Asia

Transnational drug syndicates in the Philippines continue to thrive despite decades of crackdowns targeting street-level dealers, with analysts warning that regional suppliers, financiers and trafficking networks have largely eluded enforcement efforts. Former drug officials and security analysts say the country’s drug trade remains closely connected to a wider regional supply chain, with criminal groups relying on local partners, maritime routes and established distribution networks to move...

In recent weeks, Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi has frequently taken to the streets – joining protest marches, staging sit-ins at police stations and confronting authorities over alleged abuses of power and corruption. Often trading the formal attire traditionally worn by India’s political elite for a T-shirt and jeans, Gandhi’s high-visibility participation in grass-roots demonstrations has drawn wide attention as he seeks to place himself at the forefront of a growing movement of...

South Korea will file criminal complaints against students caught cheating on a national university entrance exam with smart glasses and toughen penalties for their use, a government official has said. Sales of smart glasses – which allow the wearer to shoot photos and videos and interact with an AI assistant among other abilities – are growing worldwide. But so is a backlash around the gadgets, including concerns over people being filmed without consent and their use by exam cheats. South...

Indonesia is looking beyond Singapore for petrol supplies as it seeks to reduce its dependence on a single source, but analysts say diversifying imports will do little to address the country’s fuel production shortfall without faster refinery modernisation and investment in alternative fuels. Indonesia has long sourced petroleum products from Singapore, including RON 90 petrol, which has a minimum octane rating of 90 and is marketed domestically as Pertalite. Singapore’s geographic proximity,...

Recent school attacks across Malaysia have shone a light on a troubling trend of teenagers joining an online subculture that glamorises real-life killers, according to a prominent security analyst. Three violent incidents in Malaysian schools – in Kuching on October 21, Banting in July and Bandar Utama in October last year – could be linked to the True Crime Community (TCC), said Munira Mustaffa, founder of Kuala Lumpur-based security consulting firm Chasseur Group. In the Kuching case, the...

Malaysia received its first South Korean-made light combat jet on Friday under a nearly 4 billion ringgit (US$990 million) procurement, in what analysts describe as welcome relief for an ageing air force still years away from replacing its frontline fighters. The FA-50M Block 20 jet arrived at the air force base in Labuan, off Borneo, with a second expected in Kuantan on the peninsula’s east coast next Monday. They are the first of 18 aircraft ordered from Korea Aerospace Industries under a deal...

Pollution from smoke emitted by months of wildfires across Indonesia caused an estimated 3,560 deaths in the vast Southeast Asian archipelago in September, according to a new study. The same month, about 57.8 million people in Indonesia were inhaling unhealthy to hazardous air, said the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), a Helsinki-based think tank. “Worsening air quality due to forest and land fires in Indonesia pushed the estimated death toll to 3,560 cases in September 2026,...

Seven members have been selected for a specialist panel that will assess companies identified by the Singapore government over potential links to transboundary haze, the Ministry of Law (MinLaw) and National Environment Agency (NEA) said on Friday. Three are investigation firms: Control Risks Group, FTI Consulting (Singapore) and Kroll Singapore. The remaining four are law firms or legal advisers: Dentons Rodyk & Davidson, Toby Landau, King’s Counsel of Duxton Hill Chambers, TSMP Law Corporation...

The number of Malaysians detained overseas for drug-related offences increased to 1,588 as of September this year, according to Deputy Foreign Minister Lukanisman Awang Sauni. Lukanisman said the five countries with the highest numbers of Malaysians detained were Indonesia (381), China (380), Singapore (310), Thailand (102) and Japan (72). He said increasingly sophisticated drug-smuggling methods had contributed to the frequent arrests of Malaysians overseas. “A total of 1,181 Malaysians were...

Australian mushroom murderer Erin Patterson lost a bid to overturn her convictions and had a harsher sentence imposed on Friday, failing to prove she was wrongfully jailed for killing three people with a poisoned lunch. Patterson was found guilty last year of murdering her husband’s parents and elderly aunt, deliberately lacing their beef Wellington meal with highly toxic death cap mushrooms. The 52-year-old maintained her triple murder convictions were a “miscarriage of justice”, urging the...

While many parents still question whether to give their children access to artificial intelligence, Malaysian tech worker Pravin Ganesan has embraced it to solve a very practical problem: helping his eight-year-old daughter with homework he sometimes struggles to explain. Pravin, 42, taught her a few basic prompts and checked the answers closely, finding that generative AI is particularly good at breaking down difficult concepts into child-friendly terms. “It has helped her learn and understand...

Thailand’s government said on Thursday it had revoked the citizenship of a prominent head rabbi who was a naturalised Thai, as the country tightens enforcement of its immigration laws. Rabbi Yosef Chaim Kantor’s Thai citizenship was stripped over his repeated use of his US passport after naturalisation in 2013, according to an interior ministry statement. The order was signed by Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, who is also interior minister. Thai law prohibits naturalised citizens from...

Singapore’s decision to send its top diplomat to Indonesia on a surprise visit, following days of terse exchanges over a regional haze, underscores a bid to defuse growing tensions and seek a direct channel to President Prabowo Subianto. Analysts say Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan’s trip reflected his country’s preference for measured diplomacy amid rising nationalistic rhetoric in Indonesia, with the city state also mindful of containing any “negative fallout” as Jakarta grapples with...

The former prime minister who helped bring down Anwar Ibrahim’s political alliance six years ago has now agreed to back his government in parliament, in a surprise deal struck just before the passage of Malaysia’s 2027 budget at its first voting stage on Thursday. Muhyiddin Yassin, who governed Malaysia from 2020 to 2021, joined 12 other opposition and independent lawmakers in pledging support for Anwar’s administration, hours before parliament approved the government’s 459.8 billion ringgit...

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s re-election should provide continuity for the country’s trade push into Southeast Asia, analysts say, as Vietnam and Indonesia pursue preferential trade agreements with Mercosur, the South American bloc in which Brazil is the largest economy. But better access to Brazil and other Mercosur markets is far from assured, with trade experts pointing to difficult negotiations over tariffs and agricultural access, as well as political differences within...

Japan wants a more united and proactive Southeast Asia as it sees Asean as a bulwark against an intensifying great-power rivalry, analysts say, while uncertainty over Washington’s long-term Indo-Pacific strategy has deepened Tokyo’s concerns about the region’s future. Japanese Defence Minister Shinjiro Koizumi on Wednesday urged Southeast Asian nations to strengthen their collective response to emerging security threats, warning of a “rapidly deteriorating” security environment and shifts in the...

Smoke from this year’s Indonesian forest and peatland fires has inflicted an estimated 8 billion ringgit (US$1.97 billion) in welfare losses on Malaysia, contributing to an estimated 1,700 deaths and severely disrupting manufacturing, according to a report commissioned by the country’s leading industrial group. The study, “The 2026 Fire Season and Transboundary Haze in Malaysia”, was conducted for the Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers (FMM), as reported by the Malay Mail. Drawing on...

A flurry of meat seizures across Thailand and Vietnam has raised fears of animal-borne diseases devastating regional livestock populations and unsafe food ending up on consumers’ plates. Driven by rising energy and logistics costs, unscrupulous suppliers have targeted restaurants and wet markets desperate to protect margins by sourcing cheap, unregulated cuts – even those past their expiry date or tainted with disease. On October 21, police in Vietnam’s southern province of Dong Nai dismantled a...

A South Korean special prosecutor on Thursday demanded the death penalty for ousted president Yoon Suk-yeol, ahead of an appeal court verdict on rebellion charges over his brief imposition of martial law in December 2024. The Seoul High Court has yet to set a date for a verdict on Yoon’s appeal of a life sentence handed down in February by the Seoul Central District Court. The court found that he illegally mobilised troops and police to seize the legislature, arrest political opponents and...

Indonesia’s communications minister has urged calm after a former Singaporean nominated member of parliament (NMP) suggested the city state could disrupt its neighbour’s internet access, arguing that any outage would cripple connectivity on both sides. Communication and Digital Affairs Minister Meutya Hafid said the government and public “need not be irritated” by comments from ex-NMP Calvin Cheng. In Singapore, NMPs are appointed to bring non-partisan perspectives to the legislature; they do...

Two friends claimed trial to a charge of animal cruelty at the Sessions Court in the Malaysian state of Penang for allegedly dragging a dog tied to a motorcycle last month. Lee Beng Hooi and Yeoh Keat Chye, both 62, pleaded not guilty to the charge read before judge Irwan Suainbon on Thursday. They were jointly charged with dragging a female black dog on an iron chain along the road using a motorcycle, causing the animal unnecessary pain and suffering. The offence allegedly occurred along a back...

North Korea fired “around a dozen” short-range ballistic missiles off its east coast on Thursday, Seoul’s defence ministry said, less than a week after South Korea proposed talks over a growing border row. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said its military detected “around a dozen short-range ballistic missiles fired from the Wonsan area of North Korea towards the East Sea”, the body of water also known as the Sea of Japan. “Our military has stepped up surveillance and vigilance against...

A South Korean court on Thursday rejected a lawsuit by dozens of Tesla owners ‌seeking full refunds for money paid for Full Self-Driving (FSD) driver-assistance software, ruling that the carmaker had not breached its contractual obligations. The Seoul Central District Court ruled against the 88 plaintiffs, finding that the FSD option did not promise fully autonomous driving without human intervention and that Tesla had already provided some of the functions included in the package. The court...

With Halloween approaching, Japanese municipalities are stepping up measures against disruptive celebrations in major entertainment districts as larger crowds are expected this year, with the event falling on a Saturday. Halloween is not a traditional festivity in Japan, but has evolved into a major urban event in recent years, particularly in Tokyo’s Shibuya district, where revellers in costumes gather for street celebrations. The festivities have increasingly become associated with public...

Thai authorities have vowed to seize more than US$1 billion in assets from a group accused of laundering proceeds from Southeast Asia-based scam syndicates. A criminal court issued arrest warrants on Tuesday for the alleged ringleader, South African Benjamin Mauerberger, his Thai wife Cattaliya Beevor, Cambodian businessman Yim Leak and four others, police said. Media reports have previously linked Mauerberger, also known as Ben Smith, to transnational scam operations in Cambodia, part of a...

South Korean memory chip giant SK Hynix kept almost 80 per cent of its total sales as operating profit last quarter, a margin almost unheard of in manufacturing, as the country’s chipmakers reap the rewards of the global artificial intelligence boom. Operating profit, defined as earnings from the company’s core business before interest and taxes, soared 632 per cent in the three months to September from a year earlier to 83.33 trillion won (US$62.76 billion) on revenue of 104.62 trillion won, SK...

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday proposed a new US-Asean defence framework to guide cooperation over what he called “critically important years” ahead, but offered few details on what it would entail. The proposal faces questions over whether members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations will embrace a bloc-wide initiative, with analysts suggesting they would prefer bilateral arrangements that preserve their flexibility as they navigate ties with Washington and...

In a rare move, Singapore on Wednesday summoned top executives from 10 locally registered companies potentially linked to haze-causing fires in Indonesia to a meeting with three ministers. The executives all agreed to cooperate fully in an investigation by the city state into the regional environmental crisis that has caused air quality to dip to “very unhealthy” levels earlier this month. Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong, Senior Minister K. Shanmugam and Minister for Sustainability and the...

Hundreds of people permanently living aboard a touring cruise ship were forced to disembark in Cambodia this week after the vessel’s operator said fuel price increases from the Iran war had made operations prohibitively expensive. The Villa Vie Odyssey had been cruising the world for at least ‌755 days as one of only a handful of ships that offered passengers the opportunity to rent or buy long-term or even permanent residences on board. On Tuesday, the ship’s owner, Villa Vie Residences,...

Rising ketamine abuse and a series of major drug seizures in Indonesia have fuelled calls for tighter controls on the substance, but a proposed reclassification has raised concerns that tougher penalties could further strain the country’s overcrowded prisons. Last week, Indonesian police and customs officials intercepted the Mongolian-flagged vessel MT Global 168 in the Malacca Strait, seizing 1.16 tonnes of ketamine hydrochloride packed in 58 sacks. National police chief Suyudi Ario Seto said...