Asia/Middle East

By Diary Marif Every time Sana Barouki’s phone rings, she answers with a pounding heart. It has  been the rhythm of the 50-year-old’s life in Vancouver since Abu Mohammad al-Julani — now interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa — toppled Bashar al-Assad in 2024. Barouki had felt a spark of hope when Assad, who had ruled Syria

By Myat Sandar Zaw ASEAN’s responses to major regional security challenges like the Myanmar crisis illustrate weakening ASEAN centrality — ASEAN’s key principle and aspiration. The question of whether and how ASEAN can assert its centrality in the future hinges on its approach to Myanmar’s junta-organised elections, held in December 2025 and January 2026. Article

By RFE/RL’s Radio Farda Iranian authorities braced for more unrest in multiple regions on January 2, with the death toll and arrests mounting after protesters angered by the country’s economic woes hit the streets for the fifth day in a row. State-controlled media and international rights groups on January 1 reported at least seven deaths and

By Team Mongabay-India In 2025 Mongabay-India reported about several new-to-science species. It takes several months or even years for researchers to confirm the new species description through morphological, DNA, taxonomic, environmental, phylogenetic assessments, and more. However, the stories we published this year about new species are small reminders that we have so much more to

By Richard Pomfret Despite an unsettled global backdrop, Central Asia’s economic performance in 2025 was solid, if uneven. The IMF’s October 2025 Regional Outlook projected real GDP growth in Central Asia and the Caucasus at 5.6 per cent, slightly higher than in 2024. Growth was strongest in the two poorest countries, Tajikistan (7.5 per cent) and Kyrgyzstan