A plan to confront Beijing without subsequent outreach toward Southeast Asian countries will sacrifice national imperatives for willing partners, and those are hard to come by.

Philippine officials want a new anti-foreign interference law ahead of the 2028 presidential election, as a raid on a suspected online scam centre near the country’s military headquarters and reports of Chinese-linked money transfers to a company tied to Vice-President Sara Duterte-Carpio’s family fuel national security concerns. On Monday, immigration and military operatives arrested 76 foreigners at a facility in Quezon City suspected of being linked to Philippine offshore gaming operators...

The rapid and unbridled development of artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to disrupt the US economy in a way that is comparable to the “China shock” that displaced American workers, former US commerce secretary Gina Raimondo warns. Speaking at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in New Delhi on Tuesday, she drew parallels between AI’s potential disruption to American jobs and the past impact of Chinese manufacturing competition on the US labour market. “In America, we’ve seen what...

Competition can generate incentives for restraint, and restraint can create opportunities for further competition.

Tokyo summoned Russia’s ambassador after a Japanese reporter was arrested in Russia’s far east and accused of collecting military intelligence.

China has granted approval for Alibaba Group Holding’s artificial intelligence models to be integrated into several Apple handsets, including the new iPhone Duo, in the Chinese market, clearing a key regulatory hurdle for the long-delayed launch of Apple Intelligence in the country. Updated network access permits for the iPhone Duo, iPhone 18 Pro and several earlier Apple models from China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology now include three approved AI systems: Apple Intelligence...

Yangtze Memory Technologies Corporation (YMTC), China’s leading flash-memory maker, is set to grow revenue six times faster than its industry peers this year as it expands into server-related business ahead of a planned initial public offering (IPO), according to Counterpoint Research. The company’s server-related revenue was effectively zero in 2024, but could account for nearly 39 per cent of its revenue by 2028, according to the market intelligence firm on Tuesday. Much of the momentum is...

Japanese Agriculture Minister Kazuo Yana said he tendered his resignation following allegations of possible vote-buying, lining him up to become the first minister in Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s government to quit over a scandal. “I apologise for causing such a huge inconvenience to those involved,” Yana said to reporters after submitting his resignation on Wednesday. He said he made the move out of concern for holding up parliament and his ministerial duties. Yana declined to comment on how...

A debate over tipping culture has erupted across the Indonesian resort island of Bali and beyond, triggered by a politician’s unfavourable comparison of domestic and foreign tourists. In a social media video, I Gusti Arya Wedakarna urged domestic tourists to “normalise giving tips in touristy places”, which he said was part of the island’s “ethics”. “Perhaps that’s the psychological reason why Balinese people are more excited about serving foreigners,” said Wedakarna, an Indonesian Regional...

Some of those detained accused security forces of beating them during an intense crackdown on demonstrations in India’s capital over the weekend. Police have said they followed the law.

When Daniela Cruz arrived in Singapore last week, hazy skies obscured the picture-perfect sights she had seen on social media, offering a different view of the city state from the one she had expected. The 27-year-old bank associate had travelled from Australia for the Formula One Singapore Grand Prix, but the smoky weather dampened her experience. “The buildings we saw on social media were covered in haze, and it made conditions extremely hot and humid,” she said. The haze blanketing...

The Taliban government has intensified its crackdown on the press in recent months but had so far targeted Afghan news outlets.

Two leaders of India’s youth-led Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) were remanded in custody for five days on Wednesday, as police ratcheted up efforts to clamp down on anti-election commission protests. CJP activists and opposition parties have defied a security crackdown to demand the resignation of India’s chief election commissioner, accusing the poll body of manipulating voter rolls to benefit Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling party. The commission, which oversees voting in the world’s most...

China’s integrated circuit (IC) exports surged 136 per cent year on year in September to US$45 billion, exceeding the 108 per cent growth rate in the first nine months of the year in a sign of the country’s rising influence in the global semiconductor supply chain. In September, China exported 32.7 billion units of ICs, according to customs data released on Wednesday, a 1 per cent year-on-year increase in volume. But higher prices fuelled the 136 per cent jump in value amid a memory chip...

A Malaysian court on Wednesday rejected Najib Razak’s bid to suspend his 15-year jail sentence in the 1MDB scandal pending the jailed former prime minister’s appeals, ruling that his health and other grounds did not justify a stay. The decision means his sentence is set to begin after his current prison term ends in August 2028. Najib, 73, received a conditional royal pardon last month allowing him to serve that separate sentence in the SRC International case at home, but he must first pay a 50...

Rescuers dragged 13 dead children out of India’s Ganges River after an overloaded boat capsized en route to a Hindu festival, officials said on Wednesday, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressing grief over the “deeply painful” tragedy. The boat overturned late on Tuesday in Vaishali district in eastern Bihar state, with locals rushing to pull people out of the water in the dark using mobile phones to find the bodies. “It was dark when we suddenly heard children screaming and crying for help...

Japan’s prime minister said on Wednesday she probably spent “three or four more hours” than her male predecessors tackling household duties on top of her already packed daily schedule. “In the morning, I bathe, fix breakfast and then wash dishes, not to mention apply make-up,” Sanae Takaichi, elected last year as Japan’s first woman prime minister, told parliament. “I feel like I’m spending three or four more hours than male prime ministers doing these things.” A self-described workaholic,...

A long-awaited code of conduct (COC) for the South China Sea risks becoming a toothless agreement, analysts have warned, as Beijing and Southeast Asian nations scramble to hammer out a deal by the end of 2026. More than three decades since it was mooted, the proposed pact has remained gridlocked over how to balance competing territorial claims among China and four rival claimant states – Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei and the Philippines. Maritime experts speaking at a conference in Kuala Lumpur this...

Asian countries must remind themselves about what happened during the region’s financial crisis in the late 1990s and guard against a recurrence of such shocks, the head of the Philippine central bank said ‌on Wednesday. Before the Asian financial crisis started in 1997, regional economies saw huge capital inflows that prompted the World Bank to describe it as the “East Asian miracle”, Eli Remolona, governor of the central bank, said in an International Monetary Fund panel on the outlook for the...

The BNP government plans to issue sovereign bonds in December amid slow economic growth, fiscal strain, rising dollar bills, and a global downturn in the bond market.

The film, “The Assassin(s),” revisits a 1974 shooting that has spawned J.F.K.-style conspiracy theories, exposing divides over the country’s history.

The film, “The Assassin(s),” revisits a 1974 shooting that has spawned J.F.K.-style conspiracy theories, exposing divides over the country’s history.

A vote gives a government the authority to rule. It does not give it the right to silence the people.

Stilt houses in villages north of Bangkok are no longer high enough to stay dry as Thai authorities deliberately flood riverside communities to spare the capital. Inside the home of Kamonchanok Sathaphonamonwut, raised more than three metres (10 feet) above the ground in Ayutthaya province, her family of three sleeps on makeshift platforms and cannot use the waterlogged toilet. Her village has been flooded six years in a row, pushing some to move away, while others have raised their houses...

Malaysians aged 30 and below bought some 5.4 billion ringgit (US$1.32 billion) worth of goods and services on short-term credit in the first half of this year, the country’s Finance Ministry has revealed. The ministry said it had recorded 65.9 million “buy now, pay later” (BNPL) purchases among younger consumers in the first six months of 2026 – equivalent to more than one in three, or 37.9 per cent, of total purchases nationwide. As of June 30, the outstanding BNPL financing balance among this...