Asian Legal Review

Europe is to drive new development of innovative nuclear energy generation systems after launching a €200 million funding initiative to encourage private investment.

Southeast Asia is facing a growing cyber spillover risk from the widening US-Israel war with Iran, with security experts warning that state-linked hackers and criminal groups are seeking to exploit turmoil around energy, shipping and banking networks to hit targets far beyond the Middle East.
The assessment comes as Iran said it would target economic and banking interests linked to the United States and Israel in the region after an attack on an Iranian bank, while the United Arab Emirates said…

Filipino sailor George Miranda was racing to help a stricken vessel aboard the tugboat Mussafah 2 when he last spoke to his wife and young daughter.
The 46-year-old, whose small ship was struck by a pair of missiles this week in the Strait of Hormuz, is the only seafarer from the Philippines known to be missing in the Middle East war, the government says.
But more than 6,000 others from the country that supplies a quarter of the world’s sailors are still working in the conflict zone and…

UK government plans for a new digital ID system represent a “high-stakes balancing act” between online safety and young people’s privacy rights, according to an expert.

India has relaxed curbs on Chinese investments in certain sectors to attract more foreign capital, as Beijing and New Delhi continue to gradually repair their economic relationship after years of tense relations.
In a cabinet statement released on Tuesday, New Delhi introduced a fast-track approval mechanism for investments from land-bordering countries – including China. The move amends a previous restriction that had mandated government scrutiny for all such capital inflows.
Under the new…

Thai police have broken up a web of Chinese companies allegedly using Thai fronts to control the kingdom’s coconut supply, squeezing prices to record lows of 2 baht (6 US cents) per fruit and allowing wide profit margins on sales into China.
The probe, launched across western agricultural provinces where the nam hom coconut farms are based, reflects broader concerns about the exploitation of Thai fruit farmers by foreign businessmen who set prices and dictate market terms.
Raids on eight…

The conflict in the Middle East is having profound human and economic cost across the region and beyond.

A Bangladeshi man who spent over three years on bail in Malaysia fighting local child pornography charges has been spirited to Alaska by the FBI to face what prosecutors describe as one of the most prolific child exploitation cases in US history.
Zobaidul Amin, 28, was brought from Malaysia to the United States last Wednesday and made his initial appearance in a federal court in Anchorage the following day, where he pleaded not guilty to all 13 counts, according to the US Department of Justice…

Warissara* survived the crash. It was the next four hours that killed her.
The 21-year-old had been riding home from her restaurant job on the night of February 20 last year, caught in heavy rain on a slick Bangkok road, when she came off her motorbike.
Emergency responders who arrived at the scene found only a few visible scratches – and detected the smell of alcohol. She had no identification on her. The call was made: send her to the police station, not the hospital.
She arrived at…

Southeast Asia is set to see a warmer-than-usual early summer, potentially raising power demand for fuel and straining grids at a time when the Middle East conflict has tightened energy supplies in the region.
Across most of maritime and mainland Southeast Asia, home to more than half a billion people, temperatures will be above average for the March-April-May period, according to the latest seasonal outlook published by the Asean Specialised Meteorological Centre (ASMC) on Friday.
The forecast…