The riverside city awash with crime.

Laos' Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone has become a centre for money laundering, trafficking and online finance and romance scams, a multibillion-dollar industry that shows no signs of abating, warn international authorities and analysts
u.afp.com/SYTq

We went to see how Thailand is breeding and releasing vulnerable sambar deer for wild tigers to eat! 🐯🦌 (I did have weird feelings about this one but apparently most of the deer don't get gobbled up 🙏🏼) with @junewatsamon.bsky.social 🎥 @thelilyfish.bsky.social 📸

Fingers are pointed squarely at new Chinese-operated mines in militia-held areas upstream in conflict-wracked Myanmar in what some call Thailand's "largest-ever case of transboundary pollution". Environment, conflict, China -- all the elements I love geeking out on in one story.

My latest story about a somewhat sketchy city that has benefited immensely from Chinese investment over the years -- and despite concerns over empty buildings, is doubling down on construction

Thailand's foreign ministry said they'll be sending 1,500 people home per week, as thousands of foreigners remain in limbo in makeshift encampments on the Myanmar side of the border.

Thai police enter an immigration detention centre in Bangkok

Thailand has deported dozens of Uyghurs to China despite warnings from human rights groups that they would face persecution on their return, drawing swift condemnation from the United Nations.
https://u.afp.com/SJjZ

'Escaping hell': Myanmar scam centre workers plead to go home MYAWADDY: Hundreds of exhausted young men lie in an open-sided detention centre in a seedy Myanmar border town, sweating through thick tropical heat by day and prey to clouds of mosquitoes by night. They are among some 7,000 people from more than two…

'Escaping hell': Myanmar scam centre workers plead to go home

Southeast Asia's Latest Scam Center Crackdown Why is the crackdown is happening now, and what are the broader implications for relations between Myanmar, China, and Thailand?

My Q&A for @afpnews.bsky.social :
'China building a “web of police influence that extends across the region” could lead to extraditions of human rights defenders and Uyghurs,'
www.irrawaddy.com/news/asia/so...

Elon Musk’s first month of destroying America will cost us decades There’s no considered plan, just careless mass destruction.

“DOGE has targeted a shocking sweep of basic government services with an unprecedented level of slash-and-burn nihilism. There’s no considered plan, just careless mass destruction — and Musk’s desire to control everything, whatever the risks.” www.theverge.com/elon-musk/61...

Myanmar Returns First Batch of Chinese Scam Workers to Thailand Some 600 Chinese will be flown from Mae Sot to China on 16 flights in the next three days. Karen State’s BGF militia said it plans to deport 10,000 Chinese in total.

With @afpnews.bsky.social colleagues reporting from Mae Sot border as the first batch of Chinese alleged scam centre workers are extracted from Myanmar and sent back to China via Thailand www.irrawaddy.com/news/burma/m...

Chinese minister meets Myanmar scam center workers A Chinese government minister met more than 1,000 alleged scam centre workers on the Thailand-Myanmar border on Monday, Thai media said, as the three countries vowed to crack down on the illicit compo...

Public Security Assistant Minister Liu Zhongyi 刘忠义 did not answer journalists’ questions as he took a one-day tour around the Mae Sot-Myawaddy frontier crossings where cross-border crime has proliferated.
bilyonaryo.com/2025/02/17/c...

Myanmar militia says ready to deport 10,000 cyber scam workers Scam centres have mushroomed in Myanmar and are staffed by foreigners who are often trafficked. Read more at straitstimes.com.

Story with @afpnews.bsky.social : Myanmar's Karen BGF militia says it's going to deport 500 alleged scam centre workers per day from notorious Shwe Kokko, Thai media says local border security is preparing to receive them
www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia...

Thailand deports 10 Chinese nationals linked to actor scam case Thailand has deported 10 Chinese nationals linked to the case of an actor allegedly trafficked to a scam centre in Myanmar, Thai police said on Saturday.

Thailand has deported 10 Chinese nationals linked to the case of an actor allegedly trafficked to a scam centre in Myanmar, Thai police said on Saturday.

In full: https://buff.ly/41eXg7P

I was only able to speak to these victims bc staff at the holding centre asked 'does anybody here speak Chinese?' (they hadn't even prepared translators). Then Thai military yelled at me for 'pushing my limits' as a volunteer translator by talking to people who wanted to tell media about the horrors

Pieta had 6 days to romance strangers online and trick them into investing in a fake business - failing which she would be beaten or tortured with electric shocks.
Liu said that he saw one worker having his face rubbed into a metal grate on the floor until he bled to death - a claim we can't verify.

Scam centre survivors tell of beatings, abuse in Myanmar At a scam compound in Myanmar, Filipina worker Pieta had just days to romance strangers online and trick them into investing in a fake business -- failing which she would be beaten or tortured with el...

I spoke to a few of the 260 released scam centre workers at the Thai-Myanmar border who told me of the living nightmare they had barely survived.

"So many people were beaten to death... it was so bloody," said Liu, one of ten Chinese nationals rescued.

sg.news.yahoo.com/scam-centre-...

"Writing is a muscle that needs to be worked on. Relying on AI to help you write is like tying your Fitbit to the dog."

Seeking light in dark times four years after Myanmar coup The country is experiencing worsening outages. Average daily electricity production has plummeted to 2,200 MW, with only half of that being distributed.

Seeking light in dark times four years after Myanmar coup - www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/myanmar-electricity...

Protesters step on a poster of Myanmar military chief General Min Aung Hlaing during a 2021 demonstration in Yangon

Four years after Myanmar's military seized power in a coup, the country is in the grip of a bloody civil war that has driven many of the country's young across the border to Thailand.
https://u.afp.com/SZu7

I'm biased but there's something inherently comforting about a city flanked by mountains

What the global elite reveal to Davos sex workers EXCLUSIVE: Salome Balthus, 40, is a high-end escort and author from Berlin who has travelled to Davos, Switzerland, to meet up with clients during the World Economic Forum (WEF).

Anecdotal and in the Daily Fail but not beyond belief:

"The elephant in the room is climate change... some of the uber wealthy people fitting into the first group were saying that those in third world countries 'might all die but us in the North, we're fine'." www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article...

魯蛇翻身 🐍

Two hundred UK companies sign up for permanent four-day working week More than 5,000 workers to benefit from reduced hours with no loss of pay Two hundred UK companies have signed up for a permanent four-day working week for all their employees with no loss of pay, in the latest landmark in the campaign to reinvent…

Two hundred UK companies sign up for permanent four-day working week

with @junewatsamon.bsky.social (video) and Chanakarn Laosarakham (photo) @afpnews.bsky.social

Thailand's Royal Rainmakers trial 'cloud seeding' to combat air pollution It's a method that's largely unproven, but Thailand's government is willing to try anything after air pollution in the capital reached eight times the daily maximum average recommended by the WHO.

Weenarin Lulitanonda, co-founder of Thailand CAN, accused the energy firms who donate the dry ice - solidified CO2 - of "using cilantro to garnish their dish".

... cilantro-washing by any other name 😷 my story for @afpnews.bsky.social
www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01...

So honored to cover such a historic day with brilliant colleagues at @afpnews.bsky.social
Thailand becomes the first country in Southeast Asia to recognize marriage equality

Hundreds of LGBTQ couples are set to marry in Thailand on Thursday, as the kingdom becomes the biggest nation in Asia to legalise same-sex marriage
u.afp.com/SkYj

Thailand denies plans to send 48 Uyghurs back to China BANGKOK: Thai authorities denied on Wednesday (Jan 22) there was an immediate plan to send back to China 48 Uyghurs held in the country's detention centres, after UN experts warned the group could face torture if they return. The Uyghurs fled China – which has been accused of grave human rights abus

Thailand denies plans to send 48 Uyghurs back to China - www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/thailand-denies-pla...

Ham-fisted attempt at creating a convincing likeness of the Thai PM speaking fluent Mandarin

The mossy root of a dead American Elm is covered in hundreds of vibrant brown and gray turkey tail mushrooms, layered and cascading across it like a dense colony of muscles on a rock All photos by me

Here are some nice mushrooms