Asia News fra SCMP

While Kazakhstan is cooperating closely with China on the digitalisation of trade, a government official from the Central Asian country said this week that more infrastructure investment is needed – including along the Middle Corridor trade route – for it to realise its aim of becoming a bridge between Asia and Europe. Exporters turned to the Middle Corridor – which connects China and Europe via Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey – as an alternative to the northern route of the...

The world’s largest glove maker, Top Glove, expects to expand US sales in the 2026 financial year, even as it faces intensifying competition from Chinese rivals setting up production in Southeast Asia to take advantage of lower American tariffs. “The glove business is challenging and competitive, especially on an international level,” Top Glove Executive Chairman Tan Sri Dr Lim Wee Chai said in the Malaysian company’s earnings statement on Thursday. With an improved cost structure, Top Glove was...

Indonesia’s brief suspension of TikTok’s operating licence over its refusal to hand over user data related to a wave of protests in August has reignited scrutiny over online governance and warnings that it could chill freedom of expression and encourage self-censorship. Although the ban was quickly lifted, digital rights advocates said the government’s handling of the episode – including its opaque data demands and threats of regulatory sanctions – highlighted a “problematic” legal framework...

A lawmaker representing a Malaysian tourist town on the island of Borneo has come under fire after a viral video labelled it “Asia’s dirtiest town”, prompting condemnation from the public and fellow politicians. The one-minute clip shows British travel vlogger Ben Frier, who goes by the handle Backpacker Ben, strolling around Semporna, a coastal town in Sabah that serves as a gateway to popular tourist islands like Sipadan and Mabul. Panning around, he shows rubbish clogging the waters...

A group of lawmakers in the Philippines have urged their government to take a firmer stance on the crisis in Myanmar, filing a resolution that calls for stronger support for the country’s pro-democracy movement and greater pressure on its ruling military junta. The push comes as the Philippines prepares to assume the chairmanship of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) next year, raising expectations over how it will handle one of the bloc’s most divisive issues. Analysts say the...

Indonesia has halted imports of scrap metal after tracing radioactive contamination found at an industrial site and in shrimp shipments to the US to local metal processors. The suspension is effective immediately, Bara Krishna Hasibuan, an official with the government task force investigating the radiation findings, said in a text message on Thursday. Environment Minister Hanif Faisol Nurofiq said the pause aims to ensure that the local steel-recycling industry meets radiation safety standards,...

Donald Trump has urged Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul to pursue a peaceful resolution to the country’s simmering border conflict with Cambodia, as the US president looked to bolster his credentials for a Nobel Peace Prize. Trump’s push for a Thai-Cambodian peace deal was made in a letter to the Thai prime minister on Wednesday, coming just days before his planned trip to the region to attend a summit of leaders from Asean in Malaysia later this month. Trump’s intervention earlier this...

Since losing his only daughter in a fall from their high-rise flat in Singapore, Delfard Tay has turned grief into purpose, sounding the alarm on drug-laced vapes that put teenagers’ lives at risk. Authorities in the Southeast Asian island state have clamped down on e-cigarettes, introducing strict measures in August to combat a worrying rise in the use of so-called Kpods – vapes spiked with synthetic drugs such as ketamine. Tay said that his daughter, 19-year-old Shermaine, was struggling with...

Seven footballers playing for Malaysia at the centre of an eligibility scandal were naturalised citizens, the home minister told parliament on Thursday, in a speech to address accusations of cheating involving local authorities made by the football governing body Fifa. On Monday, Fifa alleged that the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) had deliberately falsified documents to misrepresent the players as having Malaysian heritage, allowing them to play for the national team in an Asian Cup...

Former UFC fighter Suman Mokhtarian was gunned down in a “brazen” shooting while on an early evening walk in Sydney, police said, months after surviving an attempt on his life. The 33-year-old was shot dead in a “targeted” attack in Riverstone, a suburb in Sydney’s northwest, on Wednesday evening, New South Wales Police said. A short time after the shooting, two cars were found on fire in different locations, a hallmark of recent organised crime hits that have rattled the city. “It’s very brazen...