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2 weeks ago | 
scmp.com | Joseph Sipalan |Aidan Jones
Asean must aggressively pursue new export markets as the bloc strives to convince the US of its economic relevance during tariff negotiations, Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has said, ahead of a crucial summit of Southeast Asian leaders. Tariffs, trade disruption and a shrinking growth forecast will frame talks as Malaysia hosts the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations on Monday.
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1 month ago | 
scmp.com | Hadi Azmi |Joseph Sipalan |Aidan Jones
Malaysian luxury watchmaker Ming has carved out a niche following with its minimalist designs and Swiss craftsmanship. But a third of its customers are in the United States and now stuck on the wrong side of a tariff barrier thrown up by President Donald Trump, casting a long shadow over future sales. “It doesn’t matter whether we export as Malaysian or Swiss – for the US customer, the landed cost has effectively gone up by 30 per cent,” said Ming Thein, the brand’s co-founder.
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1 month ago | 
scmp.com | Aidan Jones |Redwan Ahmed
Muhammad Yunus has worn many hats in his storied career: economist, Nobel laureate, pioneer of microfinance, and, more recently, nemesis of the now-deposed authoritarian Sheikh Hasina, who pursued him relentlessly through the courts.
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2 months ago | 
scmp.com | Joseph Sipalan |Aidan Jones
A Malaysian search and rescue crew – the first international team to reach Sagaing at the epicentre of Myanmar’s recent earthquake – said aftershocks and the risk of landmines had hampered the increasingly forlorn search for survivors. Sagaing, a town of about 78,000 around 16km from the epicentre of last Friday’s 7.7 magnitude earthquake, has been pulverised by the quake which killed over 2,000 people, with the toll expected to surge.
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2 months ago | 
scmp.com | Kimberly Lim |Jean Iau |Aidan Jones
By the time she was 21, Singaporean Regina Yeo had the sharper jaw and higher nasal bridge that she’d craved throughout her teens. Self-avowedly “young, broke and desperate”, she still managed to scrape together the few hundred dollars needed for treatment at an unlicensed clinic staffed by women from Vietnam in Singapore’s Lavender district. Looking back, the beauty blogger – now 25 – has no regrets.
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Jan 15, 2025 | 
scmp.com | Aidan Jones
Thailand is scrambling to soothe safety fears among potential visitors from China ahead of the peak Lunar New Year travel period after human trafficking cases involving Chinese victims who were held in Myanmar to run scams prompted a flurry of tour group cancellations from the kingdom’s biggest tourism market. Tour guides also blamed safety fears for a drop in demand from independent travellers ahead of the holiday season, which begins on January 29.
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Jan 13, 2025 | 
scmp.com | Aidan Jones
Scam factories threaded along the Myanmar border with Thailand have been thrust back under the spotlight after the rescue of a Chinese actor who says he was duped by a fake casting call into travelling to one of the world’s largest cyber fraud hubs.
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Jan 13, 2025 | 
flipboard.com | Aidan Jones
1 hour agoWhy Does Trump Really Want Greenland? He's unhinged, we know that, but is there something more corrupt and selfish behind this nonsense? Donald Trump has had his fair share of unhinged …5 hours agoTesla receives 50,000 orders for new Model Y on first day, report saysTesla has reportedly received 50,000 orders for the new Model Y with an updated design in about 24 hours, according to a new report in China.
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Jan 5, 2025 | 
scmp.com | Aidan Jones |Hadi Azmi
After being driven from their ancestral villages and witnessing the erosion of their heritage through decades of persecution and forced migration, hope often appears in perilously short supply for the Rohingya. For many among this stateless population of nearly 3 million, uprooted and scattered across the globe, daily life involves navigating the challenges of accessing food, finance, work, health and education – all without any legal documents.
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Dec 31, 2024 | 
scmp.com | Aidan Jones
A honey collector from Thailand who posts viral videos of his daring tree-climbing missions to reach bee hives has warned of the damage that mass fruit farming is doing to natural forests in the country’s north. Pran Tee, an ethnic Karen with Thai nationality, has over 320,000 followers on his Facebook page ‘Pran Tee Chiang Mai’, who are drawn to his traditional methods of harvesting honey from shared community forests near his village two hours outside Chiang Mai.
