Top tax accountant exam scorer in South Korea admits to using AI to cheat

Alina Radulescu, 38, has stayed in Italy, the United States and Thailand for months at a time. Now, the IT consultant from Romania shares a co-living space in Seoul with 11 other digital nomads – and says she’s never been happier. “There’s a certain vibe in Korea,” she said. “These days, I’m just so happy when I realise that I’m living here.” Her affinity for South Korea grew gradually through friends in Romania and dance classes where her teacher played K-pop. She first discovered Korean...

China, India, Pakistan, Indonesia and Japan didn’t join the singing contest in Bangkok. That left some of the region’s best-known musical cultures out of the mix.

So far, the contest’s organizers have kept politics offstage. The European edition shows how difficult that can be.

For some ⁠people, the blue, green and white striped socks hanging near the entrance of a FamilyMart convenience store may look more like an emergency purchase than a fashion statement. Yet the 390 yen (US$2.44) socks have become one of Japan’s best-known products at convenience stores, which are usually the go-to for snacks and drinks. With 40 million pairs sold since 2021, they have helped FamilyMart reinvent itself as a lifestyle brand in the competitive conbini market. Now, Japan’s...

China’s leading artificial intelligence model companies are beginning to curb the cybersecurity capabilities of their most advanced open-weight models, following a string of high-profile AI hacking incidents involving both US and Chinese companies. Earlier this month, Chinese technology giant Tencent Holdings said it had stripped its latest Hy4 model of its cyber-hacking capabilities while retaining its cyber defence capabilities, following a similar move by Moonshot AI with its Kimi K3.1 Pro...

World leaders converged in Manila for the Asean summit on Sunday, bringing attention to the 11-member bloc’s growing clout in a region with a population of 700 million and a US$4.4 trillion economy that is tipped to become the world’s fourth largest by 2030. Among top officials flying in are Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Chinese Premier Li Qiang and US President Donald Trump, with the latter expected to attend on Tuesday . But questions...

Identity politics could very well decide the outcome of Malaysia’s next national election, experts say, after parties and voters dug in their heels along ethnic lines in recent polls that have undermined Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s multicultural ruling coalition. On Saturday, Anwar’s Pakatan Harapan (PH) suffered its third straight electoral defeat this year in Melaka state as the incumbent Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition and its new partner, the Perikatan Nasional (PN) federal opposition...

Talks at Cop31, the United Nations climate change conference being held in Antalya, Turkey, come at a critical moment for climate-vulnerable countries across the Global South. Bangladesh is among those bearing the brunt of climate change despite having negligible historical responsibility for global emissions. As delegations negotiate how to finance climate action, the “how” matters no less than the “how much”: support must arrive in time, reach those who need it and avoid deepening debt. The...

The president plans to also discuss the war against Iran, but is not expected to bring up Russia’s war in Ukraine or the scandal that has engulfed Jensen Huang.

Filipino singer Carmelle won the first Asian edition of the Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday with a fiery performance of her dance-pop song “Sobra-Sobra”. The 19-year-old beat 10 other acts in the grand final in Bangkok, with the winner chosen through votes from national juries in participating countries and viewers worldwide. After her victory, Carmelle said her song celebrated female empowerment and was intended as “a tribute to all Filipino women”. “I made history, since this was the first...

Some were Asia-based Europeans chasing nostalgia. Others were Americans eager to experience their first edition of the song contest.