Democrats won both the House of Representatives and the Senate in the US midterm elections on November 3, with the new Congress due to be sworn in on January 3, 2027. The main questions amongst Southeast Asian governments and exporters is whether a divided government in Washington will soften the tariffs imposed on the region.
Author: Protasius Isyudanto
Lead Editor
Philippines and China Weigh Joint Reed Bank Exploration Talks After Weeks of Tension
On November 3, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Philippine Foreign Secretary Theresa Lazaro spoke by phone. A Philippine official said the two sides discussed resuming long-stalled talks on joint oil and gas exploration at Reed Bank.
Vietnam’s FDI Pledges Exceeds $54 Billion, Highest Since 2009
On November 3, the National Statistics Office under Vietnam’s Ministry of Finance reported that registered foreign direct investment (FDI) reached 54.85 billion US dollar in the first 10 months of 2026.
Philippine House Passes Under-13 Social Media Ban, After Indonesia and Malaysia Set Limits
On October 12, the Philippine lower house or the House of Representatives passed on third and final reading a bill barring children aged 13 and below from creating social media accounts and restricting access for those under 18, with 287 lawmakers voting in favour and three against.
Why Greener Buildings Mean Changing What They Are Made Of, Not Just How They Run
Antonio Ng spent four years working on a building he was sure was part of the answer to climate change. He worked on the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco which was the first museum in the world to earn LEED platinum certification twice over,
The Catalogue Problem Underneath Southeast Asian E-commerce
One e-commerce listing describes a food container with a frog on it, but the photograph shows a children’s dinner set. Another advertises an Arabic edition of Monopoly and the box in the picture is the standard game. A third offers a Sony headphone model in a colour that model has never been made in, which makes it either mislabelled or counterfeit.
The Fight for Clean Air Has Many Fronts. One of Them Is Algae.
The device on Rehaan Lulla’s desk looks like a lava lamp. A tall glass column, a slow swirl of green and a soft glow. What it is invisibly doing is drawing carbon dioxide out of the room and releasing oxygen more efficiently than the pot plants most people keep for the same reason. The organism inside is microalgae, grown for decades as food and as a cosmetics ingredient, which Rehaan’s start-up AlGreen has repurposed to clean the air.
Why Cooling the Planet Means Removing Carbon, Not Just Emitting Less
Johanna has always been drawn to big challenges and to the simple solutions that are often underestimated. When it comes to the question of climate change, her answer is putting to use what is already around her.
Singapore, Indonesia Formalise Military Officer Ties With New Defence Alumni Initiative
On July 14, Singapore and Indonesia launched a joint defence alumni body in Jakarta, turning decades of informal contact between their officer corps into a standing institution. Singapore Defence Minister Chan Chun Sing and his Indonesian counterpart Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin launched the Indonesia-Singapore (INDOSIN) Defence Alumni Initiative, known as PERSAHAN (Persahabatan Alumni Pertahanan, Indonesian for Defence Alumni Friendship), as co-founders. They signed the body’s initiating directive and unveiled its logo on the sidelines of the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) Day reception in Jakarta. The two armed forces’ chiefs, SAF chief Vice Admiral Aaron Beng and Indonesian military (TNI) commander General Agus Subiyanto, will serve as co-presidents.
South China Sea Ruling Still Worth Defending, Experts Tell Jakarta Conference
July 12 of this year marks a decade of the Arbitral Award, where the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague found no legal basis for China’s nine-dash line claim, a statement it handed down under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) on 2016. Beijing rejected it then and ignores it now, leaving Southeast Asia to manage a verdict that is binding in law but unbacked by any mechanism to compel compliance.