Asia - South China Morning Post

British prosecutors have charged with sanctions contravention offences the Indian captain of an interdicted alleged Russian shadow fleet vessel seized in the Channel, the National Crime Agency (NCA) said on Monday.

It follows British armed forces on Sunday intercepting the sanctioned oil tanker Smyrtos – said to belong to Russia’s shadow fleet – in a dramatic operation hailed by Kyiv and London as a blow to Moscow’s war machine.

British commandos boarded the ship off the southern English coast...

When it comes to the performance of real estate markets in the Asia-Pacific, Japan reigns supreme. Asia’s second largest economy is the deepest, most widely traded, and the safest market in the region. Last year, Japan accounted for 28 per cent of direct investment in Asia-Pacific commercial real estate, data from MSCI shows.

The average vacancy rate for grade A offices in Tokyo was 0.7 per cent in the first quarter of this year. Rents have risen for nine straight quarters, increasing 13.2 per...

The US-Iran peace deal is likely to bring immediate relief but not yet reassurance for Asia, as leaders across the region watch whether the Strait of Hormuz reopens, oil prices ease and the agreement can withstand the nuclear talks and geopolitical distrust still ahead, analysts say.

The agreement, mediated by Pakistan and scheduled to be signed on Friday in Switzerland, is intended to end more than three months of war in the Gulf, halt the US blockade of Iran and reopen one of the world’s most...

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and her Italian counterpart Giorgia Meloni agreed on Monday to deepen cooperation in advanced technologies such as semiconductors and strengthen supply chains for critical minerals to bolster economic security while advancing defence ties.

The two leaders also welcomed a preliminary agreement between the United States and Iran intended to end their war that triggered global oil supply disruptions, before their planned participation in a Group of Seven...

The defacement of the National Bureau of Investigation’s website over the weekend marked an escalation in a wave of attacks on Philippine government pages, with the country’s main investigative agency becoming the third major state body in less than a week to have its site compromised.

The incident followed similar attacks on the Senate’s website on Wednesday and the House of Representatives’ page on Saturday, raising questions about the government’s ability to protect even its own law...

In Thaksin Shinawatra’s hometown outside Chiang Mai, neighbours say they hope the royal pardon gifted to the tycoon offers Thailand’s most loved – and quite possibly, most loathed – politician a chance to exit the kingdom’s bear-pit politics ahead of his 77th birthday.

But after eight months in jail, a coup against his government, a battery of legal cases, threats to his family, assets – and even his life – those hitched to the Shinawatra bandwagon since Thaksin won his first election in 2001...

Japan is falling into a trap in defending its currency against the US dollar, like Thailand in 1996. Japan’s large forex reserves make the yen a juicy target, rather than deterring currency predators. Its fundamentals are weak and deteriorating, making the yen’s further decline inevitable.

Japan can’t raise interest rates aggressively to defend its currency due to its high national debt. It could fall into an inflation-devaluation spiral, greatly profiting yen short-sellers.

The yen is trading...

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr did not dwell on warships or water cannons when he rose to speak at the country’s Independence Day celebrations on Friday.

Instead, he signalled a new strategy in broaching the topic of the South China Sea: recasting the waterway not as an arena of territorial disputes, but rather as a shared vulnerability.

In doing so, analysts say he may have found a way to keep China’s behaviour in the regional conversation without triggering direct confrontation...

A stone’s throw from the barbed wire and minefields that separate the two Koreas, thousands gathered for a music festival this weekend to sing about peace in a place synonymous with conflict.

The DMZ Peace Train Music Festival, named after the demilitarised zone that has separated the neighbours for seven decades, gathered artists and fans from around the world.

It was the seventh instalment since the inaugural festival was held in 2018 under the slogan: “Let’s dance for a world without...

A Mexican man who led an engineering guild has apologised after losing his position over a video showing him making a racist gesture at a South Korean fan during a World Cup match in Guadalajara.

Ulises Fernando Bernal Miramontes came under fire after he was seen pulling at the corners of his eyes – a gesture derogatory towards people of Asian descent – in a video posted by South Korean influencer Yoon Su-jin.

Yoon, a YouTuber whose creator handle is InoCat, captured Bernal, who was wearing...