Asia Times

3 days ago | asiatimes.com | Amir Al Fateh

In a landmark June 4 ruling, Malaysia’s High Court denied Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s controversial attempt to shield himself from civil proceedings by invoking a constitutional mechanism — a move critics say was a veiled attempt at political immunity. The court’s rejection of Anwar’s bid marks the beginning of a legal confrontation unprecedented in Malaysian history: a sitting prime minister now stands to defend himself in court while governing the nation.

4 days ago | asiatimes.com | Noah Smith

Let me tell you a story about World War II. In 1940, before the entry of the US and the USSR into the war, Britain was fighting alone against Germany and Italy. Despite being massively outnumbered and outgunned, the British managed to pull off a spectacular naval victory, using innovative new technology. They sent the HMS Illustrious, an aircraft carrier, to attack the Italian fleet in its harbor at Taranto.

5 days ago | asiatimes.com | Noah Smith

Oren Cass, the founder of the think tank American Compass, is probably the leading intellectual voice of MAGA economics. In a recent blog post, he discusses the question of whether economic forces are like gravity. He writes:[Y]es, the physical world is governed by the laws of gravity. But it is not governed only by the laws of gravity. Indeed, anyone who thought he could reliably predict the motion of bodies with knowledge only of gravity would be something of a moron. Oh, really?

1 week ago | asiatimes.com | Amir Al Fateh

KUALA LUMPUR – In the corridors of Malaysian power, the language of justice often changes depending on who is speaking — and who is being spoken about. Several years after alleging Anwar Ibrahim sexually assaulted him in a private residence in Segambut, Yusoff Rawther’s civil suit has reached a legal crescendo — just as Anwar, now prime minister, seeks to halt the case by invoking what he calls a “qualified immunity.”But this is no ordinary courtroom drama.

1 week ago | asiatimes.com | Jason Wong |Xiao He

We are in the middle of a global workplace burnout epidemic. Korean-German philosopher Byung-Chul Han has aptly coined the term “burnout society.”Four centuries ago, late-Ming Dynasty scholar-official Yuan Hongdao (1568–1610) shifted from state administrative work to xiaopin — brief, personal essays celebrating everyday pleasures like gardening, leisurely excursions and long vigils beside a rare blossom.