Asia

Ross Surace is preparing to raise the price of a coffee by 50 Australian cents and a panini by A$1 (US$0.70) when the country bans credit card surcharge fees starting on Thursday. The co-owner of Lennox Street Deli in Melbourne’s Moonee Ponds neighbourhood said bank-imposed card fees already cost his business more than A$1,000 (US$690) a week, even after the cafe recoups some of the expense by adding a 1.9 per cent surcharge to customers’ card payments. Once that option disappears, Surace...

Researchers have identified a potential source of uranium in a long-explored mining district in the southern Philippines, as Manila moves to establish nuclear power and expand its critical minerals industry. The discovery, which could provide uranium for the nuclear fuel cycle if further exploration confirms its viability, was made in the Larap-Paracale mining district in Camarines Norte province, where exploration began in the 1950s. Researchers from the Philippine Nuclear Research Institute...

US President Donald Trump has announced US$200 billion in energy investments from South Korea, including US$54 billion towards a long-discussed liquefied natural gas project in Alaska and more than US$100 billion in planned longer-term nuclear power investments. Besides the Alaska LNG project and pipeline and the nuclear plants, the Trump administration announced a US$22.3 billion natural gas-fired power project in Texas that would be supported by Seoul. “The colossal package of investments we...

The two Koreas urgently need to restore military communication to prevent a landmine dispute in the demilitarised zone (DMZ) from escalating into an armed clash, according to observers. The danger is growing as North Korea presses ahead with leader Kim Jong-un’s order to fortify its side of the 4km (2.5 mile) wide buffer zone separating it from the South. South Korea views the works, including the laying of mines near the sparsely marked Military Demarcation Line (MDL) running through the centre...

For years, Chinese manufacturers have viewed Southeast Asia as a way to reduce exposure to higher US duties on goods made in China. But a new round of tariff cuts proposed by Washington and Beijing could weaken that incentive for some products, potentially changing the economics of the strategy. Under the new US-China Board of Trade, more than 90 per cent of Chinese products on a list of goods worth US$30 billion – mostly everyday consumer items, such as toys and household goods – would return...

Malaysia’s capital topped a global pollution ranking on Wednesday and nearby Singapore came in third, with smoke from wildfires in neighbouring Indonesia blamed for the unhealthy conditions. A milky haze has shrouded the cities for more than a month as smoke drifted from fires on Borneo and Sumatra islands. Kuala Lumpur was the world’s most polluted major city early on Wednesday, according to Swiss monitor IQAir, with an Air Quality Index (AQI) reading of 166. Singapore ranked third at 155. The...

Indonesia is pursuing plans to make public schools free at all levels, stretching from kindergarten to university, but mounting pressure on the state budget could hinder the government from pulling off the massive undertaking, analysts have said. President Prabowo Subianto summoned his ministers last week to discuss a plan to “accelerate the implementation of free education in public schools”, according to a statement released by cabinet secretary Teddy Indra Wijaya on September 23. “Free...

A hunger crisis could creep up on Southeast Asia if the region does not guard against export restrictions amid a fertiliser shortfall, International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) Secretary General John Denton has warned. On the sidelines of the Future of Trade Forum in Singapore on Wednesday, Denton urged the city state, as the next Asean chair, to prioritise the “sleeper issue” for the region. He argued that the real story centred on food, despite the Strait of Hormuz gridlock being widely seen as...

Residents of a district in the South Korean capital of Seoul are up in arms over plans to build a permanent school for North Korean defectors in their neighbourhood. The dispute escalated to the point where the school’s principal dropped to her knees to beg protesters to “embrace the children”, the Korea JoongAng Daily reported. Yeomyung School, which educates middle and high school students who fled North Korea or are children of North Korean defectors, has been unable to afford its own...

Shivanjali Singh has worked hard to raise two healthy, athletic children in India, but worries about their ability to resist the lure of junk food constantly surrounding them. Her children, aged 14 and 10, are national-level skaters and have grown up on home-cooked food and drinks such as coconut water rather than fizzy drinks and crisps. Yet Singh, who lives in Noida in the National Capital Region, sees sugary drinks and unhealthy snacks everywhere from school surroundings to sports...

The death of a 14-year-old student at a Malaysian boarding school has renewed scrutiny over student safety, raising questions over whether reforms introduced after the high-profile death of Zara Qairina Mahathir last year have changed what happens behind dormitory doors. Police in Kuala Pilah, Negeri Sembilan, have detained two 16-year-old students as they investigate the death of Muhammad Idlan Fareeq Shahril. They said Idlan was caught vaping by a hostel warden on September 23. Two days later,...

A man became angry after a four-year-old boy pointed his middle finger at him while he was picking up his son from preschool in Singapore. He pursued the boy to a nearby bus stop that was crowded with other young kids, grabbed the boy by the arm and slapped him hard on both cheeks. The boy, who was his son’s schoolmate, suffered bruises on his face and ringing in his ear, on top of emotional trauma that lingered for months and required his parents to change his preschool. The aggressor, Muhammad...

Philippine senators have urged the Department of Tourism to stick with a single marketing campaign to build long-term international recognition, pointing to long-running successes such as Malaysia’s “Truly Asia” tagline. Newly appointed Tourism Secretary Dita Angara-Mathay was asked about her plans for the current slogan, “Love the Philippines”, during a departmental budget hearing on Monday, the Philippine Star reported. Senate finance subcommittee chairman Erwin Tulfo suggested keeping the...

The sprawling online hunt for information about Winston Lee, a Korean student who is among seven defendants in a Cornell University sexual assault lawsuit, is increasingly crossing borders, with English-speaking social media users calling on their Korean counterparts to help uncover more information about him. As the “Cornell 7” case continues to draw intense attention across the United States, Lee has become the subject of a parallel search focused on his Korean identity and background....

Malaysia’s two-time prime minister Mahathir Mohamad has been admitted to hospital for observation, his office confirmed on Wednesday, in the latest health scare involving the 101-year-old. Mahathir was admitted to the National Heart Institute (IJN) on Tuesday night, barely a day after his wife of 70 years, Siti Hasmah Mohamad Ali, died at the same hospital. It is unclear why the former leader was admitted. Sufi Yusoff, Mahathir’s long-time aide, told reporters that they were awaiting diagnosis...

Japanese BitTorrent users who thought they were simply downloading adult videos for free are increasingly receiving court notices and demands for hundreds of thousands of yen, as copyright holders step up efforts to identify users through their IP addresses. One self-employed man in his 40s living in Tokyo began using the file-sharing software after reading about it online. He would start downloading adult videos before going to bed and switch the software off the next morning, giving him access...

A Singapore-based education financing programme is testing whether income-linked funding can widen access to higher education without an unmanageable debt burden, a model analysts say could help ease repayment pressure faced by graduates across Southeast Asia. Global Financing for Education’s (GFE) Pay It Forward scheme, publicly launched in September, provides students with funding for their education in return for 3 to 10 per cent of their subsequent income for one to 10 years. The...

American rapper Macklemore lost his spot on British pop star Ed Sheeran’s US tour after speaking up for Palestinians, but in Malaysia it was Sheeran’s music which ended up being pulled from the airwaves. In neighbouring Singapore, British band Massive Attack faced a different kind of fallout, barred from returning after members displayed a Palestinian flag during a July concert. The contrasting cases highlight the competing pressures on foreign artists in Southeast Asia, where political...

Tens of thousands of people thronged Apple stores in India this month to snap up the newest iPhone models – the 18 Pro and Pro Max – but the frenzy has kicked off public debate in the country about affordability and consumer debt. The iPhone 18 Pro starts at 164,900 rupees (US$1,700) and goes up to 179,000 rupees, while the iPhone 18 Pro Max starts at 179,900 rupees and maxes out at 329,900 rupees. Apple also unveiled the iPhone Duo, its first-ever folding smartphone, essentially setting a new...

A Vietnamese pro-democracy organisation has alleged that two of its members, who hold Norwegian and Australian citizenship, were abducted in Cambodia and taken to the border with Vietnam, where Hanoi authorities later accused them of illegally entering the country. Vietnam has charged the two men, along with a third alleged member of the organisation, with terrorism and document forgery, saying they were caught crossing the border from Cambodia with forged identity documents. The organisation,...

US President Donald Trump’s recent endorsement of a trade corridor connecting India to Europe via the Middle East has renewed focus on the three-year-old project, but analysts warn it must expand to withstand ongoing geopolitical conflicts. The India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) was first unveiled at the G20 summit in 2023 as an alternative to existing routes and China’s Belt and Road Initiative. Backed by India, the United States, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Israel...

The Philippines is preparing to give its coastguard more responsibilities in the contested South China Sea even as the agency faces a more basic problem: whether it has enough ships, aircraft and personnel to carry them out. The proposed overhaul comes as the coastguard is being stretched by increasingly demanding operations around Philippine-claimed waters, while funding constraints threaten to limit its ability to keep its existing assets at sea. That tension is evident in the 2027 budget. The...

A 30-year-old man was charged on Tuesday over an AI-generated image of a crocodile at Pandan Reservoir in Singapore that prompted authorities to search for the reptile and suspend water activities there. Ye Lin, a Myanmar national, was handed two charges – one count of communicating a false message and one count of obstructing the course of justice. Speaking through an interpreter, he told the court that he intended to plead guilty, and would not be engaging a lawyer. On August 20, Ye Lin...

For 28-year-old Indonesian professional Evelyn Clarissa Siregar, asking strangers to help fund her MBA in Singapore was a gamble: she knew the request was unconventional but hoped putting her dream out in public might open a door. Instead, her appeal for more than S$100,000 (US$78,000) to fund her business programme at Singapore Management University (SMU) drew fierce online criticism, with some labelling her entitled and questioning her plans. “I never expected the backlash to become this big,”...

North Korea said on Wednesday that South Korea will pay a price for shifting the blame to Pyongyang for a mine blast ‌that seriously wounded two South Koreans at the demilitarised zone (DMZ) border and warned it will retaliate if the South opens fire on its troops. South Korea’s defence minister said on Tuesday that North Korean mines caused a blast last week and that it would take “corresponding” action. Kang Shin-chul also said North Korea likely planted mines as part of fortifying the...

As Siti Hasmah Mohamad Ali, wife of former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad, was laid to rest on Monday, one poignant image stood out. Footage of her family members sobbing served as a reminder that before the 100-year-old was “Ibu Negara” (Mother of the Nation), she was first a mother of seven, grandmother to 18 and great-grandmother to four. Her latest great-grandchild, Eden Zakaria, was born just last month to granddaughter Meera Alyanna Mukhriz, better known as Ally. In a social...

The governor of an Indonesian prison has been suspended after authorities uncovered a suspected luxury compound for VIP inmates within the grounds, prompting a parliamentary inquiry. However, Director General of Corrections Mashudi denied the accusations during a House of Representatives commission hearing on Monday. Cibinong Prison in Bogor, West Java, came under investigation after inspectors from the Ombudsman’s office discovered a fenced-off compound behind the prison chief’s house during a...

The Philippines has 20,000 teaching vacancies to fill, a budget hearing has revealed, with sector insiders warning that the gap signals a mounting education crisis. Those in the industry are calling for transparency in the teacher hiring process, including clear figures on budget allocation and positions filled amid problems of mismatch and improper targeting of job applicants. At a House of Representatives plenary session last week, Antonio Tinio from the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT)...

Behind the unmarked door of a shoplot along a quiet commercial stretch of Forest City in Malaysia’s Johor state, four customers sat tapping away, playing slot-style games on tablets. A stern-looking man stood guard at the entrance, his eyes darting around. The customers could place bets starting from around 20 ringgit (US$4.89). Instead of handing over cash, they paid for gambling credits using Malaysia’s Touch ’n Go e-wallet. They were then issued tablets from behind the counter with...

The number of Japanese companies operating in China has fallen nearly 30 per cent since its peak in 2012 and is down 22 per cent over the past two years, according to a survey conducted amid prolonged political tensions between Beijing and Tokyo. As of June, 10,118 Japanese enterprises were identified as having a presence in China, the lowest number since 2010, according to a survey and analysis released on Monday by the corporate credit research and business intelligence firm Teikoku...