Asia

A dark tanker carrying liquefied natural gas from a US-sanctioned Russian export plant has positioned itself for a rare open-water fuel transfer off the coast of Malaysia, satellite images show, in a demonstration of the increasingly circuitous routes taken by Moscow to evade Western restrictions. The Perle, which was sanctioned by the US earlier this year, is currently anchored parallel to another vessel about 90 kilometres (55 miles) east of the Malaysian peninsula, according to Sentinel-2...

A tropical storm lashed the northern and central Philippines on Sunday, leaving at least one person dead and forcing more than 22,000 people to evacuate from flood- and landslide-prone villages, officials said. Tropical Storm Fengshen was tracked at midday over Manila Bay with sustained winds of up to 65kph (40 mph) and gusts of up to 90kph (56 mph). It was expected to move away from the main northern Philippine region of Luzon on Sunday night, government forecasters said. A villager drowned on...

Beijing is operating without permission. Tokyo must act.

As the West falters in its commitment to fighting climate change, analysts expect emerging economies led by China, India and Brazil to seize the initiative at next month’s UN climate summit. The Cop30 conference, from November 10 to 21 in the Brazilian city of Belem, comes as the United States under Donald Trump remains largely disengaged from climate challenges following his successive orders to withdraw the world’s largest economy from the 2015 Paris Agreement, while Europe’s attention appears...

A crocodile took a dip in a luxury hotel pool in northeastern Australia this weekend but failed to stir guests who relaxed in the sun a few steps away. Video posted on social media showed the juvenile carnivore lying on the bottom of the pool at the Sheraton Grand Mirage Resort in Port Douglas. “I don’t want to alarm anyone but there is a crocodile in the Sheraton pool,” TikTok user Lisa Keller said in a video showing the scaly predator. A handful of tourists could be seen taking it easy on sun...

The camouflage-clad soldiers who patrol the rice fields around Wichien’s village are a daily reminder that peace along Thailand’s border with Cambodia is perilous, despite the recent truce. For the Thai farmer, the prospect of a lasting settlement is welcome. But US President Donald Trump’s involvement is not. “Trump isn’t here seeking peace, he’s only after recognition … a Nobel Prize. It’s about serving his own ambitions, not helping us,” said Wichien, who asked to be identified by only one...

Japan’s ruling party and main opposition are set to form a coalition to enable Sanae Takaichi to become the country’s first female premier, local media reported on Sunday. Takaichi became leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party earlier this month, but her bid to become premier was derailed by the collapse of her ruling coalition. Since then, the LDP has been working to cobble together a different alliance, putting her chances back on track. Takaichi and her counterpart Hirofumi Yoshimura...

Every month, Rachel Tan, a 53-year-old Singaporean tutor, boards a bus across the 1km (0.6 mile) causeway for a day trip to Malaysia’s Johor state, where she stocks up on groceries and treats herself to lunch and a film. Thanks to streamlined immigration procedures, she rarely needs to present her passport, using a QR code to pass the checkpoint before catching a complimentary shuttle bus that whisks her to R&F Mall. The entire day out, including shopping, typically costs her about 300 ringgit...

Afghanistan and Pakistan agreed to an immediate ceasefire during talks in Doha, both sides said on Sunday, after a week of fierce border clashes, the worst violence between the South Asian neighbours since the Taliban seized power in Kabul in 2021. The ceasefire “has been finalised”, Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif posted on social media on Sunday, saying both sides would meet again on October 25 in Istanbul to discuss “detailed matters”. Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid...

When Vietnam’s top delegation landed in Pyongyang with seven Politburo members – half the ruling body’s total membership – accompanying General Secretary To Lam, the symbolism could not be clearer. The Vietnamese leadership was not merely extending a hand of friendship; it was making a high-stakes gamble for political survival. According to official reports, Vietnam and North Korea signed five bilateral cooperation documents covering defence, diplomacy, healthcare, trade and information. On the...

Flights out of Bangladesh’s main airport were delayed or diverted on Saturday after a major fire broke out in the cargo terminal, officials said. Thirty-six firefighting units were working to douse the flames, said Talha Bin Zasim, an officer at the Fire Service and Civil Defence Media Cell. Operations at Dhaka’s Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport were suspended, airport official Masudul Hasan told reporters, adding all aircraft were safe. There was no immediate information as to what may...

Pakistan and Afghan officials were holding peace talks in Qatar on Saturday, a day after Islamabad launched air strikes that killed at least 10 people in Afghanistan and broke a ceasefire that had brought two days of calm to the border. The strikes targeted what Pakistan security sources said was a militant group linked to the Pakistani Taliban in the Afghan border areas, following an attack that killed Pakistani paramilitary troops in North Waziristan, a district in Pakistan’s northwest. Kabul...

Thousands of residents fled their homes along the Pacific seaboard of the Philippines on Saturday as Tropical Storm Fengshen made landfall, triggering warnings of coastal flooding. The storm barrelled into the municipality of Gubat at the southeastern tip of the main island of Luzon late afternoon, with gusts of up to 80km (50 miles) an hour, the government weather service said. There were no immediate reports of serious damage or casualties, authorities said, with evacuations already carried...

Are politicians dispensable, and can elite bureaucrats run a country more efficiently? The question has become one of more than academic importance in Japan, where the political situation has degenerated into chaos as potential leaders and their parties vie for power. This is a question that has considerable economic and financial as well as political significance. Japan is a key trade, investment and security partner to other leading nations in and beyond Asia and its financial markets are...

One month after Nepal’s youth-led revolt redrew the political map, competing visions for the future and the daunting challenge of turning protest into meaningful reform are casting uncertainty over the country’s political future. In the wake of the September uprising, which ousted the government of K.P. Sharma Oli and left more than 70 people dead, new Gen Z factions have proliferated, defined by their deep ideological divides. Groups with names like the Gen Z Alliance, Real Gen Z Nepal and Gen...

Authorities in Thailand and Singapore are looking into a Cambodian real estate group after the United States and Britain imposed sanctions on the company’s chairman on allegations of fraud and money laundering. Surapol Prembutr, commissioner of the Cyber Crime Investigation Bureau, said Thai officials would work with their US counterparts to review the asset seizure process and legal proceedings involving Prince Holding Group, the Bangkok Post reported. Singapore police were looking into the...

Openings at overseas energy storage operations flood John Yang’s screen anytime he browses recruitment websites, with listed giants and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) alike offering salaries well above those typically found in China’s manufacturing sector. “Job seeking has never felt easier. The only worry is whether the new role could last beyond next year,” joked Yang, Thailand director at a Shenzhen-based energy storage firm. Yang’s experience reflects the recent, rapid overseas...

As dusk settles over Angeles City, Justin Cunanan prepares for another long night. While the rest of the Philippines sleeps, he joins millions of his compatriots powering a global industry that is now facing threats from both Washington and Silicon Valley. For the next nine hours, the 33-year-old will field customer service calls for a company based in the United States. The night shift is gruelling, but for Cunanan, who previously worked in hospitality, the benefits of a business process...

Myanmar’s ruling junta said on Saturday that it had recaptured a town on a trade highway to China from an ethnic armed group in the country’s war-wracked north. Following a 16-day operation, “Tatmadaw reoccupied Hsipaw completely” on Thursday, the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper said, referring to the military by its Burmese name. Northern Shan state has been rocked by fighting since June 2024 when an alliance of ethnic armed groups renewed an offensive against the military along...

Sixty-four South Koreans who had been detained in Cambodia for alleged involvement in cyberscam operations returned home on Saturday and were under arrest, police said. South Korea had sent a team to Cambodia on Wednesday to discuss cases of fake jobs and scam centres involved in kidnapping dozens of its nationals. “A total of 64 nationals just arrived at Incheon International Airport on a chartered flight,” a police official said. Seoul had said around 60 South Koreans had been detained by...

As the streets of Dili thrum with anticipation, East Timor is preparing for a diplomatic victory decades in the making. Next weekend, Asia’s youngest nation is set to take its place as the 11th member of Asean – concluding a campaign for acceptance hard won through an unflinching belief in its own destiny. For the country of some 1.4 million people on the eastern half of Timor island, it represents both a declaration of belonging and an affirmation that its future lies squarely within Southeast...

India’s behavior in regard to critical minerals can be best understood as strategic hedging.

A nation that cannot provide opportunity, well-being and enhanced capabilities for its youth is a nation setting itself up for decline.

A breast cancer awareness fundraiser by a South Korean high fashion magazine has come under fire for focusing too much on the celebrities and not on the cause itself. Photos and videos of celebrities such as BTS’ V and RM, Aespa’s Karina and Lovely Runner actor Byeon Woo-seok drinking and partying at W Korea’s “Love Your W 2025” breast cancer awareness campaign at the Four Seasons Hotel in Seoul’s Jongno district on Wednesday sparked criticism that the event looked more like a fashion party than...

The Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) said on Friday it had suspended its secretary general and will form an independent committee to investigate a “technical error” that led to Fifa, the sport’s world governing body, suspending seven naturalised players of the national team over the alleged use of doctored documents. During a heated press conference, FAM and its legal team denied it had committed forgery, but declined to address repeated questions from reporters on how the players were...

A US$20 billion plan to build an underground light railway in Indonesia’s Bali has stalled due to wary investors and concerns over land scarcity, throwing into question whether the island’s long-promised solution to solve its notorious traffic gridlock will ever get off the ground. More than a year after its ceremonial groundbreaking, the “Bali Urban Subway” remains in the feasibility-study phase. Officials once hailed the project as a game changer that would ease congestion and preserve the...

Mongolia’s parliament has voted to oust the prime minister in an unusually public power struggle within the ruling Mongolian People’s Party. Opponents of Prime Minister Zandanshatar Gombojav managed to pass a controversially worded resolution on Friday that effectively dismissed him from office. The parliament was also debating a request to resign from its chair, Amarbayasgalan Dashzegve, the prime minister’s chief rival in the internal party struggle. It was not immediately clear who might...

Three Australians who allegedly shot and killed a fellow countryman on the tourist island of Bali earlier this year have been charged with premeditated murder – an offence that carries the maximum death penalty in Indonesia. Dubbed the “Bali Three”, the men are accused of planning and carrying out the fatal shooting of Melbourne man Zivan Radmanovic as his wife, Jazmyn Gourdeas, hid under the covers in a villa in the Badung region just after midnight on June 14. Radmanovic’s brother-in-law,...

Indonesia’s renewed diplomatic engagement with North Korea has raised concerns in Seoul over the possible breach of sensitive technology related to the KF-21, a cutting-edge fighter jet jointly developed with the Southeast Asian nation. South Korean officials maintain that KF-21 data is protected under existing non-disclosure agreements with Jakarta. Still, critics point to Indonesia’s record on the joint project, including payment delays and leak scandals, which have undermined its...

Police officers might be deployed in all schools and children aged 16 and below could be banned from using smartphones, Malaysia’s government said on Friday, after a string of violent crimes and bullying involving students that shocked the nation and forced the education ministry to admit to a culture of cover-up. Two cases of gang rape and a murder in three schools in the past fortnight have fuelled parents’ fears for their children’s safety and raised public concerns over a lack of official...