Asia

Despite ⁠tens of thousands of security personnel deployed to stop them, youth protesters in India scaled barricades last ⁠week, chanted anti-government slogans and scuffled with police officers trying to drag them away. “Long live the revolution,” shouted one young man before police bundled him into a bus. Street protests in India this year are likely to be higher than at any time in the past decade, the independent Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project has said, as dissent mounts...

Ongoing fires in Indonesia that have blanketed parts of Southeast Asia with toxic haze have triggered the highest-level alert by the regional bloc’s climate and fire monitor. “Activation of Alert Level 3 for the Southern Asean region,” the Singapore Asean Specialised Meteorological Centre (ASMC) said on its website, seen on Saturday. Based near Singapore’s Changi Airport, the ASMC uses a four-tiered alert level system, from zero to three, with the highest triggered if there is a “high risk of...

Japan has long established itself as a pioneer of mediation in Southeast Asia. In 1990, for example, its officials helped broker talks between Cambodia’s warring factions, supplementing international efforts to end conflict in the country. Now, Tokyo is seeking to upgrade its diplomatic toolkit. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ International Peace Mediation Unit was set up in March, followed by the launch of the Parliamentary Association for Peace Mediation in May. Around the same time, the...

Former Malaysian minister Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad has confirmed that he was one of two individuals detained by the Selangor Islamic Religious Department (Jais) over an alleged khalwat case. Nik Nazmi, who helms Parti Bersama Malaysia, said he was at a residence in Petaling Jaya on Thursday with a woman after they decided to continue a discussion about a project there. “We had initially started the discussion with friends at a studio in Brickfields, Kuala Lumpur, before moving to Petaling Jaya to...

Taylor Swift and Lady Gaga each chose Singapore as their only Southeast Asian stop on recent world tours. Fellow American singer Olivia Rodrigo played Thailand and the Philippines, but likewise skipped Indonesia. Next weekend, however, Jakarta is finally getting the big international headline act it has been craving – in the form of Ye. The controversial American rapper, formerly known as Kanye West, is set to play Indonesia’s capital next Saturday, marking the only Southeast Asian appearance on...

Coconut farmer Sombat Chuekrod travelled more than 200km (120 miles) to join hundreds on the streets of Bangkok on Friday demanding that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank change how they deal with the developing world. Finance ministers, central bank governors and other top policymakers gathered this week in the Thai capital for the IMF-World Bank Annual Meetings, as decision makers tackle an inflation crisis fuelled by the Iran war and other economic shocks. The message from...

Airline employees in Japan are experiencing a surge in abuse incidents from customers linked to delays or cancellations of flights or from being refused boarding due to late check-in, according to a survey. Some 30 per cent of ground staff or cabin crew reported bearing the brunt of passengers’ anger over such matters in the past year, according to the survey by the Japan Federation of Aviation Industry Unions released last month, rising from 7 per cent in its previous survey in 2023. In...

China and the Philippines recently traded accusations over the medical evacuation of a Philippine serviceman from a grounded naval vessel in the hotly disputed Second Thomas Shoal in the South China Sea. The incident has sparked renewed worries about potential armed skirmishes in a global artery of trade. But Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr was also quick to emphasise the economic dimensions of a major conflict. After a decade of rapid economic growth, the Philippines is facing...

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi on Saturday sent a ritual offering to Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, regarded by Japan’s neighbours as a symbol of the country’s past militarism, at the start of its three-day autumn festival. Takaichi, known as a conservative who routinely visited the Shinto shrine before becoming prime minister a year ago, was unlikely to visit the shrine during the festival, a source close to her said, amid strained relations with China and relatively stable ties with South Korea. The...

In hindsight, it was only a matter of time before Esha Yusof joined the growing ranks of Malaysian shoppers being drawn to Chinese e-commerce giant Pinduoduo. Esha is a relative newcomer. She signed up in July, more than half a year after the platform launched in Malaysia – and has been smitten with it ever since. Rock-bottom prices, a vast range of products and seamless payments through a popular local e-wallet make it easy for the 32-year-old to spend an average of 500 ringgit (US$122) a month...

⁠North Korea conducted an underwater ⁠test of a new torpedo weapon system on Thursday to verify technological upgrades, state news agency KCNA reported on Saturday, describing the test as a success and a significant step in ‌the country’s naval development. The test verified propulsion technology developed through more than 180 tests over the past five years, KCNA said, adding that artificial intelligence was used for target detection and guidance in the new high-speed precision-guided...

Police detained India’s ‘cockroach’ movement founder Abhijeet Dipke on Friday, student leaders and supporters on Friday as hundreds poured into central Delhi, waving the national flag and demanding the resignation of India’s election chief. The youth-led ‘Cockroach Janta Party’ (CJP), opposition groups and student organisations have held almost daily protests this month demanding Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation over a revision of voter lists that critics ⁠say favours...

Singapore has identified seven companies it says were involved in wildfires in Indonesia that are choking the city state with haze, and plans to issue notices requiring them to take preventive measures, the Business Times reported. The companies will receive notices under the Transboundary Haze Pollution Act requiring them to stop or refrain from burning and submit plans to prevent a recurrence, the newspaper reported, citing Sustainability and the Environment Minister Grace Fu at a Friday press...

A Malaysian ruler known for being reserved has publicly berated his chief minister over efforts to unseat him, telling the politician to “go away” and withdraw his claim that the monarch no longer holds the throne. Negeri Sembilan, south of Kuala Lumpur, has been caught in a dispute since April over who is its rightful ruler, bringing down one state government aligned with Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s ruling Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition and leaving its newly appointed chief minister without...

Digangana Mukherjee, a mother of a six-year-old girl and a 10-year-old boy, has banned television at her home in the Indian city of Mysore because she does not want her children to become addicted to watching content on screen. A year ago, when her son’s school started using a smart classroom board that streamed online content, she and her husband decided to enrol him in a school where teachers used chalk on a slate board, and the pace of lessons was slower. Now, she is happy that the Indian...

Indonesia has spent months trying to persuade investors that its economy is on the right course. A weakening rupiah, mounting budgetary pressures and a series of contentious policy decisions have made that task harder. Doubts about the management of Southeast Asia’s largest economy have now coalesced around its central bank, whose independence has come under intense scrutiny recently as President Prabowo Subianto seeks to steer economic policy. The appointment of Destry Damayanti – initially as...

Authorities in Thailand have uncovered an audacious scheme involving hundreds of metres of internet cable sent over the Thai border to keep a suspected Myanmar scam compound online, after finding two ramshackle village homes using enough daily bandwidth to power an entire village. Officers raided the homes in Nong Lu, a Thai border village in Kanchanaburi province, which is the gateway to the Three Pagodas Pass in Myanmar – now a notorious hub for cyber scammers. Many scam centre leaders have...

Okinawa Governor Genta Koja said on Friday he accepts the deployment of US military MV-22 Osprey transport aircraft at the Futenma air station, reversing the southern Japan prefecture’s long-standing opposition to their presence. Previous prefectural governments, under governors critical of US bases, had opposed the deployment of the tilt-rotor aircraft since before they were first stationed at the base in 2012, citing safety concerns. Koja assumed the post of Okinawa governor late last...

The exercise reflects two trends: the Indian military’s deepening interoperability with key partner nations, and India’s multi-vector foreign policy.

Salon manager Alice Pang says her 10-year-old daughter has likened the visibility inside her classroom in Singapore to Malaysia’s Genting Highlands, but while the mountain resort is often shrouded in fog caused by water particles, her child’s active imagination may have been triggered by worsening haze plaguing the city state. Pang told This Week in Asia that her daughter, whose classroom did not have air conditioning, was already suffering from bad sinus, and the haze had made her eyes...

The governor of an Indonesian province bearing the brunt of weeks of raging forest fires has sought to douse anger over his trip to Singapore, as Jakarta “welcomed” help from its neighbours choked by transboundary haze to contain the crisis. East Kalimantan Governor Rudy Mas’ud, who was spotted having breakfast with his wife at the famous integrated resort Marina Bay Sands in a photo posted online on Sunday, said he travelled to the city state for a medical check-up. Rudy’s clarification came...

Malaysia has ruled out taking stronger measures against Indonesia over the worsening regional haze, even as widespread school closures and mounting public frustration fuel calls to punish those responsible for forest fires in the neighbouring country. “We need to safeguard the close relationship between the two countries. So, we are not going as far as sending a diplomatic note or taking legal action,” Foreign Minister Mohamad Hasan told local media on Thursday. Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said...

Indonesian officials, looking to alleviate poverty in their country and eyeing the rise of rural economies in China, are turning to Beijing for help that may include stoking the exports of a potentially lucrative durian crop. Indonesian Transmigration Minister Muhammad Iftitah Sulaiman Suryanagara began a seven-day visit to China on Monday, with Indonesia’s state-owned Antara news agency saying consultations with Beijing’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, companies and academic...

As the Philippines braces for months of drought and shortages amid the deleterious effects of El Nino, questions are mounting over whether it could have been better prepared to deal with a crisis that had been predicted well in advance. The government’s haphazard response to the climate phenomenon reflects its persistent track record of failing to adequately plan, according to climate and risk specialists. El Nino is a weather phenomenon that triggers changes in winds and rainfall patterns,...

The creation of the body, which comes ahead of next month's ASEAN Summit in Manila, is intended to “regain the country’s original role and rights” in the bloc.

South Korea’s long-standing alliance with America is being tested by feuds spanning from investment deals to intelligence leaks, compromising Seoul’s ability to respond to North Korea. In a rare admission, Seoul’s top envoy to the US on Monday acknowledged an “issue” with Washington’s sharing of covert data. “There are limitations in our communication with the White House,” Kang Kyung-wha told lawmakers. “I find it somewhat frustrating.” That follows reports earlier this year that a South Korean...

North Korea’s apparent use of different launch methods to fire two types of cruise missiles from a tactical nuclear-capable submarine raises fresh questions about the operational readiness of its growing undersea arsenal, observers have said. The North’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said on Thursday the country had “test-fired two types of submarine-launched strategic cruise missiles” off its eastern coast. The tests “contributed to inspecting the regular mobilisation readiness of...

The move comes amid growing scrutiny of Jakarta's response to the forest and peatland fires that have drastically reduced air quality across the region.

Talk of global decoupling from China has persisted for years, as has speculation that emerging economies such as India and Vietnam could soon replace it as the “world’s factory”. But for Indian hardware engineer Neeraj Arora, the growth of India’s electronics manufacturing industry has not eliminated the need to source components from China. Instead, it has changed the nature of those imports. A decade ago, Arora imported finished phone chargers from the world’s second-largest economy. Today,...

Imported by international donors in the 1990s, NGOs have supplanted rather than strengthened local forms of political organizing.