Tag - southeast-asia

 
 

SOUTHEAST ASIA

Mukdahan provincial governor Worayan Bunnarat said the case of eight monks being killed by a truck should serve as a wider warning on road safety in Thailand.
ASIA PACIFIC
Jul 2, 2026
Eight Thai monks killed after boy drives truck into procession, police say
Police said the boy had taken his parents’ pickup truck without permission before losing control of the vehicle and crashing into the monks.
Chinese tourists at Wat Arun Ratchawararam Rathawaramahawihan in Bangkok
BUSINESS
Jul 2, 2026
Thailand gets serious about chasing high-spending tourists
Officials are aiming for visitors to spend about $2,400 per trip on average, compared with roughly $1,500 currently.
Members of the religious group Iglesia ni Cristo stage a protest in front of the People's Power Monument in Quezon City, Metro Manila on Tuesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jul 2, 2026
Religious group extends Manila protest in support of Duterte ally
The rally adds to tensions between Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and his ally-turned-nemesis Vice President Sara Duterte, whose impeachment trial will start next week.
Shoppers carry groceries in plastic bags as they walk through a traditional market in Keelung, Taiwan, on June 9.
BUSINESS
Jun 29, 2026
Asia’s vendors grapple with rising costs of ever-present plastics
Vendors say they do not have a practical alternative to the plastic products they use on a daily basis.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong meet on the sidelines of the Russia-ASEAN Summit in Kazan, Russia, on June 18.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 25, 2026
ASEAN-Russia summit signals multipolar shift
Leaders’ engagement in Kazan underscores Southeast Asia’s pragmatic diplomacy amid global realignment.
Banjop Kraithong, 54, a local fisher, removes crabs from a fishing net in Lang Suan district, Chumphon province, Thailand, on May 19.
ASIA PACIFIC
Jun 18, 2026
Thailand revives $30 billion coast-to-coast corridor to rival Malacca Strait
Plans envision a logistics corridor that will offer an alternative route to the Strait of Malacca by connecting two new deep-sea ports.
Fishing boats are docked along the Mekong River in Chiang Saen, northern Thailand's Chiang Rai province on June 4. Thailand's pollution control department said in April it had found arsenic concentrations of up to 296 milligrams per kilogram in sediment near Chiang Saen — more than nine times the level considered dangerous for aquatic life.
ASIA PACIFIC
Jun 16, 2026
Poorest on front line as arsenic hits nine times danger level in Mekong River
Doctors have found elevated levels of toxic arsenic in those who work on the river, which passes through China, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam.
Ground Self-Defense Force troops lower the Japanese flag at the end of the day at their camp on Miyako Island, Okinawa Prefecture, in April 2022. 
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 15, 2026
Who’s afraid of ‘Japanese neo-militarism’? Nobody
More countries see a stronger Japan not as a danger, but a counterweight to China’s actions and growing U.S. untrustworthiness.
Myanmar’s military ruler, Min Aung Hlaing, shows his ink-stained finger after casting hist vote in Naypyidaw, the capital,in December 2025. He was elected president on April 3 by the country’s rubber-stamp Parliament.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jun 15, 2026
Myanmar’s president arrives in China to boost trade ties
Myanmar has been diplomatically isolated since a 2021 military coup ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi.
South Bangkok Criminal Court
ASIA PACIFIC
Jun 11, 2026
Thailand sentences Chinese Uyghurs to death over 2015 shrine bombing
The blast came weeks after Thailand’s then-ruling junta forcibly repatriated 109 Uyghurs to China.
India’s central bank has often been seen intervening just before onshore open to ease pressure on the rupee.
BUSINESS
Jun 11, 2026
Asia’s currency fight moves offshore as central banks push back
Policymakers have ramped up efforts to curb offshore forex speculation as high oil prices, foreign fund exodus and a strong dollar pressure regional currencies.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and Malaysian leader Anwar Ibrahim pose for photographs ahead of their bilateral meeting at the Prime Minister's Office in Tokyo on Wednesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 10, 2026
Japan and Malaysia pledge to bolster energy supplies and maritime ties
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and Malaysian leader Anwar Ibrahim reached a deal on energy security, including LNG supplies, during a summit in Tokyo on Monday.
A Myanmar refugee granted a work permit by the Thai government works at a longan farm in Chanthaburi province, Thailand, in November 2025.
ASIA PACIFIC
Jun 10, 2026
Thai jobs for Myanmar refugees could show way forward for Asian nations, U.N. says
The step came in response to a sharp decline in global humanitarian funding, ​in part as the U.S. slashed foreign aid ‌and Thailand ‌battled growing labor shortages.
A security guard takes a selfie beside the Maritime Self-Defense Force's Amagiri, an Asagiri-class destroyer, upon its arrival for a goodwill visit in Metro Manila in February 2018.
JAPAN / ANALYSIS
Jun 10, 2026
How Tokyo aims to turn retired military equipment into lasting strategic returns
Japan’s export of used military gear to partner nations could deliver decades of strategic returns, analysts say.
Passengers on a pickup truck look at a damaged building a day after the magnitude 7.8 quake in General Santos, southern Philippines, on Tuesday.
ASIA PACIFIC
Jun 10, 2026
Outdoor hospitals, shaken communities as Philippine quake toll hits 41
In hardest-hit Sarangani province, some areas remain accessible only by helicopter while fears of aftershocks were slowing rescue efforts.
Inside a compound at the Chong Chom OSmach border crossing that authorities say was used for scam operations in Cambodia on March 12
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Jun 8, 2026
Cambodia scam centers increase despite crackdown, report says
Cambodia, alongside Myanmar and Laos, has become a hub for scam compounds where trafficked workers are often forced to carry out fraud schemes.
A farmer harvests oil palm fruit at a plantation in Indonesia’s Central Kalimantan province last July.
BUSINESS
Jun 5, 2026
Indonesia’s radical export plan takes effect as doubts swirl
Indonesia is facing severe investor pressure as questions have grown around governance and its economic outlook under President Prabowo Subianto.
Vietnamese leader To Lam arrives in the Philippines for a summit with Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., on Sunday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jun 1, 2026
Vietnam and Philippines elevate ties and discuss South China Sea
Vietnamese leader To Lam’s trip to the Philippines comes as both countries grapple with an increasingly assertive Chinese presence in the South China Sea.
A Buddhist nun walks past a truck in Yangon, Myanmar, on May 29.
ASIA PACIFIC
Jun 1, 2026
Explosion in Myanmar village reportedly kills 55, injures dozens more
The Ta’ang National Liberation Army, ⁠which is currently in a ceasefire with the Myanmar military, controls ​the village near the ⁠Chinese border.
Two men hugged after being rescued from a semi-submerged cave in Laos' central Xaysomboun province, northeast of the Lao capital Vientiane on Saturday.
ASIA PACIFIC
May 31, 2026
Survivors advise rescuers in search for last two stuck in Laos cave
Those rescued are part of a group of seven stranded in the cave by flash floods nearly two weeks ago as they searched for gold.

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The Terasaka Rice Terraces are seen with Mount Buko in the background.
What Yokoze can teach Japan about rural revival