Archive May 29, 2025

In the East and Southeast Asia regions, a record 236 tonnes of methamphetamine were seized last year, according to the UNODC, which represented a 24% increase over the previous year’s seized amount.

The UNODC reported that trafficking in Laos and Cambodia from Myanmar’s lawless Shan State is rapidly expanding, despite Thailand being the first country in the region to seize more than 100 tonnes of meth in one year last year, intercepting a total of 130 tonnes.

Benedikt Hofmann, UNODC’s acting regional representative for Southeast Asia and the Pacific, stated in a statement that “the 236 tons only represent the amount seized; much more methamphetamine is actually entering the market.”

While these seizures demonstrate some effective law enforcement initiatives, Hofmann noted that the Golden Triangle’s production and trafficking are clearly at an unprecedented level, particularly in Shan State.

In addition to thwarting attempts by regional law enforcement to combat the booming trade in synthetic drugs, transnational drug gangs operating in East and Southeast Asia are also showing “remarkable agility.”

The grinding civil war that broke out in Myanmar in the middle of the 20th century also provided favorable conditions for the expansion of the drug trade.

According to the report, “Since the military took control of Myanmar in February 2021, flows of drugs from that country have soared across both East and Southeast Asia and increasingly into South Asia, particularly Northeast India.”

Inshik Sim, the UNODC’s lead analyst for Southeast Asia and the Pacific, reported that the nations that border Myanmar are establishing important routes for the production of drugs in the Golden Triangle.

Sim cited the acronym People’s Democratic Republic, which is a part of Laos’s national identity, as saying that “the trafficking route connecting Cambodia and Myanmar has been rapidly expanding.”

According to him, “Sabah in Malaysia serves as a crucial transit hub” while another increasingly significant corridor includes maritime trafficking routes linking Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines.

In addition to integrating with other organized crime activities, the ever-evolving, cell-based transnational organized crime organizations with roots in East and #Southeast Asia are increasingly adopting technologies across the entire drug supply chain.

More information is available at https://t.co/oL416cuZJ3 pic in our most recent report. twitter.com/pqUfX5FmnF

The UNODC report also points out that while the majority of the countries in the area have reported a general increase in the use of methamphetamine and ketamine, a potent sedative, some countries have reported a rise in drug use in the older age group.

According to the UNODC report, “some nations in the region, such as Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand, have experienced consecutive increases in the number of older drug users while the number of younger drug users has decreased,” adding that the age trend needed to be further investigated.

According to Hofmann of the UNODC, targeted drug use prevention campaigns may be to blame for the decline in the number of younger drug users receiving treatment.

In what Beijing’s efforts to explore interplanetary space, scientists have described the launch of a spacecraft as a “significant step” in its first-ever mission to retrieve clean asteroid samples.

The Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan province, in southwest China, launched on Thursday at around 1.31 a.m. local time (18:30 GMT). The Tianwen-2 spacecraft, a robotic probe that might make China the third country to retrieve pristine asteroid rocks, was in its vicinity.

Chinese state-run media reported that the spacecraft “delivered a successful launch” and that the Chinese National Space Administration (CNSA) had “declared the launch a success.”

A small near-Earth asteroid named “469219 Kamoalewa,” also known as 2016HO3, will come close to Tianwen-2 over the course of the next year.

The spacecraft is expected to make its first appearance on July 2026, which is thought to be a remnant of the Moon, according to experts. The capsule will then be shot back to Earth with rock samples for a November 2027 landing.

After Japan first collected samples from a small asteroid in 2010, followed by the United States in 2020, China would become the third nation to carry out a similar mission.

The People’s Daily state-run newspaper called the mission’s goal “an endeavor to bring light to the formation and evolution of asteroids and the early solar system.”

The CNSA’s head, Shan Zhongde, claimed that the mission was a “significant step in China’s new journey of interplanetary exploration.” According to him, the mission was supposed to lead to “groundbreaking discoveries and expanding humanity’s knowledge of the cosmos.”

According to Chinese state media, the “decade-long expedition” has several objectives, including “exploring the main-belt comet 311P” and “collecting samples from near-Earth asteroid 2016HO3”.

Additionally, it will aim to examine the “physical characteristics of the two celestial targets,” including their “orbital dynamics, rotation, size, shape, and thermal properties.”

According to researchers working on the project, the samples will be used to study asteroids’ “physical properties, chemical and mineral composition, and structural characteristics.”

2016HO3 has a diameter ranging from 120 feet (40 metres) to 300 feet (100 metres) as a quasi-satellite of Earth that has followed the Sun in a synchronized path with the Earth for nearly a century.

China has quickly expanded its space programs and begun a number of ground-breaking missions in recent years, including landing robots on the moon’s far side and collecting the first humankind samples there in June of last year.

After the US forbade China from participating in the ISS, it is now operating its own Tiangong space station in orbit, which is the only one that is operational other than the International Space Station (ISS).

Three crew members made their first space trip in six months, spending six months on board&nbsp, Tiangong, in April, making their first ever mission there.

Beijing has also made significant investments in the Moon’s 2030 crewed missions, which are anticipated to have Chinese astronauts on board by 2030.

BREAKINGBREAKING,

Elon Musk, a billionaire, announced his departure from Donald Trump’s administration after leading a month-long effort to lower government costs.

On Wednesday evening, he wrote on the social media platform that “I would like to thank President @realDonaldTrump for the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending.”

Musk, referring to the Department of Government Efficiency, said that “the @DOGE mission will only grow as it becomes a way of life throughout the government.”

The Associated Press received a press release from an unnamed White House official.

Musk’s departure comes shortly after he publicly expressed his concerns about Trump’s 1, 000-page “big, beautiful bill,” which includes work requirements for food assistance and Medicaid.

Additionally, the bill provides funding for some of Trump’s signature initiatives, such as funding immigration and customs enforcement, and building a wall between the US and Mexico.

The Senate will then discuss the “big, beautiful bill” that was approved by the House of Representatives last week.

I want to thank President @realDonaldTrump for the opportunity to cut down on wasteful spending as my time as a Special Government Employee comes to an end.

As the @DOGE mission becomes ingrained in every department of the government, it only grows stronger over time.

“I was disappointed to see the massive spending bill, which, to be honest, raises the budget deficit rather than just reduces it, and undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing,” Musk, who spoke on the news program CBS Sunday Morning, referred to as the “Department of Government Efficiency”.

The billionaire signed for the Trump administration in January with the promise to cut at least $1 billion from the US federal budget, despite the DOGE website showing that the agency has only saved about $175 billion, or $1, 088.96 per US taxpayer.

Trump’s spending bill, in its current form, would eliminate DOGE’s work because it is anticipated to increase the US deficit by $3.9 trillion by 2034, according to the Congressional Budget Office.