Asia

Salon manager Alice Pang says her 10-year-old daughter has likened the visibility inside her classroom in Singapore to Malaysia’s Genting Highlands, but while the mountain resort is often shrouded in fog caused by water particles, her child’s active imagination may have been triggered by worsening haze plaguing the city state. Pang told This Week in Asia that her daughter, whose classroom did not have air conditioning, was already suffering from bad sinus, and the haze had made her eyes...

The governor of an Indonesian province bearing the brunt of weeks of raging forest fires has sought to douse anger over his trip to Singapore, as Jakarta “welcomed” help from its neighbours choked by transboundary haze to contain the crisis. East Kalimantan Governor Rudy Mas’ud, who was spotted having breakfast with his wife at the famous integrated resort Marina Bay Sands in a photo posted online on Sunday, said he travelled to the city state for a medical check-up. Rudy’s clarification came...

Malaysia has ruled out taking stronger measures against Indonesia over the worsening regional haze, even as widespread school closures and mounting public frustration fuel calls to punish those responsible for forest fires in the neighbouring country. “We need to safeguard the close relationship between the two countries. So, we are not going as far as sending a diplomatic note or taking legal action,” Foreign Minister Mohamad Hasan told local media on Thursday. Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said...

Indonesian officials, looking to alleviate poverty in their country and eyeing the rise of rural economies in China, are turning to Beijing for help that may include stoking the exports of a potentially lucrative durian crop. Indonesian Transmigration Minister Muhammad Iftitah Sulaiman Suryanagara began a seven-day visit to China on Monday, with Indonesia’s state-owned Antara news agency saying consultations with Beijing’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, companies and academic...

As the Philippines braces for months of drought and shortages in key resources due to the current El Nino season, questions are mounting over whether it could have prepared better to deal with a crisis that has been predicted well in advance. The government’s haphazard response to El Nino reflects its persistent track record of failing to do adequate disaster and infrastructure planning, according to climate and risk specialists. El Nino is a weather phenomenon that causes changes in winds and...

South Korea’s long-standing alliance with America is being tested by feuds spanning from investment deals to intelligence leaks, compromising Seoul’s ability to respond to North Korea. In a rare admission, Seoul’s top envoy to the US on Monday acknowledged an “issue” with Washington’s sharing of covert data. “There are limitations in our communication with the White House,” Kang Kyung-wha told lawmakers. “I find it somewhat frustrating.” That follows reports earlier this year that a South Korean...

North Korea’s apparent use of different launch methods to fire two types of cruise missiles from a tactical nuclear-capable submarine could complicate regional defence, while raising fresh questions about the operational readiness of its growing undersea arsenal, observers have said. The North’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said on Thursday it had “test-fired two types of submarine-launched strategic cruise missiles” off its eastern coast. The tests “contributed to inspecting the...

Talk of global decoupling from China has persisted for years, as has speculation that emerging economies such as India and Vietnam could soon replace it as the “world’s factory”. But for Indian hardware engineer Neeraj Arora, the growth of India’s electronics manufacturing industry has not eliminated the need to source components from China. Instead, it has changed the nature of those imports. A decade ago, Arora imported finished phone chargers from the world’s second-largest economy. Today,...

Singapore is looking into which companies may be responsible for the forest and peatland fires in Indonesia that have caused the worsening haze, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong said on Thursday. “Where warranted, we will take action under Singapore’s Transboundary Haze Pollution Act, and explore joint action with other countries,” he said in a social media post. The haze situation was worsened by the extended dry period, Wong added. Singapore had offered its assistance to Indonesia and would...

Canada and Singapore are among the countries that remain committed to strengthening trade ties with China, despite growing global fragmentation and a push by governments towards greater self-sufficiency, officials from both countries said on Wednesday at an economic forum in New Delhi. Canada’s minister of international trade Maninder Sidhu said China was the country’s second-largest trading partner and highlighted opportunities for cooperation in areas where the two economies had complementary...

A private jet hired from Malaysia – seemingly destined for the Philippines – but stopped on the tarmac by Laos’ drug police who found suitcases stuffed with 512kg of crystal methamphetamine, has returned the spotlight to the unrelenting flow of narcotics from the Mekong’s drug laboratories. Cyberscams have dominated headlines and authorities’ attention across Southeast Asia for over a year as the leading criminal enterprise worth tens of billions of dollars annually. But methamphetamine – in its...

Shenzhen residents have been encouraged to work from home and reduce their driving during the coming Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit, as the local government unveiled logistics arrangements for one of the year’s biggest events. The measures included “flexible work arrangements” and “green travel policies”, as the city seeks to balance “high-standard support for foreign affairs activities” and “smooth operation of the economy and society”, Chan Yaodong, deputy secretary general of...

Malaysia’s powerful Conference of Rulers and the government need to intervene and find a solution to the months-long royal stand-off in Negeri Sembilan and constitutional limbo over the status of the state’s ruler, according to political analysts. Negeri Sembilan’s royal house has been locked in a bitter deadlock since April over whether incumbent Tuanku Muhriz Tuanku Munawir or his proposed replacement, Tunku Nadzaruddin Tuanku Ja’afar, is the rightful ruler. The feud has taken down a state...

South Korea will continue supporting Ukraine “as a responsible member of the international community” despite a diplomatic dispute over the disclosure of two North Korean prisoners of war being repatriated to the South, a foreign ministry official said on Thursday. The official said Seoul would treat its help to Ukraine separately from the dispute, while continuing bilateral consultations to resolve outstanding issues. The remarks came after South Korean Ambassador to Ukraine Park Ki-chang was...

Indian authorities have asked Bollywood actor ⁠Imran Khan to ⁠leave the country by ⁠the end of the month, saying he breached immigration laws after joining a protest against the election commission chief, local media reported on Thursday. Khan, 43, is a US ‌citizen, the Indian Express newspaper reported. Under Indian law, foreigners’ participation in political protests may be treated as a violation of immigration and visa rules. Khan was given until October 28 to leave the country, the Times of...

Every time Kristaen Albert returns home, he reaches for one of the dozen cans of oxygen on a table by the entrance of his house in Central Kalimantan. The air in his neighbourhood has turned dusty amber, with air quality far exceeding hazardous levels. “My breathing is noticeably heavier whenever I step outside. It’s hard to concentrate and stay focused, and it is really affecting my work,” Albert, a 31-year-old software engineer, told This Week in Asia. “Living in this haze is awful.” “The...

The roof of a school collapsed in Pakistan’s northwestern city of Peshawar, killing a teacher and 32 students, mostly aged under 14, health officials said on Thursday, as residents and rescuers scrambled to pull children from the rubble. Twenty more students were taken to hospital after the collapse, which authorities blamed on “weak infrastructure”. Others in the densely populated neighbourhood described a close call. Resident Sohail said “everyone began screaming in panic” after his niece...

Nepal has weathered three disasters in six weeks, including the deadly August flash flood, making this year one of the deadliest in a country where monsoon rains already frequently wreak havoc. Experts warn that climate change is only making matters worse. The rock-ice avalanche near the Nepal-Tibet border that opened the floodgates in the Bhotekoshi and Trishuli rivers on August 26 killed more than 1,450 people, with nearly 6,000 others still missing. It was followed by a massive landslide...

A South Korean manufacturing company owner accused of severely injuring a migrant worker by firing high-pressure air from an industrial air gun into his body has been sentenced to three years in prison. Judge Koo Na-young of the Suwon district court on Thursday sentenced the owner of a metal-cleaning company, a man in his 60s identified only as A, to three years in prison on charges of aggravated bodily injury and violations of the Labour Standards Act. The court dismissed the case against A’s...

Lorelai Jacinto had worked as a domestic helper in Riyadh for two and a half years before she flew home to the Philippines on September 19, increasingly worried that the conflict in the Middle East was making it unsafe to stay. “When the conflict with Iran happened, I started feeling like it wasn’t safe there any more because I was right there in Riyadh myself, so the bombing, the missiles, were closer to us,” Jacinto told This Week in Asia. “I got worried, I got scared that maybe I wouldn’t be...

Pyongyang test-fired two types of cruise missile from a submarine, its state news agency said on Thursday, after weeks of friction with Seoul over a landmine explosion along their border. The missiles were fired into the East Sea, also known as the Sea of Japan, on Wednesday without “any adverse impact on the security of neighbouring countries”, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said. Relations between Pyongyang and Seoul have been further strained since the landmine blast on...

Faced with a fuel crisis beyond its control, Bangladesh’s government is spending the equivalent of hundreds of millions of US dollars each month to insulate its people from surging prices. But as growth slows and inflation rises, the new government’s reform plans are being tested before it has had much time to clean up the country’s troubled financial institutions or retool its young, abundant – but underemployed – workforce for the AI era. Prime Minister Tarique Rahman took office on February...

Malaysian property tycoon Lee Yeow Seng is making waves as one of the most aggressive buyers of commercial real estate in Singapore, and he is not done yet. His IOI Properties Group is in exclusive talks and due diligence to purchase two property assets – Chijmes, a retail venue inside a former Catholic convent in its civic district, and the nearby Capitol Kempinski hotel, CEO Lee said in an interview. He declined to disclose how much a final agreement will value the two assets at, citing...

A stabbing rampage by a repeat violent offender wearing an electronic ankle monitor has raised questions about whether South Korea’s criminal justice system can adequately supervise those deemed high-risk and prevent attacks before they happen. The 59-year-old suspect told investigators he had become frustrated over what he perceived as mistreatment at a hospital, police said on Wednesday. Three criminal profilers were helping investigators establish the motive for Tuesday’s attack at a shopping...

Singapore will “keep its options open” on taking legal action against errant companies as air quality in the city state significantly deteriorated this week due to choking haze stemming from Indonesian wildfires. The government is collecting data on the haze as it weighs possible action under its Transboundary Haze Pollution Act, Sustainability and Environment Minister Grace Fu told local media on Wednesday evening. The law, enacted in 2014, targets those responsible for causing or condoning...

Japanese companies have faced a growing wave of cyberattacks in recent weeks, exposing millions of customers’ records as analysts warn that artificial intelligence is helping hackers exploit long-standing security weaknesses and overcome language barriers that once offered some protection. More than 500 breaches of corporate systems were reported in the year to this month, surpassing the total for all of 2025, the Yomiuri newspaper reported last week. On October 7, a ransomware attack on IDC...

Australia’s navy said on Thursday it would audit bathrooms across its fleet after a video recording device was found in the cabin of one of its ships. Navy chief Matt Buckley has vowed a full investigation into the incident aboard the HMAS Leeuwin, a survey ship docked in the northeastern city of Cairns in the state of Queensland. A member of the armed forces has been identified as a “person of interest” and was assisting military police with enquiries, Australia’s defence ministry said in an...

Philippine officials want a new anti-foreign interference law ahead of the 2028 presidential election, as a raid on a suspected online scam centre near the country’s military headquarters and reports of Chinese-linked money transfers to a company tied to Vice-President Sara Duterte-Carpio’s family fuel national security concerns. On Monday, immigration and military operatives arrested 76 foreigners at a facility in Quezon City suspected of being linked to Philippine offshore gaming operators...

Japanese Agriculture Minister Kazuo Yana said he tendered his resignation following allegations of possible vote-buying, lining him up to become the first minister in Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s government to quit over a scandal. “I apologise for causing such a huge inconvenience to those involved,” Yana said to reporters after submitting his resignation on Wednesday. He said he made the move out of concern for holding up parliament and his ministerial duties. Yana declined to comment on how...

A debate over tipping culture has erupted across the Indonesian resort island of Bali and beyond, triggered by a politician’s unfavourable comparison of domestic and foreign tourists. In a social media video, I Gusti Arya Wedakarna urged domestic tourists to “normalise giving tips in touristy places”, which he said was part of the island’s “ethics”. “Perhaps that’s the psychological reason why Balinese people are more excited about serving foreigners,” said Wedakarna, an Indonesian Regional...