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The American public still wants the United States to be “engaged and take the lead” in international affairs, with support increasing for military intervention if Taiwan were to be attacked, according to a new survey.This view contrasts with US President Donald Trump’s isolationist bent and pivot towards homeland security, something analysts say could “complicate” decision making in the event of a crisis in the Taiwan Strait.According to an annual survey published on Thursday by the Ronald Reagan Institute, a US non-profit organisation created by the former US president, 64 per cent of Americans, a “record high” in the eight years…

Funds siphoned off from the Philippines’ flood control projects and converted into cryptocurrency may be linked to online scam syndicates run by offshore gaming operators, an official from the country’s cybercrime unit has revealed.Renato Paraiso, acting executive director of the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Centre, told This Week in Asia that investigators had uncovered a “definite link” between digital assets tied to the multibillion-peso flood control scandal and cryptocurrency scams carried out by Philippine offshore gaming operators (Pogos).President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr banned Pogos last year amid public outrage over their alleged involvement in criminal activities. The government has since intensified…

Two former students of Aitchison College, Senan Khawaja and Saeed Naeem, are among 600 people featured on the Forbes ‘30 Under 30 United States 2026’ list. The duo co-founded Kollegio in 2023, an AI-driven platform connecting students, schools, and colleges. Kollegio, which is free for students, has helped about 110,000 across all 50 states and 190 countries, giving personalized guidance for navigating applying to college, including providing essay feedback. “They expect to serve 1 million students by the end of 2027. The startup has attracted $3.6 million from investors, including a $2.8 million seed round with funding from Reach Capital,…

China’s artificial intelligence boom is giving rise to a new cohort of “solopreneurs”, who are turning their business dreams into reality with the help of technology, offering a glimmer of hope in an otherwise bleak job market.While there is no government data tracking this group, the proliferation of affordable AI models suggests that the number of AI-powered solopreneurs in China is on the rise. Recent data from the US Census Bureau showed that the US had about 30 million solopreneurs, who contributed 6.8 per cent of total economic activity.In China, local governments are actively working to attract “one-person companies”, or…

What happens when a democracy begins to fear its own internet? In Indonesia, that question is no longer hypothetical, as the government threatens to pull the plug on major online platforms many of its people rely upon.When Jakarta warned last month that it could block major platforms like Cloudflare and Wikipedia, the move was justified as a crackdown on online gambling – a vice officially outlawed in the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation.But for tech industry players and free-speech advocates, the move was something else entirely: another step in the state’s steady expansion of power over the digital realm.The order came…

For Malaysian tech worker Sam, there were three short steps to being replaced by robots at a global social media company’s Kuala Lumpur office.First came weeks spent training the company’s artificial intelligence systems. Then came the ominous warnings of “restructuring”. Finally, the inevitable: redundancy.“One day, out of nowhere, we had to attend a town hall,” said the 29-year-old, who asked to use a pseudonym to protect his job prospects.“They never explicitly said it was due to AI, but we all knew the direction they were heading.”AI and automation are increasingly being cited as a factor driving job cuts and hiring…

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia unleashed a major missile and drone barrage on Ukraine overnight into Saturday, after U.S. and Ukrainian officials said they’ll meet on Saturday for a third day of talks aimed at ending the nearly 4-year-old war.Russia used 653 drones and 51 missiles in the wide-reaching attack, which triggered air raid alerts across the country and came as Ukraine marked Armed Forces Day, the country’s air force said Saturday morning. Ukrainian forces shot down and neutralized 585 drones and 30 missiles, the air force said, adding that 29 locations were struck.At least eight people were wounded in…

Beijing’s omission of the term “denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula” from a new white paper suggested its “tacit acceptance” of North Korea as a nuclear-armed state while prioritising its strategic competition with Washington, analysts said.Last week, China released a white paper on the country’s arms control, disarmament and non-proliferation, outlining its policies on national defence and nuclear policy and updating a previous paper from 2005.One notable shift in Beijing’s position on the Korean peninsula was its omission of its traditional support for the peninsula’s denuclearisation within the paper’s overall “non-proliferation” clause.“With regard to the Korean peninsula issue, China adopts an…

When online outrage torpedoed the latest episode of One‑Punch Man, few saw past the animation flaws. But what followed exposed a creative industry buckling under impossible expectations.The sixth episode of the long-awaited third season of the Japanese superhero saga – once praised for its sharp humour and kinetic style – stumbled onto screens under the weight of its own hype in October.Viewers flooded social media with complaints about its uneven pacing and “rushed” storytelling. On reviews database IMDb, the episode’s audience rating collapsed to 1.4, a brutal comedown for a franchise accustomed to critical acclaim that had usually scored between…

China’s top aircraft maker is stepping up efforts to promote its first business jet as it looks to break into a market dominated by Western aviation firms like Gulfstream Aerospace.The Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac) took the rare step of showcasing a completed version of the model – called the Comac Business Jet, or CBJ – at an exhibition in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou in October.The move signalled the state-owned company was “seeking to break into the large-cabin VIP aircraft market” with the CBJ, aviation industry news outlet AIN Media Group reported on Thursday.The CBJ is adapted…