Asia - South China Morning Post

Stargazers enjoyed a “blood moon” on Sunday night during a total lunar eclipse visible across Asia and swathes of Europe and Africa.

When the sun, Earth and moon line up, the shadow cast by the planet on its satellite makes it appear an eerie, deep red colour that has astounded humans for millennia.

People in Asia, including India and China, were best placed to see Sunday’s total eclipse, which was also visible on the eastern edge of Africa as well as in western Australia.

Stargazers in Europe...

Homeland ministers from Britain, the United States and the other “Five Eyes” alliance will announce new measures this week to increase border security and target people smugglers, newly appointed British Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said on Sunday.

The ministers from the Five Eyes intelligence sharing network – the US, Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand – will meet in London on Monday and Tuesday, Britain’s Home Office said, with measures to “smash criminal smuggling gangs” the focus...

At least four people were killed and dozens were injured when a building hosting a prayer recital collapsed on Indonesia’s main island of Java on Sunday, a disaster official said.

Around a hundred people, mostly women, had gathered for a Koran recital at a community hall in West Java’s Bogor district to commemorate the prophet Mohammed’s birthday when the building suddenly collapsed, said Mochamad Adam Hamdani, an official from the local disaster mitigation agency.

“According to initial data, 84...

China switched on 21 gigawatts of new coal power capacity in the first half of this year, the highest since 2016, according to a recent energy report. This came after electricity demand hit a historic high in July, driven by extreme heatwaves. Hydropower faltered, and coal plants were fired up to meet the load.

At first glance, this looks like a step backwards for climate policy. But China’s clean-energy engine is still accelerating, adding 212GW of solar power capacity in the first six months,...

A man whose early life in North Korea was so bleak that he was prepared to be shot in the back while making a break for freedom across the Chinese border has told his story after defecting to Japan in 2017.

The man is one of many to have become involved with an Osaka-based charity that addresses North Korean human rights issues.

The organisation provides speaking opportunities for North Korean defectors on podcasts and other platforms, allowing them to share information about the realities of...

Japan’s Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba announced on Sunday that he will resign, following growing calls from his party to take responsibility for a historic defeat in July’s parliamentary election.

Ishiba, who took office in October, said he was stepping down as prime minister and as the head of his conservative Liberal Democratic Party.

The 68-year-old centrist had resisted demands from opponents further to the right within his own party to resign.

Ishiba argued that he wanted to avoid a...

Undersea cable cuts in the Red Sea disrupted internet access on Sunday in parts of Asia and the Middle East, experts said, though it was not immediately clear what caused the incident.

There has been concern about the cables being targeted in a Red Sea campaign by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, which the rebels describe as an effort to pressure Israel to end its war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip. But the Houthis have denied attacking the lines in the past.

Microsoft announced via a status website that the...

In a bustling student hostel in Bengaluru, Swaksha Gupta scrolls through her favourite shopping app.

She skips past the household names filled with artificial ingredients that her parents grew up with, instead finding inspiration from older generations by filling her cart with turmeric-infused face washes and Ayurvedic hair oils in biodegradable tubes.

“Even a product like ubtan comes in a tube these days,” Gupta said, referring to the traditional paste of herbs and lentils once ground in family...

Seoul said on Sunday that negotiations with the United States to secure the release of South Korean workers detained in an immigration raid have been “concluded” and they would soon be freed and flown home.

It follows the arrest of more than 300 South Korean workers at a Hyundai-LG battery plant being built in the southern state of Georgia on Thursday.

The operation, carried out in the town of Ellabell, was the largest single-site raid implemented so far under US President Donald Trump’s...

Late last month, rallies were staged across various Australian cities under the branding “March for Australia”. The rallies, which were attended by avowed neo-Nazis and elected politicians alike, called for an end to mass migration.

These protests are not unique to Australia. Recently, the United Kingdom has seen its own wave of anti-migrant demonstrations in cities such as London, Bristol and Birmingham.

Despite claims by some that the Australian rallies were “hijacked” by the neo-Nazi National...