Asia - South China Morning Post

A dangerous super typhoon in the Pacific Ocean is barrelling towards a group of remote US islands.

Super Typhoon Sinlakua is expected to make landfall on Tuesday in the Northern Mariana Islands and bring destructive winds, widespread heavy rain and flooding, the National Weather Service said on Monday.

Power cuts on the islands could be lengthy, forecasters warned.

Guam, a US territory with American military installations and about 170,000 residents, could also see damaging winds and is under a...

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung has sparked a diplomatic row with Israel and criticism at home after comparing Israeli military actions against Palestinians to the Holocaust in a social media post.

The controversy began on Friday after Lee said “wartime killings” by the Israel Defence ‌Forces were “no different from the Jewish massacre” by the Nazis in World War II and reposted footage with a caption that said it showed Israeli troops had tortured and thrown a Palestinian from the roof of a...

Pakistan’s deployment of an air force contingent at a base on Saudi Arabia’s Gulf coast, coming as it mediated talks between Iran and the US, could force Tehran to reconsider its strategy of attacking critical energy infrastructure in the kingdom, analysts say.

While purely defensive in nature, the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) task force posed a poignant question to Tehran: if hostilities resumed, would it be prepared to risk shooting down warplanes belonging to the peacemaking country it clearly...

The driver of a Singapore-registered car has been arrested in Johor for allegedly pumping subsidised Malaysian petrol, triggering a wave of approval online from Malaysians as the government widens a border crackdown driven by rising fuel costs and fears of subsidy abuse amid a global energy shock.

The arrest comes after months of viral shaming posts showing Singapore-registered vehicles allegedly filling up with RON95 in neighbouring Johor, fuelling public anger over the abuse of a subsidy meant...

Malaysia ended last week with one oil tanker making it through the Strait of Hormuz and six others waiting their turn, as the government promised that supplies would last through May. Then US President Donald Trump announced a blockade.

Analysts say the escalation in the US-Israel war on Iran puts Malaysia on a collision course with an energy crisis sooner than expected.

“Putrajaya has already flagged June as a critical pressure point,” said geopolitical risk consultant Asrul Sani, associate...

Cost-cutting on Japan’s already depleted railway network has hit a new low, with one of the nation’s largest network operators no longer providing toilet paper in a growing number of unmanned stations.

JR East’s decision has been met with a mix of annoyance and resignation online, while underscoring the financial pressures bearing down on rural rail services.

A social media post from February 2 highlighted the growing frustration with JR East’s failure to provide toilet paper, condemning a...

Singapore is at the sharp end of the energy crisis. Imported natural gas accounts for an estimated 95 per cent of the city state’s electricity generation. According to Nomura, Singapore is the fourth most vulnerable Asian economy to the energy shock emanating from the war in Iran, based on a set of criteria that includes the share of fossil fuels in energy consumption and the proportion of energy imports from the Gulf.

Last month, Singapore’s Foreign Affairs Minister Vivian Balakrishnan said the...

The world’s largest water fight erupted across Bangkok on Monday as the three-day annual Songkran festival drew a surge in tourists to a country whose bruised economy badly needed a reason to celebrate.

Thailand has refused to let a fuel crisis triggered by the US-Israeli war on Iran dampen its traditional New Year’s celebrations, even as prices spike for everything from petrol to ice during the hottest month of the year.

The water festival – also known as Thingyan in neighbouring Myanmar and...

There is no necessity to introduce the death penalty into the Road Transport Act 1987 for driving under the influence, according to Malaysian Transport Minister Anthony Loke.

Loke said existing laws were sufficient to prosecute serious offences and that offenders could still be charged under Section 302 of the Penal Code for murder, where applicable.

“As far as the government is concerned, we have already stopped mandatory death penalties,” he told reporters on Monday after a road safety...

In South Korea’s capital, more than one in three people live alone, creating headaches when it comes time to visit hospital or simply move home.

But Seoul has a solution: a “companion service” that dispatches helpers to assist solo residents with tasks that are hard to manage without a second pair of hands.

On Sunday, the city’s government announced that the programme, which began more than four years ago as a hospital escort service, would soon be expanded to cover moving day logistics and...