Asia

This Week in Asia

An Indian farmer sprinkles pesticide on a field as smoke rises from the chimneys of a coal power plant. The demand for coal-based power plants has risen due to prolonged heatwaves. File photo: Reuters

South Asia

India to pause coal power expansion beyond 2035 amid grid stress

Several Indian utilities are signing contracts with coal-fired power generators to meet a projected surge in demand for cooling.

35 minutes ago

Bangladesh mass grave from 2024 uprising exhumed with UN support

5 hours ago

India regulator faults airline CEO amid severe disruption

7 Dec 2025 - 7:28PM

Politics

Lee Kuan Yew’s pain and his deputy’s resolve in Singapore-Malaysia separation

A new book unveiled by ex-PM Lee Hsien Loong reveals how Goh Keng Swee shaped Singapore’s 1965 split from Malaysia.

7 Dec 2025 - 5:18PM

Singapore’s former prime minister Lee Hsien Loong (centre) launches “The Albatross File: Inside Separation” book on Sunday. Photo: Ministry of Digital Development and Information

South Asia

627 dead in Sri Lanka landslides as rains batter South, Southeast Asia

At least 1,812 people have been killed in the natural disasters rolling across Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam.

7 Dec 2025 - 7:45PM

Lifestyle & Culture

In race for tourists, Singapore pumps up appeal with push into fitness events

High-octane competitions like Hyrox and the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon are helping drive more visitors to the city state.

7 Dec 2025 - 2:30PM

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Lifestyle & Culture

Malaysians swap hotels for RVs to drive down holiday costs

Rentals are up 200 per cent, with families finding a six-berth campervan more affordable than booking seaside resorts.

7 Dec 2025 - 12:06PM

Malaysians are increasingly turning to campervans for cheaper and more adventurous holidays. Photo: SAIC

Health & Environment

6 cyclones, 5 weeks: Philippines can’t escape its endless cycle of disaster

Corruption, complacency and climate chaos conspire to turn the Philippines’ natural hazards into man-made tragedies.

6 Dec 2025 - 8:17AMvideocam

People

Singapore launches book on Malaysia separation with declassified files

‘The Albatross File: Inside Separation’ sheds light on the negotiations leading up to Singapore’s break from Malaysia.

7 Dec 2025 - 4:11PM

Politics

Japan’s Takaichi resurrects frozen dispute over islands lost to Russia

Analysts warn there’s ‘no chance’ of visits to the islands resuming while Tokyo continues to back Kyiv in the Russia-Ukraine war.

7 Dec 2025 - 12:13PM

A Japanese student prays at a grave of a former islander on Iturup, also known as Etorofu, in 2007. Photo: AFP

South Asia

Tourists among 25 killed in India’s Goa nightclub fire

A magisterial inquiry has been ordered into the incident at the Birch nightclub in Arpora.

7 Dec 2025 - 2:12PM

The burned nightclub where a fire broke out in Goa, India, on Sunday. Photo: AFP

Politics

Can Japan find space for Muslim burials? Not if right-wing rhetoric prevails

A viral video showing a Sanseito MP telling foreign residents to cremate their dead or ship them home spotlights discomfort with diversity.

7 Dec 2025 - 8:00AMvideocam

Lifestyle & Culture

One-Punch Man and the human cost of Japan and South Korea’s soft power

Behind the multibillion-dollar export boom lies a hidden crisis of low wages, 60-hour work weeks and unliveable pressure on invisible staff.

6 Dec 2025 - 12:00PM

Economics

‘We all knew’: is your job safe from the AI you are helping to train?

Asia makes the chips driving the AI boom, but the technology threatens to erase jobs and widen the region’s wealth gap, a new UN report says.

6 Dec 2025 - 3:54PM

A Thai engineer services AI-powered healthcare robots in Bangkok, Thailand, in 2023. Photo: EPA-EFE

Southeast Asia

OnlyFans star Bonnie Blue arrested in Bali on pornography charges

The 26-year-old British content creator is accused of flouting Indonesia’s ‘morality’ laws.

7 Dec 2025 - 10:08AM

OnlyFans star Bonnie Blue. Photo: Instagram/bonnie_blue_xox

Politics

Jakarta vs the internet: Indonesia’s gamble with digital freedom

As the government demands global tech firms like Cloudflare bend to its will, critics say it’s ‘burning the rice barn to kill the rats’.

6 Dec 2025 - 3:30PM

Economics

Probe links Philippines flood corruption to Pogo crypto schemes

Cybercrime officials have uncovered a ‘definite link’ between the massive graft scandal and laundering rings run by banned gaming operators.

6 Dec 2025 - 5:00PMvideocam

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Health & Environment

6 cyclones, 5 weeks: Philippines can’t escape its endless cycle of disaster

Corruption, complacency and climate chaos conspire to turn the Philippines’ natural hazards into man-made tragedies.

6 Dec 2025 - 8:17AMvideocam

Satellite imagery shows Super Typhoon Fung-wong as it approaches the Philippines on November 9. Photo: NOAA/EPA

Politics

‘It’s time for us to rise’: India races to rebuild its lost maritime muscle

India is eyeing a future as a leading shipping and shipbuilding nation, backed by big investments – and expertise from South Korea and Japan.

30 Nov 2025 - 5:12PM

Politics

Malaysia’s poorest state prepares a poll shock for the prime minister

Decades of neglect and withheld resource revenue have left short-changed Sabah seething and primed for a political fight.

24 Nov 2025 - 5:02PM

Health & Environment

Climate collapse: Southeast Asia’s new normal?

With a 30th year of Cop climate talks under way in Brazil, for many of Asia’s most vulnerable populations, the crisis is already here.

21 Nov 2025 - 6:58AM

Illustration: Huy Truong

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Highlights from

THIS WEEK IN ASIA

Health & Environment

6 cyclones, 5 weeks: Philippines can’t escape its endless cycle of disaster

6 Dec 2025 - 8:17AMvideocam

Satellite imagery shows Super Typhoon Fung-wong as it approaches the Philippines on November 9. Photo: NOAA/EPA

Politics

Lee Kuan Yew’s pain and his deputy’s resolve in Singapore-Malaysia separation

7 Dec 2025 - 5:18PM

Singapore’s former prime minister Lee Hsien Loong (centre) launches “The Albatross File: Inside Separation” book on Sunday. Photo: Ministry of Digital Development and Information

Lifestyle & Culture

In race for tourists, Singapore pumps up appeal with push into fitness events

7 Dec 2025 - 2:30PM

More than 2,200 international participants took part in the Hyrox race in Singapore on November 30. Photo: Hyrox

People

Singapore launches book on Malaysia separation with declassified files

7 Dec 2025 - 4:11PM

Lee Kuan Yew meeting the press on the morning of Singapore’s separation from Malaysia on August 9, 1965. Photo: Straits Times

Lifestyle & Culture

Malaysians swap hotels for RVs to drive down holiday costs

7 Dec 2025 - 12:06PM

Malaysians are increasingly turning to campervans for cheaper and more adventurous holidays. Photo: SAIC

MORE IN This Week in Asia

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Opinion | Does AI’s rise have to mean job losses? East Asia tells a different story

7 Dec 2025 - 9:30AM

Opinion | Fashion industry must tailor climate plans to Asian suppliers’ reality

Nirbhay Rana

7 Dec 2025 - 5:30AM

Opinion | Not just China: India also a piece of the US opioid puzzle

5 Dec 2025 - 8:16AM

Macroscope | India and Japan show impact of Trump’s tariffs extend beyond trade

Nicholas Spiro

4 Dec 2025 - 5:13PM

Opinion | Trump’s world view offers Beijing a window of opportunity on Taiwan

Wang Xiangwei

30 Nov 2025 - 8:30PM

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Filipino fishermen worry about Chinese nature reserve in disputed waters

Filipino fishermen worry about Chinese nature reserve in disputed waters

Centenarian becomes oldest person to climb Mount Fuji

Centenarian becomes oldest person to climb Mount Fuji

Cambodia unveils new Chinese-built airport

Cambodia unveils new Chinese-built airport

Ex-PM Thaksin Shinawatra to serve 1 year in jail

Ex-PM Thaksin Shinawatra to serve 1 year in jail

Advertisement

Advertisement

TRENDING TOPICS

South China Sea

The Philippines

Advertisement

Advertisement