Asia - South China Morning Post

India’s student-led “cockroach” protests, which began as anger over alleged entrance exam leaks, are now becoming a broader test of whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government can contain young Indians’ frustration over education, jobs and accountability.

The fast-growing movement gained political momentum on Tuesday when opposition leader Rahul Gandhi of the Congress party and his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra were forcibly removed after a gathering with about 100 fellow lawmakers outside...

Japanese cities are experiencing “cruelly hot days”, a new meteorological term devised this year to warn people of intense heat above 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit), with emergency officials describing the soaring temperatures on Wednesday as “a disaster”.

Heatstroke alerts were issued across almost the whole country and emergency officials said at least 14 people had died from heat-related causes in the past week.

Three central cities logged scorching temperatures on Tuesday above the new...

Singapore’s Prime Minister Lawrence Wong stepped up the pace of renewal of his Cabinet on Wednesday by confirming two acting ministers and reinstating a former minister who was defeated in 2020 but won in last year’s poll.

Coordinating Minister for National Security K Shanmugam was promoted to senior minister, joining the ranks of former leader Lee Hsien Loong. Shanmugam, a senior counsel, entered politics in 1988 and has helmed the home affairs ministry since 2015.

Shanmugam is the first senior...

The United States has turned to a career Middle East diplomat for its next ambassador to Malaysia, a sharp change in tone after an earlier nominee known for his “alpha male” bravado, pro-Israel posts and culture-war commentary drew protests in the Muslim-majority country.

US President Donald Trump nominated Joshua Harris for the Kuala Lumpur posting after his previous nomination of Australian-born conservative commentator Nick Adams lapsed in the Senate.

The White House sent Harris’s nomination...

At the remote, mountainous frontier where the mighty Mekong carves the border between Myanmar and Laos, planners have sketched the outline of a mega dam.

It would be the largest hydropower project ever built on the river’s mainstream outside China, but analysts suspect the study into it may matter more than the dam itself.

A 34-month joint feasibility study for the 2,790-megawatt project was agreed on July 4 during Myanmar President Min Aung Hlaing’s state visit to Vientiane.

Officials from both...

The owner of a South Korean Michelin-starred restaurant is facing one year in jail for garnishing a palate-cleansing sorbet with black ants “to add a sour taste”, local media said.

Seoul prosecutors requested the prison term for the anonymous owner of the unnamed eatery at a Monday court hearing for violating food safety regulations, the reports said.

Under South Korean law, only 10 insect species are approved for human consumption, including grasshoppers and brown mealworm larvae.

But the...

When global index provider MSCI warned in January that Indonesia risked being demoted from emerging to frontier market status, it unleashed a wave of volatility, sell-offs and wild trading swings.

Six months on, Jakarta’s investment chief argues the real story is not about whether the country can earn investors’ trust.

“For Indonesia, this is not about short-term market status,” Investment Minister Rosan Roeslani told This Week in Asia in written replies to questions. “It is about building a...

The chief of the Indonesian agency overseeing President Prabowo Subianto’s flagship free meals programme said on Wednesday she had resigned, citing health reasons, the second leadership change at the beleaguered government body in just over a month.

The ‌resignation of Nanik Sudaryati Deyang, who took over the National Nutrition Agency in June, comes after budget cuts and a criminal investigation into the free meals scheme, which has been dogged by logistical challenges, concerns about quality...

Indonesia’s long-stalled gas project in the North Natuna Sea is stirring back to life, with its new operator confirming that activities have resumed at a strategically sensitive field after years of commercial uncertainty and pressure from China.

Prime Group, the Indonesian company that took over operatorship from Britain’s Harbour Energy, told This Week in Asia that “activities associated with the Tuna PSC have resumed in accordance with applicable regulatory requirements”. The PSC –...

An Australian woman has given birth to identical quadruplet girls after a pregnancy doctors described as incredibly rare.

Jenitar Sau Na’amoana, who is 34 years old and already had four children, delivered the babies last week at Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital in Queensland state.

“We are very excited to be able to care for this amazing little family, a big family now,” Dr Alexa Bendall, a maternal fetal medicine specialist who cared for Na’amoana, said in an interview released by the...