Asia - South China Morning Post

Australia forecasts a A$38 billion (US$26 billion) lift in its export income as commodity and energy prices rise because of the war in Iran.

The nation’s resources exports are set to rise almost 3 per cent to A$416 billion in the financial year through June 2027, the Department of Industry, Science and Resources said in its latest resources and energy quarterly on Friday. The extra earnings assume trade is disrupted until end-June 2026, with a further A$7 billion windfall possible if that...

When the ground shook off Iwate prefecture at 9pm on Wednesday, the magnitude 6.0 jolt – the latest in a series of sizeable tremors – barely registered in a country still mopping up after two powerful typhoons and bracing for a fresh bout of torrential rain and landslides.

Natural disasters have long been a fact of life in Japan, where schoolchildren rehearse earthquake evacuations the way other nations hold fire drills.

Every September 1, in a ritual as much of collective memory as civil...

Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi arrived in India this week seeking a deeper economic and security partnership, but analysts say the bigger question is how far New Delhi is prepared to align with Tokyo’s China-focused Indo-Pacific strategy.

Takaichi held talks with her Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, in Delhi on Thursday, with economic security, strategic cooperation and collaboration on innovative technologies high on the agenda.

Analysts suggest the overarching aim of the three-day...

Rebels in Indonesia’s restive easternmost region of Papua on Thursday shot ⁠dead an American pilot and ⁠set a civilian plane on fire in ⁠what a spokesperson for a local separatist group described as a “message” to the US and Indonesian governments.

A low-level battle for independence from Indonesia has long raged in the resource-rich western half of Papua, where attacks by independence fighters have grown deadlier and more ‌frequent as they have procured better weaponry.

Sebby Sambom, a...

A deadly school shooting in the central Philippines has prompted warnings from lawmakers and cybersecurity experts that violent online extremist networks may be approaching Filipino children through gaming platforms and chat groups.

At a Senate hearing on Wednesday, Philippine Senator Risa Hontiveros said there were signs that the perpetrators behind a deadly school shooting in Tacloban City might have been influenced by 764, a nihilistic violent extremist network accused of targeting vulnerable...

Knife-edge state polls in Johor and Negeri Sembilan may reconfigure Malaysian politics, as a regrouped Malay nationalist right seeks big wins to pressure Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim into calling an early election.

Barisan Nasional (BN), the Malay-led bloc, is going head-to-head against Anwar’s Pakatan Harapan (PH) in the ballots to be held this month and next, in a move by a key government coalition member that could destabilise the prime minister’s fragile administration from within.

Analysts...

Thailand’s foreign ministry denied on Thursday that French President Emmanuel Macron knelt before the country’s king during his state visit to Paris this week, after an AI-generated picture circulated online.

King Maha Vajiralongkorn and Queen Suthida’s trip was the first official visit by a Thai monarch to France since 1960, marking the 170th anniversary of formal diplomatic relations between the two nations.

During a state dinner at the presidential palace, Macron presented the 73-year-old...

Every year, farmers in India burn millions of tonnes of stalks, husks and other plant matter left after each harvest, a practice that has long contributed to South Asia’s toxic winter smog.

But that agricultural waste – known as crop residue – could instead become a feedstock for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) for airlines around the world, according to a new study.

SAF is a low-carbon alternative to conventional jet fuel, blending aviation turbine fuel with sustainably sourced raw...

Eight Buddhist monks died in northeastern Thailand on Thursday – and over a dozen more were injured – after an 11-year-old boy driving his parents’ truck crashed into pilgrims walking along a deserted rural road.

Images of the devastation, shared across social media, showed the bodies of orange-robed monks lying on the road with their alms bowls strewn across the accident site in Mukdahan province, about 600km northeast of Bangkok.

Five monks were killed at the roadside while three others died...

A young couple in Indonesia’s conservative Aceh province were publicly caned on Thursday after an Islamic sharia court convicted them of violating Islamic law by kissing during a TikTok live stream.

Aceh’s sharia court ordered the two people to be whipped with a rattan cane 21 times each for kissing without being married. At least 100 people witnessed the caning, carried out by a group of people wearing robes and hoods on a stage in Bustanussalatin City Park in Banda Aceh.

The couple, a...