South Korea ⁠said on Monday that a ⁠recent border blast that seriously wounded two ⁠of its soldiers was caused by mines planted by North Korea. North Korea, which has been fortifying its border with South Korea since April 2024, deployed up to 7,000 workers to install mines and fences this year, with some 50 incidents of ‌crossing the border, according to a briefing on Monday by the South’s military. The two Koreas are still technically at war after their 1950-53 war ended in an armistice rather...

Southeast Asian governments are learning some hard truths about the data centre boom they spent years working to attract, analysts say – it promises jobs, digital infrastructure and a foothold in the AI economy, but the rapid buildout is also straining power grids, land and regulatory systems. “There is this enthusiasm to attract investments, but now it raises the question: at what cost and at what speed?” said policy researcher Mark Manantan, a research fellow for the Centre for Global Security...

Hong Kong lawmakers have backed the government’s proposed tax incentives for large innovative companies, but many said on Monday that the planned five-year concession period is too short to attract major firms to establish headquarters or expand operations in the city. Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu in his policy address last month said the government planned to submit a bill introducing preferential profits tax rates of either 5 per cent or 8.25 per cent, which was half of the city’s standard...

Malaysia was aflush with Formula One fever this weekend, rekindling talk of permanently bringing the race back to the Southeast Asian nation after a long hiatus – despite days of traffic chaos that left thousands of fans stranded for hours. More than 260,000 people flocked to Sepang International Circuit in Selangor state for the Bahrain Grand Prix, which was originally meant to be held in April but had to be postponed and relocated away from the Persian Gulf island nation due to security...

US chip giant Qualcomm has agreed to pay to licence and acquire patents from China’s Huawei Technologies for the first time as part of a “multi-year, broad patent licence agreement” covering 5G, computing and artificial intelligence. The deal involved cross-licensing between both firms’ patent portfolios, the Shenzhen-based firm said in a statement on Monday, adding that it included Qualcomm’s purchase of specific Huawei US patents across compute, AI, networking and other technologies. The...

A former South Korean lawmaker has called for the abolition of the military exemption system granted to outstanding national athletes, arguing that military service should not be used as an incentive for achievements in sports or the arts. Yoo Seong-min’s remarks came amid controversy over comments made by members of South Korea’s men’s football team, who recently won its fourth consecutive Asian Games title, regarding the military benefits they received. South Korea defeated host Japan 1-0 on...

ASEAN is looking for a third partner. Japan fits the bill — if it plays its cards right

India is taking a more direct role in efforts to end the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, engaging both sides on issues including shipping and reducing hostilities, Minister of External Affairs S. Jaishankar has said. Speaking at a security conference over the weekend, Jaishankar said India in recent months has become “a little bit more involved beyond advocacy”. The comments point to a more active role for New Delhi after years of taking a cautious approach to the war, in part because of...

Samoa’s prime minister apologised on Monday after video surfaced showing him saying “Heil Hitler” and making a Nazi gesture. Prime Minister La’auli Leuatea Schmidt said the footage was from a family gathering almost 20 years old and was never meant to see the light of day. “The footage shows me using the words ‘Heil Hitler’ and participating in a gesture associated with Nazi Germany in a private family gathering – not intended for the public,” he said in a statement. “Whatever the context or...

Australia is set to preside over the negotiations at the upcoming COP31 climate conference in Türkiye, but its support for regional partners will need to be sustained.

Over the past decade, hundreds of political activists and ordinary people have been subjected to criminal prosecution under Article 112.

In February 2023, the budget shopping platform Temu announced itself on the world stage in the brashest way possible: becoming one of the youngest ever brands to buy a Super Bowl advertising spot. “Download the Temu app and shop like a billionaire,” a voice proclaimed in the 30-second commercial, as a woman danced on screen and ordered a series of outlandishly cheap items: from a US$8.99 dress to a US$4.99 wig. The commercial – which aired twice during the game, costing Temu an estimated US$14...

Malaysians delight in visiting family and friends, so much so that these visits made up 44 per cent of domestic travel. They enjoy seeing their loved ones even more than shopping (21.6 per cent) and holidaying (13 per cent), as shown in the latest numbers from the Statistics Department on domestic tourism in the second quarter of this year. The 44 per cent recorded is even higher than last year’s trend in domestic tourism where “visiting relatives and friends remained the primary purpose of...

A Laotian citizen deported by the United States to eSwatini under Donald Trump administration’s immigration crackdown was released from a maximum-security prison in the African nation on Sunday after being held there for more than a year, his lawyer said. Phone Chomsavanh was among five immigrants deported to eSwatini – where he has no ties – in July 2025, in the early days of the Trump administration’s secretive and highly contentious third-country deportation programme. Chomsavanh’s US-based...

Malaysia’s Anwar Ibrahim is expected to roll out a populist budget on Friday aimed at placating voter concerns over the cost of living and access to essential services, experts say, as the prime minister seeks to shore up support ahead of a general election that could be called as soon as next year. Anwar’s coalition government is under mounting pressure amid a deepening feud with Umno. The Malay nationalist party, a key partner in Anwar’s administration, has demanded a snap poll after defeating...

The risks of fragmentation

The role of alternative financing

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei seems to believe that he, the American artificial intelligence (AI) industry and the United States are the only ones who should have the right to determine the fate of humanity. While he pays lip service to involving other democracies in AI development, which ones remotely approach the technological capacities of the US and China? Do other non-democratic developing countries not count? His self-belief is far more dangerous than mere commercial greed. Like Peter Thiel,...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday ⁠he believed Russia ⁠may have shared jet-drone technology ⁠with its long-standing ally North Korea. In recent weeks, Russia has sharply increased its use of jet-drones against Ukraine, which so far has no effective means of countering them other than using ‌combat aircraft. Earlier in the war, North Korea supplied Russia with millions of artillery shells and it has since provided ballistic missiles that Moscow regularly uses to attack...

A march protesting against the imprisonment of former Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan kicked off in northwest Pakistan on Sunday after talks to avoid the demonstration stalled. Authorities have been preparing for weeks for the possible arrival of demonstrators in Islamabad, with the march planned by supporters of Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party originally slated for September 27 and then postponed until Sunday. Videos posted on PTI’s official social media showed supporters...

For American and Chinese people interested in the outcome of the latest summit between China’s President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump, their conclusions could not be more different if they turn to the media and pundits for guidance. Chinese state media spared no superlative, echoing the official description of the summit as: forging the right way for the major powers to get along and writing a new chapter in ties. It played up the fact that Trump gave Xi the highest-level reception...

Thousands of young protesters and opposition parties staged protests in the national ⁠capital and Mumbai on ⁠Sunday, demanding the resignation of Election Commission Chief ⁠Gyanesh Kumar, as police detained demonstrators for a third consecutive day. Opposition leaders Raj Thackeray and Uddhav Thackeray led protests in Mumbai calling for the scrapping of revisions to the electoral roll and Kumar’s resignation. In Delhi, protesters started gathering in the early evening and police started...