Asia

Nepal has culled more than 600,000 birds and destroyed around 1 million eggs as an H5N1 bird flu outbreak spreads across the Kathmandu Valley, shutting the capital’s only zoo and raising fears among scientists over the virus’ potential to mutate into a form transmissible between humans. The outbreak began in eastern Nepal in March before reaching the densely populated valley around mid-June – a development that health experts say raises the risk of human exposure. More than 60 poultry farms...

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. Malaysia has never had so many Chinese tourists. It wants more As Thailand loses its allure, Malaysia turns to viral algorithms to entice millions of independent Chinese travellers. 2. Pakistan rattles India with new Chinese-built stealth submarine The last time...

Diners at a sleek teppanyaki restaurant in Tokyo’s Asakusa district wait happily as chefs sear marbled Kobe beef over open grills. Expectations are high at Kisshokichi, one of the world’s largest Kobe beef chains. But behind the brand’s success lies a dilemma shared by businesses across Japan. Founder Kiyomi Akagi, now in his mid-sixties, faced a question confronting a growing number of ageing owners: who would take over? With no successor prepared to manage the company’s 50 restaurants, Akagi...

Esmeraldo Maligsa, a farmer and president of the Bohol Ube Growers Association, harvests 2,000kg (4,400lbs) of ube, the purple tuber native to the Philippines, every seven months. He and the other farmers in his group manage a collective yield of between 5 tonnes and 8 tonnes, fetching prices of 90 to 100 pesos (US$1.50 to US$1.70) per kg. Such is the price the ubi kinampay, dubbed the “Queen of Philippine yams”, fetches. It is grown in Bohol province and nearby areas in central Philippines, and...

Japan is accelerating plans to acquire and develop drones for its military by stepping up cooperation with Ukraine and learning from Kyiv’s wartime experience against Russia as it seeks to deploy more unmanned systems across its territory in the Pacific. To complement this strategy, Japanese companies are boosting cooperation with their European counterparts to manufacture anti-submarine drones. “The entire international community has witnessed how warfare has changed since the outbreak of the...

Australia’s competition regulator said on Tuesday it had taken Amazon’s Australian ‌unit to court, alleging its Prime subscription contracts contained unfair terms that allowed the company to add advertising to its video streaming platform. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) alleged that between November 2023 and August 2025, Amazon Australia used unfair Prime Video contract terms to make negative changes for over ⁠1 million annual subscribers without offering...

South Korea’s US$518 billion semiconductor push aims to tap the artificial intelligence boom into a durable industrial advantage and keep up with leading rival China, according to observers. The plan is intended to secure supplies of advanced memory chips needed for AI data centres and computing infrastructure, while easing pressure on the Seoul metropolitan area by creating a second major chipmaking base in the country’s southwest. President Lee Jae Myung on Monday unveiled the government’s...

South Korea’s World Cup squad is set to be greeted on arrival by heightened police security rather than the usual airport welcome ceremony, as fury over head coach Hong Myung-bo’s failed campaign spills into online death threats, viral restaurant bans and renewed calls for sweeping changes inside the country’s football establishment. Hong and eight players, including Kim Min-jae, Hwang Hee-chan, Hwang In-beom and Lee Kang-in, were due to arrive at Incheon International Airport on Tuesday morning...

Malaysia has narrowed its search for a replacement anti-ship missile system to four potential suppliers after Norway revoked an export licence for a deal that Kuala Lumpur said was already more than 90 per cent paid for. The cancellation came after Oslo tightened arms-export rules in a shift that analysts say reveals how access to advanced arms can depend as much on supplier-country politics as on signed contracts. Turkey, South Korea and two unspecified European nations were being assessed as...

Overnight ground operations and strikes by Pakistani forces have killed at least 36 civilians and injured more than 160 others, Afghan officials said on Monday, as tensions between the neighbours further escalated. One official said the attacks would be met with retaliation. Pakistani security forces carried out a ground operation along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border late on Sunday, followed by strikes against militant hideouts and safe havens, killing 29 fighters, Pakistan’s Information...

A labour saga in Singapore involving migrant workers going unpaid for months after a contractor fled the country has raised questions about wage policies for unskilled staff, even as authorities respond with the city state’s characteristic speed and efficiency. Last week, hundreds of migrant workers in services such as air conditioning, plumbing and construction showed up at the Ministry of Manpower building in a rare labour confrontation in the city state. On Sunday, Minister of State for...

Malaysia’s push to attract Chinese tourists is increasingly being shaped by the same forces influencing their itineraries: short-form videos, lifestyle apps, online personalities and newly opened routes from cities beyond China’s largest travel hubs. Tourism Malaysia confirmed the focus in a statement, saying its Visit Malaysia 2026 campaign in China encompassed “digital marketing, key opinion leader (KOL) collaborations, short-video content and themed initiatives”. The agency’s response...

Malaysia has set up a special task force to tackle potential disruptions on the causeway linking Johor to Singapore ahead of a state election next month. Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail has said ensuring smooth cross-border movement is his ministry’s “highest priority” as tens of thousands of Malaysians are expected to return home to cast their votes in the Johor state election on July 11. “We are not taking any chances. We have Plan A and Plan B ready to go. That is the directive I have...

South Korea rolled out sweeping chip and AI megaprojects on Monday, as President Lee Jae Myung pledged to cement overwhelming industry leadership with investments worth more than US$576 billion over several years. The announcement marks ⁠Lee’s boldest push yet to align South Korea’s AI and chip ambitions with ‌his pledge to narrow regional disparities and revive economies beyond the Seoul metropolitan area. Lee was joined by the leaders of ‌Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, the world’s two...

Australia and Vanuatu signed a sweeping economic and security agreement on Monday that bars the establishment of any foreign military base on the Pacific island. Vanuatu is at the centre of strategic rivalry between China and US allies in the South Pacific, and Australia has expressed concern that Beijing is seeking a permanent security presence in the region. The agreement commits Australia to greater economic support for Vanuatu, whose largest external creditor is China, and it stops a foreign...

She has a young woman’s voice, a friendly face and a police chief’s badge. Her name is “AIko” and she may be Japan’s most unconventional weapon in a war against fraud that cost the country a record US$2 billion last year. AIko – a blend of the abbreviation for artificial intelligence and “ko”, the Japanese feminine name suffix – made her public debut in late May on Osaka Prefectural Police’s YouTube channel, warning viewers about the tactics used by scammers posing as police officers,...

Ousted former prime minister Sheikh Hasina has vowed to return ⁠to Bangladesh this year, brushing ⁠aside a death sentence handed down ⁠in absentia and denouncing the ruling as “illegal, unconstitutional and politically motivated”. Hasina, 78, who fled to India after a student-led uprising ousted her government in August 2024, said in an interview with Indian broadcaster NDTV that she was undeterred by the risk ‌and would overcome “every obstacle and every conspiracy” to return home. “I want to...

People in the Philippines are flocking to install solar power on rooftops and escape the burden of soaring electricity prices, making it the world’s biggest spender on solar panels since the war in Iran started. Top power distributor Meralco has raised prices by 10 per cent since the Middle East conflict began in late February. Now, a median household spends around 12 per cent of monthly ‌income on electricity, assuming it consumes 200 kilowatt-hours – around the monthly average for three...

Earlier this year, a screenshot of a domestic airfare went viral in the Philippines for all the wrong reasons. The flight was from Manila to Batanes, the country’s remote northern tip. The price: 27,000 pesos (US$440) – enough to fly to Taipei or Hanoi, check into a decent hotel and still have money for dinner. That disconnect sits awkwardly alongside Manila’s latest effort to rev up domestic travel. On Friday, the Department of Tourism launched “Discover More to Love”, a campaign of discounted...

Vietnam is increasingly using broadly written laws to arrest activists, dissidents and others that authorities consider a threat to the Communist Party’s rule, according to a new analysis released on Monday by a human rights group. The 88 Project, which focuses on rights issues in Vietnam, documented 56 such arrests last year, the third consecutive year of increases and double the number in 2022. The report included only arrests where the defendant could be identified by name and the case...

Energy exploration has picked up sharply in Australia, driven ⁠by growing Asian gas demand, technological advances and an improved investment climate, with the Iran war ⁠underscoring the urgency to develop supply after years of sluggish spending. Quarterly oil and gas exploration spending in Australia, the world’s No 2 liquefied natural gas producer, hit a 10-year high of A$471 million (US$324 million) in the March quarter, government data released in June showed. Energy investment sentiment has...

Victor Lee is not the kind of man to leave behind his family without a reason, but the 34-year-old Filipino has done the sums and decided where life must take him next: Lithuania. His wife does not want him to go. She will be left to care for their child, with a video call standing in for a husband, while Lee hauls cargo through the seaports of the Baltic. His paperwork is nearly done. He has finished his training as a heavy transport operator. He is going. “It’s getting harder and harder to...

Turkish police on Sunday detained at least 50 people, including a journalist, during a Gay Pride event in Istanbul that went ahead despite a ban by local authorities and the lockdown of the city’s main gathering point, organisers said. Police stepped up security around Istanbul’s famed Taksim Square, erecting iron barriers, while local officials banned demonstrations in key rallying areas, including the Asian-side district of Kadikoy. The governor’s office also restricted subway transport in...

In his greatest test since taking the helm of the Workers’ Party (WP) in 2018, secretary general Pritam Singh has survived by a landslide a vote of no confidence within his party, inside sources have confirmed. The Aljunied MP, who leads Singapore’s most prominent opposition party, faced a special conference on Sunday morning called by 25 cadre members who were pushing for him to step down for breaching the WP’s constitution. Sources confirmed that about 79 per cent of the 107 cadres present...

The family of a 17-year-old Thai ⁠girl whose body ⁠was found in a suitcase ⁠in Pattaya said they were devastated by her death, for which an Australian man has been arrested and charged with murder. Thai police said they arrested an Australian man in his 40s at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport ‌early on Saturday in connection with the killing in Pattaya, about 150km (93 miles) east of Bangkok. The suspect, identified as Simon Peter Carman, faces charges of murder, concealment of a body, moving or...

It has been 25 years since Indonesia’s Liberal Islam Network (Jaringan Islam Liberal or JIL) was established in March 2001, just three years after Reformasi. The intellectual network has been in disarray for much of the past decade, reflecting the current state of Indonesia’s broader liberal and progressive Islamic movement. The old guard, represented by the establishments within Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and Muhammadiyah, faces elite co-option as they seek access to state resources while also...

For a growing number of Singaporeans, furnishing a new home has become reason enough to book a holiday. Not the sort involving beach clubs or Michelin-starred restaurants. Instead, these design-savvy travellers are flying to China armed with camera rolls full of sofa and cabinetry photos, meticulously curated Pinterest boards and floor plans marked with dimensions down to the centimetre, all in pursuit of custom-made furnishings for their homes. Blame it on our collective obsession with our...

The last time Pakistan’s navy operated a submarine in the Bay of Bengal, India sank it. That was 1971. Fifty-five years on, Islamabad is signalling its intent to go back. The vessel delivering that message, PNS Hangor, arrived in Karachi on June 11, the first of a class of eight attack submarines – four built in China, with the remainder to be constructed in Pakistan to develop its shipbuilding capacity. PNS Hangor is named after an earlier Daphne-class submarine that sank the Indian frigate INS...

Chadchart Sittipunt cruised back into Bangkok’s governor’s office late on Sunday after residents overwhelmingly backed him for a second term running the Southeast Asian megacity, despite its unresolved problems of floods, traffic and pollution. In an election contest that had become a procession by late Sunday, exit polls put Chadchart on between 53 and 75 per cent of the vote, as early live counts in district after district showed the former transport minister with virtually unassailable leads...

A recent apology by the Dutch prime minister to the Netherlands’ Malukan community for systemic mistreatment by the state has met with mixed responses; some welcomed the remorse while others demanded concrete action over symbolic words. On June 21, Rob Jetten formally apologised to members of the 75,000-strong Malukan community for the state’s mistreatment of the first generation of Malukans who arrived in Europe 75 years ago from the Maluku Islands in Indonesia, historically known as the Spice...