As regional donors are urged to give more, many say it is not just about plugging immediate gaps from the sudden pullout, but buying time for aid-reliant projects to diversify funding models, which have been "overdue for an overhaul".
A US$9 billion infrastructure project aims to turn the sparsely populated home to remote Indigenous tribes into a Hong Kong-like industrial port city that could see the local population increase by 8,000 per cent. Activists say the project is tantamount to genocide.
Hand-foot-mouth disease outbreaks, already common in Asia, could strike sooner, harder and with greater frequency if the world fails to keep temperature rise in check, a study says.