Asia

India has asked WhatsApp to justify the implementation of a planned feature covering usernames and to freeze the roll-out in its biggest market, escalating a crackdown on messaging anonymity that began with Telegram, according to a government letter. The move comes as authorities in India grapple with a spike in cybercrime, with scammers exploiting low digital safety awareness among millions of internet users. Earlier this week, Meta’s WhatsApp said ‌it had begun a phased global roll-out,...

Singapore is set to acquire additional Hellfire missiles after the United States backed a proposed package valued at US$22.3 million. The US State Department said on Tuesday that it has approved the potential sale of an additional 24 AGM-114R Hellfire missiles to Singapore, along with related support services and equipment, bringing the total package to 67 missiles. Hellfire missiles are a type of precision air-to-ground weapon manufactured by Lockheed Martin. The Ministry of Defence (Mindef)...

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr’s trip to Canada underscores deepening ties at a time when Ottawa is seeking to court middle powers and establish itself in the Indo-Pacific. Marcos is in the Canadian capital for a four-day visit that started on Wednesday, where he is set to meet Prime Minister Mark Carney in efforts to strengthen ties on trade, labour, energy and tourism, as well as enhance defence and maritime cooperation. On the list too are Canadian business leaders and investors to...

Malaysia’s heritage state of Penang has begun using body camera footage to prosecute litterbugs, widening a national clean-up drive that could see offenders fined or ordered by a court to carry out community service. The tougher enforcement, which took effect on Wednesday after a six-month grace period, gives patrol teams from the Penang Island City Council and Seberang Perai City Council powers to record offences at public hotspots across one of Malaysia’s best-known tourist states. Penang...

Some years it comes, and some years it does not. But, drifting up and across the Strait of Malacca, it can hang in the air for weeks on end over cities such as Singapore and Kuala Lumpur – regional economic hubs that host two of the world’s busiest airports. Southeast Asia’s haze is on the way back and this year’s event is expected to be “severe”, according to the Singapore Institute of International Affairs (SIIA), which has been tracking the region’s haze disruptions for almost a...

The arrest of a 65-year-old woman accused of selling abortion pills in Manila has offered a glimpse into the shadow economy growing around ending unwanted pregnancies in the Philippines, one of the few countries in the world where the procedure remains criminalised in almost all circumstances. For women and girls trying to end unwanted pregnancies, access often depends on online sellers, market vendors, whispered referrals and the uncertain quality of pills bought far from formal medical care,...

Unstaffed coffee ⁠shops, ramen eateries and flower outlets are spreading across South Korea as owners turn to robots and self-service to overcome rising labour costs in a business model that relies on the widespread honesty of users. Such stores, usually open 24 hours, were estimated to number 9,000 nationwide by the end of 2024, the National Fire Agency said, while payments provider Samsung Card said their number probably grew four times by 2025 from 2020. “The population of baristas in their...

A court order requiring Japan’s government to compensate the family of a Peruvian man who sustained a broken arm at an immigration facility has intensified scrutiny of the country’s detention system, with rights experts saying the case shows reforms are urgently needed. On June 25, the Osaka High Court ordered the government to pay 880,000 yen (US$5,400) in damages to the family of Vladimir Burgos Fujii, a Peruvian man of Japanese descent, who was injured while being restrained at the facility...

More than 2 million cars could be damaged by tsunami waves in the event of a megaquake along the Nankai Trough off Japan’s Pacific coast, according to a survey by an organisation offering free rental vehicles to disaster victims. The survey, which covered 12 of Japan’s 47 prefectures, including Aichi in central Japan, showed that at least 2.04 million privately owned vehicles could be hit by tsunami waves following a magnitude-8 or -9 earthquake – about five times the number of vehicles damaged...

Ukraine’s unresolved decision regarding two North Korean prisoners of war who have said they want to go to South Korea has given Kyiv leverage as it presses Seoul to sell weapons for its war against Russia, observers say. The soldiers, captured in early 2025 after being deployed to Kursk to support Russia’s war effort, are considered South Korean nationals under Seoul’s constitution, which defines the entire Korean peninsula as the country’s territory. Seoul has said it would be willing to...

When people speak of the Great Game, they usually mean the 19th-century rivalry between the British and Russian empires for influence over Central Asia. It conjures up images of spies crossing deserts, mountain fortresses and imperial intrigue – an era vividly brought to life in Peter Hopkirk’s books, which first awakened my fascination with the region. A century and a half after the Great Game, another contest is unfolding across the same region. To the north is Russia, the region’s traditional...

We have selected seven of the most interesting and important news stories covering global relations from the past few weeks. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. With no team in World Cup, Chinese fans root for Ronaldo, Messi … and a referee Among the hundreds of thousands of fans who travelled to North America for the World Cup are countless Chinese supporters. Yet while China remains one of the world’s largest football markets, its presence at the...

Indian telecom giant Reliance Jio’s plan to launch one of the country’s largest public share offerings in recent years is expected to shake up the domestic market and spur digital companies to raise funds amid a lull in the Iran war and global trade tensions. Earlier this month, the company filed its initial public offering plan with the Securities and Exchange Board of India to raise US$3.8 billion to US$4 billion, potentially surpassing Hyundai Motor India’s record US$3.3 billion IPO in 2024....

When Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto promised to build 80,000 village cooperatives across the archipelago, the aim was to drive rural growth, strengthen food security and give communities greater control over essential goods and services. But the deaths of five trainees preparing to manage the cooperatives have cast a shadow over the US$13.4 billion programme, one of Prabowo’s flagship initiatives alongside free nutritious meals and affordable housing. The trainees were required to take...

Malaysia has given its courts the power to prosecute some sexual offences against children committed overseas, extending the reach of its law beyond national borders as abuse allegations increasingly cross countries, devices and jurisdictions. But lawyers and child rights advocates say the change will only be as strong as Malaysia’s ability to secure evidence, obtain cooperation from foreign governments and support child victims through complex cross-border cases. The amendment comes amid...

Malaysia’s Johor election has opened a new front in the country’s long-running racial politics, after former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad and Islamist party PAS urged voters to put “Malay-Muslim political power” ahead of party loyalty in one of the country’s most closely watched state polls. The southern state, which borders Singapore and sits at the centre of Malaysia’s cross-border growth plans, is also a stronghold for the United Malays National Organisation. The Barisan Nasional (BN)...

Just days after she last saw a girl, known to her friends as Cake, on Pattaya Beach, Ning began to realise the unfolding horrors that shocked Thailand. Ning said she regularly saw the teenager at the beach, where many young women gathered daily, drawn to the Thai resort city’s neon-lit nightlife as an escape from unemployment. On Saturday, the 17-year-old was found dead, her body placed inside a black suitcase and dumped in scrubland beside a railway track. “I would see her often. I didn’t...

Singapore authorities have seized a so-called Good Class Bungalow (GCB) valued at around S$55 million (US$42.4 million) and around S$1 million (US$770,000) of funds in connection with a fraud conspiracy, the police said on Wednesday. The case has been linked to the movement of Nvidia chips in contravention of US export controls. GCBs are among the most prestigious type of housing in Singapore, with authorities imposing key planning constraints. It is understood that the seized GCB is located at...

The chief executive of Singapore’s largest and oldest telecommunications company took a pay cut last year despite the company posting a sharp rise in profits, after a series of network failures dented its operational record. Singtel CEO Yuen Kuan Moon received S$6.8 million (US$5.3 million) for the financial year ended March 31, down 16.9 per cent from S$8.2 million a year earlier, according to the company’s annual report released on Tuesday and first reported by The Straits Times. The pay cut...

One year after lifting its long-standing two-child limit, Vietnam is offering incentives for people to have more babies as the communist country risks getting old before it gets rich. A new population law and regulations coming into effect on Wednesday extend maternity leave from six to seven months for mothers having a second child as well as offering financial help. If Hanoi residents Nguyen Kim Bich and her husband have a second child, she will get an extra month of maternity leave, free...

Oman Air is looking to capitalise ⁠on the Gulf ⁠state’s appeal as a largely ⁠untapped tourism destination as it launches flights from Muscat to Singapore on Thursday and considers an expansion to North Asia over the next year. The new nonstop Singapore service was underpinned by a lower cost ‌base and the airline’s year-old membership in the Oneworld alliance to aid with connections, as serving the city state with a stopover in Kuala Lumpur failed nine years ago, Oman Air CEO Con Korfiatis said...

Norman Wong sold his Hong Kong flat and relocated to a rented home in Malaysia after concluding the city no longer offered the quality of life he expected for the price. “What am I actually getting for this money in terms of quality of life?” asked Wong, a healthcare professional from Kowloon. “Space is at a premium in Hong Kong that most of us have simply accepted as the norm. When I started seriously looking at Malaysia, I realised I didn’t have to accept that any more.” Wong is part of a...

In a tiny Tokyo restaurant filled with the smell of Nepalese dumplings, Budhathoki Samjhana surveys the business she built from scratch but may now have to give up as Japan tightens visa rules. Even though Japan has a rapidly ageing population and is suffering labour shortages in many sectors, opposition to immigration is growing and the new rules for business manager visas were introduced by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party in late 2025. Nepalese national Budhathoki, who spent a decade away...

An investigation into alleged financial irregularities at a Hindu temple closely associated with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is threatening to tarnish one of his party’s signature projects. Two office bearers at the Ram Temple in Ayodhya have resigned, while police arrested eight officials of the trust managing the site after allegations of embezzlement surfaced earlier this month, a person familiar with the matter said, who asked not to be identified because the investigation was...

A viral YouTube video, a one-star review on a delivery app, a heated post on a parenting community – all of these will fall under the same legal standard in South Korea starting next Tuesday. The revised Information and Communications Network Act, widely known as the “fake news” law, introduces punitive damages for YouTubers with more than 100,000 subscribers and high-traffic TikTok accounts if they display what authorities define as “unlawful” content. Platforms such as Naver, Kakao, Google and...

Islamabad has warned that any attempt by India to deprive Pakistan of its share of water under the Indus Waters Treaty would amount to the “weaponisation of water” and could have serious consequences for regional peace and security. Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar and other government officials made the remarks at an international seminar on the 1960 World Bank – brokered treaty, which governs the sharing of water from the Indus River system between the nuclear-armed neighbours. The treaty has come...

A potential sale of BrahMos missiles to the United Arab Emirates could mark a major step in India’s push to become a serious arms exporter, giving New Delhi a foothold in one of the world’s most competitive security markets, analysts have said. Talks also include the potential sale of Akashteer, India’s automated air-defence command-and-control system, according to a Reuters report from June 22. No deal has been signed and discussions remain at an early stage, but analysts say a UAE order would...

The US State Department has backed a potential sale of AGM-114R Hellfire missiles to Singapore, valued at US$22.3 million, in a deal it said would strengthen the city state’s defences, a key US strategic partner in Asia. The department on Tuesday said the sale would include 67 Hellfire missiles – a type of precision-guided, air-to-ground missile – as well as spare parts and support equipment. Lockheed Martin will be the principal contractor. “This proposed sale will support the foreign policy...

A roof collapse at a tutoring centre under construction in Pakistan’s eastern city of Lahore on Tuesday killed at least 14 schoolchildren, police and rescue officials said. Eight other children were also injured and were being treated at a hospital, senior police official Faisal Kamran said, adding that the owner of the tutoring centre and another person have been arrested. Kamran said rescuers were continuing to search through the rubble after receiving reports that more children could be...

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr faced a stern challenge on Tuesday after the influential Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) religious movement staged a protest on Metro Manila’s busiest highway to demand that the presidential palace stop going after one of its members, Senator Rodante Marcoleta. The rally at Edsa – the highway where a 1986 people power uprising helped topple Marcos’ father, who was the country’s long-time dictator – has raised the stakes of a looming criminal case involving...