Asia

Tens of thousands of people have been displaced by surging waters across Myanmar and Laos, with Thai farming communities along the Mekong River bracing themselves for difficult days ahead as authorities warn persistent heavy rains may bring flash floods. Each year monsoon rains bring extensive flooding across the region. Environmental campaigners say the damage is exacerbated by changing weather patterns and deforestation, as well as the string of dams across arterial rivers – like the Mekong –...

Malaysia’s foremost Islamist party has set an early pace ahead of national polls, calling on the country’s Malay-Muslim majority to endorse its renewed efforts to broaden the reach of sharia law. On Wednesday, the Kelantan state assembly – which is dominated by the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) – unanimously passed amendments to the Kelantan Syariah Offences Enactment Bill, in a bid to circumvent constitutional barriers that have prevented the criminalisation of certain acts under Islamic...

An Australian jury on Thursday convicted a former Catholic bishop renowned for hosting alcohol-fuelled house parties of sexually abusing two young Indigenous men. The District Court of Western Australia jury convicted Christopher Saunders, 76, of 13 out of 19 charges of sexual abuse that allegedly occurred between 2008 and 2019 in his sprawling diocese on the country’s tropical northwest coast. Prosecutors alleged he lured young Indigenous men to his church-owned house with free alcohol and...

Indonesia hopes ⁠to start ⁠the mass production of home-grown ⁠electric cars no later than 2028, President Prabowo Subianto said on Thursday, in an effort to increase the adoption of electric vehicles in Southeast Asia’s largest economy. The president said the government is currently building a huge factory complex to manufacture the electric cars in the Subang region of West Java province. Prabowo was referring to a 60-hectare development that aims to produce up to 50,000 vehicles annually and...

Vietnam’s construction of its most ambitious warship to date signals its ambition to develop a self-sufficient defence industry and assert its maritime interests. However, the country is expected to remain dependent on foreign technology for high-end engines, sensors and other critical systems even as it builds its defence manufacturing capabilities, according to analysts. The frigate is being built at the Vietnamese defence ministry’s Song Thu shipyard in Da Nang City, the military newspaper...

Thailand’s possible acquisition of a supersonic cruise missile from India would help the Southeast Asian country defend its interests against Cambodia and could even fuel a “mini-arms race” between the two neighbours, analysts have said. The BrahMos system could strengthen Thailand’s deterrence at sea while giving Bangkok more options as tensions with Cambodia persist and neighbouring navies modernise, they added. Several defence-focused news outlets have reported that Thailand is evaluating the...

Russian President Vladimir Putin visited on Thursday Russia’s far eastern Kuril Islands for the first time, prompting a “strong” protest by Japan which also claims the territory. Russian-Japanese relations have long been dogged by tensions over the contested islands, known in Japan as the Northern Territories and seized by the Soviet Union in 1945. The Kremlin posted a video of Putin in the Kuril Islands, with Russian media saying he visited a fish-processing plant where he was given...

Employed mothers in Malaysia have defended emergency leave rights amid debate over unfair workplace expectations and the challenge of balancing family and long hours. The dispute erupted after a woman complained on live radio that colleagues with children were taking emergency leave too often, piling extra work on their single counterparts. The anonymous caller told the hosts of Hot FM’s breakfast show on Tuesday that she was fed up with a female colleague repeatedly using emergency leave when...

Welcome to Open Dialogue, a series from the South China Morning Post where we bring together leading voices to discuss the stories and subjects occupying international headlines. In this edition, we invited a leading Chinese scholar of South Asian affairs and a former Indian foreign secretary and ambassador to China to reflect on the deep fault lines in India-China relations. They debate whether the biggest barrier is history or politics, clash over the border, Pakistan and India’s ties with the...

Surrounded by a clutter of carton boxes, bottles of dishwashing liquid and rows of dry snacks, Ramasamy Vellasamy holds court behind a cashier. For nine hours a day since 1986, he has been running a provision shop on the ground floor of a housing block in northern Singapore and knows the neighbourhood and its residents like the back of his hand. Despite Samy Provision Shop’s enduring presence, it was barely breaking even, said Ramasamy, who lamented the struggle of adapting to the ever-shifting...

A Singapore court barred Pritam Singh, the chief of the main opposition party, from practising law following his criminal conviction for lying under oath to a parliamentary committee. The Law Society of Singapore brought the case after Singh was convicted last year, months before a national election, on two charges of giving false answers to a parliamentary committee. Singh was fined S$14,000 (US$10,940), and the High Court later dismissed his appeal. The disciplinary proceedings are the latest...

India is looking to join France’s sixth-generation fighter programme in a long-term bid to secure a role in the next era of air warfare, from advanced aircraft technology to the industrial work of designing and building future combat systems. But analysts said the move, while potentially a major step in India’s defence partnership with France, would do little to ease the country’s immediate shortage of combat jets. The defence ministry told Indian lawmakers last week that it had “initiated...

Fears of a new industrial revolution in which artificial intelligence replaces manual labour have yet to materialise in Southeast Asia – but white-collar workers should brace themselves. Nearly one in four workers in the region face generative AI (GenAI) disrupting or affecting their jobs, according to a July report by the International Labour Organization (ILO). Clerical, administrative and professional positions were most at risk, the report stated. Manual trades, craft and agricultural work...

At Jantar Mantar, New Delhi’s designated protest site, India’s future spent weeks enduring the heat and demanding change. But what kind of change, and why? These were young people, many of them highly educated but still without a job despite sitting numerous government recruitment exams. Their anger was not because they had been cheated. It stemmed from worse: their qualifications had simply stopped meaning anything. China has a word for this dilemma. India does not, and that missing word...

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday he hoped more countries would join a defence agreement signed last week between Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan aimed at stabilising a region wracked by conflict. The so-called Mecca Joint Defence Agreement was signed on Friday as the Middle East grapples with fallout from the US-Iran war, which has dragged in regional players and disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea. “Our vision for it is not limited to the three...

Malaysia is taking palm oil from the frying pan to server racks, as it banks on its biggest agricultural commodity to crack a code plaguing its data centre boom – keeping servers cool. Researchers at the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) are developing a palm-based liquid to cool computer servers without relying on copious volumes of water, as the country grapples with high resource demands to support its rapidly expanding digital infrastructure. The new approach – termed the Sawit EcoTherm...

India’s long-held status as the “pharmacy of the world” could be affected by US President Donald Trump’s plan to impose steep tariffs on imported drugs from 2028, threatening the low-cost, export-driven model that has made the country a vital supplier of generic medicines, analysts have warned. Late last month, Trump announced that the US would impose 100 per cent tariffs on generic medicines from August 2028 and increase them to 200 per cent after one year, signalling a major push to bring more...

Myanmar’s military is increasingly using drones, motorised paragliders and other low-cost aircraft to attack civilians, United Nations investigators said, even as the country’s rulers seek to project stability and gain legitimacy after a military-run election. The report by the UN-established Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar released on Tuesday said attacks continued to rise from July last year, with a notable escalation ahead of elections held in December and January. The vote...

In Japan, complaints about bears have strained the resources of 40 per cent of local governments amid a surge in encounters with the animals this year. According to a government survey of 40 prefectural and municipal councils, 17 said bear-related complaints had disrupted their operations. Of those, 10 reported complaints that took up a lot of time, such as phone calls lasting more than an hour, while five said they had received an overwhelming number of grievances via their websites and by...

Officials have sold a potential US-led Pax Silica hub in the Philippines as a chance for the country to move up the technology supply chain, but as domestic backlash grows, Manila’s top diplomat to America has warned of losing the opportunity if it “drops the ball”. Analysts say Jose Manuel Romualdez’s message appeared aimed at critics but should be taken seriously, as regional rivals are also courting US-linked supply chain investment and some may be better placed to deliver. Romualdez told...

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations has a role to play in Hong Kong’s plans for its economy. Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu signalled as much when he touched on the city’s first five-year plan in his August 7 meeting with Asean Secretary General Kao Kim Hourn. For businesses, however, the central question is not whether Hong Kong-Asean economic ties will continue to grow. They will. The harder question is who will capture the value that growth creates. Asean has been Hong Kong’s...

A veteran Malaysian politician’s resignation from parliament and Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s People’s Justice Party (PKR) to join a fledgling progressive rival widens an exodus of reformist figures as the ruling coalition reels from a string of electoral setbacks. Wong Chen, a three-term lawmaker who had spent nearly two decades in PKR, said on Wednesday that he had applied to join newly rebranded Bersama after resigning his Subang parliamentary seat on Monday and leaving PKR the following...

This article was first published on August 14, 2016. Lion City celebrates first golden hero by James Porteous Singapore exploded into celebration as it feted a new sporting hero yesterday (August 13, 2016) after swimmer Joseph Schooling did the improbable – beat his one-time idol Michael Phelps – to win the Lion City’s first ever gold medal. Schooling completed a wire-to-wire victory to deny American Phelps a fourth successive title in the 100 metres butterfly, winning in an Olympic record of...

North Korea’s recent missile launch may be a test of upgraded exports to Russia, observers say, as the war in Ukraine gives Pyongyang opportunities to improve its weapons. At about 6am on Wednesday, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) detected a missile launched from the North’s southeastern port city of Wonsan. It flew roughly 700km (435 miles) eastward before falling into the Sea of Japan, or East Sea. The JCS conspicuously did not specify the missile’s launch angle or whether it should...

A doctor and his friend who were arrested during a raid at a villa on Singapore’s Sentosa Island were sentenced on Wednesday to one year’s jail each for taking drugs. Dr Rayson Lee Rui Sheng, 36, and 29-year-old Tan Li Ming both intend to appeal against their convictions. The pair had contested their respective charges of taking MDMA, also known as Ecstasy, claiming their drinks had been spiked. However, the judge rejected this defence based on the inconsistencies in their statements and...

The rivalry between two of Indonesia’s former presidents is moving onto the political ground where their alliance was first forged, with Joko Widodo’s youngest son preparing to contest the constituency held by Megawati Sukarnoputri’s daughter. Kaesang Pangarep plans to seek a parliamentary seat in Central Java V in 2029. The constituency has been represented since 2009 by House Speaker Puan Maharani – one of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle’s (PDI-P) most prominent figures and the...

A visit by Vietnam’s top leader To Lam to Australia and New Zealand this week is expected to lead to stronger maritime security cooperation, especially in intelligence-sharing and joint patrols. The Vietnamese president is seeking to bolster partnerships and strengthen cooperation in science and technology, according to a government statement. During Lam’s six-day trip, which ends on Friday, he is expected to sign 12 to 16 agreements with Canberra – covering education, digital transformation,...

North Korea fired a ballistic missile off its east coast towards Japan early on Wednesday, Seoul’s military said, days before the planned start of massive US-South Korea joint drills. The 11-day exercises due to begin on Monday are a regular fixture of the summer calendar, designed to steel the United States and South Korea for defence against the nuclear-armed North. Pyongyang calls them rehearsals for an invasion and has staged missile launches before and after them in the past. “Our military...

The resignation of Indian education minister Dharmendra Pradhan last month, yielding to pressure from the “cockroach” youth protests, was an example of democracy in action. Outraged over the leaking of the medical school entrance exam question paper, protesters, led by a group calling itself the Cockroach Janata Party, demanded accountability and reforms. At least 20 young people had taken their own lives after a retest for the medical entrance exam was announced, underlining how such exams have...

Russian attacks across Ukraine killed at least 10 people overnight and wounded dozens, Kyiv said on Tuesday, accusing Moscow of launching North Korean missiles in the raid. The allegation comes after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned – without providing evidence – that Moscow was receiving more ballistic projectiles and troops from its ally Pyongyang. Russia has turned to North Korea for support throughout its four-and-a-half-year invasion. Earlier in the war, Pyongyang dispatched...