India’s top court decreed that only more environmentally friendly fireworks could be set off this weekend, citing air quality concerns. But environmental activists call it a “green wash.”

Food was at the heart of Henry Onesemo’s South Pacific island upbringing. Now, he’s bringing flavors of home to his Michelin-starred restaurant in New Zealand.

For most of his life, Osman Uki lived in a world dictated by the sun, relying on kerosene and leftover cooking oil to light his home in a remote indigenous village in Malaysia. That changed in April when solar power finally reached Kampung Bertang in the state of Pahang, allowing families to power electric lights, refrigerators and rice cookers. For Osman, one of the biggest changes is what happens after sunset. “We are happy with the light we have at night. The kids can read at night now. We...

Cooking and bathing became difficult when taps ran dry in Batam, an Indonesian island where residents are protesting against data centres springing up to power the global artificial intelligence boom. The area had suffered a “long drought” caused by low rainfall, the local water utility operator said, as a strong El Nino cycle exacerbates dry weather. But, as in other countries, anger has been directed at the data centres, warehouse-like facilities that keep apps and AI tools running, with water...

Long before Moe Harukawa was killed, she lived in fear. The 21-year-old shop assistant had reported her ex-boyfriend to police and a court had ordered him to stay away from her. Yet weeks later, Taiki Hirokawa, 26, walked into Harukawa’s workplace – a packed Pokemon store in Tokyo’s Ikebukuro district – and stabbed her repeatedly in the neck and torso before turning the knife he was carrying on himself. Both later died in hospital. Harukawa’s gruesome murder in March at the hands of a man who...

When her prescription for Mounjaro became too expensive, Bey* did what a growing number of Malaysians are doing: she found a cheaper vial online. The 34-year-old from Kuala Lumpur started on the weight-loss drug about a year ago and hasn’t looked back since. “I didn’t feel like eating, I didn’t feel hungry,” she said, recalling flying to Jakarta for a “food trip” recently during which she barely ate. Reviews on Threads and TikTok led her to online sellers offering “tirzepatide”, Mounjaro’s...

The contest to replace António Guterres as U.N. secretary general has been jolted by last-minute entrants and deep divisions among members of the Security Council.

Suffield Academy placed its longtime head of school, Charlie Cahn III, on leave last month after learning that he was the subject of a federal investigation.

The driver’s seat was empty and the steering wheel was turning on its own. Sitting in the back of a Pony.ai robotaxi in Shenzhen, I felt a flicker of nervousness. But as the car glided into traffic, the initial unease gave way to an appreciation of something far less futuristic: the blissful absence of small talk with the driver. My test rides in two of China’s major tech hubs – with Pony.ai in Shenzhen and Baidu’s Apollo Go in Beijing – offered a first-hand experience of how autonomous vehicles...

Preliminary results showed the right-wing bloc slightly ahead but no clear winner after an election that was dominated by economic concerns.

New Zealand’s ruling centre-right National Party and main opposition Labour were nearly deadlocked in the popular vote after initial counting in the nationwide general election on Saturday. Results from the Electoral Commission show that with more than 95 per cent of the ballots counted, both parties were polling just short of 30 per cent of the popular vote, with just a few thousand votes separating the two. A projection from New Zealand’s Electoral Commission ‌showed the current three-party...

Malaysia’s king warned on Saturday that any attempt to ⁠challenge his order ⁠letting former prime minister Najib Razak go ⁠from jail to house arrest could amount to defying his decree, a day after authorities delayed Najib’s transfer. Najib has been in jail since 2022 after being found guilty of corruption and money laundering in a case linked to a multibillion-dollar ‌scandal at state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad. He has consistently denied wrongdoing. He was due to be transferred home on...

New Delhi ranked as the world’s ⁠most polluted major ⁠city on Saturday ⁠morning, according to Swiss group IQAir, as the Indian capital faced severe pollution forecasts a day before Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights. India has ordered schools in and around Delhi to offer online classes and encouraged people to work from home ahead of Diwali on Sunday, which is usually marked by the widespread use of firecrackers ⁠that further worsen the air quality. IQAir ranked Delhi ‌first for air pollution...

Garment workers in Bangladesh, the world’s second-largest clothing exporter after China, are demanding that their wages more than double – and their protests have brought a halt to production in factories supplying global brands including H&M, Zara and Walmart. Tens of thousands of workers have marched through Dhaka and the key industrial towns of Gazipur, Ashulia and Narayanganj in recent days demanding higher pay. Protests turned violent in several hubs, with factories vandalised and roads...

North Korea rewards ⁠its top hackers, tasked with heists like the Binance crypto hack that netted a cool US$6.3 ⁠billion, with perks such as spacious apartments in the capital and huge hard currency awards in return for ⁠gruelling hours of work. Leader Kim Jong-un has assembled an army of world-class hackers using such incentives in a programme more than a decade old that picks 200 of the smartest middle school students each year to study computer engineering, defectors and analysts say. A...

A memo that circulated among U.S. policymakers cited intelligence that Alice Huang, a Chinese executive who developed a relationship with Nvidia’s leader, was an asset of Beijing’s Ministry of State Security.

Myanmar’s military-backed government may find its reluctance to address the international community’s concerns a greater obstacle to economic recovery than the threat of tougher international financial restrictions, according to analysts. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the global money-laundering and terrorist-financing watchdog, warned on October 30 that it could consider further measures against Myanmar if it failed to remedy shortcomings in its financial safeguards by...

Russia’s seizure of the assets of a Japanese company could prove to be Tokyo’s red line after a series of bitter exchanges between both nations and ties that continue to spiral. The Japanese government on Friday lodged a formal complaint with Russia and demanded that Moscow immediately reverse a decree announced the previous day that transferred the assets of Japan Tobacco International (JTI) to Russian control. Analysts say the decree, signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, is likely a...

All across Asia, anti-establishment protests have been flaring up, led by a generation that came of age in the digital era. Memes are mobilising a young, permanently online cohort against specific government policies, insults and injustices – its many members determined to seize their own destinies before the future they fear takes root. Asia is home to 60 per cent of the world’s adolescents and young people, or some 1 billion in total, according to UN estimates. Gen Z, roughly defined as those...

Travelling through South America earlier this year, I was repeatedly reminded of China’s growing importance. At Ezeiza International Airport in Buenos Aires, I spotted the logo of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China. ICBC acquired an 80 per cent stake in Standard Bank Argentina in 2012, establishing a significant presence. In Buenos Aires, my friend Diego García, a publisher, offered a useful perspective: Argentina does not have to choose between China and the United States. It should...

In the lead-up to an election in which economic concerns dominate, there was no clear front-runner. Minor parties will most likely determine who governs.