Asian Legal Review

A recent ruling by the UK’s highest court could lead to an increase in employment-related tax costs for limited liability partnerships (LLPs), experts have said.

Philippine Vice-President Sara Duterte-Carpio did not attend the opening of her impeachment trial on Monday, leaving her lawyers to fight charges that, if upheld, could remove her from office, permanently bar her from politics and reshape the 2028 presidential race.
Legal experts told This Week in Asia they expected Duterte-Carpio to be difficult, though not impossible, to convict despite the gravity of the charges because prosecutors would need at least 16 senators – two-thirds of the chamber –…

Indonesia and Singapore vowed on Monday that the Strait of Malacca, a critical oil transit chokepoint in the region, will remain “accessible” even as Iran imposes fees on ships traversing the Strait of Hormuz.
Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto discussed the matter with Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong in Jakarta as Southeast Asia reels from the effects of oil prices pushed sky-high by the Middle East war.
The Strait of Malacca, surrounded by Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and…

A Japanese space probe performed a fly-by of a near-Earth asteroid on Sunday, in a test mission for technology that could help protect the planet from space rocks.
The fridge-sized Hayabusa2 was due to fly within 800 metres (0.5 miles) of asteroid Torifune, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) scientists said earlier, a trial run to see whether such a probe could deflect a potentially dangerous space rock away from Earth.
The mission comes after Nasa deliberately smashed a spacecraft into…

“The Emiratis – by far the most hawkish, by far the most pro-Israel country in the [Gulf Cooperation Council] – they’re having conversations with the Iranians that have never happened before,” US Vice-President J.D. Vance told British media outlet UnHerd following the Iran-US negotiations in Switzerland.
The Iranians “are certainly talking differently than they have in the past”, he added in a note of cautious optimism, highlighting how both Washington and its allies in the Persian Gulf are…

Japan has partnered with the UN Development Programme (UNDP) to support Kazakhstan’s efforts to address the decline in the Caspian Sea’s water level driven by climate change, pledging a 465 million yen (US$3 million) grant towards its sustainable use.
Under the initiative for the world’s largest inland water body, Japan hopes to promote cooperation among littoral states on water resource management and enhance monitoring systems, according to the foreign ministry. The decline in the Caspian…

Early in the morning on June 18, a message from an unknown account slipped into the TikTok inbox of a flight attendant in Bangkok with a series of questions: “Are you flying to Australia? Do you do carry-for-hire? What is your rate?”
The 30-year-old, who flies ‌for a regional budget carrier, ignored the message and forgot about it – until Tuesday, when a Thai Airways flight attendant was charged with importing more than one kilogram (2.2 pounds) of heroin into Australia hidden in several tote…

Adli Hakimi knows the first obstacle in Johor’s state election is not the ballot box, but the Causeway.
The 26-year-old nurse is among Johor’s workers based in the city state – often called “SGD fighters” online for earning stronger Singapore-dollar wages – who are weighing leave, shifts and border queues before polling day on July 11.
For Malaysia, the challenge is keeping immigration glitches and Causeway congestion at bay so that these voters can take part in one of the country’s most closely…

Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim on Friday said Malaysia would maintain its legal pursuit of Jho Low even if the fugitive financier were to receive a US presidential pardon.
Low, the alleged mastermind behind the 1MDB scandal, was charged in 2018 with conspiring to launder billions of dollars from the sovereign wealth fund and violating anti-bribery laws in Malaysia.
He also reportedly used the stolen loot to gain access to Hollywood A-listers and buy luxury homes, a superyacht and fine art…

A UK bank has paid out £31.7 million after an investigation found failures that exposed WealthTek’s clients to the risk of financial crime.