Indonesia plans to press ahead with discounted Russian crude oil imports to secure domestic energy supplies and manage fiscal pressures, despite the risk of higher US tariffs as Washington moves to tighten economic pressure on Moscow. On Friday, US President Donald Trump signed into law an act that would give him authority to impose sanctions on Russia and slap tariffs of up to 100 per cent on the top five buyers of Russian crude oil, gas and military equipment, or countries that help Moscow...

Vietnam’s car-care market is large, busy and still highly fragmented. For many car owners, booking a wash, detailing job or routine maintenance service remains a matter of phone calls, word-of-mouth recommendations and uneven service standards. Bonbon Mobility wants to put a digital layer over that experience. The Ho Chi Minh City-based startup has entered a […] The post Bonbon Mobility raises US$500K to digitise Vietnam’s car-care market appeared first on e27.

Every mid-sized Asian city with a reformist mayor and a decent airport eventually flirts with calling itself a startup hub. Fukuoka has been making that argument longer than most, and with more institutional backing than a slogan usually gets. Since 2012, the city in southern Japan has layered one startup policy on another: a national […] The post Fukuoka’s RAMEN TECH tests Japan’s startup pitch to Southeast Asia appeared first on e27.

The third son of Thailand’s King Maha Vajiralongkorn has said he wants to return home for urgent brain surgery. Chakriwat “Than Aong” Vivacharawongse posted a video on social media on Monday saying he had two large brain tumours requiring surgery. The 43-year-old doctor said he wanted to receive treatment in Thailand. “I want to return to Thailand for treatment because Thai doctors are highly capable,” he said in the video. Chakriwat said he did not have enough money to pay for the surgery in...

Indonesia’s bid for another term on the United Nations’ premier security body stands a good chance of success given Jakarta’s growing global engagement, analysts say, but its balancing act between competing powers could complicate efforts to speak for the Global South. Jakarta’s Foreign Ministry said on Thursday that it would launch its campaign this week for a fifth term as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council for 2029–2030. The ministry said it was seeking the seat to...

Singapore-listed MetaOptics has secured a potential financing line of up to US$10 million from Los Angeles-based White Lion Capital, giving the semiconductor optics company additional room to fund its United States expansion as it tries to take metalens technology closer to commercial scale. The arrangement is structured through a warrant deed under which White Lion […] The post Singapore’s MetaOptics eyes US expansion with potential US$10M warrant facility appeared first on e27.

Cambodia is set to present the outcome of its crackdown on scams to global governments and security agencies gathering in Phnom Penh this week. Yet questions remain over where the missing billions have gone – as well as the role of the country’s elite, who for many years denied the problem existed at all on Cambodian soil. Scam compounds took over declining mega-casinos during the pandemic. As borders closed, gamblers were replaced with scam workers: many tricked, trafficked and forced to commit...

Believing that a lorry driver in the same neighbourhood had punctured his tyres, a private-hire driver twice left urine and faeces outside his neighbour’s flat in Singapore. Martin Chua Kim Soon, a 67-year-old Singaporean, was fined S$5,000 (US$3,920) by a court on Tuesday. He paid the fine in full after pleading guilty to two counts of insulting behaviour under the Protection from Harassment Act. The court heard that Chua was a private-hire driver with Tada at the time of the offences and lived...

For all the recent progress in artificial intelligence, most machines still struggle with something humans learn as children: touch. A worker can feel when a box is slipping, when a surface is unstable, or when a repeated movement is putting strain on the body. Robots and automated systems, by contrast, often rely heavily on cameras, […] The post TacnIQ.ai raises US$1.5M to teach machines the language of touch appeared first on e27.

For Hyperbond Studio, the question was never only whether artificial intelligence could teach a language. It was whether people would keep coming back long enough for the teaching to matter. The Singapore-based startup, best known for its AI language-learning dating simulation app Call Me Sensei, has secured backing from Supercell, the Finnish gaming company behind […] The post Supercell backs Hyperbond Studio as Call Me Sensei bets on AI romance for language learning appeared first on e27.