New Zealand will loosen its ban on foreigners buying houses, opening the door for wealthy investors to purchase luxury properties as part of a push to revive its sluggish economy.

The coalition government on Monday said it would allow holders of so-called golden visas to buy houses worth at least NZ$5 million (US$3 million), carving out an exemption to restrictions that have largely kept overseas buyers out of the market since 2018.

The change will not take effect until the end of the year, when...

South Australia has become the first place in the world to ban fish-shaped plastic soy sauce packets.

The ban took effect on Monday in the Australian state as part of efforts to cut pollution, reduce carbon emissions and protect marine life, the South Australian government said in a statement.

“Each fish-shaped container is used for just seconds yet remains in the environment for years, causing harm and contributing to microplastic pollution,” the statement said.

The ban targets pre-filled 30ml...

As public scrutiny intensifies over anomalous flood control projects in the Philippines, Filipinos have turned to social media spaces such as Reddit to expose the lavish lifestyles of the children of the contractors and public officials linked to the ongoing investigations.

Social media accounts and online communities have emerged over the past week, reuploading and collecting videos and posts of certain individuals flaunting their lavish lifestyles, from riding private jets and expensive...

Eric Trump is expected to attend a shareholder meeting of Japanese bitcoin treasury company Metaplanet in Tokyo on Monday, as the US president’s family expands its crypto ventures internationally.

Eric Trump, the second son of President Donald Trump, was named in March as an adviser to Metaplanet, which holds more than US$2 billion in bitcoin, and his attendance would follow an appearance last week at the Bitcoin Asia conference in Hong Kong.

American Bitcoin, a miner of the cryptocurrency...

Australian police charged a man on Monday after a car was driven into the gates of the Russian consulate in Sydney.

New South Wales police said in a statement that officers responded shortly after 8am to reports of an unauthorised vehicle parked in the driveway of an address on Fullerton Street that corresponded with the location of the Russian consulate.

Officers attempted to speak to the driver before he “drove his vehicle into the gates of the property”, police said. A 39-year-old man was...

Seoul’s neon-lit streets regularly draw throngs of young visitors, eager to soak up the city’s reputation as the global epicentre of K-pop, TikTok trends and high-speed living.

But beneath the curated image of its most famous cosmopolitan metropolis, South Korea is wrestling with a more complex demographic reality: how to integrate the growing number of foreigners who now call the country home.

Today, foreign nationals account for nearly 5 per cent of the population, or around 2.73 million...

Kent Cai, a Chinese entrepreneur based in the eastern province of Zhejiang, made a major life decision earlier this year by moving abroad to pursue a PhD.

While this is not uncommon, his destination of choice might appear unusual – he did not, as many of his peers, relocate to the United States or Europe.

He went to Malaysia.

Upon arriving on campus in Kuala Lumpur to study the application of AI-driven tools in media production, Cai noticed he was not the only one to make such a move. He is, in...

South Korean actress Go Min-si has denied allegations of school bullying, saying that while she was a reckless pupil who enjoyed youthful misbehaviour, she was never a perpetrator of violence.

Go posted a statement on her social media account addressing the controversy at the weekend.

“For months I endured countless waves of anxiety while waiting for the investigation results. But I believe it is my duty to speak up now for those who have been waiting,” she wrote.

Go, 30, acknowledged that she...

War is just one press of a button away, and the likelihood of that happening – even if accidental – is not insignificant. The advancement of ballistic missile capabilities has opened up new battle spaces. Just as during the Cold War, today’s adversaries can hold each other’s populations hostage under the threat of nuclear war.

As we mark 80 years since the second world war ended, it is becoming easier to fathom our world at war again. However, while it may be true the “long peace” was more an...

Across India, on any given evening, glowing phone screens flash with gaming apps promising instant riches.

But those promises have for too many ended in debt, despair and even suicide, propelling the government to outlaw real-money gaming apps in a bid to stem a crisis officials describe as “spreading like drugs in society”.

On August 20, India’s parliament passed the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill, a sweeping piece of legislation that bans real-money gaming online. Hosting or...