Japans defence minister pledged to deepen military cooperation with the Philippines during a visit Tuesday to Manila, aiming for the early transfer of Abukuma-class destroyers to the archipelago nation. The two countries shared grievances over Chinese territorial claims have seen them draw increasingly close in recent years, including the signing of a reciprocal access agreement allowing for the deployment of troops on each others territory. Defence Minister Shinjiro Koizumis visit came as...

The Philippine House of Representatives has moved Vice-President Sara Duterte- Carpios impeachment closer to a decisive vote, the first step in a week-long process that will test whether allies of President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr have enough support to send the case to a Senate trial. The House placed the impeachment on its plenary agenda on Tuesday, a day after its justice committee endorsed the case, setting up a possible vote by all lawmakers on whether Duterte-Carpio should stand trial in ..

Indonesia is moving to reshape its ride-hailing industry from the inside, with officials saying the state has acquired stakes in app companies as President Prabowo Subianto seeks to raise drivers earnings and rein in commission fees. The move could mark a significant shift in one of Southeast Asias biggest on- demand economies, where millions of drivers for platforms such as Gojek and Grab have become a highly visible labour force and, analysts say, a potent political bloc. Last week, Prabowo...

Thailand on Tuesday cancelled a long-standing agreement with Cambodia to work towards joint offshore energy exploration, Thailands prime minister said, defying calls from its neighbour to stay the course on the 25-year-old pact. The Thai cabinets cancellation of the 2001 agreement, which seeks to develop a framework to jointly explore hydrocarbons in parts of the Gulf of Thailand where the claims of Thailand and Cambodia overlap, had long been expected and follows two rounds of armed...

Four men slipped aboard in the darkness. Armed with knives and moving fast, they descended into the engine room of the Taipan as the Marshall Islands- flagged tanker threaded its way through the Singapore Strait on the night of April 22. The crew managed to raise the alarm in time and thankfully no one was hurt. But by the time the vessel was searched the intruders were gone, vanished back into the water with a clutch of spare engine parts in tow. It was a modest haul. It was also the 16th ..

A Malaysian minister urged the countrys police chief to clarify the status of investigations into allegations that a network of businessmen was colluding with anti-corruption agency officials to oust executives. The government has ordered law enforcement agencies, including the Malaysian AntiCorruption Commission (MACC), to look into the allegations involving the businessmen, nicknamed the corporate mafia. So far, the police say they have found no evidence of the MACCs involvement. It is...

The death of a runner from heatstroke after a Penang hill run event has put a spotlight on the rising risks of soaring temperatures in Malaysia, as authorities report a spike in heat-related illnesses and are seeding clouds to trigger rains in the countrys drought-hit northern region. The death of the 41-year-old, the islands first-ever confirmed heatstroke fatality linked to a sporting event, comes as temperatures in Malaysia soar to the mid-30s degrees Celsius. The man from Tampin, Negeri...

Singapore schools used caning as a disciplinary measure only when all other options were inadequate, given the gravity of the misconduct, Minister for Education Desmond Lee said on Tuesday. Responding to more than 20 parliamentary questions on the Ministry of Educations (MOE) updated efforts to tackle bullying, Lee acknowledged that studies linked poorly administered and frequent corporal punishment particularly in unregulated settings such as the home with negative outcomes. We recognise...

Philippine annual inflation accelerated to a three-year high in April, as a surge in fuel prices triggered by the Middle East conflict raises the chance of more policy tightening. Consumer prices rose 7.2 per cent last month, the statistics agency said on Tuesday, the highest since March 2023. That was above the 5.5 per cent median forecast in a poll of economists. The April print also breached the central banks forecast range of 5.6 to 6.4 per cent for the month. Emilio Neri, lead economist...

Japans defence minister is touring Southeast Asia this week with what analysts describe as a clear, if diplomatically understated, mission: turning Indonesia and the Philippines into harder targets for Chinese maritime ambition. Shinjiro Koizumi landed in Jakarta on Monday to sign a defence cooperation pact with his Indonesian counterpart Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin, coming hot on the heels of Tokyos landmark decision to lift a decades-old ban on the export of lethal weapons last month. He heads next...

Authorities in Thailand are unravelling a phantom birth racket involving possibly hundreds of babies mainly Chinese falsely registered as Thais by corrupt officials so that their parents can gain land and company ownership rights. Scores of birth certificates have come under scrutiny, with several officials arrested for suspected bribery in a scam that first came to light in northern Chiang Mai but has since clustered around a Bangkok suburb and northeastern Nakhon Ratchasima...

Singapores Grab reported first-quarter profit that exceeded analysts estimates, helped by resilient demand for ride hailing and delivery in a market rattled by economic and political challenges. Southeast Asias biggest ride-hailing and delivery firm has been trying to boost spending on its platform by incorporating artificial-intelligence features into its superapp and bundling its core ride-hailing, delivery and financial services. With oil and gas prices soaring due to the war in the Middle...

Malaysias Umno is making a heady gamble by planning to strike out on its own, experts say, as the former ruling party looks to rally support from among the countrys Malay-Muslim majority in preparation for national polls that must be called in less than two years from now. Umno President Ahmad Zahid Hamidi on Sunday said the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition that the party led was almost certain of standing alone in the coming general election, after more than three years as a junior partner...

Singapore and New Zealand on Monday signed the worlds first legally binding bilateral agreement to keep essential supplies including food, fuel, healthcare products and chemical and construction materials flowing even during crises. The Agreement on Trade in Essential Supplies was signed by Singapores Minister-in-charge of Energy, Science and Technology Tan See Leng and New Zealands Minister for Trade and Investment Todd McClay at the Singapore-New Zealand Annual Leaders Meeting in...

More than 300 families have been evacuated after massive amounts of ash billowed from the Mayon volcano over the weekend due to the collapse of lava deposits from its slopes, Philippine officials said on Monday. There was no explosive eruption from Mayon, which has been erupting mildly on and off since January, but huge deposits of lava on its southwestern slope suddenly cascaded down in a pyroclastic flow an avalanche of hot rocks, ash and gas before nightfall on Saturday, said Teresito...

Malaysias anti-corruption agency on Monday questioned former economy minister Rafizi Ramli over a billion-ringgit semiconductor deal with British chip designer Arm Holdings, escalating a politically sensitive inquiry that has swept up ministers, senior officials and one of Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahims most outspoken former allies. Rafizi, the Pandan MP and a former senior figure in Anwars reformist Peoples Justice Party, arrived at the Malaysian Anti- Corruption Commissions (MACC)...

AI skills are becoming a clear salary advantage for Singapores software engineers, with those who have such capabilities earning up to 25 per cent more than their peers, according to a new salary report by NodeFlair. The Singapore-based tech talent platform said its findings came from more than 230,000 verified data points and showed software engineers with AI expertise commanded a 13 to 25 per cent pay premium across experience levels. That marks a shift from 2024, when rising demand for AI...

A woman carrying a knife has been arrested after being tackled by the crowd during the Rain Rave Water Music Festival in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday night. In a viral video, a man can be seen attempting to disarm the woman. Several others from the crowd, along with security personnel, then joined in to restrain her until the police arrived. She was seen being arrested shortly after. Kuala Lumpur police chief Fadil Marsus reportedly confirmed the arrest of the 28-year-old woman for possession of ..

Across Bangkok, aromas of garlic, chilli and grilled meat drift from roadside stalls and carts, but tighter controls on vendors threaten livelihoods and the street food culture that defines the Thai capital. Convenient, full of flavour and popular among locals and tourists alike, Bangkoks street food is one of the citys signatures, where sizzling woks and smoky charcoal grills turn boulevards and pavements into open-air kitchens from morning until late at night. But many street sellers in the...

Rising youth suicides in Manila, fuelled by emotional distress and digital triggers, have spurred calls to expand support for vulnerable Filipinos, as the deeply religious country begins to confront mental health more openly. In 2018, Macy Castaneda Lee, a 16-year-old Manila high school student, thought about ending it all after grappling with past trauma, including childhood molestation. Now a journalist and founder of the mental health advocacy group Talang Dalisay, Lee has turned that ..

Japan and Vietnam are set to agree to boost their partnership in economic security in leaders talks on Saturday, as Japan seeks to strengthen supply chains for critical resources amid its diplomatic spat with China and the Middle East crisis. As Tokyo looks to deepen ties with Southeast Asian nations with an eye to Chinas increasing economic engagement with the region, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi will also give a speech on Japans updated vision for its free and open Indo-Pacific policy...

Southeast Asian growers can now ship durians to China faster than before using a new cold-storage rail service linking Thailand, Laos and southwest Chinas Yunnan province, slashing prices for the pungent fruit. The first goods train laden with durians from Thailand Chinas biggest source of the fruit began winding its way north through Laos to China over the weekend, state broadcaster CCTV reported on Tuesday. More than 90 per cent of the worlds durian exports worth about US$7.5 billion...

When Malaysias government announced a ban on two books in mid-April, the move raised eyebrows, with some questioning the intent of Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahims administration and his reformist credentials. The home affairs ministry on April 16 declared that the books one of which was a memoir of the grandmother to an ally of Anwar were a danger to national security for containing communist elements and ideologies. The decision triggered immediate pushback, predictably from civil society...

Singapore and Thailand ranked among the worlds least miserable economies in an annual index compiled by a Johns Hopkins University economist, who said Southeast Asia was one of the healthiest economic neighbourhoods in the world. The 2025 Hankes Annual Misery Index (HAMI), compiled by applied economics professor Steve Hanke, measures the economic temperature of a country and seeks to approximate how its average citizen experiences the economy. This years HAMI found that several...

A train hit a car in Indonesia on Friday, killing four people including two children, police said, days after another deadly train crash outside the capital Jakarta. The driver of the car involved in the collision in Central Java province did not see the oncoming train on a level crossing due to thick fog, local traffic officer Eko Ari Kisworo said in a statement issued by the police. The train then collided with the car, which carried nine people and was flung about 20m (66ft) before hitting ..

A horrific train crash that killed 16 passengers on the outskirts of Jakarta has prompted Indonesias President Prabowo Subianto to pledge 4 trillion rupiah (US$230 million) to overhaul level crossings across Java after officials identified one such intersection as a key point in the chain collision. The pledge targets one of the key weaknesses in Indonesias rail network: crossings that are unguarded, poorly maintained or haphazardly created by local communities. Transport analysts said the...

A viral video of three elephants sent from Malaysia to a zoo in Japan has sparked public anger after online users said the animals appeared distressed when visitors called their names in Malay which many viewers interpreted as a sign of homesickness. The footage showed the three pachyderms Dara, Amoi and Kelat responding to the Malaysian visitors, while another widely shared clip led social media users to claim one of the elephants appeared to be weeping. Other clips and images...

Roblox, a gaming platform popular with kids, announced Thursday that children under 16 in Indonesia will be required to undergo facial scans to verify their age to comply with new restrictions on minors use of social media and digital platforms in the country. Nicky Jackson Colaco, Robloxs vice-president and global head of public policy, announced the changes in a press conference in Jakarta, describing them among the strictest that the company has implemented anywhere in the world. She said...

A 24-year-old Malaysian woman has been jailed for two years for throwing her newborn out of her 38th-floor flat in Kuala Lumpur. The court on Wednesday convicted Lua Mei Zhu of causing the death of her baby girl on February 26, 2025, the New Straits Times reported. Lua, who is not married, tossed her daughter out of the bathroom window shortly after giving birth between 1.30pm and 9pm. A resident on the ninth floor called police at about 10.20pm after finding the baby with severe head ..

Malaysias system for tracking repeat domestic abusers is under scrutiny after police said a man accused of assaulting his pregnant wife until she miscarried had been married nine times and was free on bail while appealing a 10-year jail sentence for attacking another spouse who was previously expecting. The 43-year-old suspect, named in local media as Rosmaini Abd Raof, was remanded for seven days in Kedah on Wednesday after police arrested him at a homestay in Alor Setar, the northern states...

The three Malaysian elephants sent to Osaka in Japan from Zoo Taiping and Night Safari should be brought home, according to Natural Resources and Environmental Sustainability Minister Arthur Joseph Kurup. Arthur made the call amid concerns that Japans climate is unsuitable for the elephants and that one of them, Kelat, has suffered an injury. Last Friday, a group of protesters gathered outside the ministry, urging the government to bring the elephants back. They cited welfare concerns ..

A French teen is facing mischief and public nuisance charges in Singapore after posting a video on social media of himself licking a straw from an orange juice vending machine and then putting it back. Didier Gaspard Owen Maximilien, 18, was charged on April 24 and has not entered a plea, the city states largest English-language newspaper, The Straits Times, said. He allegedly committed the offence at a shopping centre on March 12, and his video spread rapidly when it surfaced, the report...

Philippine authorities have introduced a new national playbook for raiding and prosecuting online scam centres, as criminal networks once tied to the countrys offshore gaming industry splinter into smaller and harder-to-detect operations. The rules aim to close gaps exposed during earlier raids, when agencies struggled to coordinate evidence, freeze assets, identify trafficking victims and build cases against operators who often left few physical traces. Analysts and former officials said the...

The pace of tropical forest destruction slowed in 2025 after record losses the year before but remained at worrying levels equivalent to 11 football fields per minute, researchers said Wednesday. The world lost 4.3 million hectares (10.6 million acres) of tropical primary rainforest last year, down 36 per cent from 2024, said researchers from the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the University of Maryland. A drop of this scale in a single year is encouraging it shows what decisive...

Perched on the bow of his long-tail fishing boat, 75-year-old Sukjai Yana untangled a handful of small fish from his net, disappointed by his catch and fretting over whether he can sell them. Some days Sukjai earns nothing: demand for fish is falling due to worries over contamination of the Mekong River and its tributaries by toxic run-off from rare earth mines upstream that is threatening millions who rely on those waters for farms and fisheries. Chiang Saen, a fishing hub in northern ..

Indonesias new legislation to protect domestic helpers has been hailed by rights groups as the beginning of a new chapter for millions though they warn that the road to change remains long and winding. On April 21, Indonesias House of Representatives passed the domestic worker protection bill into law, 22 years since it was first proposed. The legislation provides legal certainty, protects workers from various forms of unfair treatment, and encourages improvements in the skills and...

Thailand is turning to live-streamers to clear a looming durian glut, slashing prices as weaker Chinese demand threatens its biggest export market. Top online seller Pimradaporn Benjawattanapat, or Pimrypie, led a high-energy live stream on Tuesday night, pitching to her combined 31 million TikTok and Facebook followers. Known for selling everything from her own-brand fish sauce to luxury perfumes, Pimrypie priced premium Monthong at as low as 100 baht (US$3) per fruit, well below typical ..

Being a Malaysian Indian is apparently a good indication that you are unlikely to fall for a scam. Police have found that potential victims from the ethnic group are more than likely to frustrate scammers with a barrage of questions. Malaysians lost an estimated 2.7 billion ringgit (US$684 million) to online scams last year alone, according to data from cybersecurity firm Fortinet Malaysia a 76 per cent increase from the previous year as syndicates adopt increasingly sophisticated methods...

Thailands vision for a land bridge splits opinion: some see it as a crucial new Asian trade route for a global economy held hostage by geography, while others view it as an expensive and environmentally ruinous distraction for a kingdom with plenty already on its plate. But to its backers, the proposed road and rail corridor, bookended by ports on the Gulf of Thailand and another 90km (56 miles) away on the Andaman Sea, to bypass a vital chokepoint, has never felt more urgent. Irans virtual...

Ground-handling company SATS has apologised over a video circulating online showing a service crew member throwing luggage onto a baggage belt at Singapores Changi Airport. The behaviour seen in the video does not reflect our service standards or the care with which we expect baggage to be handled, SATS said in a statement on Tuesday. We are sorry that this occurred. In a social media video posted by user Eric Yoong, a SATS service crew member can be seen tossing baggage onto a conveyor...