Southeast Asia

Philippine authorities said Tuesday they will temporarily block an online gaming app that one of two students blamed for a deadly school shooting has avidly used, to assess whether it played a role in fostering such violence.

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The government is stepping up efforts to address the renewed violence in the southernmost provinces following a series of bomb attacks, with Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul scheduled to hold talks with Malaysian leaders on July 9-10 to seek more concrete solutions to the long-running insurgency.

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A Thai man has been arrested after attacking a Vietnamese woman with a box cutter in Bangkok's Silom District, telling police he targeted the 29-year-old victim because of her body size.

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The Civil Court has ordered the Ministry of Defence and the Royal Thai Army to pay 4.9 million baht in compensation to the family of a private who was beaten to death at an army camp in 2017.

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A Seoul court has sentenced a Vietnamese woman in her 20s to 10 years in prison after finding her guilty of causing her newborn's death by abandoning the baby outdoors in freezing conditions.

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The Department of Special Investigation (DSI) has confirmed that it obtained an arrest warrant in March this year for property developer Anant Asavabhokin in a money-laundering case linked to Wat Phra Dhammakaya and the Klongchan Credit Union Cooperative (KCUC) embezzlement scandal.

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The Singapore Institute of International Affairs (SIIA) warned that Southeast Asia could face a heightened risk of severe transboundary haze episodes in the remaining months of this year.

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Malaysia will deploy military veterans as full-time hostel wardens at a group of elite boarding schools from Wednesday, in a new push to curb bullying after a series of abuse cases stirred widespread public anger over student safety. The first 16 former Malaysian Armed Forces personnel will report for duty at eight Mara Junior Science Colleges, in a move reminiscent of Netflix’s hit K-drama Teach You a Lesson, where a Special Ops veteran takes on school bullies. Mara Junior Science Colleges are...

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Bangkok's air temperature stayed below 40 degrees Celsius on June 25, but soaring humidity pushed the "feels like" heat index into the official "danger" zone, prompting city authorities to warn of a rising heatstroke risk.

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The future of the 224.5-billion-baht high-speed rail project linking Don Mueang, Suvarnabhumi and U-Tapao airports now hinges on whether the government approves amendments to its concession agreement, with the State Railway of Thailand (SRT) warning the contract could otherwise be terminated.

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Hpakant has also witnessed vicious combat in recent months between the Myanmar military and opposition forces, vying for control of jade mining operations

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Thai authorities are expanding the investigation into the case of a Thai flight attendant who was arrested for carrying heroin into Australia, to determine whether she was knowingly involved in drug smuggling.

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Malaysian police have seized more than 653 kg of cannabis buds at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) in the first six months of this year and arrested 38 suspects.

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Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr faced a stern challenge on Tuesday after the influential Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) religious movement staged a protest on Metro Manila’s busiest highway to demand that the presidential palace stop going after one of its members, Senator Rodante Marcoleta. The rally at Edsa – the highway where a 1986 people power uprising helped topple Marcos’ father, who was the country’s long-time dictator – has raised the stakes of a looming criminal case involving...

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A Thai flight crew member was arrested at Melbourne Airport after Australian authorities discovered one kilogram of heroin concealed inside her luggage.

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Vietnam uses AI more than any of its Southeast Asian neighbors, and a growing number of its office workers are now discovering the cost: a form of mental exhaustion researchers call "AI brain fry."

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Malaysia-registered taxis entering Singapore must pay S$15 (US$12) per trip from Jan. 1, 2027, as the city-state moves to narrow a wide cost gap with its own cabs, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) said on June 25.

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A record 17 Vietnamese universities have landed spots on the 2026 Times Higher Education (THE) Sustainability Impact Ratings, marking the country's strongest showing so far.

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Michael Bloomberg has pledged US$260 million to fund the first protected areas on the high seas, stepping in with private money just as the U.S. and U.K. scale back ocean and climate spending.

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By consistently mastering 30 to 40 new English words every day to overcome his weakness in the Reading section, a Hanoi high school student achieved a perfect SAT score of 1600 on his fourth attempt.

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Believing an image of a crocodile sent by her teenage daughter was genuine, a woman in southern Vietnam reported the sighting to local authorities, which resulted in a fine.

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Vietnam will launch a national housing and real estate information system on July 1 that assigns every property a unique identification code to improve transparency and curb speculation, the Ministry of Construction has said.

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Pupils in Ho Chi Minh City will have an opportunity to experience classes led by teachers from King's College School, Wimbledon, through a new academic program called King's Spotlight

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Civil servants of Malaysia, Southeast Asia's third-richest country by GDP per capita, will spend two days working from home or an approved location and three days in the office under a new hybrid working arrangement which will be effective from Aug. 1.

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The Bangkok governor election on Sunday delivered one expected result and one surprise.

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The Interior Ministry has stepped up its investigation into suspected nominee businesses in Phuket, with about 200 more companies set to be examined in the next phase.

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Thailand has been ranked 27th in the world and 7th in Asia among the best countries for starting a business, aligning with the government's ongoing efforts to reform the country's economic structure and enhance its global competitiveness, according to deputy government spokeswoman Lalida Persvivatana, citing the US News & World Report – Best Countries 2026 rankings.

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Thailand aims to finalise a draft of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Act in this fiscal year, with a focus on balancing the promotion of AI adoption and strict regulation.

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This country uses its own calendar, running nearly 60 years ahead of most of the world.

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Vietnam's capital has published the longest-horizon blueprint in its history, betting on a cluster of linked cities, a near-1,000-km metro network and first-world wealth.

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The Philippines is uniquely positioned to serve as a gateway for Greater Bay Area businesses into Southeast Asia, the country’s trade secretary said on Tuesday, as she outlined Manila’s push to promote a pro-investment environment. Speaking at the South China Morning Post’s GBA-Asean Summit 2026, Cristina Aldeguer-Roque urged investors to view the Philippines as a springboard into the region and to tap into the country’s young, digitally fluent workforce. “We are a maritime, demographic and...

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Singapore has climbed 10 places to 59th in this year's UN-backed Sustainable Development Report, advancing even as global progress toward the 2030 goals stalled.

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An Indonesian court convicted former education minister Nadiem Makarim, the co-founder of a multibillion-dollar tech startup, of corruption on Tuesday, sentencing him to 10 years in prison.

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More Singapore residents aged below 40 had never married in 2025 than in 2020, government data released on Tuesday showed, with the sharpest increases among those aged 25 to 34. The findings come from the Department of Statistics’ General Household Survey, Singapore’s mid-decade national household survey conducted between the once-a-decade Population Census. The survey also found that women who had been married had fewer children on average than five years earlier; English strengthened its...

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The US State Department has backed a potential sale of AGM-114R Hellfire missiles to Singapore, valued at US$22.3 million, in a deal it said would strengthen the city state’s defences, a key US strategic partner in Asia. The department on Tuesday said the sale would include 67 Hellfire missiles – a type of precision-guided, air-to-ground missile – as well as spare parts and support equipment. Lockheed Martin will be the principal contractor. “This proposed sale will support the foreign policy...

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Vietnam Airlines plans to shift some 12% of its international flights from Ho Chi Minh City's Tan Son Nhat Airport to the soon-ready Long Thanh airport, and Vietjet has committed to operating at least two international routes from the mega facility.

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The People’s Party (PP) has named its Bangkok councillor-elect in Bang Sue, Pattraporn Kengrungruengchai, its candidate for the chair of the new Bangkok city council.

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It has been nearly five years since then Workers’ Party (WP) MP Raeesah Khan uttered her first lie in Singapore’s parliament but its aftershocks continue to reverberate, as some political observers argue that public fatigue has set in. They say it would be in the interest of both the ruling People’s Action Party’s (PAP) and the WP to avoid further drawing out the issue when there are more pressing matters to address for citizens. Mustafa Izzuddin, a senior international affairs analyst at...

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The Senate on Tuesday approved a controversial political amnesty bill that would cover offences linked to political conflicts across all factions, while explicitly excluding lese-majeste offenders regardless of their age.

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Half of Filipino workers reported feeling stressed for much of the previous day in 2025, the highest rate in Southeast Asia, even as the same workforce ranked among the region's happiest and most committed to their jobs.

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