Beyond the Indus

Nepal is the latest South Asian country to witness large-scale youth-driven protests take down a government.

It was a big week for China, hosting an SCO Summit in Tianjin and then a massive military parade in Beijing. The world was watching closely.

A conversation with barrister Craig Tuck about law and the right to dignity.

Checking facts and debunking falsehoods is out of fashion under Trump 2.0.

Sushi Das is an award-winning journalist, author, and journalism lecturer at RMIT University in Melbourne where she also spent eight years working international fact checking desks aligned with Meta and Facebook, focused on debunking online misinformation.

She was chief-of-staff for RMIT ABC Fact Check, which focused on political fact checking, from 2017 to 2021, before being named as associate director of RMIT FactLab where the attention was on debunking social media.

But those days are ending with online platform operators relinquishing fact checkers following the reelection of Donald Trump as United States president.

RMIT FactLab worked in partnership with Meta, but it was closed down in January after RMIT heard Meta’s that it would axe its fact-checking operations in the US.

Das spoke with The Diplomat’s Luke Hunt in Melbourne about the use of the word “lie” and the process of “enshittification,” which was named Word of the Year in 2023 by the American Dialect Society and is used to describe the decay of digital platforms – more so as AI leaves its mark.

It’s a complicated issue that stretches far and wide, from Peter Dutton’s failed bid to win the last Australian election and autocrats in Southeast Asia seeking to control the message that suits them, to transnational repression and criminals adept at handling the latest technology.

But some positive surprises did emerge from the research, which Das says has found that politicians do keep their promises most of the time.

Das worked at The Age newspaper for 22 years, where she held a series of senior positions, including news editor, senior writer and opinion editor, and her work has been recognized with two Melbourne Press Club awards.

She is also the author of "Deranged Marriage," an east-meets-west memoir about arranged marriage. As well as lecturing in journalism at RMIT, she is currently researching fact-checking for a PhD.

What did Lee accomplish in Tokyo and Washington?

The junta plans its election while turmoil engulfs Thai politics.

The junta in war-torn Myanmar has called elections with voting expected to begin on December 28 and continue well into January, which military chief Min Aung Hlaing hopes will legitimize his rule that began with a coup in early 2021.

That coup ousted an elected government led by the National League for Democracy (NLD) and tipped Myanmar into a bloody civil war, which has left many thousands of people dead and forced hundreds of thousands to flee across the border into Thailand.

The military is now in control of just 30 percent of the country as it battles a mix of ethnic armed organizations (EAOs) and the People’s Defense Forces.

Mae Sot-based military analyst Paul Greening spoke with The Diplomat’s Luke Hunt about the pending poll and a recent offensive launched by the military across the country, aimed at retaking territory lost to the EAOs over the past two years.

Its likely outcomes include a gradual acceptance by ASEAN and Western countries of the poll result, which critics say will be rigged with the backing of China and Russia.

It’s an assessment backed by Greening’s historical take on elections in Myanmar dating back to the Second World War, and how history appears destined to repeat itself despite the objections of the rebels, civil society groups, and those who have opposed the coup.

Greening also shares his thoughts about suspended Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra, who could be forced to resign on Friday when the Constitutional Court delivers its verdict over an ethics violation, potentially triggering fresh elections.

Will Trump’s overtures to Russia yield anything?

’s  podcast hosts Ankit Panda () and Katie Putz () discuss recent geopolitical developments between the United States and Russia, India and China, and more.

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A conversation with Dr. Edwin Pugh.

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Dr. Edwin Pugh packed his bags with his wife Kim, also a doctor, and in 1988, left the comforts of Britain and went to work at Site 8, a notoriously difficult refugee camp and one of the few that was run by the Khmer Rouge.

The battles were many: all the diseases associated with the tropics and intense poverty were there, as were the many factions fighting in Cambodia’s long-running civil war, which back then included a Vietnamese occupation force.

Landmine victims, malnutrition, malaria, and pregnancy were all part of daily life in a camp shrouded with secrecy and spies deployed by the Khmer Rouge. These were also issues he would confront during the genocide in Rwanda.

Ever since, Pugh has maintained a role in delivering critical health services to where they are needed in Cambodia, and he has just published his latest book: "Conflicted: a doctor’s illustrated account of working in Site 8 Khmer Rouge refugee camp in 1988."

"Conflicted" includes diary entries and more than a hundred previously unpublished photographs from Site 8 during Pugh’s tenure. His book is a timely release given the current border conflict between Cambodia and Thailand, which is dominating life on both sides of the frontier.

Pugh spoke with The Diplomat’s Luke Hunt about those outstanding and about how much life in Cambodia has improved since its days as a failed state. He also says the nature of NGO work has shifted dramatically and that needs have changed accordingly.