Asia

In Seoul last week, South Koreans were stripping shop shelves of plastic bin bags. Not food, not medicine. Bin bags. Nearly 2.7 million of the city’s mandatory “pay-as-you-throw” bags were sold each day, almost five times the normal volume, as residents scrambled to stockpile what they feared might soon become scarce. City by-laws mandate that the prepaid bags – made from naphtha, a petroleum derivative – be used to throw away household waste. But with oil supplies under strain amid the...

We have selected seven stories from the SCMP’s coverage of Asia over the past week that resonated with our readers and shed light on topical issues. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. Trump’s ‘wind-up doll’? Japan’s PM faces backlash over White House fawning Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is facing accusations of diplomatic sycophancy after White House footage showed her giggling at a portrait of an autopen – placed by US President Donald...

For years, Malaysians watched singer-actress Bella Astillah’s heartbreak unfold in public. Her tribulations – a troubled marriage, cheating scandal and very public split – struck a chord with many, underscoring the stigma that divorced women face in a conservative Muslim-majority society. When lawmaker Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman, 33, proposed to her – first on Mount Kinabalu and later at a formal engagement ceremony in Kuala Lumpur – it resonated with many Malaysians who felt Bella was...

As Japanese combat troops prepare to join war games in the Philippines next month – their first return to Philippine soil since 1945 – some Filipinos say the real issue is not only what Japan is doing now, but what it still has not fully reckoned with from the past. For survivors, activists and historians, Tokyo’s expanding security role in the Philippines has revived what one campaigner called “the elephant in the room” – the absence, in their view, of a formal state apology and official...

As tensions simmer along the Pakistan-Afghanistan frontier – fuelled by disputes over the contested Durand Line, recurring cross-border strikes and the persistent threat of Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) fighters operating from Afghan soil – a subtle but consequential geopolitical shift is under way. India is quietly but steadily stepping up its engagement with the Taliban. The urgency of this recalibration was underscored on March 16, when Pakistani military forces carried out one of the...

After a seven-hour drive to a trading post in northern Philippines, 35-year-old farmer Elmer Ullani took home nothing but an empty petrol tank even after selling 10 tonnes of cabbage. Ullani, who hails from the northern town of Tinoc in Ifugao province, said he only managed to sell his produce – yielded over three harvest rounds – at a paltry rate of 8 to 9 pesos (15 US cents) per kilogram, earning him a total of 90,000 pesos (US$1,482). All of his earnings went towards covering his fuel...

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said on Monday she will consider holding talks with the Iranian leadership at an “appropriate” time based on the national interest as tensions remain high in the Middle East. Takaichi’s remarks come as prospects for a US-Iran meeting mediated by Pakistan remain uncertain, with US President Donald Trump later renewing threats to hit Iranian energy infrastructure if a deal is not reached. “I will judge the appropriate timing for holding talks based on the...

The energy crisis caused by the Iran war could push food prices up by as much as 50 per cent in Malaysia, trade associations have warned, as soaring fuel costs threaten to wipe out already narrow margins for roadside stalls and restaurants feeding the country’s outsize appetite for eating out. Malaysia’s government coffers have already taken a hit due to fallout from the conflict, with local fuel subsidy costs estimated to spike by more than fourfold to about 3.2 billion ringgit (US$795 million)...

Myanmar cleared the way on Monday for coup-leading General Min Aung Hlaing to become president and maintain his rule in civilian garb, with lawmakers nominating him as a vice-presidential candidate and the junta replacing him as military commander. Min Aung Hlaing has ruled Myanmar since 2021 when he ordered a coup toppling the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi – detaining the Nobel Peace Prize laureate, dissolving her party and triggering civil war. After five years of hardline rule, he...

Spare a thought for investors seeking shelter from the energy shock caused by the war in Iran. There are no sanctuaries. Government bonds, a traditional beneficiary of a flight to safety, have fallen in response to fears central banks will be forced to raise interest rates to combat a surge in inflation. Even gold, long viewed as a refuge in times of geopolitical uncertainty, has fallen about 15 per cent this month following a blistering rally. The safe haven credentials of Dubai have taken a...

A horrific road crash in Malaysia’s port city of Klang that left a motorcyclist dead on Sunday has spiralled into racially charged commentary after initially being treated as a drink-driving case. Police said the crash happened at about 11.40am on Jalan Raya Barat, when an allegedly speeding Honda City driven by a local man in his twenties overtook several vehicles, crossed into the opposite lane and struck a motorcycle coming from the other direction. The rider, a local man in his thirties, was...

A Thai undertaker’s extreme mission to prove he was not hoarding fuel went viral over the weekend after he brought a coffin containing a body to a petrol station to convince attendants the extra fuel he needed was for cremation, not black market resale. Thais have been pressed into energy-saving mode by the US-Israel war on Iran, which has throttled oil and gas supplies to much of Asia. Thailand’s Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul insists there is enough fuel for over three months, while the...

A former babysitter has been sentenced to one year in jail and fined 15,000 ringgit (US$3,800) by a court in Malaysia for negligence resulting in a toddler’s death. Judge N. Kanageswari on Monday also ordered Khairunnisa Ahmad Damamhuri, 41, to serve an additional four months if she fails to pay the fine, and to complete 48 hours of community service within six months of her release. She was also placed on a one-year good behaviour bond of 5,000 ringgit without collateral. Khairunnisa was...

Three United Nations peacekeepers from Indonesia were killed in two separate incidents in ⁠southern Lebanon after a bloody weekend in which Lebanese journalists and medical staff were killed in Israeli strikes. Two peacekeepers were killed on Monday after an explosion from an unknown origin destroyed their vehicle near Bani Hayyan in south Lebanon, the United Nations peacekeeping force UNIFIL said in a statement. Two other soldiers were wounded in the blast. Earlier, another Indonesian soldier...

Recent reports of Japan exploring the feasibility of using the remote Pacific island of Minamitorishima as a final disposal site for high-level radioactive waste have raised concern at home and abroad. An official request to carry out a survey assessing the island’s suitability for the facility was presented to the mayor of Ogasawara village, which nominally administers the island some 1,900km (1,200 miles) southeast of Tokyo, earlier this month. Similar requests have been made of two towns in...

Australian police said on Monday that they shot dead a fugitive gunman wanted for killing two officers, ending a seven-month manhunt for one of the country’s most-wanted criminals. Desmond Freeman fled into dense bushland in August last year after shooting and killing two police officers on a rural property in Victoria state. Hundreds of police have pursued Freeman through the region’s rugged terrain over the past seven months, pouring resources into one of Australia’s largest manhunts. Police...

Planning to update your wardrobe this summer? Industry insiders have some advice: do it soon. By the time autumn collections hit the racks, the aftershocks of war on Iran may have quietly picked your pocket. Clothing manufacturers and industry analysts are warning consumers to budget for price increases of 10 to 15 per cent as South Asia’s US$50 billion garment export industry reels from a cascade of war-driven shocks. Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz has choked natural gas supplies to...

Petron, the Philippines’ only refiner, has procured 2.48 million barrels of crude oil from Russia as the Southeast Asian nation scours the world for alternative suppliers to support domestic energy needs with the war in Iran raging. “If the current crisis persists and alternative crude sources remain unavailable or insufficient, Petron may again be compelled to consider purchases of Russian crude oil to augment the national fuel supply,” parent company San Miguel said in a statement to market...

Authorities in Vietnam have arrested more than 70 people, including government officials, accused of falsifying data from air and waste water monitors at power plants and other major emitters, state media said Sunday. The state-run People’s Police newspaper said police had identified “nearly 160 environmental monitoring stations that had been tampered with, altered and had their data falsified” – accounting for more than half of the total number of stations nationwide. Police arrested 74 people,...

Indonesia is looking to save up to 40 trillion rupiah (US$2.3 billion) by cutting back on its free meal programme, an official said on Sunday, in a first austerity measure taken in response to price pressures from conflict in the Middle East. The meals, primarily intended for schoolchildren across the country, will be distributed for five days a week instead of six starting March 31 in a move that is expected to save “around 40 trillion rupiah”, National Nutrition Agency deputy head Nanik...

The European Union (EU) is a bystander in the Iran war, but it might end up sustaining significant collateral damage. On one hand, public opinion across Europe is opposed to a conflict that circumvents the core principles of international law. On the other, the continent remains deeply reliant on the United States for its energy and security needs. A definitive anti-war stance risks alienating President Donald Trump, leaving Europe strategically exposed. Talk about being caught between a rock...

Mongolia’s ruling party selected a new candidate for prime minister on Sunday after the last head of government, Zandanshatar Gombojav, resigned after only nine months on the job. Uchral Nyam-Osor, the current party chairman who is serving as speaker of the Parliament, was nominated at a meeting of the Mongolian People’s Party, according to state news agency Montsame. Uchral first joined the party in 2009, and is seen as a compromise candidate amid different party factions. Zandanshatar’s...

Top diplomats from key regional powers were gathering in Pakistan on Sunday to discuss how to end the fighting in the Middle East, but there were few signs of progress as Israel and the US kept up strikes on Iran, and Tehran responded by firing missiles and drones across the region. Pakistan said foreign ministers from Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt were taking part in the talks in Islamabad. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said he and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian held “extensive...

At least one of the world’s largest LNG plants remained closed on Sunday after a cyclone knocked out power to thousands of people in Western Australia. The outages were restricting already stretched fuel supplies caused by the war in the Middle East. Woodside Energy, which processes fuel from one of the world’s biggest offshore gas operations, said on Sunday that its Karratha plant remained offline. “We have commenced remobilising our workforce to some of our offshore facilities and inspections...

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un oversaw a test of a high-thrust solid-fuel engine for intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) capable of reaching targets around the globe, touting the development as elevating the country’s “strategic military power to the highest level”, state media said on Sunday. The test of the engine made of composite carbon fibre material produced a maximum thrust of 2,500 kilonewtons, up from 1,971 kilonewtons recorded during a similar experiment last September, the...

No fast-food chain has ever meant quite what Jollibee means to Filipinos. Forget McDonald’s and KFC, Jollibee – with its sweet spaghetti and crispy Chickenjoy – is something else entirely: a cultural anchor for a diaspora scattered across every continent on Earth. With more than a million Filipinos leaving the Philippines every year in search of greener pastures abroad, the chain has followed them almost everywhere they have gone, building a brand that taps into deep emotions by offering a taste...

Israel’s avowed goal in the Middle East war is to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. Yet the double standard associated with this is hardly sustainable in the long run. The worst-kept secret in the world of nuclear politics is that Israel possesses a formidable arsenal of nuclear weapons. It began developing these in the 1950s and reached a fully operational capability by the late 1960s. Although Israel refuses to confirm or deny this fact, arms control organisations have assessed that...

From a law lecture hall to Barbie and later the glitzy ballroom of Bridgerton, Malaysian-born actor Yong Zheng Xi is quietly carving out a place for himself on the international stage. He appeared in the period drama as Lord Barnaby, a role that marks another milestone in a journey shaped as much by persistence as by talent. Yong, 32, began as a singer but it was only after moving to London to pursue a law degree that his career trajectory shifted. “When I came to London to pursue my...

Young, naive and now sleeping rough on a plastic sheet outside their embassy in Phnom Penh, Indonesians Abdul* and Hafiz* are among the expendable human resources of Southeast Asia’s scam trade. After a year-long tumble through Cambodia’s vortex of scams, they were cast out onto a pavement – penniless and without passports – waiting for the embassy to issue new travel documents and a plane ticket home. “Our Chinese boss stole all of our passports,” said Abdul, 20, gesturing to a dozen or so of...

A proposal to scrap a ban on tall buildings in Kyoto to make way for towers and tourism infrastructure has drawn criticism that the move would fundamentally damage the skyline of Japan’s historic capital. A panel advising the city government suggested revising the existing height restriction – which limits buildings near Kyoto Station to a maximum of 31 metres – to 60 metres. The panel claimed on Wednesday the change would “revitalise” the area around the station that served as the gateway to...