Tag - asia

 
 

ASIA

China’s overnight and seven-day repo rates surged in February, while bond investors took losses from a sharp rise in yields.
BUSINESS / Markets
Mar 10, 2025
‘Impossible trinity’ conundrum has caused a cash crunch in Asia
Countries can’t simultaneously control their currencies, independently set interest rates and allow capital to move freely across borders — something will break or give way.
A worker collects palm oil fruit in Sepang, outside Kuala Lumpur, in 2014.
BUSINESS / Markets
Mar 10, 2025
The end of cheap palm oil? Output stalls as biodiesel demand surges
Aging plantations and slow replanting have led to lower yields even as demand for palm oil rises from various sectors.
Rohingya refugees use a makeshift raft to cross the Naf River from Myanmar into Bangladesh in 2017.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Mar 6, 2025
Rohingya refugee food aid to be halved from next month: U.N.
The U.N. World Food Program says that "severe funding shortfalls" has forced it to cut monthly food vouchers for around 1 million Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.
Campaign supporters light a total of 1,638 candles, representing the number of dead victims claimed by HIV/AIDS in the Philippines since 1984, as part of their commemoration of International AIDS Candlelight Memorial Day in metro Manila in 2016.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Mar 6, 2025
Philippines' LGBTQ+ groups seek options to replace U.S. aid
Advocacy groups are looking at new financing strategies and calling for greater involvement by local health institutions to protect against foreign aid withdrawals.
A man looks at an electric car inside an SAIC-GM Wuling dealership in Jakarta. Electric vehicle sales in Indonesia totaled just 43,188 last year.
BUSINESS / Tech
Mar 4, 2025
China’s EV makers are facing a reality check in Southeast Asia
Despite local aspirations to own EVs, they are still beyond the reach of many, and access to a reliable source of electricity is also not always a given.
Multinational victims of scam centers, who were trafficked into working in Myanmar and were sent to Thailand, queue for food at a shelter as they wait for their embassies to pick them up, in Tak province, Thailand, on Feb. 19.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Feb 27, 2025
'Contemplated suicide': Ethiopians recount horror of Southeast Asia scam centers
The complexes have flourished across the region, often staffed by foreigners who are made to swindle people in what analysts say is a multibillion-dollar industry.
Japan Rugby Football Union Chairman Kensuke Iwabuchi, seen at a news conference in June 2019, has been suspended from his role as vice president with Asia Rugby pending an investigation into a potential code of conduct breach.
MORE SPORTS
Feb 25, 2025
Japan seeks answers after Asia Rugby suspends vice president
Asia Rugby said Kensuke Iwabuchi had been suspended "in line with Asia Rugby principles of equality, transparency and accountability."
Students wave flags as they join during a rally at the University of Dhaka in Bangladesh on Sept. 5, 2024.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 23, 2025
After revolution, Bangladesh textbooks rewrite history
Radical changes to school curricula are routine in Bangladesh, where fierce political divisions date back decades.
Laborers at a shipyard on the outskirts of Dhaka. Worker deaths, injuries and exposure to hazardous substances are common in the ship-breaking industry, as is environmental harm with toxic chemicals seeping into the beach and water, harming marine life.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Feb 19, 2025
Shipyards of Bangladesh brace as heavy emitting ships near end of life
Worker deaths and environmental harm are common in yards where vessels that have supplied richer nations are dismantled for scraps that can be used in manufacturing.
The new French ambassador to Singapore said France and Europe do not want their Asian partners to have to choose between the United States and China.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 18, 2025
Asia should not have to pick U.S. or China, France's envoy to Singapore says
France sees increasing pressure, "maybe more on the U.S. side," that partners in Asia make a choice, its envoy to Singapore said.
According to a prepared text of Singaporean Defense Minister Ng Eng Hen's remarks posted on a government website over the weekend, the image of the U.S. "has changed from liberator to great disruptor to a landlord seeking rent."
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Feb 17, 2025
Singapore says Asia now views U.S. as a ‘landlord seeking rent’
The image of the U.S. as a liberator has changed, Singapore Defense Minister Ng Eng Hen says in remarks prepared for the Munich Security Conference.
The 50th ASEAN-Japan commemorative summit was held in Tokyo in December 2023. Japan has strong relations with ASEAN member countries and should continue leveraging this position to pursue its Free and Open Indo-Pacific vision.
COMMENTARY / World / Geoeconomic Briefing
Feb 14, 2025
Why ASEAN is crucial to a Free and Open Indo-Pacific
Tokyo understands ASEAN's centrality to the Free and Open Indo-Pacific vision better than Washington does and should continue leading in defending this regional order.
Volunteer Nhoun Niyok shows villagers how to use a mosquito net to prevent malaria in Cambodia's northeastern Mondulkiri province on Jan. 16.
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
Feb 14, 2025
Cambodia nears Khmer Rouge survivor's dream of eradicating malaria
The hope is for zero cases this year — a remarkable turnaround for a country that was formerly an epicenter of multi-drug resistant strains.
Fredric Gushin, president and CEO of Spectrum Gaming Group
BUSINESS
Feb 12, 2025
Thailand's big casino gamble hangs on fine print of regulations
Experts warn success will come only by playing its cards right on regulation.
Donald Trump has halted most U.S. government-funded aid globally for 90 days, while moving to dismantle USAID, which he accused of being run "by a bunch of radical lunatics."
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Feb 11, 2025
U.S aid freeze risks handing influence to China in Beijing's backyard
Trump has halted most U.S. government-funded aid globally for 90 days, while moving to dismantle USAID, which he accused of being run "by a bunch of radical lunatics."
Southeast Asian economies, once seen as beneficiaries of the U.S.-China trade war, now face challenges as escalating tariffs and trade tensions threaten their growth and regional stability.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 5, 2025
Winners of the first trade war may not be so victorious
Stuck between the U.S. and China, Southeast Asia’s challenges this time around are much greater.
A protester holds a flag as he shouts slogans during a demonstration to mark the anniversary of Myanmar's 2021 military coup, outside the United Nations office in Bangkok, on Feb. 1, 2024.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jan 30, 2025
Risk of violence escalates in Myanmar's civil war as election looms
With many forces opposing the junta and the election, tensions are set to rise ahead of the ballot.
A train during the handover ceremony of the high-speed rail project linking Kunming, China, with Vientiane, Laos, in 2021. Thailand expects to complete its first high-speed rail network linking the country to China through Laos by 2030.
ASIA PACIFIC
Jan 29, 2025
Thai high-speed rail linking Bangkok to China eyes 2030 opening
Southeast Asia’s second-biggest economy is looking to improve its connectivity with China, its biggest trading partner.
Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto salutes during a welcoming ceremony at the government palace, on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, in Lima, Peru, on Nov. 14, 2024.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jan 28, 2025
New Indonesian president's reliance on military tests fragile democracy
Replacement of civilian functions with the military is raising comparisons to an authoritarian-era doctrine that let the armed forces crush dissent and dominate public life.
Supporters of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol protest in Seoul on Tuesday. The previous leaders of the U.S. and Japan, along with Yoon, focused on strengthening alliances and regional stability through cooperation whereas newly elected U.S. President Donald Trump’s approach to foreign policy may prioritize transactional relationships.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 24, 2025
Japan and South Korea were stable U.S. allies. Not anymore.
Political paralysis in the U.S., Japan and South Korea has left a leadership vacuum in the Indo-Pacific.

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Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.
Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.