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April 25, 2025
 

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Philip J. Heijmans
Containers are stacked at a port in Vietnam
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Apr 5, 2025
Southeast Asia rushes to avert tariff pain by enticing Trump
Southeast Asia’s offers to negotiate contrast with China’s retaliation, while the European Union is preparing its own countermeasures if talks fail.
Containers stacked up at the Phnom Penh Autonomous Port in Phnom Penh on Thursday. Southeast Asian countries with a significant trade surplus with the U.S. came in for harsh treatment from Trump's stinging tariffs.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 4, 2025
Trump tariffs are a ‘disaster’ for world’s poorest countries
Poor nations' labor-intensive export industries face new risk in trade war.
Donald Trump's presidency took third place in a new survey on Southeast Asia's top three geopolitical concerns.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Apr 4, 2025
Trump presidency a key concern for Southeast Asia, survey shows
Trump took third place at 46.9% in top concerns for Southeast Asians, according to a ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute survey published Thursday.
Myanmar's military chief, Min Aung Hlaing (center), arrives to meet earthquake survivors gathered on the compound of a hospital in Naypyitaw on Friday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / FOCUS
Apr 1, 2025
Deadly quake gives junta a chance to tighten hold over Myanmar
Even as the damage of Friday’s quake was still being assessed, pro-democracy rebel groups reported fresh airstrikes in areas close to the epicenter.
Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte appears on a screen in a courtroom at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, on Friday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Mar 15, 2025
Duterte’s swift descent from ‘Punisher’ president to inmate
Duterte's team seemed unconcerned about rumors that the International Criminal Court might issue an arrest warrant against him. It was a fatal mistake.
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.
Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Aug 19, 2024
Singapore’s Wong hands out fresh perks ahead of election
Prime Minister Lawrence Wong sought to reassure citizens their voices are being heard during his first and last National Day Rally before Singapore's general election.
Srettha Thavisin in Bangkok on Wednesday. He became the fourth Thai prime minister to be ousted by the Constitutional Court in the past two decades.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Aug 15, 2024
Thai political upheaval shows royalists still firmly in charge
The difference this time is that former leader Thaksin Shinawatra is now in an alliance with his former conservative adversaries as part of a deal struck last year.
Pita Limjaroenrat, leader of the Thailand's Move Forward Party, in Bangkok on Thursday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Aug 2, 2024
Thailand opposition leader warns of instability ahead of court rulings
Top judges will rule next week on whether to disband Move Forward, and whether Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin should be removed from office.
Attendees watch a broadcast of the swearing-in ceremony of Singapore’s Prime Minister Lawrence Wong on Wednesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
May 16, 2024
Singapore’s PM Wong takes office warning of ‘more violent’ world
Lawrence Wong takes office with rising concerns over the cost of living, strained U.S.-China ties and wars in the Middle East and Ukraine.
The resignation of Vietnam President Vo Van Thuong on Wednesday is "not really a good sign for a country often boasted for having very strong political stability.”
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Mar 21, 2024
‘Political earthquake’ shakes up succession battle in Vietnam
The ouster of a second president in just over a year leaves a leadership vacuum in one of Asia’s fastest-growing economies.
The Yarra River in Melbourne. The leaders of every ASEAN member, bar Myanmar, were in Australia for a three-day summit to commemorate 50 years of relations.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Mar 4, 2024
Australia and Southeast Asia push to bolster ties in China’s shadow
The leaders of every ASEAN member, bar Myanmar, were in Australia for a three-day summit to commemorate 50 years of relations.
A Chinese coast guard ship near the China-controlled Scarborough Shoal, in disputed waters of the South China Sea on Feb. 16.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Feb 29, 2024
China militia presence increases in South China Sea: report
Satellite imagery of nine features in the sea, including reefs and shoals, identified an average of 195 militia ships present on any given day in 2023.
Singapore's former Transport Minister Subramaniam Iswaran (center) and his defense counsel Davinder Singh (left) leave the Singapore State Courts on Thursday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jan 19, 2024
Singapore minister quits after biggest graft case since 1986
The scandal has cast a pall on the city-state known for its clean governance. If convicted, the minister faces fines and a possible jail term.
People's Liberation Army forces walk near the Sagaing Region of Myanmar on Nov. 23.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Dec 21, 2023
China is using Myanmar civil war to destroy cyber scam networks
The ruling Communist Party is cracking down on criminal gangs that have scammed, kidnapped and tortured its citizens
Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Nov 9, 2023
China unlikely to launch ‘D-Day’ on Taiwan, Singapore PM says
Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong downplayed concerns, saying China isn’t "trigger happy” about taking over the island.
Malaysia Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim speaks at a press conference during Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's official visit, at Putrajaya, Malaysia, on Sunday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Nov 8, 2023
Malaysian PM shores up support at home with fiery anti-Israel views
Anwar Ibrahim has become Asia’s most outspoken leader against the war in Gaza and its backers in the U.S. and Europe.
Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong attends an Association of Southeast Asian Nations Summit in Jakarta in September.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Nov 5, 2023
Singapore’s prime minister to step aside before next polls
Lee Hsien Loong has been leader for almost two decades and the People’s Action Party has long telegraphed a power transition.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. leaves a meeting in Jakarta on Sept. 7.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Sep 28, 2023
Marcos' challenge of China pressures U.S.
There are questions about how far Manila is willing to go and whether the U.S. would really have its back if the situation escalates.
Thailand Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Sep 20, 2023
U.S. sees once-in-generation shot to reset rocky Thai alliance
Thailand's new premier wants closer ties with the West in order to to reinvigorate an economy that has lagged behind its neighbors.
Amid uncertain tariffs, is now the time to buy a new iPhone?
An Apple store in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward in September. Prices for the newest iPhone models start at around ¥100,000 ($700) in Japan.
Japan must correct Trump’s false data for trade talks, says Kono
Former Foreign Minister Taro Kono
Japan wants to 'separate' tariff and security issues. That may be tough.
Japan’s chief tariff negotiator, Ryosei Akazawa, poses with a "Make America Great Again" cap at the White House in Washington on April 16.
Social media helps fuel growing 'sex tourism' in Japan
People walk down a street in the red-light entertainment area of Kabukicho in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo on March 31.
Japan set to fine cyclists on the spot for rule violations from 2026
Under new rules, those who use smartphones while riding a bicycle would be subject to the maximum fine of ¥12,000.
Amid uncertain tariffs, is now the time to buy a new iPhone?
An Apple store in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward in September. Prices for the newest iPhone models start at around ¥100,000 ($700) in Japan.
Built in a flash, Osaka Expo pavilions wrestle with sustainability
Kengo Kuma & Associates oversaw the construction of the Malaysia pavilion, which is encased in interwoven rows of bamboo that appear to ripple.
Japan weighs using U.S. rice imports as tariff negotiation tool with Trump
A restaurant owner pours California-grown Calrose rice into a rice cooker at his restaurant in Tokyo
Is Japan’s parliament ready to welcome more youth to its ranks?
Lower House lawmaker Kai Odake in his Tokyo office on Wednesday
Crow meat, goat tartare: Mauvaise Herbe raises its game
Crow meat, shaped into a ball and attached to a foot of the bird, is one of the peculiar offerings of game at Mauvaise Herbe.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

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.
By Tomoko Otake

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Tsukuba massif granite, one of the world’s few heritage stones
Tsukuba massif granite, one of the world’s few heritage stones

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