Asia

As a teenager, Ashley Wong spent many Sundays in church, waiting for a feeling that never quite came to her. Family and friends spoke of finding comfort and solace in Christianity during times of trouble, but prayer seemed to offer no such salve for her soul. “There was a detachment that I couldn’t place,” said the 26-year-old marketing executive, who identifies as a freethinker. “I feel like maybe it just wasn’t for me.” Going to a church “felt more like a chore than anything”, Wong said. “I’ve...

On a midsummer Thursday night, the entertainment district of Hongdae in Seoul is slowly coming alive. Short for Hongik University, Hongdae neighbours several university campuses and typically attracts thousands of young people to its flashy streets. Just a few blocks away from the main clubbing area, the atmosphere is quieter with hardly any patrons at a row of pubs and restaurants. “Hongdae is not what it used to be like,” said Chris Kim, a 27-year-old who works in the fashion industry. “My...

New Zealand’s defence diplomacy has shifted into overdrive this year, with Wellington sealing three major Pacific security agreements in less than four months. Since April, the country has signed a defence pact with Papua New Guinea, locked in a security declaration with the Cook Islands and floated the idea of joining a fledgling Australia-Fiji defence alliance. Analysts say the common thread is China and concerns about its expanding security and policing links in the Pacific. “Security...

The crushing defeat of Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition in the Negeri Sembilan polls has raised doubts about his political strategy, as state rival but federal ally Barisan Nasional (BN) grows in dominance. Analysts say BN’s effective cooperation with opposition party Perikatan Nasional (PN) could reshape Malaysia’s political landscape ahead of the next national election, due by February 2028. BN won 18 of the 36 assembly seats in Negeri Sembilan on...

China’s export boom is reaching its limits. The country’s next phase of growth will come not from shipping more goods abroad, but from exporting its factories, technologies and brands. China is running up against the limits of its old model. It is obvious as the economy looks increasingly K-shaped. Weak consumer confidence and a prolonged property slump continue to sap domestic demand, forcing manufacturers to rely ever more heavily on overseas markets. Exports have become the Chinese economy’s...

Celebrated Nepali climber Nirmal Purja, who set a record for the fastest ascent of the world’s 14 highest mountains, died in an ‌avalanche during an expedition in Pakistan, his company said on Saturday. “Today it is with profound sadness and immense heartbreak that we confirm that Nirmal ‘Nimsdai’ Purja tragically lost his life following the avalanche on Broad ⁠Peak,” his expedition organising company Elite Exped said on social media. “We have also received confirmation that other members of the...

Japan’s Kumamoto prefectural government said on Saturday it has ended rescue operations at an Aeon shopping centre where seven workers died in an explosion shortly after a magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck the southwestern Japan prefecture four days earlier. Officials said there should be no more people unaccounted for after local police and firefighters, joined by the Self-Defence Forces and others, searched the shopping centre in Kashima. Its second floor collapsed in a possible gas explosion...

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he wanted to “forgive” protesters who abused him during recent youth-led demonstrations that dealt a rare political setback to his government. The remarks came after the online Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) mobilised large protests in New Delhi and other cities over examination paper leaks, posing the biggest challenge to Modi’s government in recent years. Some protesters featured in widely circulated videos shouting insults at the prime minister have since...

When a powerful earthquake jolted southern ⁠Japan this week, rattling ⁠homes and knocking out water and ⁠electricity, Tomoko Takaoka bundled up her beloved fluffy dogs and went in search of a safe place to stay. Unable to reach her parents, the 31-year-old factory worker turned to a nearby evacuation centre only to discover that Ku the chihuahua and Sheri the chihuahua-poodle mix were not welcome. Faced with the choice of sheltering without them or staying together, she chose the latter,...

High in the eastern Himalayas, where yak caravans once carried silk and salt between empires, a border crossing closed by suspicion six years ago is stirring back to life. The Nathu La Pass, a remote border trading post connecting India’s Sikkim state with China’s Tibet region at 4,310 metres (14,140 feet) above sea level, reopened to commerce on Saturday for the first time since 2020. For the roughly 600 registered traders in Sikkim who used to depend on this ancient route, the reopening means...

British trip-hop band Massive Attack has been barred from performing in Singapore after an investigation found two members unfurled a Palestinian flag during a concert, police said. Two band members who held the flag on stage during a concert on Wednesday were also banned from re-entering Singapore and issued with warnings, police said in a statement late on Friday, without naming the pair. Singapore, known for its tough laws on public speech and assembly, bans the open display of all foreign...

Lawmakers from Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) have launched a group aimed at promoting the rapidly growing trading card industry, seeing its potential as a globally competitive content sector. The group, consisting of some 20 lawmakers, is seeking to improve the trading card environment by setting up rules to address issues such as counterfeit cards and bulk purchases for resale. It is also keen to enhance market transparency to support the industry’s overseas expansion. The...

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim suffered a second election setback within weeks on Saturday after his Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition lost to rivals in the Negeri Sembilan polls. Official results at midnight showed Barisan Nasional (BN) winning 18 seats, coupled with Perikatan Nasional’s (PN) seven for a supermajority of 25 over PH’s 11 in the 36-seat assembly. The country’s second state election in under a month was a test of the stability of Anwar’s coalition government, as PH locked...

As the Philippines hosted Southeast Asian foreign ministers in late July, the sea would not stay quiet. On July 20, Chinese and Philippine crews fought beside the BRP Sierra Madre with oars and batons; one Filipino sailor was reportedly injured while each side blamed the other. Days later, with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the security forum, Philippine vessels went to the Scarborough Shoal. Manila said Chinese ships used water cannons on Philippine ships,...

Driven by a surge in visitors from across Asia and a blockbuster June stadium concert by K-pop juggernaut BTS, international tourism in South Korea’s southern port city of Busan shattered post-pandemic records during the first half of this year. Busan welcomed more than 2.42 million foreign visitors between January and June – a 43.9 per cent jump compared to the same period last year, according to municipal data released on Thursday. The strong turnout puts the coastal metropolis well on track...

At a food fair in New Delhi, a vegetable exporter from the Philippines set out its wares: bags of dried moringa and lemongrass, bundles of taro leaves and a bowl of laing, the creamy coconut-milk stew made from them. The question Dry Tech Manufacturing wanted to answer was simple: could the simple Filipino food it sells under its Sheentaro brand tantalise the taste buds of the world’s most populous country? India has hundreds of millions of vegetarians, more than any other country on Earth,...

A Sri Lanka court sentenced former police chief Pujith Jayasundara to death on Friday for failing to prevent the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings, which killed 279 people including 45 foreigners. In a majority decision, a three-judge bench ruled that the former inspector general had failed in his duties to stop the deadly attacks, blamed on a home-grown Islamist extremist group. Jayasundara, 66, can appeal against his sentence in the Supreme Court. Sri Lanka has not carried out the death sentence...

Vin Lors used to earn about US$20 a day working on construction sites in Bangkok, nearly twice what he now makes in Cambodia. After the border conflict between Thailand and Cambodia broke out last July, the 37-year-old and his wife decided to return home to Siem Reap province, worried about their safety and concerned about workplace discrimination. When he heard the government was helping returning migrant workers find jobs, Lors registered through his village chief. “They registered my...

Singapore might consider championing a roadmap of “supported autonomy.”

The shift in policies from protection to return assumes that return represents a durable solution.

The South Korean president secured semiconductor pledges in San Francisco before turning to trade and mineral agreements in Brazil and Chile. 

A rumor with one traceable source drew an official rebuttal in Dushanbe that buried its documented enforcement.

Pakistan and Bangladesh are entering the latest phase of the US-Iran conflict with thinner cushions than many Asian economies, raising the risk that another oil shock could quickly spill into higher food, transport and electricity costs for millions of people, analysts have said. Both economies rely heavily on imported fuel, leaving them particularly vulnerable to any prolonged spike in oil and diesel prices. Jamus Lim, an associate professor of economics at ESSEC Business School Asia-Pacific,...

Malaysia’s shift towards an older society is accelerating, as children make up a shrinking share of the population and older people a growing one, raising difficult questions over who will work, pay taxes and provide care in the decades ahead. Children aged 14 and below made up 21.2 per cent of the population in 2026, down from 21.6 per cent a year earlier, according to official figures released by the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) on Friday. People aged 65 and above rose from 8 per...

Singaporean Jo Teoh has spent over three decades waking up to birdsong, the rustle of leaves as macaques jump through trees, and the lingering smell of damp earth. Much of her time living in the western estate of Sunset Way revolves around the adjacent forest, where she and her family watch hornbills glide over the canopy. “The neighbourhood lives with the forest,” said the media producer, 68. “It has shaped the character of our home and community.” But the chirps and faint crickets may soon...

Singapore announced on Friday it took possession of 38 Oxley Road, the former home of its founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew, and would study how it could be developed into a public space, ending years of public debate over what to do with the property amid a family feud among the late leader’s children. In the interim, necessary maintenance works would be carried out as required, and there would be no public access to the site, the Singapore Land Authority (SLA) and the National Heritage...

The Johor state election does not automatically presage a nationwide BN sweep because the results are heavily steeped in Johor's unique local context.

Will the region’s perpetually squabbling siblings -- India and Pakistan -- put aside their insecurities to make regional cooperation happen?

As the Takaichi administration strives to strengthen Japan’s intelligence capabilities, it’s important to build up counterintelligence capabilities too.

A powerful earthquake that struck southern Japan this week has exposed the vulnerability of the country’s manufacturing supply chains, a decade after a devastating quake in the same region triggered widespread industry disruption. Tuesday’s 7.1-magnitude quake claimed at least 34 lives, ruptured roads and cut off utilities to thousands of households. It also brought factories to a halt in an area critical to Japan’s auto industry and known as well as the country’s “Silicon Valley” due to its...