Asia - South China Morning Post

You hear “The Hulk” before you see him: Chadchart Sittipunt’s voice carries as he canvasses for a second term as Bangkok governor in the tight, twisting alleys of a working-class canalside community.

The nickname, affectionately bestowed upon him by Thai internet users for his muscular frame and passion for running, suits the 60-year-old well. He has been out hustling for votes daily ahead of Sunday’s election, which he appears all but certain to win.

Meeting residents in poor communities,...

Jane Lyu flew to Malaysia on Tuesday to visit a city that she had never heard of until recently. The 32-year-old engineer from Guangxi, southern China, first spotted it on Weibo.

Now, standing outside the pink-domed Putra Mosque in Putrajaya, she explains through a translation app how the country’s administrative capital, a planned city barely three decades old, ended up as the first stop on her Malaysian itinerary.

Lyu, who arrived as part of a company trip that began in Singapore, is one of...

A potentially dangerous haze season looms for Southeast Asia, as rising energy and fertiliser costs threaten to weaken fire-prevention efforts just as extreme weather patterns raise the risk of forest and land blazes.

Analysts warn that agricultural companies facing pressure from higher production costs may cut corners on sustainable land-clearing practices, including by using fire instead of machinery.

The warning comes as the Singapore Institute of International Affairs (SIIA) issued a rare...

Monday’s school shooting in the Philippines that killed three students and injured dozens has highlighted the decades-long problem of gun proliferation in the country, easy access to weapons despite theoretically strict laws – and Filipinos’ fascination with firearms.

One shocking issue that emerged after videos of the shooting were posted online was the quantity of bullets fired and the teenaged shooters’ seeming familiarity with weapons. Officers recovered 21 fired cartridge cases, seven lead...

Southeast Asia is among the most vulnerable regions grappling with growing risks from heatwaves and high humidity, while the period of extreme weather has more than doubled globally over the past five decades.

The duration of extreme weather has increased worldwide to an average of 23 days per year from 10 in the 1970s, according to a report by non-profit news organisation Climate Central.

Parts of Southeast Asia, South America and coastal West Africa are among the regions that now experience at...

When Japan quietly deployed members of its elite airborne brigade for parachute drills in the Philippines’ northernmost province earlier this month, the exercise was not vigorously publicised by officials on either side.

The drills on Batan Island, in the Batanes province, formed part of Kamandag – a countrywide mission jointly hosted by Philippine and US marines that ran until Wednesday. Involving some 2,000 troops, the exercise was designed to improve readiness, interoperability and...

Only half of Malaysian women who were married or in a sexual relationship polled in a nationwide survey said they could refuse sex with their spouse or partner, with those who gave in saying they believed it was their marital duty or that they were guided by their faith.

The survey, commissioned by Muslim women’s advocacy group SIS Forum and released on Thursday, polled 1,004 women above 18 years old, the Malay Mail newspaper reported.

They were categorised into three marital statuses: 61 per...

Singapore’s cooling strategy, pioneered by founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew, has come in for praise in Europe, which is sweltering under a deadly heatwave. Even Tesla founder and world’s first trillionaire Elon Musk has weighed in, calling the late statesman “a genius”.

Record-breaking temperatures in countries including Britain, France and Germany have killed dozens, overwhelmed hospitals and led to the closure of schools and cultural sites.

Mercury in Paris hit a June record of 40.9...

A South Korean court sentenced former first lady Kim Keon-hee, already serving time behind bars for corruption, to another seven years’ imprisonment on Friday in a jobs-for-gifts scandal.

Kim, 53, was found guilty of accepting “high-value precious metals” in exchange for favours in personnel appointments, according to the live-streamed ruling.

The court said she “unhesitatingly accepted valuables of a kind that the average citizen would struggle to acquire even once in a lifetime”.

Kim is...