SCMP Asia·Wednesday, December 17, 2025

SCMP Asia - Wednesday, December 17, 2025

10 stories~15 min

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Stories Covered

Miss Finland scandal: Finnish PM apologises to East Asia for MPs’ ‘racist’ gestures

Finland’s prime minister apologised on Wednesday to citizens of Japan, China and South Korea after MPs sparked outrage by posting pictures of themselves making derogatory squinting gestures. The parliamentarians from the populist Finns Party, which is part of the right-wing coalition government, posted images on social media where they pulled back the corners of their eyes – widely seen as a racist gesture targeting East Asian people. They claimed to have shared the pictures in support of the...

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Bondi Beach shooting: millions raised for ‘hero of Australia’ who stopped gunman

Like many Australians strolling at Bondi Beach on long, warm summer evenings, Ahmed al Ahmed just wanted a cup of coffee with a friend. Around him, a bloody massacre erupted as two gunmen targeted Jews during Hanukkah festivities at a park close to the shore. Soon al Ahmed was creeping, bent over, between two parked cars, before barrelling directly towards one of the unsuspecting shooters. In footage that has been viewed millions of times around the world, the 44-year-old father can be seen...

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India’s Delhi battles severe pollution with traffic bans, work-from-home order

Authorities in India’s capital Delhi rolled out strict measures on Wednesday in an attempt to curb pollution, including a ban on vehicles not compliant with the latest emission control norms and regulating attendance in private and government offices. The air quality index in the Delhi region, home to 30 million people, has been in the “severe” category for the past few days, often crossing the 450 mark. In addition, shallow fog in parts of the city worsened visibility that affected flights and.

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Vietnamese woman’s death amid raid in South Korea spurs demand for visa policy change

The death of a Vietnamese woman in Daegu after she reportedly tried to evade a South Korean immigration raid has intensified scrutiny on the country’s restrictive work visa rules for international students who graduate from local universities. Vu Tu Anh, 25, died after falling three stories from an air-conditioning unit of a car parts factory where she had been working illegally, according to the Hankyoreh newspaper. She had hidden behind the unit as immigration officers cracked down on...

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Deadly Indonesia fire fuels claims of ‘back-room dealings’ on safety

A week after a deadly fire tore through a Jakarta office building and killed 22 people, labour groups and urban planners say the tragedy is a stark example of how weak enforcement, “back-room dealings” and risky conversions of office space continue to endanger workers in Indonesia’s capital. The blaze broke out on December 9 at a seven-storey building in central Jakarta rented by drone operator Terra Drone Indonesia, where employees became trapped inside as smoke spread through the...

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South Korea reopens bitter debate on lifting ban on North Korean state media

A group of lawmakers from South Korea’s ruling Democratic Party is seeking to relax a decades-old ban on North Korean websites like the online Rodong Sinmun, reigniting debate over national security and freedom of information. The proposed revision, drafted by Representative Han Min-soo and 11 other lawmakers, would allow people in South Korea to freely visit North Korean websites, while maintaining existing bans on distributing or actively promoting content that violates the National Security..

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Why the Philippine Army is turning to locally built remote weapons systems

The Philippine Army has rolled out a locally developed remote weapons system that officials said would boost troop protection while advancing Manila’s push to build a self-reliant defence industry amid limited manpower and resources. The Controller Operated Battle-Ready Armament (Cobra) was formally turned over to the Department of National Defence on Thursday at the Army Armour Division headquarters in Camp O’Donnell, Capas, Tarlac, following two years of development led by the Department of...

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South Korean court rules Yoon’s martial law illegal as walls close in

Once South Korea’s top prosecutor and head of state, Yoon Suk-yeol now faces the courtroom reckoning of a lifetime, as successive rulings brand his failed attempt to impose martial law “unconstitutional and unlawful”, setting the stage for a verdict that could carry the death penalty. In one of the most consequential legal findings since the country’s return to democracy in 1987, the 21st Criminal Court of Seoul Central District Court on Monday declared that the 2024 martial law decree...

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Malaysian religious authorities clear woman of ‘2 husbands’ allegations

A woman from Tanah Merah, Malaysia’s Kelantan state, who was alleged to have two husbands, had in fact divorced her first spouse in June 2022, Kosmo reported. Kelantan Islamic Development, Da’wah (proselytising), Information and Public Relations Committee chairman Mohd Asri Mat Daud said both the 30-year-old woman and her ex-husband confirmed the divorce. He said the verification was made after both parties appeared to clarify their marital status with the Kelantan Islamic Religious Affairs...

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Indian police reveal Bondi Beach shooting suspect’s background

The alleged gunman shot dead by police during Sunday’s attack on Australia’s Bondi Beach was originally from the southern Indian city of Hyderabad and his family did not know about his “radical mindset”, Indian police said on Tuesday. Fifteen people were killed in the attack on a Hanukkah event, Australia’s worst mass shooting in nearly 30 years, and it is being investigated as an act of terrorism targeting the Jewish community. In a statement providing more details about the man alleged to have

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