Asia

Singapore’s major financial institutions have pledged to train more than 80,000 local employees in AI skills as the country moves to cushion white-collar workers from potential job disruption. A pioneer batch of 23 banks, insurers and asset managers has committed to train all their Singapore staff by 2028, and more than half of them have already gone through programmes recognised by an industry association, according to Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong. The firms would also study how jobs were...

Sri Lanka’s main opposition took to the streets on Thursday to protest against judicial reforms, including raising the retirement age for judges, that the government says are needed to reduce legal delays. Opposition leader Sajith Premadasa told thousands of supporters outside parliament that the legislation proposed by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s left-wing administration would “annihilate” judicial independence. The government unveiled two bills last month to increase the number of...

For millions of Indians, buying a cup of chai or groceries from roadside vendors has come to mean reaching for their phones rather than wallets – a habit made possible by a system that has so far charged consumers nothing for such everyday transactions. Now, a decade after the government launched the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), India is asking some merchants to pay for the hugely popular system – raising questions over whether it can preserve the low-cost model that drove its mass adoption...

Singapore police have launched an investigation after a video of a man allegedly filming female students using smart glasses went viral, sparking concerns about privacy and safety. In the social media video, a man wearing black-rimmed glasses and a face mask is seen walking behind two female students wearing what appear to be uniforms from Raffles Institution, a premier school in the city state. The girls seem unaware of his presence. The man clutches his phone to his chest and presses what...

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr is weighing an absolute pardon for Mary Jane Veloso, a former death row inmate detained since her 2010 conviction for drug trafficking in Indonesia. “The Office of the President is seriously considering granting an absolute pardon to Mary Jane Veloso on humanitarian grounds in support of the government’s commitment to protecting Filipino migrant workers,” lawmaker Albert Garcia said on Wednesday, as quoted by the Philippine Daily Inquirer. “There will be...

The Philippine Senate has made it mathematically easier to convict Vice-President Sara Duterte-Carpio, but observers say the ruling could intensify a battle over an impeachment trial already viewed by the public as deeply divisive. The Senate, sitting as an impeachment court, ruled on Wednesday that only senator-judges who are able to take part in the trial should be counted in determining the threshold for conviction. Under the Philippine constitution, a two-thirds vote of the Senate is...

Malaysia’s haze crisis has flared again just weeks after emergency measures and cloud-seeding operations brought temporary relief, with experts warning that smoke from Indonesian fires could continue drifting across the country until monsoon winds change. All 108 schools in Serian, a district in the state of Sarawak on Malaysian Borneo, were ordered to close on Thursday after the air pollutant index (API) breached 200 on Wednesday night, forcing pupils back to home-based learning. By noon,...

A fundraiser to help pay disgraced former leader Najib Razak’s 50 million ringgit (US$12.3 million) fine has become a lightning rod for insults and mockery, as Malaysians continue to pile criticism on a decision last week to allow him to spend the rest of his jail sentence under house arrest. King Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar last Friday granted Najib a “conditional pardon”, which will allow the jailed ex-prime minister to complete his term in the comfort of his home – provided he first pays off his...

Indonesia’s navy commissioned its first aircraft carrier on Thursday after acquiring the former Italian vessel to strengthen its maritime defences and disaster response. The Italian flag on the former ITS Giuseppe Garibaldi was replaced with the Indonesian flag on the carrier renamed the KRI Sriwijaya-100 as part of its official transfer at the ceremony held at Tanjung Priok seaport in North Jakarta. “The ship, which previously served in the Italian navy, now bears the name KRI Sriwijaya-100,...

As a Rohingya exile who abandoned his life in Malaysia to return to Myanmar, Ismail’s bleak prospects may portend what awaits others caught in Kuala Lumpur’s migrant crackdown. Weeks ago, the 25-year-old was eking out a living at a Malaysian fish market, one of legions of the Muslim minority group who left Myanmar to escape violence some monitors say amounted to genocide. But a wave of anti-Rohingya sentiment, migrant arrests and a government plan to repatriate Myanmar nationals drove Ismail...

Thailand’s teenage guitar sensation Nene Royal won the US$1 million top prize on America’s Got Talent, capping a viral run that made the 16-year-old a national celebrity and drew support from across her home country. Rattikarn Amloy, better known by her stage name Nene Royal, was crowned the winner during Wednesday’s live results show, beating nine other finalists after emerging as the clear favourite before the finale. During Tuesday’s final, she sang and played guitar on a rendition of “Seven...

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung’s proposal for a phased approach to Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programmes is a pragmatic response, analysts say, but prospects for gaining its arch-rival’s acceptance remain uncertain. In a keynote speech to the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, Lee laid out a long-term, step-by-step sequence for pursuing the ultimate goal of North Korea’s denuclearisation. He had called for Washington to ease sanctions in return for North Korea stopping its nuclear...

Toey Wattana Mongkhonnam began thinking about outfitting his family home in Thailand’s northeastern province of Yasothon with solar panels during the Covid-19 pandemic. In his household of five, electricity use rises with the day’s heat, and the monthly bill could range from 1,000 baht to 1,500 baht (US$30 to US$45). “Back then, I checked prices and a rooftop panel system that could put out enough power to run my household’s appliances could cost 100,000 baht to 200,000 baht,” said Toey, a Muay...

An autonomous OpenAI programme infiltrated an Australian government health website in June in an “unacceptable” breach, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said. The artificial intelligence agent accessed public and non-public files of the health statistics service, he told reporters in New York on Wednesday. OpenAI did not raise the alarm with the Australian government until September, when it sent an email outlining the incident to a generic email address. “Today I spoke with the CEO of OpenAI,...

Washington is increasingly turning to South Korea to ease ammunition supply bottlenecks triggered by wars in the Middle East and Europe, potentially accelerating Seoul’s integration into the US defence industrial base. Analysts say the United States may struggle to replenish stockpiles quickly enough if conflicts in Iran and Ukraine drag on, creating opportunities for South Korea’s defence industry to expand its presence in the US market. Jang Won-joon, a defence science professor at Jeonbuk...

A country’s diaspora can be a symbol of its pride and power. A nation’s diaspora can help it build international value through success stories, promote its soft power through culture and contribute to its economic progress through remittances, investments and transfers of expertise. India and China have among the world’s largest diasporas. They also offer two very different models of how countries can leverage their diasporas. In India, before the 1991 reforms, people mostly saw those who left...

An attack on a cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday killed an Indian sailor, Omani and Indian authorities said, with the latter condemning the ongoing attacks in the vital shipping lane. Since the start of the Middle East war, Iran has sought to impose its control over the maritime conduit for Gulf oil and gas, occasionally striking ships accused of failing to coordinate with its authorities or deviating from its preferred route. In retaliation, the US has been enforcing a...

The body of a child was found on Wednesday on the coast of an outlying island in northeastern Japan, with police investigating whether it could be a six-year-old boy who went missing in the area earlier this month. The body, which was found around 11.20am on Tobishima, Yamagata Prefecture, was dressed in what appeared to be a navy blue and red Spider Man-themed jumpsuit, similar to the clothing the boy was wearing when he disappeared, according to prefectural police. A man in his 70s alerted...

While starting salaries for fresh graduates and entry-level workers in Singapore continue to creep upwards, the number of people in entry-level roles is shrinking, according to new data, indicating an increasingly tough job market for those at the start of their careers. Data published last month by global professional services firm Aon showed a 2.5 per cent year-on-year salary increase for entry-level employees, alongside a 3.2 per cent drop in entry-level headcount. The findings come as...

Inside a car wash lounge in the southern Philippine city of Davao, Shenilane Formento scrolls through messages on her Chinese-made Oppo phone as she waits for a customer to pay. Formento, 29, has worked as a cashier for about a year. She follows developments in the South China Sea through news reports shared on her social media feeds, including frequent confrontations between Philippine and Chinese forces in the disputed waters. While she found such incidents “disappointing”, she ultimately...

India has joined a new multilateral grouping comprising a cross-regional mix of middle powers, in a move analysts say reflects New Delhi’s efforts to broaden its diplomatic options as it pushes for changes to the global order. External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar co-chaired the inaugural Partners for Multilateralism (P4M) Summit on Monday, on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. “We meet at a time when the global order is under stress,” Jaishankar said...

Brunei’s measured defence ties with Beijing reflect its low-key approach to South China Sea disputes, with analysts saying that goals such as peacekeeping offer the safest room for both sides to maintain diplomacy. A meeting between Bruneian and Chinese defence officials in Beijing last week, when both nations pledged closer practical cooperation and support for regional stability, underscored that tact. But observers also expect ties to remain modest, constrained by maritime claims and Bandar...

The lawyer for an Indonesian businessman arrested in Singapore for allegedly using counterfeit S$10,000 (US$7,830) notes at a casino has said his client was a victim of fraud himself. The businessman, identified only as Steven, is accused of exchanging 34 fake S$10,000 notes for chips over three visits to the Resorts World Sentosa casino in June. The notes were accepted but later found to be counterfeit. His lawyer, Dosma Sijabat, told Tempo news magazine on Tuesday that the fake bills did not...

A Malaysian tofu pudding seller has pledged to donate 10,000 ringgit (US$2,452) to help former prime minister Najib Razak cover his 50 million ringgit fine, describing the contribution as a personal payback for a lifeline extended to him 14 years ago. In a social media post, Sunny Seow, founder of the Sunnycoco brand, shared that his motivation stemmed from a pivotal moment in 2012 when he was serving a sentence in Perak state’s Manjung for past mistakes. During a visit by Najib to the area that...

The Philippine ⁠Senate, sitting as an impeachment ⁠court, on Wednesday lowered the number of votes needed to convict Vice-President Sara Duterte, reducing the threshold prosecutors must clear to secure a guilty verdict. The court ruled that only ‌senator-judges able to take part in the trial should be counted when determining the threshold for conviction. Four of the 24 senator-judges have been unable to take part in the proceedings and cannot vote. The decision means prosecutors now need 14...

Malaysians on social media are offering increasingly outlandish solutions to a months-long royal tussle in Negeri Sembilan state, from making rival claimants sleep on a bed of nettles for a week to putting the entire state through Islamic spiritual healing. The dispute has left Negeri Sembilan with two men claiming the throne, a state government at odds with the palace and no clear legal route to settle the fight. One social media user suggested reviving adat perpatih – the customary law of...

Female prisoners in Myanmar are subjected to widespread torture, sexual violence and life-threatening medical neglect, Human Rights Watch said on Wednesday, underlining the chronic ill-treatment of thousands of detainees in the war-torn nation. Since the military seized power in a February 2021 coup, a protracted civil war ‌has gripped the impoverished Southeast Asian nation, devastating several regions and killing about 100,000 while displacing more than 3.5 million. In a report, the New...

Kuala Lumpur is making it easier and cheaper to bring international music stars to the city, hoping that a bigger concert calendar can help Malaysia capture more of Southeast Asia’s booming live-music economy. But as more global acts come to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysian musicians are asking whether the concert boom is creating more opportunities for local artists too. Fuad Alhabshi of Malaysian rock band Kyoto Protocol said local bands once routinely benefited when major international acts came...

Melaka on Wednesday officially called for a state election – the latest test for Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s government, which is already facing an internal feud and growing public frustration over failed reforms. The state assembly was dissolved effective from Wednesday following an official notification sent to the country’s Election Commission the previous day by Ibrahim Durum, the Melaka state assembly’s speaker. “A state election will be held within 60 days of the dissolution...

Singaporeans are among the most open to allowing an artificial intelligence agent to shop for them, but they also want the strictest guard rails, research shows. The latest agentic AI study from Global Payments released on Wednesday indicates the hoops agentic AI will need to jump through to be trusted to make purchases without human intervention. The study, which surveyed seven countries including the United States, China and the United Kingdom, found 59 per cent of Singaporeans are open to an...