Malaysia’s king warns against challenging Najib’s house arrest

Economic concerns dominated in the lead-up to the election on Saturday, in which there was no clear front-runner and smaller parties were expected to wield greater influence.

New Delhi ranked as the world’s ⁠most polluted major ⁠city on Saturday ⁠morning, according to Swiss group IQAir, as the Indian capital faced severe pollution forecasts a day before Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights. India has ordered schools in and around Delhi to offer online classes and encouraged people to work from home ahead of Diwali on Sunday, which is usually marked by the widespread use of firecrackers ⁠that further worsen the air quality. IQAir ranked Delhi ‌first for air pollution...

Garment workers in Bangladesh, the world’s second-largest clothing exporter after China, are demanding that their wages more than double – and their protests have brought a halt to production in factories supplying global brands including H&M, Zara and Walmart. Tens of thousands of workers have marched through Dhaka and the key industrial towns of Gazipur, Ashulia and Narayanganj in recent days demanding higher pay. Protests turned violent in several hubs, with factories vandalised and roads...

North Korea rewards ⁠its top hackers, tasked with heists like the Binance crypto hack that netted a cool US$6.3 ⁠billion, with perks such as spacious apartments in the capital and huge hard currency awards in return for ⁠gruelling hours of work. Leader Kim Jong-un has assembled an army of world-class hackers using such incentives in a programme more than a decade old that picks 200 of the smartest middle school students each year to study computer engineering, defectors and analysts say. A...

A memo that circulated among U.S. policymakers cited intelligence that Alice Huang, a Chinese executive who developed a relationship with Nvidia’s leader, was an asset of Beijing’s Ministry of State Security.

Myanmar’s military-backed government may find its reluctance to address the international community’s concerns a greater obstacle to economic recovery than the threat of tougher international financial restrictions, according to analysts. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the global money-laundering and terrorist-financing watchdog, warned on October 30 that it could consider further measures against Myanmar if it failed to remedy shortcomings in its financial safeguards by...

Russia’s seizure of the assets of a Japanese company could prove to be Tokyo’s red line after a series of bitter exchanges between both nations and ties that continue to spiral. The Japanese government on Friday lodged a formal complaint with Russia and demanded that Moscow immediately reverse a decree announced the previous day that transferred the assets of Japan Tobacco International (JTI) to Russian control. Analysts say the decree, signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, is likely a...

All across Asia, anti-establishment protests have been flaring up, led by a generation that came of age in the digital era. Memes are mobilising a young, permanently online cohort against specific government policies, insults and injustices – its many members determined to seize their own destinies before the future they fear takes root. Asia is home to 60 per cent of the world’s adolescents and young people, or some 1 billion in total, according to UN estimates. Gen Z, roughly defined as those...

Suffield Academy placed its longtime head of school, Charlie Cahn III, on leave last month after learning that he was the subject of a federal investigation.

Travelling through South America earlier this year, I was repeatedly reminded of China’s growing importance. At Ezeiza International Airport in Buenos Aires, I spotted the logo of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China. ICBC acquired an 80 per cent stake in Standard Bank Argentina in 2012, establishing a significant presence. In Buenos Aires, my friend Diego García, a publisher, offered a useful perspective: Argentina does not have to choose between China and the United States. It should...

In the lead-up to an election in which economic concerns dominate, there was no clear front-runner. Minor parties will most likely determine who governs.