The Democratic Party’s sweep of both houses of the US Congress could stabilise Washington’s commitment to the Philippines, bringing relief to allies rattled by President Donald Trump’s Iran war and his shifting foreign policy. Analysts expect bipartisan support for Manila to endure, with Democratic oversight set to rein in Trump’s unpredictability. But they warn that Washington could still turn inward to deal with domestic challenges, diverting attention from the Indo-Pacific. The rebuke of...

An EU funding crunch is threatening to stifle the bloc’s ambitions to expand its influence in Southeast Asia, as Brussels grapples with a budget deadlock that could slow infrastructure investments across the fast-growing region. The funding squeeze could hinder the green transition and regional connectivity goals of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, even as Brussels seeks greater strategic autonomy amid competition with Beijing’s economic clout. Analysts expect the European Union to...

The sweeping midterm election victory by US Democrats has triggered warnings from analysts that an impending regulatory clampdown could derail the nation’s multi-trillion-dollar artificial intelligence data centre buildout. Wall Street forecasters slashed their projections for Big Tech infrastructure spending hours after the vote, cautioning that a wave of proposed project moratoria and tighter oversight could stall up to 30 per cent of planned US facilities and force developers to downscale...

Hong Kong’s Exchange Fund, the war chest used to defend the local currency, reported a 74 per cent tumble in third-quarter earnings amid pervasive market uncertainty, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) said on Friday. Earnings totalled HK$18.6 billion (US$2.4 billion) in the quarter, plunging from HK$70.8 billion a year earlier. For the first nine months of 2026, total earnings slid 39.6 per cent from a year earlier to HK$171.9 billion. The Exchange Fund’s Hong Kong equities portfolio...

Malaysia’s disgraced former prime minister Najib Razak left prison for house arrest after Umno on Friday paid a 50 million ringgit (US$12.3 million) fine required under the terms of his royal pardon. The clemency granted by King Sultan Ibrahim in September allows Najib to serve the remainder of his sentence under house arrest until August 2028, after more than four years behind bars for corruption linked to the 1MDB sovereign wealth fund. His exit from prison may renew scrutiny of Prime Minister...

A summit could bolster Xi Jinping’s stature. But talks about Ukraine’s future and limits on nuclear weapons pose uncomfortable choices for China.

Malaysia’s Sarawak will hold a state election on December 12 as the incumbent government seeks a fresh mandate to press demands over autonomy and control of the territory’s natural resources. The filing of nominations will begin on November 28 and early voting will be on December 8, Election Commission chairman Ramlan Harun told reporters on Friday. The 14-day election campaign involving more than 2.05 million eligible voters choosing 82 members will end on December 11, the commission said in a...

Japan’s growing strategic partnership with Vietnam is putting Tokyo’s commitment to a rules-based regional order under scrutiny, as Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi faces calls to press Hanoi over its failure to honour labour rights commitments. The issue is expected to surface during Vietnamese President To Lam’s four-day visit to Tokyo from Sunday, raising questions about how far Japan is prepared to defend the principles underpinning a major Pacific trade agreement when its economic and security...

Japanese and South Korean shares plunged on Friday after US shares tumbled overnight on worries that midterm election results could slow or derail the artificial intelligence data centre investment boom. Tokyo’s benchmark Nikkei 225 index fell 5.1 per cent to 56,930 points in early trade. Seoul’s Kospi index dived 8.5 per cent to 4,923, triggering a circuit breaker which suspended trading for 20 minutes. Investors had initially cheered Tuesday’s Democratic drubbing of US President Donald Trump’s...

A road project with coordinates pointing to Nigeria. A government building apparently located in the Sahara Desert. Another road mapped to a sea near Brunei. These are among the unlikely locations listed for infrastructure projects in the Philippines’ proposed 2027 national budget, according to independent watchdogs that have discovered the discrepancies, highlighting problems with government transparency and accountability. Their scrutiny of Manila’s proposed 7.2 trillion pesos (US$114 billion)...

When Huang Baoying was growing up, her older brother helped look after her, their parents recalled. Huang Bocan would tutor his younger sister at night and help her with her studies, their mother said. To his parents, he was a responsible son whom they trusted to help care for Baoying while they worked long hours. Years later, he would be sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering her. “We never imagined that things could become so serious,” their father said after Bocan, 34, was sentenced on...

A month-long police campaign in Japan to track down hundreds of suspects sought over the nation’s most notorious crimes, some dating back decades, underscores what analysts describe as the surprising ease with which individuals can vanish, even in the country’s highly bureaucratic society. The nationwide drive, officially designated the “Month for Strengthening Investigations into Wanted Suspects”, began on November 1. Through official websites and social media appeals, authorities are urging...

South Korea’s government has announced it will revise a youth counselling manual that categorised homosexuality as a form of juvenile delinquency, after facing a backlash sparked by local media reports earlier this week. Homosexuality was grouped alongside sexual violence, theft and drug abuse under “delinquency-related issues” in the manual, the Korea JoongAng Daily reported. Published by the Korea Youth Counselling and Welfare Institute – a body affiliated with the Ministry of Gender Equality...

Driven by lessons from the 2025 border clashes, the RTAF is organizing, training, and equipping a more capable and flexible force.

The country's economy is growing rapidly, but its “take it slow” approach to LGBTQ+ rights risks creating a prosperous but intolerant society.

On Tuesday, authorities announced the arrest of three senior police officers for illegally wiretapping the phones of President Prabowo Subianto and other politicians.

Singapore is seeking to flip the script by turning its land and manpower constraints into reasons to embrace AI instead of fearing it, even as the technology carries the spectre of job losses and cyberthreats in the wrong hands, a senior official has said. Minister for Digital Development and Information Josephine Teo argued that pragmatism would give her resource-scarce country an edge without becoming overly reliant on any single power or AI provider. At the Family Business Summit in Hong Kong...

Violent clashes between rival parties, within their own ranks, and around elections have persisted through successive governments.

A boat in Micronesia went missing in July. This weekend, five of its passengers landed, unclothed and emaciated, on an island in Kiribati — more than 3,000 miles away.