Asian Legal Review

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After a few years of hybrid experimentation, Asia Pacific companies are rediscovering the value of the office. 
Across the region, business confidence is strengthening. According to CBRE’s 2025 Asia Pacific Office Occupier Survey, 42% of surveyed firms now plan to expand their footprint over the next three years, while only about 20% expect to reduce space.
This finding signals changing sentiment, with the office…

The United States wants deeper military ties with Vietnam, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Sunday at the start of a visit to Hanoi amid prolonged talks for the potential supply of military equipment to Washington’s former foe.
Hegseth was expected to meet Vietnam’s Communist Party chief To Lam, President Luong Cuong and Defence Minister Phan Van Giang, a Vietnamese official briefed on the visit said.
“Deeper [military] cooperation will benefit both of our countries,” Hegseth, who…

US Vice-President J.D. Vance has defended his hopes that his wife Usha, who was raised as a Hindu, converts to Christianity.
A fervent Catholic who himself converted in 2019, Vance said on Friday that pushback against his remarks reeks of “anti-Christian bigotry”.
The 41-year-old was asked about raising their three children in an interfaith marriage at a Turning Point USA event honouring assassinated right-wing activist Charlie Kirk at the University of Mississippi on Wednesday.
“Do I hope…

Political leaders like to perform on the global stage and there is no greater “performer” in this regard than US President Donald Trump, who has just been swinging across Asia, doing deals while posing as the best buddy of every national leader he met.
That kind of showmanship may impress people at home and possibly win more political support, but it hijacks the need for genuine diplomacy and international cooperation in both an economic and political sense.
Two cases in point are the most…

Recent rulings highlight how regulatory protections attaching to medicines authorised to be sold in the EU can be stripped and reinstated, impacting pharmaceutical companies’ commercial strategies, according to an expert.

Deaths from air pollution in Southeast Asia could rise by nearly 10 per cent and cost the region more than US$1 trillion by 2050 unless more effective action is taken, a new study has warned.
The research – published in the journal Environment International earlier this month – modelled the potential rise in premature deaths and associated economic losses across three different climate change scenarios, each defined by levels of greenhouse gas emissions.
Findings revealed the region is expected…

The adoption of AI across the built environment sector will require significant levels of investment to change a siloed and heavily fragmented approach to a more integrated, modern, digital and data-driven business model.

Filipino actress-turned-influencer Heart Evangelista has shared a quote about successful people who do not step on others, as she continues to fend off accusations of her being a “nepo-wife” and is exploring legal options against her critics.
The 40-year-old is married to Senator Francis “Chiz” Escudero, who was ousted as senate president in September after being linked to the country’s 545 billion peso (US$9.3 billion) flood-control corruption scandal.
Since the scandal erupted in July, those…

South Korean President Lee Jae-myung and Japan’s new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi both stressed on Thursday the importance of “forward-looking ties” as they held their first official talks.
Relations have long suffered over issues related to Japan’s brutal 1910-45 occupation of the Korean peninsula, and there have been concerns that ties could worsen under Takaichi.
“In today’s rapidly changing international and trade environment, South Korea and Japan – as neighbouring countries with so many…