Asia

Indonesia has blocked predictions market ⁠Polymarket as part of its crackdown on online gambling, its communications and digital ministry said, days after the site took bets on a premature end to Prabowo Subianto’s presidency. Gambling is illegal in Indonesia and authorities have been clamping down on online betting. “The government will not allow any form of online gambling in Indonesia,” the ministry said in a statement. Ministry official Alexander Sabar late on Friday said Polymarket was...

James Bernardo, 30, was delivering food on Teodoro street in Angeles City in the Philippines when a nine-storey building under construction on the opposite side of the road collapsed behind him. “What I heard behind me sounded like an aeroplane landing. The sound was unlike anything normal. When I looked at my side mirror and then turned around, what I saw were pylons falling and power lines sparking,” Bernardo told This Week in Asia. In just seconds, the structure had morphed into a twisted...

Malaysian police have arrested 51 men in a drug raid at a luxury Kuala Lumpur hotel, describing the scene as a “gay party” with “immoral activities” committed. The language has drawn scrutiny from lawyers and rights advocates who say the terms risked prejudicing suspects and stigmatising LGBTQ people. Bukit Aman narcotics chief Hussein Omar Khan said four raids were carried out between 2.35am and 5am on Sunday after police received intelligence about what they described as a “drug party” and...

The Indonesian government’s decision to accept a US proposal to turn an underused airport into a maintenance hub for Lockheed C-130 Hercules military aircraft has stirred up a familiar debate: how far can Jakarta deepen defence ties with Washington while preserving its non-aligned stance? The plan, which would make Indonesia home to the first facility of its kind in Southeast Asia, emerged alongside a separate discussion over allowing US military aircraft to access Indonesian airspace, adding to...

A ⁠section of ⁠an overpass under demolition in the South Korean capital of Seoul collapsed on Tuesday, killing three people who were ‌conducting a safety inspection and injuring three others, fire and city officials said. Television footage showed emergency workers conducting a search-and-rescue operation as a long segment ⁠of the structure lay collapsed on the street below, near a railway crossing in central Seoul. Workers noticed that a part of the structure had slightly sunk while concrete...

Malaysia’s jailed former prime minister Najib Razak has become the unlikely face of a new prison food campaign, after an animal rights group urged Kajang Prison to serve him and other inmates vegan meals. In a letter sent on Tuesday to Kajang Prison Director Mohd Sharin bin Hj Sabtu, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta) said a vegan meals policy could help reduce costs, improve inmate health and promote “empathy and non-violence” inside one of Malaysia’s best-known...

Malaysia has seen growing numbers of sexual harassment complaints involving male victims in recent years, reflecting what advocates describe as the slow erosion of the stigma that has long kept many men silent. More than 1,000 complaints involving male victims have been lodged through the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry’s complaints mechanisms since 2024, Minister Nancy Shukri said, describing the figure as a sharp increase in reports. The complaints involving male victims...

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s visit to India this week will give Washington an opportunity to “get the optics right” regarding ties between the two sides, amid friction over unresolved trade issues and broader international cooperation. Rubio stressed cooperation on trade, energy, defence and maritime security in meetings with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar on Sunday as he arrived in New Delhi. Jaishankar said that the two...

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. Did US restrictions sink Malaysia’s US$147 million Norway missile deal? Norway’s revocation of export licences for a naval missile system sold to Malaysia has thrust into sharp relief the United States’ ability to kill an arms deal between two other sovereign nations...

Shinnosuke Abe – manager of the Yomiuri Giants, Japan’s oldest and most storied professional baseball team – stepped down on Tuesday following his arrest on suspicion of assaulting his daughter. Abe, 47, resigned as manager of the team, viewed as Japan’s closest equivalent to the New York Yankees, and apologised for “tarnishing the proud tradition of Giants managers”. He was taken into custody by the Metropolitan Police Department for allegedly grabbing his 18-year-old daughter and forcing her...

Shinsegae Group chairman Chung Yong-jin on Tuesday apologised to the public in person, eight days after Starbucks Korea, run by the conglomerate, sparked controversy with its “Tank Day” marketing event, which critics say inappropriately referenced South Korea’s pro-democracy movement of the 1980s. “Regardless of the reason, the fact that we have hurt the hearts of our citizens carries a heavy responsibility,” Chung said during a press conference. “I will make no excuses. All responsibility for...

A rare visit by Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr to Japan this week marks Manila’s latest bid to establish a counterweight to Beijing over the South China Sea dispute. During the four-day trip, the first state visit by a Philippine leader to Japan in over a decade, Marcos is expected to discuss boosting defence and other ties between Manila and Tokyo amid the security challenge posed by China’s growing maritime assertiveness, according to analysts. Marcos will meet Japanese Prime...

A reported US delay in delivering hundreds of Tomahawk cruise missiles could slow Japan’s plans to give its military a long-range strike option, analysts said, exposing a potential gap between Tokyo’s new defence ambitions and Washington’s ability to supply the weapons. The missiles are central to Japan’s effort to build a counterstrike capability, giving it the ability to hit enemy bases if the country comes under threat, as Tokyo rethinks its defence posture in response to a more uncertain...

Cambodia’s acting head of state, former prime minister Hun Sen, pardoned opposition leader Kem Sokha on Monday from a sentence of almost three decades for treason. Kem Sokha, who was convicted of trying to topple the former long-ruling leader’s government and sentenced to 27 years, “is pardoned”, Hun Sen posted on social media alongside a royal decree signed by him. Hun Sen, who ruled Cambodia for nearly four decades, stepped down as prime minister in 2023 and handed power to his eldest son, Hun...

India’s ruling Hindu-nationalist party has ordered detention centres for undocumented Bangladeshis and Rohingyas in West Bengal state, sparking fear among minorities that it could lead to arbitrary expulsions. The directive comes just days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won power in the eastern state for the first time since the country’s independence in 1947. The order calls on local authorities to set up “holding centres” for “apprehended foreigners” awaiting...

A suspected tear gas incident at Tokyo’s Ginza Six luxury shopping centre left 26 people feeling unwell on Monday, prompting a large emergency response in one of Japan’s most famous commercial districts. The incident took place around noon at the mall in Tokyo’s Chuo ward after police received an emergency call reporting an irritating smell and people coughing inside it, Japanese media reported. Nineteen of the 26 people affected were taken to hospital after complaining of symptoms including...

A new US immigration policy could force many green card applicants to leave the country and apply from abroad, disrupting families, careers and long-term settlement plans for Asian workers already facing years-long backlogs for visas. US Citizenship and Immigration Services said on May 22 that it would only grant “adjustment of status” – the process that allows prospective immigrants already in the US to apply for permanent residence without leaving the country – in “extraordinary...

Philippine rescuers were racing against time on Monday in a search for possible signs of life more than 24 hours after the collapse of a building under construction in the city of Angeles, with crews carefully removing rocks and surrounding debris by hand. The painstaking manual operation around 80 km (50 miles) north of the capital Manila underscored the difficulty of the rescue effort, ‌carried out under scorching heat, with authorities unable to rely on excavators and other machinery for fear...

In a cluster of villages in Pakistan’s largely ⁠rural Chakwal district, more than 100 Shiite Muslims have returned from the United Arab Emirates without jobs, luggage or access to the savings they spent years building abroad. They are among potentially thousands of Shi’ites deported from the UAE to Pakistan during the Iran war, raising alarm in Pakistan’s Shiite community and prompting Human Rights Watch to investigate. Journalists reviewed immigration documents, visa-status screenshots and...

The desperate search for seven villagers in Laos prospecting for gold who became trapped deep inside a flooded cave entered a sixth day on Monday, with the incident highlighting how surging prices have sparked a rush for the precious metal despite risks in unstable hillside mines. Thai cave rescue teams have joined the mission at the cave in central Xaysomboun province, posting harrowing images on social media of the conditions, which include crawling through a flooded, narrow tunnel leading to...

Former chairman of Seven & i Holdings Toshifumi Suzuki, credited for the global success of 7-Eleven convenience stores, had died at the age of 93, according to the company. Suzuki - known as the “father of the convenience store” in Japan - died due to heart failure on May 18, the company said in a statement on Monday. “We would like to express our deepest gratitude for the kindness shown to him during his lifetime and respectfully inform you of his passing,” the statement said. Suzuki is known...

A dispute over where churches and temples can operate in Malaysia’s richest state has become an awkward political test for Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s ruling coalition, which came to power promising to protect the country’s multiracial and multi-faith society. The row centres on planning guidelines in Selangor, a wealthy and densely populated state surrounding Kuala Lumpur, that critics say could restrict non-Islamic places of worship in commercial areas, where many religious groups have long...

Around 20 people were injured at a luxury shopping complex in the Japanese capital of Tokyo on Monday after a man sprayed a substance inside, police and fire department officials said. Tokyo police spokesman Yusuke Koide said that a man sprayed a substance at an ATM on the ground floor of the building, while a local fire department official said “around 20 people were injured” after a report of a “smell”. The road in front of the mall – located in the touristy and upmarket shopping district of...

A high-profile alleged sexual abuse case within a wealthy Thai beer brewing family has prompted a wave of painful accounts from survivors of unconnected abuse in the conservative country. Siranudh Scott, a fourth-generation member of the billionaire Thai family that founded the ubiquitous Singha beer brand, posted an emotional video this month accusing his older brother Sunit of repeatedly abusing him when he was a teenager. Sunit, who is in his thirties, later denied the allegations in a video...

Singapore train operator SMRT will be stepping up pest control measures at its stations and depots after a video circulating online showed a rat on one of its trains. In the video posted on social media on Saturday, a rat is seen scurrying around the cabin of a train as two people attempt to corner it. People are also seen lifting their legs to avoid it as it scurries past them. “SMRT is aware of a post online about a rat sighting on board one of our trains on the East-West Line,” said SMRT...

Three people ⁠were killed ⁠and one was ⁠injured in an accident during lifeboat maintenance work at a floating storage and offloading (FSO) vessel operated by Malaysian state energy ‌firm Petronas on Sunday, the firm said. Petronas, or Petroliam Nasional Berhad, said in a statement on Monday the incident occurred around 12.50pm at FSO Sepat off Terengganu state on the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia. Three ‌workers were pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital, while the injured ‌staff member...

Each morning, people in Thailand wake up to the latest viral videos on social media of drunken punch-ups, thefts, scams or acts of public indecency committed by some foreign tourists. After months of warnings, Thailand on May 19 announced the cancellation of its 60-day visa-free entry rules for 93 countries and territories in a bid to curb crime, antisocial behaviour and abuse of the visa privilege by a portion of the tens of millions of tourists who have visited the kingdom annually. Visitors...

Singapore’s economy expanded faster than expected in the first quarter as the global artificial-intelligence boom lifted the nation’s manufacturing and services, offsetting the drag from higher crude prices. Gross domestic product grew a seasonally adjusted 1 per cent in the three months through March from the previous quarter, the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) said on Monday. That is well above the government’s advance estimate of a 0.3 per cent contraction and the median forecast of a...

A photographer shooting the final day of the World Surf League (WSL) in New ⁠Zealand was injured by what organisers suspect was a sea lion or shark bite on Monday, forcing the event to be put on hold for several hours. The New Zealand Pro semi-final between Brazilian world champions Yago Dora and Italo Ferreira at Raglan was halted after the ‌in-water photographer suffered puncture wounds and needed medical attention, the WSL said. “This morning one of the water photography team suffered a...

Southeast Asia has been planning a unified electricity grid since 1997. Now, nearly 30 years later, its leaders are giving renewed impetus to the push to get energy flowing seamlessly across borders and seabeds. In Cebu earlier this month, leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations put the power grid’s development high on their summit agenda, aiming to better insulate the region against the next big energy shock. But as regional governments try to turn the decades-long dream of an...