What’s behind the quiet US diplomatic thaw with Myanmar?

Chinese artificial intelligence start-up DeepSeek has fully open-sourced an internally developed framework designed to run AI models efficiently, as a senior researcher at the company described the growing divide between open-source and closed-source AI as a battle between “light and darkness”. The company on Tuesday released DeepInfer, an inference framework tailored to support its DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash model on both Nvidia’s SM100 Blackwell graphics processing units (GPUs) and Huawei...

Laddli Khatun pulled one document after another from a yellow bag, desperately hoping one would be enough to keep her name on India’s electoral rolls. As the world’s largest democracy overhauls its voter lists, millions like Khatun are scrambling to re-establish their credentials, despite having voted before. Critics and opposition parties say the exercise risks mass disenfranchisement, and those removed fear wider citizenship repercussions. More than 133 million names – including 28 million...

Leaders of India’s governing coalition are trying to frame the demonstrations as a power grab by traditional political parties rather than a grass-roots youth movement.

Malaysia’s border control chief pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to two charges of assaulting junior police officers at the country’s main international airport last month, after a video of the confrontation went viral. Mohd Shuhaily Mohd Zain, director general of the Malaysian Border Control and Protection Agency, was filmed confronting two men at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on September 28. He previously linked the incident to an operation against airport touts following complaints about...

Malaysia is negotiating with Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia to establish overland transit routes for fresh durian exports to China, according to Agriculture and Food Security Minister Mohamad Sabu. The minister said the move would reduce transport costs and improve access to the lucrative Chinese market. “Durian is a favourite among Chinese consumers, but they sometimes find it difficult to get the fruit at a more affordable price,” he said during parliament’s question and answer time on...

The response came after Homeland Security ordered the removal and exclusion of products developed by the Chinese company.

A Singaporean couple who regularly abused their first child after he was born, resulting in his death at the age of eight months, were sentenced to jail on Wednesday. Chloe Gan Ci Xuan, 23, and Neo Jia Ming, 27, were sentenced respectively to 15 years and three months’ jail and 16 years’ jail for various charges over the death of their son, Trevor Neo Yu Hin. Gan pleaded guilty to three charges comprising causing the death of a child, ill-treating a child and permitting such ill-treatment. Neo...

Machines whirred around Siddiqui as her vision blurred and her heart hammered. The garment factory on the outskirts of Karachi was sweltering. The room was packed with sweating fellow workers and huge industrial equipment that radiated heat. The air felt thick with the humidity of this summer’s monsoon. Siddiqui, who asked to be identified only by surname, felt like she was suffocating. Concerned colleagues called over her supervisor. “The supervisor said, ‘Just complete this work,’” the...

With her government entering its second year on Wednesday, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi may face growing questions over whether her leadership style, oft-described as assertive, could fuel discontent within her Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). Bolstered by high public approval ratings and an overwhelming majority in the House of Representatives, Takaichi has pushed through divisive legislation and made personnel appointments heavily tinged with her will. Political analysts warn that...

Singapore’s recent parliamentary debate over primary school admissions has put a familiar parental strategy in the city state under the spotlight – parents moving house to improve their children’s chances of getting into popular schools. Speaking with This Week in Asia, property agents say some families in Singapore have been approaching them with the intention of buying or renting particular residences at least two years before their children’s primary school admission. Living close to a...

The growing popularity of Chinese artificial intelligence models has emerged as a key risk factor for Anthropic ahead of its blockbuster initial public offering, according to US research firm Hedgeye Risk Management. “It’s all about Chinese competition when analysing Anthropic,” said Felix Wang, managing director and global tech sector head at Hedgeye. “Many of my clients are asking the same question.” The assessment comes as Anthropic faces renewed investor jitters over whether its massive AI...