After a rendition of My Way and a saxophone accompaniment that felt closer to crooning uncles at a wedding party than high-stakes diplomacy, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and his Thai counterpart Anutin Charnvirakul announced the serious business of squashing a damaging trade row and bringing greater security to the porous border between the nations.
The pair, long-standing friends, also share a love for public spectacle, with Anutin playing the classic song popularised by Frank Sinatra…
Johor election: where winning isn’t enough for Malaysia’s Barisan Nasional
Voters in Malaysia’s southern state of Johor will cast their ballots on Saturday in a high-stakes election that is expected to bring Barisan Nasional (BN) back to power, exposing deeper cracks in Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s administration.
BN is part of Anwar’s unity government but will go head to head against federal partner Pakatan Harapan (PH) in a state long regarded as a BN stronghold.
The contest for Johor’s 56-seat assembly has put Anwar’s multi-ethnic party in an awkward position, but…
EU Pay Transparency Directive: implementation across EU member states
The EU Pay Transparency Directive entered into force in May 2023 with a deadline of 7 June 2026 for member states to implement local legislation in line with its requirements.
Singaporean man hired to tutor children forced 6-year-old to drink urine in 18-hour abuse
A Singaporean man, hired by his aunt to tutor primary school pupils, instead beat them with a clothes hanger, forced them to hold push-up positions for long periods, punched and starved them.
One of the children, a six-year-old Chinese national, was abused for 18 hours and forced to drink his own urine.
On Thursday, the 31-year-old pleaded guilty to two counts of child abuse, one count of voluntarily causing grievous hurt and one of giving false or misleading information to police, local media…
Indonesia’s Tokopedia denies mass lay-offs, but ‘restructuring’ deepens tech winter fears
Reports of sweeping lay-offs at Tokopedia, the Indonesian e-commerce giant majority-owned by China’s ByteDance, have renewed concerns about Southeast Asia’s largest digital economy as analysts warn the country’s tech winter shows few signs of easing.
The cuts have also raised questions over the future of one of Indonesia’s best-known home-grown digital champions, with analysts saying Tokopedia’s deeper integration into ByteDance’s ecosystem could shift more technology, product and strategic…
What UK’s new cryptoasset rules mean for overseas crypto firms
The UK’s new cryptoasset regime contains a significant departure from the approach traditionally applied to overseas financial services firms.
Search for crew goes on as plane wreckage found off Pakistan’s coast
Civilian and navy searchers off Pakistan’s coast on Wednesday located and recovered wreckage of a cargo plane that disappeared while approaching the southern port of Karachi, and a search continues for five missing crew members, officials said.
The aircraft operated by the private carrier K2 Airways had departed from Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates and reported a navigational system problem before losing contact with air traffic control late on Tuesday.
The Pakistani navy and civilian teams…
Changes underway in Singapore’s smaller opposition parties as leaders quit
A year since the dust settled on the Singapore general election, leadership resignations in two small opposition parties signal a period of post-poll recalibration after disappointing results.
The once-promising Progress Singapore Party (PSP), led by ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) defector Tan Cheng Bock, was dealt an “existential blow” on Monday, analysts say, following the resignations of two central executive committee members.
Stephanie Tan, 38, was a newcomer who ran in the election,…
ICC arbitration hits record pending caseload and near-record awards
New disputes data published by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) paints a picture of sustained high demand, growing case complexity and the continued relevance of procedural efficiency tools, experts in international arbitration have said.
Can Singapore and Indonesia’s energy push kick-start regional power grid?
Singapore and Indonesia’s latest push to trade low-carbon electricity could become more than a bilateral energy deal, with analysts saying it might offer Southeast Asia a practical test case for a regional power grid that has long struggled to move from ambition to implementation.
The cooperation, centred on electricity-import deals and cross-border interconnector projects, is also expected to strengthen Singapore’s energy security and help the city state reach its sustainability goals, while…