Asia

Authorities in Indonesia’s tourist island of Bali foiled an attempt to illegally trade 21 protected green sea turtles, police said on Friday. Bali police seized the live animals during a raid on the Pegametan coast of the island on June 10, after local residents reported suspected illegal turtle trading activity in the area, said Nanang Pri Hasmojo, head of law enforcement at the force. Police arrested a 67-year-old man identified only by his initials KS, who is suspected of storing the...

The son of Myanmar’s jailed pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has said his mother’s “spirit cannot be caged”, in a moving video greeting for her 81st birthday – a milestone she again marks while confined by the junta. Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s de facto leader until the 2021 coup removed her administration, was jailed for 33 years following that military takeover on charges including election fraud and corruption. International observers and her pro-democracy supporters say the allegations were...

We’ve never had it so good. The S&P 500 and Nikkei 225 have hit record highs this month. SpaceX had its spectacular initial public offering, the largest in history. The company raised an eye-popping US$75 billion and saw a sharp rise in its share price to a mind-blowing valuation of US$2.5 trillion in two days. The US-Iran deal on reopening the Strait of Hormuz caused petrol prices to drop back to below US$4 per gallon. Global stock markets are creating seemingly unstoppable wealth for...

A Vietnamese national deported to South Sudan by Donald Trump’s administration under its controversial third-country deportation programme was repatriated to Vietnam on Friday after spending more than a year in detention. South Sudan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced the repatriation of 44-year-old Tuan Phan at a press briefing on Friday. “We are grateful that while in our custody Mr Phan was very disciplined, joyful, and importantly, he remained healthy,” spokesman Agok Anyar said. Phan...

Arsenio Butil Jnr fell to his knees and began to pray when last week’s deadly 7.8-magnitude earthquake began shaking his home on the coast of the southern Philippines. When he opened his eyes, he saw a once-familiar shoreline changing in real time, with swathes of previously submerged coral suddenly pushing above the waterline. The June 8 quake, driven by a shifting of the nearby Cotabato Trench, toppled buildings, triggered landslides and killed at least 76 people on the southern island of...

Australia has supplied the Philippine coastguard with a new batch of aerial and underwater drones that could significantly enhance Manila’s capability to monitor activities in the disputed South China Sea. The systems would help the coastguard gather evidence and enhance deterrence across the contested waters, including areas within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone, where Manila has faced repeated confrontations with Chinese vessels, according to analysts. Based on images released by the...

A social media post by London Mayor Sadiq Khan calling his city and Singapore global powerhouses has ignited scrutiny of both places, with critics arguing that they are worlds apart. Khan, who was in Singapore this week, posted a picture of himself standing in front of the Marina Bay skyline on Sunday with the caption: “This is what it looks like when two global powerhouses unite. Delighted to be here to bang the drum for London and supercharge the strong ties between our countries.” Social...

A fire that broke out at a primary school in Tokyo on Friday, injuring eight pupils and two teachers before being extinguished, authorities said. The fire was reported around 11am, according to the local fire department. It started in a room next to the music room on the top floor of Takinogawa Dai-san Elementary School in the Kita area of the Japanese capital. It was extinguished at around 1.45pm, with 75 fire engines and dozens of firefighters at the scene. Most of the injured suffered from...

Filipinos are losing faith in the news faster than audiences almost anywhere else in the world, as analysts attribute the decline to years of sustained attacks on the Philippine media industry and the growing reach of influence operations on social media. Only 28 per cent of Filipinos said they trusted news most of the time, down from 38 per cent in 2025, according to the latest Reuters Institute Digital News Report – the steepest decline among respondents across 48 markets. The figure placed...

Ghost nets and plastic pollution plague Indonesia’s Anambas Islands, harming marine life and exposing the gap between regional pledges and enforcement. This environmental crisis is further worsened by rapidly surging growth-driven consumption, campaigners say. Devina Mariskova, head of Yayasan Anambas, said the nets are often thrown from vessels off the coasts of surrounding countries, largely placing the burden of collecting them on the small island chain’s coastal communities and...

Malaysian police arrested 58 people and seized more than half a million ringgit (US$124,000) in illicit proceeds in a World Cup gambling sweep as authorities in Southeast Asia crack down on illegal football betting during the tournament. Malaysia, where unlicensed betting is a criminal offence, has been bracing for a rise in illegal sports wagers, with the quadrennial spectacle attracting punters to betting sites and apps. Bukit Aman Criminal Investigation Department director M. Kumar said...

Foreign trawlers slip into waters off the Malaysian state of Terengganu under cover of darkness, local fishermen say, working near Pulau Redang and Pulau Bidong before leaving by dawn to avoid detection. The incursions have become a recurring problem for fishermen along the eastern coast of Peninsular Malaysia, where the South China Sea separates Malaysia from Vietnam by just hundreds of kilometres. Alias Yahya, who sits on the board of the Terengganu fishermen’s group Penentu, said members had...

Yusran first learned of the danger facing his teenage cousin, Elmi Febrianti, at an Indonesian tourist attraction in South Sulawesi when he received a frantic phone call from a family member. Elmi, a 17-year-old Indonesian student, had been at a popular photo spot in Apparalang, Bulukumba regency, when she fell into the sea on the afternoon of June 7 while taking a selfie on the area’s picturesque limestone cliffs. A friend who had been with the teenager at the time called her family, one of...

South Korean police have taken the rare step of placing three 12-year-old boys in juvenile facilities after they allegedly stole cars and drove without licences in two separate incidents within a week, underscoring growing concern over serious offences committed by children too young to face criminal prosecution. Police in Cheonan, a city about 90km south of Seoul, said on June 17 that the boys had been placed in juvenile protection facilities following a series of car thefts in May. “These...

A recent survey in Japan and South Korea has revealed that strategic elites in both countries remain sceptical about developing nuclear weapons. However, should one of the two countries take the lead in acquiring nuclear weapons, support for such a move in the other country could rise rapidly, according to the survey published on Thursday by Washington-based think tank the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). The impact of such a move could potentially exceed that of a...

North Korea’s Kim ⁠Yo-jong, the powerful sister of leader Kim Jong-un, condemned a G7 call for the country’s denuclearisation as a violation of its constitution and an infringement of ‌sovereignty, state media KCNA said on Thursday. Kim said denuclearisation was an “irreversibly finalised agenda” that could never be realised, and that nuclear possession was North Korea’s core interest and an irreversible line, the statement carried by KCNA said. “Denuclearisation is the line ⁠of no retreat that...

A Vietnamese police operation rescued about 400 pet cats destined for the dinner plate, uncovering a nationwide racket fuelling the country’s rampant pet meat trade that uses a criminal corridor running from the south to the north. Hundreds of desperate cat owners rushed to a Ho Chi Minh police headquarters over the weekend to see if their lost pet was among the cats rescued from traffickers by police. In what is believed to be one of the largest busts of its kind, police said the cats were...

Trials are under way in China to roll out autonomous navigation and other smart shipping solutions to slash logistics costs ahead of the opening of the landmark Pinglu Canal, which will link its landlocked southwestern regions to Southeast Asia to spur trade and connectivity. Intelligent barges and other vessels have been tested on the artificial waterway in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region since Wednesday, as part of preparations for the commissioning of the roughly US$10 billion...

A Thai police officer who tried to flee after allegedly shooting his wife and her mother with his service weapon outside a gym was chased down and detained by two fitness trainers. Responding to reports of gunshots, officers from Nang Rong Police Station arrived at the two-storey fitness centre owned by the shooter’s wife behind Sra Ya Ma Market in Buriram province on Wednesday afternoon, according to the ThaiRath newspaper. They found the 37-year-old gym owner lying in a pool of blood with a...

A sharp sell-off in Indonesian assets has taken on a political tone online, with some social media users alleging, without evidence, that Singapore stands to gain from a “Sell Indonesia” narrative around Southeast Asia’s biggest economy. The rupiah has slipped to multiple record lows and weakened about 8 per cent this year, crossing a key level and trading above 18,000 to the US dollar last week, while Jakarta’s stock market has lost about a third of its value since the start of the year. As...

The mother of a 16-year-old girl who died from emaciation following lengthy detention and menacing interrogations by Japanese authorities is seeking compensation, in the latest “hostage justice” case. The lawsuit, filed with western Japan’s Kobe district court on Wednesday, argues that the girl’s 18-day ordeal at a jail traumatised her so much that five months after her release, she weighed just 20kg (44lbs) – and died in December. “My daughter was unrecognisable when she died,” the mother of...

Malaysian police have deported two Indian nationals wanted in connection with an explosion on a railway line in Punjab, in a case Indian media have linked to an alleged militant plot tied to the Khalistan separatist movement. Royal Malaysia Police said the pair were sent back to India on Wednesday after Indian authorities requested help locating and detaining them. M. Kumar S. Muthuvelu, director of the police’s criminal investigation department, said the two were believed to have been involved...

Japanese football fans have gone viral once again for tidying up the stadium after their team’s World Cup match against the Netherlands this week, only to prompt a meme criticising the country’s men for not applying the same standards of behaviour while at home. A spoof of a train etiquette poster contrasts an image of a football fan cleaning a stadium with a domestic scene where a woman washes dishes while a man clad in the national team’s Samurai Blue kit lounges on a sofa behind her. The...

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim visited Russia’s Kazan with a message about Asean centrality and a more urgent national problem behind it: keeping fuel supplies secure as global energy uncertainties linger. The two-day Asean-Russia Commemorative Summit has turned into a small but telling test of Washington’s influence in Southeast Asia, according to analysts, with Anwar and other regional leaders meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin even as Western governments seek to increase...

A Singaporean man is facing jail time for sending an edited photo of Marina Bay Sands (MBS) on fire to Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s Facebook page while mentioning a “bomb”. Andie Tan Kok Yong, a 35-year-old Singaporean, pleaded guilty on Thursday to one charge of knowingly sending a false message under the Miscellaneous Offences (Public Order and Nuisance) Act. A second charge of obstructing the course of justice by performing a factory reset of his phone will be considered in...

The deaths in quick succession of three rugby players in Malaysia have put renewed focus on the risks of competing in extreme heat and humidity, as climate change pushes temperatures higher across Southeast Asia. On May 23, prop Azlan Azhari, playing for Kedah’s state team against Johor in the 2026 Agong Cup, a local interstate tournament, collapsed about five minutes after scoring a try. The 22-year-old was stretchered off the field and taken to hospital where he was placed in an induced coma...

When Yuriko Koike was Japan’s environment minister in 2005, she was hailed by legions of salarymen as they shed ties and jackets in summer during the “Cool Biz” national energy-saving campaign that she helped to launch. Now, as Tokyo governor, Koike has taken the idea a step further: shorts in the office. In April, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government said it would allow male employees to arrive for work in shorts, urging businesses across the capital to adopt similarly relaxed dress codes. Tokyo...

US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he thinks Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is his “biggest fan” among world leaders. “Japan’s doing very well,” Trump said at a press conference after a Group of Seven summit concluded in the French spa resort of Evian-les-Bains. “I have to tell you, she thinks I did a great job. You have to call her and ask her. She’s doing a very good job, by the way.” Trump’s comments came after he was asked whether he had called on other G7 members, including...

Japan’s push to build its own civil aviation sector and stay competitive in the technology race against China could receive a boost from a potential partnership with American aircraft giant Boeing. The country is already a key Boeing partner, possesses advanced manufacturing technologies and could benefit from a captive domestic market – factors that analysts say make its plan to develop a commercial aircraft viable, as it seeks to rebound from the failed SpaceJet airliner programme. “It’s what...

US President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday attempted to defuse escalating tensions over the recent killing of three Indian sailors by American naval forces off the coast of Oman. Speaking to the media after their first bilateral meeting in 16 months, Trump said both Washington and New Delhi continue to “work together” on the issue, calling commercial vessel operations “a rough profession”. “I heard about that,” Trump added, without offering any condolences or...