Asia

India’s struggle to replenish its depleted fighter fleet has led one of the world’s largest defence spenders to seek spare parts from decommissioned aircraft. New Delhi recently secured nine retired British-built Jaguar ground-attack jets, which will not enter service with the Indian Air Force (IAF) but will be dismantled to help sustain its six operational Jaguar strike squadrons of about 120 aircraft. Analysts said the acquisition was a practical stopgap but also exposed a deeper weakness in...

Voters in Malaysia’s southern state of Johor will cast their ballots on Saturday in a high-stakes election that is expected to bring Barisan Nasional (BN) back to power, exposing deeper cracks in Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s administration. BN is part of Anwar’s unity government but will go head to head against federal partner Pakatan Harapan (PH) in a state long regarded as a BN stronghold. The contest for Johor’s 56-seat assembly has put Anwar’s multi-ethnic party in an awkward position, but...

The United States is set to resume military sales to Turkey, Nato’s second-largest military power, after President Donald Trump said sanctions imposed against Ankara over its procurement of Russian air defence systems seven years ago would soon be lifted. “We don’t want to sanction friends,” Trump told journalists at the Nato summit in the Turkish capital on Wednesday, while emphasising his “good chemistry” with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Trump further said he would soon take a final...

As US President Donald Trump flew home from a fractious Nato summit in Turkey, he was poised to resume the war with Iran, whose leaders he labelled “sick” and “scum”. Trump also complained about European leaders’ failure to spend enough on arms, support him in Iran and recognise the need for the US to take control of Greenland. The sense of rising global conflict has been palpable this week. What clearly showed at the summit of the transatlantic security alliance was confirmed by the latest...

A large and powerful typhoon approached a remote chain of islands in Japan’s southwest on Friday, prompting authorities to warn of violent winds, torrential rain, landslides and flooding in what could be the region’s most destructive storm in years. Super Typhoon Bavi is expected to pass very close to Japan’s Sakishima Islands, a remote island chain that is part of Okinawa prefecture, early on ‌Saturday morning, according to meteorological authorities. Maximum sustained winds were topping out at...

When Karasi Chandramogan’s father died four years ago, the 35-year-old Singaporean was left with the overwhelming responsibility of being the sole carer for her brother, who has autism, and mother, an amputee. “Me and my dad were a tag team,” the freelance behavioural therapist said. “When he passed on, I couldn’t mourn too much because I had to handle the funeral situation as well as my mum and brother.” She recalled an incident in April, when her brother, Bala, suffered seizures during lunch....

A decision by a city near Tokyo to bar a mosque from holding a long-standing outdoor prayer session in one of its parks has triggered debate over multicultural coexistence in Japan, with questions raised over whether officials had sufficient grounds for the move. The dispute began in May when a mosque in Ichikawa, Chiba prefecture, was denied permission to hold a group prayer in the public park, located in a residential neighbourhood, during a festival that had been held there for years with...

The Philippines still lags behind its neighbours in attracting foreign direct investment, with inflows stagnating in 2025 even as a financing influx swept the region. This shortfall has cast a spotlight on a corruption scandal that has roiled the country and dented investor confidence, analysts say, compounding long-standing systemic issues. Manila ranked sixth in Southeast Asia for FDI last year, capturing just US$9 billion of the region’s US$244 billion investment haul, according to the UN...

Malaysia’s Barisan Nasional (BN), the dominant political coalition in Johor, might have expected to cruise to an easy victory come Saturday when the southern state goes to the polls – until a single remark from the son of jailed former prime minister Najib Razak suddenly gave its rivals political ammunition. On July 3, Nazifuddin Najib, who heads BN in Langkawi, suggested that a strong showing by the coalition would validate calls for his father’s pardon. “If we win big, it will send a signal...

The Hong Kong stock exchange is drawing a growing number of foreign companies from across Asia and North America that are seeking international capital, as the bourse marks progress in its ambition to be a global magnet for fundraising. The latest firm seeking to join the cohort is Kazakhstan Temir Zholy, the Central Asian nation’s railway operator and owner of the country’s largest fleet of locomotives and rolling stock, which filed for a Hong Kong listing on June 30, according to bourse...

Koo can see Johor changing around him, even if the promised wealth has not reached his bank account. The 30-year-old service worker has lived for 25 years in Skudai, a busy Johor Bahru suburb anchored by universities, older housing estates and the kind of Chinese shoplot economy that helped make the Democratic Action Party (DAP) a force in Malaysia’s southern state. He sees cranes, rail works and projects built by Chinese companies. But before Saturday’s state election, and as the China-linked...

Falling durian prices have done little to deter thieves in Malaysia, with a Penang trader losing baskets of prized Black Thorn variety in two break-ins just days apart. Wenny Ooi, 27, said thieves targeted her family’s stall twice on June 25 and June 29, marking the first break-ins since they started the business six years ago. In the first incident, two baskets of Black Thorn, also known as Or Chi, were stolen but footage from the surveillance camera shows only one thief leaving with a basket...

The Philippines is preparing to create a military space centre by 2028, a move that could help Manila strengthen surveillance, communications and command across its archipelago and in contested areas of the South China Sea. But analysts said the ambition would be constrained by the technical, financial and personnel hurdles of turning space assets into military capability. Philippine military chief General Romeo Brawner Jnr said on Tuesday that the initiative would enhance communications,...

A Singaporean man, hired by his aunt to tutor primary school pupils, instead beat them with a clothes hanger, forced them to hold push-up positions for long periods, punched and starved them. One of the children, a six-year-old Chinese national, was abused for 18 hours and forced to drink his own urine. On Thursday, the 31-year-old pleaded guilty to two counts of child abuse, one count of voluntarily causing grievous hurt and one of giving false or misleading information to police, local media...

Reports of sweeping lay-offs at Tokopedia, the Indonesian e-commerce giant majority-owned by China’s ByteDance, have renewed concerns about Southeast Asia’s largest digital economy as analysts warn the country’s tech winter shows few signs of easing. The cuts have also raised questions over the future of one of Indonesia’s best-known home-grown digital champions, with analysts saying Tokopedia’s deeper integration into ByteDance’s ecosystem could shift more technology, product and strategic...

Indonesia’s attempt to keep children aged under 16 off social media platforms deemed high risk has quickly become one of the world’s biggest tests of online safety regulation, with more than 4.8 million suspected underage accounts removed or deactivated in the first three months of enforcement. For President Prabowo Subianto’s government, the figures are an early sign that major platforms are falling in line with its policy aimed at making the digital world safer for children. Communications and...

Why are global investors so bearish on the yen? There are good reasons Japan’s currency should be gaining in value. Last month, the Bank of Japan (BOJ) raised interest rates to a 31-year high of 1 per cent and signalled it would continue increasing borrowing costs. Bond markets are currently pricing in a nearly 90 per cent probability of another increase by December. Nominal wages in Japan have risen by more than 3 per cent for four straight months, the longest streak since 1992. Moreover, the...

The leaders of ⁠Malaysia and Thailand said ⁠on Thursday they would ⁠work on developing a special border economic zone, and had resolved an issue that had disrupted trade in seafood between the neighbours. In May, Thailand restricted the import of Malaysian-caught sea bass due ‌to concerns over chemical residues, prompting Kuala Lumpur to temporarily ban some varieties of Thai shrimp over food safety controls last month. “We have resolved this outstanding issue of fisheries … we agree it should...

The United States is turning to South Korea’s world-leading shipbuilding industry to refresh its ageing naval fleet, a move set to expand the bilateral alliance beyond security into defence manufacturing, technology and industrial production. The approach reflects Washington’s efforts to address long-standing problems in its own industry, according to analysts – chronic construction delays, cost overruns, shortages of skilled workers and supply chain constraints among them. It also signals a...

The right to own a small car in Singapore climbed to a record high of S$129,000 ($99,700), with analysts saying premiums could rise further as rebates for electric vehicles come to an end. The price of a Category A certificate of entitlement (COE) meant for smaller cars and EVs advanced by 4.2 per cent in Wednesday’s bidding exercise from the previous round on June 17. Premiums for larger and more powerful cars in Category B jumped 6 per cent to S$130,889. The surge in premiums comes ahead of...

A senior Malaysian lawmaker on ⁠Thursday denied ⁠that fugitive businessman Jho ⁠Low had entered the country for talks linked to the theft of billions of dollars from state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB). Low, whose full name is Low Taek ‌Jho, faces multiple charges, including corruption and money laundering, in the United States and Malaysia for the central role he allegedly played in the misappropriation of at least US$4.5 billion from 1MDB. He has consistently denied wrongdoing and...

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday said “the Islamic Republic of Japan” fired missiles at a US aircraft carrier, apparently confusing long-time ally Japan with Iran. Trump made the remark during a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Turkish capital Ankara on the sidelines of a Nato summit. “We had 111 missiles shot by the Islamic Republic of Japan,” Trump said. He went on to say that the missiles were shot at the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln over a period of one...

The World Bank has upgraded the Philippines to an upper-middle-income country, but the classification means little to many Filipinos grappling with rising cost of living, mounting debt and stagnant wages. Manila resident Ann Michelle Federez-Abato, 35, said her entire salary went towards her parents’ mortgage, while she and her two-year-old daughter subsisted on a monthly remittance of 20,000 pesos (US$325) sent home by her husband, who works as a production officer at a factory abroad. Much of...

Jack Yu wants to vote in Saturday’s crucial election in his home state of Johor, Malaysia, but being based in Hong Kong has left him frozen out after he missed the short window to register for a postal ballot. Hong Kong is home to an estimated 15,000 Malaysians working in fields ranging from finance to hospitality, according to the Southeast Asian nation’s consulate general. Many stay closely engaged with politics back home – more so when the result could reshape the balance of power in...

Myanmar’s junta-led government is chasing nearly 2 million tourist arrivals a year in a bid analysts see as an effort to secure global legitimacy, but the dream is beset with difficulties. Authorities have been ramping up efforts to revive Myanmar’s tourism industry after the 2021 coup plunged the country into widespread civil war. More than 100,000 people have died so far in the conflict, according to the monitor Armed Conflict Location and Event Data. Still, over 973,000 foreigners visited...

Civilian and navy searchers off Pakistan’s coast on Wednesday located and recovered wreckage of a cargo plane that disappeared while approaching the southern port of Karachi, and a search continues for five missing crew members, officials said. The aircraft operated by the private carrier K2 Airways had departed from Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates and reported a navigational system problem before losing contact with air traffic control late on Tuesday. The Pakistani navy and civilian teams...

A 49-year-old woman has been arrested for allegedly sewing together the lips of a woman she was living with, according to local police. Masae Sakurai, a part-time worker living in Ibaraki Prefecture, northeast of Tokyo, was arrested on Monday on suspicion of injuring the 42-year-old woman by sewing her lips together with a needle and thread at Sakurai’s house on June 29. The victim, who had been living with Sakurai since around April 2025, told the police that she “had been too scared to run...

A year since the dust settled on the Singapore general election, leadership resignations in two small opposition parties signal a period of post-poll recalibration after disappointing results. The once-promising Progress Singapore Party (PSP), led by ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) defector Tan Cheng Bock, was dealt an “existential blow” on Monday, analysts say, following the resignations of two central executive committee members. Stephanie Tan, 38, was a newcomer who ran in the election,...

A Singapore minister’s quip in parliament that top officials had no time to go to the cinema has drawn heated public discussion, with some in the local arts scene saying the comment risked downplaying the importance of the cultural sector. Acting Minister for Culture, Community and Youth David Neo was responding to questions in parliament on Tuesday about the administration’s stance on Chinese dialects in films, when he joked in Mandarin: “First of all, ministers don’t have time to watch...

Days before Johor state heads to the polls, gamblers on the crypto-powered betting exchange that emerged as a barometer of political sentiment during the last US election have already called it. On Polymarket, bettors have priced Barisan Nasional (BN) as an overwhelming favourite to retain control of Malaysia’s southern gateway to Singapore. As of Wednesday afternoon, the coalition stood at a 92.8 per cent chance of winning the most seats in Saturday’s vote – dwarfing Prime Minister Anwar...