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This Week in Asia /

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China’s President Xi Jinping shakes hands with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the welcoming ceremony of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Tianjin last August. Photo: Indian Press Information Bureau/AFP
India

Reel politik: India tells filmmakers to drop ‘China-bashing’ as ties warm

India’s diplomatic thaw with China is causing films about the 2020 Galwan Valley clash to be retitled, reshot or shelved entirely.

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Thailand

Badly behaving visitors push Thailand to remove 60-day visa entry

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Artificial intelligence

Southeast Asia is chasing the AI boom, but at what cost?

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Malaysia

Malaysia’s tourism-dependent Langkawi fears rising costs are deterring visitors

Businesses ranging from boat operators to restaurants are seeing a drop in international visitors to the island.

A paraglider being pulled by a fast speed boat along the coast of Langkawi, Malaysia. Photo: John Brunton
A paraglider being pulled by a fast speed boat along the coast of Langkawi, Malaysia. Photo: John Brunton
Thailand

Thailand’s Singha beer dynasty rocked by sexual abuse allegations

The kingdom’s most-watched family scandal in years has prompted a sacking, a televised confessional – and a warning from media regulators.

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South Korea

Reality deficit: how South Korea lost the plot on AI

A viral ‘baseball goddess’, a wolf that never was and a deepfake epidemic. Generative AI is rewriting South Korea’s reality.

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Singapore

Human intelligence remains critical in AI era: Singapore minister

Foreign minister Vivian Balakrishnan cautions against overdependence on large-language models to solve every problem.

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Singaporean Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan speaks at a joint press conference in Jakarta on Tuesday. Photo: AFP
Singaporean Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan speaks at a joint press conference in Jakarta on Tuesday. Photo: AFP
Japan

Japan’s ‘ibasho’ sense of belonging helps disaster survivors heal, study finds

Research into the 2011 earthquake and tsunami shows fostering social connection and purpose helps survivors rebuild and staves off dementia.

Indonesia

Why Indonesia is expanding under-16 social media ban to e-commerce

The plan aims to protect children from online scams and impulse buying, but experts say it could be a major compliance test for platforms.

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South Korea

‘Like whale bones’: South Korea’s war memorial sparks conflict over symbolism

Critics argue the Korean war memorial should not be in a space in Seoul long associated with pro-democracy protests and its imperial past.

A row of 23 stone monuments in central Seoul representing South Korea and 22 other countries that fought alongside one another during the 1950-53 Korean war. Photo: Park Chan-kyong
Singapore

Singaporeans refute lack of hunger stereotype, warn of ‘self-fulfilling bias’

A recruiter’s comment on Singaporean workers supposedly lacking drive has sparked a fierce debate on evolving career goals and pay.

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People visit the Merlion statue in Singapore. A recruiter’s comment on the lack of hunger among Singaporean workers compared with their foreign counterparts has sparked a fierce debate. Photo: AFP
People visit the Merlion statue in Singapore. A recruiter’s comment on the lack of hunger among Singaporean workers compared with their foreign counterparts has sparked a fierce debate. Photo: AFP
Japan

Divorced from reality? Japan’s joint custody reform divides parents

Critics call the legal change a ‘cosmetic’ fix for a system that still allows one parent to simply disappear.

South Korea

‘She was just a human’: the world forgot K-pop’s suicides. These fans never did

Years after three high-profile K-pop suicides shook South Korea’s idol machine, the grief – and guilt – remains.

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The Philippines

‘Foreigner won’: Filipinos divided over pageant winner’s US roots

Some social media users have questioned Bea Millan-Windorski’s win, while others say being Filipino is about ‘culture, history and belonging’.

Bea Millan-Windorski will represent the Philippines at the Miss Universe pageant in November. Photo: Facebook/Miss Universe Philippines
Thailand

How RedNote, WeChat are reviving Thailand’s Chinese tourism market

Thai businesses are asking online experts to help reel in young big spenders who prize authenticity over heavily advertised content.

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Diners tuck into “phad kaphrao” at Phed Mark, a Bangkok kitchen with a pop-up feel. Photo: Aidan Jones
Diners tuck into “phad kaphrao” at Phed Mark, a Bangkok kitchen with a pop-up feel. Photo: Aidan Jones
Japan

Japan’s hikikomori recluses are growing old. So are their carers

What happens to more than 1 million social recluses in the world’s fastest-ageing society when the last person who cared for them is gone?

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Malaysia

Art of the steal: Malaysia unveils recovered 1MDB masterpieces

A Picasso and a Miro are among four works on show, representing a fraction of the US$4.5 billion looted from Malaysia’s 1MDB fund.

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Japan

Japan army unit’s gun-toting AI-generated elephant logo gets trampled by critics

Officers created the logo using ChatGPT based on the ‘elephant’, ‘cool’, ‘blue flame’, and ‘mammoth’ keywords, a media report says.

A patch of Japan’s 1st Infantry Regiment was withdrawn after an uproar over its design deemed as out of place with the image of the country’s military. Photo: X
A patch of Japan’s 1st Infantry Regiment was withdrawn after an uproar over its design deemed as out of place with the image of the country’s military. Photo: X
Malaysia

Penang’s cemetery tours spur interest in pioneers, colonial history

While the state receives millions in conservation funding, it faces challenges in preserving the Protestant cemetery due to its climate.

Thailand

The cost of cute: how ‘petfluencers’ are driving Asia’s wildlife crime

Thailand is a key pipeline in a lucrative global trade that animal activists warn risks spreading zoonotic diseases and erasing biodiversity.

Indonesia

Indonesia’s aim to lure more K-pop concerts spurs chorus of doubts

While Indonesian K-pop fans applaud Jakarta’s intention, they cite safety, venue capacity and bureaucracy as some of the key hurdles.

Indonesian K-pop idol Carmen poses for photos alongside Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto and his South Korean counterpart Lee Jae Myung at a state luncheon in Seoul on April 1. Photo: Instagram/2_jaemyung
Malaysia

‘Moral harm’: Malaysia’s culture war brigade tries to hose down water festival

Kuala Lumpur’s Rain Rave Water Music Festival faces backlash from critics who argue that such vulgar imports hurt conservative values.

Malaysian Tourism Minister Tiong King Sing sprays water as girl group Dolla performs at the Rain Rave Water Music Festival in Kuala Lumpur. Photo: Instagram/dolla.official
Malaysian Tourism Minister Tiong King Sing sprays water as girl group Dolla performs at the Rain Rave Water Music Festival in Kuala Lumpur. Photo: Instagram/dolla.official
Japan

Japan’s higher education sector faces reckoning as student pool shrinks

The potential abolition of so many universities is a ‘dramatic move’ that analysts warn will affect thousands of students and teachers.

The Philippines

Filipino male pageant contestant’s viral swimsuit walk sparks body image debate

Observers said RJ Perkins’ viral moment shows beauty pageants might be ready to move beyond their traditional ideals.

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Japan

Zoo in Japan’s Hokkaido delays reopening over search for body in incinerator

One of the employees reportedly told police he burned his wife’s body in an incinerator on the zoo’s grounds.

The animal crematorium at Asahiyama Zoo in Asahikawa, Hokkaido, Japan. Photo: Kyodo
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