Asia - South China Morning Post

Zhao Tong is a senior fellow with the Nuclear Policy Programme at Washington-based think tank the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and its East Asia-based research centre on contemporary China, Carnegie China.

His research focuses on strategic security issues, including nuclear weapons policy, deterrence, arms control, non-proliferation, missile defence, hypersonic weapons, regional security in the Asia-Pacific and China’s security and foreign policy.

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Filipino sailor George Miranda was racing to help a stricken vessel aboard the tugboat Mussafah 2 when he last spoke to his wife and young daughter.

The 46-year-old, whose small ship was struck by a pair of missiles this week in the Strait of Hormuz, is the only seafarer from the Philippines known to be missing in the Middle East war, the government says.

But more than 6,000 others from the country that supplies a quarter of the world’s sailors are still working in the conflict zone and...

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr has ordered an investigation after watching a viral video showing an employee from the Migrant Workers Office in Bahrain telling off overseas Filipino workers (OFW) stranded in the kingdom due to the escalating Iran war.

“The president was not pleased with this. He became angry on behalf of our OFWs because of the mistreatment by some public servants,” the presidential palace’s press officer Claire Castro said, according to the Inquirer on...

Indonesia’s appointment of two Chinese companies to run waste-to-energy (WtE) projects in two cities – part of President Prabowo Subianto’s push to reduce mounting rubbish in landfills while generating power – has sparked a debate over costs, efficiency and whether the initiative will deliver on its waste-reduction goals.

Danantara, the Indonesian state wealth fund, on Friday announced that it had chosen Wangneng Environment as the operator of a WtE plant in the city of Bekasi, while Zhejiang...

The administrator of a Facebook account has been jailed 10 months and fined 50,000 ringgit (US$12,700) by the Sessions Court in Miri, Sarawak, over a post deemed insulting to Islam.

The Malaysian Comm­unications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) said John Mule anak Alai, 48, was convicted under Section 233(1)(a) of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 for improper use of network facilities.

“MCMC takes seriously any form of misuse of digital platforms that insults religion, incites hatred,...

A Singaporean man who claimed he drove off with his lover’s husband on the bonnet of his car because he was scared of the other man was convicted on Tuesday, after District Judge Ong Luan Tze called his actions an unreasonable response, despite the situation.

Chia Hiok Seah, 50, was in his car at a multi-storey car park in Sengkang in the wee hours of June 29, 2024, with a married woman.

The pair was nude when the woman’s husband at the time, Goh Yong Sern, appeared at the car park at Block 278,...

Singapore pizza shop owner Roy Chan has ridden out more than one business shock – from the Covid-19 pandemic to US tariff pressures – but he now sees another looming threat.

Suppliers for ingredients used at his Goldenroy Sourdough Pizza restaurant had warned prices could soon rise by up to 30 per cent following a surge in oil prices due to the escalating Iran war, Chan said.

“Delivery providers have not increased prices yet, but it may come in the next few weeks or months,” he added.

Like Chan,...

Meta disabled more than 150,000 accounts and Thai police arrested 21 people in a sweeping international crackdown on Southeast Asian criminal scam centres that targeted people around the world, the social media giant said on Wednesday.

The operation was led by Thailand’s Royal Thai Police Anti-Cyber Scam Centre alongside the FBI and the US Justice Department’s Scam Centre Strike Force, with Meta investigators acting on intelligence shared in real time by law enforcement.

Online scam networks –...

As war with the United States and Israel batters Iran’s missile and nuclear infrastructure, analysts say Tehran is likely to turn to North Korea once again after the fighting stops, reviving a long-suspected partnership built on shared hostility towards Washington and years of military cooperation.

North Korea has long been suspected of supplying missile technology to Iran and providing technical help with uranium enrichment, and analysts say it is likely to do so again once the war ends.

“North...

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Asia Pacific’s commercial real estate market is set for a strong year in 2026, as investment and leasing activity are both expected to pick up, supported by the region's underlying economic resilience and improving investor sentiment. 

While trade-related volatility and geopolitical tensions are likely to continue influencing decisions, the overall direction remains one of steady progress, according to CBRE's 2026 Asia...