Asia Specific

It's the salacious scandal sending shockwaves through the most consequential relationship in global politics, so how will an affair involving the head of the world's most important AI chip company with an alleged Chinese spy change US technology policy? Jensen Huang has publicly apologised to his family and admitted infidelity, but this is no ordinary personal scandal. Figures within the US intell...

Would you allow doctors to break your bones so you can grow a few centimetres taller? Orthopaedic surgeons say more people are considering it, despite lengthy recovery times and the risk of serious complications. The procedure – called limb lengthening surgery – isn’t new. The technique was developed in the 1950s as a corrective surgery for misaligned or deformed legs. Over time, some surgeons sta...

The most prominent young face of Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement, Joshua Wong, has been sentenced to ten years in jail for colluding with foreign forces. Wong, now 30, pleaded guilty in one of the most closely-watched cases under a security law that Beijing imposed on the city in 2020. The ten year sentence for what a judge described as a crime of 'a grave nature' comes as Wong was nearing the...

A series of cases involving exam cheating with AI glasses in South Korea has universities and schools scrambling to rein in the use of the technology. As South Korea’s most important academic exam, the Suneung approaches, schools are testing new methods to detect and ban smart glasses in exam halls. Beyond exam cheating, these devices also raise serious privacy and surveillance concerns. How have...

Kylian Mbappé has scored an own goal in China with an indirect joking reference to national political hero Mao Zedong as a “dictator”. So will a flurry of apologies from him, his club and the Spanish La Liga league be enough to defuse a costly backlash in China? In a video that went viral, the Real Madrid star who is nicknamed ‘The Dictator’ for his dominant presence on and off the field was asked...

Japan has been ranked the lowest in East and South East Asia for gender equality in a major annual index, even though the country now has a female Prime Minister. Japan ranked 117th out of 145 countries in the World Economic Forum’s latest gender gap index, lagging behind regional neighbours China and South Korea. One of the WEF’s key considerations is female political representation, but the hist...

As AI gets better at translating languages, what will happen to human interpreters? Interpreters serve as a crucial bridge at international high-level meetings, arbitration hearings and events. AI is already able to swiftly and accurately translate text while voice recognition technology is now transforming real time interpreting. Already some companies are using the technology to teach foreign la...

Singapore has escalated its concerns about Southeast Asia’s worst haze in more than a decade, demanding answers from ten Indonesian companies it suspects are linked to fires that cause it. The Singaporean government has sent notices that are seen as a shot across the bow, ordering the firms to fight the fires but not directly blaming them or punishing them with fines. It’s the latest chapter in a...

Electric vehicles, online shopping, and more – China’s ability to scale up and lower costs for the masses has never been disputed. But does China truly create inventions, or does it excel at perfecting pre-existing ideas? Critics have long accused China of copying, stealing and scaling up innovations from the West or Japan in recent decades. But is this accusation true? Is the ability to scale and...

Singapore’s prime minister Lawrence Wong will see his salary raised by about US$1.1m, bringing his annual remuneration to US$2.85m. The change is part of a broader pay increase for Singapore’s ministers - the first rise in 15 years. Singapore’s government has long viewed high salaries as a way to attract top talent and keep corruption at bay. Lawrence Wong has pledged to donate the increased pay t...

There have been fresh protests in Japan against the longstanding presence of US military forces, after a 20-year-old American military serviceman was arrested by Japanese police over a suspected murder of a woman. US Marine Lance Corporal Devin Jacob Ballard, accused of killing a 39-year-old Japanese woman Anna Yagi, is in Japanese custody on the island of Okinawa. Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Ta...

Malaysia has begun sending migrants from Myanmar home, with the first group of almost 1,500 people arriving in southern Yangon in early October. Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim says in total, 5,000 people will be sent home, and he describes the repatriations as ‘voluntary’, a claim human rights groups question. The migrants being repatriated have been living in detention centers often in p...

Written off as the inferior bean, robusta coffee might have the last laugh as climate change makes arabica harder to grow. While rising heat pushes prized arabica-growing regions to their limits, robusta, the stronger but less fruitier-tasting bean, can handle the temperatures arabica can't. Vietnam is the world's undisputed robusta leader and the planet's second-biggest coffee exporter overall, w...

Indonesia is considering allowing dual citizenship for a limited group of highly skilled Indonesians living abroad, including scientists, engineers, doctors and AI researchers. The proposal is aimed at encouraging Indonesians who have built careers overseas to maintain a connection with the country and eventually contribute to its economy and development. But dual citizenship remains relatively un...

They were taught to obey. But they learnt to resist, turning detective. Students from a network of Islamic boarding schools in Indonesia hear about allegations of a dark secret at the heart of the powerful institution that shaped their lives. They set out to seek the truth - not knowing what it will cost them. BBC Journalist Rebecca Henschke joins Asia Specific host Mariko Oi to detail a new inves...

China’s young people are turning to temples, fortune-telling, tarot, and spiritual products, not necessarily because they’ve found religion, but because they’re looking for something to hold onto in uncertain times. They’re worried about jobs, incomes, and the future, and many are seeking luck, reassurance, and a sense of control. For some, that means burning incense at a temple or asking for thei...

There’s been a litany of warnings about AI and its potential dangers. A top safety researcher at Anthropic, one of the biggest AI companies in the US, warned the technology is advancing at a pace so fast that there’s a 10% chance it “could kill all humans” within the next decade. Such concerns have led to calls for a coordinated action in the US to slow down the development of the technology. But...

Top Australian Hyrox athlete Joanna Wietrzyk has apologised after soiling herself during a race in Beijing, saying she would withdraw from the event and forfeit the points she earned. The company behind the fitness phenomenon has also apologised for allowing her to continue and win, amid criticism over hygiene and athlete welfare. The incident has shone a spotlight on the rapidly growing fitness t...

Australia was the first country in the world to ban social media for under-16s. Now, it's taking aim at something even bigger: the algorithms that keep everyone hooked. Under a new "My Feed, My Way" proposal, tech companies could be forced to let users switch off the personalised recommendation systems that decide what they see on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. Supporters say it could reduce expos...

Australia is home to some of the world's most distinctive wildlife — nearly 90% of its mammals exist nowhere else on Earth. But Australia is also where a mammal extinction is happening at an alarming pace. Species are disappearing at a rate of roughly four every decade, driven by feral predators, habitat destruction, and a changing climate. Feral cats alone kill an estimated three billion native a...

Haze wafting across borders in South East Asia is an annual problem, so why can’t the countries responsible stop it happening? The haze is primarily caused by farmers and landowners slashing and burning plots of land - a relatively cheap and fast way of preparing a field for crops. This year, Indonesia’s President Prabowo Subianto is talking tough towards those responsible for the fires, pledging...

From Jackie Chan and Wong Kar-wai to the city’s gritty crime thrillers and romantic dramas, there was a time when Hong Kong cinema was everywhere. The city was once one of Asia’s great filmmaking capitals, producing movies and stars that became cultural icons around the world. But today, that creative energy is looking increasingly hard to find. The national security law, tighter censorship and th...

The AI boom means data centres are being built at an unprecedented pace around the world and in South East Asia, Malaysia has emerged as one of the biggest hubs for this expansion. But the rapid construction growth for data centres is also prompting a backlash. Data centres can consume enormous amounts of electricity and water, while critics question how many long-term jobs they actually create fo...

Across Asia, a growing number of young people are becoming hikikomori, a term used to describe people who suffer from a severe social withdrawal. They shut themselves in their homes, retreating from work, school, or their families for months, sometimes years. That condition was first observed in Japan but other countries like South Korea, China and Singapore have since reported a rising number of...

Frantic search efforts are underway in Nepal and the Tibetan side of the Chinese border after a devastating flash flood and landslide swept through a valley. Thousands of rescue personnel have been deployed as crews search through thick mud and debris for survivors, with hundreds of people unaccounted for at the time of recording - August 27th, 2026. Host Mariko Oi speaks to a journalist from the...