As haze from forest fires in Indonesia continues to shroud Southeast Asia, Malaysians have taken to social media to air their grievances, with a video of an elevated outdoor reading from an air purifier among viral content marking public frustration. The clip, posted by user syahierarafie, shows a device detecting an Air Pollutant Index (API) of up to 318 in Gelang Patah, a suburban town in western Johor Bahru which borders Singapore. The video has drawn over 990,000 views as of Tuesday. “Today,...

A chemical cylinder at a family-run scrap business in Hanoi leaked on the morning of Oct. 19, leaving 40 people hospitalized with suspected poisoning.

Malaysia’s main opposition coalition lost its registration on Tuesday, just 11 days before nominations for a state election, drawing accusations that Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s government is using state powers to cripple its rivals. The decision leaves Perikatan Nasional (PN) – already fractured by a bitter dispute between its Islamist anchor, the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS), and estranged partner Bersatu – fighting to preserve its electoral identity ahead of Melaka’s November 14...

PARLIAMENT | Removing fines from the relevant law would leave jail as the only punishment, says Prabakaran.

Two Singaporean men lost their positions in the armed forces after they were convicted of having sex with a 15-year-old boy. Former army captain Chaw Chia Jun, 41, was sentenced to 17 months’ jail on Tuesday, while his co-accused Owen Toh Wei Song, a former navy cook, was jailed for 12 months on September 22, according to CNA. Singapore’s Ministry of Defence has confirmed that both were suspended after their arrest in 2024 and were no longer in the military. “The Singapore Armed Forces holds its...

A country need not run out of money to find itself in a debt crisis. It only has to run short of US dollars to pay for its energy. At the recent International Monetary Fund-World Bank annual meetings in Bangkok, the IMF, which expects global economic growth of 3.1 per cent this year and 3.4 per cent the next, cautioned that energy-importing and lower-income economies face a harder road, even as those riding the artificial intelligence boom fare relatively well. According to the World Bank’s...

PARLIAMENT | M'sian youth possess the boldness to challenge matters that warrant scrutiny – Suhaizan.

Coalition chair says ROS' timing ahead of Malacca polls is 'unnatural'.

Sydney's A$5.6 billion (US$3.9 billion) second airport will take its first passengers on Oct. 25 with half a dozen or fewer scheduled flights a day for the next 12 months, Bloomberg reported, citing aviation data company Cirium.

Calls to boycott a Malaysian Chinese-owned coffee-shop chain over its omission of Malay text from its menu have reignited arguments over race and national identity, as political parties jostle to court the country’s majority ethnic group ahead of the next general election. The Oriental Kopi boycott marks the latest saga fuelling ethnic grievances that politicians have been seen to capitalise on by portraying themselves as defenders of Malay identity. It comes ahead of the November 14 election in...

The nipa palm leaf-shaped pedestrian bridge crossing the Saigon River in downtown Ho Chi Minh City has reached about 90% completion and is expected to open to the public for the upcoming Lunar New Year, or Tet.

Universiti Malaya student Ummi Umairah Bakhit, who went viral recently for questioning the donation of money to former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak, has spoken out against what she described as cyberbullying, political obsession and emotional loyalty. The youth stood by her criticism of donating money to the former prime minister, saying she would not apologise for raising the issue. In a social media post, Ummi Umairah said the response to a question she raised at the International...

PN sec-gen explains why Bersatu excluded from July 16 supreme council meeting.

The lawyers are being investigated for allegedly pressuring a hospital to release photographs of the deceased.

Malaysia’s government will publicly release the findings of a special task force on corporate malfeasance in three months, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said on Tuesday, as his administration seeks to appease public anger over its perceived failure to clamp down on corruption. Anwar is facing a reckoning in the final stretch of his term after his ruling Pakatan Harapan coalition was handed bruising defeats in three state elections over the past year. Former supporters have accused the coalition...

Singapore will issue preventive notices to three more Indonesian companies to tackle and prevent forest fires in Kalimantan Province that may have sent smoke across the border, the National Environment Agency said Monday.

Shuhaily says he is ready to face the country's legal processes.

UPDATED 5.58PM | Azmin tells PAS and its allies to take responsibility, quit trying to gain sympathy.

Bersama co-leader says no MP or party has focused on public interest implications.

PARLIAMENT | PM assures govt will tighten investment rules and scrutiny.

Filipino seafarer Jay was on lookout duty aboard a vessel passing through the Strait of Hormuz one evening in August when drones swarmed overhead, darting past his ship and two others it was following. Within seconds, an explosion rang out from the tanker ahead. “That was traumatic for me when I saw that the tanker ahead of our vessel had been hit,” said Jay, whose real name has been withheld to protect him from possible employer retribution. The 29-year-old and his fellow crew members made it...

Filipino seafarer Jay was on lookout duty aboard a vessel passing through the Strait of Hormuz one evening in August when drones swarmed overhead, darting past his ship and two others it was following. Within seconds, an explosion rang out from a tanker ahead. “That was traumatic for me when I saw that the tanker ahead of our vessel had been hit,” said Jay, whose real name has been withheld to protect him from possible employer retribution. The 29-year-old and his fellow crew members made it...

UPDATED 2.10PM | Takiyuddin accuses govt of acting in bad faith.

PARLIAMENT | Anwar says he has asked for a comprehensive report to be released to allay transparency concerns.

While Hong Kong is betting on its established banking network to bring stablecoins into mainstream finance, Singapore is seeking to make regulated digital currencies easier to use. Both approaches reflect different priorities in the race to build global cryptocurrency centres: Hong Kong is linking stablecoins to its existing financial system, while Singapore is looking to strengthen the infrastructure for circulating and settling tokenised assets. Analysts said the ultimate test would be whether...

While Hong Kong is betting on its established banking network to bring stablecoins into mainstream finance, Singapore is seeking to make regulated digital currencies easier to use. Both approaches reflect different priorities in the race to build global cryptocurrency centres: Hong Kong is linking stablecoins to its existing financial system, while Singapore is looking to strengthen the infrastructure for circulating and settling tokenised assets. Analysts said the ultimate test would be whether...

It will also receive a bigger 2027 budget allocation of RM2.27b.

King Frederik X of Denmark on Monday morning presented Vietnam's Party General Secretary and President To Lam with the Order of the Elephant, the European country’s highest-ranked honor awarded to members of the Royal Family and foreign heads of state.

Thailand and Cambodia have agreed to dial down the rhetoric and use a hotline between their navy commanders to avoid flashpoints over a vast contested patch of energy-rich seas in the Gulf of Thailand, according to a UN-backed mediation panel at The Hague tasked with helping to settle the dispute between the neighbours. The Southeast Asian countries have also squabbled for decades over the demarcation of their 800km (500-mile) land border, where clashes last year killed scores on both sides and...

Thailand and Cambodia have agreed to dial down the rhetoric and use a hotline between their navy commanders to avoid flashpoints over a vast contested patch of energy-rich seas in the Gulf of Thailand, according to a UN-backed mediation panel at The Hague tasked with helping to settle the dispute between the neighbours. The Southeast Asian countries have also squabbled for decades over the demarcation of their 800km (500-mile) land border, where clashes last year killed scores on both sides and...