It is evening on a sultry Sunday and a meandering crowd of families, tourists and food delivery riders jostle for space on the footpath outside Concorde Hotel. Yet all is still and silent inside the building’s shopping wing, except for two units offering massage and facial services.
In one of them, located beside the security desk, a middle-aged lady wearing a lime green halter top and beige miniskirt performs a series of jumping jacks in full view of passers-by. Her eyes dart…
Snubbed in world’s biggest war game, will Beijing make waves in South China Sea?
The resource-rich Spratly and Paracel archipelagos may be the main sticking points in the South China Sea territorial dispute, and this week the world’s two major powers were shadowboxing over the issue thousands of kilometres away in Beijing and the Western Pacific.
On the Chinese side, the fresh missive came from President Xi Jinping as he warned the visiting US Secretary of Defence James Mattis that while Beijing – a claimant to the contested waters – was committed to peace…
Fighting cancer in Singapore, eating plastic in Indonesia: is Southeast Asia the next Silicon Valley?
Charles Guinot’s journey to building a multimillion-dollar business started ordinarily enough. He was at a conference in China in 2015 when he first had an idea on how to use blockchain technology to solve his “painful” problem of filing taxes in Indonesia. To turn this idea into reality, the then 30-year-old robotics engineer from France decided to reprogram himself to become a blockchain developer because such developers were practically unheard of at the time. His…
Supreme Court redefines scope of actionable personal injury
ANALYSIS: The UK’s highest court has redefined the scope of an actionable personal injury, by finding that employees can in principle recover damages for sensitisation to an allergy.
Reformasi sweep: Indonesia’s elections prove ‘people power’ has legs
Reformasi, the people-power movement that dumped a dictator and started Indonesia on the road to democracy 20 years ago, was renewed this week as more than a 150 million voters turned their backs on dynastic politics opting for competence over connection. On Wednesday, voters in three of the country’s biggest provinces elected reformers with proven track records over powerful incumbents. Ridwan Kamil, the architect-turned-mayor of Indonesia’s third city of Bandung, who spent big on…
New report considers potential use of blockchain in corporate reporting
ANALYSIS: Blockchain technology could ultimately revolutionise the way in which investors and the public consume company reports, a new report has suggested.
Cyber stress tests in UK payments market planned for 2019
Banks’ payment systems will be subject to cyber stress testing in 2019, the Bank of England has announced.
Heterosexual civil partnership ruling could affect pensions
Extending civil partnerships to heterosexual couples could create new liabilities for pension schemes which pay out survivor benefits, according to pensions experts at Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo ‘to visit North Korea next week’
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo plans to travel to North Korea next week to discuss the country’s denuclearisation plans, the Financial Times reported on Thursday, citing four people familiar with his plans.
A State Department official said Pompeo had postponed a meeting with his Indian counterpart in Washington on July 6 but would not confirm that he did so in order to fly to Pyongyang, saying there were “no travels plans to announce at this time”.
Donald Trump and Vladimir…
Murky floodwaters, narrow passages and limited tech: here’s why rescuing 12 Thai boys trapped in a cave is so tricky
A team of Thai soccer players – 12 boys aged 11 to 16 and their coach – have been missing inside a flooded cave in the country’s far north since June 23. Rescuers led by elite navy divers have found signs of the boys inside but have been unable to locate them. Here’s a look at what’s complicating the search.
Huge cave complex
Tham Luang Nang Non cave in Chiang Rai province has an impressive entrance area that is easily walkable and has become a tourist attraction….