Asia - South China Morning Post

A Filipino singer’s Golden Buzzer moment on Britain’s Got Talent has quickly become a fresh rallying point for Southeast Asian pride under the #SEAblings banner, as audiences in the region increasingly champion one another’s artists on the global stage.

Matty Juniosa, a 27-year-old from the Philippines, drew a standing ovation after performing Prince’s “Purple Rain” on the British television competition on Sunday, earning the coveted Golden Buzzer from acerbic judge Simon Cowell and a direct...

Malaysia’s central bank has raised its 2026 growth outlook, saying the economy is on track to expand between 4 and 5 per cent despite mounting risks from the Iran war.

The revised forecast from Bank Negara Malaysia marks an upgrade from the government’s earlier target of 4 to 4.5 per cent, reflecting stronger-than-expected momentum in the second half of last year and resilient domestic demand.

“Malaysia enters 2026 from a position of strength to navigate the challenges,” BNM Governor Abdul...

Japan’s defence ministry said on Tuesday that long-range missiles with counterstrike capabilities have been brought into service at two Ground Self-Defence Force bases in the country.

The deployment of the missiles at Camp Kengun in Kumamoto prefecture, southwestern Japan, and Camp Fuji in Shizuoka prefecture, central Japan, marks a shift from the country’s exclusively defence-oriented policy under its war-renouncing constitution.

Japan has for the first time acquired a counterstrike capability,...

Singaporeans are not flocking to Malaysia’s Johor just for groceries these days – fuel is the “obsession” for the moment.

Petrol prices have spiked sharply in the city state due to the Middle East conflict, with RON95 at almost three times the price in Malaysia at S$3.41 (US$2.64) per litre.

Singapore vehicles are only allowed to pump the unsubsidised RON97 fuel in Malaysia, which is being retailed in Johor Bahru at 5.15 ringgit (US$1.27) per litre.

A Singaporean who wanted to be known only as...

Emmanuel Macron touched down in Tokyo on Tuesday with a packed agenda and a receptive audience in a Japanese government anxious about a choked oil route and looking for support amid its diplomatic falling-out with Beijing.

The French president’s three-day visit, before he heads to South Korea later in the week, comes as Japan looks to Europe for solidarity amid a crisis in the Strait of Hormuz that has sent oil prices soaring.

The backdrop to Macron’s meetings with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae...

In Seoul last week, South Koreans were stripping shop shelves of plastic bin bags. Not food, not medicine. Bin bags.

Nearly 2.7 million of the city’s mandatory “pay-as-you-throw” bags were sold each day, almost five times the normal volume, as residents scrambled to stockpile what they feared might soon become scarce.

City by-laws mandate that the prepaid bags – made from naphtha, a petroleum derivative – be used to throw away household waste. But with oil supplies under strain amid the...

We have selected seven stories from the SCMP’s coverage of Asia over the past week that resonated with our readers and shed light on topical issues. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing.

1. Trump’s ‘wind-up doll’? Japan’s PM faces backlash over White House fawning

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is facing accusations of diplomatic sycophancy after White House footage showed her giggling at a portrait of an autopen – placed by US President Donald...

For years, Malaysians watched singer-actress Bella Astillah’s heartbreak unfold in public.

Her tribulations – a troubled marriage, cheating scandal and very public split – struck a chord with many, underscoring the stigma that divorced women face in a conservative Muslim-majority society.

When lawmaker Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman, 33, proposed to her – first on Mount Kinabalu and later at a formal engagement ceremony in Kuala Lumpur – it resonated with many Malaysians who felt Bella was...

As Japanese combat troops prepare to join war games in the Philippines next month – their first return to Philippine soil since 1945 – some Filipinos say the real issue is not only what Japan is doing now, but what it still has not fully reckoned with from the past.

For survivors, activists and historians, Tokyo’s expanding security role in the Philippines has revived what one campaigner called “the elephant in the room” – the absence, in their view, of a formal state apology and official...

As tensions simmer along the Pakistan-Afghanistan frontier – fuelled by disputes over the contested Durand Line, recurring cross-border strikes and the persistent threat of Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) fighters operating from Afghan soil – a subtle but consequential geopolitical shift is under way. India is quietly but steadily stepping up its engagement with the Taliban.

The urgency of this recalibration was underscored on March 16, when Pakistani military forces carried out one of the...