Asia - South China Morning Post

In the early 2010s, a small Australian company tried to build a fleet of satellites before lenders, concerned about its chief executive officer’s flamboyant behaviour, pulled hundreds of millions of dollars of financing. The firm collapsed in 2015.

More than a decade later, Singapore real estate tycoon Ching Chiat Kwong, who says he put US$100 million of his own money into NewSat, has not forgotten.

The Supreme Court of Victoria begins hearing a case on Monday brought by the liquidators of the...

Bolstering strategic partnerships and economic ties will be high on the agenda during South Korean President Lee Jae Myung’s six-day trip to India and Vietnam, as Seoul seeks to expand cooperation with the Global South amid turmoil in the Middle East.

Lee, who arrived in New Delhi on Sunday, is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi, business leaders and Korean expatriates before concluding the India leg of his visit on Tuesday.

National security adviser Wi Sung-rak said South Korea...

Across Asia, a revolution in how people move was already gathering speed. War in Iran just hit the accelerator.

Prashant Tiwari was among the first people at his company to go electric when he swapped his petrol car for a Hyundai Kona five years ago. Now, his colleagues at Fusemachines Nepal – an AI firm in Kathmandu – are calling him a prophet.

“They say you don’t have any problem,” the 36-year-old product manager said. “I think it is foolish to buy a petrol-run car now, and everyone generally...

North Korea launched multiple short-range ballistic missiles towards the sea on Sunday, its neighbours said, days after the UN’s nuclear watchdog warned that North Korea was making “very serious” advances in efforts to build nuclear weapons.

The missiles fired from the North’s Sinpo area flew about 140 kilometres (87 miles) each towards the country’s eastern waters, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said. It said South Korea maintains a readiness to repel any provocations by North Korea and is...

Since America launched its “major combat operation” against Iran, several Nato allies have distanced themselves from Washington. Now America also risks losing ground in strategically important Southeast Asia to China. Could it face an erosion of influence similar to that suffered by Russia in Central Asia as a result of its “special military operation” in Ukraine?

Soon after US President Donald Trump launched massive air and missile strikes on Iran on February 28, it became clear Washington...

Thousands ⁠of people have been displaced after a fire destroyed around 1,000 homes in a coastal village in Malaysia’s Sabah state on Borneo island ‌on Sunday, the fire department said.

Authorities were notified of the fire in Sandakan district at around 1.32am, the district’s fire and rescue chief Jimmy Lagung said in a statement.

“Strong winds and ⁠the close proximity of the houses caused the fire to ‌spread rapidly, while low tide conditions also made it difficult to obtain an open ‌water...

Lea Albritton’s mornings belong to the repair shop. Her afternoons belong to the camera.

The 40-year-old from Leyte in the central Philippines has lived in the US state of Georgia since 2019 with her 62-year-old American husband, Timothy, running a recreational vehicle repair shop in the mornings.

After lunch, she produces videos about Filipino food, migration advice for couples stuck in the fiancée visa queue and glimpses of domestic life for the 250,000 followers of her page, Pinay sa America...

As the artificial intelligence race moves beyond language models into the physical world, Asia’s manufacturing and supply chain strengths could give it an edge over the US, says Granite Asia’s Jixun Foo.

The veteran venture capitalist said the current wave of AI development, sparked by breakthroughs in foundation models over the past two years, had entered a new phase where physical applications – from robotics to industrial automation – were becoming increasingly important, playing to Asia’s...

A single father has refused to accept any more donations from Malaysians following a viral video that appeared to show him having difficulty finding money to pay a mechanic after his motorcycle broke down in Kuala Lumpur.

According to Sinar Harian, the man known as Dicky Yau was touched by the concern shown by social media users who had offered to extend financial help to him after seeing the situation he was in.

“I would like to thank everyone who sent private messages to offer help. However, I...

The flags arrived before BINI did. They were already rippling across the Mojave Tent at Coachella in a sea of blue, red and white when the eight-member group took the stage on a recent Friday afternoon, carried by fans who had travelled across oceans and time zones for a moment that had never been seen before.

The 45-minute set that followed made BINI the first P-pop act from the Philippines – and the first Southeast Asian girl group – to perform at one of the world’s most influential music...