PODCAST

Asia - South China Morning Post

Breaking news, analysis and opinion from the SCMP"s Asia edition.

All Episodes

Singapore minister apologises for derogatory remarks...

Asia - South China Morning Post ·

2025/11/19

Singapore’s acting sports minister has conceded he “should be more respectful” after calling Hong Kong football fans and players “idiots” in a locker room pep talk to his side, following the city state’s historic win on Tuesday night in Hong Kong. Singapore came back from a goal down to beat Hong Kong 2-1 in the Asian Cup qualifier match in front of a record 47,762-strong crowd in Kai Tak Stadium, sealing their qualification for a major football tournament on merit for the first time. The...

‘Surreal’: Australian journalist faces Thai trial for...

Asia - South China Morning Post ·

2025/11/19

An Australian journalist is set to face trial next month in Thailand after Malaysia’s internet regulator filed a criminal defamation complaint over his critical writing, a rare cross-border case in Southeast Asia that rights groups say could open the door to prosecutions of reporters across the region. Murray Hunter, a blogger and former academic based in southern Thailand, was indicted in Bangkok on November 17 over four Substack articles that accused Malaysia’s Communications and Multimedia...

Trump’s tariffs to endure beyond his presidency,...

Asia - South China Morning Post ·

2025/11/19

Former US commerce secretary Gina Raimondo said US President Donald Trump’s tariffs are likely to outlive his administration, sustained by political fears that removing protectionist barriers will alienate workers who fear losing their jobs to offshoring and AI. Speaking at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in Singapore, Raimondo argued that the political cost of unwinding tariffs is too high for any future administration, regardless of party. “Tariffs, once they’re put on, are hard to take

Japan’s largest urban fire in decades devastates 170...

Asia - South China Morning Post ·

2025/11/19

A fire ripped through more than 170 buildings and killed one person in a southern Japanese coastal city on Wednesday, with military and firefighting helicopters scrambling to extinguish the country’s largest urban blaze in almost half a century. Aerial footage from broadcasters showed houses reduced to rubble and thick plumes of smoke rising from the hilly Saganoseki district of Oita city, which overlooks a fishing harbour renowned for its premium Seki-brand mackerel. The flames had also

South Korean teen dies after 8 hospitals refuse to...

Asia - South China Morning Post ·

2025/11/19

A South Korean high school student died in an ambulance after eight hospitals refused to treat him over the space of an hour, in a case that has reignited concerns over a growing shortage of doctors and specialists in the country. The 18-year-old was found convulsing near a high school by a teacher at about 6.20am on October 20, The Chosun Daily reported, quoting the Busan Fire and Disaster Headquarters on Tuesday. The teacher called for an ambulance, which arrived about 15 minutes later. The...

Isis-linked group used video games to radicalise...

Asia - South China Morning Post ·

2025/11/19

Indonesian police have dismantled an Islamic State-linked network that used online video games and social media to radicalise more than 100 children, arresting five suspects including a convicted terrorist. The elite counterterrorism unit Densus 88 revealed on Tuesday that the cell had targeted 110 minors aged between 10 and 18 across 23 provinces this year alone – a figure authorities described as a “massive” spike compared with previous decades. “In the years 2011 to 2017, we secured about

Hong Kong, Singapore, Dubai: the rise of the ‘family...

Asia - South China Morning Post ·

2025/11/19

Family offices in Hong Kong, Singapore and Dubai are redrawing the global map of private capital. Each hub combines favourable tax and regulatory regimes with strong local networks of banks, advisers and deal makers. Together, they now rival Western centres in deploying private equity across the Global South. Drawing inspiration from family offices in the United States – where private equity has represented a major share of assets – these Asian hubs are scaling rapidly, positioning themselves

Riding on jet success, South Korea chases US$15...

Asia - South China Morning Post ·

2025/11/19

South Korea is stepping up its outreach to Middle Eastern buyers as it pursues potential weapons contracts worth US$15 billion in the United Arab Emirates, seeking to build on its success in Europe and solidify its reputation as a dependable arms supplier. South Korean President Lee Jae-myung flew to Abu Dhabi for a summit with the UAE counterpart Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan on Tuesday, coinciding with the Dubai Air Show where Korea Aerospace Industries showcased its KF-21 fighter...

Japan’s renewed sovereignty push over disputed islets...

Asia - South China Morning Post ·

2025/11/19

A Japanese cabinet minister has reiterated his country’s claim to Liancourt Rocks, known as Takeshima in Japan and Dokdo in South Korea, after Seoul protested against a new museum wing promoting Tokyo’s sovereignty over the islets. “Under international law, Takeshima is clearly an inherent part of Japan’s territory,” Japan’s Minister in Charge of Territorial Issues Jiro Akama said at a press conference on Tuesday, according to Kyodo news agency. “We will work to strengthen the dissemination

India’s debt-backed stablecoin challenge to US dollar...

Asia - South China Morning Post ·

2025/11/19

As governments worldwide debate the merits and dangers of digital currencies, India appears poised to launch its own state-backed stablecoin that uses government debt as collateral. Proponents argue that the Asset Reserve Certificate (ARC) could hasten the global drive towards de-dollarisation, lower India’s borrowing costs and create a “virtuous cycle” for public funding by diversifying the country’s investor base. By tying the token to sovereign debt, developers aim to create a transparent...

Crypto power theft drains US$1.11 billion from...

Asia - South China Morning Post ·

2025/11/19

Malaysia’s national utility firm Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) has incurred losses of more than US$1 billion from illegal power usage by cryptocurrency miners between 2020 and August this year, the energy ministry said. TNB found that 13,827 premises had illegally used power to mine cryptocurrency over the period, the energy and water transformation ministry said in a written parliamentary reply dated Tuesday. The illegal use of electricity for cryptocurrency mining, particularly for bitcoin, has...

Drop in Chinese tourists could cost Japan US$9.59...

Asia - South China Morning Post ·

2025/11/19

The Japanese economy could lose about 1.49 trillion yen (US$9.59 billion) over the next year if travellers from mainland China continue to avoid Japan over a row that has derailed the growth in arrivals seen earlier this year, an economist at the Tokyo-based Nomura Research Institute has projected. Takahide Kiuchi, the institute’s executive economist, made the calculation after Beijing told Chinese citizens last week to refrain from travelling to Japan following comments about Taiwan by new...

Japan prepares to restart world’s biggest nuclear...

Asia - South China Morning Post ·

2025/11/19

The Japanese governor overseeing the region that is home to the world’s largest nuclear power plant is set to give the approval this week for its restart, the Kyodo news agency reported on Wednesday. The approval will clear one of the remaining milestones in Tokyo Electric Power Company’s quest to bring the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant back online, more than a decade after the Fukushima nuclear disaster led to its shutdown. Niigata prefecture Governor Hideyo Hanazumi is set to announce his

‘Hostile to the end’: North Korea’s shock at US subs...

Asia - South China Morning Post ·

2025/11/19

North Korea is expected to remain largely impervious to Western diplomatic overtures for the foreseeable future as it rails against its rivals’ “hostile” policies. On Tuesday, North Korean state media denounced last month’s summit between US President Donald Trump and South Korean President Lee Jae-myung as proof of the “confrontational will” of its adversaries to “remain hostile … to the end”. The North was taken aback by the outcomes of the Trump-Lee summit, according to Professor Cho

‘Heartbreaking’: rigging scandal roils Miss Universe...

Asia - South China Morning Post ·

2025/11/19

Just three days before the annual Miss Universe pageant is set to take place in Thailand, one of the judges has abruptly stepped down. On Tuesday, Lebanese-French musician Omar Harfouch posted on social media explaining why he suddenly pulled out, saying he felt “deep confusion and concern” after finding out that an “impromptu jury” had allegedly been created to select the top 30 finalists in advance, without the presence of any of the real jury members. “The results of this selection are...

Asean unifies under single extradition treaty to...

Asia - South China Morning Post ·

2025/11/19

Asean has signed its first region-wide extradition treaty, a move observers see as a long-overdue step to close legal loopholes that have allowed fugitives to slip across borders and evade arrest. Analysts say the Asean Treaty on Extradition will plug a major gap in cooperation by creating uniform rules across a region struggling with cybercrime, human trafficking and online scams that increasingly operate across jurisdictions. Member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations

‘Durian’s Indonesia’s national fruit’: Malaysia,...

Asia - South China Morning Post ·

2025/11/19

The durian, the king of fruits, is synonymous with Malaysia, right? While every Malaysian will agree, the Indonesians are saying no. They insist that they have a stronger claim to the durian, creating a thorny issue in Malaysia’s bid to make it the country’s national fruit. On Monday, Coordinating Minister for Food Affairs Zulkifli Hasan, known as Zulhas, disagreed with Malaysia’s proposal, citing Indonesia’s larger production as justification. “Indonesia produced almost 2 million tonnes of...

Can banning PUBG fight extremism? Indonesia proposes...

Asia - South China Morning Post ·

2025/11/19

Indonesia’s latest plan to clamp down on violent video games in the wake of a mosque bombing has reignited a long-running debate over the impact of digital media on young minds and whether regulation alone can stem an apparent rise in bullying and online radicalisation. President Prabowo Subianto called for restrictions on games that “normalise violence” following a November 7 blast at a North Jakarta high school mosque that injured nearly 100 students during Friday prayers. Prasetyo Hadi,

China leveraged India-Pakistan conflict to test...

Asia - South China Morning Post ·

2025/11/18

China turned a brief but intense India-Pakistan conflict in May into a live testing ground for its advanced weaponry and intelligence systems, and then aggressively marketed those results to undercut Western arms sales, a US congressional panel said in its annual report on Tuesday. “Beijing opportunistically leveraged the conflict to test and advertise the sophistication of its weapons,” a new report from the bipartisan US-China Economic and Security Review Commission stated bluntly. It...

Takaichi’s Taiwan rhetoric is a strategic misjudgment

Asia - South China Morning Post ·

2025/11/18

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s recent remarks suggesting that Japan could intervene militarily in the Taiwan Strait under the pretext of a “survival-threatening situation” represent a strategic pivot away from Japan’s post-war pacifist ethos. These statements, explicitly condemned by Beijing as “blatant interference in China’s internal affairs”, transcend mere diplomatic indiscretion. They reflect a calculated alignment with containment strategies aimed at curtailing China’s...

5,457 results