Upgraded but underperforming: Philippines’ growth lags behind

In early July, China fired a test missile from a nuclear submarine into the South Pacific for the first time, a weapon capable of carrying nuclear warheads. Washington and Canberra were livid. The Pacific has long been the exclusive testing ground for such long-range missiles from the United States. How dare China! The reaction from Pacific island states was more measured. While leaders from Tuvalu, Palau and the Solomon Islands strongly criticised the test, the 18-member Pacific Islands Forum...

For more than five years, U Kyaw Moe Tun has refused to give up his United Nations post and a sandstone townhouse on the Upper East Side.

Chinese artificial intelligence company Z.ai is facing a trust crisis after developers discovered that its coding assistant tool, ZCode, was silently uploading local workspace data to external servers without explicit user consent. Even though the company, also known as Zhipu AI, apologised and patched the vulnerability, developers said the incident was likely to weaken its reputation, especially at a time when cybersecurity is becoming a central issue in the AI industry. The issue came to light...

The recent opening of a new road bridge between North Korea and Russia may look like a modest infrastructure project. In reality, the 1km stretch across the Tumen River carries implications far beyond the movement of vehicles between two border towns. For China, it is a reminder that its influence over North Korea is no longer as secure as it once appeared and that Russia may be increasingly capable of challenging Beijing’s interests on its northeastern periphery. The bridge, inaugurated on...

North Korea fired two missiles off its eastern coast on Sunday, its second set of tests in roughly a week and days after Pyongyang accused the US of driving tensions on the Korean peninsula through a series of military drills. Nearly three ‌hours after launching a short-range ballistic missile (SRBM) towards the East Sea, or Sea of Japan, on Sunday afternoon, North Korea ‌fired a similar missile, according to South Korea’s defence ministry. If the subsequent launch is confirmed to be a ballistic...

The government is exploring nuclear power options to guard against global energy shocks. One proposal is to switch on a plant in Bataan that has been mothballed for 40 years.

Chinese memory chip giant Changxin Memory Technologies (CXMT) said on Sunday that it adopted its new-generation technology platform for mass production, narrowing the advantage of global leaders including Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix in manufacturing nodes. CXMT’s fifth-generation technology platform, dubbed G5, achieved a “quantum leap” in storage density, with the number of dies produced per wafer increasing by at least 50 per cent from the previous generation while maintaining better...

The prospect of United States, Chinese and Russian leaders meeting at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit in Shenzhen this November has revived the Yalta analogy. Talk of a Trump-Xi-Putin summit – echoing the 1945 meeting that reshaped the world – surfaced during the first Trump term, and speculation returned last year with the 80th anniversary of the second world war. No such meeting occurred. However, Chinese President Xi Jinping hosted the two presidents back-to-back in...

Former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak said on Sunday that he would remain in Kajang Prison as he and his legal team study the conditions attached to his “conditional pardon”, including the payment of a 50 million ringgit (US$12.3 million) fine before he can be transferred to house arrest. In a statement issued on his behalf by Messrs Shafee & Co, Najib said his transfer to house arrest depended on the conditions of the pardon being fulfilled. “Until the fine is paid to the court, our...

As heatwaves become more frequent and intense across Asia, the region faces a dangerous power paradox. Soaring demand for air conditioning threatens to push electricity grids closer to failure just as extreme heat puts the infrastructure under greater strain, raising the risk of cooling disappearing when people need it most. That risk has been visible across the region this summer. In South Korea, President Lee Jae Myung called a record heatwave a “national disaster” in August after the death...

Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim caused a bit of a stir in India recently with his spirited rendition of a Bollywood classic – a lighthearted moment that also neatly captured his broader push to deepen ties with the South Asian giant. A video of Anwar singing, from memory, Kishore Kumar’s 1965 hit ballad “Khwab Ho Tum Ya Koi Haqeeqat” (“Are you a dream or are you reality?”) was first posted to his social media accounts last Sunday before quickly being picked up by Indian news outlets. The...