Asia

For decades, the Philippine Air Force hunted communist rebels and Islamist militants in the country’s forests and southern islands. Now, amid seemingly intractable tensions in the South China Sea, it is being reshaped into an armed service meant to defend one of Asia’s most contested maritime frontiers – even as analysts rank it the weakest air arm among Southeast Asia’s six largest militaries. “Because we are an archipelago, we really need to strengthen our air assets,” air force spokeswoman...

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has promised durian growers in Johor that he will raise their falling prices with his “good friend” Chinese Premier Li Qiang during a visit to Beijing next month, as a nationwide glut leaves farmers struggling to sell the famously pungent fruit at sustainable prices. Speaking during a political campaign stop in Johor, where a state election will be held on Saturday, Anwar said growers had complained to him during his two-day swing through the southern state...

A 24-year-old man has died after he was reportedly struck by lightning in Singapore. The man was among a group of eight people, aged between 13 and 54, who were taken to hospital on Sunday afternoon, the police said on Monday. The police said they had received a call for help on Sunday at about 4.50pm from 131 Pasir Ris Road, just off Pasir Ris Beach. The incident reportedly involved a lightning strike. Two people were taken to KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital, while the other six were taken...

Australia signed a new defence alliance with Fiji on Monday, bolstering ties with its South Pacific island neighbour as it seeks to outmanoeuvre China in the region. The Ocean of Peace alliance elevates Fiji to one of Australia’s few treaty allies and binds each nation to come to the other’s “mutual defence”. China sent waves through the region in 2022 when it signed a secretive security pact with the Solomon Islands, stoking fears it could one day lead to a permanent military...

A prefecture in western Japan is drawing attention for a unique bear management programme that uses microchips implanted in captured animals to estimate population levels and guide culling decisions, as rising sightings across the country fuel calls for more effective countermeasures. Hyogo prefecture says it is the first in Japan to use information gathered from microchipped bears to determine an appropriate population size and maintain a balance between conservation and population control. The...

The South Korean won was stable against the dollar after inching higher as the currency began its first day of 24-hour trading, marking a milestone in Seoul’s push to open its financial markets to global investors. The won eased 0.1 per cent to 1,531.40 against the US dollar, after rising as much as 0.2 per cent when it started trading at 6am. Other major currency pairs were little changed. The launch of 24-hour trading is the centrepiece of a years-long effort to improve foreign access to local...

Three months after moving from China to Japan, Alisa Lin has yet to buy a single drink from Mixue – the Chinese ice cream and tea giant – despite being a frequent customer back home, where a cup costs under five yuan (73 US cents) during promotions. “It’s not a very popular brand here. Only one of my friends in Japan has ever bought it,” Lin said, adding that value for money was the main consideration behind her own consumer choices in Tokyo. While Mixue’s basic teas are cheap, a plain bubble...

In the Philippine capital, 85 pesos (US$1.40) is barely enough to buy a meal for one, let alone a family of five. Yet that modest sum, roughly the price of 1½kg of premium imported rice, is the largest single wage increase ever approved for Metro Manila’s minimum-wage earners. The government called it “historic”. Labour groups called it an insult. The increase, to be rolled out in two stages, was confirmed by the Department of Labour and Employment on Tuesday. Non-agricultural workers will see...

A Japanese space probe performed a fly-by of a near-Earth asteroid on Sunday, in a test mission for technology that could help protect the planet from space rocks. The fridge-sized Hayabusa2 was due to fly within 800 metres (0.5 miles) of asteroid Torifune, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) scientists said earlier, a trial run to see whether such a probe could deflect a potentially dangerous space rock away from Earth. The mission comes after Nasa deliberately smashed a spacecraft into...

A “super typhoon” with equivalent force to a category-5 hurricane made landfall on the US island of Rota in the Pacific on Monday, the National Weather Service (NWS) said, warning of “catastrophic damage and [a] life-threatening situation”. “The western eyewall of Super Typhoon Bavi is currently moving over the island of Rota. The latest forecast intensity is at 180mph (290km/h) as it passes over Rota,” the NWS said. “Catastrophic winds exceeding 150mph will continue across Rota during eyewall...

“The Emiratis – by far the most hawkish, by far the most pro-Israel country in the [Gulf Cooperation Council] – they’re having conversations with the Iranians that have never happened before,” US Vice-President J.D. Vance told British media outlet UnHerd following the Iran-US negotiations in Switzerland. The Iranians “are certainly talking differently than they have in the past”, he added in a note of cautious optimism, highlighting how both Washington and its allies in the Persian Gulf are...

Hit by the biggest energy supply shock in decades during the Middle East war, import-dependent India is expanding domestic crude exploration, its oil minister says. India, the world’s third-largest importer of oil and the second-largest buyer of liquefied petroleum gas, faced major disruptions due to restrictions on the Strait of Hormuz during the conflict between the United States and Iran. With a temporary US-Iran deal in place to pause hostilities, oil and gas shipments are flowing through...

In a quieter part of western Bali, far from the crowds and chaos of the south, a 38-year-old housewife was bitten by a stray cat while hanging out laundry in May. Within weeks, she was dead: one of five people killed by rabies on the Indonesian resort island so far this year. The following month, a rabid dog kept as a family pet in the same region, Jembrana regency, attacked two children and an adult. All three survived, thanks to swift post-exposure vaccination after tests confirmed that the...

When South Korea’s national football team returned home on Tuesday after their shock group-stage exit from the 2026 World Cup tournament, the fury of fans was not targeted at captain Son Heung-min or other players. It was aimed at head coach Hong Myung-bo, who announced his resignation during a press conference in Guadalajara, Mexico – the tournament’s co-host – on June 28. South Korea lost 1-0 to Mexico and South Africa after opening their World Cup campaign with a 2-1 win over the Czech...

Asean military observers have now visited both sides of the Thai-Cambodian frontier, measuring damage and recording claims as Bangkok and Phnom Penh continue to trade allegations of ceasefire breaches following last year’s deadly clashes. In late June, a delegation from member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations fanned out across Thailand and Cambodia, escorted through contested ground and competing narratives. The fighting last year resulted in more than 100 military and...

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...