Asia

India’s state-run refiners raised retail prices again of diesel and petrol on Saturday to help processors cut losses on discounted sales and to control a spike in demand. Prices of both fuels rose by nearly one per cent, or less than 1 rupee, with petrol now sold at 99.51 rupees (US$1.0399) and diesel at 92.49 rupees per litre in New Delhi, according to the website of Indian Oil Corporation, the country’s largest fuel retailer. Prices vary across India due to local taxes. Smaller peers Bharat...

New Zealand intends to spend about NZ$1.6 billion (US$936 million) on drones, ship maintenance and naval upgrades to bolster the island nation’s maritime security at a time of increasing concern about supply routes. Defence Minister Chris Penk said on Saturday that the government would invest in two types of drones: one for the southwest Pacific to provide long-duration intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, and the other a polar-capable vehicle that could operate from naval vessels in...

Philippine Vice-President Sara Duterte-Carpio has twice in recent weeks urged the country’s armed forces to defend its sovereignty, in a carefully calibrated attempt to sound more assertive on the South China Sea issue without directly challenging Beijing, according to analysts. While Duterte-Carpio did not name China, her repeated calls marked a tonal shift from her earlier approach, when she either avoided the issue or warned against letting it define Manila’s broader relationship with...

For many Indonesians who have built careers abroad, Nadiem Makarim once represented a particular kind of homecoming success story. The Brown and Harvard University-educated co-founder of Gojek had walked away from the start-up world to serve in government, bringing with him the aura of Indonesia’s technology boom and the promise that private-sector talent could help modernise the state. Now, with prosecutors seeking an 18-year prison sentence for the former education minister in a corruption...

A rare albino buffalo with flowing blond hair ⁠has become an unlikely ⁠celebrity in Bangladesh ahead of the ⁠Eid al-Adha festival, drawing crowds of curious visitors who say the animal bears a striking resemblance to US President Donald Trump. The nearly 700kg (1,540lbs) buffalo, raised at a farm in Narayanganj district near the ‌capital Dhaka, has been nicknamed “Donald Trump” because of the tuft of pale hair falling across its forehead – a feature many say mirrors the American leader’s...

When Xi Jinping and Donald Trump concluded their Beijing summit, the most consequential outcome – for China at least – may prove not material, but conceptual: the adoption of “constructive strategic stability” (CSS) as the guiding framework for managing their intensifying competition. For Southeast Asia, a region often caught in the rivalry between the two powers, understanding what this means will matter in the years ahead. The framework reflects a long-held Chinese strategic aspiration....

A mock political party erupted across Indian social media this week, becoming a symbol of Gen Z disillusionment with the country’s political establishment and anger over a worsening jobs crisis in the world’s most populous nation. The Cockroach Janta Party, as the satirical movement is known, has already overtaken the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party on Instagram, racking up nearly 20 million followers and attracting attention from rivals of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “Cockroach Janta Party...

Seated in a wheelchair, an elderly woman bends silently as her wrinkled fingers move with surprising speed to fold pieces of coloured origami paper into intricate shapes. Beside her, another woman does the same, both adding their finished pieces to a pile on the table without looking up or exchanging a word. Inside Tochigi Prison, where talking during work is forbidden, elderly women folding paper and sewing in silence reflect a broader test of Japan’s penal system: how to care for ageing,...

In a swanky penthouse office outside Kuala Lumpur, tech firm Zetrix AI is putting a grand plan into motion to get 1 million people across Southeast Asia using its artificial intelligence agent, Avatar, by the end of the year. Designed as an autonomous alter ego, Avatar is adept at dealing with tasks ranging from the mundane, like filling out forms, to the particular, such as helping influencers reply to thousands of social media messages. The ultimate goal, according to the company’s Gen Z...

When Marco Rubio was confirmed as US Secretary of State last year, fireworks of optimism went off in New Delhi. Given his years as a senator championing a pro-India, staunchly anti-China posture, policymakers anticipated an unprecedented alignment. However, as Rubio arrives in India on Saturday for a four-day visit spanning Kolkata, Agra, Jaipur and New Delhi, he enters a relationship strained by transactional politics, structural deadlock and mounting strategic unease over Washington’s recent...

On Great Nicobar, a remote island located closer to Indonesia than mainland India, New Delhi is embarking on one of its biggest developments in decades. The US$9 billion project is intended to transform the country’s southernmost tip into a major transport hub comprising a transhipment port, an international airport and associated logistical facilities. Spread across 166 sq km (64 square miles), the project in India’s Andaman and Nicobar archipelago is slated for completion over three decades,...

Two Indian climbers have died on Mount Everest during a record-breaking period of ascents via Nepal’s southern route, as experts warn of overcrowding on the world’s highest peak. “They fell ill while descending at high altitude. We are working out how to retrieve the bodies,” Nivesh Karki, director at Pioneer Adventures, said. He named them as Sandeep Are, who he said summited on Wednesday, and Arun Kumar Tiwari, who reached the peak on Thursday. Nepal is home to eight of the world’s 10 highest...

Thousands of protesters in Bangladesh clashed with police in a bid to seize a suspect accused of raping a four-year-old girl, officials said on Friday. In recent months, the South Asian country has seen a spike in reported cases of violence against women and children, fuelling widespread anger. Police said the suspect, Monir Hossain, was detained by locals in Bangladesh’s second-largest city of Chattogram and was being handed over to the authorities on Thursday when tensions boiled over among...

After three agonising days with no word from his son, Warsono finally saw the face he had been waiting for. The 60-year-old Indonesian from Bandar Lampung in Sumatra spoke by video call on Thursday evening to his son, Andre Prasetyo Nugroho, following the 27-year-old journalist’s release from Israeli detention in Gaza. “To my great relief, I could see he was in one piece, albeit somewhat worse for wear,” he said, adding that his son had bruises on his hands from being tightly zip-tied and,...

The Javan and Sumatran rhinos are down to their last few dozen, just like the Cat Ba langur of Vietnam, while the soala living in Laos’ Annamite mountains may already be gone for good. Southeast Asia’s remarkable biodiversity is under severe threat from the encroachment of cities and farms, deforestation, warming seas and the trafficking of rare wildlife for food, traditional medicines and as pets. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) told This Week in Asia that more than...

Perhaps the most fascinating and important aspects of US President Donald Trump’s jolt to the global economy have been its unintended consequences, especially the impact on relations between China and India. Two consistent aspects of Trump’s meandering narrative are to “make America great again” by bringing manufacturing jobs back to the US, and to hobble China as an economic and strategic threat. A decade later, there has been negligible progress on either objective. Instead, the unintended...

Former Malaysian economy minister Rafizi Ramli’s breakaway gamble is unlikely to bring down Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim on its own, analysts say, but it could still wound the ruling coalition by peeling away reformist voters who helped Pakatan Harapan (PH) take power in 2022. Rafizi and former natural resources and environmental sustainability minister Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad announced on Sunday that they would quit Anwar’s People Justice Party (PKR), vacate their parliamentary seats and take over...

On Cenang Beach, Mohamad Zaki Najmi sells jet ski rides and boat tours in Langkawi’s turquoise water: adventure activities that have powered the Malaysian island’s tourism economy for years. But costs are rising fast on the popular resort island, and the sea sports operator has been forced to pass them on to customers – a last resort for tourism players in Malaysia as competition for international visitors hots up across Southeast Asia. Higher fuel prices, triggered by the US-Israel war on Iran,...

Financial news outlet Bloomberg harboured “unprecedented” malice in the publication and handling of an article about the purchase of good class bungalows in Singapore, lawyers for two Singaporean cabinet ministers alleged on Friday during closing statements in a defamation lawsuit. Senior counsel Davinder Singh said the case was unprecedented in terms of ill intent and aggravation, seeking damages exceeding those against The Online Citizen chief editor Terry Xu, who was ordered to pay S$574,000...

The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) has launched a US$10 billion facility to support members affected by conflict in the Middle East, the multilateral development lender announced on Thursday. The Energy, Food Security and Economic Resilience Facility, sitting alongside the bank’s existing financing tools, offers up to US$10 billion over two years to help members tackle urgent needs around energy security, food security and economic resilience, according to a statement published by...

Vietnam auctioned off two Hermes handbags owned by real estate tycoon Truong My Lan, convicted in the nation’s largest fraud case, for 14.21 billion dong (US$539,000) as efforts to claw back billions of dollars in ill-gotten wealth accelerate. The government is auditing assets owned by Lan and her affiliates to recoup billions in losses after courts ordered her to repay US$27 billion in damages. Lan has so far repaid a total of more than 12 trillion dong to about 42,000 bondholders with more...

China’s landmark Pinglu Canal has entered its final phase of construction and is set to begin trial operations as early as September, with a first shipping route linking the country’s heartlands to the free-trade port of Hainan, according to Chinese state media reports. The Pinglu Canal – China’s most ambitious waterway project in centuries – will stretch 134km (83 miles) from Nanning, capital of the southern Guangxi region, to the Gulf of Tonkin, known as the Beibu Gulf in China. The aim is to...

A scam syndicate has been renting a bungalow in an upmarket area in Malaysia’s Johor state and using AI to carry out job scams all the way in Spain. Police uncovered their activities when they arrested a total of 35 Chinese nationals during a raid at the bungalow in Gelang Patah at 11.50pm on May 14. Iskandar Puteri OCPD Assistant Commissioner M. Kumarasan said the suspects, aged between 21 and 39, used artificial intelligence technology and ready-made language templates to communicate with...

As robots become more advanced to carry out complex tasks, they are set to be at the forefront of the next phase of Singapore’s goal to become a world-class artificial intelligence hub. The city state hopes to position itself as a hub for “physical AI” – robots and autonomous systems that can clean buildings, deliver goods, patrol public spaces and eventually work in factories, hospitals and homes. Singapore’s stable regulatory environment, strong digital infrastructure and experience deploying...

The Iran war has baked in stagflation and starvation through big reductions in the supply of oil and fertilisers. This inflationary pressure will only increase. As inflation sucks liquidity out of financial markets and into the real economy, bond yields are being pushed up across the world. If bond yields rise by more than a percentage point, a likely scenario before the year’s end, the liquidity diversion could be big enough to pop the AI bubble. The US-Israeli war on Iran has disrupted the...

It began as a satirical online project. Now millions of young Indians are flocking to it as an outlet for their frustration. A parody political party called the Cockroach Janta Party, with the insect as its symbol, has exploded across India’s social media by turning absurdist humour into protest. Memes and short videos mocking corruption, joblessness and political dysfunction have flooded social media sites, where millions of users are embracing the cockroach – known for its ability to survive...

The Philippine justice chief ordered authorities on Thursday to enforce an International Criminal Court warrant for the arrest of a senator wanted on an alleged crime against humanity. He warned that anyone helping the senator evade a nationwide hunt would face criminal charges. Senator Ronald Dela Rosa “is a fugitive from justice”, Justice Secretary Fredderick Vida said in a news conference. “He should be brought to the ICC to face the charges.” Dela Rosa is a former national police chief who...

As high fuel prices and disruption from the Middle East conflict force many Asian carriers to cut capacity and rearrange routes, Singapore Airlines (SIA) is moving in the opposite direction: adding long-haul flights to Europe in a bid to capture traffic from its Gulf rivals. Aviation analysts said the carrier’s expansion reflected a rare combination in the region: a strong balance sheet, insulation from sudden jumps in fuel prices due to its hedging strategy and a hub in Singapore that could...

Malaysia’s internet regulator issued a statutory demand to TikTok on Thursday after a fake account allegedly used artificial intelligence to insult the country’s king, including posts falsely claiming he ate pork and manipulated images pairing his face with animal bodies. The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) said in a statement that TikTok had failed to take “sufficient and timely action” against offensive and defamatory content targeting the country’s royal...

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung’s declaration that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was a “war criminal” highlights the balancing act between his human rights convictions and commitment to protecting Seoul’s interests in the Middle East, analysts have said. Lee’s comments came as Seoul was pushing for the release of two South Korean nationals detained by Israeli forces while attempting to reach the Gaza Strip aboard humanitarian aid boats, drawing attention to his willingness to...