Asia

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday he hoped more countries would join a defence agreement signed last week between Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan aimed at stabilising a region wracked by conflict. The so-called Mecca Joint Defence Agreement was signed on Friday as the Middle East grapples with fallout from the US-Iran war, which has dragged in regional players and disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea. “Our vision for it is not limited to the three...

Malaysia is taking palm oil from the frying pan to server racks, as it banks on its biggest agricultural commodity to crack a code plaguing its data centre boom – keeping servers cool. Researchers at the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) are developing a palm-based liquid to cool computer servers without relying on copious volumes of water, as the country grapples with high resource demands to support its rapidly expanding digital infrastructure. The new approach – termed the Sawit EcoTherm...

India’s long-held status as the “pharmacy of the world” could be affected by US President Donald Trump’s plan to impose steep tariffs on imported drugs from 2028, threatening the low-cost, export-driven model that has made the country a vital supplier of generic medicines, analysts have warned. Late last month, Trump announced that the US would impose 100 per cent tariffs on generic medicines from August 2028 and increase them to 200 per cent after one year, signalling a major push to bring more...

Myanmar’s military is increasingly using drones, motorised paragliders and other low-cost aircraft to attack civilians, United Nations investigators said, even as the country’s rulers seek to project stability and gain legitimacy after a military-run election. The report by the UN-established Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar released on Tuesday said attacks continued to rise from July last year, with a notable escalation ahead of elections held in December and January. The vote...

In Japan, complaints about bears have strained the resources of 40 per cent of local governments amid a surge in encounters with the animals this year. According to a government survey of 40 prefectural and municipal councils, 17 said bear-related complaints had disrupted their operations. Of those, 10 reported complaints that took up a lot of time, such as phone calls lasting more than an hour, while five said they had received an overwhelming number of grievances via their websites and by...

Officials have sold a potential US-led Pax Silica hub in the Philippines as a chance for the country to move up the technology supply chain, but as domestic backlash grows, Manila’s top diplomat to America has warned of losing the opportunity if it “drops the ball”. Analysts say Jose Manuel Romualdez’s message appeared aimed at critics but should be taken seriously, as regional rivals are also courting US-linked supply chain investment and some may be better placed to deliver. Romualdez told...

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations has a role to play in Hong Kong’s plans for its economy. Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu signalled as much when he touched on the city’s first five-year plan in his August 7 meeting with Asean Secretary General Kao Kim Hourn. For businesses, however, the central question is not whether Hong Kong-Asean economic ties will continue to grow. They will. The harder question is who will capture the value that growth creates. Asean has been Hong Kong’s...

A veteran Malaysian politician’s resignation from parliament and Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s People’s Justice Party (PKR) to join a fledgling progressive rival widens an exodus of reformist figures as the ruling coalition reels from a string of electoral setbacks. Wong Chen, a three-term lawmaker who had spent nearly two decades in PKR, said on Wednesday that he had applied to join newly rebranded Bersama after resigning his Subang parliamentary seat on Monday and leaving PKR the following...

This article was first published on August 14, 2016. Lion City celebrates first golden hero by James Porteous Singapore exploded into celebration as it feted a new sporting hero yesterday (August 13, 2016) after swimmer Joseph Schooling did the improbable – beat his one-time idol Michael Phelps – to win the Lion City’s first ever gold medal. Schooling completed a wire-to-wire victory to deny American Phelps a fourth successive title in the 100 metres butterfly, winning in an Olympic record of...

North Korea’s recent missile launch may be a test of upgraded exports to Russia, observers say, as the war in Ukraine gives Pyongyang opportunities to improve its weapons. At about 6am on Wednesday, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) detected a missile launched from the North’s southeastern port city of Wonsan. It flew roughly 700km (435 miles) eastward before falling into the Sea of Japan, or East Sea. The JCS conspicuously did not specify the missile’s launch angle or whether it should...

A doctor and his friend who were arrested during a raid at a villa on Singapore’s Sentosa Island were sentenced on Wednesday to one year’s jail each for taking drugs. Dr Rayson Lee Rui Sheng, 36, and 29-year-old Tan Li Ming both intend to appeal against their convictions. The pair had contested their respective charges of taking MDMA, also known as Ecstasy, claiming their drinks had been spiked. However, the judge rejected this defence based on the inconsistencies in their statements and...

The rivalry between two of Indonesia’s former presidents is moving onto the political ground where their alliance was first forged, with Joko Widodo’s youngest son preparing to contest the constituency held by Megawati Sukarnoputri’s daughter. Kaesang Pangarep plans to seek a parliamentary seat in Central Java V in 2029. The constituency has been represented since 2009 by House Speaker Puan Maharani – one of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle’s (PDI-P) most prominent figures and the...

A visit by Vietnam’s top leader To Lam to Australia and New Zealand this week is expected to lead to stronger maritime security cooperation, especially in intelligence-sharing and joint patrols. The Vietnamese president is seeking to bolster partnerships and strengthen cooperation in science and technology, according to a government statement. During Lam’s six-day trip, which ends on Friday, he is expected to sign 12 to 16 agreements with Canberra – covering education, digital transformation,...

North Korea fired a ballistic missile off its east coast towards Japan early on Wednesday, Seoul’s military said, days before the planned start of massive US-South Korea joint drills. The 11-day exercises due to begin on Monday are a regular fixture of the summer calendar, designed to steel the United States and South Korea for defence against the nuclear-armed North. Pyongyang calls them rehearsals for an invasion and has staged missile launches before and after them in the past. “Our military...

The resignation of Indian education minister Dharmendra Pradhan last month, yielding to pressure from the “cockroach” youth protests, was an example of democracy in action. Outraged over the leaking of the medical school entrance exam question paper, protesters, led by a group calling itself the Cockroach Janata Party, demanded accountability and reforms. At least 20 young people had taken their own lives after a retest for the medical entrance exam was announced, underlining how such exams have...

Russian attacks across Ukraine killed at least 10 people overnight and wounded dozens, Kyiv said on Tuesday, accusing Moscow of launching North Korean missiles in the raid. The allegation comes after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned – without providing evidence – that Moscow was receiving more ballistic projectiles and troops from its ally Pyongyang. Russia has turned to North Korea for support throughout its four-and-a-half-year invasion. Earlier in the war, Pyongyang dispatched...

Around 2.4 million girls in Afghanistan have been denied access to secondary education since the Taliban returned to power in 2021, the United Nations said on Tuesday, urging an end to such “discrimination”. The Taliban administration, recognised solely by Russia, has imposed a series of restrictions on women that the UN has characterised as “gender apartheid”. Girls cannot study beyond primary school, a policy the Taliban authorities justify based on their interpretation of Islamic law. The...

Philippine Vice-President Sara Duterte-Carpio was hit with a criminal charge on Tuesday over an alleged death threat against the country’s president, a key part of the case against her at her ongoing Senate impeachment trial. The charge of “grave threats” was filed on Tuesday afternoon in a Quezon City courtroom, Department of Justice (DOJ) spokesman Polo Martinez said. It stems from a National Bureau of Investigation criminal complaint filed in February 2025, months after a late-night news...

A new defence pact between Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey has raised questions in New Delhi over whether Islamabad could use the agreement to build wider security ties with Muslim-majority countries in India’s neighbourhood, analysts have said. The Mecca Joint Defence Agreement, signed on Friday, states that an armed attack on any one of the three countries would be treated as an attack on all of them. The tripartite agreement followed a bilateral one between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan signed...

The cremations of the victims of the Debsirin school shooting in the Thai province of Nonthaburi had barely begun when another body was added to the country’s rising toll from gun violence. On Monday morning, a former MP for Nonthaburi fired four rounds at a local official inside a car – then calmly strode away, the pistol tucked back into his belt. Police Colonel Thongchai Yenprasert was shot over an alleged money dispute by 71-year-old Chalong Riewrang, a three-time lawmaker with deep...

A South Korean actress has apologised for the controversy surrounding her great-grandfather’s pro-Japanese ties during Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule, a day after calling the accusations “groundless”. “After further checking, we have confirmed that records of great-grandfather Ahn Sang-ho being listed as a councillor of the Daejong Chinmokhoe in 1916 actually existed,” Anh Ha-young’s agency Bistrus Entertainment said on Tuesday, according to the Korea JoongAng Daily. “We sincerely apologise for...

Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim accused opposition lawmakers of staging “political drama” on Tuesday after they walked out of a special parliamentary session on a long-awaited royal inquiry into the country’s Muslim pilgrimage savings fund. The confrontation came less than two weeks after Anwar’s Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition lost power in Negeri Sembilan. During campaigning, the prime minister had repeatedly invoked the Tabung Haji inquiry as evidence of the need to confront corruption...

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese sidestepped calls to apologise on Tuesday after a clip emerged of him engaging in crude banter about a gift from his Japanese counterpart. Albanese had already faced a backlash and apologised over comments made during an interview last month with the Bush Deep podcast in which he said he would “shag” singer Kylie Minogue. But separate comments during that interview in which he joked about a gift from Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi during her...

Havelock Palace has apologised for cooking foraged seafood in Singapore. The apology comes weeks after the Chinese restaurant received online flak and a barrage of one-star Google reviews for its involvement in a video showing a group of individuals foraging for seafood in mass quantities at Changi Beach. In the video, the foragers are seen collecting various marine life in large quantities, including crabs and clams, before bringing them to Havelock Palace to be cooked. The incident has...

A summit next month by the Brics grouping of nations has raised hopes that major players India and China will align to rally member states to resolve the Strait of Hormuz crisis, with the United States making little headway. Analysts say the forum from September 12 to 13 amid the global energy crisis wrought by the Middle East conflict could see parallel diplomacy, given the 11-member grouping’s economic clout accounts for about 40 per cent of the world’s gross domestic product. “I see a...

South Korea is working to close a legal loophole that allowed people sharing AI-generated pornography featuring fictional personas to go scot-free. The move by lawmakers came after a court in Goyang, Gyeonggi province, acquitted a man accused of distributing deepfake images of nude women in a Telegram chat room. Despite prosecutors presenting the evidence under a law carrying up to seven years in prison or a maximum fine of 50 million won (US$35,341), a judge last August ruled that the victims...

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. Anger in Malaysia as Liow pays fine, has money-laundering charges dropped The revelation that an alleged Malaysian scam kingpin was released after paying 10 million ringgit (US$2.4 million) fine has sparked public outrage over claims of preferential treatment for a man...

Pentagon policy chief Elbridge Colby has pressed Southeast Asian nations to join a “flexible realism” strategy in the Indo-Pacific, as the United States prioritises practical defence cooperation and deterrence over ideology. Speaking at a forum in Manila on Monday, Colby said he would travel to Jakarta, Bangkok and Phnom Penh as part of his first official trip to Asia, delivering a message he called “realistic and perhaps bracing, but also reassuring”: that America’s interests were “more engaged...

Yoon Jin-woo had never gone to Seoul World Cup Stadium to watch FC Seoul, the city’s team and the club that calls South Korean football’s symbolic home its own. But on Sunday night, he made the pilgrimage from the suburbs of Gimpo to see Manchester City and Atletico Madrid, two European clubs whose pull in South Korea rivals, and often overwhelms, interest in the domestic game. The 21-year-old and his friends were among 50,000 fans who filled the stadium with City’s light blue and Atletico’s...

When S* enrolled at Newcastle University Medicine Malaysia (NUMed Malaysia) in the Southeast Asian nation, the British-born Pakistani student believed the five-year medical degree would give him a realistic route into Britain’s National Health Service (NHS). The pathway was never formally guaranteed, but S said NUMed had highlighted a decade-long record in which students who applied for the UK Foundation Programme (UKFP) – the supervised training route for medical graduates – had secured...