By Madhurima Sarkar-Swaisgood, Prangya Paramita Gupta, Shashwat Avi, and Sanjay Srivastava, ESCAP* BANGKOK | 29 October 2025 (IDN) — The Himalayan arc from Bhutan through Nepal and India into Pakistan has always followed the rhythm of the monsoon. In 2025, that rhythm became deadly. Rain that sustains agriculture and rivers turned destructive, testing the capacity […]
The End of the Shinawatra Clan in Thailand?
By Jan Servaes* BRUSSELS | 7 October 2025 (IDN) — Thailand’s Constitutional Court removed Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra, 39, the daughter of divisive but influential billionaire Thaksin Shinawatra, from office. The Court ruled that she committed a “grave breach of ethics” in a leaked phone call with Cambodian Senate President Hun Sen, in which she made disparaging […]
A Serious Proposal: Russia and China Call for Global Strategic Stability
By Alice Slater* NEW YORK | 1 October 2025 (IDN) — It’s ironic that the arms control community is protesting the idea of resuming nuclear test detonations. The nuclear test detonations have never stopped. Although Bill Clinton signed the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) in 1996, he swiftly funded the “Stockpile Stewardship” program at the […]
Operation Colombo: The Assassinations of Bandaranaike and Allende
What two Cold War killings reveal about empire and disinformation. By Darini Rajasingham Senanayake* COLOMBO, Sri Lanka | 1 October 2025 (IDN) — September marks anniversaries in the chilling deaths of two democratically elected Socialist heads of state during the United States’ led Cold War anti-communist crusade that unfolded across the world between 1948-91: The […]
Shades of Collective Self-Defence in the Context of Saudi-Pakistan Agreement
By A.L.A. Azeez* COLOMBO, Sri Lanka | 21 September 2025 (IDN) — What does it entail when two states enter into a mutual defence pact? What if one of them is a nuclear-armed state, not party to the Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) and the other an NPT state, not possessing nuclear weapons? That’s exactly the scenario […]
Transforming Cross-Border Connectivity in Eastern South Asia
By Joseph George, Mikiko Tanaka and Rajan Ratna* Small steps of digitalization of trade and transport processes are shaping the foundations for seamless, cost-effective and collaborative cross-border connectivity in the subregion, promising big leaps in trade integration, efficiency and competitiveness. BANGKOK, Thailand | 20 September 2025 (IDN) — In Eastern South Asia (ESA)—comprising Bangladesh, Bhutan, […]
Human Rights Council’s Revived Harassment of Sri Lanka, Exposes Double Standards
By Kalinga Seneviratne Colombo | 17 September 2025 (IDN) – With the visit of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) Commissioner Volker Turk to Sri Lanka in June and his subsequent report to the 60th session of the UNHRC presented on September 8th, the UN human rights body has revived its 16 year […]
The End Game in Sri Lankan Politics
By Neville de Silva* LONDON | 17 September 2025 (IDN) — Two years ago, in September, a comparatively little-known politician did what many of Sri Lanka’s 22 million people did not expect him to do. He won the country’s presidential election, rising from virtually nowhere. Two months later, he made history. Leading his loosely knit […]
Climate change impact on workers’ health explored at Osaka EXPO
By Mahinda Seneviratne* OSAKA, Japan | 8 September 2025 (IDN) — As the sun rose over the picturesque, volcanic mountain region of central Kyushu in Japan, four young women from Myanmar were reporting for work as house maids at a local ryokan (Japanese-style inn). They are part of the growing number of migrant workers evident […]
Thailand: Myanmar Refugees Exploited By Brokers and Police Claim New Report
By Jason Tan Bangkok | 18 July 2025 — A report released this month by the New York based Human Rights Watch (HRW) says there are over 4 million refugees from Myanmar living in Thailand, more than half of them undocumented, with law enforcement authorities in the borders areas of northern Thailand referring to them […]