Asia

Australia is in the process of finalising a treaty with another Pacific island nation, with the national broadcaster reporting that Canberra has struck an “in-principle” agreement with the Solomon Islands. The two nations will work to sign the deal in the coming weeks, Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported, citing unidentified government officials. The news comes after Solomons Prime Minister Matthew Wale saw off a challenge to his leadership from within his cabinet, with the rival...

South Korean citizens’ groups have called for the abuse of wartime “comfort women” to be recognised by Unesco, as analysts say the ongoing feud between Seoul and Tokyo threatens to upset recent improvements in their relations. They also suggest that the two nations would benefit from working together at a time of unprecedented regional and global security and economic challenges, although they admit that may be impossible. On Sunday, a coalition of South Korean citizens’ groups called on the...

While the announcement last week of the closure of a 40-year-old mall in Singapore’s Marina Bay district for redevelopment has caused an outpouring of sentiment among shoppers and tenants, experts say the prime real estate has to be updated into a mixed-use site to survive in the city state. Last Monday, property developer Singapore Land Group (SingLand) said in a statement that Marina Square, which was completed in 1986, would close on March 31 for a redevelopment that would include features...

Indonesia’s main airport and several other air travel hubs reopened early on Tuesday after days of closure due to ash from a volcanic eruption, the transport ministry said. The ministry wrote on social media that the airport serving the capital Jakarta and four others near the city or around the island of Java are now operating again, as the air safety crisis that left hundreds of thousands of travellers stranded subsides. Mount Anak Krakatoa, about 150km (93 miles) from Jakarta, erupted on...

Japan will substantially raise its fees for residence permits next month. Depending on the period of stay applied for, renewing or changing one’s residency status could cost as much as ¥75,000 (US$480). The application fee for permanent residency will rise to ¥200,000 from ¥10,000. The government is also tightening the requirements for permanent residency. Applicants are already expected to be able to support themselves. New criteria proposed include an above-average household income, sufficient...

The suspected murderers of two Australian surfers and an American at a Mexican surfing hotspot went on trial on Monday, two years after their killings in a suspected robbery. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson, aged 30 and 33, respectively, and 30-year-old American friend Jack Carter Rhoad were on a surfing trip to Mexico’s Pacific coast when they were shot dead in Baja California state. They had been camping in a remote beachside area when they were attacked in April 2024. Their...

North Korea and Russia opened their first road bridge on Monday in a carefully choreographed display of friendship. The structure, which crosses the Tumen river, has been cast by both sides as an important milestone ‌in their deepening strategic partnership. The first flag-adorned trucks trundled across the 1km (0.6-mile) long two-lane bridge as Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin and North Korea’s Premier Pak Thae Song tuned in by video link to address workers and government officials from...

Japan’s tourist hotspot Shinjuku will impose a ban on more than half of its holiday rentals, including homes on Airbnb, after a surge in complaints about visitors, an official has said. Known for its buzzing commercial and entertainment district in the Japanese capital Tokyo, Shinjuku has about 4,000 short-term rentals, according to the ward’s official website. That is nearly 10 per cent of the country’s total. But its large residential population has become increasingly exasperated with...

China will impose provisional anti-dumping duties of up to 99.2 per cent on Japanese dichlorosilane, a critical chemical used in chipmaking, after an eight-month investigation found that dumped imports had harmed local manufacturers. The Ministry of Commerce announced the preliminary ruling on Monday, saying importers of dichlorosilane originating from Japan would be required to pay corresponding cash deposits from Tuesday. Shipments from Denal Silane, a manufacturer of semiconductor speciality...

Malaysian police have contacted Islamist opposition leader Abdul Hadi Awang over his explosive claim that the United States once offered to help his party topple the government – an allegation Washington has flatly dismissed as false. The controversy erupted after Hadi told thousands of delegates at the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) congress in Kelantan on Saturday that American representatives had approached party leaders when Barack Obama visited Malaysia in 2014. Hadi’s political...

Nepal is seeking financial aid following the catastrophic flood that killed hundreds of people and caused billions of dollars in economic losses, tapping a global financial mechanism established to address the impacts of climate change in developing countries. Kathmandu has formally requested the UN-backed Fund for responding to Loss and Damage to “respond rapidly, directly and effectively” amid the country’s worst natural disaster in decades. In a letter signed by Finance Minister Swarnim Wagle...

Philippine prosecutors filed a criminal charge on Monday against a lawmaker and cousin of President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr over his alleged involvement in a massive corruption scandal involving bogus flood-control projects. The case came more than a year after Marcos put the so-called “ghost” infrastructure projects, believed to have cost Filipino taxpayers billions of dollars, centre stage in a public address. Several construction firm owners, government officials and politicians have been...

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s promise to unveil more projects in eight months’ time at the launch of the country’s second modern destroyer hints at another major strategic military asset, according to experts. “The nuclearisation of our navy is being realised, making it increasingly suited, diversified and practical for the use of our deterrent,” Kim said while commissioning the Kang Kon in the southeastern port of Wonsan on Sunday. Kim was accompanied by his daughter and potential...

Malaysia called off a haze emergency in Sarawak state on Borneo island on Monday but said very unhealthy levels of air pollution remained as a result of forest fires in neighbouring Indonesia. Sarawak has been heavily affected by fires in Indonesia’s Kalimantan, with the haze forcing school closures in some parts of the state. Kuala Lumpur on Friday activated the emergency after obtaining royal consent when pollution levels reached critical levels in Serian, about 65 kilometres (40 miles) south...

Heavy rainfall hit eastern Japan and elsewhere on Monday, with the weather agency urging maximum vigilance against landslides on Niijima and Oshima islands, south of Tokyo, and a woman dying in Iwaki in the northeast after her car became submerged. The Japan Meteorological Agency issued a special landslide warning for Niijima after more than 480mm (19 inches) of rain fell there over 24 hours, the largest amount since local records began. Heavy rain also hit eastern Japan including Tokyo from the...

Singapore Prime Minister Lawrence Wong warned against a recent spate of racist comments being made online, saying prejudice should not be allowed to become normalised in the multiracial city state. Wong said in a social media post on Sunday that an “uglier side” had emerged in recent online discussions, including remarks about Singaporeans caught in deadly floods in Nepal and debate over Singapore Airlines’ potential investment in Air India. “We can and should have robust debates,” he said. “But...

Australians could be given the option of opting out of powerful social media algorithms under new legislation cracking down on big tech, a minister said on Monday. The draft law requiring a “digital duty of care” is expected to be introduced to Australia’s parliament this week. It would require firms like Meta Platforms to give users the option of turning off algorithms that tailor recommendations to their personal taste. “A lot of Australians appreciate the algorithm, both for the enjoyment...

The rapport between Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, was evident when the two met during the 11th Eastern Economic Forum (EEF) in Vladivostok last week. “My profound apologies for missing this important event due to urgent matters I needed to attend to back home but I’m now here to repay my debt,” Prabowo told Putin on Wednesday, referring to a missed invitation earlier to be the guest of honour at Russia’s National Day celebration on June...

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un commissioned his second naval destroyer and called for building a more reliable nuclear deterrent, state media reported on Monday, as the US, South Korea and Japan began a trilateral military exercise he views as a security threat. The development comes as North Korea dials up pressure on the US after rebuffing President Donald Trump’s decision to scale back a major military drill with South Korea in a conciliatory step towards Kim. Observers say North Korea wants...

The rural Japanese town of Hitachiomiya sprawls down the Naka River valley in northwest Ibaraki prefecture, surrounded by lush forests and overlooked by the picturesque Yamizo mountains. Just 140km (87 miles) from Tokyo, its golf courses attract weekend players, while onsen hot spring resorts in the surrounding hills keep local business steady year-round. The local tourism association’s website highlights traditional festivals, campsites, hiking and cycling routes, alongside unique sights –...

A building collapse in the Indian capital New Delhi killed at least three people on Sunday, local media reports said, as authorities worked to rescue those trapped in the rubble. The building, housing mostly students, came crashing down about midday in the southwestern Satya Niketan area of the city, with police and disaster response personnel cautiously lifting the rubble using heavy machinery. Three people died in the accident, according to The Hindu newspaper and other local media reports,...

There is little in common between Daron Acemoglu and Xi Jinping. As a strong advocate of the Western model of liberal democracy, Acemoglu, co-recipient of the 2024 Nobel Prize in economics, may be considered the ideological opposite of the Chinese president. But on a crucial point about China’s future, the two may, strangely, be on the same page: an across-the-board introduction of cutting-edge technology may enhance productivity and maintain economic growth. It may counteract the negative...

Indonesia halted operations at its main international airport outside Jakarta on Sunday after ash spewed from the Anak Krakatoa volcano more than 150km (93 miles) away, impacting thousands of passengers. Mount Anak Krakatoa erupted on Saturday, producing a fountain of lava and booming sounds that could be heard up to a few hundred kilometres away, the geology agency said in a statement. Two new eruptions were recorded on Sunday, the volcanology agency warned. Ash from the volcano was detected in...

The US rejected a claim by Malaysia’s opposition Islamist party that Washington once sought to influence the country’s choice of political leadership, calling the allegation false. “The United States has never sought to decide Malaysia’s political leadership,” US embassy in Malaysia Charge d’Affaires David H. Gamble Jnr said in a statement on social media on Sunday. “Any account to the contrary is false.” Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) president Abdul Hadi Awang said at the Islamist party’s...

At Raffly Langi’s family longhouse in Sarawak, on Malaysian Borneo, the tuak rice wine did not come in a branded bottle or a tasting flight. His aunt has brewed the drink for Gawai, the harvest festival celebrated by Dayak communities, an umbrella term for indigenous groups in Sarawak whose longhouses have long been centres of family, rituals and communal life. She made it from steamed glutinous rice and a cake called ragi, prepared with rice flour, yeast and spices to kick-start fermentation....

The recent release of classic arcade games on the White House website, which allow players to deport migrants and build a border wall, has stoked more fear and anger among Filipino-Americans, as observers call out the “xenophobic” tactics in US President Donald Trump’s widening immigration crackdown. Analysts and immigrant advocates described the games, unveiled on Thursday, as “frightening”, trivialising the human toll of the policies and normalising hostility towards migrants, particularly...

In all his five decades of living in Hokkaido, Makoto Watanabe cannot recall ever being confronted by a cockroach. But he admits being alarmed by reports that the despised insects are taking advantage of global warming to gain a foothold in a part of Japan where winters were previously considered too hostile for large colonies to emerge. “When I was a university student in Tokyo 30 years ago, I used to see them in my accommodation and I absolutely hated them,” Watanabe told This Week in...

Yap Yee Lin has been serving espresso at a Starbucks in Malaysia since 2012, longer than many of his colleagues have worked anywhere. But it was only last year, after 13 years with the company, that he was promoted to shift manager at a branch in Kuala Lumpur’s Bangsar Village II. The wait says less about Yap, who is deaf, than it does about how rare that kind of promotion still is for deaf workers in the Southeast Asian nation – and how much has had to change around him to make it...

The Labour Department recently upgraded its Heat Stress at Work Warning system, making it easier for higher-tier alerts to be sent out, so that employers and workers, especially those who have to work outdoors, can react quickly during very hot weather. Unfortunately, the most we seem to be able to do is issue warnings and recommend passive mitigation measures such as relaxing the work schedule, resting in the shade and staying hydrated. We are sitting ducks as temperatures peak year after...

For a few seconds during Blackpink member Jennie’s headline set at Tokyo’s Summer Sonic festival last month, it looked like something had come undone. She turned away from the crowd, adjusted herself and then, the moment was gone. But online, the clip never disappeared – and more than 10 million views later, it has become the latest test of South Korea’s fight against AI-enabled sexual abuse. Fans were quick to cry deepfake, dissecting the footage frame by frame for signs of possible AI...