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AdvertisementSingaporeThis Week in AsiaPoliticsCan Singapore’s cyber laws keep pace with speed of borderless online threats?Long-term resilience will hinge on complementary measures such as deeper regional cooperation and improved digital literacy, analysts say
Reading Time:5 minutesWhy you can trust SCMPKolette LimPublished: 10:30am, 9 Dec 2025Singapore’s approach to curbing foreign interference and cybercrime is being tested by the sheer speed and borderless nature of online threats, according to analysts who say the city state’s legal powers provide important safeguards but are unlikely to fully keep pace with a rapidly evolving digital landscape.They note that while swift takedown orders and targeted legislation have strengthened Singapore’s defences against misinformation and coordinated online harms, long-term resilience would hinge on complementary measures such as deeper regional cooperation and improved public digital literacy.
Last month, the city state ordered TikTok and Met..

AdvertisementHong Kong societyHong KongSocietyOperation Santa Claus helps Hong Kong children with rare rheumatic diseasesHong Kong Paediatric Rheumatism Association subsidises medicine and provides support for children with rheumatic diseases and their carers
Reading Time:3 minutesWhy you can trust SCMPCindy SuiPublished: 10:15am, 9 Dec 2025Imagine waking up one day and suddenly being unable to use your legs. That was what happened to Rain Shiu Tin-yung in Hong Kong when he was six.
“He got up that morning, but his knees hurt so much that he couldn’t walk. He was in so much pain,” Shiu’s mother, Apple Kwok Siu-ping, recalled.
The pain only worsened.
Advertisement“All his joints were inflamed. It was so painful he would wake up crying,” Kwok said. “He went from being able to walk to not walking at all.”
It took several visits to the doctors and tests before Shiu, now 20, was diagnosed with paediatric rheumatism, a broad term for more than 100 autoimmune disorders in children, where the ..

A drone view of the lighting up of a Christmas tree in Manger Square outside the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem in the Israeli-occupied West Bank JERUSALEM: Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu said the second phase of a US plan to end the war in Gaza was close, but cautioned several key issues still needed to be resolved, including whether a multinational security force would be deployed in the Gaza strip. Netanyahu, speaking to reporters alongside German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, said that he would hold talks with US President Donald Trump at the end of the month on how to ensure the plan's second phase was achieved.The prime minister's office in Nov said that Trump had invited Netanyahu to the White House “in the near future”.A Hamas member said Sunday the group is ready to discuss “freezing or storing” its arsenal of weapons as part of its ceasefire with Israel, offering a possible formula to resolve one of the thorniest issues in the agreement. Bassem Naim, a member of Ha..

Filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola's watch sold for $11 million (Picture credit: NYT) By Jacob BernsteinLast March, the filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola said he was nearly broke after spending millions of dollars of his own money to finance the film “Megalopolis.” In Oct, he said in an interview with the New York Times that to “keep the ship afloat” he was selling several of his watches through Phillips, a leading auction house.On Saturday, during a frenzied bidding war on Park Avenue, an F.P.Journe timepiece from his collection sold for nearly $11 million. It was the sixth-most-expensive watch to ever be sold at auction. And it is the only watch on that list that was not manufactured by Patek Philippe or Rolex. Coppola designed the watch in 2014 as a collaboration with F.P. Journe, a Swiss watch company whose horological marvels are so expensive that they make Rolex look like Swatch.Called the FFC, the watch sold on Saturday has an openwork design, which means its inner workings are on..

AdvertisementJapanThis Week in AsiaLifestyle & CultureJapan’s youth are now the most hostile to immigration, survey findsObservers say daily exposure to overcrowding and disruptive behaviour in urban centres has made young adults the most resistant to change
Reading Time:3 minutesWhy you can trust SCMPJulian RyallPublished: 10:30am, 8 Dec 2025Younger Japanese are proving to be the most resistant to immigration, defying assumptions that generational change would produce greater cosmopolitanism.
A new survey found that 70 per cent of those aged 18 to 39 expressed safety concerns about foreign workers – higher than any other demographic.
This unexpected reversal reveals a generation grappling with anxieties that cut across conventional narratives of openness and globalisation.
AdvertisementThe study by the Yomiuri newspaper and Waseda University’s Institute for Advanced Social Studies, published on December 2, found that nearly 60 per cent of 2,004 respondents opposed accepting more forei..