Asia

The coming launch of India’s largest-ever initial public offering (IPO) will test investor confidence in the country’s leading telecoms operator, Jio Platforms, the digital arm of billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries. Jio’s public share offer on Wednesday comes close on the heels of an escalating row between Ambani and Elon Musk. The SpaceX founder has accused the Indian industrialist of using monopolistic influence to block Starlink’s entry into India – a charge Reliance has denied,...

As the threat of a reclassification by MSCI that could relegate Indonesia to an investment hinterland looms, the country’s financial regulators and stock exchange officials have vowed to address systemic concerns, including removing stocks with concentrated ownership. The global index provider announced on Friday it was launching a formal consultation to decide whether to downgrade Southeast Asia’s largest economy from “emerging market” to “stand-alone” status, similar to countries such as...

As haze from forest fires in Indonesia continues to shroud Southeast Asia, Malaysians have taken to social media to air their grievances, with a video of an elevated outdoor reading from an air purifier among viral content marking public frustration. The clip, posted by user syahierarafie, shows a device detecting an Air Pollutant Index (API) of up to 318 in Gelang Patah, a suburban town in western Johor Bahru which borders Singapore. The video has drawn over 990,000 views as of Tuesday. “Today,...

Malaysia’s main opposition coalition lost its registration on Tuesday, just 11 days before nominations for a state election, drawing accusations that Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s government is using state powers to cripple its rivals. The decision leaves Perikatan Nasional (PN) – already fractured by a bitter dispute between its Islamist anchor, the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS), and estranged partner Bersatu – fighting to preserve its electoral identity ahead of Melaka’s November 14...

Two Singaporean men lost their positions in the armed forces after they were convicted of having sex with a 15-year-old boy. Former army captain Chaw Chia Jun, 41, was sentenced to 17 months’ jail on Tuesday, while his co-accused Owen Toh Wei Song, a former navy cook, was jailed for 12 months on September 22, according to CNA. Singapore’s Ministry of Defence has confirmed that both were suspended after their arrest in 2024 and were no longer in the military. “The Singapore Armed Forces holds its...

A country need not run out of money to find itself in a debt crisis. It only has to run short of US dollars to pay for its energy. At the recent International Monetary Fund-World Bank annual meetings in Bangkok, the IMF, which expects global economic growth of 3.1 per cent this year and 3.4 per cent the next, cautioned that energy-importing and lower-income economies face a harder road, even as those riding the artificial intelligence boom fare relatively well. According to the World Bank’s...

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. ‘Forgive us’: Indonesians urge Singapore, Malaysia to sue Jakarta over haze Many Indonesians are urging foreign governments on social media, including those of neighbouring countries affected by the haze, to take action against Jakarta over its handling of the fires. 2....

Calls to boycott a Malaysian Chinese-owned coffee-shop chain over its omission of Malay text from its menu have reignited arguments over race and national identity, as political parties jostle to court the country’s majority ethnic group ahead of the next general election. The Oriental Kopi boycott marks the latest saga fuelling ethnic grievances that politicians have been seen to capitalise on by portraying themselves as defenders of Malay identity. It comes ahead of the November 14 election in...

Universiti Malaya student Ummi Umairah Bakhit, who went viral recently for questioning the donation of money to former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak, has spoken out against what she described as cyberbullying, political obsession and emotional loyalty. The youth stood by her criticism of donating money to the former prime minister, saying she would not apologise for raising the issue. In a social media post, Ummi Umairah said the response to a question she raised at the International...

Malaysia’s government will publicly release the findings of a special task force on corporate malfeasance in three months, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said on Tuesday, as his administration seeks to appease public anger over its perceived failure to clamp down on corruption. Anwar is facing a reckoning in the final stretch of his term after his ruling Pakatan Harapan coalition was handed bruising defeats in three state elections over the past year. Former supporters have accused the coalition...

Filipino seafarer Jay was on lookout duty aboard a vessel passing through the Strait of Hormuz one evening in August when drones swarmed overhead, darting past his ship and two others it was following. Within seconds, an explosion rang out from a tanker ahead. “That was traumatic for me when I saw that the tanker ahead of our vessel had been hit,” said Jay, whose real name has been withheld to protect him from possible employer retribution. The 29-year-old and his fellow crew members made it...

While Hong Kong is betting on its established banking network to bring stablecoins into mainstream finance, Singapore is seeking to make regulated digital currencies easier to use. Both approaches reflect different priorities in the race to build global cryptocurrency centres: Hong Kong is linking stablecoins to its existing financial system, while Singapore is looking to strengthen the infrastructure for circulating and settling tokenised assets. Analysts said the ultimate test would be whether...

Australian police said they charged a man on Tuesday for what they allege was a “targeted” attack on lawmaker and former midwife Helen Haines, who suffered critical injuries. Brendan Nugent, 43, was charged with dangerous driving causing serious injury and intentionally causing serious injury, as well as the federal crime of harming a public official, Victoria police said. Nugent, from nearby Tarrawingee, was in custody and would face court on Wednesday, police said. National broadcaster ABC and...

Thailand and Cambodia have agreed to dial down the rhetoric and use a hotline between their navy commanders to avoid flashpoints over a vast contested patch of energy-rich seas in the Gulf of Thailand, according to a UN-backed mediation panel at The Hague tasked with helping to settle the dispute between the neighbours. The Southeast Asian countries have also squabbled for decades over the demarcation of their 800km (500-mile) land border, where clashes last year killed scores on both sides and...

As South Korea seeks to attract more visitors to tap into the global popularity of K-pop, a lawmaker has warned that taxi overcharging of foreign tourists could tarnish the country’s image, with official figures pointing to a perceived lack of punishment against offenders. Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Mo Gyeong-jong cited Seoul city government data on Sunday showing only 204 of 6,481 complaints of taxi overcharging involving foreign tourists between 2021 and August this year resulted in...

The arrest of a Japanese journalist in Russia has finally woken Tokyo up to the fact that Moscow is playing hardball in their diplomatic relationship, and the country’s apparent unwillingness to push back with commensurate force could encourage the Kremlin to test its neighbour’s resolve, analysts say. Japan lodged an official protest with the Russian ambassador in Tokyo on Wednesday, a day after Moscow announced the arrest of Yuki Imai from the Hokkaido Shimbun Press on suspicion of espionage....

Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi received a package from Britain’s King Charles on Monday, authorities said, releasing the first pictures of the detained Nobel laureate in two months and describing her as a “special female prisoner”. It is the first time Myanmar authorities have used the term to describe Suu Kyi, who was deposed in a military coup in 2021, triggering a civil war that has killed more than 100,000 people, according to monitor ACLED. The coup leader and former junta chief Min Aung Hlaing...

US-based money manager Principal Asset Management says it is poised to become more active in Asia-Pacific property markets, believing investors have been “underweight” in the region’s office property segment. Richard Hill, its senior managing director and head of global real estate research and strategy, said the group was also seeing continued interest from institutional investors in the Asia-Pacific region looking to access opportunities in US commercial real estate as it was “too big to...

After completing a master’s degree in data science at Pace University in New York in May last year, Tarun returned to India in October, saying frequent changes in US visa rules and employer sponsorship requirements had made it difficult for him to find a job in the world’s largest economy. Tarun, who is from the southern Indian city of Tirupati, felt returning home was a more prudent move than pursuing a job in the US indefinitely. “I got a job within one month here [Bengaluru] with an American...

Kanako Hosomura was working in a clothing store in Yokohama when an alert on her phone warned of an imminent magnitude 9.9 earthquake. “We all rushed outside,” Hosomura said, recalling how people poured out of nearby shops and offices to watch tall buildings and power lines for signs of shaking. But no earthquake came. Eight minutes after issuing the warning on Friday, the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) cancelled the alert, leaving residents to wonder what had gone wrong. “These alarms do not...

The Philippines’ telco industry wants the country to become a regional digital hub anchored by stable underwater cables, but a leading executive and analysts warn that slow approvals for repairs, limited monitoring and fragmented official oversight could undermine the ambition. At a forum on archipelagic governance for subsea cables, PLDT, the Philippines’ largest telecommunications company, called for greater cooperation among government agencies and further reforms to expand the vital digital...

A Malaysian reform party led by two former cabinet ministers faces a new test ahead of a crucial state election after one of its founders was sidelined over an alleged religious morality offence, threatening its appeal to voters disillusioned with the country’s political establishment. The controversy surrounding former environment minister Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad could undercut Bersama’s promise of delivering a different kind of politics in next month’s Melaka poll, analysts say – although some...

Australian lawmaker Helen Haines was in a critical condition on Monday after being deliberately struck by a car outside her office, with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese saying a terrorism task force would be investigating an arrested suspect. Albanese told a news conference it was too early to determine the motive for the attack but later pointed to the changing face of social media having raised the temperature around politics in a country where such ‌violence is extremely rare. Victoria Police...

China’s export machine is accelerating as its domestic economy remains under strain. This comes amid growing trade friction as China’s partners question whether persistent surpluses can coexist with balanced and resilient regional growth. Last month, China’s exports rose 36.3 per cent year on year, while shipments to Southeast Asia jumped 52.3 per cent. The trade surplus reached US$133.5 billion, taking the nine-month total to US$938.1 billion. In contrast, retail sales grew just 0.4 per cent in...

A deputy mayor in western Japan died after being crushed under a giant float during a local parade, officials said on Monday, a week after two others were reportedly killed at separate traditional festivals. Akihiro Nabae, deputy mayor of the city of Saijo in the Ehime region, was carrying a giant float with other participants on Saturday before becoming trapped beneath it, city and police officials said. He was taken to hospital and later pronounced dead, local media said. The exact...

After more than half a century of political procrastination, environmental protests and funding shortfalls, Sydney finally has a second airport. But the new A$5.6 billion (US$4 billion) site’s commercial prospects are already in question. Western Sydney International, 50km (31 miles) inland from the city centre, will handle its first passenger flight on Sunday – a Jetstar service to the Gold Coast. But the facility has attracted only a handful of airlines and has half a dozen or fewer scheduled...

India has a soaring ambition to modernise its air force, built around a fleet of domestically developed fighter jets. Yet production of these aircraft has been hampered by engine delays and other bottlenecks that defence analysts say could limit its ability to fight future air wars. On October 11 at an airbase in Jodhpur, Air Chief Marshal A.P. Singh strapped into a Tejas jet for the last time. It was his final fighter sortie before retiring later this month and he flew it in an Indian-built jet...

Japanese scientists are readying a mission to Mars’ moons to retrieve samples that could help unlock the origins of the Solar System and life on Earth, in what aims to be the first round trip to the Martian region. The uncrewed Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) probe, a collaboration with US and European space agencies as well as numerous universities and tech companies, could also help lay the groundwork for eventual human exploration. The flagship H3 rocket carrying the MMX is set to blast-off...

Pakistan’s counterterrorism campaign against Taliban insurgents risks being undermined by public resentment, following the dismissal of the opposition-led administration of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province. According to a statement issued by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s office after an emergency cabinet meeting last Sunday, the decision to impose temporary federal rule was necessitated by the “provincial government’s deliberate disengagement from the fight against terrorism”. The KP...

Toxic haze from wildfires burning in Indonesia has spiked a demand for oxygen tanks and air purifiers across the region, manufacturers say, as they work the clock on equipment providing life-saving clean air. The months-long haze has blanketed parts of Southeast Asia, forcing school closures and fuelling a rise in respiratory complaints. Families are now rushing to buy devices to keep indoor air clean. At AA Alive, a medical equipment company based just outside Kuala Lumpur, employees were...