Asia

North Korea has fired several short-range ballistic missiles, Seoul’s military said on Thursday, hours after US President Donald Trump said he would meet Pyongyang’s Kim Jong-un this year. The latest launches from the nuclear-armed North come as South Korea and the United States hold a shorter edition of their annual Ulchi Freedom Shield military exercises, following an order from Trump to scale them back. Pyongyang has long condemned US-South Korea joint exercises as rehearsals for invasion,...

Four workers died on Thursday after being hit by an express train at a station in Tochigi Prefecture, north of Tokyo, police said. The four men were on the tracks to remove weeds when the accident took place at around 10.45am local time at Shin-Kanuma Station on the Tobu Nikko Line, according to the police and the train operator. No crew or passengers were injured. A total of seven workers were engaged in weeding work, including the four who lost their lives. The other three were uninjured, the...

A deadly school attack in the southern Philippines is drawing scrutiny as part of an apparent regional pattern of youth violence that echoes the staging, symbolism and online spectacle of mass shootings overseas. Authorities are investigating whether the incident in Zamboanga, in which a student reportedly broadcast parts of the attack online, was influenced by exposure to digital media, while analysts said the case underscored the risk of “memetic violence” – in which past atrocities are...

Mainland Chinese tourist arrivals in Japan fell for an eighth consecutive month in July, as group tours slumped and visa costs rose amid deteriorating ties between Beijing and Tokyo. Mainland China has traditionally been a major source of visitors for Japan, but tourist arrivals plunged 56.1 per cent year on year in July, extending a downward trend that began in December 2025, according to data released by the Japan National Tourism Organisation (JNTO) on Wednesday. Overall foreign arrivals to...

Malaysians have launched a humorous appeal to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani to fix their potholes, sparking a meme fest praising his responsiveness and highlighting local government inaction. The campaign began after a social media user posted a video of a battered road he frequently uses that caused him to crash, urging Mamdani to help make the thoroughfare passable. “Mamdani, please help me. There used to be a pothole over there and because of the pothole I was involved in a road...

South Korea’s push to regain wartime control of its military has been thrown into doubt after the United States abruptly cut short a major joint exercise, scrapping plans for a simulated counteroffensive into North Korean territory and encirclement of Pyongyang. Defence analysts warn scaling back the Ulchi Freedom Shield (UFS) exercise could weaken the allies’ deterrence posture at a sensitive moment, even as Seoul seeks greater self-reliance in managing security on the Korean peninsula. US...

South Korea will flag off ⁠on Saturday a container ship bound for Europe via the Arctic, testing whether a route opened by melting sea ice can be commercially viable, but risking friction with Western allies, as the voyage requires Russian cooperation. If successful, the trip would be South Korea’s first such commercial voyage to Europe via the Arctic, placing it with China and Russia among the few countries whose shipping firms have tested or run cargo services along the route. Sailing ‌north...

South Korea’s security strategy has rested for more than seven decades on a single pillar: its alliance with the United States. That pillar has absorbed one blow after another during Donald Trump’s second term as US president. This week brought a fresh signal that has strained the relationship. In a social media post, Trump criticised joint US-South Korea military exercises, calling them “costly” and saying they send an “inappropriate and hostile” message to a North Korea he described as...

US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that he planned to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un later this year, despite Pyongyang denying that the two leaders were in direct communication. “Yeah, I will be,” Trump told reporters when asked whether he expected to meet Kim before the end of 2026. Trump, speaking during a tour of a new helipad under construction at the White House, provided no details about where or when a meeting might take place. The Wall Street Journal has reported that...

North ⁠Korea’s Kim Yo-jong, sister of leader Kim Jong-un, on Wednesday denied Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s claim that Pyongyang planned to send up to 50,000 more troops to Russia to fight for ‌its ally. Kim Yo-jong, a top official in North Korea’s ruling party, said in a statement published by state media KCNA that Zelensky’s estimate was “groundless” and “a self-staged incident”. Zelensky made his claim in a post on social media this month, and he called on South Korea to provide...

Bangladesh’s request for additional diesel from India has turned a growing power crisis into a potential opening for the two neighbours to repair ties strained in part by the continuous self-exile of ex-prime minister Sheikh Hasina in New Delhi and Dhaka’s repeated requests for her extradition. India confirmed on Friday that it was examining Dhaka’s request for extra fuel as Bangladesh ordered shops, malls and markets to close by 8pm to conserve power, with hospitals, pharmacies and restaurants...

Singapore will introduce tax exemptions on profits earned by fund managers and make it easier for investment professionals to obtain visas as it seeks to head off growing competition in the asset management sector, the central bank has said. The ‌Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the finance ministry plan to exempt from tax investment profits earned by fund managers from managing certain funds, including those of single family offices. More details will be announced in the 2027...

The Pakistani government challenged on Wednesday a Supreme Court order to move jailed former prime minister Imran Khan to a private hospital, a petition filed with the court showed. The move could dash the hopes ‌of Khan’s party and family, who have been calling for him to be given access to healthcare and visitation rights, and also spark public discontent over the treatment of the hugely popular cricketer-turned-politician. Khan, 73, has been in jail in the garrison city of Rawalpindi since...

Malaysia faces a growing risk of miscalculation near its state of Sabah as US-China rivalry drives more military activities into the waters around Borneo, its defence minister has warned, bolstering the government’s push for higher spending on its armed forces. The concern is particularly acute for Malaysia, a South China Sea claimant that has long sought to keep close economic ties with China while avoiding alignment with either Beijing or Washington and is feeling further unease over the...

On paper, the small rooms inside the flats in Din Daeng, a district in Bangkok, were packed with foreign children. A total of 64 foreign children had been registered as occupants in one flat alone – an implausible listing that authorities say has exposed a wider fraud in Thailand’s house-registration system. The children were not found living there. Their names, investigators say, have been fraudulently entered into official records, potentially opening the way to pink ID cards, access to public...

Schools in Thailand conducted active shooter drills on ⁠Wednesday, as authorities ⁠moved to strengthen security measures ⁠two weeks after a 14-year-old opened fire at a school and killed at least eight people. At the Surasamontree School in Bangkok, students took part in a “run, hide, fight” exercise, with ‌a police officer dressed in black and acting as a mock attacker, armed with a handgun and an assault rifle firing blanks. Students ran from the gunman and hid under tables and behind locked...

Read more: https://sc.mp/841640 Bangladesh has launched a women-only “Pink Bus” service in Dhaka staffed entirely by female drivers and conductors. Created to provide a safe, dedicated transit option for women, the programme is operating 14 buses. Ten started running in the capital Dhaka on Tuesday and on Wednesday the cities of Chittagong and Bogra each received two new lines.

Thailand is ready to shift its approach to a slow-burn insurgency in its Muslim-majority deep south and revitalise a peace process, Bangkok’s chief negotiator has said, as violence simmers in one of Southeast Asia’s longest-running conflicts. Any such move could mark a return to addressing the political roots of a conflict that has killed more than 7,800 people since 2004, when the latest round of the insurgency led mainly by the Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN) flared in Thailand’s southernmost...

Indonesia has seized 2.6 tonnes of liquid methamphetamine hidden on a Tanzanian-flagged vessel in one of the country’s biggest drug busts, with 10 crew members arrested, a senior narcotics official said. The National Narcotics Agency said in a statement late on Tuesday it had received intelligence that a vessel sailing from Sarawak, Malaysia, through the Andaman Sea may be carrying narcotics to Indonesia. The agency, in a joint operation with customs officials, intercepted the MV Rain Maker –...

At Singapore casino Resorts World Sentosa’s Lunar New Year lucky draw for high rollers earlier this year, the biggest prize was a bottle of Martell Cognac. Across the harbour at rival Marina Bay Sands, the top sweepstakes winner walked away with a new Mercedes-Benz CLA 200 worth much more. It is one of the incidents that has made the casino duopoly in one of the world’s top gambling venues more lopsided in the past few years. That is putting pressure on the Sentosa Island resort, whose gaming...

Japan is weighing how far to push back after Russian President Vladimir Putin visited a disputed island last week, as analysts debate whether tougher measures would have much impact on Moscow. Some observers urged Japan to recall its ambassador, impose additional sanctions and deepen cooperation with Ukraine to show it would not be “bullied”, while others said Tokyo had little economic leverage left given already weak bilateral ties and its reliance on Russian natural gas. Putin made his...

At least nine people were killed and several others injured in a fire at a hotel in the Indian city of Kolkata on Wednesday, a senior fire department official said. “Nine people were killed, including a child, in the fire that broke out early on Wednesday,” said Anuj Sharma, the fire services director of West Bengal state. “Thick smoke enveloped the hotel. Some victims were found in the bathrooms.” Five fire engines were deployed to bring the blaze under control, while police and disaster...

En Poy was minding cattle in a former Khmer Rouge stronghold in Cambodia when he set off his first landmine. The blast from the rusty relic he picked up cost him an arm and an eye. It also inspired his career with non-profit organisation Cambodian Self Help Demining, which clears landmines and unexploded ordnance across the country, deadly remnants of wars from the last century. Groups like Poy’s that rely on foreign aid are struggling as donors shift funding for humanitarian demining towards...

Senior US defence officials have fanned out across Asia in recent weeks to reassure allies of Washington’s commitment to the region, even as the war with Iran strains American resources and President Donald Trump fuels doubts by criticising joint combat drills with South Korea. The visits by Admiral Frank Bradley and Under Secretary of Defence for Policy Elbridge Colby were intended to show that Washington was still invested in the Indo-Pacific, according to analysts. But the comments by Bradley...

A father and his two daughters died after an Immigration Department truck allegedly ran a red light and triggered a series of crashes in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur early on Wednesday. Preliminary investigations found that the empty truck, driven by a 43-year-old man, was headed to Chow Kit district at about 1am to pick up undocumented migrants detained in an operation, said Kuala Lumpur Traffic Investigation and Enforcement Department chief Assistant Commissioner Mohd Zamzuri Mohd...

A former Vietnamese politician unintentionally killed a ⁠teenager in a traffic accident in central Hanoi last year but was exempted from criminal prosecution, a police officer told state television, shedding light for the first time on a case that has fuelled criticism online for months. The interview was broadcast on Monday evening, days after people began leaving flowers at the site ‌where the accident occurred last May, in what dissident and youth groups described as an act of protest in the...

New Zealand has passed hotly contested legislation to block lawsuits that seek to hold companies liable for climate change harm. The right-wing coalition government’s legal amendment cleared a final hurdle in parliament on Tuesday night by a margin of 67 votes to 53. The law aimed to prevent civil litigation overriding its climate policy and undermining business confidence, the government said. It was introduced in response to a lawsuit filed by indigenous Maori climate activist Michael Smith...

Japan’s most greying municipality has turned to its Peruvian sister city in search of a way to reverse its population decline and address the labour shortage that together threaten its survival. The mountain village of Nanmoku in Gunma prefecture, where 65.2 per cent of residents were aged 65 or older in the 2020 census, signed a sister-city agreement with Belen in northern Peru in November, hoping cultural exchanges under the framework will eventually bring young people to live and work in the...

The South Korean and US militaries have agreed to shorten their drills at the US’ request, South Korean officials said on Wednesday, days after President Donald Trump ordered cuts to the exercises. The allies’ summertime Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises began Monday morning for an 11-day run, just after Trump ordered his Pentagon chief to “substantially reduce” them, citing what he said was a good relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and South Korea’s refusal to join the US war...

US President Donald Trump’s abrupt move to scale back annual military drills with South Korea has handed President Lee Jae Myung a fresh impetus for greater defence self-reliance even as he seeks to maintain the long-standing alliance. Lee on Tuesday called for accelerated efforts to regain wartime operational control (OPCON) of South Korean forces from the United States and build nuclear-powered submarines, casting both as part of a broader push to boost South Korea’s ability to defend...