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This Week in Asia /

Health & Environment

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Coronavirus pandemic
Climate change
Wellness
Billy, a resident of the village of Yandina in Russell Islands, Solomon Islands, sits next to unexploded munitions near his home. Photo: UNDP Pacific Office/Christopher Teasdale
Japan

Solomon Islands residents live in fear of WWII bomb explosions

With more people on the islands killed or injured due to the munitions, a UN team calls for international efforts to remove the danger.

US, Israel war on Iran

Is the Strait of Hormuz a ticking environmental time bomb?

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Thailand

Thai undertaker brings corpse to petrol station to prove fuel need

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Japan

Where can Japan store its nuclear waste? Island plan raises alarm

Critics of Minamitorishima proposal point to scant research on the remote Pacific atoll.

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Protesters wearing protective suits and masks shout slogans next to mock drums of nuclear waste during a rally in Tokyo. Photo: AFP
Protesters wearing protective suits and masks shout slogans next to mock drums of nuclear waste during a rally in Tokyo. Photo: AFP
Asean

Burning daylight: Iran war energy shock revives Asean’s power grid plans

Oil is up, coal is back and so are fuel queues. As the Middle East burns, Southeast Asia dusts off an old plan to rewire its future.

Defence

Activists push for Cop31 to discuss impact of wars on global climate

Military activities are hampering the transition towards renewable energy, with data transparency lacking among major defence spenders.

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Singapore

As haze returns to Singapore, is crisis ‘quietly accepted’ by Asean?

Some Singaporeans are resigned to tolerating the annual occurrence despite the health risks and higher electricity bills.

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A fire razes through a peatland field in Ogan Ilir, South Sumatra, Indonesia last July. Photo: AP
A fire razes through a peatland field in Ogan Ilir, South Sumatra, Indonesia last July. Photo: AP
Malaysia

Malaysia’s weather is so hot that it can warp a payment card

Rice fields are drying out in the northern region, while heat-related health cases are rising across the country.

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The Philippines

A dog killer in the Philippines was fined US$17. New bills seek reform

Dedicated police units and a national watchdog. Two new bills aim to ensure animal abusers face justice, not just a US$17 fine.

Japan

In Japan, trains will get an extra 20 seconds to avert catastrophe from quakes

Tokyo has predicted an 80 per cent chance of a magnitude-9 quake in the next 30 years, that could cause 300,000 deaths.

Tsunami waves hit a residential area after a powerful earthquake in Natori, Miyagi prefecture, Japan, in 2012. Photo: AP/Kyodo News
South Korea

South Korea’s hurry-hurry spirit keeps killing its factory workers

Nine of the 14 people killed in Friday’s factory fire in Daejeon died in a room that did not officially exist.

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Heavy smoke billows from the blaze at a car parts factory in Daejeon, South Korea, on Friday. Photo: Yonhap/AFP
Heavy smoke billows from the blaze at a car parts factory in Daejeon, South Korea, on Friday. Photo: Yonhap/AFP
Singapore

‘Super-aged’ Singapore’s secret to growing old well? Stay busy

Forget doing nothing. At the city state’s active hubs, the soundtrack to ageing is sewing machines, exercise bikes and guitar lessons.

Climate change

Himalayan glacial loss threatens 2 billion as Asia’s ‘water tower’ shrinks

Conflicts, such as the Iran war, are diverting global attention away from the ecological crisis, scientists warn.

Ageing society

Mortal combat: Southeast Asia fights fears of death to plan for the end

Birth rates are falling. Populations are ageing. In Southeast Asia, the business of dying has never been bigger.

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Illustration: Huy Truong
India

India’s weight-loss drug price war begins as key patent expires

Generic slimming drugs are expected to flood a market where one in four adults are currently either overweight or obese.

A group of women walk on a street in Madurai, Tamil Nadu. About a quarter of India’s adult population is either overweight or obese. Photo: LightRocket via Getty Images
A group of women walk on a street in Madurai, Tamil Nadu. About a quarter of India’s adult population is either overweight or obese. Photo: LightRocket via Getty Images
Malaysia

Malaysia’s ‘shielded’ medical tourism sector to benefit from Iran war’s impact

With the war affecting the outlook of Dubai’s medical hub, Malaysia could draw more patients from the Middle East.

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Artificial intelligence

Too hot to handle? Southeast Asia’s AI data centre gold rush strains power grids

Data centres crave cold. Southeast Asia is anything but. Now, the AI boom is pushing tropical engineering to the limit.

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Asean

Asean bets on new framework to remedy ‘uneven’ disaster response

The new ‘ASPECT’ initiative could help boost quicker collective regional responses during large-scale or evolving disasters, analysts say.

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Rescuers evacuate a woman after Tropical Storm Penha hit the area in Iligan, Philippines’ Lanao del Norte province, on February 6. Photo: AFP
Rescuers evacuate a woman after Tropical Storm Penha hit the area in Iligan, Philippines’ Lanao del Norte province, on February 6. Photo: AFP
Malaysia

‘Ocean is our income’: the Malaysian fishers being pushed out by progress

Malaysia’s government says the Port Klang expansion is sustainable and essential. Local Mah Meri fishers fear for their livelihoods.

US, Israel war on Iran

No longer safe: Iran war puts 9 million Indian workers in the line of fire

As missiles fly, drone strikes from Dubai to Doha are shattering the illusion of safety for millions of Indian expats living in the Gulf.

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India

‘Death is a release’: Indian parents win right to grant son a dignified death

Harish Rana was comatose and bedridden for over a decade. Now, the Supreme Court has ruled that his ‘endless misery’ can finally end.

Harish Rana, an engineering student, has been in a vegetative state for the last 13 years after falling from the fourth floor of his hostel. Photo: Handout
Indonesia

‘Quite severe’: coastal erosion threatens future of Bali’s famed Kuta Beach

Experts warn extreme weather and decades of coastal development on the resort island have worsened the situation.

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Tourists relax on Kuta Beach in Bali, Indonesia, in December 2025. Officials say the erosion on Kuta Beach is “quite severe”. Photo: EPA
Tourists relax on Kuta Beach in Bali, Indonesia, in December 2025. Officials say the erosion on Kuta Beach is “quite severe”. Photo: EPA
The Philippines

250 men went down with a WWII ‘hell ship’. Now the US is coming back for them

Eight decades after the Oryoku Maru was sunk by American bombs, specialist divers are returning to retrieve the 250 men still trapped inside.

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Indonesia

Why Indonesia’s waste-to-energy goal may not be ‘quick fix’ for landfill crisis

With billions to be spent on new waste-to-energy plants, critics are questioning the potential cost to Indonesian cities and the environment.

US, Israel war on Iran

Sowing the seeds of hunger: war on Iran puts Asia’s next harvest at risk

As Gulf gas plants go offline, missing fertiliser shipments today could mean empty shelves and record food prices by autumn.

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Farmers sow paddy saplings in a field on the outskirts of Guwahati, India, last month. Photo: AP
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