Asia

The Philippines is in talks with Saudi Arabia, Russia and the United States to store oil in the fuel-import-dependent nation, in a bid to hedge against fuel price spikes driven by the Iran war. The Southeast Asian nation, which imports nearly all ‌its energy needs, also planned to increase diesel and gas-fired power output to make up for an estimated 60 per cent decline in hydropower and 20 per cent fall in solar output in the first half of 2027 due to the El Nino weather phenomenon, Energy...

Japan’s push to expand industrial and port cooperation with Bangladesh could transform the South Asian country into a regional trade gateway, analysts say, connecting markets in Southeast Asia and the wider Indo-Pacific while diversifying Dhaka’s economic ties. The plan was announced during Bangladeshi Prime Minister Tarique Rahman’s official visit to Japan this week. Rahman welcomed Tokyo’s pledge of US$6 billion in investment over the next five years, which could help revive an economy hit by...

China said it would seek India’s help to “maintain peace and stability in the border areas” after new stand-offs in a long-disputed region threatened to undermine improved relations. “We hope that India will work with China in the same direction by jointly implementing the common understandings between the two sides,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said at a daily media briefing on Monday. China “strictly abides by the relevant agreements”, he said. Guo also said that China...

Australia’s national broadcaster ABC called on the far-right One Nation party on Wednesday to stop using children’s TV character Bluey in its political cartoons. Bluey is the popular star of an Australian cartoon series featuring canines navigating childhood and parenting in the suburbs. Pauline Hanson’s One Nation party has come under fire for a 2024 political cartoon depicting Bluey driving a car over an Australian politician. That cartoon in particular has come into the spotlight since a man...

Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim is up against it in next month’s Melaka state poll, as his ruling Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition risks yet another electoral wipeout at the hands of its federal partner Umno. The two are competing head-to-head in nearly all of the 28 state assembly seats up for grabs on November 14, in a contest widely seen as favouring an incumbent state administration led by the United Malays National Organisation’s Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition. Whether BN holds onto...

Malaysia will still lose tens of billions of ringgit to the 1MDB scandal even after further overseas asset recoveries, its second finance minister said on Wednesday, as disgraced former prime minister Najib Razak prepares to move to house arrest. Najib has been imprisoned since 2022 following his conviction for corruption and money laundering tied to SRC International, a former subsidiary of 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB). The sovereign wealth fund was co-founded by Najib in 2009 during his...

Malaysian customs said on Wednesday ⁠that it ⁠had seized about 49.5 ⁠million ringgit (US$12 million) worth of advanced artificial intelligence chips this month, as authorities close in on a syndicate suspected of smuggling high-performance semiconductors through the country’s main airport. Malaysia imposed export controls last year on the movement of advanced AI chips of US origin, following pressure from the United States to stem their flow into China. On October 15, authorities found 30 server...

A Singaporean behavioural therapist who was repeatedly hit in the face by a four-year-old boy with special needs grabbed his hand and dragged him off his chair and onto the floor. Tricia Lee Hsien, 29, was fined S$5,000 (US$3,900) by a court on Wednesday. She pleaded guilty to one charge of voluntarily causing hurt to a minor. The prosecution sought only a fine, saying this was an “exceptional case” as the harm caused was low and the woman’s culpability was low in this isolated act of...

Yosafat Menteng travelled from Kalimantan on Indonesia’s Borneo island with five fellow students to join Wednesday’s protest in Jakarta against the government’s handling of forest fires that have blanketed parts of Indonesia and neighbouring countries in toxic haze. Back home in Palangka Raya, one of the worst-affected cities by the haze, he heads the students’ council at the University of Palangkaraya’s Faculty of Social and Political Sciences. “We in Kalimantan strongly urge the government to...

India has emerged as a major exporter of ammunition and other weapons to Europe since the outbreak of the Ukraine-Russia war, but analysts caution that New Delhi has yet to secure a lasting foothold in Europe’s defence market. Defence Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh cited a Bloomberg report last Friday stating that India had become the third-largest arms exporter to Europe under the “ReArm Europe” initiative – also known as Readiness 2030 – largely because of ammunition demand. Bloomberg, citing...

A total of 2,097 Malaysian police officers and personnel have been arrested for drug-related offences, robbery and corruption between 2021 and August this year, according to Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail. Of the total, 1,551 were arrested for drug offences, 64 for robbery and 482 by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC). Saifuddin Nasution said in a written parliamentary reply to Kepong MP Lim Lip Eng on Tuesday that the drug-related arrests were made under the Dangerous...

Japan is bracing for a more unpredictable ally in Washington, as the US midterm elections threaten to deepen political gridlock and complicate Tokyo’s long-term security calculations, analysts say. Observers warn that post-election political battles, ranging from a possible repeat of impeachment proceedings to the mounting legal battles ensnaring the administration of US President Donald Trump, risk diverting the White House’s attention from foreign policy and its long-standing commitments to...

Parents in Japan are taking an increasingly active role in their children’s lives – helping them find marriage partners, navigate job hunting and secure housing – as the line between parental support and personal decision-making continues to blur. In a practice known as “proxy matchmaking”, parents attend social events armed with photos and profiles of their children, hoping to find suitable marriage partners through conversations with other parents. The Association of Parents of Marriage...

Ferocious winds and torrential rain lashed India’s southeastern coast as Cyclone Arnab made landfall on Wednesday, forcing nearly 100,000 people to evacuate their homes in two states, authorities said. Arnab hit Andhra Pradesh as a “very severe cyclonic storm”, with winds of 125-135km/h (78-84 mph) and gusts reaching 150km/h, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said. A storm surge of 1.5 to 2.5 ‌metres (5-8 feet) above normal tide is very ⁠likely to ⁠inundate low-lying areas of the state...

Immigration restrictions, rising living costs and strains in US-India relations are testing support for President Donald Trump among some Indian-Americans who backed the Republican Party in 2024, analysts say, ahead of November’s midterm elections. A survey released in August by AAPI Data and Asian and Pacific Islander American Vote found that 66 per cent of Indian-American respondents favoured Democratic candidates for the US House of Representatives, compared with 18 per cent for Republicans....

Manila sent two strikingly different messages to Beijing on October 13. At the Malacanang Palace, a presidential spokeswoman reaffirmed Manila’s commitment to sustaining diplomatic and economic ties with China, saying “China needs the Philippines, and the Philippines needs China”. That same day, Philippine Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jnr rejected a call for military-to-military communication with China, a move that received public support from the Armed Forces of the Philippines. Teodoro...

More than 1,000 people are still taking shelter in evacuation centres, awaiting temporary housing three months after a magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck Japan’s Kumamoto prefecture, damaging their homes. The quake occurred at 4.27pm on July 28. As of Monday, the death toll stood at 38 – 36 from confirmed disaster-related causes and two suspected to be disaster-related – bringing the number of casualties to 420. Evacuation centres remain open at 21 locations in seven cities and towns. In...

South Korea wants to take back wartime command of its troops from the United States within the next two years, but analysts say Washington is refusing to commit to a date to keep a hold on a military it sees as vital to countering China. The dispute is over wartime operational control, known as OPCON, which the US has held since shortly after the outbreak of the Korean war in 1950. If fighting were to break out again under the current arrangements, designated South Korean units would be assigned...

Singapore’s ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) has retained its core executive team in what is seen as a cautious approach despite pledges of renewal, with observers pointing to ministerial promotions as a better indication of leadership plans. The PAP emerged from an internal election on Sunday with an unchanged slate for the Central Executive Committee (CEC), its highest decision-making body, as rising ministers Jeffrey Siow and Jasmin Lau failed to secure seats, though four remaining co-opted...

Indonesia and Singapore are looking to set up a joint task force to deal with haze from Indonesia’s wildfires, the countries’ foreign ministers said on Tuesday, as they met to reaffirm their ties after weeks of simmering tensions. The visit to Jakarta by Singapore Foreign Minister ‌Vivian Balakrishnan came amid mounting frustrations in the city state over the transboundary haze generated by Indonesia’s most intense forest fires in 11 years. After a two-hour meeting, Singapore and Indonesia’s top...

A 50-million-peso (US$780,000) bounty for information leading to the arrest of fugitive Philippine senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa has raised questions over the Marcos administration’s ability to enforce the law against high-profile political figures, with analysts warning the move risks making Manila appear weak and reactive. Dela Rosa, who served as national police chief under former president Rodrigo Duterte, faces an International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant for alleged crimes...

A court in India has ordered the ⁠takedown of an online documentary posted by Hotmail co-founder Sabeer Bhatia accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi and billionaire Gautam Adani of cronyism, after Adani Enterprises sued, calling it defamatory. Adani’s flagship firm, Adani Enterprises, told the High Court in the eastern city of Kolkata that the documentary, which garnered millions of views on social media in recent days, was riddled with false content and had prompted ‌inquiries from some...

Indonesia could gain critical defence technology, investment and export opportunities through a new multi-nation defence pact with Turkey, Qatar and Pakistan, but analysts warn its success hinges on turning high-level ambition into concrete projects. The four Muslim-majority nations signed the Badr Memorandum of Understanding in Doha on Wednesday. The agreement outlines a framework for defence “cooperation and integration” across joint research and development, training exchanges and industrial...

The collision of two Philippine Air Force training aircraft that killed four pilots has raised questions about whether the service’s training, maintenance and safety systems can keep pace with Manila’s ambitions to acquire more advanced combat aircraft. The crash, which occurred during a fly-by rehearsal at Fernando Air Base in Lipa City, Batangas province, south of Manila, on Friday has renewed calls for a comprehensive review of the Air Force’s ageing fleet, pilot instruction, maintenance...

South Korea’s embrace of GLP-1 weight-loss drugs appears particularly pronounced among younger adults, with roughly one in six Gen Z respondents reporting they had used or been prescribed the medication in 2025, according to a new report. The 2026 Korea Wellness Report, released by KB Financial Group on Sunday and cited by The Korea Times, surveyed 2,000 men and women aged 25 to 69 between July and August. Across all age brackets, the overall uptake stood at 10.3 per cent. Gen Z adults – defined...

A bus fitted out ⁠with oxygen tanks is ⁠providing a sanctuary in a ⁠city on Indonesia’s Borneo island, where people are choking from forest-fire-induced haze and the blazes show no sign of letting up. Indonesia regularly battles seasonal forest fires, predominantly on Sumatra and Borneo islands, but this year the infernos are the most intense in ‌more than a decade. An intense El Nino weather phenomenon has driven up temperatures, leaving the country’s vast forests and peatlands more vulnerable...

South Korea’s President Lee Jae Myung has been urged by critics to play the latest instalment in the blockbuster Call of Duty video game franchise to better appreciate the need for defences against an invasion by the North. The call from opposition lawmakers follows the release on Friday of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, a first-person shooter depicting a full-scale surprise attack by North Korea on the South. Players fight North Korean troops as Park Hyun-jun, a private in the South Korean...

As the sun sets over Fiji’s tiny Serua Island, its climate-threatened inhabitants soak in one of the reasons they have rejected attempts to relocate their village – the “US$100 million views”. The island looks like a utopia from the mainland, two steep palm-covered knolls sandwiching its low-lying centre, flanked by coral reefs and rich fishing grounds. But it is on the island itself that the risk from rising seas becomes clearer, with a concrete sea wall providing the only defence against waves...

More than one in 10 Malaysian men have borrowed money to pay for dates, while nearly six in 10 usually pick up the entire bill, a survey has found. The findings come as rising living costs place a financial strain on romance in Malaysia, where money worries are increasingly complicating plans for marriage and starting a family. According to the Dating Expenditure Survey in Malaysia, released on Tuesday by independent policy research firm LEGASI Research, 13.2 per cent of male respondents...

The estranged half-brother of Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex, has called their father a “disgusting monster” after handing over a trove of alleged child abuse material belonging to their shared parent to police in the Philippines. The four boxes containing mobile phones, computer equipment and other personal belongings were handed over to the Philippine National Police’s Women and Children Protection Centre last week by Thomas Markle Jnr, who was previously his father’s full-time carer. Markle...