Asia - South China Morning Post

Brics nations are assessing whether a digital payments framework linking their currencies could lessen the impact of Western sanctions, tariffs and US dollar volatility without destabilising the Washington-led global financial system.

Under the plan proposed by India’s central bank, Brics is looking to allow cross-border transactions to be settled in local currencies. Its feasibility depends on how far the bloc’s members can lessen their reliance on Western-controlled payment channels without...

Can tourism be considered successful if arrivals increase, but the local communities – the very soul of the destination – feel strained and excluded? Too often, tourism success is measured in arrivals, occupancy and revenue. These numbers matter. But they tell only a fraction of the story.

We must ask: who is this success really for? Traditional growth metrics are no longer sufficient to protect the residents who host the world or the workers who power the experience. To prevent cultural...

The pace of tropical forest destruction slowed in 2025 after record losses the year before but remained at worrying levels equivalent to 11 football fields per minute, researchers said Wednesday.

The world lost 4.3 million hectares (10.6 million acres) of tropical primary rainforest last year, down 36 per cent from 2024, said researchers from the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the University of Maryland.

“A drop of this scale in a single year is encouraging – it shows what decisive...

Even if the immediate phase of conflict subsides, the Gulf is unlikely to return to the status quo. For Asia, the central question is no longer simply whether the Strait of Hormuz is open. It is whether the waterway remains reliable, predictable and politically insulated from coercion.

That distinction now matters more than ever. For China and other major Asian importers, it is a question of whether energy flows, shipping routes and sanctions exposure are increasingly being shaped by a crisis...

Perched on the bow of his long-tail fishing boat, 75-year-old Sukjai Yana untangled a handful of small fish from his net, disappointed by his catch and fretting over whether he can sell them.

Some days Sukjai earns nothing: demand for fish is falling due to worries over contamination of the Mekong River and its tributaries by toxic run-off from rare earth mines upstream that is threatening millions who rely on those waters for farms and fisheries.

Chiang Saen, a fishing hub in northern Thailand,...

Indonesia’s new legislation to protect domestic helpers has been hailed by rights groups as the beginning of a “new chapter” for millions – though they warn that the road to change remains long and winding.

On April 21, Indonesia’s House of Representatives passed the domestic worker protection bill into law, 22 years since it was first proposed.

The legislation “provides legal certainty, protects workers from various forms of unfair treatment, and encourages improvements in the skills and...

New Zealand officials rejected on Wednesday an application to install a statue commemorating so-called “comfort women” enslaved by Japan before and during World War II after Tokyo suggested it could harm diplomatic relations.

Japan forced up to 200,000 women from Korea, China and Southeast Asia into sexual slavery from 1932 until 1945 and the issue remains a sore point in Tokyo’s relations with its neighbours.

The Korean Garden Trust had sought to install a statue honouring the survivors at...

One of Japan’s most popular zoos has delayed its reopening after an employee reportedly told police he had burned his wife’s body in an incinerator on its grounds.

Asahiyama Zoo in Hokkaido’s second-largest city of Asahikawa, which had been closed for a seasonal break since April 8, was set to reopen on Wednesday, a national holiday. But the date has been pushed back to at least Friday to allow police to search for the body, according to The Asahi Shimbun newspaper.

At a news conference on...

South Korea’s jailed former president Yoon Suk-yeol had his prison sentence increased on Wednesday in a separate case linked to his failed martial law decree, in what analysts said could be a “bellwether” for the trials still unfolding from the crisis.

The Seoul High Court raised Yoon’s sentence from five years to seven for obstruction of justice and other offences after finding that he used presidential security agents to block investigators trying to arrest him over the December 2024...

Thailand is turning to live-streamers to clear a looming durian glut, slashing prices as weaker Chinese demand threatens its biggest export market.

Top online seller Pimradaporn Benjawattanapat, or Pimrypie, led a high-energy live stream on Tuesday night, pitching to her combined 31 million TikTok and Facebook followers.

Known for selling everything from her own-brand fish sauce to luxury perfumes, Pimrypie priced premium Monthong at as low as 100 baht (US$3) per fruit, well below typical market...