Asia

Japan has partnered with the UN Development Programme (UNDP) to support Kazakhstan’s efforts to address the decline in the Caspian Sea’s water level driven by climate change, pledging a 465 million yen (US$3 million) grant towards its sustainable use. Under the initiative for the world’s largest inland water body, Japan hopes to promote cooperation among littoral states on water resource management and enhance monitoring systems, according to the foreign ministry. The decline in the Caspian...

Early in the morning on June 18, a message from an unknown account slipped into the TikTok inbox of a flight attendant in Bangkok with a series of questions: “Are you flying to Australia? Do you do carry-for-hire? What is your rate?” The 30-year-old, who flies ‌for a regional budget carrier, ignored the message and forgot about it – until Tuesday, when a Thai Airways flight attendant was charged with importing more than one kilogram (2.2 pounds) of heroin into Australia hidden in several tote...

Almost anywhere you look these days, you can find claims from political, academic and other various sources that China’s supposed overproduction and exports of manufactured goods pose unfair advantages. These sources may also claim such unfair advantages justify protectionist countermeasures. But it is difficult to counter one’s own folly. For decades, the US, much of Europe and even Japan, long proud of its manufacturing skills, have prided themselves on becoming “post-industrial” and...

When Chelsea Wang travelled to Seoul with two friends in late April, they barely visited any of the city’s palaces or tourist attractions. Instead, their three-and-a-half-day itinerary revolved around duty-free shopping, beauty treatments, hair salons and cosmetics stores. Wang arrived with a shopping list of her own: a backpack she estimated would cost at least 500 yuan ($70) less than in China, and a bottle of perfume at a similar discount. One of her friends, Wu, a 28-year-old white-collar...

Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, a major tourism drawcard, has avoided being listed as endangered despite the United Nations reporting “utmost concern” about mass coral bleaching and the impact of climate change. Canberra welcomed on Saturday the draft decision by Unesco to maintain the World Heritage status of the 2,300km-long (1,426-mile) reef stretching along the coast of Queensland state. Unesco has been monitoring the reef annually since 2021, when it warned it was at risk of being placed on...

The life-size robotic elephants in Prasanth Prakashan’s backyard workshop have ears that flap, tails that swish and trunks that squirt water. But that’s about all they have in common with their real-life counterparts revered across India as manifestations of the divine. The animatrons, crafted from fibreglass, iron and rubber, are intended to take the place of live elephants in Hindu temples. The change pleases animal welfare activists but upsets those who passionately believe real elephants are...

How many crises does it take to change the way the world trades? For Asia, the answer appears to be three. First Covid closed the factories that fed the logistics networks, then Russia’s invasion of Ukraine choked off Black Sea grain exports and sent energy prices spiralling. Now, the US-Israel war on Iran may have hammered the final nail in the coffin of “just in time” supply chains that some economists say are no longer fit for purpose. “Taken together, they show that serious disruption is now...

For 19 seasons, the Malaysian Grand Prix made Sepang International Circuit one of Asia’s premier racing venues. Sepang opened in 1999 as an emblem of a Southeast Asian nation that was on the up at the time. But the government ended its support for the Formula One (F1) race in 2017, closing a high-speed era that brought the eyes of tens of millions of people across the world to Malaysia. For home-grown drivers, however, their motorsport dreams have not reached a chequered flag since F1 left...

Five years into her marriage to a finance executive, Clare* is still doing the sums on leaving behind a life unencumbered by the high price of parenthood. At 31, the Singaporean doctor instead finds herself wondering if she will feel different about their “dink” (dual income, no kids) lifestyle in another three years. “The thought of having kids also feels more like an obligation just to complete the nuclear family,” she said. “I see so many more disadvantages about having children, rather than...

Adli Hakimi knows the first obstacle in Johor’s state election is not the ballot box, but the Causeway. The 26-year-old nurse is among Johor’s workers based in the city state – often called “SGD fighters” online for earning stronger Singapore-dollar wages – who are weighing leave, shifts and border queues before polling day on July 11. For Malaysia, the challenge is keeping immigration glitches and Causeway congestion at bay so that these voters can take part in one of the country’s most closely...

Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim on Friday said Malaysia would maintain its legal pursuit of Jho Low even if the fugitive financier were to receive a US presidential pardon. Low, the alleged mastermind behind the 1MDB scandal, was charged in 2018 with conspiring to launder billions of dollars from the sovereign wealth fund and violating anti-bribery laws in Malaysia. He also reportedly used the stolen loot to gain access to Hollywood A-listers and buy luxury homes, a superyacht and fine art...

The mother of Siranudh “Psi” Scott, the 29-year-old scion whose childhood abuse accusations against his brother triggered public sympathy and revealed a rupture inside one of Thailand’s richest families, on Friday dropped her “ungrateful child’’ lawsuit against her younger son as she appealed for space to “heal’’ her family. Chiranuj Bhirombhakdi filed a lawsuit in February against Psi under a 1908 law that enforces filial duty, in a country where family ties border on the sacrosanct. Psi, a...

India’s decision to resume tourist visas for Bangladeshi nationals marks the clearest sign yet of a thaw in strained ties, but analysts say the real test will be whether trade links can be rebuilt while Dhaka courts Chinese investment near India’s sensitive eastern flank. India began accepting tourist visa applications from Bangladeshis on Sunday, nearly two years after services were suspended amid the fallout from violent protests that forced former Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina from...

Washington has recently approved a proposed US$22.3 million sale of additional Hellfire missiles to Singapore, with the US State Department declaring that the transfer and associated arms support “will not alter the basic military balance in the region”. While observers say the sale is a routine purchase by the city state for training and to replenish an advanced arsenal, America’s language on the move signals a broader strategy to strengthen a network of US allies and partners while avoiding...

Johor’s caretaker chief minister Onn Hafiz Ghazi has criticised Malaysia’s federal government for delays in the launch of the Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone (JS-SEZ) master plan, arguing that it is needed to sustain the initiative’s momentum. In response, Economic Minister Akmal Nasir, who oversees the project at the federal level, has maintained that the government remains committed to the project’s success and the delays have not affected the JS-SEZ as investor numbers have remained...

A corruption investigation into Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto’s flagship free meals programme has widened after prosecutors named an active police brigadier general as a suspect and referred a case involving a military officer to the country’s military crimes unit. The Attorney General’s Office (AGO) on Thursday identified Lalu Muhammad Iwan Mahardan, a police brigadier general who serves as deputy secretary for promotion and cooperation at the National Nutrition Agency, as the seventh...

Following a surge in bear attacks in Japan, people are arming themselves with sprays while authorities have started installing cameras in mountainous areas in the north to monitor the animals. However, a recent effort to stay safe backfired, resulting in five people injured – not by bears but by the spray after it was accidentally discharged in a post office in Nagoya on Wednesday. Vietnamese national Huynh Nhat Duy, 22, was arrested on Thursday on suspicion of obstruction of business for his...

Like plenty of local boys before him, Neil has come home to the stretch of Australian coast where he was born. Unlike most of them, he trails fame, fans and property damage in his wake. He is also a 1,000 kg (2,200lb) elephant seal. In June, the bellowing and blubbery five-year-old mammal hauled himself onto land for his twice-yearly tour of beachside towns in southern Tasmania state after months of feeding at sea. That is posing problems now that he weighs as much as a small car and has a...

Indonesia has intensified supervision of digital nomads, lifestyle influencers and travel content creators on the resort island of Bali, warning that even unpaid barter deals with local businesses would be classified as illegal work if they visit the country on tourist visas. For years, the Hindu island has been popular among players of the aesthetic economy, thanks to its beaches, unique rituals and lavish resorts. Indonesian businesses also collaborate with foreign content creators, who...

Singapore would be opening selected sectors and occupations to workers from East Timor next year, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong announced on Friday. “This will create new opportunities for Timorese while strengthening our business and people-to-people links,” Wong said at a joint press conference with East Timor Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao in Dili. The visit, the first by a Singapore prime minister, comes a year after East Timor became a full Asean member. Wong laid out several areas where the...

Singapore is banking on lavish beachfronts, canopy walks, a transformed port and even water taxis to upgrade its holiday island, Sentosa, into a major tourism draw over the next two decades – but observers say the challenge will be making it distinctive. On Friday, the Sentosa Development Corporation (SDC) unveiled plans to rejuvenate the 5 sq km (1.9 square-mile) resort and theme park island, which is a 10-minute monorail ride from mainland Singapore and is also accessible by car or bus via a...

Australia forecasts a A$38 billion (US$26 billion) lift in its export income as commodity and energy prices rise because of the war in Iran. The nation’s resources exports are set to rise almost 3 per cent to A$416 billion in the financial year through June 2027, the Department of Industry, Science and Resources said in its latest resources and energy quarterly on Friday. The extra earnings assume trade is disrupted until end-June 2026, with a further A$7 billion windfall possible if that...

When the ground shook off Iwate prefecture at 9pm on Wednesday, the magnitude 6.0 jolt – the latest in a series of sizeable tremors – barely registered in a country still mopping up after two powerful typhoons and bracing for a fresh bout of torrential rain and landslides. Natural disasters have long been a fact of life in Japan, where schoolchildren rehearse earthquake evacuations the way other nations hold fire drills. Every September 1, in a ritual as much of collective memory as civil...

Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi arrived in India this week seeking a deeper economic and security partnership, but analysts say the bigger question is how far New Delhi is prepared to align with Tokyo’s China-focused Indo-Pacific strategy. Takaichi held talks with her Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, in Delhi on Thursday, with economic security, strategic cooperation and collaboration on innovative technologies high on the agenda. Analysts suggest the overarching aim of the three-day...

Rebels in Indonesia’s restive easternmost region of Papua on Thursday shot ⁠dead an American pilot and ⁠set a civilian plane on fire in ⁠what a spokesperson for a local separatist group described as a “message” to the US and Indonesian governments. A low-level battle for independence from Indonesia has long raged in the resource-rich western half of Papua, where attacks by independence fighters have grown deadlier and more ‌frequent as they have procured better weaponry. Sebby Sambom, a...

A deadly school shooting in the central Philippines has prompted warnings from lawmakers and cybersecurity experts that violent online extremist networks may be approaching Filipino children through gaming platforms and chat groups. At a Senate hearing on Wednesday, Philippine Senator Risa Hontiveros said there were signs that the perpetrators behind a deadly school shooting in Tacloban City might have been influenced by 764, a nihilistic violent extremist network accused of targeting vulnerable...

Knife-edge state polls in Johor and Negeri Sembilan may reconfigure Malaysian politics, as a regrouped Malay nationalist right seeks big wins to pressure Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim into calling an early election. Barisan Nasional (BN), the Malay-led bloc, is going head-to-head against Anwar’s Pakatan Harapan (PH) in the ballots to be held this month and next, in a move by a key government coalition member that could destabilise the prime minister’s fragile administration from within. Analysts...

Thailand’s foreign ministry denied on Thursday that French President Emmanuel Macron knelt before the country’s king during his state visit to Paris this week, after an AI-generated picture circulated online. King Maha Vajiralongkorn and Queen Suthida’s trip was the first official visit by a Thai monarch to France since 1960, marking the 170th anniversary of formal diplomatic relations between the two nations. During a state dinner at the presidential palace, Macron presented the 73-year-old...

Every year, farmers in India burn millions of tonnes of stalks, husks and other plant matter left after each harvest, a practice that has long contributed to South Asia’s toxic winter smog. But that agricultural waste – known as crop residue – could instead become a feedstock for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) for airlines around the world, according to a new study. SAF is a low-carbon alternative to conventional jet fuel, blending aviation turbine fuel with sustainably sourced raw...

Eight Buddhist monks died in northeastern Thailand on Thursday – and over a dozen more were injured – after an 11-year-old boy driving his parents’ truck crashed into pilgrims walking along a deserted rural road. Images of the devastation, shared across social media, showed the bodies of orange-robed monks lying on the road with their alms bowls strewn across the accident site in Mukdahan province, about 600km northeast of Bangkok. Five monks were killed at the roadside while three others died...