Asia - South China Morning Post

The day that Taiki Hirokawa stabbed his former girlfriend to death in a Pokemon store in Tokyo had started like any other, his mother told police. She and her son had breakfast together and nothing appeared out of the ordinary.

Hours later, security camera footage caught 26-year-old Hirokawa walking straight into the store, pulling out a knife, going behind the counter where Moe Harukawa, 21, was serving customers, and repeatedly slashing her in the neck and chest before turning the knife on...

The US-Israeli strikes on Iran and ensuing conflagration offer a window into how the US-led order works. For all its contributions, it functions like an air conditioner – cooling the American centre by pumping hot air into the periphery. Aggressive interest rate hikes export inflation to emerging markets. Proxy wars outsource geopolitical risk to distant theatres. The United States stays cool while the Global South absorbs the brunt of the heat.

But the vents are closing: developing nations are...

Australia’s government has received guarantees from major fuel exporting nations in Asia that supplies will proceed as normal despite the disruptions caused by the war in Iran, Assistant Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Matt Thistlethwaite said.

In an interview with Sky News on Sunday, Thistlethwaite said that he had sought and received pledges from Japan, South Korea and Singapore that shipments of fuel to Australia would continue, amid concerns that some countries might curb exports to...

US President Donald Trump has appointed Nick Adams, the Australian-American social media influencer and self-styled “alpha male”, as special presidential envoy for American tourism, exceptionalism and values.

“I look forward to serving as America’s brand ambassador, bringing the message of America’s excellence to the entire world,” Adams wrote on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter. “With America 250, the Fifa World Cup and the Olympics coming up, the world needs to be reminded of...

Three Indonesian peacekeepers killed in two separate explosions in southern Lebanon last week were laid to rest in their hometowns on Sunday.

Peacekeeper Farizal Rhomadhon, 28, died when a projectile exploded on March 29 in southern Lebanon, where Israel and Hezbollah have been fighting since Lebanon was drawn into the Middle East war.

Two other blue helmets, Zulmi Aditya Iskandar, 33, and Muhammad Nur Ichwan, 26, died a day later when an explosion struck a logistics convoy of the UN Interim...

While the Iran war has sent shock waves through energy markets across Asia, one corner of the region has been hit especially hard.

South Asia’s reliance on Middle Eastern fuel and Gulf remittances threatens to push some of its most exposed economies to the brink, analysts warn, as the conflict drives energy and food costs to multi-year highs.

For Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Pakistan, whose International Monetary Fund bailout programmes and thin fiscal buffers limit their ability to shield citizens...

As Russia comes to India’s aid amid the global energy crisis, a familiar mantra has resurfaced among officials and political analysts – that Moscow is New Delhi’s “all weather-friend”.

Such a stance is anchored by deep strategic interests, with both countries viewing each other as vital to their balancing between China and an increasingly erratic United States, according to observers.

On Friday, Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov said Moscow was well-positioned to ramp up oil and...

Among the stories Sarawak instrument craftsman Salomon Gau inherited from his elders is one that begins not with wood or strings but with spirits.

He recalled being told how spirits first showed villagers how the earliest forms of the sape – a traditional carved wooden lute from Malaysian Borneo – should be made and played, at a time when the instrument was central to ceremonies, storytelling and social life.

“The first one was the two-string version. The four-string one is already quite new,...

A dawn gloom hangs over the pier in Bangsaray, eastern Thailand, as buyers arrive to wait for the first fishing boats to return. But like everyone else relying on the day’s catch they have already lost money to someone else’s war.

Thailand’s multibillion-dollar fishing industry has been brought to its knees by the runaway price of diesel, a result of Iran’s throttling of the Strait of Hormuz in response to the US and Israel’s attacks.

Half of the kingdom’s vast fishing fleet is already docked,...

Former Malaysian transport minister Ling Liong Sik died on Saturday. He was 82.

Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) president Wee Ka Siong confirmed the news to Bernama when contacted on Saturday. “We received the sad news of Tun Dr Ling’s passing today. Further details will be announced from time to time,” he said.

Ling’s death was also conveyed in a message sent to the trustees of Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, where he served as chancellor.

In a statement to The Star on Saturday, Wee said the...