Asia

Indonesia’s attempt to keep children aged under 16 off social media platforms deemed high risk has quickly become one of the world’s biggest tests of online safety regulation, with more than 4.8 million suspected underage accounts removed or deactivated in the first three months of enforcement. For President Prabowo Subianto’s government, the figures are an early sign that major platforms are falling in line with its policy aimed at making the digital world safer for children. Communications and...

Why are global investors so bearish on the yen? There are good reasons Japan’s currency should be gaining in value. Last month, the Bank of Japan (BOJ) raised interest rates to a 31-year high of 1 per cent and signalled it would continue increasing borrowing costs. Bond markets are currently pricing in a nearly 90 per cent probability of another increase by December. Nominal wages in Japan have risen by more than 3 per cent for four straight months, the longest streak since 1992. Moreover, the...

The leaders of ⁠Malaysia and Thailand said ⁠on Thursday they would ⁠work on developing a special border economic zone, and had resolved an issue that had disrupted trade in seafood between the neighbours. In May, Thailand restricted the import of Malaysian-caught sea bass due ‌to concerns over chemical residues, prompting Kuala Lumpur to temporarily ban some varieties of Thai shrimp over food safety controls last month. “We have resolved this outstanding issue of fisheries … we agree it should...

The United States is turning to South Korea’s world-leading shipbuilding industry to refresh its ageing naval fleet, a move set to expand the bilateral alliance beyond security into defence manufacturing, technology and industrial production. The approach reflects Washington’s efforts to address long-standing problems in its own industry, according to analysts – chronic construction delays, cost overruns, shortages of skilled workers and supply chain constraints among them. It also signals a...

The right to own a small car in Singapore climbed to a record high of S$129,000 ($99,700), with analysts saying premiums could rise further as rebates for electric vehicles come to an end. The price of a Category A certificate of entitlement (COE) meant for smaller cars and EVs advanced by 4.2 per cent in Wednesday’s bidding exercise from the previous round on June 17. Premiums for larger and more powerful cars in Category B jumped 6 per cent to S$130,889. The surge in premiums comes ahead of...

A senior Malaysian lawmaker on ⁠Thursday denied ⁠that fugitive businessman Jho ⁠Low had entered the country for talks linked to the theft of billions of dollars from state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB). Low, whose full name is Low Taek ‌Jho, faces multiple charges, including corruption and money laundering, in the United States and Malaysia for the central role he allegedly played in the misappropriation of at least US$4.5 billion from 1MDB. He has consistently denied wrongdoing and...

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday said “the Islamic Republic of Japan” fired missiles at a US aircraft carrier, apparently confusing long-time ally Japan with Iran. Trump made the remark during a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Turkish capital Ankara on the sidelines of a Nato summit. “We had 111 missiles shot by the Islamic Republic of Japan,” Trump said. He went on to say that the missiles were shot at the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln over a period of one...

The World Bank has upgraded the Philippines to an upper-middle-income country, but the classification means little to many Filipinos grappling with rising cost of living, mounting debt and stagnant wages. Manila resident Ann Michelle Federez-Abato, 35, said her entire salary went towards her parents’ mortgage, while she and her two-year-old daughter subsisted on a monthly remittance of 20,000 pesos (US$325) sent home by her husband, who works as a production officer at a factory abroad. Much of...

Jack Yu wants to vote in Saturday’s crucial election in his home state of Johor, Malaysia, but being based in Hong Kong has left him frozen out after he missed the short window to register for a postal ballot. Hong Kong is home to an estimated 15,000 Malaysians working in fields ranging from finance to hospitality, according to the Southeast Asian nation’s consulate general. Many stay closely engaged with politics back home – more so when the result could reshape the balance of power in...

Myanmar’s junta-led government is chasing nearly 2 million tourist arrivals a year in a bid analysts see as an effort to secure global legitimacy, but the dream is beset with difficulties. Authorities have been ramping up efforts to revive Myanmar’s tourism industry after the 2021 coup plunged the country into widespread civil war. More than 100,000 people have died so far in the conflict, according to the monitor Armed Conflict Location and Event Data. Still, over 973,000 foreigners visited...

Civilian and navy searchers off Pakistan’s coast on Wednesday located and recovered wreckage of a cargo plane that disappeared while approaching the southern port of Karachi, and a search continues for five missing crew members, officials said. The aircraft operated by the private carrier K2 Airways had departed from Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates and reported a navigational system problem before losing contact with air traffic control late on Tuesday. The Pakistani navy and civilian teams...

A 49-year-old woman has been arrested for allegedly sewing together the lips of a woman she was living with, according to local police. Masae Sakurai, a part-time worker living in Ibaraki Prefecture, northeast of Tokyo, was arrested on Monday on suspicion of injuring the 42-year-old woman by sewing her lips together with a needle and thread at Sakurai’s house on June 29. The victim, who had been living with Sakurai since around April 2025, told the police that she “had been too scared to run...

A year since the dust settled on the Singapore general election, leadership resignations in two small opposition parties signal a period of post-poll recalibration after disappointing results. The once-promising Progress Singapore Party (PSP), led by ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) defector Tan Cheng Bock, was dealt an “existential blow” on Monday, analysts say, following the resignations of two central executive committee members. Stephanie Tan, 38, was a newcomer who ran in the election,...

A Singapore minister’s quip in parliament that top officials had no time to go to the cinema has drawn heated public discussion, with some in the local arts scene saying the comment risked downplaying the importance of the cultural sector. Acting Minister for Culture, Community and Youth David Neo was responding to questions in parliament on Tuesday about the administration’s stance on Chinese dialects in films, when he joked in Mandarin: “First of all, ministers don’t have time to watch...

Days before Johor state heads to the polls, gamblers on the crypto-powered betting exchange that emerged as a barometer of political sentiment during the last US election have already called it. On Polymarket, bettors have priced Barisan Nasional (BN) as an overwhelming favourite to retain control of Malaysia’s southern gateway to Singapore. As of Wednesday afternoon, the coalition stood at a 92.8 per cent chance of winning the most seats in Saturday’s vote – dwarfing Prime Minister Anwar...

Indonesia has become the third Southeast Asian nation – after Vietnam and the Philippines – to buy the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile system jointly developed by India and Russia. Analysts say the missiles will play a vital role in protecting Indonesia’s strategic waterways from becoming collateral damage in the event of a future great-power conflict. The deal was signed on Tuesday during Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s three-day state visit to Indonesia, during which he held bilateral...

In May, Japanese fisherman Tadasuke Nakamura noticed he had an abnormally large haul of bluefin tuna in his set net off the Pacific coast of Hakodate, on Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido. Hundreds of the prized sushi fish crowded the net, but he had to let many of them go. Japan has an annual catch quota and if ‌Nakamura had kept the haul he would have had no quota left for the colder months when bluefin tuna are fattier, tastier and fetch a higher price. “It’s truly upsetting to have to...

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr has broken his silence on China’s sanctions against his defence chief, in remarks seen as a closing of ranks that could complicate diplomacy between Manila and Beijing in the near term. Observers say the president’s public backing of outspoken Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro amounts to a “good cop, bad cop” approach that signals Manila’s resolve and may strengthen defence cooperation with its allies. Speaking to reporters in Vancouver over the...

Joab Jorge runs Dream Latte Cafe, a speciality coffee shop and small-batch roastery, with his mother Ces out of their old ancestral home in Pilar, a town in Bataan province some 180km (112 miles) northwest of Manila. Rising electricity costs and frequent blackouts have put a strain on the business, which has already had to raise prices by 10 per cent to cover higher costs for goods and imported coffee beans since the energy crisis triggered by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz in February. The...

A Google executive has told an Australian inquiry that a YouTube video falsely claiming a wounded survivor of an antisemitic massacre in Sydney was a crisis actor bloodied with make-up had met the platform’s standards and would remain online. Google Australia manager Rachel Lord was testifying on Tuesday at a government inquiry into the spread of antisemitism in Australia, including an attack by two gunmen on a Sydney Hanukkah celebration in December that left 15 people dead. Lord was questioned...

As soaring temperatures fuel demand for cooling in Europe, Thailand is pitching itself as a source of relief, promoting rainy-season holidays while exporting more air conditioners. With tourism and outbound shipments two of the Southeast Asian economy’s biggest drivers, Europe’s heatwaves are creating opportunities on both fronts. The Tourism Authority of Thailand has launched a campaign encouraging European travellers to swap scorching summer temperatures for the nation’s milder rainy season,...

Indonesian authorities are widening their investigation into a case of suspected identity and research fraud at an overseas medical conference, which has exposed gaps in academic oversight and revived concerns about abuses in the nation’s system of publication-driven promotion for academia. The Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology has set up a team to examine papers previously published by the alleged perpetrators, saying action would be taken if they were found to have used...

Malaysian Transport Minister Anthony Loke says success in Johor’s state polls will be measured by how many seats can be clawed away from Barisan Nasional (BN), imploring voters to seek a better power balance if they want a surer footing with Singapore, the economic powerhouse across the causeway that has soaked up its workers and industry. Loke leads the Chinese-majority Democratic Action Party (DAP), a small but punchy partner in Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition...

South Korea may have lost Canada’s multibillion-dollar submarine order, but analysts say its close-run contest with Germany has handed Seoul a different prize: proof that it can challenge one of the world’s traditional undersea warfare powers on a stage watched closely by defence buyers. Canada chose Germany’s Thyssenkrupp Marine Systems (TKMS) as the preferred bidder for a programme worth about US$40 billion to build up to 12 diesel-electric submarines, along with long-term maintenance and...

Singapore and Indonesia’s latest push to trade low-carbon electricity could become more than a bilateral energy deal, with analysts saying it might offer Southeast Asia a practical test case for a regional power grid that has long struggled to move from ambition to implementation. The cooperation, centred on electricity-import deals and cross-border interconnector projects, is also expected to strengthen Singapore’s energy security and help the city state reach its sustainability goals, while...

India will supply Indonesia with long-range missiles, an Indian official said on Tuesday as their leaders agreed to deepen ties in defence, critical minerals and other areas. President Prabowo Subianto is hosting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Jakarta during a three-day state visit, with a deal on the BrahMos missile system topping the agenda. An agreement for “cooperation on BrahMos system” was struck during the visit, Indian foreign ministry spokesman Randhir Jaiswal said in a post on...

India’s wildly popular digital payments system, which began as a way for people to send money instantly by phone, could help the country turn one of its biggest domestic technology successes into a tool of diplomacy, analysts say. That opportunity is coming into focus in Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s largest economy, where officials are studying whether India’s low-cost digital systems can be adapted to their own needs. The talks centre on the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), India’s instant...

Malaysia’s former economy minister Rafizi Ramli and his breakaway party, Bersama, are unlikely to emerge as a credible third force in the country’s political landscape, but they could still siphon votes away from the reformist Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition led by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim. Bersama’s first electoral test, in Johor on Saturday, will be watched less for the number of seats it wins than for the votes it might peel away from PH in multi-cornered contests, where analysts warn...

Sri Lanka launched an investigation on Tuesday into its deadliest prison riot in years, as the death toll from clashes between rival drug gangs rose to 27. Armed police and commandos were not sent into the prison but were deployed to guard the perimeter of Negombo prison, as authorities tightened security following the clashes on Monday that also wounded more than 100. Justice Minister Harshana Nanayakkara told parliament on Tuesday that a criminal investigation had begun alongside a...

Last week, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi led a business delegation to New Delhi for the 16th India-Japan annual summit. During last year’s summit in Tokyo, Takaichi’s predecessor, Shigeru Ishiba, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi outlined the Japan-India Joint Vision for the next decade – during which period India may see up to 10 trillion yen (US$62 billion) in investment from Japan. Some of Japan’s most notable investments in India have been in the financial sector. Japanese...