Asia

The Indonesian tourism ministry’s proposal to expand visa-free entry to more countries risks bringing in “low-quality tourists”, its immigration chief has said, asking the government to reconsider the decision. “We do not want visitors who do not contribute positively. When visas are waived, we effectively give up a source of state revenue. We must also protect the dignity of the nation,” Immigration Director General Hendarsam Marantoko told the Jakarta Globe newspaper. On Wednesday, the tourism...

In July 2024, India’s weight in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index, a leading gauge of stocks in developing economies, hit a record high of 19.99 per cent. At the time, this was less than three percentage points below China’s weight, which at one point was as high as 43 per cent. Between 2022 and 2024, India was the darling of emerging market equity investors. The combination of the country’s fast-growing economy, strong corporate earnings, the Covid-19 pandemic-induced boom in retail trading and...

Japan and South Korea should build a stronger security alliance to anchor regional stability as US commitment to East Asia becomes less certain, former Japanese foreign and defence minister Taro Kono said on Wednesday. “I think it is indispensable for peace and stability for East Asia that Japan and Korea create a very strong security alliance, not just the economy. Japan and Korea need to sit down and discuss security in the region,” Kono said during the “Asia-Pacific in the age of American...

New Zealand has seen a surge in Chinese tourists since it began testing an easier pathway for visitors via Australia. The government began a 12-month trial in November that exempted Chinese and Pacific people from visa requirements if they were travelling from Australia. Officials estimated that after six months the new option has resulted in a 40 per cent increase in Chinese visitor arrivals, Tourism Minister Louise Upston said on Thursday in Wellington. Tourism is New Zealand’s second-largest...

Philippine authorities successfully foiled another possible school attack in Leyte province just two days after Monday’s deadly shooting in Tacloban City, thanks to a timely tip from Senator Bam Aquino. The senator, nephew of former president Corazon Aquino, informed Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla of the threat on Wednesday night. “At 8 o’clock last night, Senator Bam Aquino called me up and gave me a tip that there was chatter in Tacloban that there was an impending mass shooting that was...

A man in Singapore posed as his ex-girlfriend and shared her nude photos in a sex chat group with a religious theme, but was exposed when the victim caught wind of it and went undercover to investigate. The victim, who was a teenager when she shared the photos with the culprit, was horrified to discover that the chat group contained many obscene images and videos of women clad in religious garb, including the tudung (headscarf). She filed a police report. Abdul Marzuq Waliyuddin Abdul Majid, a...

The number of China-Japan flights scheduled by airlines for the coming summer travel period – the peak months of July and August – has dropped by 57 per cent versus a year ago following a political flap and a price hike in Japanese visas, according to industry data. A total of 2,629 round-trip flights were expected next month between the two Asian countries, down from 6,317 in July last year. In August, 2,641 were scheduled, a drop from the 6,127 flown in August 2025, data compiled by British...

A Malaysian paediatrician based in Perth has been remanded on 33 charges of child sexual offences and possession of child exploitation material, widening a case that Australian prosecutors say involves multiple children. The case adds to a list of child sex-related prosecutions involving Malaysian medical practitioners overseas, including a child psychiatrist jailed in Ireland in 2024, and another doctor convicted in Australia last year. Saw Chia Liang, 41, remains in custody after his latest...

Every booking inquiry that lands in dive operator Richard Swann’s inbox these days carries the same undertow of anxiety. Before his clients commit to a dive trip off Kota Kinabalu, they want reassurance: are Sabah’s reefs still worth the journey? It is a question that would have seemed strange a generation ago, when the waters off Malaysian Borneo were simply assumed to be among the finest on Earth. Now it is one of the first things visitors ask – and the answer, according to a new environmental...

A Form Two male student died after collapsing during a rugby training session at a secondary school in Telok Mas, Malaysia’s Melaka state. The 14-year-old is believed to have lost consciousness at about 6pm on Wednesday shortly after a break while listening to a briefing by his coach. The victim’s granduncle, Yahya Endut, 64, said he rushed from Alor Gajah after receiving news of the incident involving the teenager, whom he had raised since childhood. “I was informed that the victim had only...

The war in Iran is effectively over. Although the dust has yet to settle, some lessons are already visible. First, US President Donald Trump has waged a personal war at the world’s expense. Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu warned that arms are ill-omened tools, employed only as a last resort. Trump, who has admitted he doesn’t like to read, may not realise this. Few people know why he ordered a strike on Iran. Maybe kidnapping president Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela was too easy or Israeli Prime...

Pakistan police said on Wednesday that they had rescued a French woman and her five children after she told authorities she had been held captive by her husband for more than a decade and subjected to years of domestic abuse in the country’s northwest. The woman, identified as 54-year-old Sylvie Yasmina, was rescued earlier this week from a mud-brick home in Bara, a town in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province near the Afghan border, district police chief Waqar Ahmad said. He said Yasmina’s husband,...

A key road named after US President Donald Trump in India’s opposition-ruled tech hub of Hyderabad has drawn criticism from ‌Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling party, which dismissed the move as “hypocrisy”. US-India ties have deteriorated during Trump’s second term, with Washington imposing high tariffs on Indian goods, punishing New Delhi for purchasing Russian oil, and engaging closely with India’s arch-rival Pakistan. The road in the capital of the southern state of Telangana, ruled by...

Beijing is sharpening the tools it uses to police rare earth and other strategic mineral exports, announcing fresh measures that will reward companies and individuals for reporting suspected violations. The announcement came on Wednesday, the same day Tokyo confirmed that two of its nationals had been detained in China over alleged attempts to smuggle rare earth-related goods out of the country. “Any organisation or individual has the right to report conduct suspected of violating relevant laws...

As Singapore bets on becoming Asia’s leading wellness destination, tourism experts say the city state must prove that its attractions can draw international visitors in a region replete with spas, retreats and hot springs. A S$1 billion (US$770 million) waterfront complex scheduled to open in 2030 is expected to be a major driver of the country’s wellness sector. European developer Therme Group is slated to start work on the project in the third quarter, after being awarded the tender in...

A wave of power outages across Indonesia’s Java island has left millions of residents and business owners in the dark, igniting public fury and raising questions as to how the world’s largest coal exporter is failing to keep its own lights on. The answer, analysts say, lies less in a coal shortage than in the rules and incentives governing who gets to buy it, at what price and when. Hours-long blackouts since last week have disrupted the lives and businesses of millions of subscribers of...

Chinese-Filipino business groups have sent aid to earthquake-hit residents in the southern Philippines, continuing their tradition of providing disaster relief at a time when worsening Manila-Beijing ties have complicated public perceptions of people and organisations linked to China. In General Santos City, among the areas hardest hit by the devastating 7.8-magnitude earthquake that struck the country on June 8, local officials and survivors said politics had little place in disaster recovery...

After two teenagers opened fire at a Philippine high school this week, the first question lawmakers asked was not about gun control, but the internet. Three pupils were killed and 20 injured at San Jose National High School in Tacloban City, Leyte province, on Monday – the highest total casualty count of any Philippine school shooting. It has renewed calls to restrict Filipino children’s access to social media and online games, coming months after police said they had disrupted a school shooting...

Upset with the way that her domestic worker had performed tasks such as hanging the laundry or cleaning bottles, a 67-year-old woman slapped, punched and scratched her, drawing blood. The victim, who earned S$470 (about US$360) a month, told staff members from Singapore’s Centre for Domestic Employees (CDE) during a routine call about the abuse, and a police report was made. Hazel Phang Fong Yen, a 67-year-old Singaporean woman, was sentenced to four months’ jail on Wednesday. She was also...

Thailand’s Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul has ordered an investigation into allegations of mass cheating in civil service exams to attain government jobs, after thousands of tests were allegedly tampered with to boost scores in exchange for fees of up to US$24,000 each time. The scandal erupted after police and anti-corruption officials raided a company address in Nonthaburi outside Bangkok on Tuesday and found at least 10 officials on site tampering with computerised scores “to help...

A Pentagon decision to strip “Indo” from the name of its largest unified military command eight years after it was initially added has raised questions about the United States’ continuing commitment to India. In a statement announcing the Indo-Pacific Command’s name change on June 16, US officials portrayed the move as a matter of “honour”, “pride” and respecting “historical roots”. But analysts told This Week in Asia that New Delhi would likely read the reversion to Pacific Command (PACOM) as...

Malaysia’s police chief has opened a disciplinary inquiry into a police officer who posted viral videos showing Malaysian tourists mocking people in China as “smelly” after the clips triggered anger in both countries and prompted a public apology. Inspector General of Police Mohd Khalid Ismail said on Tuesday authorities had begun an internal investigation into the personnel involved, identified by her lawyer as Nur Asyiqin Mohd Dalil. “I have received information on the matter and we have...

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi was heckled at a World War II memorial event by protesters angry about Tokyo’s further shift away from its decades-long pacifist stance, television footage showed. Close US ally Japan in April loosened rules on lethal arms exports and Takaichi, long seen as a security hawk who last year riled mainland China with comments about Taiwan, has said she wants to revise the constitution. A small but vocal number of demonstrators shouted slogans throughout...

Just a short ⁠stroll from Sydney’s famous Bondi Beach, auctioneer Clarence White struggles to drum up bids for an ⁠airy three-storey home that boasts five bedrooms and an alfresco lounge – price tag, A$5.2 million (US$3.64 million). “We know everyone’s cagey at the moment, but that’s OK … all power to those who are registered and those who take action,” the veteran auctioneer tells a small group of prospective buyers and onlookers, none of whom bids. Failed auctions like this were once the...

India’s private defence companies are poised to expand their footprint in the sector, but analysts warn they still lack the technology and capabilities needed to produce cutting-edge weapons for the country’s military or export markets. In the 2025-26 financial year, the private sector accounted for 24 per cent of India’s defence output, or US$4.4 billion out of a record US$18.7 billion, according to a defence ministry statement released last week. The figures reflect a gradual shift away from a...

Malaysia’s durian lovers are in for a treat as prices for the “king of fruits” will remain low from now until August. This is due to a bumper harvest, leading to a situation known as “durian tsunami” where an oversupply in the market causes prices to tumble. Administrative executive Lim Mei Ling, 34, said the price drop is a welcome surprise. “Normally, I would think twice before buying Musang King. But now, I can enjoy this premium durian and keep some for later,” she said. Engineer Kelvin Tan,...

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said his country was “equipping the navy with nuclear weapons”, state media reported on Wednesday, as he also unveiled plans to build 10,000-tonne warships. The remarks came at the commissioning of the Choe Hyon – one of two 5,000-tonne class warships the nuclear-armed state launched last year – in the port city of Nampo on Tuesday, the official Korean Central News Agency reported. “The programme of equipping the navy with nuclear weapons is following its planned...

Joseph McGrail-Bateup, an Australian professional air conditioner cleaner and honorary town crier, has been recognised as the world’s loudest person. Guinness World Records last week acknowledged the 58-year-old Canberra resident recorded the loudest ever shout by an individual. He yelled “now” at 122.4 decibels. That broke the previous record of 121.7 dB set by Northern Ireland teacher Annalisa Flanagan in 1994. She had yelled an ear-piercing “quiet”. That is in the noise range of a chainsaw, a...

Malaysia’s rare postponement of a meeting of its royal council has pushed a throne dispute in the state of Negeri Sembilan beyond palace walls, threatening to turn a customary succession row into an electoral liability for Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s uneasy governing alliance ahead of snap polls. The June 23–25 meeting of the Conference of Rulers – a council of Malaysia’s hereditary Malay rulers and state governors – was called off at the eleventh hour amid concerns that allowing Negeri...

Indonesia’s efforts to woo back Chinese investors may be gaining traction after Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa returned from Beijing with a multibillion-dollar funding commitment and political backing for the Southeast Asian country’s debut yuan-denominated sovereign bond. Whether the bilateral talks translate into lasting investor confidence in Indonesia’s economic fundamentals remains to be seen, as global companies continue to weigh Jakarta’s shifting rules, challenging budget outlook...