Super Rat: the record-setting rodent sniffing out landmines and saving lives.
From @CNN: "Rats don’t always have the best reputations, but one named Ronin with a super sense of smell is working to change that."
After delivering a potted #economic history of the country in which he bizarrely claimed that the #GreatDepression would have been avoided if high tariffs had been in place, #Trump announced that “reciprocal tariffs” would go into effect on April 9th, w/rates of 34% on goods imported from #China, 24% on #Japan, & 20% on the #EU. Some of the highest rates were reserved for export-led developing countries in #Asia: 46% on #Vietnam, 48% on #Laos, & 49% on #Cambodia.
#economy #recession #geopolitics
"Presumably no one is buying Teslas there," John Denton, head of the International Chamber of Commerce (#ICC), told Reuters, an ironic reference to the improbability of #Madagascar being able to placate #Trump by buying upmarket US products.
Madagascar is not alone: the bluntness of the formula as applied to economies which cannot afford to import much from the US inevitably leads to a high reciprocal tally: 50% for #Lesotho in Southern #Africa, 49% for #Cambodia in Southeast #Asia.
Genetic study in Cambodia provides clues to saving endangered elephants
> Researchers used DNA analysis to estimate the population of endangered Asian #elephants in the Prey Lang region of northern #Cambodia. https://www.benarnews.org/english/news/thai/endangered-elephant-04022025081341.html #SouthEastAsia
NYT deep-ish dive on the world's largest cryptocurrency driven marketplace for drugs, weapons, #moneylaundering services, slaves, etc: #HuioneGuarantee in Camboida.
* NYT: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/23/world/asia/cambodia-money-laundering-huione.html
* no paywall: https://archive.ph/CGkoc
#Cambodia’s Hun Sen, #Myanmar Junta Celebrate Closure of US-Funded Media Outlets: The US-funded broadcasters #RadioFreeAsia and #VoiceofAmerica have long been a thorn in the side of the region’s repressive governments. “The effusive response extended also to…China’s state-backed Global Times…” | Sebastian Strangio, The Diplomat https://thediplomat.com/2025/03/cambodias-hun-sen-myanmar-junta-celebrate-closure-of-us-funded-media-outlets/ /1
Turkey and Cambodia will be connected by new Turkish Airlines flights from December 2025, linking Istanbul and Phnom Penh to boost travel, trade, and connectivity https://www.byteseu.com/816419/ #AirlineNews #AviationIndustry #Cambodia #CambodiaTravelNews #istanbul #PhnomPenh #Travel #TravelNews #Turkey #TurkeyTravelNews #TurkishAirlines
"Huione Pay, the banking arm of what’s been called the world’s 'largest ever illicit online marketplace' (#HuioneGuarantee) has been stripped of its banking license, the National Bank of #Cambodia confirmed to RFA this week."
There's been previous reports of tens of billions of dollars moving through Huiones "anything goes" marketplace for weapons, drugs, slaves, etc. so this is possibly an interesting escalation in the crackdown on Chinese organized crime in southeast asia that seems to have been orchestrated by the #PRC (though some are sceptical if it will end up making any real difference give Huione connections to the Cambodian government).
https://www.rfa.org/english/cambodia/2025/03/06/huione-cambodia-cyberscam-cryptocurrency/
