She Zhijiang, a fugitive-turned-investor, is behind Southeast Asia’s controversial Asia Pacific New City, criticized as a hub for gambling and fraud. Explore the connections, arrests, and shadowy networks behind the project.
Protective measures taken with hope of rebuilding news operations in future WASHINGTON – With the government shutdown and delay in receiving funding for the new fiscal year, effective Oct. 31, Radio Free Asia (RFA) will halt all production of news content for the time being. The move is part of a plan for the Congressionally-funded private corporation to implement cost-saving measures that can help sustain the organization should appropriated funding streams resume. President and CEO Bay Fang issued the following statement: “Because of the fiscal reality and uncertainty about our budgetary future, RFA has been forced to suspend all remaining news content production – for the first time in its 29 years of existence. In an effort to conserve limited resources on hand and preserve the possibility of restarting operations should consistent funding become available, RFA is taking further steps to responsibly shrink its already reduced footprint. “This means initiating a process of closing down overseas bureaus and formally laying off furloughed staff and paying their severance – many of whom have been on unpaid leave since March, when the U.S. Agency for Global Media unlawfully terminated RFA’s Congressionally appropriated grant. “However drastic these measures may seem, they position RFA, a private corporation, for a future in which it would be possible to scale up and resume providing accurate, uncensored news for people living in some of the world’s most closed places.” During its tenure, RFA’s groundbreaking reporting on the Uyghur genocide in Xinjiang, the CCP’s cover-up of COVID-19 fatalities, the unfolding crisis in Myanmar since the 2021coup, Chinese hydropower projects in the Tibetan regions, and the journeys of North Korean defectors has built a public record of transparency in some of the world’s most repressive places, holding autocrats and elites accountable to their people and internationally. Other measures to conserve resources on hand include ending leases of overseas offices and bureaus in Dharamsala, Taipei, Seoul, Istanbul, Bangkok, and Yangon. In the last five years, RFA created new editorial units focused on China’s malign influence in the Indo-Pacific region and globally, investigating PRC secret police stations in the United States and Europe, election interference by the Chinese Communist Party in Taiwan and other Asian countries, and PRC influence operations in Pacific island countries. RFA’s incisive brand of journalism has made it and its journalists a constant target, with its reporters facing pressure and threats since its inaugural report in Mandarin was heard in China on Sept. 29, 1996. Authorities in China, Vietnam, Myanmar, and Cambodia have detained family members, sources, reporters, and contributors. Listeners in North Korea have been severely punished and reportedly executed for accessing RFA’s reports. Nevertheless, RFA’s journalistic operations have until now withstood government intimidation and attacks. In the months since the USAGM illegally terminated its Congressionally appropriated grant to RFA, and despite layoffs and furloughs that diminished editorial staff by more than 90%, the private grantee has continued to fulfill its Congressional mandate to provide accurate, timely news to people living in some of the most closed media environments in Asia thanks to a preliminary injunction issued by the United States Federal District Court for the District of Columbia, which USAGM has appealed. RFA has also continued to win awards for its reporting, including two national Edward R. Murrow awards in August and a Gracie Award in March. While many services, including RFA Uyghur and Tibetan, have already gone dark, others have continued to produce limited output, including RFA Burmese, Khmer, Korean, Mandarin Chinese, and Vietnamese. But these will cease on Oct. 31. We are : Investigative Journalism Reportika Investigative Reports Daily Reports Interviews Surveys Reportika
The U.S. and China appear close to averting a 100% tariff showdown after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said a “substantial framework” has been reached. Trump and Xi are expected to meet this week in South Korea to finalize details of the deal.
Myanmar’s junta said on Monday it raided one of the country’s most notorious cyberscam centers and seized Starlink satellite internet devices. Myanmar government media The Global New Light of Myanmar said the military “conducted operations in KK Park near Myanmar-Thai border” and had “seized 30 sets of Starlink receivers and accessories,” according to the AFP news agency. AFP said that number is only a fraction of the Starlink devices they identified using satellite imagery and drone photography. On the roof of one building alone in KK Park, images showed nearly 80 of the internet dishes. This Sept. 17, 2025, photo shows what appears to be Starlink satellite dishes on the roof in the KK Park complex in Myanmar’s eastern Myawaddy township, as pictured from Mae Sot district in Thailand’s border province of Tak.(Lillian Suwanrumpha/AFP) The U.S. Congress’ Joint Economic Committee told the AFP news agency they have begun an investigation into Starlink’s involvement with the centers. While it can call owner Elon Musk to a hearing, it cannot compel him to testify. Starlink parent company SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday. In this Feb. 20, 2025, image released by the Chinese government, a group of 200 Chinese citizens suspected of involvement in scam centers are returned to Nanjing, China under the escort of Chinese police after being repatriated from Myawaddy in Myanmar.(Yin Gang, Xinhua via Getty Images) With reporting by AFP. We are : Investigative Journalism Reportika Investigative Reports Daily Reports Interviews Surveys Reportika
The European Union’s Special Representative for Human Rights Kajsa Ollongren said on Thursday that they would not send observers to an election in military-ruled Myanmar, as it was unlikely to result in a credible outcome, according to the Reuters news agency. It follows Myanmar junta chief Min Aung Hlaing admitting on Wednesday that the military-backed administration will be unable to conduct an upcoming general election across the entire country, as a civil war triggered by a 2021 coup rages on. Detained Myanmar State Councilor Aung San Suu Kyi and president Win Myint during their first court appearance in Naypyidaw, May 24, 2021.(Myanmar Ministry of Information via AFP) The military doesn’t control all of Myanmar. Vast swaths are administered by a range of armed militias, ethnic groups and pro-democracy fighters, some in open, armed conflict with the ruling junta. The junta has invited ASEAN countries to send observers for the election, due to start on December 28 and to continue in phases into January. We are : Investigative Journalism Reportika Investigative Reports Daily Reports Interviews Surveys Reportika
The U.S. and British governments on Tuesday announced a sweeping crackdown on cyber-scam networks in Southeast Asia accused of luring workers with fraudulent job ads or fake romantic relationships, forcing them to extract billions from people across the world through a range of deceptions, then laundering the money they received.
Nuclear-armed North Korea displayed its most advanced Hwasong-20 intercontinental ballistic missile, described by the North Korean government as the country’s “strongest nuclear strategic weapon system,” state media said on Saturday.
A military strike on Monday night hit a group in central Myanmar’s Chaung U township who were gathered to mark the Thadingyut full moon festival and to demonstrate against the military junta that rules the country. Video: Myanmar junta bombs full moon gatheringThe attack killed at least 20 people, according to a Reuters report that cited an eyewitness, the human rights group Amnesty International, and members of the shadow National Unity Government and an armed resistance group in the area. An event organizer told Agence France-Press that 40 people were killed, including children, while 80 others were wounded. Screams for help could be heard in bystander video taken at nighttime after the attack, which also showed a burning fire. Another video, recorded in daylight, shows a building that was destroyed and a young man who said he was collecting body parts in the attack’s aftermath. Hundreds of people had been gathered for the event when the bombs struck after 7 p.m., a member of the committee that organized the event said. She was not at the scene, but she attended funerals on Tuesday. “The committee alerted people and one-third of the crowd managed to flee,” she told AFP. “But immediately, one motor-powered paraglider flew right over the crowd,” dropping two bombs in the middle of the gathering. “Children were completely torn apart,” she said. This image courtesy of Yebaw Hlyat Cee taken on October 7, 2025 shows damage to vehicles next to the site of a military strike in central Myanmar’s Chaung U township.(Yebaw Hlyat Cee, Facebook via AFP) Paramotors, or motor-powered paragliders, are used by one or two soldiers to drop explosives, to fire weapons, or to conduct low-altitude surveillance, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project. The junta has expanded their use this year, the group said. Amnesty International said that Myanmar’s ruling junta is taking advantage of reduced international scrutiny “to carry out war crimes with impunity.” “As the military attempts to solidify power with a stage-managed election later this year, it is intensifying an already brutal campaign against pockets of resistance,” Joe Freeman, Myanmar researcher for Amnesty International, said in a statement. Myanmar’s military leaders, who have ruled the country since the 2021 coup that overthrew the last elected government and kicked off a brutal civil war against rebel groups, have framed the upcoming election, set for Dec. 28, as a transition point. Critics say the election is a sham aimed to keep the military in power. Before it was shuttered in May, RFA’s Burmese Service reported daily on a steady drumbeat of bombings by the junta. Among the service’s final stories in English were bombings of a rebel-controlled village in western Myanmar that killed more than a dozen people; a school in central Myanmar, killing at least 20 students; four insurgent-controlled villages in northern Myanmar; and a strike on villages in southeast Myanmar that destroyed a hospital and forced 8,000 people to flee their homes. Includes reporting from Agence France-Presse and Reuters. We are : Investigative Journalism Reportika Investigative Reports Daily Reports Interviews Surveys Reportika
Residents and businesses in Hanoi on Tuesday were coping again with flooding as storms triggered by Typhoon Matmo have submerged major roads, particularly in inner-city districts. Commuters pushed motorbikes through calf-deep water in some areas. Several schools closed or moved classes online. Some flights from Noi Bai International Airport have been rescheduled or delayed. For many, it’s an unpleasant return to the flooding just last week from Typhoon Bualoi, which killed at least 51 people in Vietnam and caused around $600 million in damage. People push a motorcycle as they wade through a flooded street amid heavy downpours from Typhoon Matmo, which stranded vehicles, closed schools, moved classes online, and delayed flights to and from Noi Bai International Airport, in Hanoi, Vietnam, October 7, 2025.(THINH TIEN NGUYEN/Reuters) “It’s a loop — rains come, streets flood and people desperately try to get by,” Hanoi resident Nguyen Ngoc Long told Reuters. “I fear this will soon become a norm for us.” Meanwhile, local media reported that a storm-swelled section of the Bac Khe 1 hydropower dam burst in northern Vietnam in mid-afternoon Tuesday, raising flood potential for nearby villages. Includes reporting from Reuters. We are : Investigative Journalism Reportika Investigative Reports Daily Reports Interviews Surveys Reportika
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