About Asia

The US has been grappling with an opioid crisis for decades, but the problem has been exacerbated by the arrival of fentanyl – a synthetic drug 50 times more potent than heroin. What roles do China and India play in the global illicit fentanyl trade? Post correspondent Khushboo Razdan and independent investigative journalist Ben Westhoff walk us through their reporting. For more on this: https://sc.mp/8c9626

Oppenheimer will finally make its Japan premier on March 29, 2024, eight months after the film’s world debut. How will the only country to suffer wartime atomic bombings react to a biopic about the American physicist who led efforts to build the first such weapons of mass destruction? Yuki Miyamoto, a nuclear ethics professor at DePaul University who has seen Oppenheimer three times, discusses her reservations about the film.  Read more: https://sc.mp/92s0   

Protests continue in India against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), which many say is a Hindu nationalist campaign targeting Muslims, spearheaded by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Post spoke with independent journalist Angad Singh for more. Read more on this: https://sc.mp/5396d3 

The yakuza are seeing a pop cultural renaissance with hit TV shows like Tokyo Vice and video games such as Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth. In reality, however, the Japanese organised crime groups are in serious decline. But do their shrinking numbers tell the whole story? To learn more, the Post’s Jonathan Vit spoke with Dr Martina Baradel, a criminologist at the University of Oxford. Read more on this: https://sc.mp/r6law

How might a second Trump presidency affect US relations with China, North Korea, Japan, Asean, India and more? Post US bureau chief Robert Delaney compares and analyses the foreign policies of incumbent President Joe Biden and his predecessor Donald Trump and explores whether Beijing prefers one over the other. Read the latest on the US presidential 2024 elections: https://sc.mp/0d0073 

A growing number of women are freezing their eggs as a means of prolonging their fertility, but what are the economic and social barriers they face along the way? The Post spoke with Dr Geetha Venkat to learn more. Read more on this: https://sc.mp/3hse 

The political marriage of the Philippines’ two most powerful families appears to be crumbling. Lucio Blanco Pitlo III, research fellow at the Asia-Pacific Pathways to Progress Foundation, explains the history behind the apparent feud between President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr and his predecessor Rodrigo Duterte, and its potential implication to the country’s political future. For the latest on the Philippines: https://sc.mp/ca9d66

Prabowo Subianto, Indonesia’s current defence minister, has won the presidential election by a wide margin, according to unofficial, but historically accurate quick count results. But there are lingering concerns about Prabowo related to past allegations of human rights abuses. In this episode of About Asia, we speak with Jacqui Baker of Murdoch University about the president-elect’s successful shift from fiery populist to a grandfatherly figure.

Taylor Swift is one of the biggest musical acts in the world – and she’s coming to Singapore in 2024, along with Ed Sheeran, Bruno Mars and Coldplay. For decades, so-called “world tours” have skipped much of Asia, but how has the tide of concert tourism changed? We sat down with Post reporter Kimberly Lim to discuss more. Read more on this: https://sc.mp/oh50b 

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has made the South its “principal enemy” in proposed changes to the country’s constitution. He has also ended hopes of reunification, while intensifying missile tests. Is the Korean peninsula on the brink of war? Former CIA analyst and North Korean expert Soo Kim has more. Read the full story: https://sc.mp/u6mb