Asia - South China Morning Post

Japanese police have arrested a man suspected of using generative AI to create more than 500,000 obscene images resembling women celebrities and selling them online, a police spokesman and media reports said on Tuesday.

Concern is growing worldwide over the use of artificial intelligence tools for malicious purposes including through deepfakes, which turn genuine photos, videos or audio of people into false likenesses.

Between December 2024 and May 2025, Japanese man Tetsuro Chiba allegedly...

US President Donald Trump’s threats of military action against drug cartels in Mexico and Colombia are adding a new layer of uncertainty for Asian exporters shipping to the Americas, analysts have said, compounding the strain from higher import tariffs and already fragile supply chains.

Trump has issued explicit warnings about possible strikes in both countries following a major US operation in Venezuela earlier this month, as part of an escalated regional strategy to counter drug trafficking...

The US ambassador to Singapore, Anjani Sinha, has come under fire in the city state for asking businesses to make “substantially larger” financial contributions as his embassy plans for its July 4 celebrations, despite such fundraising being a standard annual practice of Washington’s diplomats.

Observers told This Week in Asia that while soliciting businesses for contributions was not new, it was the language used by the ambassador that drew disbelief amid Washington’s more transactional foreign...

Indonesia’s efforts to deepen trade with the United States while maintaining close economic ties with China are being tested after a report revealed Washington had linked lower tariffs to the purchase of US-made maritime surveillance drones for use near the South China Sea.

The development has highlighted the balancing act facing Jakarta, which analysts say is seeking to preserve strategic flexibility as trade negotiations with Washington increasingly intersect with security and geopolitical...

A former Indonesian police officer from an elite paramilitary unit who deserted his post and later claimed he had joined a Russian mercenary force fighting in Ukraine has been stripped of his citizenship, according to authorities.

Muhammad Rio, a former member of the Aceh Police’s Mobile Brigade Corps (Brimob), a paramilitary arm of Indonesia’s national police, lost his citizenship after joining a foreign armed force without authorisation, Law Minister Supratman Andi Agtas said.

“Anyone –...

For the Korean American community, the first year of US President Donald Trump’s return to power has been defined by a sense of “pure fear”.

According to Kim Dong-seok, head of the non-profit Korean American Grassroots Conference (KAGC), the institutional tolerance that once protected immigrants has vanished, replaced by a political environment that views non-citizens with a presumption of criminality.

“Even though the US government says it distinguishes between lawful and unlawful immigrants,...

Police in South Korea are hunting a person claiming to be a commercial pilot who threatened to carry out a “suicide flight” over Seoul’s Gimpo International Airport, voicing resentment over the merger between the country’s two largest airlines.

The alarming message – posted on an anonymous online forum popular with office workers – also mentioned a stabbing, prompting authorities to increase security around the airport and verify the poster’s identity, police and aviation officials said on...

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung on Tuesday ordered an investigation into claims that the country’s military intelligence command supported a civilian accused of sending drones into North Korea.

The civilian at the centre of the allegations, a graduate student in his thirties identified only by his surname Oh, claims he flew drones into North Korea three times since September last year.

He previously worked in ex-president Yoon Suk-yeol’s office and allegedly received – according to local...

A man reached out to a 21-year-old woman who had declined a job offer from his employer and arranged to meet her for dinner in Singapore.

After dinner, they went to a park where the man went into the woman’s toilet cubicle and sexually assaulted her and attempted to get her to perform sex acts on him.

The assault was stopped only when the man heard footsteps outside and left in a hurry.

The sex offender, 34-year-old Singaporean Choy Zisheng, was sentenced on Monday to seven years’ jail and four...

We have selected seven stories from the SCMP’s coverage of Asia over the past week that resonated with our readers and shed light on topical issues. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing.

1. ‘No oil here’: Malaysians turn US embassy space post into foreign-policy satire

A well-intentioned US embassy post featuring a satellite image of Malaysia has sparked a distinctly local burst of self-deprecating humour, with social media users quipping in response to the...