Asia

When Singaporeans tuned in to watch the annual National Day Parade on Sunday, an AI-generated short film depicting a zombie apocalypse version of the event has generated buzz in the city state. The four-minute-long Bersama Majulah, a spin-off from the human-written, artificial intelligence-generated Spore Fall video series, shows a spore pathogenic outbreak spreading across the fictional city of Lionara, which bears resemblance to Singapore’s skyline complete with the Marina Bay Sands,...

The Philippines and the United States are marking the 75th anniversary of their defence alliance with a renewed pledge to step up joint drills as geopolitical tensions in the region continue to simmer. While the allies are moving towards more frequent planning for maritime security cooperation and deterrence, there are still questions about Washington’s long-term commitment to the security of the Philippines and the broader region, according to analysts. At an annual meeting to strengthen...

A string of deadly motorcycle accidents around Malaysia’s biggest Yamaha RX-Z gathering has intensified calls for the annual event to be scrapped, but enthusiasts say the backlash unfairly conflates a vast owners’ community with illegal street racers. More than 200,000 devotees of the discontinued motorcycle converged on Terengganu, on Malaysia’s east coast, earlier this month for RXZ Members 8.0, reflecting how the modest two-stroke bike has become a vivid badge of identity for a culture with...

The ⁠United States is ⁠not disengaging from Asia and ⁠is instead “digging in” to maintain a favourable balance of power in the Indo-Pacific, but wants its partners to shoulder more responsibility for their defence, a senior Pentagon official said on ‌Monday. Seeking to counter concerns about Washington’s reliability, Elbridge Colby, Undersecretary of Defence for Policy, reiterated the US interest in the region as he called for greater burden-sharing and “partnership, not dependency”. “America is...

Landslides and floods caused by non-stop monsoon rains have killed at least 12 people in the Philippines, while eight more were missing and thirteen injured, authorities said. More than half a million people in 33 provinces have been affected by the southwest monsoon that has been enhanced by two tropical cyclones, according to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council. The agency also reported hundreds of damaged homes and infrastructure, with about 98,000 displaced from their...

A Malaysian lawmaker is offering a 5,000 ringgit (US$1,200) bounty for the person responsible for an arson attack which left an elderly woman in critical condition in Malaysia’s capital Kuala Lumpur. The 62-year-old counter staff suffered 50 per cent burns to her body after an unidentified individual doused her in what police believe was petrol and set her on fire at a lottery shop in Kepong, a suburb some 14km (nine miles) from the city. Kepong MP Lim Lip Eng said the attack was an “act of...

Indonesia’s top Islamic clerical body has warned men not to wear “women’s clothing” for Independence Day festivities despite a long-standing tradition of men in dresses playing football as part of the annual fun. Amid a rising tide of anti-LGBTQ sentiment in the Muslim-majority Southeast Asian nation, the influential Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) said in a statement such behaviour was “haram” or forbidden. The MUI said its intervention was “an effort to prevent the covert campaign of the...

An Indonesian minister has called for better protection of students after nearly 1,000 weapons were found at a private school in South Jakarta. Police seized 995 airsoft guns and one live firearm from a school run by the Harapan Ibu Islamic School Foundation on Friday, Antara news agency reported. The foundation’s former chair, identified only by the initials IWD, has been called in for questioning. IWD had been dismissed amid allegations of misuse of foundation funds, according to the Jakarta...

A former Thai MP on Monday shot dead a local government official in broad daylight over a financial dispute before being arrested and confessing to journalists at the police station. The shooting came less than a week after a teenager’s deadly rampage at a school in the same province reignited debate over gun control. Chalong Riewrang shot at a senior provincial official and his driver, said Major General Dejrapee Kongdee, the police commander of Nonthaburi, which borders Bangkok. I followed him...

Malaysia is seeking to elevate its economic partnership with South Korea beyond traditional manufacturing and trade by positioning itself as a long-term strategic partner in high-value industries, ranging from semiconductors and AI to electric vehicles, renewable energy and the fast-growing global halal economy. Malaysian Investment Development Authority (MIDA) director Redzuan Abd Rahman and Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (MATRADE) trade commissioner Mohamad Termizi HJ Piee...

The haze is back in Malaysia – with at least two states registering unhealthy air readings on Monday as raging forest fires in neighbouring Indonesia send clouds of smoke northwards. Transboundary haze is a long-standing problem in Southeast Asia, particularly affecting Malaysia and Singapore due to their proximity to Indonesia, where vast tracts of forests and agricultural land become fire hotspots during the dry season. A wildfire scorched 550 hectares (1,360 acres) of land in the Bromo...

A fire in Indonesia’s ⁠Mount Bromo National Park ⁠in East Java ⁠that burnt 550 hectares (1,360 acres) has been extinguished, according to an official on Monday, but there are new hotspots near the caldera. Gatot Soebroto, head of the local disaster mitigation agency, said authorities had found new fires in ⁠areas around the caldera covering some 20 hectares. Mount Bromo is ‌an active volcano, and is a popular tourist destination and best known for its “sand sea” ‌caldera. The national park...

Pakistan’s foreign minister said a new defence agreement his country signed with Saudi Arabia and Turkey was not directed against any country and remained open to other nations in the region. The landmark Mecca Joint Defence Agreement was signed on Friday by the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif as the three countries seek to deepen security cooperation amid heightened tensions between the United States and...

Indonesia’s faster-than-expected economic growth in the second quarter has offered a ray of hope for a sustainable turnaround after months of negative news over the rupiah, investor confidence and global uncertainties. Analysts, however, urged caution about the country’s economic outlook in the coming quarters, saying the latest data also revealed uneven sectoral performance and a reliance on government spending. Southeast Asia’s largest economy grew 5.29 per cent year on year in the April-June...

As China seeks to reshape the global order, Malaysia’s political instability offers a cautionary tale about the challenges Beijing may face abroad. A recent Pew Research Centre survey found that global perceptions of China have improved relative to those of the US, driven partly by the view among some respondents that China under President Xi Jinping is more reliable than a US led by President Donald Trump. As Washington retreats from global leadership roles, Beijing has sought to present itself...

The Thai teen behind a deadly school shooting outside Bangkok had an air gun confiscated by a teacher last year and had watched violent content online, police said on Sunday, as the government ‌promised new safety protocols for schools. As investigations continued into Friday’s rampage, where a 14-year-old boy allegedly shot dead his grandparents at home before killing another six people at his school before turning the gun on himself, police said the boy had used social media to learn how to...

India’s aviation ministry said Sunday that an Air India pilot whose flight plunged dramatically in turbulence, injuring 17 passengers and crew is undergoing a “confirmatory” psychoactive drug test. The Airbus A320, carrying 137 passengers and eight crew, lost around 300 feet (91 metres) on August 4 while flying from Phuket in Thailand to New Delhi, before stabilising and landing safely, the civil aviation ministry said. Eight passengers and four cabin crew members were admitted to hospitals...

Japan’s 610-page 2026 defence white paper cements a strategic shift: Tokyo has labelled China an “unprecedented and the greatest strategic challenge” for the fourth straight year, a framing dating back to 2014, when a Japanese white paper first flagged Beijing’s East China Sea Air Defence Identification Zone as risking unintended incidents. Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has not altered this trajectory, only accelerated it. This strategic timing aligns with Beijing’s calculus. Even as US...

Myanmar’s military-backed government has rejected the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ renewed call for the unconditional release of detained former leader Aung San Suu Kyi and dismissed the need for the organisation’s special envoy on Myanmar, according to the foreign affairs ministry. President Min Aung Hlaing, the former army chief who had originally seized power in 2021 from Suu Kyi’s civilian government, has been trying to win political legitimacy since the takeover and resume...

A defence pact among Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan appears to be aimed at deterring Iran and Israel from tearing up the Middle East with their conflict amid Washington’s inability to guarantee regional security, observers say. Under the terms of the deal signed on Friday in Mecca by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, an armed attack against any one of the three states “shall be regarded as an attack...

The Maldives recently called to revive a South Asian grouping, which has been suspended for over a decade. But given the tensions between two of the most influential countries in that region – India and Pakistan – that request is likely to go unheeded, according to observers. Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu said on July 26 that his country was ready to help resume the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) meetings. The last one was held 12 years ago. Describing the bloc as...

Safety regulators launched an investigation on Sunday into a “near collision” between two passenger aircraft at Australia’s busiest airport that injured a crew member. The incident, which involved a Jetstar pilot being forced to apply sudden brakes to avoid crashing into a Qatar Airways jet on Sunday morning, disrupted operations at Sydney airport. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) said a Jetstar Airbus A320 was taxiing for a flight to the Gold Coast on Sunday morning when its crew...

Vietnam’s seafood and garment sectors are facing a labour shortfall even with raised wages, as Hanoi expands a drive to send more workers overseas for higher-paying jobs. The contradiction reflects a broader challenge for the Southeast Asian country as it pushes to move up the value chain while banking on labour migration to generate remittance revenue, analysts say. According to the home ministry, between 130,000 and 150,000 Vietnamese go abroad to work annually. The overseas labour market...

When a shot rang out at the Debsirin Nonthaburi School on the outskirts of Bangkok on Friday morning, 14-year-old Khim and her classmates peered over a balcony to see if the noise had come from a construction site. But more loud bangs followed, until a teacher ushered them all into a classroom, checked a messaging group and confirmed to the now terrified students: there was an active shooter in their building. “I heard multiple gunshots and felt like ‌we weren’t going to survive,” Khim, who...

Young Malaysians are reporting worsening illnesses, heat-related health problems and disruptions to basic services as climate change intensifies, raising questions over whether the country’s adaptation policies can protect future generations. Unicef Malaysia’s National Youth Climate Change Survey 2025, released in July, found that climate change was no longer only an environmental challenge but an immediate public health and economic issue. The survey gathered responses from 1,420 young people...

Last month, as thousands of young Indians led by a group calling itself the Cockroach Janta Party, marched towards Parliament in New Delhi, they were met with tear gas and struck with batons by the police. It appeared that India’s moment in South Asia’s Gen Z revolution had finally arrived. As one journalist observed, for the first time since 2014 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi took office, fear had “switched sides”. The protests began over paper leaks that resulted in the cancellation of the...

A girl died from critical wounds Saturday after a pupil opened fire at a secondary school and his home outside Bangkok the day before, bringing the death toll from the attack to nine people. The 14-year-old opened fire at around 10am on Friday at Debsirin Nonthaburi School in Nonthaburi province northwest of the Thai capital before apparently taking his own life. He also appeared to have killed his two grandparents at his family home earlier in the morning, officials said. The girl, 12, died...

The world might be dividing into rival camps and competing trade blocs, but international capital flows remain footloose and fancy free. In so doing, they pose a threat to what remains of stability in the real economy. A good example of this growing potential for international contagion is the influence of the weak yen on global stock prices. The Japanese currency is expected to remain weak for the foreseeable future – despite recent official intervention in foreign exchange markets by Japan and...

South Korea’s national football association apologised on Saturday ⁠after a media report ⁠alleged it had provided “sexual services” ⁠to foreign referees when they were in the country for international matches more than a decade ago. South Korean broadcaster JTBC reported on Thursday that the Korea Football Association (KFA) had provided such services to foreign referees on ‌multiple occasions in 2011 and 2012, including when they were in the country for qualifying matches for the 2014 World Cup...

India’s first test of its Kusha long-range surface-to-air missile system is seen as a milestone that could pave the way for New Delhi to bolster its home-grown air defence network and meet the challenges of future conflicts. Developed by the state-run Defence Research and Development Organisation, the system is expected to become a key part of the two-phase Mission Sudarshan Chakra, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s plan for a multilayered national defence umbrella against ballistic missiles,...