Asia

Pakistan’s foreign minister said a new defence agreement his country signed with Saudi Arabia and Turkey was not directed against any country and remained open to other nations in the region. The landmark Mecca Joint Defence Agreement was signed on Friday by the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif as the three countries seek to deepen security cooperation amid heightened tensions between the United States and...

Indonesia’s faster-than-expected economic growth in the second quarter has offered a ray of hope for a sustainable turnaround after months of negative news over the rupiah, investor confidence and global uncertainties. Analysts, however, urged caution about the country’s economic outlook in the coming quarters, saying the latest data also revealed uneven sectoral performance and a reliance on government spending. Southeast Asia’s largest economy grew 5.29 per cent year on year in the April-June...

As China seeks to reshape the global order, Malaysia’s political instability offers a cautionary tale about the challenges Beijing may face abroad. A recent Pew Research Centre survey found that global perceptions of China have improved relative to those of the US, driven partly by the view among some respondents that China under President Xi Jinping is more reliable than a US led by President Donald Trump. As Washington retreats from global leadership roles, Beijing has sought to present itself...

The Thai teen behind a deadly school shooting outside Bangkok had an air gun confiscated by a teacher last year and had watched violent content online, police said on Sunday, as the government ‌promised new safety protocols for schools. As investigations continued into Friday’s rampage, where a 14-year-old boy allegedly shot dead his grandparents at home before killing another six people at his school before turning the gun on himself, police said the boy had used social media to learn how to...

India’s aviation ministry said Sunday that an Air India pilot whose flight plunged dramatically in turbulence, injuring 17 passengers and crew is undergoing a “confirmatory” psychoactive drug test. The Airbus A320, carrying 137 passengers and eight crew, lost around 300 feet (91 metres) on August 4 while flying from Phuket in Thailand to New Delhi, before stabilising and landing safely, the civil aviation ministry said. Eight passengers and four cabin crew members were admitted to hospitals...

Japan’s 610-page 2026 defence white paper cements a strategic shift: Tokyo has labelled China an “unprecedented and the greatest strategic challenge” for the fourth straight year, a framing dating back to 2014, when a Japanese white paper first flagged Beijing’s East China Sea Air Defence Identification Zone as risking unintended incidents. Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has not altered this trajectory, only accelerated it. This strategic timing aligns with Beijing’s calculus. Even as US...

Myanmar’s military-backed government has rejected the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ renewed call for the unconditional release of detained former leader Aung San Suu Kyi and dismissed the need for the organisation’s special envoy on Myanmar, according to the foreign affairs ministry. President Min Aung Hlaing, the former army chief who had originally seized power in 2021 from Suu Kyi’s civilian government, has been trying to win political legitimacy since the takeover and resume...

A defence pact among Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan appears to be aimed at deterring Iran and Israel from tearing up the Middle East with their conflict amid Washington’s inability to guarantee regional security, observers say. Under the terms of the deal signed on Friday in Mecca by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, an armed attack against any one of the three states “shall be regarded as an attack...

The Maldives recently called to revive a South Asian grouping, which has been suspended for over a decade. But given the tensions between two of the most influential countries in that region – India and Pakistan – that request is likely to go unheeded, according to observers. Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu said on July 26 that his country was ready to help resume the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) meetings. The last one was held 12 years ago. Describing the bloc as...

Safety regulators launched an investigation on Sunday into a “near collision” between two passenger aircraft at Australia’s busiest airport that injured a crew member. The incident, which involved a Jetstar pilot being forced to apply sudden brakes to avoid crashing into a Qatar Airways jet on Sunday morning, disrupted operations at Sydney airport. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) said a Jetstar Airbus A320 was taxiing for a flight to the Gold Coast on Sunday morning when its crew...

Vietnam’s seafood and garment sectors are facing a labour shortfall even with raised wages, as Hanoi expands a drive to send more workers overseas for higher-paying jobs. The contradiction reflects a broader challenge for the Southeast Asian country as it pushes to move up the value chain while banking on labour migration to generate remittance revenue, analysts say. According to the home ministry, between 130,000 and 150,000 Vietnamese go abroad to work annually. The overseas labour market...

When a shot rang out at the Debsirin Nonthaburi School on the outskirts of Bangkok on Friday morning, 14-year-old Khim and her classmates peered over a balcony to see if the noise had come from a construction site. But more loud bangs followed, until a teacher ushered them all into a classroom, checked a messaging group and confirmed to the now terrified students: there was an active shooter in their building. “I heard multiple gunshots and felt like ‌we weren’t going to survive,” Khim, who...

Young Malaysians are reporting worsening illnesses, heat-related health problems and disruptions to basic services as climate change intensifies, raising questions over whether the country’s adaptation policies can protect future generations. Unicef Malaysia’s National Youth Climate Change Survey 2025, released in July, found that climate change was no longer only an environmental challenge but an immediate public health and economic issue. The survey gathered responses from 1,420 young people...

Last month, as thousands of young Indians led by a group calling itself the Cockroach Janta Party, marched towards Parliament in New Delhi, they were met with tear gas and struck with batons by the police. It appeared that India’s moment in South Asia’s Gen Z revolution had finally arrived. As one journalist observed, for the first time since 2014 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi took office, fear had “switched sides”. The protests began over paper leaks that resulted in the cancellation of the...

A girl died from critical wounds Saturday after a pupil opened fire at a secondary school and his home outside Bangkok the day before, bringing the death toll from the attack to nine people. The 14-year-old opened fire at around 10am on Friday at Debsirin Nonthaburi School in Nonthaburi province northwest of the Thai capital before apparently taking his own life. He also appeared to have killed his two grandparents at his family home earlier in the morning, officials said. The girl, 12, died...

The world might be dividing into rival camps and competing trade blocs, but international capital flows remain footloose and fancy free. In so doing, they pose a threat to what remains of stability in the real economy. A good example of this growing potential for international contagion is the influence of the weak yen on global stock prices. The Japanese currency is expected to remain weak for the foreseeable future – despite recent official intervention in foreign exchange markets by Japan and...

South Korea’s national football association apologised on Saturday ⁠after a media report ⁠alleged it had provided “sexual services” ⁠to foreign referees when they were in the country for international matches more than a decade ago. South Korean broadcaster JTBC reported on Thursday that the Korea Football Association (KFA) had provided such services to foreign referees on ‌multiple occasions in 2011 and 2012, including when they were in the country for qualifying matches for the 2014 World Cup...

India’s first test of its Kusha long-range surface-to-air missile system is seen as a milestone that could pave the way for New Delhi to bolster its home-grown air defence network and meet the challenges of future conflicts. Developed by the state-run Defence Research and Development Organisation, the system is expected to become a key part of the two-phase Mission Sudarshan Chakra, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s plan for a multilayered national defence umbrella against ballistic missiles,...

In recent years, Thailand’s capital has discovered a surprising new attraction to add to its temples, shopping malls and street food: urban greenery. Unlike the others, which took decades to develop, Bangkok’s green credentials are a more recent phenomenon, emerging only during the Covid-19 pandemic. Despite their novelty, the city’s greening efforts are already bearing fruit. Visitors returning to Bangkok after the pandemic are often surprised by how green and walkable the city has become. It...

Thailand launched its Siam Silica framework last week, a national road map that stamps the Southeast Asian country’s stake in the semiconductor race by building a domestic ecosystem and positioning it as a key hub within an integrated supply chain among Asean member states. However, analysts say that the country will have much ground to cover as it trails behind neighbours Malaysia and Singapore. At the unveiling by the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation (MHESI) on...

When Malaysian artist Darwisy Mustafani received a commission to paint the country’s king and queen, he did not reach for an ordinary canvas. Instead, the 25-year-old from the northeastern city of Kota Bharu transformed songket – the lustrous handwoven fabric once reserved for Malay courts and ceremonial dress – into a portrait of the sultan and his wife before a golden-domed palace. The portrait, commissioned in 2024 by Malaysia’s police force as a gift for Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar and Queen...

Kim Ji-soo wrapped up a visit to the coastal city of Qingdao in northern China just last weekend, but she is already contemplating where she will go on her next visit. “It seemed affordable, nearby and I wanted to visit a new city,” said the 57-year-old Seoul resident, who had been to Beijing before. “I enjoyed the food and the vast space the most,” Kim said, adding that the city’s bustling energy – which she attributed in part to the number of newborns and young children with their parents –...

The revelation that an alleged Malaysian scam kingpin was released after paying 10 million ringgit (US$2.4 million) fine has sparked public outrage over claims of preferential treatment for a man at the centre of a controversial photo-op with Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim. Liow Soon Hee – better known as Nicky Liow – was cleared of all 26 money-laundering charges involving more than 36 million ringgit, the country’s top prosecutor said on Friday. Authorities earlier believed he led a multimillion...

Rina left Myanmar shortly after the 2021 coup as military violence escalated against pro-democracy protesters like herself and the economy of her country, once a Southeast Asian frontier that had flickered with promise, ground to a virtual halt. Now in Bangkok, the 21-year-old has found work in a cafe, a regular, albeit low-salaried income, the minimum required by the millions of her age group forced to survive outside a domestic economy in ruins, where civil war has killed an estimated 100,000...

The release of Spider-Man: Brand New Day in the Philippines was supposed to be a shared cinematic moment for fans who had waited months for the latest instalment in the superhero franchise. But for some deaf viewers, the experience was defined less by the action on screen than by what was missing: subtitles or captions that would allow them to follow the dialogue. That frustration, captured in a viral Facebook post, has pointed to a wider accessibility gap in the country, where advocates say...

The Philippines is seeking to move its South China Sea row with Beijing into classrooms, a push that analysts say could shape how young Filipinos understand the country’s maritime claims while raising questions over potentially blurred lines between education and state narrative-building. Congressmen in the House of Representatives introduced legislation on Thursday requiring the Department of Education and the Commission on Higher Education to develop standardised teaching materials on the...

Nurul Izzah Anwar, the daughter of Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, has stepped back from the deputy presidency of his ruling People’s Justice Party (PKR), raising questions over his ability to hold together the political movement he built after a bruising run of electoral setbacks and defections by former allies. PKR’s leadership has sought to frame the move by Nurul Izzah, one of the party’s most recognisable reformist figures, not as a resignation but as a temporary break – exposing...

South Korea’s football governing body is facing further pressure after allegations emerged that it arranged sexual services for foreign referees in 2011 and 2012 in an apparent effort to influence officiating. The allegations centre on confidential audit documents prepared by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism in 2016, according to a report by South Korean broadcaster JTBC. The report quoted a former Korea Football Association (KFA) official as saying the association sought to have...

Malaysia Aviation Group (MAG) said on ⁠Friday it has ⁠ordered mandatory drug testing ⁠and will conduct stricter screening for all pilots across its airlines, following the arrest of a Malaysia Airlines pilot for alleged trafficking in Indonesia last month. The unidentified pilot, 39, was detained ‌on July 28 after authorities found 26kg (57lbs) of the mind-altering drug MDMA in his luggage upon his arrival in Jakarta from Kuala Lumpur. Urine tests also showed the Malaysian Airlines pilot had...

A Malaysian court on Friday deferred charges against former prime minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob, who could not attend his hearing in a multimillion-dollar corruption investigation after being admitted to hospital for a heart condition. Ismail Sabri, 66, has faced corruption accusations following the arrests of a senior aide and several others last February over alleged abuse of power and money laundering. Police also seized about 170 million ringgit (US$41.5 million) in cash held under different...