Asia - South China Morning Post

Senior Philippine officers from the armed forces have emphasised continuity among the military leadership, with the expected retirement of chief of staff General Romeo Brawner Jnr coming at a sensitive moment for President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr.

The transition comes as Manila continues to face pressure from Beijing in the South China Sea and calls from several retired officers for the military to reconsider its support for Marcos.

Whoever Marcos appoints to replace Brawner has to ensure that the...

Malaysia’s largest Islamist party was wiped out in Johor’s state election last weekend, but PAS is now trying to turn that defeat into bargaining power.

Its argument is that supporters who had no PAS candidate to vote for helped deliver a landslide victory to Barisan Nasional (BN), the coalition led by Umno, its long-time rival for Malay-Muslim voters.

The two parties have spent years competing for influence among Malaysia’s Malay majority, but they have also explored cooperation when it serves...

Ousted former prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s vow to return to Bangladesh despite facing a death sentence has raised the prospect of a dramatic comeback for her and the Awami League.

Her potential return could revive the rivalry between the banned party and the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), while curbing further gains for Islamist political forces, according to analysts.

Hasina, who has been living in India since her government was toppled by a student-led protest movement nearly two...

Lured by promises of good money working aboard a foreign fishing vessel, Akhmad left Indonesia and headed out to sea, enduring months of abuse and exploitation while being cut off from the world.

Indonesia is one of the top contributors of labour for the global fishing industry with several hundred thousand migrant workers, according to government figures.

Many are recruited online and assigned to foreign-flagged ships without being properly informed about their rights, leaving them vulnerable...

Singapore consumers are expected to spend an additional S$1.05 billion (US$815 million) annually in Malaysia’s Johor state once a cross-border rail link connecting the two sides in minutes opens, according to a new study.

The study, released on Thursday by the Singapore Business Federation (SBF), the Restaurant Association of Singapore (RAS) and the Singapore Retailers Association (SRA), comes amid concerns from local businesses about cash flowing out to the city state’s northern neighbour,...

Jensen Huang, chief executive of US artificial intelligence chipmaker Nvidia, held a “yakitori summit” with Japanese executives from semiconductor materials and components companies while visiting Tokyo – a move appeared aimed at strengthening cooperation with local businesses.

According to the Nikkei, Huang headed to a yakitori restaurant near Kanda Station in Tokyo, an izakaya specialising in grilled pork skewers and sake, on Wednesday. Located near Tokyo Station, the area is a popular...

The Retirement Fund Incorporated’s (KWAP) US$47.7 million investment in Indonesian agritech start-up eFishery was the victim of an orchestrated fraud, Malaysia’s finance ministry has confirmed.

In a parliamentary written reply dated July 15, the ministry explained that KWAP’s July 2023 investment followed a robust evaluation and governance process. This included internal assessments, independent due diligence and the verification of financial statements by certified international auditors.

KWAP...

The UN warned on Thursday that more than 500 people were feared dead following reports of two large shipwrecks off Myanmar since late June.

The UN’s International Organization for Migration and its refugee agency UNHCR voiced alarm in a joint statement at reports “that two boats carrying more than 500 people may have capsized off the coast of Myanmar in recent days”.

Preliminary information indicated that the two vessels in question departed from war-torn Myanmar’s Rakhine state in late June,...

For generations, jeepneys – brightly painted minibuses that are among the Philippines’ cheapest and most widely used forms of public transport – have run on diesel, but recent fuel shocks are forcing thousands of small operators and drivers to weigh volatile prices against the debt needed to go electric.

Diesel prices spiked by nearly 5 pesos this week as renewed tensions in the Gulf threatened to strain the country’s public transport sector, adding fresh urgency to the uneven shift towards...

Japan has voiced concern about the United States’ campaign against the International Criminal Court (ICC), exposing a diplomatic bind for Tokyo as it seeks to defend a tribunal it has long championed without provoking its most important security ally.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara told a press conference in Tokyo on Tuesday that Japan “places great importance on the eradication and prevention of serious crimes, as well as the upholding of the rule of law”.

He added that Japan, the...