Headlines

Indonesia's Prabowo appoints new head of free meals agency

JAKARTA, June 8 - Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto on Monday appointed a new head of the agency responsible for implementing his flagship free meals programme, replacing the previous office holder who was dismissed and arrested on graft charges last week.

Asia

With or without China, Shangri-La Dialogue is still relevant

Former Straits Times editor-in-chief Warren Fernandez writes with characteristic elegance in his latest RSIS piece, “With or Without You: The U2 Doctrine Comes to Shangri-La”, carried in The Straits Times on June 3, 2026. The piece gives cause for three reflections from this

Asia

Iran blames US for latest exchanges of fire with Israel

DUBAI, June 8 - Overnight exchanges of fire between Iran and Israel will only worsen an already \"chaotic diplomatic process\" with the United States, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said on Monday, adding that Tehran was exchanging messages with

Asia

Mauritius has not received US proposal on Chagos Islands

PORT LOUIS, June 8 - Mauritius said on Monday that it had not received any proposal from the Trump administration on the Chagos Islands, after the Telegraph reported that the White House was considering a plan to buy the islands from Mauritius.

Asia

Why Europe should erect high and hard trade barriers on China

As regular readers of this blog know, I’m pretty ambivalent about trade barriers as an economic policy. On one hand, I think targeted tariffs and other trade barriers can be used to protect strategic industries from surges in underpriced import competition, especially by

Asia

Myanmar’s military ‘comeback’ claim doesn’t hold water

Coup maker Senior General Min Aung Hlaing’s allies want the world to believe that Myanmar’s military is “on the upswing” and “mounting a comeback” in a war that foreign media increasingly describe as “forgotten.” Recent US media coverage leans into that storyline, highlighting

Asia

Two nations, two exams, one AI reckoning

This week, while families gathered outside examination halls across China, some in red qipao for luck, 12.9 million students sat for the gaokao, the world’s largest annual standardized test. On the other side of the Pacific, American higher education is moving in the opposite

Asia

Rupiah’s plunge pushes Indonesia’s manufacturers to the edge

Indonesia’s financial markets were jolted Monday (June 8) as the rupiah hit a new record low of over 18,155 to the US dollar and the main stock index fell 4%. Investors are rapidly dumping their rupiah-denominated assets, with foreigners selling US$422 million of local bonds

Asia