Asia

Singapore Airlines (SIA) said on Wednesday that the cabin colour palette for its newly unveiled business class seats was “carefully selected” after the reveal drew criticism from some content creators and travel writers, including those who likened them to “dental chairs”. Much of the reaction has focused on the grey-and-yellow colour palette of the seats, which were developed by SIA in collaboration with seat manufacturer Recaro and creative design firm Designworks. An SIA spokesperson said the...

A mysterious, jellyfish-shaped light spotted in the skies over Sabah was from a Chinese rocket launch, not aliens, according to the Malaysian Space Agency. The glowing trail linked to the Long March 12 rocket, launched from southern China’s Hainan province in the early morning of Monday, sparked buzz and concerns over potential debris across the Borneo state. Malaysia’s Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation said it received a report about the rocket’s sighting from MYSA. MYSA was also...

Japan is considering including a commitment to strengthening its “capabilities to deny” an adversary’s aggression in coordination with the United States in a major defence policy document to be revised later this year, government sources said on Tuesday. The basic guidelines for the National Defence Strategy will also call for expanded Japan-US cooperation to strengthen the defence industrial base and deeper security ties with like-minded countries, the sources said. The National Security...

Thousands of Indian soldiers who would otherwise leave the military after four years will be kept on duty, in a major rethink of the country’s controversial recruitment model as New Delhi grapples with persistent manpower shortages and security concerns along its borders with China and Pakistan, analysts say. Under revisions approved by the federal cabinet last Tuesday, more than 18,000 recruits from the inaugural batch of the Agnipath (“Path of Fire”) scheme will be granted a two-year service...

China’s growing naval presence in the waters between Japan and South Korea could give the two neighbours a new incentive to overcome long-standing historical tensions and strengthen security cooperation, according to analysts. A reported sharp increase in Chinese warships and coastguard vessels passing through the strait that separates the two countries, some operating alongside Russian forces, has raised concerns about Beijing’s expanding maritime reach. The strait, which links the East China...

Prominent climate change activist Greta Thunberg arrived on Tuesday at the UN climate meeting, where she emphasised the need to protect people and the planet over profits and power. This year’s meeting – called the Conference of the Parties, or Cop31 – comes after a year of climate-induced heatwaves and other disasters. As she arrived at the meeting venue in Antalya, Turkey, Thunberg, 23, said climate change is “threatening everything” and that “everything and everyone we love is at stake”. “We...

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr’s administration has been accused of trying to conceal Manila’s urban poverty by clearing street vendors and homeless people along key routes ahead of next week’s Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit. Antonio Tinio, deputy minority floor leader of the House of Representatives representing the ACT Teachers Party List, claimed on Monday that authorities had launched operations to displace poor communities across the capital to present a...

US President Donald Trump has conceded that his mass deportation drive may have been “too tough” after his Republican Party’s heavy losses in the midterm elections, but analysts doubt the remark signals a change of policy. Asian-Americans, who were among the communities heavily targeted in the immigration crackdown, swung sharply towards the Democrats on November 3. Trump made the comment in an interview with CBS’ 60 Minutes programme, recorded after the vote. Democrats won control of both...

Indonesia’s Vice-President Gibran Rakabuming Raka offered to resign at a meeting on Tuesday with President Prabowo Subianto, a senior official said, as lawmakers consider an investigation into whether he was eligible to stand in the 2024 election. “The vice-president expressed his intention to resign in light of the evolving situation,” presidential spokesperson Prasetyo ‌Hadi told reporters. Prasetyo denied reports that Prabowo rejected Gibran’s request, but stopped short of saying the...

Four deaths in two helicopter crashes within five days have raised questions about the dangers facing those fighting Indonesia’s massive forest fires, prompting a government review on aerial firefighting efforts. But those dangers extend beyond the skies, with volunteer firefighters on the ground describing inadequate protective equipment, scarce water supplies and peatland fires that can suddenly erupt beneath their feet. On November 4, an Indonesian army Mi-17V5 transport helicopter carrying...

Malaysia’s former prime minister Najib Razak arrived home on Tuesday, hours after the High Court cleared the way for him to start serving the remainder of his prison sentence under house arrest. Najib was driven in a silver SUV to his house in Kuala Lumpur’s affluent suburb of Taman Duta at 9.27pm, local news outlets reported. The car was escorted by several other vehicles from the Prison Department and the Royal Malaysian Police. His prison exit triggered Transport Minister Anthony Loke’s...

Indonesia is turning to China for a major expansion of solar power and energy storage, but a new report warns that a multibillion-dollar funding gap and demands for greater domestic control will complicate the plan as the country’s energy ties deepen. The report, published on Monday by the Jakarta-based Centre of Economic and Law Studies (Celios), found that Chinese investment in Indonesia’s energy sector was expanding beyond nickel processing and electric-vehicle battery production, which had...

The killing of a Chinese food delivery rider in Melbourne has renewed safety concerns across the city just weeks ahead of the Victorian state election, where law and order is expected to be a key campaign battleground. Feng Jianming, a 47-year-old Chinese national from Shaanxi province, worked as a rider for HungryPanda – a UK-headquartered delivery platform catering to the Chinese diaspora across 10 countries, including Australia. Feng died of stab wounds last Friday night near Melbourne’s...

South Korea is facing growing concerns over the fallout from Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s alleged affair with a woman suspected of being a Chinese spy, amid fears that the scandal could disrupt global AI supply chains and trigger tighter US export controls on Seoul’s semiconductor champions. The highly publicised “bromance” between Huang and South Korea’s top technology leaders – notably Samsung Electronics executive chairman Lee Jae-yong and SK Group chairman Chey Tae-won – has played a crucial...

Eurovision, the live song contest that has launched the likes of Abba, Celine Dion and Olivia Newton-John onto the world stage, is set to make its Asia debut in Bangkok this weekend, with a coterie of singers from South Korea and Bangladesh to Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. Organisers of the 11-country contest are hoping to tap Asia’s thriving fan culture and love of music – and at the same time sidestep some of the gaffes and geopolitical controversies that have made the European event an...

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. Nvidia scandal, China chip claims put Singapore firm Megaspeed under scrutiny A little-known Singapore-registered company is embroiled in a mounting love scandal surrounding Nvidia chief Jensen Huang and US allegations of Chinese espionage. 2. Diploma dispute fuels...

Singapore on Tuesday launched a gold storage service for foreign central banks and other financial institutions, as it seeks to bolster its position as a major precious metals trading hub. The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said the facility, housed in the city state’s national currency vault, could store 500 tonnes of gold but could expand that as demand grows. The service will provide foreign central banks, international financial institutions and sovereign entities “with a secure...

Flash floods during a Deepavali picnic in Malaysia have killed a man and left seven others missing, as authorities evacuated hundreds from flood-prone areas in Selangor and Perak states amid a strengthening monsoon season. The shifting monsoon winds also triggered a surge in thunderstorms across the country, helping clear out a months-long curtain of transboundary haze. Local officials said they found the body of the victim, identified as V. Vijayan, at around 1.30am on Tuesday at a bridge about...

Vietnam’s To Lam is expected to use his visit to Japan this week to expand trade and investment options with Tokyo, especially in technology, amid continued uncertainty surrounding America’s future policy direction. After talks with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi in Tokyo on Monday, the two leaders pledged to speed up public-private cooperation on critical minerals, with a joint statement calling economic security a top priority in bilateral relations and promising deeper cooperation on...

A Chinese man was referred to prosecutors on Monday for allegedly disrupting a major mobile carrier’s services in Tokyo’s Ginza shopping district with a rogue cell tower device, with police investigating possible links to a phishing scheme using illegal radio signals. Yu Hai, 31, an unemployed resident of Tokyo’s Kita ward, was arrested on Saturday allegedly in the act of operating a base station without a licence, using the device from a car parked on a Ginza street to emit radio signals to...

A cruise ship left stranded in Southeast Asia after its US-based operator ran out of money has been arrested in Singapore, the Maritime and Port Authority (MPA) said on Monday. The Odyssey, meant to take passengers on a continuous voyage around the world, was arrested after arriving on Sunday from Cambodia, where around 200 guests were told to disembark. “The vessel has been placed under arrest pursuant to a court order,” MPA said in a statement, without giving further details. “The crew on...

While some tropes like zombies are universally scary, other sources of terror require specific cultural knowledge to inspire dread – something Wyn Panichpakdee realised while watching both Thai and international players test his studio’s latest video game. In Kumarn: The Wandering Spirit, players encounter phi nang rum, menacing dancing spirit dolls from Thai folklore. Wyn said Thai players instantly recognised the dolls and braced themselves for something horrifying, while foreign players...

At the Fortune Southeast Asia 500 Summit in Ho Chi Minh City on November 3, a discussion of regional connectivity explored how goods move across borders. I came away thinking about what stays behind. When production moves to Vietnam, how much of the ability to produce moves with it? Vietnam has set itself an extraordinary ambition. Its five-year plan, approved in April, targets average annual gross domestic product growth of at least 10 per cent from 2026 to 2030. Developing Vietnamese suppliers...

A little-known Singapore-registered company is embroiled in a mounting love scandal surrounding Nvidia chief Jensen Huang and US allegations of Chinese espionage. Huang’s admission of an extramarital affair has renewed scrutiny of Megaspeed, after media reports identified a former executive of the Singapore firm as the woman involved in the relationship, which US officials suspect was linked to Chinese espionage. Megaspeed, a major Nvidia customer, is believed to have been founded and led by...

A growing dispute over former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak’s house arrest has thrust the attorney general’s powers into the spotlight, raising the spectre of a constitutional clash – though legal experts say it falls short of a full-blown crisis. Najib, 73, was due to move from Kajang Prison to his Kuala Lumpur home on Friday after his political party, Umno, paid a 50 million ringgit (US$12.3 million) fine, fulfilling a condition of a royal pardon issued in September allowing him to...

Indonesia will tighten controls on state ⁠surveillance equipment and consider ⁠sweeps of its presidential palace for bugging ⁠devices, a minister said on Monday, following last week’s discovery of illegal wiretaps on the president, top officials and more. The wiretapping scandal led to the arrest of four senior police officers accused of unauthorised monitoring of phones, among them a former national police chief ‌who had recently been appointed President Prabowo Subianto’s chief of staff. The...

A viral social media prank targeting Japanese police is sweeping across the country, with children as young as seven being caught in the act. Known as “Shorinji racing”, the trend involves minors shouting “Shorinji-ja” (“We are Shorinji”) at police officers in person or through false emergency calls from public telephones while peers record them, according to Jiji Press. Some have kicked doors and torn down posters at local police boxes, or koban. The perpetrators then flee or hang up before...

Nearly eight years after a psychiatrist’s murder prompted South Korea to pass a new law that increased penalties for assaulting medical staff, another attack this month has doctors asking why the country’s hospitals are still unsafe. The attack at Severance Hospital in Seoul last Wednesday left the victim, a psychiatry professor surnamed Kang, with a severe hand injury that required surgery and cuts to his face and head. South Korea’s leading medical bodies have called for urgent new security...

Ousted Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina requested on Monday a new passport and identity card so she can return from self-imposed exile in India, according to a letter seen by Reuters, her first ‌such communication since fleeing in 2024. The request marks the clearest step by Hasina to act on her plan to return to Bangladesh in December, more than two years after a deadly uprising ended her long rule, raising the prospect of fresh political and legal tensions in a country where her party...

Kota Laksamana in Melaka could be developed into Malaysian state’s new capital if Umno-led Barisan Nasional wins the seat in Saturday’s poll, according to caretaker chief minister Ab Rauf Yusoh. He said the proposed transformation would be supported by the Straits of Melaka Waterfront Economic Zone, which would bring together tourism, commercial and industrial activities along the state’s waterfront. “Kota Laksamana will become the state capital of Melaka. That is what I hope for,” he said...