SCMP Asian News

Worn-out workers are guaranteed the right to quit under Japan’s laws, but some employers used to an old-style hierarchy just can’t accept that someone they have trained would want to walk away.

While Michelin ratings can benefit hawker businesses, many locals are feeling the negative effects, including longer queues and falling standards. One foodie said he ‘never wanted to go back’ to his favourite claypot rice place after it had made the list.

In this edition of the Global Impact newsletter, we wrap up recent visits by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and look at who is in the better position and what the next moves might be.

The city state’s deputy prime minister – widely seen as its next leader-in-waiting – will become chairman of the Monetary Authority of Singapore and sovereign wealth fund GIC Pte’s investment strategies committee.

Private property values slid 0.4 per cent in the second quarter of this year – the first decline since the outbreak of the pandemic. Resale prices for public housing, meanwhile, recorded their 13th straight quarter of gains.

From where Taylor Swift will perform to China warning the US against conflict, here are a few highlights from SCMP’s reporting over the weekend.

Stock shots of Brazilian sand dunes, Indonesian rice terraces and locations in Switzerland and the UAE appeared in the video for the new US$880,000 ‘Love The Philippines’ tourism campaign.

As Nato upgrades its ties with Australia, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea, the wider region is ‘generally happy’ to have Western powers’ support to help balance China’s influence, observers say – despite lingering concerns about security initiatives.

India’s policy of strategic autonomy raises questions about whether it will enter into a formal alliance with the US, continue engaging with China or uphold long-standing ties with Russia.

Yoon urges the ministry to stand up for liberal democratic values, saying that unification should improve people’s lives in the two Koreas.

The government’s ability to stay on track with reforms will be tested ahead of a coming national election that will need to go smoothly, analysts caution.

Renowned for its wigs and hair extensions, India is the world’s largest exporter of human hair. But processing jobs have been drying up in the South Asian nation, as China-linked smugglers run rampant.

Xi Jinping’s recent remarks on Ryukyu will ‘exacerbate relations’ between Okinawa and Tokyo, analysts say, disrupting defence plans involving the southern prefecture and US military assets based there.

Former guerrilla leader Xanana Gusmao was sworn into office by President Jose Ramos-Horta, his fellow independence fighter during Indonesia’s occupation.

The Thai royal family gave the animal as a gift to Sri Lanka’s government in 2001, but it has been mistreated and has a long-neglected injury, an activist group says.

The annual celebration was expected to attract more than 100,000 in its new location after a Christian group took the event’s usual spot at City Hall when authorities said it was more family-friendly, despite Pride taking place there since 2015.

Authorised psychiatrists can prescribe the drugs after it was decided they are ‘relatively safe’ when used in a ‘medically-controlled environment’.

An outage that hit an opposition-linked news portal has sparked warnings by advocates of creeping ‘censorship’ by the government.

Tourism Minister Tiong King Sing said he went to Kuala Lumpur airport to help the visitor after she was denied entry by officers despite having proper documents.

Officials are cracking down on after-school study centres and targeting ‘killer questions’ as part of education reforms ordered by President Yoon Suk-yeol.