Asia - South China Morning Post

With the war in the Middle East entering its third month, questions have surfaced over its geopolitical ramifications in the region and beyond. An entity that has drawn particular scrutiny is Brics. The 10-member grouping is defined less by a clear set of common values and more by contingently overlapping interests. It does not and cannot speak with one voice on the conflict.

Two Brics members, Iran and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), are at loggerheads: Tehran has launched missile and drone...

Philippine authorities said on Monday they would not arrest for now a lawmaker wanted by the International Criminal Court for his alleged role in ex-president Rodrigo Duterte’s drug war, capping a lengthy Senate stand-off.

Senator Ronald Dela Rosa, who served as police chief and Duterte’s top enforcer during the bloody drug crackdown, will be treated as if in the custody of the Senate, National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) director Melvin Matibag told reporters after the politician had taken...

Chinese technology companies and researchers turned out in force at a leading global artificial intelligence conference, despite mounting questions over whether they might avoid the event as a consequence of tense relations between Beijing and Washington.

Papers with contributors from mainland China and Hong Kong accounted for over 51 per cent of accepted submissions, compared with just under 32 per cent from the United States, according to statistics compiled from the listed affiliations for...

In the Johor palace where Malaysia’s once-dominant ruling party was born, Umno’s leaders posed on Monday with the country’s king in a carefully staged reminder of the power they commanded for six decades – and the influence they now hope to reclaim.

The United Malays National Organisation (Umno), the Malay nationalist party that led Malaysia from independence until its shock election defeat eight years ago, marked its 80th anniversary in its birthplace with a grand show of unity as it sought to...

Philippine Vice-President Sara Duterte-Carpio was impeached for the second time by the House of Representatives on Monday, but her immediate Senate trial was thrown into uncertainty after a surprise leadership coup in the upper chamber.

Analysts told This Week in Asia that the “razor-thin” majority of Alan Peter Cayetano – the newly installed Senate president and a long-time Duterte ally – could set off another Senate coup and even reinstate Vicente Sotto III, the ousted Senate leader who had...

A report from Canada’s spy agency that identifies Khalistani extremism as a national security threat may accelerate a diplomatic reset with India, even as analysts say allegations of interference by New Delhi continue to cloud the relationship.

Delhi has long complained that a small number of Sikh separatist extremists have used Canadian soil to organise, raise funds and support violence connected to the push for “Khalistan”, a proposed independent Sikh state in India’s Punjab.

The report by the...

Malaysia’s plan to stop wealthier drivers from enjoying cheap subsidised petrol has left Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim facing a politically fraught question: how to define “rich” without punishing households already squeezed by higher living costs.

The issue has sharpened as the Middle East energy shock strains government finances, forcing authorities to weigh fiscal discipline against the risk of angering middle-class voters in a car-dependent country.

Anwar said the government had agreed in...

A call from the former CEO of Proton for Malays to abandon a “mentality of waiting for aid” has been met with ridicule online, with social media users pointing to the national carmaker’s own long history of government support.

Speaking on Sunday at the inaugural Musyawarah Nasional (National Discourse) dialogue platform founded by Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, Syed Zainal Abidin Syed Tahir said Malays needed to replace this perceived reliance on handouts with initiative.

“Go for...

Lawmakers in the Philippines started voting on Monday on whether to impeach Vice-President Sara Duterte-Carpio, in what could create a major hurdle for her bid to run for the presidency in 2028.

A house justice committee last month found probable cause for her impeachment in ‌a petition from activists accusing her of misusing public funds, accumulating unexplained wealth and of threatening the lives of President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr, his wife and the former house speaker.

With ally-turned-enemy...

A growing number of late-night cafes across Japan are opening their doors to mothers struggling with babies who will not stop crying, offering a rare refuge during the most isolating hours of parenting.

The idea of a “nighttime crying cafe”, which appeared in an online comic nearly a decade ago, first resonated with readers and is now gaining real-world traction as spaces inspired by that vision are spreading under small, community-led initiatives.

The creator of the original concept said she...