World News
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Sponsored Where to travel in Thailand in July [2025]
This month, I want to invite you to wander through art spaces, misty hills, and garden paths, where the only thing on the itinerary is to linger. Let’s take a slower route, one for the dreamers, the journal keepers, and...
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Can Hamilton pull off a Singapore hat-trick in the haze?
“Hamilton has taken four of Mercedes’ five victories at the demanding 23-turn city street circuit and is looking for a third consecutive triumph.” by John O’Brien Lewis Hamilton is hoping his march towards a sixth Formula One world title Singapore this week won’t be affected by smoke from wildfires raging next door in Indonesia. The city state has been plagued…
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Mixed response on Asian markets to US Fed reserve decision today
“Global markets have spent most of this month rising on bets that central banks, led by the Fed, will move to a softer monetary policy…” Asian equities are mixed this morning, with attention now turning to the US Federal Reserve’s key policy decision later today. Meanwhile investors remain skittish watching developments in the Middle East after the attack on Saudi…
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Talks with the community will begin next week, says Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam
Thai PBS World shares a Reuters story that reports on planned talks between the Hong Kong government and the community, set to begin next week. The reports says Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam has repeated her calls for the violence to end, with the city having been gripped by protests for over three months now. The demonstrations began in…
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Minimum age for marriage raised to curb child brides – Indonesia
PHOTO: eNCA “14% of girls in Indonesia are married before the age of 18, and 1% are married before their 15th birthday.” – UNICEF Indonesia’s parliament will raise the minimum age for marriage to 19 in a ruling aimed to curb child marriage in the south east Asian nation. Indonesia’s House of Representatives passed the revision to the country’s existing…
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15 killed after truck plummets into ravine in T’boli, Philippines
“Based on eyewitness accounts, the truck lost its brakes.” Fifteen people, including children, have been killed in the southern Philippines after their flatbed truck plummeted into a ravine. The vehicle was carrying around 30 people home from a trip to the beach when the driver lost control near the town of T’boli in the latest deadly crash on the nation’s dangerous…
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Smoke from Indonesian illegal plantation burn-offs causing acute problems for south east Asian neighbours
PHOTO: Visibility down to less than a kilometre at KL airport yesterday Flights cancelled, schools closed and regional environmental ministers trading insults. The minister’s fiddle whilst Indonesian islands burn. Parts of Indonesia are now opening temporary clinics to treat thousands of people suffering from acute respiratory illnesses in the smoke haze stricken regions around Sumatra island as authorities stepped up…
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Hong Kong train derails during morning peak
“The cause of the derailment was still under investigation but there was no immediate suggestion of foul play…” A passenger train has derailed during the morning peak hour in Hong Kong. Three people were injured in the incident. Images from the scene showed three carriages had left the tracks and were zigzagged across the rails near Hung Hom station in…
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Frantic search for missing 39 after Indian boat capsize
“The boat was carrying a total of 73 passengers, 26 have been rescued.” Indian authorities are engaged in a major search and rescue operation today to find 39 people missing after their tour boat capsized in a fast-flowing swollen river in Andhra Pradesh. Police told AFP that eight bodies have been recovered, down from a previous tally of 12, after…
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US Fed poised to cut rates this week
“Hiring, while strong, has slowed. Business investment is moribund. Exports are weakening. And manufacturing – always a vital economic weather vane – is in recession.” by Douglas Gillison Facing a dauntingly uncertain economic horizon and constant criticism, including insults and demands for stimulus from the US president, the US Federal Reserve is set to cut interest rates this week. In speeches…
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World’s largest trading bloc to be concluded by the end of the year
The next negotiating round for the formation of RCEP will be held in Da Nang, Viet Nam on September 19-28 . RCEP is the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, and when negotiated and signed, will become the world’s largest and most powerful trading bloc. RCEP includes all ASEAN economies, plus Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea. Economic ministers…
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‘Tank Man’ photographer dies – defining photo of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests
PHOTO: Charlie Cole “Tank Man” has become one of the defining images of the 20th century, but the image remains largely unrecognised in China due to censorship of the image and the wider crackdown.” The photographer who photographed the defining image of China’s Tiananmen Square crackdown – a solitary man defiantly blocking the path of a column of tanks –…
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Officials hand out face masks whilst southern Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore choke
The annual haze from intentionally lit forest fires in Indonesia is making life unpleasant in parts of Thailand’s South, with fine-dust readings (PM2.5 microns) in Songkhla and Satun at hazardous levels, over 50 microgrammes per cubic metre of air. The problem is also choking sections of Malaysia and Singapore. In Hat Yai, Songkhla, officials are handing out face masks to…
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Algorithm update: Google will now promote “original reporting”
“It remains to be seen how such changes will affect news outlets, especially smaller online sites and local newspapers, who have borne the brunt of the changing media landscape.” “Original reporting will be highlighted in Google’s search results.” That’s the claim from the company in the latest changes to its algorithm. The world’s largest search engine is under increasing criticism…
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Immigration police in the Philippines arrest 270 Chinese in fraud raid
“A total of 277 people were taken into custody in the operation that Philippine officials carried out in conjunction with Chinese authorities.” Police in the Philippines have arrested more than 270 Chinese nationals following a raid on a gang wanted over a vast investment fraud that has cost victims in China millions of dollars. Agents swooped on an office building…
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New Zealand announces tougher gun laws after mosque massacre
PHOTO: New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern – TVNZ “Under the new legislation, a registry will be set up that is designed to track ownership of every legally owned firearm in the country.” New Zealand legislators have unveiled new laws aimed at ensuring only “fit and proper” people can own guns in the wake of the Christchurch mosque attacks that killed…
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Manila traffic jams block ambulances, patients die on way to hospital
by Cecil Morella / Joshua Melvin Gridlock in Manila is costing lives as ambulances stuck in traffic face severe delays in the race against the clock to reach the city’s hospitals, medics warn. Special lanes for emergency vehicles are not enforced, the infrastructure is outdated, and local drivers are often unwilling or unable to make way – a situation experts…
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Bangladeshi police force gang-rape victim to marry suspect
FILE PHOTO “Police officials on Thursday said the marriage appeared to be part of an effort to prevent the suspects from being prosecuted.” Two Bangladeshi policemen are being disciplined after a rape victim’s family claim she was forced to marry one of the accused rapists in a police station in the northern district of Pabna. The mother-of-three had accused five men…
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Indonesian forest fires surge, intense smoke floats over neighbours Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia
by Dessy Sagita “The number of “hotspots” has jumped sharply in Indonesia on Wednesday, according to the Singapore-based ASEAN Specialised Meteorological Centre.” Intense forest fires continue to rage across the Indonesian islands of Sumatra and Kalimantan in recent weeks. More than 930,000 hectares of land have been burned, hundreds of residents evacuated, and more than 9,000 personnel have been deployed…
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Vietnam versus Thailand – which is the best for travel or living?
They are both beautiful countries and stand out amongst their south east asian counterparts for their food, culture and scenery. But which one is your choice for travelling or living in? Here are some introductory thoughts… Influences Thailand is a constitutional monarchy and the former king, King Bhumibol, was greatly loved and respected. His son, King Maha Vachiralongkorn, now maintains…
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No durian at Disneyland, but outside food now allowed at Shanghai Disney
Outside food in, but durian can STAY OUT! Same with STINKY TOFU! This according to Shanghai’s Mickey Mouse. Disney’s Shanghai theme park is loosening its ban on outside food following a lawsuit earlier this year, but the home of Mickey Mouse still won’t tolerate visitors taking in instant noodles or pungent foods such as durian. A student, ‘Wang’, filed a lawsuit…
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Can we defeat dengue? Mosquito trials raise hopes.
“We have seen a remarkable reduction of dengue cases after the release.” by Jenny Vaughan If you’ve ever experienced a bout of Dengue Fever, this will be welcome news. And if you live and work in the tropics in south east Asia, Dengue looms as a constant threat. Hundreds dead in the Philippines; a threefold increase of cases in Vietnam;…
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Can we defeat dengue? Mosquito trials raise hopes.
“We have seen a remarkable reduction of dengue cases after the release.” by Jenny Vaughan If you’ve ever experienced a bout of Dengue Fever, this will be welcome news. And if you live and work in the tropics in south east Asia, Dengue looms as a constant threat. Hundreds dead in the Philippines; a threefold increase of cases in Vietnam;…
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Malaysia demands Indonesia acts on smog-belching fires
“An official in Sarawak state on Borneo is demanding Indonesia send face masks and medical supplies to Malaysia for those affected by the pollution.” Malaysia is stepping up pressure on neighbouring Indonesia to tackle huge blazes tearing through its rainforests and smothering Southeast Asia in smog, as fires typically started to clear land for crops send diplomatic tensions soaring. Burning…
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Burmese kids dodging cows and cow dung to play rugby
by Richard Sargent – PHOTOS: AFP It’s a case of dung and dragons. Sidestepping cowpats and garbage, Myanmar’s only home-grown junior rugby side train on the outskirts of Yangon, preparing to take on children from the city’s well-heeled international schools. When the Little Dragons aren’t running barefoot on the litter-strewn dirt, the makeshift field on the outskirts of Yangon is sometimes used…
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iPhone 11 launch – Apple cuts prices, new services
by Glenn Chapman “The new iPhones are jam-packed with new capabilities and an incredible new design.” – Tim Cook Apple unveiled its iPhone 11 models last night (Thai time) with a price cut for the most basic models while also laying out plans for streaming and gaming services as it bids to weather the slump in the global smartphone market.…
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Smoke haze affecting neighbouring countries to Sumatra and Borneo islands
PHOTO: Malaysia’s Kuching on Borneo this week “Hundreds of schools shut as forest-fire haze blankets SE Asia.” Huge fires are raging across vast swathes of Indonesia’s rainforests – some of the world’s biggest – with toxic smog shutting hundreds of schools. Massive jungle areas in Sumatra and Borneo island are ablaze as thousands of personnel battle to quell the fires, frequently…
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Pound lifted by British PM’s latest defeat, Asian equities struggle
The British pound bounced today after UK PM Boris Johnson again failed to get MPs to back a snap election, while Asian equities drifted as investors await a key European Central Bank meeting and developments in the China-US trade talks. Just before Westminster lawmakers broke up for five weeks they inflicted yet another defeat on the new PM, who has…
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Myanmar adopts NASA’s malaria-predicting tech
“Several drug-resistant strains of Malaria are taking hold across south east Asia and it is feared these could migrate to Africa where more than 90% of cases globally occur.” NASA is developing a new technique to forecast malaria outbreaks in Myanmar from space, as the emergence of new drug-resistant strains in Southeast Asia threatens efforts to wipe out the deadly…
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China’s exports fell last month in lead up to next month’s trade talks
China’s exports fell 1% on-year last month amid the bruising trade war with the US that is disrupting markets in the world’s top two economies. The drop comes after a surprise 3.3% rebound in July despite the year-long battle with the US and weakening global demand. But economists cited by Bloomberg had forecast a 2.2% rise ahead of the release of…
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Morning peak chaos in Tokyo after typhoon Faxai passes through
by Kyoko Hasegawa, PHOTOS: AFP “Authorities said more than 2,000 people had taken refuge in shelters opened to accommodate those complying with the evacuation advisories.” A powerful typhoon that battered Tokyo overnight with ferocious winds and driving rain caused is causing commuter this morning, with trains halted and more than 100 flights cancelled. Typhoon Faxai, packing winds of up to…
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