Asia

Hwaseong, South Korea, past midnight. An engineer watches a defect pattern surface on her screen – the kind that, caught now, saves a week of wafers. She is locked in, fully absorbed, the way engineers get when a breakthrough is close. But she has to go home. The law says so. Yet something is disrupting the clock she races against. Artificial intelligence is quietly rewriting what her hours are worth. On June 29, South Korean President Lee Jae Myung stood alongside the leaders of Samsung...

Global K-pop sensation BTS said on Wednesday they will not submit their music for next year’s Grammy Awards, following the Recording Academy’s introduction of new categories that include the Best Asian Pop Music Performance. The South Korean megastars had been widely tipped to be in the running for several of the Grammys’ top honours, including Album of the Year, after their comeback album, Arirang, became one of this year’s bestselling hits. “We have decided not to enter the Grammys this year,”...

India is planning a new law to combat AI deepfakes and impersonation scams amid a surge in cyber fraud and fake videos targeting top military officers. The cases have deepened concerns over the potential for misinformation to sow discord in India during a geopolitical crisis, such as in the war against Pakistan last year. The proposal aims to close a gap in India’s laws by clearly defining punishments concerning deepfakes and other related offences. The changes would also cover “digital arrest”...

Malaysia is tightening controls on high-risk hiking routes after officials linked a growing rescue burden to poor preparation, unauthorised trails and social media-driven summit attempts. The push is aimed partly at curbing gruelling “compressed hikes”, in which climbers try to complete long or technically demanding routes within a single day, often combining an ascent and descent that would usually be spread over a longer period. The Fire and Rescue Department recorded 52 cases involving 114...

The United States is pitching billions of dollars in investment to become Southeast Asia’s energy partner of choice, offering gas, grid technology and nuclear expertise as ongoing turmoil from the Iran war sharpens fears of future supply shocks. Analysts say the push serves American strategic and commercial interests – from opening markets for US liquefied natural gas to countering China’s dominance in big-ticket infrastructure – but also offers the region opportunity. Washington announced...

Indonesia’s attempt to lure back its native talent scattered around the world through limited dual citizenship has highlighted a long-held demand of the diaspora for such a scheme before they would consider returning home. The proposed revision to the citizenship law would mark a major shift for a country that has largely allowed only single citizenship since independence in 1945. Currently, children of mixed marriages can hold dual citizenship until they reach 18 years of age, when they are...

If South Korea wants to unlock access to South American trade, it will need to prove it is not a competitor interested only in extracting natural resources but a trustworthy partner committed to revitalising manufacturing industries, according to observers. On Monday, South Korean President Lee Jae Myung and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva agreed to revive negotiations on a free-trade agreement between South Korea and Mercosur, the South American trade bloc. A joint working group...

An American nuclear-powered aircraft carrier is set to dock in Da Nang this week, in a visit analysts say shows the durability of US-Vietnam relations despite trade tensions and global upheaval. The USS George Washington, a Nimitz-class carrier currently deployed with the US Navy’s Seventh Fleet out of Yokosuka, Japan, is expected to call at the central Vietnamese port from Thursday to Monday, though officials have yet to confirm the exact date. Its looming arrival “signals that engagement...

Singapore has signalled stability in the public housing market by scrapping a 15-month waiting period that barred private property owners from buying resale HDB flats – even as other curbs remain in place. National Development Minister Chee Hong Tat announced the change on Tuesday, saying the government recognised that the rule had caused inconvenience and disrupted the plans of those with genuine housing need who wanted to move from a private property into a Housing Development Board (HDB)...

Bangladesh’s fugitive ex-prime minister Sheikh Hasina said she was determined to return to her country by December despite fearing for her life. “I may be killed. I may be arrested. I may be sent to prison,” Hasina, 78, said in an email. “I am fully aware of my fate. Still, I want to go back because my people are calling me.” Toppled in August 2024 by a student-led uprising that ended her 15-year, iron-fisted rule, Hasina fled by helicopter to India as crowds stormed her palace. The United...

In an affluent neighbourhood in New Delhi, electric vehicle charging stations near a popular shopping area were busy with drivers powering up their scooters, trucks and cars. India’s capital city is in dire need of more charging facilities, EV drivers say, to implement an ambitious plan to phase out petrol vehicles in one of the world’s most polluted cities. “Charging facilities are not up to the mark yet,” said Shyam Singh, a marketing executive who owns a two-wheel electric scooter, adding...

Malaysia is finding it increasingly difficult to stay neutral in the US-China rivalry as the superpowers lock horns over trade, investment and the security of advanced technology, according to a top government adviser. “They don’t make us take sides when it comes to foreign policy,” Tengku Zafrul Aziz, senior political adviser to Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, told This Week in Asia. “They ask me to take sides when it comes to security of technology.” Malaysia’s solution was...

The UN’s migration agency is warning that criminal networks have been trafficking hundreds of thousands of people – many of them educated English speakers – to work in online scam centres, and the caseload is growing. The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) says victims are often lured by fake job advertisements – mostly through social media – promising work abroad, only to get locked up, have their identity documents seized, and be forced through violence, threats and “debt bondage”...

Soldiers and emergency workers combed through a badly damaged shopping centre and collapsed houses looking for trapped survivors on Wednesday after a powerful earthquake that killed at least 18 people in southwestern Japan. The magnitude 7.1 earthquake that hit a day earlier in the Kumamoto area on the southern main island of Kyushu, also left at least 62 people injured, six of them seriously, the prefectural government said. The tally has been steadily growing, fanning fears it may continue to...

The European Union’s upgraded partnership with the Philippines signals the bloc’s intent to diversify its Indo-Pacific strategy beyond trade and into the security arena. It shows Brussels is seeking a larger role in a region where maritime disputes and challenges to the rules-based order could threaten its interests, according to analysts. On Friday, Philippine Foreign Secretary Maria Theresa Lazaro and the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs and security policy Kaja Kallas, who is also...

Washington’s new AI Spark initiative to promote American artificial intelligence systems in Southeast Asia’s public services and digital infrastructure is seen as a move to counter the region’s deepening partnerships with Chinese firms in the deployment of the technology. However, the initiative is unlikely to force Southeast Asia to choose between AI Spark and the Chinese model, as the region is expected to integrate US know-how with Chinese and local systems to avoid dependence on any single...

Researchers in South Korea say they have finally worked out how the brain flushes away waste – offering a clearer picture of the processes involved in dementia and other brain disorders that could one day be harnessed to treat them. The breakthrough, published this month in journal Cell, solved a puzzle that has stumped scientists since lymphatic vessels around the brain were first discovered roughly 250 years ago: how does our body clear away the waste? An international team led by Dr Koh...

Back in 2009, when China’s economy was expanding at about twice today’s pace, a little-known private firm made a quiet bet on uncharted territory: Indonesia. The company was on a quest: to secure nickel, a vital industrial metal used in stainless steel production and, increasingly, to power advanced batteries. That bet proved lucrative. By leveraging Indonesia’s vast nickel reserves – the world’s largest – and securing greater control over upstream supplies, Tsingshan Group has grown into a...

Singapore’s economic growth should remain firm in the second half of 2026 although a major uncertainty is the sustainability of the AI investment boom, the head of its central bank said on Tuesday. Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) Managing Director Chia Der Jiun, speaking at the release ‌of the central bank’s annual report, said the Middle East conflict also posed risks, but for now global AI-related demand was “likely to continue to provide a meaningful boost” to the city state while other...

The struggle between the US and China over who will lead in artificial intelligence is one of the defining competitions of our time. In the third part of our exclusive interview with a key player defining Washington’s policy on AI, Jacob Helberg, US undersecretary of state for economic affairs, gives a commitment to the Philippines on the Pax Silica Initiative. Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr used his State of the Nation address in Manila on Monday to staunchly defend a proposed...

Malaysian ⁠police have raided 32 premises ⁠hosting online scam activities in Forest City in the state of Johor, arresting 335 people and seizing assets worth about 1 million ringgit (US$245,000), according to the state police chief. The operation was carried out on ‌July 15, targeting two areas that had been identified as hubs for call centres running online fraud activities, Johor police chief Ab Rahaman Arsad said in a video posted on Facebook on Tuesday. Those arrested were aged between 20...

India’s latest youth protests began after examination papers were leaked. They could ultimately be seen as a referendum on the country’s development model. The immediate trigger was the controversy around the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET), India’s highly competitive medical entrance exam. Evidence surfaced that examination papers had been leaked and sold. This scandal affected millions of candidates, leading to retests and the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan...

In Orwellian totalitarianism, two plus two can equal five. But with American hegemony, things can be A and not A at the same time. Earlier this month, Washington declared war on the International Criminal Court (ICC), whose very existence, it claims, poses an “intolerable” challenge to America’s sovereignty. But, citing an international maritime law, it also led a coalition of 14 mainly Western countries in issuing a joint statement in support of a 10-year-old South China Sea arbitration ruling...

A running club in Bali’s expatriate hub of Canggu has become the latest flashpoint in an enduring debate over whether Indonesians are being sidelined in parts of their own country. Indonesian immigration authorities have blacklisted two Dutch nationals linked to Entourage running club after an online outcry over the alleged exclusion of locals from the popular group. The incident echoes long-standing concerns about discrimination against Indonesians on the resort island. The furore has also...

The sudden resignation of Bank Indonesia’s governor highlights a dilemma that he and his central bank peers in the region have faced in calibrating interest rates – either tighten policy to defend weakening currencies and contain inflation, or loosen it to support pro-growth mandates – according to analysts. Perry Warjiyo’s exit has fuelled speculation that he was under pressure to do more to support President Prabowo Subianto’s economic growth agenda. Warjiyo, who led the Indonesian central...

A major Malaysian blockchain conference has dropped Siew Pui Yi, an influencer previously known for adult content, as the headline DJ for its official after-party after the country’s digital economy agency withdrew support. The uproar tapped into a familiar cultural fault line in Muslim-majority Malaysia, putting the country’s push to promote itself as a regional technology and crypto hub in tension with conservative scrutiny of sexualised entertainment and provocative imagery. Malaysia...

The Philippines is targeting to recruit more coders, engineers and cybersecurity specialists into the military, as Manila confronts a battlefield increasingly shaped by software, networks and artificial intelligence. Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jnr on Saturday ordered the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to expand a programme that allows civilian professionals with specialised skills, such as scientists, engineers, doctors and lawyers, to join the military as commissioned officers...

Malaysia’s Negeri Sembilan state heads to the polls on Saturday, but a growing portion of its young workers – and their votes – are based elsewhere. Leaving home was never Ammar Idlan Hassan’s long-term plan, but better pay and stronger career prospects eventually drew the 27-year-old project engineer away from Seremban, the state capital. He now lives in Gelang Patah, a border town in Johor, from which he commutes to Singapore for work. “The pay is the most obvious reason for the majority of us...

A 7.1-magnitude earthquake shook Japan’s southern main island of Kyushu on Tuesday, leaving several people dead and dozens of others injured or missing after part of a shopping centre and a huge chimney at a paper factory collapsed, officials said. A tsunami advisory was issued but quickly lifted. At least five people, including two who were found without vital signs at the mall late on Tuesday, were confirmed dead, and about 30 others were injured across the Kagoshima prefecture, the Fire and...