As citizens embrace the technology for entertainment, relationships and even farming advice, the government is stepping up efforts to set limits.

The State Department has denied its funding for the next two years, jeopardizing the education of hundreds of female Afghan students.

The Japanese government on Friday announced additional sanctions against Russia amid the ongoing invasion of Ukraine, targeting a so-called shadow fleet of vessels engaged in transporting sanctioned oil from Russia. Joining international efforts to crack down on sanctions evasion by the fleet, Japan has decided to impose restrictions on the provision of services to 35 vessels, according to the Foreign Ministry. The measures restrict the provision of services including insurance, maritime...

Capt. Smit Machchhar, who was stabbed by his co-pilot midair between Dubai and Tel Aviv, said he “had to act” to prevent a crash despite serious injuries.

Chinese semiconductor plants amassed hundreds of immersion lithography machines worth billions of dollars in recent years, according to former US officials, who urged Washington and its allies to shut down further exports. Chinese-owned fabs had acquired an estimated 343 immersion deep ultraviolet (DUV) lithography systems by early 2026, said a report published in late September by the Centre for Technology & Statecraft (CTS), a Washington research group established in August. Co-authored by...

How China is weaponizing WWII history

India’s opposition parties and the youth-led “cockroach” movement took to the streets on Friday, demanding action over alleged irregularities in voter rolls and calling for the resignation of the country’s chief election commissioner, as the combined pressure from the two groups poses a new challenge for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government. The protests have brought the opposition closer to the youth movement that it has sought to engage with, according to analysts. While their convergence...

AirAsia co-founder Tony Fernandes has caused a stir online after taking aim at Singapore Airlines’ (SIA) in-flight meals, claiming the food served by the carrier lagged behind his own airline’s offerings. “Just flew with Singapore Airlines, couldn’t get AirAsia, service was great, internet amazing, food was poor, Santan is far far better and crew admitted. Great flight but we are not far off,” Fernandes wrote in a social media post on Thursday, referring to AirAsia’s in-flight dining brand. The...

Malaysia’s long-standing strategy of non-alignment amid US-China rivalry in the South China Sea could soon be tested, with the eastern state of Sabah sitting near a potential flashpoint involving Philippine territory. Observers pointed to comments by Malaysian Defence Minister Khaled Nordin, who last week voiced concern that a conflict or “unexpected incident” in the maritime region could spill over into Malaysia. Khaled, who singled out Sabah, added that Malaysia was looking to strengthen its...

Indonesia’s new police chief faces a difficult task to balance growing public demands for accountability and independence as the force seeks to repair its image following a series of scandals in recent years. Even as Suyudi Ario Seto, 53, replaced Listyo Sigit Prabowo on Thursday, the government is weighing recommendations to reform the powerful institution, including changes to its work culture and limits on police officers holding public positions outside the force. In addition to appointing...

China has set a five-year goal for the expansion of intelligent computing capacity to drive artificial intelligence (AI) that calls for a more than fourfold increase on what was in place at the end of June this year. To reach the 2030 target while being blocked by the United States from importing the most advanced Western-made AI chips will require innovation, adaptation and the application and coordination of vast resources. Judging by the 177 per cent increase in capacity achieved in the year...

One of the Malaysians unaccounted for following the devastating floods in Nepal has been confirmed safe and has returned to Malaysia, according to the group representing Malaysians missing in Nepal. Malaysia Solidarity: Families in Hope (Masfih) spokesman Manivannan Rethinam said the person had reported themselves to the Malaysian embassy in Kathmandu. “For Masfih and the other families, the finding of a safe Malaysian 37 days later is an extremely relieving and meaningful development,”...

Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto’s reshuffling of his cabinet signals an urgent need to address criticism and dipping ratings by banking on experienced technocrats and trusted figures in key positions. But while the appointment of a new foreign minister has raised hopes of some restraint on Prabowo’s more impulsive foreign policy decisions, analysts say the president’s self-imposed role as “chief diplomat” is unlikely to change. In his second senior cabinet change in under three weeks,...

US artificial intelligence company Anthropic appears to have stepped up enforcement of geographical restrictions on its Claude models in Hong Kong, with local users reporting abrupt account suspensions after accessing the service through virtual private networks (VPNs). A wave of complaints surfaced on social media platforms X and Reddit on Thursday, as users who had operated accounts for months using VPNs found them suddenly disabled. One Hong Kong-based user posted on the “r/claude” subreddit...

Under Prabowo Subianto, leadership on the issue has been lacking – and tens of millions are suffering as a result.

The first apartment came up for auction and nobody moved. More than 60 people crowded into a room in Singapore to watch seven properties seized in one of the world’s biggest money-laundering cases go under the hammer. Their opening prices totalled more than S$43 million (US$33.6 million). But when bidding began for a luxury unit at Gramercy Park, an upscale condominium near the city state’s Orchard Road shopping district, not a single hand went up. Next came a 2,658 sq ft (247 square metres)...

Capt. Smit Machchhar suffered stab wounds while fending off an attack from his co-pilot, saving the lives of around 170 people on board, officials said.

The Chinese activities around the Philippines' northernmost province represent the opening of a new front in the maritime struggle between the two nations.

A sell-off in technology stocks pushed mainland Chinese equities to their lowest level in more than a year, even as Beijing stepped up support for the economy with a key interest rate cut. At the same time, Chinese government bonds attracted fresh interest as US Treasury yields climbed to a new high. Here are some figures that have captured market attention this week. China’s CSI 300 Index hits 13-month low Mainland China’s CSI 300 Index dropped 2.2 per cent on Monday to its lowest level since...

As Washington’s reliability wavers, Tokyo and Canberra are learning to depend on each other.

South ‌Korean President Lee Jae Myung on Friday threatened unspecified measures against Ukraine unless Kyiv acknowledged what Seoul says was a confidentiality agreement covering the transfer of two captured North Korean soldiers and apologised. “If the refusal to acknowledge the facts and issue a public apology continues, we will take additional measures,” Lee said in a social media post. Lee also expressed “grave regret” over what he described as Ukrainian remarks about an imminent ⁠military...

Thitu Island and its residents have come under the spotlight after the Philippines, in a bid to reinforce its claims in the South China Sea, announced plans to file an updated maritime chart with the United Nations. Observers say the filing would not establish Philippine sovereignty but could help Manila identify and challenge competing claims in more precise legal terms. More than just a technical document, the updated map is a means for the government to formally document its presence and...

China’s quantitative investing sector has added 18 new members to the ranks of funds managing more than 10 billion yuan (US$1.5 billion) in assets this year, underlining the industry’s ability to generate competitive returns despite a tight regulatory environment. The firms were among 159 Chinese hedge funds overseeing more than 10 billion yuan each, according to financial news agency Cailian Press. Their growth has been fuelled by technology-driven momentum in the world’s second-largest stock...

Two new islands have appeared off Anak Krakatoa, potentially the first in nearly a century to emerge within the caldera left by Krakatoa’s catastrophic 1883 eruption. The formations, discovered following a 25-hour eruption in early September, sit hundreds of metres off opposite sides of Anak Krakatoa – one to the northwest and the other to the southeast – almost on a straight line through the volcano’s crater, according to Indonesia’s Geological Agency. The agency places one about 760 metres...

Singapore’s biggest crackdown so far on fake online reviews has exposed how businesses exploit the appeal of five-star ratings to game the system, with experts warning generative AI will make fake reviews more rampant and consumers need to be more discerning about what they read online. The Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore (CCS) has taken action against 45 companies – including a funeral parlour, a law firm and an aesthetics clinic – after finding they bought reviews from a...