Russian President Vladimir Putin visited on Thursday Russia’s far eastern Kuril Islands for the first time, prompting a “strong” protest by Japan, which also claims the territory, and drawing diplomatic backing for Tokyo from the United States.

Russian-Japanese relations have long been dogged by tensions over the contested islands, known in Japan as the Northern Territories and seized by the Soviet Union in 1945.

The Kremlin posted a video of Putin in the Kuril Islands, with Russian media saying...

Employed mothers in Malaysia have defended emergency leave rights amid debate over unfair workplace expectations and the challenge of balancing family and long hours.

The dispute erupted after a woman complained on live radio that colleagues with children were taking emergency leave too often, piling extra work on their single counterparts.

The anonymous caller told the hosts of Hot FM’s breakfast show on Tuesday that she was fed up with a female colleague repeatedly using emergency leave when...

Welcome to Open Dialogue, a series from the South China Morning Post where we bring together leading voices to discuss the stories and subjects occupying international headlines.

In this edition, we invited a leading Chinese scholar of South Asian affairs and a former Indian foreign secretary and ambassador to China to reflect on the deep fault lines in India-China relations. They debate whether the biggest barrier is history or politics, clash over the border, Pakistan and India’s ties with the...

Surrounded by a clutter of carton boxes, bottles of dishwashing liquid and rows of dry snacks, Ramasamy Vellasamy holds court behind a cashier. For nine hours a day since 1986, he has been running a provision shop on the ground floor of a housing block in northern Singapore and knows the neighbourhood and its residents like the back of his hand.

Despite Samy Provision Shop’s enduring presence, it was barely breaking even, said Ramasamy, who lamented the struggle of adapting to the ever-shifting...

A Singapore court barred Pritam Singh, the chief of the main opposition party, from practising law following his criminal conviction for lying under oath to a parliamentary committee.

The Law Society of Singapore brought the case after Singh was convicted last year, months before a national election, on two charges of giving false answers to a parliamentary committee. Singh was fined S$14,000 (US$10,940), and the High Court later dismissed his appeal.

The disciplinary proceedings are the latest...

India is looking to join France’s sixth-generation fighter programme in a long-term bid to secure a role in the next era of air warfare, from advanced aircraft technology to the industrial work of designing and building future combat systems.

But analysts said the move, while potentially a major step in India’s defence partnership with France, would do little to ease the country’s immediate shortage of combat jets.

The defence ministry told Indian lawmakers last week that it had “initiated...

Fears of a new industrial revolution in which artificial intelligence replaces manual labour have yet to materialise in Southeast Asia – but white-collar workers should brace themselves.

Nearly one in four workers in the region face generative AI (GenAI) disrupting or affecting their jobs, according to a July report by the International Labour Organization (ILO).

Clerical, administrative and professional positions were most at risk, the report stated. Manual trades, craft and agricultural work...

At Jantar Mantar, New Delhi’s designated protest site, India’s future spent weeks enduring the heat and demanding change. But what kind of change, and why?

These were young people, many of them highly educated but still without a job despite sitting numerous government recruitment exams. Their anger was not because they had been cheated. It stemmed from worse: their qualifications had simply stopped meaning anything. China has a word for this dilemma. India does not, and that missing word...

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday he hoped more countries would join a defence agreement signed last week between Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan aimed at stabilising a region wracked by conflict.

The so-called Mecca Joint Defence Agreement was signed on Friday as the Middle East grapples with fallout from the US-Iran war, which has dragged in regional players and disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea.

“Our vision for it is not limited to the three...

Malaysia is taking palm oil from the frying pan to server racks, as it banks on its biggest agricultural commodity to crack a code plaguing its data centre boom – keeping servers cool.

Researchers at the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) are developing a palm-based liquid to cool computer servers without relying on copious volumes of water, as the country grapples with high resource demands to support its rapidly expanding digital infrastructure.

The new approach – termed the Sawit EcoTherm...