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Women walk past the illuminated Sultan Abdul Samad Building in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on July 26. In recent weeks, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s multi-ethnic governing coalition has suffered two consecutive defeats in state elections following campaigns dominated by racial and religious appeals. Photo: AP
Malaysia

Opinion | Why Malaysia’s political turmoil matters to Beijing

Malaysia shows how local battles over race and national identity could complicate China’s Southeast Asian playbook.

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Japan

Opinion | Japan’s defence white paper is the opening move in a longer game

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Protests around the world

Opinion | South Asia’s Gen Z protests offer one lesson in common

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Banking & finance

Macroscope | Behind the AI stock market bubble lies a weak yen

The tech stock boom, financed in large part by the yen carry trade, is at risk of collapse if the currency strengthens.

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Pedestrians pass a foreign currency indicator board showing the rate of the US dollar against the Japanese yen in Tokyo on August 3. The yen surged against the US dollar, reaching its strongest level in about three months after Japanese and US monetary authorities conducted a coordinated intervention to buy the yen for the first time in 28 years. Photo: EPA
Pedestrians pass a foreign currency indicator board showing the rate of the US dollar against the Japanese yen in Tokyo on August 3. The yen surged against the US dollar, reaching its strongest level in about three months after Japanese and US monetary authorities conducted a coordinated intervention to buy the yen for the first time in 28 years. Photo: EPA
Thailand

Asian Angle | Bangkok branches out: how Thai capital moved from concrete to real jungle

Bangkok’s urban greenery playbook contains lessons that other cities, including Hong Kong, should pay attention to.

Banking & finance

Macroscope | US efforts to prop up the yen risk doing more harm than good

Reversing the yen’s long-term decline ultimately rests on Japan’s ability to take its real interest rates out of negative territory – without triggering market panic.

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Hong Kong society

Opinion | How East Asia’s internet cafes became a cheap urban refuge

An informal safety net, these cafes offer gig workers and those between jobs crucial breathing space.

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A customer at an internet cafe in Seoul, South Korea in December 2013. For years, internet cafes appeared destined for extinction. Instead, the industry reinvented itself. Photo: AP
A customer at an internet cafe in Seoul, South Korea in December 2013. For years, internet cafes appeared destined for extinction. Instead, the industry reinvented itself. Photo: AP
Asian diaspora

Opinion | Why global migration data should recognise subgroups like the Teochew

Until our data systems see past broad labels like Asian or Chinese, and recognise subgroups, our picture of global migration is incomplete.

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India

The View | Affordable housing a critical gap in India’s real estate boom

While the premium to luxury end of India’s property market is thriving, the dramatic shortage at the low-to-mid-end is coming under scrutiny.

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2025 Cambodia-Thailand conflict

Asian Angle | Cambodia and Thailand must define the border to achieve lasting peace

Without boundary demarcation, all Cambodia-Thailand ceasefires are on borrowed time.

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Thai soldiers stand guard near the Thailand-Cambodia border in Pong Nam Ron district, Chanthaburi province, on July 22. Photo: Reuters
Artificial intelligence

Opinion | America and China can be allies against AI catastrophe

Rival powers have contained nuclear and cyber threats before. AI safeguards demand the same instinct for survival.

AI safety activists take part in a "Stop the AI Race" protest march in San Francisco on July 11. Photo: AFP
AI safety activists take part in a "Stop the AI Race" protest march in San Francisco on July 11. Photo: AFP
South China Sea

Opinion | How China and the Philippines can avert clashes over a crumbling ship

Amid fresh clashes over the rusting BRP Sierra Madre, both sides accuse each other of infringing their 2024 agreement. But what did they actually agree to?

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Technology

Opinion | In an era defined by AI, can work still be measured by the clock?

From Seoul to Taipei, Tokyo to Beijing, Asia is running a 21st century economy on a labour contract designed for the 20th century.

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India

Opinion | India’s ‘cockroach’ protests reveal a deeper social mobility crisis

Promises of economic abundance alone can’t sustain public trust when Asia’s younger generations value fairness of opportunity over growth.

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A child holds a placard during a gathering in solidarity with the Cockroach Janta Party to celebrate the resignation of India’s Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, in Mumbai on July 26. Photo: AFP
India

Opinion | How China and the US are sidelining India in its own neighbourhood

India is being denied the uncontested dominance it once held. The task ahead is not to restore the old hierarchy but to find a new path.

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Illustration: Henry Wong
Illustration: Henry Wong
North Korea

Opinion | America’s North Korea strategy needs a dose of reality

Washington’s dogged insistence on denuclearisation first has led to a prolonged deadlock that has only widened Pyongyang’s options.

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Asean

Asian Angle | Decades of talk, zero barrels stored: why can’t Asean stockpile oil?

The Iran war energy crisis revived Asean’s joint reserve plans. To avoid another shelved ambition, the bloc needs swift, binding action.

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Climate change

Macroscope | Who pays when overheated roads melt and rails buckle?

Costs are mounting from the damage caused by extreme weather on roads, railways, bridges and other basic infrastructure.

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Melting asphalt, like this seen in India in the 2015 heatwave, is now increasingly common. Photo: EPA
Melting asphalt, like this seen in India in the 2015 heatwave, is now increasingly common. Photo: EPA
Cambodia

Asian Angle | Cambodia’s war on scammers needs a blueprint built to last

Rounding up foot soldiers is easy. The hard part is tracing cash, exposing high-level enablers and protecting coerced victims.

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Stocks

Macroscope | Emerging markets have a concentration problem. Investors will have to live with it

Investors nervous about the dominance of South Korean and Taiwanese chipmakers can’t afford to ignore them.

Diplomacy

Opinion | How China and Indonesia can build a truly sturdy partnership

From handling business friction to aligning long-term goals, three practical steps can elevate ties beyond economic convenience.

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Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi meets Indonesian Foreign Minister Sugiono on the sidelines of a UN Security Council meeting in New York on May 26. Photo: Xinhua
Asia housing and property

The View | Asian property: A thin line separates strength from vulnerability

As Hong Kong, India and Japan show, sharp divergences within a market defy broad-brush generalisations.

Pedestrians cross the street in Central on January 26. Rents for premium buildings in Central grew at a pace of 18.5 per cent in annualised terms in the first half of this year. Photo: Jelly Tse
Pedestrians cross the street in Central on January 26. Rents for premium buildings in Central grew at a pace of 18.5 per cent in annualised terms in the first half of this year. Photo: Jelly Tse
Vietnam

Asian Angle | Vietnam’s economic miracle has a made-elsewhere problem

The numbers dazzle, but Vietnamese companies are losing ground in their own export boom as the middle-income trap looms.

Japan

Macroscope | Why Japan should be able to weather a US market crash

Successive Japanese governments have spent decades building financial infrastructure that other Asian countries can emulate.

Asean

Opinion | Southeast Asia must write its own trade rules for China’s ‘flying geese’

As Chinese manufacturers migrate south, Asean has the leverage to dictate terms on local sourcing and skills training.

A worker inspects fruit at a Chinese-financed mango processing factory in Cambodia’s Kampong Speu province last year. Photo: Xinhua
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