Indonesia’s Prabowo mulls labelling wildfires as ‘ecological terrorism’

Electronic payment providers need to be more diligent in vetting companies that use their platforms to protect people from fraud, the Philippine central bank said. The requirement came after Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas found thousands of illegal businesses on the payment platforms, including many online casinos masquerading as more ordinary companies like beauty salons and bakeries. “We want to protect consumers from online fraud, illegal activities and also from money launderers,” Deputy...

The North Korean leader’s financial and diplomatic leverage rests on the brutal exploitation of his own people, from coal miners to diplomats, at home and abroad.

When transgender woman Kali Sidharth Medepalli began hormone replacement therapy in India, she expected to complete her medical transition and undergo surgery within a year. But just months after she began treatment earlier this year, India’s parliament amended the country’s transgender law, and the clinic where she was receiving care stopped her medicines. “Everything shut down,” the 23-year-old communications specialist and LGBTQ rights activist said in the southern city of Hyderabad. Kali...

Okinawa has handed a landslide victory to a conservative who accepts Tokyo’s plans for relocating a controversial US airbase – delivering a blow to 12 years of anti-base politics in Japan’s southernmost prefecture. Genta Koja’s victory on Sunday over two-term governor Denny Tamaki raised a question cutting to the heart of Okinawa’s post-war politics: is it finally starting to move on from the US military base issue? Koja, a 42-year-old conservative backed by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae...

Huawei Technologies on Thursday unveiled its latest Ascend 960 SuperPoD computing cluster and an upgraded version of its UnifiedBus interconnect technology, a key component of the Chinese tech giant’s strategy to build advanced artificial intelligence systems despite US semiconductor-related restrictions. At the Huawei Connect 2026 conference in Shanghai, the Shenzhen-based firm introduced near-packaged optics (NPOs) – a placement structure enabling higher speeds and lower energy use – to the...

Severe weather disruptions will amplify food security risks in Asia, potentially triggering civil unrest and political instability in vulnerable countries such as India, Indonesia and the Philippines, according to consultancy Verisk Maplecroft. The warning comes as the war in Iran has already disrupted fuel and fertiliser supplies, both of which are key agricultural inputs. Now, weather extremes linked to a powerful El Nino are further threatening crops across the region. Indonesia, the world’s...

The country would be the fifth member of ASEAN to roll out of the red carpet for Min Aung Hlaing since his inauguration as president in April.

North Korea’s decision to send a record delegation to the 2026 Asian Games in Japan could serve as a calculated opening for limited diplomacy with Washington and Tokyo, even as major obstacles to formal talks remain. State media reported on Wednesday that a delegation led by Kim Il-guk, North Korea’s sports minister, had left for Japan to attend the Games. The 20th Asian Games are being held in Nagoya and surrounding Aichi prefecture and run from Saturday to October 4. North Korea’s 180-strong...

New Delhi and Islamabad summoned each other’s top diplomats to lodge strong protests after an Indian and a Pakistani naval vessel collided in international waters. India’s foreign ministry said that it had called in Pakistan’s senior envoy to formally register a strong objection over what it said was “unacceptable and unprofessional conduct” of Pakistani naval units that led to a collision with an Indian warship. Pakistan’s foreign ministry also said it had officially called upon the charge...

The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said on Thursday that the country’s nuclear-armed status was “absolute”, calling those hoping for its denuclearisation “idiots”. North Korea has legally enshrined its status as a nuclear weapons state, with its leadership declaring the country’s nuclear arsenal permanent and irreversible. US President Donald Trump recently said Pyongyang possessed 57 “very powerful” nuclear weapons, with Seoul putting the figure at between 80 and 120. “The...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s invitation for Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi to visit Kyiv has created a diplomatic dilemma for the Japanese leader, who is under pressure to show firmer support for Ukraine without further antagonising Russia. Zelensky extended the invitation through Eisuke Mori, speaker of Japan’s House of Representatives, during his visit to the Ukrainian capital earlier this week. Mori, who helped establish the cross-party Japan-Ukraine parliamentary friendship group...

Struggling to breathe through the acrid haze emanating from wildfires on Indonesia’s Borneo Island, residents said on Wednesday they feared for their health but had little to do but wait out the foul-smelling hazard. Indonesia, which shares Borneo with Malaysia and Brunei, is grappling with forest fires that have ravaged swathes of the island, partly caused by the El Nino climate phenomenon that has also affected other countries in Southeast Asia and beyond. In Pontianak, the capital of West...

Internal reports, including one from the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency, say China could acquire U.S. jet technology through spying or cooperation with Saudi Arabia.

As technological developments augur an era of renewed space exploration, China is aiming to become a major player. In the first part of this two-part series, Wency Chen and Mia Nurmamat examine how the southern island province of Hainan is betting on a growing aerospace cluster to rewrite its economic playbook beyond tourism. On Hainan’s northeastern coast, launch towers rise abruptly from a flat landscape of coconut palms and open sky. At Pad 1 of the commercial spaceport in Wenchang, an...

Surging drug use has contributed to an epidemic in the Pacific island nation, where one in 60 adults is estimated to be living with the virus.

Human rights organizations are speaking out after five Kazakh activists were convicted for an alleged plan to seize the presidential residence in Astana.

An expert team spent days trying to find six men who were trapped underground after catastrophic floods, as families clung to fading hopes.

Hinduism may not be as well-defined and creedal as Christianity or Islam, but it is not a meaningless label either. It refers to a real idea.

Xi and Putin in Delhi made the headlines. The declaration tells the real story of India's multi-alignment and why Europe should welcome it.

Siddhant Kishore joins host Tushar Shetty to examine the BRICS summit in New Delhi and the strategic realignment underway across Asia.

Insights from Verineia Codrean.

Beijing has opened its enormous market to African exports. Whether that helps the continent move up global value chains is another question.

China renewed calls for an end to the fighting in the Middle East while demonstrating its influence over Tehran.

In the first Central Asia-South Korea leaders summit, energy and critical minerals were top of the agenda.

Malaysia will formally invite Myanmar leader Minh Aung Hlaing to visit Kuala Lumpur to discuss efforts to repatriate nearly 200,000 refugees from the war-torn nation that Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim says have placed a heavy social and economic burden on his country. Refugees from Myanmar, particularly ethnic Rohingya, have faced worsening hostility in recent months in Malaysia, where they are accused of causing social problems and taking over small local businesses in areas where they have set...