Asia - South China Morning Post

Malaysians hoping for a boost from next month’s budget should brace themselves for disappointment, economists warn, as Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s room to hand out cash and subsidies shrinks with US tariffs starting to bite.

Anwar, who is also finance minister, is expected to present a budget on October 10 that bolsters small and medium-sized businesses and scales up Malaysia’s capabilities in the semiconductor, electric vehicles and rare earths sectors.

But the projected fall in US demand...

A week after Israel bombed Qatar, Saudi Arabia has signed a mutual defence pact with Pakistan in what analysts say will be an extension of Islamabad’s nuclear umbrella over the Gulf kingdom and is a clear signal to the United States for failing to intercept Israeli missiles during the attack.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif signed the agreement in Riyadh on Wednesday, which stipulated that “any aggression against either country shall be...

Thai police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at Cambodian civilians in a disputed border area on Wednesday, authorities in both countries said, the most significant escalation since they declared a ceasefire to end a deadly five-day conflict in July.

At least 23 Cambodians were injured in the incident, according to Cambodian authorities, while Thailand’s military said an unspecified number of Thai officials had also sustained injuries.

The clash took place at a disputed frontier settlement,...

A massive immigration raid on a battery plant in the US state of Georgia earlier this month continues to reverberate across the region with workers staying home and delays mounting.

Ken Shim, president of Woowon Technology, said he had to provide paid time off to ease the stress of South Korean engineers installing equipment at a cell plant being built by Hyundai Motor and South Korea’s SK On near Cartersville, Georgia.

Shim, an American citizen who has lived in the United States for more than a...

A short video featuring Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto promoting his flagship social programmes has sparked debate after it was aired in cinemas across the country, with some viewers comparing the screening to past propaganda campaigns and others defending it as suitable for public outreach.

The one-minute video, which began screening last week in several major cinemas, highlights key government initiatives such as free nutritious meals for students, tuition-free schools for low-income...

South Korea is investigating reports that Russia has supplied North Korea with nuclear submarine reactor modules, a move analysts see as highly plausible and one that could mark a breakthrough in Pyongyang’s decades-long push for a nuclear-powered navy.

Citing unnamed government sources, South Korean daily JoongAng Ilbo reported that Moscow is thought to have supplied North Korea with two or three modules in the first half of this year, comprising reactor cores, turbines and cooling systems...

Japan’s police are turning to artificial intelligence (AI) to identify individuals who appear likely to commit “terrorist attacks” based on their social media posts, but observers say the move could backfire by sweeping up innocent citizens engaging in normal political discussion.

The National Police Agency is seeking 49.5 million yen (US$338,000) in next year’s budget for a pilot project that would use AI to analyse online activity and flag individuals deemed potential threats.

Officials say...

Vice-President Han Zheng urged China and Southeast Asia to deepen their strategic alignment on Wednesday, as Beijing pushes to upgrade its free trade area agreement with the region amid the US trade war.

The world’s second-largest economy aims to “strengthen the alignment of development strategies and tighten the bonds of our shared community” with the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), Han said in his opening address at the China-Asean Expo in the southwestern Chinese...

It is sometimes argued that democracy suffers when autocrats manipulate legal frameworks or when institutions are weakened. Yet in liberal democracies such as Australia, a quieter but similarly corrosive danger is emerging: the normalisation of street-level hostility. This hostility, particularly towards migrants from the Indo-Pacific region, is an early warning signal of democratic erosion.

In late August, thousands joined coordinated rallies across major Australian cities under the banner of...

Saudi Arabia and nuclear-armed Pakistan signed a mutual defence pact late on Wednesday, significantly strengthening a decades-old security partnership a week after Israel’s strikes on Qatar upended the diplomatic calculus in the region.

The enhanced defence ties come as Gulf Arab states grow increasingly wary about the reliability of the United States as their long-standing security guarantor. Israel’s attack on Qatar last week heightened those concerns.

Asked whether Pakistan would now be...