Mariejo Ramos

When former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte was arrested in March for crimes against humanity, social media was soon awash with messages of love and support.

U.S. President Donald Trump was quick to offer his backing.

A powerful 7.7-magnitude earthquake that hit Myanmar on March 28 has killed more than 3,000 people in a country already ravaged by armed conflict after the military seized power in 2021.

The diplomatically isolated junta has made a rare plea for international help, as has the National Unity Government (NUG), made up of lawmakers in exile following the military coup.

On the coast of typhoon-prone Philippines, mangroves resembling upside-down tree roots help to protect people from storms and act as a nursery for animals like fish and clams.

When the severe Typhoon Rai hit Siargao Island in 2021, for example, more than 8,000 hectares of mangrove forests broke the energy of the waves and protected coastal villagers, contributing to a low fatality rate, wetland experts say.

Since he was 15, Junrey Longos has lived among lush mangrove forests and turquoise waters in Del Carmen, his hometown in the Philippines' surfing capital on Siargao Island.

Once an illegal fisher who would cut the woody tropical trees to be sold as fuel, he now protects them as part of a civilian fisheries patrol force.

China is best placed to replace the United States as a key foreign donor in Asia but may be reluctant to fully fill the void, while South Korea and Japan may struggle to give enough, experts said.

From critical maternal health care to funding disaster relief, life-saving projects in Asia hang in the balance after President Donald Trump paused foreign aid and moved to dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

LoveYourself, a Philippines-based group providing free HIV testing and treatment services, was receiving aid from the United States like innumerable groups promoting health and LGBTQ+ rights around the world.

But unlike so many of those organizations that were forced to close clinics when U.S. President Donald Trump announced a 90-day freeze on all foreign assistance on January 20, LoveYourself kept 40 of its staff members affected by the freeze, and its doors stayed open.

From blackouts, a racing heart, extreme fatigue and brain fog, to severe depression and anxiety, DVL Padma Priya was hit with a constellation of symptoms in 2020, just months after recovering from COVID-19.

But without a name for her condition, or support from health professionals, she said she struggled to understand what was wrong.

Adolescent pregnancy has become a national emergency in the Philippines, where girls as young as 10 years old become mothers.

The archipelago nation has one of the highest adolescent birth rates in Asia, with 47 births annually per 1,000 women aged 15-19.

From construction to agriculture and manufacturing, labour migration fuels the Asian economy, and a major rights group said interventions are needed to protect migrant workers from vulnerable situations.

In the Philippines, among the world's top sources of migrant labour, remittances sent home by Filipino workers overseas account for about a tenth of the country's annual gross domestic product.

When masked vigilantes killed her husband at the height of the Philippines' "war on drugs" in 2016, Liza Igcasinza admitted to the police that she was using banned substances and was forced to spend a year in rehab.

"I was very frightened. The police took our mug shots as if we were criminals," Igcasinza, now 50, told Context.