How the BOJ's rate hike became tangled in a 'currency alliance' with the US

The United Nations is also searching for a replacement for António Guterres, who has served two terms as the secretary general and is stepping down.

Under a global cloud of wars and bitter divisions, world leaders meet at the United Nations in New York this week facing new fears that runaway artificial intelligence could threaten humanity even as climate shocks and escalating prices are already making life much tougher for hundreds of millions of people. The annual high-level gathering at the UN General Assembly will also be consumed with major wars in Iran, Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, Congo and Myanmar and a persisting question: can the leaders...

Zhang Youxia, once the People’s Liberation Army’s top uniformed commander, and another general had taken “exceptionally large” bribes, investigators said.

A 3.5-metre-long shark that wandered into a Busan waterfront channel has become an unlikely internet celebrity in South Korea, drawing nearly 20,000 spectators over the weekend as authorities opted to leave the animal alone rather than risk provoking it. The shark was first spotted on Friday in the waterway at North Port Waterfront Park, where it has remained for at least four consecutive days despite repeated efforts by the public to catch a glimpse of it. South Korea’s National Institute of...

Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to meet US President Donald Trump in Washington this week, after the May talks in Beijing and before the November Apec summit in Shenzhen. This sequence of diplomacy will test if the commitment to building a “constructive China-US relationship of strategic stability” translates into practical arrangements. The Washington meeting faces clear limits. Differences over trade, technology, industrial policy, Taiwan and regional security are deeply embedded in...

Southeast Asia remains comparatively confident in international cooperation even as scepticism grows over whether the United States or China should take a leading global role, a new survey has found. Analysts said the findings reflected a long-standing regional preference for keeping strategic options open, particularly among smaller and middle powers wary of an international order dominated by either Washington or Beijing. “Seeking Security and Opportunity in a Stormy World”, released this...

The poet and lyricist Gulzar has profoundly shaped the idea of tender romance in India through his verse and songs in more than 150 musicals.

Hundreds of flights were cancelled and more than one million people were under evacuation advisories in Japan on Monday as Typhoon Dujuan approached the capital Tokyo, potentially bringing record rainfall. In Sodegaura, Chiba, a woman in her 40s sustained minor injuries after driving into debris from a landslide. In Yokosuka, Kanagawa, rescue operations were underway for a female resident of a house struck by a landslide, with mud flowing inside. Eight houses in Chiba were damaged, including...

South Korea has surpassed its 2027 target of attracting 300,000 international students a year ahead of schedule, and universities must now find ways to retain and develop them, a new rankings assessment has shown. First launched last year and described as the country’s most internationalisation-focused assessment to date, The Korea Times University Rankings assess institutions on seven indicators, including the ratio of exchange and international students to total enrolment, diversity of the...

Malaysia’s royal crisis in Negeri Sembilan spilled into a new constitutional fight on Monday after the state’s chief minister refused to accept the ruler’s dismissal of the entire executive council – a dispute that has already brought down one government and triggered a snap election. The latest showdown comes less than a week after the executive council backed a disputed bid to remove the ruler, putting the palace and state government in conflict over both the throne and executive...

Soybeans are the notable exception, revealing Beijing’s selective approach to fulfilling trade commitments ahead of the summit between President Trump and Xi Jinping.

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has suffered a double whammy as his Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition scrambles to placate public outrage over disgraced ex-leader Najib Razak being granted house arrest and the shock resignation of his transport minister in protest against the royal clemency. But observers do not expect the administration, already reeling from PH defeats in two recent state elections as federal allies turned against the coalition, to implode just yet. Anwar and PH’s reformist...