Asia

India’s decision to resume tourist visas for Bangladeshi nationals marks the clearest sign yet of a thaw in strained ties, but analysts say the real test will be whether trade links can be rebuilt while Dhaka courts Chinese investment near India’s sensitive eastern flank. India began accepting tourist visa applications from Bangladeshis on Sunday, nearly two years after services were suspended amid the fallout from violent protests that forced former Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina from...

Washington has recently approved a proposed US$22.3 million sale of additional Hellfire missiles to Singapore, with the US State Department declaring that the transfer and associated arms support “will not alter the basic military balance in the region”. While observers say the sale is a routine purchase by the city state for training and to replenish an advanced arsenal, America’s language on the move signals a broader strategy to strengthen a network of US allies and partners while avoiding...

Johor’s caretaker chief minister Onn Hafiz Ghazi has criticised Malaysia’s federal government for delays in the launch of the Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone (JS-SEZ) master plan, arguing that it is needed to sustain the initiative’s momentum. In response, Economic Minister Akmal Nasir, who oversees the project at the federal level, has maintained that the government remains committed to the project’s success and the delays have not affected the JS-SEZ as investor numbers have remained...

A corruption investigation into Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto’s flagship free meals programme has widened after prosecutors named an active police brigadier general as a suspect and referred a case involving a military officer to the country’s military crimes unit. The Attorney General’s Office (AGO) on Thursday identified Lalu Muhammad Iwan Mahardan, a police brigadier general who serves as deputy secretary for promotion and cooperation at the National Nutrition Agency, as the seventh...

Following a surge in bear attacks in Japan, people are arming themselves with sprays while authorities have started installing cameras in mountainous areas in the north to monitor the animals. However, a recent effort to stay safe backfired, resulting in five people injured – not by bears but by the spray after it was accidentally discharged in a post office in Nagoya on Wednesday. Vietnamese national Huynh Nhat Duy, 22, was arrested on Thursday on suspicion of obstruction of business for his...

Like plenty of local boys before him, Neil has come home to the stretch of Australian coast where he was born. Unlike most of them, he trails fame, fans and property damage in his wake. He is also a 1,000 kg (2,200lb) elephant seal. In June, the bellowing and blubbery five-year-old mammal hauled himself onto land for his twice-yearly tour of beachside towns in southern Tasmania state after months of feeding at sea. That is posing problems now that he weighs as much as a small car and has a...

Indonesia has intensified supervision of digital nomads, lifestyle influencers and travel content creators on the resort island of Bali, warning that even unpaid barter deals with local businesses would be classified as illegal work if they visit the country on tourist visas. For years, the Hindu island has been popular among players of the aesthetic economy, thanks to its beaches, unique rituals and lavish resorts. Indonesian businesses also collaborate with foreign content creators, who...

Singapore would be opening selected sectors and occupations to workers from East Timor next year, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong announced on Friday. “This will create new opportunities for Timorese while strengthening our business and people-to-people links,” Wong said at a joint press conference with East Timor Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao in Dili. The visit, the first by a Singapore prime minister, comes a year after East Timor became a full Asean member. Wong laid out several areas where the...

Singapore is banking on lavish beachfronts, canopy walks, a transformed port and even water taxis to upgrade its holiday island, Sentosa, into a major tourism draw over the next two decades – but observers say the challenge will be making it distinctive. On Friday, the Sentosa Development Corporation (SDC) unveiled plans to rejuvenate the 5 sq km (1.9 square-mile) resort and theme park island, which is a 10-minute monorail ride from mainland Singapore and is also accessible by car or bus via a...

Australia forecasts a A$38 billion (US$26 billion) lift in its export income as commodity and energy prices rise because of the war in Iran. The nation’s resources exports are set to rise almost 3 per cent to A$416 billion in the financial year through June 2027, the Department of Industry, Science and Resources said in its latest resources and energy quarterly on Friday. The extra earnings assume trade is disrupted until end-June 2026, with a further A$7 billion windfall possible if that...

When the ground shook off Iwate prefecture at 9pm on Wednesday, the magnitude 6.0 jolt – the latest in a series of sizeable tremors – barely registered in a country still mopping up after two powerful typhoons and bracing for a fresh bout of torrential rain and landslides. Natural disasters have long been a fact of life in Japan, where schoolchildren rehearse earthquake evacuations the way other nations hold fire drills. Every September 1, in a ritual as much of collective memory as civil...

Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi arrived in India this week seeking a deeper economic and security partnership, but analysts say the bigger question is how far New Delhi is prepared to align with Tokyo’s China-focused Indo-Pacific strategy. Takaichi held talks with her Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, in Delhi on Thursday, with economic security, strategic cooperation and collaboration on innovative technologies high on the agenda. Analysts suggest the overarching aim of the three-day...

Rebels in Indonesia’s restive easternmost region of Papua on Thursday shot ⁠dead an American pilot and ⁠set a civilian plane on fire in ⁠what a spokesperson for a local separatist group described as a “message” to the US and Indonesian governments. A low-level battle for independence from Indonesia has long raged in the resource-rich western half of Papua, where attacks by independence fighters have grown deadlier and more ‌frequent as they have procured better weaponry. Sebby Sambom, a...

A deadly school shooting in the central Philippines has prompted warnings from lawmakers and cybersecurity experts that violent online extremist networks may be approaching Filipino children through gaming platforms and chat groups. At a Senate hearing on Wednesday, Philippine Senator Risa Hontiveros said there were signs that the perpetrators behind a deadly school shooting in Tacloban City might have been influenced by 764, a nihilistic violent extremist network accused of targeting vulnerable...

Knife-edge state polls in Johor and Negeri Sembilan may reconfigure Malaysian politics, as a regrouped Malay nationalist right seeks big wins to pressure Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim into calling an early election. Barisan Nasional (BN), the Malay-led bloc, is going head-to-head against Anwar’s Pakatan Harapan (PH) in the ballots to be held this month and next, in a move by a key government coalition member that could destabilise the prime minister’s fragile administration from within. Analysts...

Thailand’s foreign ministry denied on Thursday that French President Emmanuel Macron knelt before the country’s king during his state visit to Paris this week, after an AI-generated picture circulated online. King Maha Vajiralongkorn and Queen Suthida’s trip was the first official visit by a Thai monarch to France since 1960, marking the 170th anniversary of formal diplomatic relations between the two nations. During a state dinner at the presidential palace, Macron presented the 73-year-old...

Every year, farmers in India burn millions of tonnes of stalks, husks and other plant matter left after each harvest, a practice that has long contributed to South Asia’s toxic winter smog. But that agricultural waste – known as crop residue – could instead become a feedstock for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) for airlines around the world, according to a new study. SAF is a low-carbon alternative to conventional jet fuel, blending aviation turbine fuel with sustainably sourced raw...

Eight Buddhist monks died in northeastern Thailand on Thursday – and over a dozen more were injured – after an 11-year-old boy driving his parents’ truck crashed into pilgrims walking along a deserted rural road. Images of the devastation, shared across social media, showed the bodies of orange-robed monks lying on the road with their alms bowls strewn across the accident site in Mukdahan province, about 600km northeast of Bangkok. Five monks were killed at the roadside while three others died...

A young couple in Indonesia’s conservative Aceh province were publicly caned on Thursday after an Islamic sharia court convicted them of violating Islamic law by kissing during a TikTok live stream. Aceh’s sharia court ordered the two people to be whipped with a rattan cane 21 times each for kissing without being married. At least 100 people witnessed the caning, carried out by a group of people wearing robes and hoods on a stage in Bustanussalatin City Park in Banda Aceh. The couple, a...

Indonesia’s former president Joko Widodo has begun a nationwide tour that analysts say is aimed at transforming his youngest son’s small political party into a major force before the 2029 elections. Widodo kicked off the tour in Lampung on Friday, using the visit to appear alongside Indonesian Solidarity Party (PSI) officials and accept a local royal title, signalling that he remains a force in Indonesian politics even after leaving office. He appeared dressed in the colours of PSI – a...

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 highlights deepening ties at a time when Ottawa is seeking to court middle powers and establish its presence 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 an effort to strengthen cooperation on trade, labour, energy and tourism, and enhance defence and maritime ties. He is also slated to meet Canadian business leaders and...

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 whose arm was broken at an immigration facility has intensified scrutiny of the country’s detention system, with rights experts warning that 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 in...

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...