An extremely short but needed update

Hello friends,

A strange update from me this week. 

I somehow managed to fall from the top of my loft, head first onto the bottom step Friday morning. I also seem to have beaten up every limb on the way down. The last five days have been spent taking selfies of my enormous swollen eye and stitches while watching the worst mid-2000s thrillers ever filmed.

Imagine this, but at 8am and in pyjamas.

Sadly, my laptop made the fall with me so this is coming to you from my phone!

Still, I cannot help but be a nerd. Before I head back to the couch here's the shortest DMKM update of all time:

You must read everything Nikkei Asia published on the Cambodia election on Sunday. As expected, Hun Sen's Cambodian People's Party is very proud of its 'landslide' victory. The US is not happy and introduced new sanctions while Cambodians quietly wondered what's the point. CamboJA spoke with Funcinpec party boss Prince Norodom Chakravuth on his concerns - the party picked up a handful of seats. BBC has some great overarching analysis.

In the Philippines, President Bongbong Marcos have his second State of the Nation Address. It was a dud, even by his own account.

A fresh scandal in Malaysia over the weekend after Matt Healy, who would like to be famous for being a rockstar singer for the 1975 but is instead famous for shacking up briefly with Taylor Swift, ignored (heavy-handed, to be sure) protocol. His band headlined the Good Vibes Festival but the set was abruptly cancelled after he kissed a male bandmate on stage. The take away here is: taking a stand for the LGBT community in a country not your own only works if they won't bear the brunt of your actions. The band fled Malaysia Friday night and cancelled planned shows in Jakarta (okay, maybe I get that) and Taiwan (home to Asia's most chill LGBT environment??)

Apologies for any broken links, this was harder than I thought! I hope to be back later in the week after more rest and a Chromebook with an update on Thailand - that's been hard enough sans concussion - and Singapore. 

See you then! And be careful on stairs!

Erin Cook