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Opinion

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Workers install a submarine communications cable in western France. Photo: AFP
Asean

Opinion | Underwater and unprotected: why Asean and the EU must secure subsea lifelines

With global data at risk from hybrid threats, Southeast Asia and Europe need to look past declarations to secure our shared data arteries.

Myanmar

Opinion | Myanmar’s junta staged an election. It couldn’t stage legitimacy

Thailand

Asian Angle | How to win an election in Thailand: stage a rebrand, rely on rural votes

Australia

Opinion | Australia needs to make its stance on the Iran attacks known

By refusing to condemn these legally baseless strikes, the Albanese government risks choosing ‘might is right’ over the UN Charter.

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Members of the Iranian diaspora in Australia celebrate US and Israeli military strikes on Iran outside Iranian embassy in Canberra on March 1. Photo: EPA
Members of the Iranian diaspora in Australia celebrate US and Israeli military strikes on Iran outside Iranian embassy in Canberra on March 1. Photo: EPA
Artificial intelligence

Asian Angle | Southeast Asia needs AI sovereignty – the Grok scandal proved it

From Singapore’s SEA-LION to Malaysia’s ILMU, Southeast Asian nations aim to build AI that reflects their own languages, cultures and values.

US-ally trade wars

Opinion | Southeast Asia, do not mistake Trump’s tariff defeat for a reprieve

One court loss won’t end the trade wars. But if ‘Peak Trump’ has arrived, the region’s negotiating hand may have just got stronger.

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Artificial intelligence

Opinion | Who will save the world from a US-China AI arms race?

Unrestrained military AI could doom us all. The window for a global middle-power alliance to rein in the superpowers is closing fast.

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The logo of the US AI company Anthropic. The US and China now face a prisoner’s dilemma in military AI. Photo: AFP
The logo of the US AI company Anthropic. The US and China now face a prisoner’s dilemma in military AI. Photo: AFP
Cambodia

Opinion | Cambodia’s scam factory survivors find no escape in freedom

A government crackdown freed thousands, but with no passports or support, survivors have simply traded captivity for destitution.

Asean

Asian Angle | How Asean can resolve its Myanmar dilemma post-election

Asean should not discard the Five-Point Consensus, but translate it into a politically astute strategy of conditional engagement.

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Vietnam

Opinion | Vietnam’s renewed nuclear power push faces formidable hurdles

Money, corruption, a lack of skilled staff and other factors may derail Hanoi’s goal of building its first nuclear power plant by 2031.

A nuclear power plant operating at night. Russia’s state-owned energy company Rosatom has been contracted to build Vietnam’s first nuclear power plant. Photo: Shutterstock
Thailand

Asian Angle | Thailand’s election will pass verdict on the architecture of elite control

After court rulings removed successive PMs, this election tests whether a popular mandate can finally survive the state’s veto traps.

Pedestrians walk past campaign posters in Bangkok on Tuesday ahead of Thailand’s general election. Photo: AFP
Pedestrians walk past campaign posters in Bangkok on Tuesday ahead of Thailand’s general election. Photo: AFP
Japan

Opinion | Honking for votes: inside Japan’s tradition of election sound trucks

During election season, sound trucks drive around Japan’s cities blaring out candidates’ names and the parties they are standing for.

China-Philippines relations

Asian Angle | South China Sea: 6 risks facing Philippines, China as conflict threshold lowers

From violent incidents to US missiles in Luzon, a ‘perilous new normal’ and vanishing red lines threaten to derail the Code of Conduct.

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Asean

Asian Angle | ‘Old order is not coming back’: Trump’s US, not China, threatens status quo

American unpredictability is pushing countries to hedge more proactively – and, ironically, soften existing tensions with China.

A protester interrupts US Secretary of State Marco Rubio (right) as he testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday. Photo: Getty Images
The Philippines

Opinion | Marcos health problems call to mind past Philippine leaders’ woes

Marcos has admitted he suffers from diverticulitis, as he battles problems including impeachment complaints and public anger over corruption.

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr at the Apec summit in South Korea last year. Marcos last appeared on January 22 in a video clip saying he was suffering from diverticulitis. Photo: AP
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr at the Apec summit in South Korea last year. Marcos last appeared on January 22 in a video clip saying he was suffering from diverticulitis. Photo: AP
Malaysia

Asian Angle | Malaysia’s PM term limits could backfire unless election cycles are set

To secure his legacy, Anwar Ibrahim must ensure his reform doesn’t accidentally encourage the very political instability he seeks to prevent.

Asean

Asian Angle | What a US-China ‘grand bargain’ would mean for Southeast Asia

Washington’s Venezuela raid has resurrected old fears about ‘spheres of influence’, sounding alarm bells for Southeast Asian autonomy.

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Diplomacy

Asian Angle | China has a worthy blueprint to improve the UN. Why is the West ignoring it?

China’s Global Governance Initiative seeks to end ‘might is right’, but the West insists on viewing it through a dusty Cold War lens.

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(From right) Chinese President Xi Jinping, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin during the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Tianjin on September 1, 2025. Photo: EPA
(From right) Chinese President Xi Jinping, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin during the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Tianjin on September 1, 2025. Photo: EPA
Asean

Asian Angle | To win the future, Southeast Asia must rewrite its industrial rule book

Success relies on five key pillars, including deeper regional coordination and targeted industrial upgrading.

Indonesia

Asian Angle | Indonesia’s digital 2045 ambition rests on a fragile seabed spine

With few domestic repair ships and convoluted laws, Indonesia struggles to safeguard the 115,000km of cables powering its digital future.

Protests around the world

Opinion | From memes to the streets: Gen Z’s fight back against corruption

Youth-led movements are too often treated as fleeting emotional outbursts, even though they express structured political demands.

An activist holds a poster next to a flag bearing an image of the “Jolly Roger” from popular Japanese anime “One Piece” during a protest in Jakarta, Indonesia, in September. Photo: AP
Myanmar

Asian Angle | How uneven borders fuel Myanmar’s vast and resilient scam economy

Fieldwork along the borders of China and Thailand reveals how uneven controls allow fraud networks to thrive despite crackdowns.

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Advertisements for gambling sites and what appears to be Starlink satellite dishes on the roofs of buildings at the notorious KK Park complex in Myanmar’s eastern Myawaddy township, as pictured from Mae Sot district in Thailand’s border province of Tak, on September 17. Photo: AFP
Advertisements for gambling sites and what appears to be Starlink satellite dishes on the roofs of buildings at the notorious KK Park complex in Myanmar’s eastern Myawaddy township, as pictured from Mae Sot district in Thailand’s border province of Tak, on September 17. Photo: AFP
Bangladesh

Asian Angle | Bangladesh needs ‘structural’ change, but how will it get there?

As Bangladesh heads into elections next year, it must tread the challenge of political transition with more care and thoughtfulness.

Malaysia

Asian Angle | Sabah’s election proves Malaysians want results, not slogans

Local parties crying ‘Sabah First’ largely flopped as voters rejected empty identity rhetoric for proven service records.

The Philippines

Asian Angle | Greed and pork barrel politics fuel the Philippines’ fatal floods

Filipinos are paying the ultimate price for a system that favours corrupt lawmakers’ pet projects over scientifically sound flood control.

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Rescuers carry a resident of Cebu City, the Philippines, past cars swept away in floods brought by Typhoon Kalmaegi on November 4. Photo: AFP
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