Asia - South China Morning Post

Chadchart Sittipunt cruised back into Bangkok’s governor’s office late on Sunday after residents overwhelmingly backed him for a second term running the Southeast Asian megacity, despite its unresolved problems of floods, traffic and pollution.

In an election contest that had become a procession by late Sunday, exit polls put Chadchart on between 53 and 75 per cent of the vote, as early live counts in district after district showed the former transport minister with virtually unassailable leads...

A recent apology by the Dutch prime minister to the Netherlands’ Malukan community for systemic mistreatment by the state has met with mixed responses; some welcomed the remorse while others demanded concrete action over symbolic words.

On June 21, Rob Jetten formally apologised to members of the 75,000-strong Malukan community for the state’s mistreatment of the first generation of Malukans who arrived in Europe 75 years ago from the Maluku Islands in Indonesia, historically known as the Spice...

Stand on the pedestrian crossing outside McDonald’s in Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur, and you will understand something about how travel works in the 21st century.

To the office workers and taxi drivers streaming past, it is just another junction in Malaysia’s biggest city. Yet Chinese tourists will often stop at the side of the intersection, phones raised, capturing a sight only RedNote taught them to see.

This is the new geography of Malaysian tourism: shaped less by guidebooks or travel agents...

Australia said on Saturday it would double the maximum penalty it can impose on tech firms found to have failed to uphold a groundbreaking social media ban for children, as evidence mounts that the ban has had little effect on teen use.

The government will also strengthen the information-gathering powers of its internet regulator, the eSafety Commissioner, allowing it to compel social media companies ‌to provide evidence of what they have done to stop under-16s from getting an account.

Under the...

The late arrival of India’s monsoon season and below-average rainfall have caused problems ranging from planting delays for farmers to water restrictions for construction sites in its largest business hub, Mumbai.

Water shortages have been reported around the country due to the late start of the rainy season, which typically begins in June but has grown erratic in recent years. Climate experts said El Nino, a warming of the Pacific that affects weather around the globe, combined with an already...

Malaysia’s southern Johor state was braced for a bruising 14-day election campaign on Saturday after 172 candidates were cleared to contest a poll pitting Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s federal allies against each other in one of the country’s most economically important battlegrounds.

The state, which borders Singapore, goes to the polls on July 11, with 2.72 million voters eligible to choose representatives for 56 seats. Analysts said the contest would test both the reach of federal partners...

Indonesian police have arrested dozens of protesters following a rally against President Prabowo Subianto’s policies in the country’s second-largest city, a rights group said on Saturday.

Around 100 people gathered near a government building in Surabaya on Friday, journalists on the scene estimated, to protest a fuel price increase and Prabowo’s flagship free meals scheme.

Some demonstrators hurled rocks towards police and set fire to rubbish in the middle of the road, prompting officers to...

For Dr Thein Swee Lay, the only Malaysian scientist to have won the Breakthrough Prize, cracking a code in gene therapy was easier than hunting down an authentic version of her hometown popiah (spring rolls) in the US, where she has been based for years.

“I have not come across a Malaysian restaurant that sells good popiah. I miss it,” Thein told This Week in Asia in an exclusive interview, fondly reminiscing about her childhood in Malaysia’s coastal town of Kuantan.

The seventh of nine...

As the class of 2026 join the race to find jobs, unemployed college graduates in Singapore are taking a last-ditch shot at getting ahead via temporary government-funded gigs that earn them half the median first pay cheque.

The government’s Graduate Industry Traineeships, known as GRIT, offer a stopgap for graduates to gain industry-relevant experience with government agencies or private businesses, earning between S$1,800 to S$2,400 (US$1,400 to US$1,850) per month. The lowest end of that range...

As Asean foreign ministers prepare to meet in Manila from July 21-22, a quiet but significant shift is under way in the bloc’s approach to Myanmar.

Although the Association of Southeast Asian Nations remains formally committed to the “five-point consensus”, several member states appear to be reconsidering the collective pressure strategy adopted since the 2021 coup.

Rather than abandoning the consensus outright, they argue that more direct engagement with Naypyidaw may be necessary to encourage...