Asia

A university symposium in Guangzhou has placed the Philippines’ northernmost province of Batanes at the centre of a new argument over history, geography and sovereignty, after scholars at the event claimed the islands belonged to Taiwan and, on that basis, fell under overall Chinese sovereignty. The claim, made at a June 30 symposium hosted by Jinan University in Guangzhou, has been rejected by Philippine historians and officials, who dispute the scholars’ reading of geography, dynastic...

A decade after a tribunal in The Hague ruled on July 12, 2016, that Beijing’s sweeping South China Sea claims had no legal basis, Philippine officials and analysts say Manila remains heavily outmatched at sea but has begun turning its landmark legal victory into a more credible form of deterrence. The Philippines brought the case in 2013 under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos), challenging Beijing’s nine-dash line and other claims. The tribunal ruled that China’s...

Myanmar’s gradual return from the diplomatic deep freeze continued over the weekend as Southeast Asian foreign ministers met their counterpart from the junta-run nation in Bangkok, a re-engagement that analysts warn lends legitimacy to a government still at war with its own people, without any commitment to end the violence. Thousands have been killed in the nationwide civil conflict resulting from the military’s 2021 coup, a power grab that prompted Asean to take the unprecedented step of...

Filipino domestic workers continue to endure widespread labour exploitation and sexual abuse in Saudi Arabia, according to a new Amnesty International report. The rights watchdog found conditions had barely improved despite years of promised reforms, including last year’s abolition of the kingdom’s notorious “kafala” sponsorship system. The report, based on interviews conducted in March with 19 Filipino women who worked as domestic staff in Saudi Arabia, found consistent patterns of abuse, from...

A South Korean court sentenced former president Yoon Suk-yeol on Monday to two years in prison for illegally receiving free opinion polls in exchange for political support, adding to his growing legal woes. Yoon, 65, is already in detention while appealing against a separate life sentence for leading an insurrection through his declaration of martial law in 2024. In a separate case, a court handed Yoon a 30-year prison sentence for sending drones into North Korea to “manufacture” a crisis ahead...

Rows of gold bars, stacks of US and Singapore dollars and seven suitcases found inside a locked safe have become the defining images of one of the biggest scandals to hit Indonesia’s law-enforcement establishment in years. Police said they recovered 74kg (160lbs) of gold, plus more than US$15 million in multiple currencies from a house linked to Febrie Adriansyah, who until last week served as Indonesia’s deputy attorney general for special crimes, and is now suspected of corruption. Authorities...

Sam Neill, a smoothly elegant and versatile actor whose career moved from art film to blockbuster as he dodged velociraptors in Jurassic Park to playing Holly Hunter’s husband in The Piano, has died. He was 78. In 2023, Neill disclosed he had been diagnosed with angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma, a rare type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Neill died on Monday in Sydney, according to a statement posted to the actor’s social media page. His death was “sudden and unexpected,” the statement said, adding...

The Southeast Asian bloc reaffirmed its adherence to its Five-Point Consensus initiative, which was last week rejected by Myanmar’s military-dominated parliament.

Malaysian lawmaker Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman walked free on Monday after the Federal Court dismissed the prosecutors’ final appeal in his corruption case, ending a six-year legal battle that had threatened to derail the future of one of the country’s most recognisable young politicians. The decision was reached by a 2-1 majority, with Federal Court judges Che Mohd Ruzima Ghazali and Collin Lawrence Sequerah upholding last year’s acquittal of the former youth minister on four charges linked...

North Korea rarely airs its dirty laundry in public, but Kim Jong-un’s latest purge of a senior military official was staged for maximum visibility – a warning, analysts say, to generals growing too comfortable with their expanding economic power that they answer to him alone. “Kim is effectively telling military and party leaders: ‘Don’t even think about it. You are under round-the-clock surveillance,’” said Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies. On Friday, Kim...

A Tokyo ward has installed outdoor AI cameras with facial recognition capabilities to help locate missing children and elderly people, a move aimed at improving public safety but also raising privacy concerns in Japan. Arakawa ward installed 33 artificial intelligence-equipped security cameras on pylons along the main street and elsewhere near the JR Nippori Station in April to test whether the technology could speed up searches for missing persons. The busy area around the station is frequented...

South Korea’s navy said on Monday it had recovered the body of a sailor off the east coast, a day after the seaman disappeared near the de facto sea border between the two Koreas. Authorities launched a large search involving 10 ships and aircraft after the sailor failed to report for duty on Sunday morning while the vessel was on patrol near the Northern Limit Line, the de facto maritime border between the neighbours. “A patrol boat participating in the search operation found the missing sailor...

For regular anglers in the Malaysian coastal town of Port Dickson, the sighting of a crocodile in the water while fishing near the jetties is nothing new. “I have seen three crocodiles while fishing there,” said Razman Fozi, 33, who has fished in the area for over two years. Most anglers knew the reptiles were there, but it did not deter them, he said. “I’ve never seen a crocodile bother the anglers.” Not everyone has been so fortunate. On May 25, a 62-year-old fisherman survived a crocodile...

Barisan Nasional, the Grand Old Party of Malaysian politics, has been aided by a growing disillusionment with Anwar's leadership and discord among its Malay-Muslim rivals.

South Korea’s foreigner-only casinos are gaining renewed momentum this year, triggered by a steady recovery in inbound tourism and expectations of a surge in Chinese group travel in the second half, according to a recent analysis by Shinhan Securities. Unlike other tourism segments that move with domestic consumption, casino performance is closely tied to inbound flows, making the pace of Chinese visitor growth the key variable for the remainder of the year. “Inbound indicators such as arrivals,...

India’s free-trade agreement with the United Kingdom takes effect on Wednesday, delivering immediate tariff relief to businesses on both sides while giving New Delhi an early test of the concessions, compliance demands and implementation challenges it may face in future deals with other Western powers. UK exports in sectors such as luxury vehicles and spirits are expected to benefit, while Indian textiles and leather products will gain as the agreement eliminates tariffs on 99 per cent of...

A blaze that tore through a packed Bangkok bar has killed at least 27 people and left nearly two dozen more in critical condition, with distraught friends and relatives on Monday dreading finding loved ones among the victims of the deadliest blaze to hit Thailand’s capital in over a decade. Images shared on social media of the inferno, which erupted late on Sunday night, show flames shooting out from the entrance of the Na Ladprao pub, in Chatuchak district, as patrons fled, some with their...

Foreign ministers from Asean were ⁠told on Sunday by their Myanmar counterpart ⁠that detained former leader Aung San Suu Kyi is in good health and would be looked after, Asean’s special envoy to Myanmar said. Maria Theresa Lazaro, the Philippine foreign minister, has been seeking access to Suu Kyi, 81, who has been detained since her elected government ‌was ousted in a 2021 military coup. “My recollection of the statement of the Myanmar foreign minister on Aung San Suu Kyi is that she’s in good...

South Korea issued its first-ever emergency heatwave alert on Sunday under a new warning system launched this year, advising people to halt outdoor activities and keep cool. The new warning system was introduced to better deal with a rising number of heatwaves in South Korea, which have become longer and more intense, officials said. An emergency alert is issued when areas experiencing a heatwave are forecast to hit perceived temperatures of 38 degrees Celsius (102 degrees Fahrenheit) or an...

As the car bounces along a rural Thai road, a baby just a few months old watches the emerald green countryside rush by from Nicha’s* lap, oblivious to the countdown that has already begun. Soon the child will be handed over to her father to be raised in China by grandparents whose own hopes of a larger family were curtailed by decades of state population control. Nicha may never see the baby she gave birth to again, but she knows that is the painful price of commercial surrogacy. This is her...

Japan’s Hayabusa2 fly-by of Torifune marks a leap in asteroid defence, showcasing the country’s growing space prowess and “goodwill science” role vital for protecting Earth from cosmic threats. The space probe, named after the Peregrine falcon in Japanese, successfully flew within 800 metres (0.5 miles) of the asteroid, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said on July 5. JAXA said Hayabusa2 performed as expected and responded to all instructions from land-based mission control, about...

For many K-pop fans in South Korea, the hunt for concert tickets has turned into a high-stakes battle, one where logging on early is no longer enough and ordinary fans find themselves outmatched by organised resellers, bots and shadowy workarounds that can send prices soaring far beyond face value. Previous solutions have failed to rein in the problem, but the government is hoping that the threat of massive fines may finally free ticket seekers from the grips of predatory scalpers. From August...

Japan has found a new export industry and it doesn’t come off an assembly line. It arrives by plane, spends freely and is, increasingly, what Tokyo is banking its economic future on. Last year, 42.7 million foreign visitors arrived in the country, a record that shattered the previous year’s high by nearly 16 per cent. Now Tokyo wants to turn that surge into something more lasting: a permanent pillar of growth to rival, or even outlast, the industries that built modern Japan. To achieve that...

Barisan Nasional’s (BN) sweeping win in Johor is expected to embolden it within Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s unity government while forcing his Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition into a difficult postmortem over its waning appeal on the ground. BN, which ruled the country for six decades before losing power in 2018 and later joining Anwar’s bloc in 2022, retained its Johor stronghold with 48 seats out of 56 on Saturday night – an improvement from the 40 it won in the 2022 polls. PH...

A boat returning from an island trip in southern Vietnam capsized on Saturday, killing 15 Indian tourists less than half a kilometre (0.30 mile) from shore, as passengers shouted for help, officials and a witness said. The speedboat was carrying 32 Indian tourists and four crew members when it overturned on Saturday afternoon shortly after leaving Hon May Rut Ngoai Island, which is near Phu Quoc, Vietnam’s largest island, authorities were quoted as saying. “The boat had not even gone half a...

New Zealand and India announced on Saturday the creation of a strategic partnership encompassing defence and security, during a landmark visit by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon feted his guest with an indigenous Maori welcome and a guard of honour, seeking to expand relations after signing a free-trade pact in April that he has touted as an economic boon. Modi’s visit, at the tail end of a July 6-11 tour that has also taken him to Indonesia and Australia, came in...

The brave new world of artificial intelligence (AI) is going to be a mixed and divisive blessing for governments – not least those of key Asian countries – as well as for financial markets. The AI revolution points to higher economic growth for economies linked to the tech supply chain, with others being left behind. It also signals the potential for financial crises. Balancing these risks will be tricky. The relative optimism, displayed in a recent report from the International Monetary Fund...

Pan Sok still remembers his relative screaming as a tiger dragged him away one night, deep inside the Cambodian rainforest where they were tapping trees for resin. So he is “not happy” about a plan to reintroduce the big cats, a decade after they were declared extinct in Cambodia. “I saw the tiger take him with my own eyes,” he said, describing the attack that took place over 30 years ago. “He was screaming but we couldn’t help him.” Cambodia’s last confirmed tiger sighting was in camera trap...

Footage of the punishment quickly went viral: an unmarried couple each receiving 21 lashes of the cane in Indonesia’s Aceh province after being accused of kissing in a car and live-streaming it on TikTok. As each blow landed on their backs, the unnamed man, 22, and woman, 25, visibly grimaced. The woman later burst into tears, wailing in pain as the public punishment continued. The caning was carried out on July 2 in Banda Aceh, the provincial capital. Aceh is the only Indonesian province to...

For a man sanctioned by Beijing, barred from visiting China and accused of damaging bilateral ties, Gilberto Teodoro Jnr sounded remarkably composed. Composed, that is, until the conversation turned to the South China Sea – the very subject that landed him in hot water in the first place. In an interview this week, the Philippines’ defence chief said that Manila would keep only limited military communication channels open with Beijing, while ruling out broader engagement unless China changed its...