Asia

China will impose provisional anti-dumping duties of up to 99.2 per cent on Japanese dichlorosilane, a critical chemical used in chipmaking, after an eight-month investigation found that dumped imports had harmed local manufacturers. The Ministry of Commerce announced the preliminary ruling on Monday, saying importers of dichlorosilane originating from Japan would be required to pay corresponding cash deposits from Tuesday. Shipments from Denal Silane, a manufacturer of semiconductor speciality...

Malaysian police have contacted Islamist opposition leader Abdul Hadi Awang over his explosive claim that the United States once offered to help his party topple the government – an allegation Washington has flatly dismissed as false. The controversy erupted after Hadi told thousands of delegates at the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) congress in Kelantan on Saturday that American representatives had approached party leaders when Barack Obama visited Malaysia in 2014. Hadi’s political...

Nepal is seeking financial aid following the catastrophic flood that killed hundreds of people and caused billions of dollars in economic losses, tapping a global financial mechanism established to address the impacts of climate change in developing countries. Kathmandu has formally requested the UN-backed Fund for responding to Loss and Damage to “respond rapidly, directly and effectively” amid the country’s worst natural disaster in decades. In a letter signed by Finance Minister Swarnim Wagle...

Philippine prosecutors filed a criminal charge on Monday against a lawmaker and cousin of President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr over his alleged involvement in a massive corruption scandal involving bogus flood-control projects. The case came more than a year after Marcos put the so-called “ghost” infrastructure projects, believed to have cost Filipino taxpayers billions of dollars, centre stage in a public address. Several construction firm owners, government officials and politicians have been...

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s promise to unveil more projects in eight months’ time at the launch of the country’s second modern destroyer hints at another major strategic military asset, according to experts. “The nuclearisation of our navy is being realised, making it increasingly suited, diversified and practical for the use of our deterrent,” Kim said while commissioning the Kang Kon in the southeastern port of Wonsan on Sunday. Kim was accompanied by his daughter and potential...

Malaysia called off a haze emergency in Sarawak state on Borneo island on Monday but said very unhealthy levels of air pollution remained as a result of forest fires in neighbouring Indonesia. Sarawak has been heavily affected by fires in Indonesia’s Kalimantan, with the haze forcing school closures in some parts of the state. Kuala Lumpur on Friday activated the emergency after obtaining royal consent when pollution levels reached critical levels in Serian, about 65 kilometres (40 miles) south...

Heavy rainfall hit eastern Japan and elsewhere on Monday, with the weather agency urging maximum vigilance against landslides on Niijima and Oshima islands, south of Tokyo, and a woman dying in Iwaki in the northeast after her car became submerged. The Japan Meteorological Agency issued a special landslide warning for Niijima after more than 480mm (19 inches) of rain fell there over 24 hours, the largest amount since local records began. Heavy rain also hit eastern Japan including Tokyo from the...

Singapore Prime Minister Lawrence Wong warned against a recent spate of racist comments being made online, saying prejudice should not be allowed to become normalised in the multiracial city state. Wong said in a social media post on Sunday that an “uglier side” had emerged in recent online discussions, including remarks about Singaporeans caught in deadly floods in Nepal and debate over Singapore Airlines’ potential investment in Air India. “We can and should have robust debates,” he said. “But...

Australians could be given the option of opting out of powerful social media algorithms under new legislation cracking down on big tech, a minister said on Monday. The draft law requiring a “digital duty of care” is expected to be introduced to Australia’s parliament this week. It would require firms like Meta Platforms to give users the option of turning off algorithms that tailor recommendations to their personal taste. “A lot of Australians appreciate the algorithm, both for the enjoyment...

The rapport between Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, was evident when the two met during the 11th Eastern Economic Forum (EEF) in Vladivostok last week. “My profound apologies for missing this important event due to urgent matters I needed to attend to back home but I’m now here to repay my debt,” Prabowo told Putin on Wednesday, referring to a missed invitation earlier to be the guest of honour at Russia’s National Day celebration on June...

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un commissioned his second naval destroyer and called for building a more reliable nuclear deterrent, state media reported on Monday, as the US, South Korea and Japan began a trilateral military exercise he views as a security threat. The development comes as North Korea dials up pressure on the US after rebuffing President Donald Trump’s decision to scale back a major military drill with South Korea in a conciliatory step towards Kim. Observers say North Korea wants...

The rural Japanese town of Hitachiomiya sprawls down the Naka River valley in northwest Ibaraki prefecture, surrounded by lush forests and overlooked by the picturesque Yamizo mountains. Just 140km (87 miles) from Tokyo, its golf courses attract weekend players, while onsen hot spring resorts in the surrounding hills keep local business steady year-round. The local tourism association’s website highlights traditional festivals, campsites, hiking and cycling routes, alongside unique sights –...

A building collapse in the Indian capital New Delhi killed at least three people on Sunday, local media reports said, as authorities worked to rescue those trapped in the rubble. The building, housing mostly students, came crashing down about midday in the southwestern Satya Niketan area of the city, with police and disaster response personnel cautiously lifting the rubble using heavy machinery. Three people died in the accident, according to The Hindu newspaper and other local media reports,...

There is little in common between Daron Acemoglu and Xi Jinping. As a strong advocate of the Western model of liberal democracy, Acemoglu, co-recipient of the 2024 Nobel Prize in economics, may be considered the ideological opposite of the Chinese president. But on a crucial point about China’s future, the two may, strangely, be on the same page: an across-the-board introduction of cutting-edge technology may enhance productivity and maintain economic growth. It may counteract the negative...

Indonesia halted operations at its main international airport outside Jakarta on Sunday after ash spewed from the Anak Krakatoa volcano more than 150km (93 miles) away, impacting thousands of passengers. Mount Anak Krakatoa erupted on Saturday, producing a fountain of lava and booming sounds that could be heard up to a few hundred kilometres away, the geology agency said in a statement. Two new eruptions were recorded on Sunday, the volcanology agency warned. Ash from the volcano was detected in...

The US rejected a claim by Malaysia’s opposition Islamist party that Washington once sought to influence the country’s choice of political leadership, calling the allegation false. “The United States has never sought to decide Malaysia’s political leadership,” US embassy in Malaysia Charge d’Affaires David H. Gamble Jnr said in a statement on social media on Sunday. “Any account to the contrary is false.” Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) president Abdul Hadi Awang said at the Islamist party’s...

At Raffly Langi’s family longhouse in Sarawak, on Malaysian Borneo, the tuak rice wine did not come in a branded bottle or a tasting flight. His aunt has brewed the drink for Gawai, the harvest festival celebrated by Dayak communities, an umbrella term for indigenous groups in Sarawak whose longhouses have long been centres of family, rituals and communal life. She made it from steamed glutinous rice and a cake called ragi, prepared with rice flour, yeast and spices to kick-start fermentation....

The recent release of classic arcade games on the White House website, which allow players to deport migrants and build a border wall, has stoked more fear and anger among Filipino-Americans, as observers call out the “xenophobic” tactics in US President Donald Trump’s widening immigration crackdown. Analysts and immigrant advocates described the games, unveiled on Thursday, as “frightening”, trivialising the human toll of the policies and normalising hostility towards migrants, particularly...

In all his five decades of living in Hokkaido, Makoto Watanabe cannot recall ever being confronted by a cockroach. But he admits being alarmed by reports that the despised insects are taking advantage of global warming to gain a foothold in a part of Japan where winters were previously considered too hostile for large colonies to emerge. “When I was a university student in Tokyo 30 years ago, I used to see them in my accommodation and I absolutely hated them,” Watanabe told This Week in...

Yap Yee Lin has been serving espresso at a Starbucks in Malaysia since 2012, longer than many of his colleagues have worked anywhere. But it was only last year, after 13 years with the company, that he was promoted to shift manager at a branch in Kuala Lumpur’s Bangsar Village II. The wait says less about Yap, who is deaf, than it does about how rare that kind of promotion still is for deaf workers in the Southeast Asian nation – and how much has had to change around him to make it...

The Labour Department recently upgraded its Heat Stress at Work Warning system, making it easier for higher-tier alerts to be sent out, so that employers and workers, especially those who have to work outdoors, can react quickly during very hot weather. Unfortunately, the most we seem to be able to do is issue warnings and recommend passive mitigation measures such as relaxing the work schedule, resting in the shade and staying hydrated. We are sitting ducks as temperatures peak year after...

For a few seconds during Blackpink member Jennie’s headline set at Tokyo’s Summer Sonic festival last month, it looked like something had come undone. She turned away from the crowd, adjusted herself and then, the moment was gone. But online, the clip never disappeared – and more than 10 million views later, it has become the latest test of South Korea’s fight against AI-enabled sexual abuse. Fans were quick to cry deepfake, dissecting the footage frame by frame for signs of possible AI...

Rescuers pulled out a 64-year-old Nepali woman alive on Saturday from her home, buried under thick mud and debris when the region was struck by massive flooding 10 days ago, killing over 1,300 people and leaving at least 5,500 missing. Emergency personnel said earlier they had rescued a Chinese man, named only as Luhaitao, found alive inside a 225-metre tunnel of the Upper Trishuli-1 Hydropower Project in Nepal’s Rasuwa district. Footage ‌shared by the Nepali army showed him being given...

Police are investigating “shameful” racist and xenophobic online comments about the China-Nepal disaster and Singapore Airlines’ (SIA) investment in Air India, Senior Minister K Shanmugam said on Saturday. Mr Shanmugam told reporters that the Ministry of Digital Development and Information will also ask social media platforms to remove comments that breach guidelines. “The media tells me that they had to remove several comments because they were so nasty. I don’t know if all the comments are all...

Philippine Vice-President Sara Duterte-Carpio posted bail at a Manila courthouse on Saturday, a day after an arrest warrant was issued over her alleged death threat against the country’s president. Duterte-Carpio was charged last month with “grave threats” stemming from a late-night news briefing in which she claimed to have hired a hitman to kill President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr, his wife and a congressman cousin should she be cut down first. She later said the comments had been misconstrued. The...

Malaysia’s biggest Islamist opposition party has used its annual convention to reopen the door to former rival Umno, while signalling that any reunion will come with a new pecking order as the party sets its sights on leading the federal government. The recalibration comes after a partnership involving Umno and the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) jointly toppled Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s coalition in Negeri Sembilan last month, weeks after Umno crushed Pakatan Harapan (PH) in Johor. With...

Japan and the United States have confirmed they will advance cooperation on investing in strategic sectors and honour the other terms of a trade deal they reached last year, even though President Donald Trump’s tariff policies have changed significantly over time. “We reaffirmed that last year’s agreement remains unchanged,” Japan’s Trade and Industry Minister Ryosei Akazawa told reporters in Washington on Friday, after meeting Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and US Trade Representative...

Bangladesh’s deadliest measles outbreak in decades is nearing the grim milestone of 1,000 child deaths, as a devastating epidemic sweeps through the country and crowded hospital wards fill with struggling babies. Cries of sick children and the hiss of oxygen machines fill the air at Dhaka’s Shishu Hospital, where Rima Akter keeps a vigil beside her nine-month-old son. “Just an hour ago, a child died, and they wheeled him out in front of us,” 30-year-old Akter said on Thursday. “We saw two...

When the day heats up, small business owner Chung Kee Wa, 68, changes how he tends his oil palm plantation in Yong Peng, in Malaysia’s southern Johor state. Oil palms younger than three years offer little shade, so he tends them in the early mornings and evenings, spraying pesticide, applying fertiliser or weeding. “We try our best to avoid going to the plantation around noon,” Chung said. He carries extra drinking water and, as a smallholder, decides when to slow down or change his hours. But...

In a country consumed by conflict, a sport defined by brutality dominates: Myanmar’s lethwei martial art, where headbutts are encouraged and knockout blows are the aim of the game. “I can’t live without fighting,” said 19-year-old Su Luck, who enters the ring under the paradoxical pseudonym “Peace Prize”. “I have never once considered giving up this passion,” she said. Lethwei is traditional Burmese boxing, distinct from Thai kickboxing because head blows are permitted and fighters compete...