive Asian drug bust has stirred a fentanyl mystery
Protesters around a flower wreath
Top of The World
Workers’ movements advocate for rights on May Day; Saudi activists allege man killed over megacity plans; Doctors wait hours as Venezuela faces fuel shortages
Wuhan outdoor market
Health & Medicine
COVID-19 brings new scrutiny to illegal wildlife trafficking
Silver-backed chevrotain caught on camera
Environment
Rare mouse-deer spotted in Vietnam for the first time in 30 years
Mae Salong
Conflict & Justice
They were CIA-backed Chinese rebels. Now you’re invited to their once-secret hideaway.
A man in white lab coat holds a glass container while others watch
Health & Medicine
Thailand is betting big on cannabis. Visit its first legal lab.
A woman works out with apartment buildings behind her
How single women are driving gentrification in Hong Kong and elsewhere
protesters carry blue and red signs saying 'defend our sovereignty'
Global Politics
Philippines security at risk over escalating tensions between US and China in South China Sea
band photo
Arts, Culture & Media
How a Japanese girl-group empire is conquering Asian pop
Women dressed in Thai traditional costumes hold durians at a department store in Bangkok
As the West jeers, durian mania rises in Asia
This is a 2016 photo of the guided-missile destroyer USS Decatur operating in the South China Sea. The ship was involved in a near collision early this week with a Chinese warship, according to the US military.
Conflict
US and Chinese warships came perilously close to collision, and it’s probably going to keep happening
rohingya women lined up, carrying large baskets
When reporting sexual assault, Rohingya women are being lost in translation
A sand mining operation in Rangkasbitung, Indonesia. A global building boom has driven soaring demand for sand for concrete and land reclamation, much of it illegal and damaging to ecosystems and communities.
Environment
A global sand grab is wrecking ecosystems and communities around the world
A migrant worker from Myanmar looks at his cellphone at a wholesale market for shrimp and other seafood in Mahachai, in Samut Sakhon province, Thailand, July 4, 2017.
Technology
A tech startup called OMG wants to revolutionize cash for hundreds of millions of ‘unbanked’ people in Asia
the singapore skyline in the background and a landfill in the foreground
Environment
In Singapore, where trash becomes ash, plastics are still a problem
A hand holds a mobile phone with a Facebook logo and the message "this site cannot be reached."
Global Politics
For years, activists in Southeast Asia warned Facebook that content on the platform could lead to real-life violence. Then it did.
US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Joseph Dunford is stands at a podium during a press conference.
Conflict
Pentagon looks at stepping up its role in Africa to counter ISIS
A placard with the picture of Aung San Suu Kyi, accusing her of crimes against humanity, is seen at a rally near the Myanmar embassy in Jakarta.
Conflict
Aung San Suu Kyi’s silence on Rohingya ethnic cleansing could be political pragmatism
Duterte drug war
Conflict
In Manila, government-sanctioned killings are the new normal
Marawi residents are evacuated from their city in the southern Philippines on May 24, 2017.
Conflict
The truth about those ISIS-style flags waving in the Philippines
Burmese refugees Thailand
Conflict
The biggest group of current refugees in the US? Christians from Myanmar.
Palm oil workers load palm fruits into a truck at Asia World palm oil plantation in Bank Mae Village, Myanmar, Nov. 11, 2016.
Justice
These Burmese palm oil workers say they’re trapped on plantations
Vrindavan widows Holi
Culture
India is asking why its festival of colors is an excuse for groping
Environment
Myanmar’s Inle Lake is just one small body of water, but this man is dedicating his life to saving it
Klingon newt
Health
Southeast Asia is experiencing a thrilling wave of species discovery
At one point one-third of Laos had a US bomb on it.
Justice
How a secret US war created a new generation of Americans who changed foreign policy
In Buddhist Myanmar, there's a view that abortion is wrong because "human life happens only in a blue moon, so we shouldn't waste a life like this."
Health
Providing safe illegal abortions in Myanmar is a ‘karmic balance,’ says one doctor
Jennelyn Olaires, the partner of Michael Siaron whom police said was killed by a vigilante group in Manila.
Conflict
The rule of law in the Philippines gives way to more summary executions
Waitresses at a North Korean restaurant in Bangkok croon along to karaoke tracks.
Culture
What’s behind the restaurants North Korea runs around the world? Kitsch — and perhaps recordings.
Thai soldier keeping watch at Erawan Shrine in central Bangkok.
Economics
Southeast Asia hopes a new common market will give it clout, but it may have a weak link in Thailand
Erawan Shrine in central Bangkok, where a bomb went off in August 2015, killing 20 people and injuring 120.
Can Southeast Asia become an economic hub to rival (or at least balance) China?
Full Episode
Anwar Ibrahim and daughter Nurul Hana Anwar on the cover of "My Dear Papa."
Conflict
Penantian Panjang Kepulangan Seorang Bapa
Barack Obama shakes hands with Philippine President Benigno Aquino
Justice
What Obama should know about women in the Philippines
A taxi in Yangon decorated for Myanmar's election: a picture of Aung San Suu Kyi (l), and her late father, Aung San (r), who is revered as the father of modern Burma.
Global Politics
He’s still a rock star in Burma, 7 decades after his death
Elaeis guineensis — an oil palm tree
Environment
Yes, palm oil is destructive — but scientists are creating compelling alternatives
Experts investigate the Erawan shrine at the site of a deadly blast in central Bangkok, Thailand.
Conflict
Who’s behind the Bangkok bombing?
John Kerry state department human trafficking report 2015 malaysia upgrade
Justice
US human trafficking report is called ‘toilet paper’ after it upgrades Malaysia’s ranking
prisondirector_169
Justice
In northern Thailand, female prisoners are getting a second chance. Through massage.
Demonstrators listen as a student leader gives a speech during a protest led by students at Yangon University in Myanmar July 7, 2015
Justice
Meet the Burmese activists who risked their lives for the right to carry a USB drive
Saola
Environment
The quest for the ‘Asian unicorn’
James Tran got the idea for his indoor shrimp farm on a visit back to Vietnam to visit his family.
Business
Vietnamese immigrant raises fresh shrimp in Boston — one indoor vat at a time
Although same-sex marriage isn’t legal, Vietnam is at the forefront of gay rights in the region and gay weddings are not uncommon.
Culture
Photographer Catherine Karnow captures a changing Vietnam
In this Saturday, Nov. 22, 2014 photo, Thai and Burmese fishing boat workers sit inside a cell at the compound of a fishing company in Benjina, Indonesia. The imprisoned men were considered slaves who might run away. They said they lived on a few bites of
Economics
The seafood you eat may have been caught by slaves
Natural Family Planning 1
Health
The debate over ‘natural family planning’: Does it work?
Malaysian cartoonist Zunar's last cartoon tweeted out before his arrest on February 10th in Kuala Lampur. The cartoon condemns Malaysia's judiciary for dismissing opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim's final appeal against a sodomy conviction and suggests Prim
Media
Malaysia calls a tweet ‘seditious’ and arrests the cartoonist who posted it
sonia 3
Health
How this clinic has changed a nation’s view of family planning
Chhom Nimol, lead singer of Dengue Fever, became a US citizen on October 22, 2014
Music
What’s the best thing to bring on your band’s tour? Proof of citizenship
Man makes cell phone call in front of Cuban independence mural in Havana in 2013.
Technology
Now will Cuba get better Internet service?
President Barack Obama signs two Presidential Memoranda associated with his Executive Actions on immigration aboard Air Force One on November 21, 2014.
Global Politics
Executive actions can be contentious all over the world