Japan is set to deploy three helicopters to help Indonesia battle forest and peatland fires in Kalimantan at Jakarta’s request, as smoke from the blazes spread across Southeast Asia and pressure mounts on the government to accept more international assistance.

The measures include age-verification, parental controls, faster takedowns of harmful content and closer cooperation with law enforcement, he said. 

Indonesia has intensified efforts to contain haze from forest and land fires across six provinces in Kalimantan and Sumatra islands. The haze has caused respiratory illnesses and forced thousands of schools to move classes online, including in neighbouring Malaysia.

Myanmar's junta chief-turned-president Min Aung Hlaing will make an official visit to Vietnam from Sept. 4 to 6 at the invitation of Vietnamese President To Lam, state media in both countries reported on Tuesday.

Australia said Tuesday the Pacific bloc will decide for itself who attends its annual summit, after China raised objections to Taiwan's presence on the sidelines.

Rescuers struggled through mud and debris for a sixth day, as the number of missing people soared to nearly 4,500 since tsunami-like glacial floods roared down from the China-Nepal border, creating an "unimaginable" disaster.

Indonesia has for weeks battled wildfires that have led to school closures and thousands of people requiring medical treatment, with smoke also drifting across to Malaysia and Singapore.

The unprecedented deluge of ice, rock, mud and debris on the Nepal-Tibet border on Wednesday – blamed on a glacier collapse – killed more than 900 people and nearly 5,000 are still missing.

Nickel-based batteries used by many South Korean manufacturers face increasing competition from lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries, which contain no nickel and are generally cheaper to produce.

Indonesia maintains a neutral foreign policy, what it calls "free and active," as it walks a diplomatic tightrope seeking good relations with both Washington and Beijing.

Among points agreed during the meeting in Auckland was New Zealand’s support for Indonesia to fund food security and nutrition programs in eastern Indonesia aimed at tackling stunting issues in the regions, according to statements issued by both countries’ foreign ministries.

North Korea's defense minister has been dismissed as part of a reshuffle of the country's military leadership, state media reported Sunday.

China on Sunday said 261 foreign nationals from 23 countries were missing on the Tibetan side of a border crossing with Nepal following a mudslide which tore through the Himalayan region, while the death toll in Tibet has reached 16 people.

The deluge of ice and mud caused huge lakes to form, and one of these formations has become a direct threat to emergency workers scouring the region for survivors.

Many of the missing are foreign tourists, including trekkers in the Himalayan nation, as well as scores of Hindu pilgrims to Tibet's sacred snow-capped Mount Kailash.

During their annual foreign and defense ministers' meeting on Aug. 26, the two neighbors pledged to deepen cooperation with a particular view to enhancing security in the Indo-Pacific amid rising global power rivalry and food and energy shocks from the Mideast war.

The US president's abrupt decision to cut back military drills with South Korea last week, which he described as hostile to Pyongyang, has reinforced fears that Trump's unpredictability could strain alliances that have long maintained peace in the region, government officials and security experts said.

Malaysia's national disaster management agency and its meteorological department are currently preparing schedules for cloud seeding operations in shared border locations, to be coordinated with the Indonesian military.

The Malaysian prime minister and the Brunei sultan aim to use “the ASEAN mechanism” in a bid to find a solution for the recurring problem of transboundary haze from Indonesian wildfires.

The cancelation follows US President Donald Trump's surprise order to scale back a separate annual joint military exercise that ended last Friday, citing the cost and Seoul's refusal to take part in the Iran war.

Australia on Sunday confirmed its first case of H5N1 bird flu in a mammal, with the deadly virus found in a long-nosed fur seal in South Australia state.

Albanese's center-left government enacted laws in January for the gun buyback, tighter checks for gun licences and a crackdown on ​hate in the wake of the gun attack ​at a Bondi Beach Hanukkah celebration in Sydney, the capital of New South Wales state, on Dec. 14, 2025.

Among topics discussed in high-level talks between Foreign Minister Sugiono and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Jakarta was the joint development by both countries in the hotly disputed South China Sea.

Four vessels were detained or taken to port by authorities in Kiribati, Palau and Papua New Guinea for illegal fishing or breaches of fishing licenses.

Wang will participate in the Comprehensive Strategic Dialogue (CSD) meeting with his Indonesian counterpart on Friday morning to talk about several issues, including the economy, before reconvening for a 2+2 meeting involving defense ministers of both countries.

Hui Ka Yan, once Asia's richest man, pleaded guilty in April to eight charges, including misuse of funds, fundraising fraud, illegally taking public deposits, illegally extending loans, fraudulently issuing securities and bribery.

Australia passed legislation on Thursday that will force tech giants to pay millions of dollars in levies if they fail to strike commercial deals with local media outlets for news on their platforms.