Asia

⁠The White House ⁠is considering a plan to buy the Chagos Islands from Mauritius, the Telegraph reported on Sunday. US officials have drawn up ‌a proposal to bypass the UK and make their own deal to take control of Diego Garcia, the report said. Reuters could not immediately confirm the report. The White House ⁠and the UK Foreign Office did not immediately ‌respond to a request for comment. The plan is among several options being ‌drafted by the White House, in a paper ⁠aimed ⁠at providing...

Pakistan’s interior minister was in Tehran on Sunday in a fresh bid to restart negotiations between Iran and the US, as the American military said it shot down two more Iranian drones over the Strait of Hormuz that threatened international maritime traffic. The latest action came as the Washington presses for Iran to make a deal to end the war in the Middle East, which has strained the global economy and threatened a hunger crisis in some of the world’s most vulnerable countries. The heaviest...

Indonesia has always been a favourite travel destination for Malaysians and visitor numbers are expected to increase with the neighbouring country’s currency hitting a record low. Melaka Tourism Association president Madelina Quah said the low rupiah presents an advantage for Malaysians travelling and shopping in Indonesia. “This will translate to cheaper holidays, shopping for weddings and buying of raw materials for imports against exports’ competitiveness,” she said. “Younger Malaysians...

For nine days, Nurul Nisa was crammed onto one of four fishing boats with 130 others, fleeing her village in Myanmar in search of safety. She was a child then, but she still remembers the crying, the sleepless nights and the hunger. “We had to drink seawater,” she said, recalling the journey she made with her mother and two sisters in 2010, after their village had been burnt down. To secure the four wooden fishing boats needed for the voyage, the villagers pooled their resources and sold...

Tey Yong How remembers running along the shores of eastern Singapore as a child, the sea breeze mingling with the smell of sizzling seafood. Birthday dinners here meant three or four tables pushed together, with cousins chasing each other between the chairs as the adults pulled apart succulent chilli crab. “My childhood memories will linger there,” the 47-year-old said on a recent Wednesday evening of the seafood restaurants at East Coast Park. “Whatever may become of it in the...

In Jakarta last month, many May Day demonstrations took place, but two stood out as reflections of the divisions among Indonesia’s trade unions. At the National Monument (Monas), tens of thousands of workers gathered at a rally with President Prabowo Subianto as the guest of honour. Several kilometres away at the People’s Representative Council complex, around 10,000 people assembled under a different banner: “May Day with the People”. Their stated position was an explicit refusal to be co-opted...

Jaslinda Saludin, the Malaysian hiker who went missing after descending Gunung Batu Putih mountain in Perak state’s Tapah two weeks ago, has been found and is now undergoing treatment. “Thank you to everyone involved, especially the police, Fire and Rescue Department personnel, NGOs, the Orang Asli (indigenous people) and all those who participated in the search operation,” said her husband, Haszman Othman, 61, who was full of gratitude over the successful rescue. He was met by the media at the...

Six years after the Ladakh crisis erupted in May 2020, triggering the worst military confrontation between India and China in decades, the two countries are attempting something that once seemed improbable: a diplomatic reset. The latest indication came late last month when officials met in Beijing for the 35th meeting of the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination on India-China Border Affairs. The message emerging from the talks was positive. The two sides reaffirmed their...

Malaysia has staked its economic future on becoming Southeast Asia’s data-centre capital. It has also promised to slash fossil fuel use by 2050. Right now, those two ambitions are pulling in opposite directions – and gas is winning. There were 54 operational data centres across Malaysia by the end of 2024, with that number expected to rise to 81 by 2035, government minister Akmal Nasrullah Mohd Nasir told parliament last year. In the handful of years from 2021 and mid-2025, some 144.4 billion...

An ⁠American student ⁠who disappeared while on ⁠a family holiday in Japan was found dead outside Kyoto, his mother wrote in a social media post on Saturday. The body of James ‌Higginbotham, 20, was discovered in a mountainous area by a volunteer search-and-rescue group, Nancy Higginbotham wrote. A cause of death and further details were not immediately available. “Our family is heartbroken,” she said. “The grief we feel is ⁠impossible to put into words.” Higginbotham, an Alabama resident ‌and an...

Protesters outside a ballot-counting site in ⁠South Korea on ⁠Saturday rallied for a second ⁠day, demanding a re-run of local elections held earlier this week. Around 10,000 citizens were estimated to have gathered at the SK Olympic Handball Stadium as of 5.30pm local time, where votes were counted from Wednesday’s elections to pick mayors and local government officials and assembly members, Yonhap News Agency reported, citing an unofficial police estimate. Representatives at Seoul Metropolitan...

What is in effect Japan’s version of the Belt and Road Initiative is being rolled out at an accelerating pace. But unlike China’s global infrastructure initiative, which mainly takes the form of highways, railways and sea lanes, Japan’s project is all about energy networks and supply chains. It poses a further challenge to America’s waning economic and strategic influence in Asia, the world’s most populous, resource-rich and potentially powerful region. What is more, it is a cooperative venture...

Three social media platforms have been ordered to block access to 14 posts which “target the Indian community and undermine Singapore’s model of multiculturalism”, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said on Saturday. The police have issued disabling directions under the Online Criminal Harms Act to block access to the posts on YouTube, Facebook and X, MHA said in a statement. The direction required the platforms to “take all reasonable steps to disable access by Singapore users to these posts”,...

Hundreds of supporters of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), an online joke that drew millions across India, gathered for the first time in the national capital on Saturday, taking the social media movement off screens and into its biggest real-world test yet. The protest at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, marks the movement’s first foray into street politics after weeks of dominating social media feeds and news headlines, attracting millions of online followers and widespread support among young...

The Quad’s newly announced US$20 billion critical minerals framework aims to loosen China’s near-monopoly on the materials that power modern defence, technology and clean energy industries. But analysts say its success will depend on the ability of Australia, the United States, India and Japan – the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue’s four members – to move beyond policy declarations and deliver measurable outcomes. The initiative, announced after a meeting of Quad foreign ministers on May 27, has...

FamilyMart in Malaysia has taken immediate disciplinary action by suspending an employee who allegedly threw hot soup at a delivery rider, as seen in a viral video. The popular Japanese convenience store chain has apologised for the employee’s actions and for the delay in providing an update. “We have attended to the well-being of the delivery rider, cooperating fully with the authorities in their investigation and continued our own internal investigation and Domestic Inquiry in accordance with...

As South Koreans brace for another sweltering summer, a grim joke has taken hold in casual conversation: “This will be the coolest summer for the rest of our lives.” For many young people, that line is no longer dark humour but a blunt summary of how the climate crisis feels – relentless, immediate and deeply personal. Among South Korea’s young generations, a wave of what experts call “climate anxiety” is reshaping their daily lives, from how they exercise and shop to whether they plan to marry...

North Korean ruler Kim Jong-un’s recent display of nuclear-processing capabilities appears timed with reports of an impending visit by China’s leader and fuelled by insecurities about Seoul’s nuclear submarine talks with Washington. Analysts also say that mounting trilateral talks involving the United States, Japan and South Korea have galvanised Kim into doubling down on Pyongyang’s status as a nuclear-armed state. The state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) announced on Friday that Xi...

Listening to US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth at the recently concluded Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, I thought of the iconic Sichuan opera act of face-changing, where performers switch masks in an instant. Last year, Hegseth’s speech at the event was filled with blatant attacks on China. This year, he put on a completely different face, declaring that: “Under President Trump’s leadership, relations between the United States and China are better than they’ve been in many years.” Why this...

Japanese homemaker Maki Watanabe carefully ⁠pours into a plastic bottle the oil she used to cook her ⁠deep-fried aubergines, doing her part in her Tokyo kitchen for a national effort to ramp up production of eco-friendly jet fuel. “It would take a tremendous amount to make an aircraft fly, so I hope we can collect more,” said Watanabe, whose penchant for cooking allows her to donate about 40 litres (10 gallons) a year. Her contribution is pooled at a nearby supermarket that is among roughly 300...

For Beijing-based METiS TechBio CEO Lai Tsai-ta, ageing is comparable to bugs building up in a complex software system – it happens once errors begin to accumulate in the genetic code of human cells, such as their DNA sequences. “Those errors can be reprogrammed. It becomes possible to use AI to read, rewrite and reverse cells, or at least slow the ageing process,” Lai said in an interview with the South China Morning Post. The process could begin by fixing “immune cells, such as T cells, as...

Waves break along Cenang Beach as the sun drops over the Andaman Sea, washing Langkawi’s white sand in gold. Tourists sip fresh coconuts beneath rows of bright umbrellas, gazing out at the “Jewel of Kedah”: a duty-free archipelago long sold as one of Malaysia’s premier tropical escapes. Out on the water, meanwhile, small boats traverse the 8km (five miles) of open water that separates Langkawi from Thailand’s Koh Tarutao. On fast boats, the crossing takes a matter of minutes. No navigation...

Indonesia is considering buying hi-tech policing equipment from China, setting out a shopping list for technology ranging from drones to tactical armoured vehicles at a police equipment trade show in Beijing. The Indonesian National Police is particularly interested in counterterrorism equipment, including intelligence technology, tactical weapons, bomb disposal gear and special purpose vehicles, according to a list of requirements released at a forum held at the expo on Thursday. Most of this...

While a wave of job cuts across Asia’s finance and other industries due to wider use of artificial intelligence has spurred concerns, a new study shows that the technology’s net impact on employment is not as clear-cut. Recruiters and industry observers say many companies are adding AI-related roles without having to lay off workers. A study by professional services firm Aon released on Wednesday shows that 74 per cent of 504 companies surveyed across industries in the Asia-Pacific region have...

Thailand said on Friday it will join a UN arbitration process chosen by Cambodia to resolve a festering maritime boundary dispute, but put on hold for now other two-way efforts to settle their contested borders. This week Cambodia launched a compulsory conciliation process under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos), after Bangkok decided last month to unilaterally end a ‌2001 framework pact for talks on a disputed maritime belt. For more than 25 years, both have claimed...

China-Canada relations are undergoing a thaw after years of estrangement and recrimination. China and India are seeking a rapprochement despite deep-seated distrust and sometimes violent border disputes. Both cases share a common element: Donald Trump. Meanwhile, following the US president’s visit to Beijing, his defence secretary Pete Hegseth avoided mentioning Taiwan at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore. He sounded almost conciliatory by hailing ties with Beijing as “better than they’ve...

Asia’s governments have spent years promising to protect the seas that feed their people, shelter their coasts and support some of the world’s richest marine life. World Ocean Day on Monday will put those promises back in the public spotlight, but the more consequential test will come days later in Mombasa, Kenya, where governments, donors, companies and conservation groups will gather for the 11th annual Our Ocean Conference from June 16 to 18. The conference has become a key stage for global...

The Philippines’ landslide defeat to Kyrgyzstan for a UN Security Council seat has dealt a blow to Manila’s long-running campaign to raise its international diplomatic profile through the prestigious body, prompting questions about President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr’s foreign policy legacy. Analysts said the loss reflected the appeal of having under-represented Central Asia play a role in the council, Kyrgyzstan’s perceived neutrality and the geopolitical baggage attached to the Philippines as a...

Pig farmers in the central state of Selangor have spent years trying to keep their business out of Malaysia’s culture wars. A royal decree has dragged them straight into one. The state’s decision to shut down pig farms, prompted by Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah, Selangor’s hereditary ruler, has transformed a long-standing local dispute over pollution and odour into a flashpoint touching on royal influence, the livelihoods of a minority community and the delicate balancing act facing Malaysia’s...

China and South Korea will allow 70 more flights per week between the two countries in view of fast-growing, two-way tourism and a drop in Chinese group travel to Japan. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport in Seoul said in a statement Thursday that passenger flight capacity would grow from 608 to 664 per week and that maximum air freight flights would expand from 54 to 68 per week. These expansions, the first since before the Covid pandemic, reflect a surge in two-way tourism,...