Asian Legal Review

An increase in workforce restructuring, factory closures and collective redundancies across Germany is creating a new category of employment risk – large-scale and coordinated employment litigation, an expert has said.

India is planning a new law to combat AI deepfakes and impersonation scams amid a surge in cyber fraud and fake videos targeting top military officers.
The cases have deepened concerns over the potential for misinformation to sow discord in India during a geopolitical crisis, such as in the war against Pakistan last year.
The proposal aims to close a gap in India’s laws by clearly defining punishments concerning deepfakes and other related offences.
The changes would also cover “digital arrest”…

Malaysia is tightening controls on high-risk hiking routes after officials linked a growing rescue burden to poor preparation, unauthorised trails and social media-driven summit attempts.
The push is aimed partly at curbing gruelling “compressed hikes”, in which climbers try to complete long or technically demanding routes within a single day, often combining an ascent and descent that would usually be spread over a longer period.
The Fire and Rescue Department recorded 52 cases involving 114…

Singapore’s economic growth should remain firm in the second half of 2026 although a major uncertainty is the sustainability of the AI investment boom, the head of its central bank said on Tuesday.
Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) Managing Director Chia Der Jiun, speaking at the release ‌of the central bank’s annual report, said the Middle East conflict also posed risks, but for now global AI-related demand was “likely to continue to provide a meaningful boost” to the city state while other…

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr used his 2026 State of the Nation Address (Sona) on Monday to promise relief from taxes, electricity charges and high rice prices, while pledging to pursue corruption cases linked to a flood-control scandal that has battered his administration.
But while analysts said the one-and-a-half-hour speech addressed issues Filipinos had expected Marcos to confront, they questioned how the government could afford the handouts and why he announced no austerity or…

A rare rebuke of Asean by the powerful sister of North Korean ruler Kim Jong-un signals the bloc’s waning relevance to the nuclear-armed state, analysts say.
Kim Yo-jong on Monday condemned a call by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations for the country’s denuclearisation, saying the statement “distorted the essence of the situation in the Korean peninsula”.
At the annual Asean Regional Forum held in the Philippines last Thursday, Asean expressed “grave concern” over the ongoing development…

A centuries-old monastery in southern Thailand is the country’s latest cultural landmark to be inscribed on Unesco’s World Heritage List, which will aid in the site’s conservation, the government said on Sunday.
Wat Phra Mahathat Woramahawihan in Nakhon Si Thammarat province is Thailand’s ninth World Heritage site, but its first in the nation’s southern region, the Thai foreign ministry said in a statement.
“Its inscription will further strengthen cooperation at both the national and local…

In recent years, Southeast Asian governments have viewed the “China plus one” strategy as their best chance to escape the middle-income trap. As global manufacturers looked to diversify away from China because of rising costs, trade tensions and supply-chain vulnerabilities, Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia seemed perfectly placed to benefit.
The promise was simple and compelling: new factories would arrive, more formal jobs would be created, wages would rise in tandem with higher productivity…

A Mitsubishi Heavy Industries factory is expected to be the Japan centre for the development and assembly of the next-generation fighter jet to be produced by Japan, Britain and Italy, sources close to the matter said on Saturday.
The three members of the trilateral Global Combat Air Program are discussing the roles each will play in the design and manufacture of the jet, with Britain to set up its centre in Warton and Italy in Turin, according to the sources.
The Japanese centre will be set up…