Asia - South China Morning Post

Australia must learn from past guerrilla insurgencies and adopt an “unconventional deterrence” policy in facing down threats from China, Russia and elsewhere, one of the country’s leading think tanks said on Wednesday.

Australia, under the tripartite Aukus pact with the United States and the United Kingdom, will acquire at least three Virginia-class submarines from the US within 15 years, with an eye to eventually build its own.

Until then, Canberra faces a major gap in its defences, warned the...

Indonesia has said that its shrimp shipments to the US can continue following stricter rules in response to a radiation scare, as business executives call for a global campaign to restore the reputation of the product and diversify the local industry’s markets apart from the world’s largest economy.

The Marine Affairs and Fisheries Ministry in Jakarta said on Saturday that exports to the US, the biggest buyer of Indonesia’s shrimps, could resume for companies based on Java island and Lampung...

Southeast Asia must urgently modernise its electricity grids to sustain its economic boom and unlock the full potential of renewable energy, according to a new report.

Without sweeping investment in digitalised “smart” networks, the region’s industrial competitiveness and climate goals are at risk, warns the report from the independent global energy think tank Ember.

Over the past decade, renewable capacity across the 10-nation Asean bloc has more than doubled, but this rapid growth has been...

The father of the 14-year-old student who stabbed a girl to death at a school in Bandar Utama, Malaysia’s Selangor state, said he was heartbroken over the incident.

“I am heartbroken my son did this.

“I know that no matter what I say, it’s useless. No matter what I do, I can’t get their daughter back. I don’t know how to face them,” said the emotionally distraught man, according to China Press.

The father said that his son was introverted and didn’t talk much. He couldn’t believe his son would...

As the workday grinds on in Kuala Lumpur, 23-year-old office worker Adib finds solace in a few quiet cigarettes, but his unhealthy habit is about to come at a higher price.

From next month, a new government policy will drive up the price of tobacco and alcohol in Malaysia as higher so-called sin taxes take effect.

Unveiled by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim in last week’s budget, the measure aims to improve public health. Yet it has also raised concerns about the rising cost of living.

It...

The US government has seized more than US$14 billion in bitcoin and charged the founder of a Cambodian conglomerate in a massive cryptocurrency scam, accusing him and unnamed co-conspirators of exploiting forced labour to dupe would-be investors and using the proceeds to buy yachts, jets and a Picasso painting.

In an indictment unsealed on Tuesday, Brooklyn federal prosecutors charged Prince Holding Group chairman Chen Zhi with wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy. At the same...

Apple is preparing to expand its manufacturing operations in Vietnam as part of a push into the smart home market and an ongoing effort to lessen its dependence on China.

The company is developing a range of new home devices for next year, including indoor security cameras and a display designed to control appliances and serve as a house command hub. A more advanced tabletop robot – capable of using motors and sensors to move – is slated to follow in 2027.

All three products are on track to be...

As Japan grapples with an uncertain leadership transition, a rash of domestic scandals risks further contributing to its political circus.

In recent months, a female mayor has been accused of repeatedly taking a male subordinate to a nearby “love hotel”, another dissolved a city council after it was discovered that she had falsified her academic records, and a male mayor from Okinawa is accused of sexually harassing female staff.

Elsewhere, a female mayor stepped down after being accused of...

Japan’s largest power company is reportedly dangling a 100 billion yen (US$654 million) payout for locals to restart its long-dormant Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant in a move critics have called “bribery”.

The unprecedented financial support package, originally reported by the Nikkei business newspaper, reflects Tokyo Electric Power Company’s (Tepco) mounting desperation to revive the world’s largest nuclear site more than a decade after the Fukushima disaster, according to analysts.

A...

Ashley Tellis, a prominent Indian-American national security expert and long-time US adviser, has been accused of hoarding classified documents and repeatedly meeting Chinese officials, stirring concern over possible Beijing ties and jolting Washington’s foreign policy circles.

An affidavit dated October 13 in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia said more than a thousand pages of classified materials – several marked “Top Secret” and “Secret” – were recovered from various...