By Resty Woro Yuniar Indonesia is seeking China’s help to build a US$80 billion giant sea wall along the northern coast of Java in a project that officials see as essential to protecting millions of residents and key industries from rising seas and sinking land, despite criticisms over its financial and environmental costs. President Prabowo […]
Read MoreBy Hadi Azmi Malaysia’s most famous shopping centre edged closer to a damaging boycott after threatening to throw out a second group of pro-Palestinian protesters carrying flags, prompting calls for a mass gathering inside the plaza after Friday prayers. The management of Suria KLCC shopping arcade – at the bottom of the Petronas Twin Towers […]
Read MoreBy Shi Huang When it was officially announced in late August that statistician Liu Jun had left Harvard University and joined Tsinghua University in Beijing, speculation ran rampant. Was it political tension? Research funding cuts? A backlash against Chinese academics in the US? For Liu, the answer is simple – and deeply personal. It “has […]
Read MoreBy Hadi Azmi Malaysian mothers are being pressed into acting as “personal debt collectors” as fathers refuse or fail to pay child maintenance, a study published this week has found, with weak enforcement in the country’s sharia courts identified as an aggravating factor. The 2024 Telenisa Report by women’s rights group SIS Forum, released on […]
Read MoreBy Maria Siow India is keen on tariff talks with the United States, but it is expected to stand its ground even as their bilateral relations sour on issues ranging from trade to foreign policy. In the face of the 50 per cent tariff imposed on Indian goods, Delhi is neither “desperate nor cornered”, according […]
Read MoreBy Asaduzzaman Shamrat South Asia, home to nearly two billion people, has always been a region of paradoxes: rich histories yet deep poverty, thriving cultures yet fragile politics, enduring resilience yet recurring unrest. In recent years, the region has witnessed waves of protests, economic collapses, political crises, and even violent uprisings. From Sri Lanka’s historic people’s […]
Read MoreBy David D. Lee When North Korean leader Kim Jong-un rose from his chair after a two-hour meeting with Vladimir Putin in Beijing last week, aides swooped in almost instantly, polishing the table and scrubbing the seat he had just occupied. The bizarre spectacle was not just political theatre or a quirk of the supreme […]
Read MoreBy Resty Woro Yuniar Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto’s cabinet reshuffle is a “tactical” step to restore public trust in the government, according to analysts, but they argue it will not be enough to quell the unrest among protesters if it does not lead to more systemic reform. The shake-up on Monday saw the departure of […]
Read MoreNepal’s week-long youth-led protests have already toppled Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, and attention is swiftly turning to Kathmandu Mayor Balendra Shah, better known as “Balen”, as the face of a possible new leadership. Demonstrations, driven largely by Gen Z, erupted after the government banned 26 major social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and […]
Read MoreBy Kandy Wong The long-delayed Power of Siberia 2 pipeline between Russia and China would create a “structural shock” if it begins operations, analysts said, and cause “strategic and market challenges” for the United States, the world’s current largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) exporter. While President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin stood […]
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