‘Flowers’ bloom between Singapore and Tokyo despite travel ban

The skateboarding tricks that made Rayssa Leal the youngest Olympic medalist in Brazil's history push girls from early childhood to teenagers onto the country's slopes, where until recently they were the exception.

The twin pandas born at Tokyo's Ueno zoo in June have been named Xiao Xiao for the male and Lei Lei for the female. There are an estimated 1,800 giant pandas left in the wild, mainly in bamboo forests in the mountains of China, according to environmental group WWF. Around 600 more live in zoos and breeding centres around the world.

A 24-year-old man dressed in Batman's Joker costume attacked passengers on a Tokyo train line on Sunday evening, injuring 17 people as many party-goers headed into the city center for Halloween gatherings, media reported.

The book about censorship was banned over "offensive images" containing cartoons depicting the Muslim Prophet Muhammad. The cartoons were the same ones published in the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo in 2015.

For years, Singapore has been considered a skilled practitioner of hedging between the world's superpowers and not taking sides. Now it is one of the few Asian countries to openly condemn Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

In Singapore, the fate of two Malaysian men on death row has sparked local mobilisation and attracted international attention. On April 25th, Nagaenthran Dharmalingam was hanged. With an IQ of 69, which is recognized as a disability, his execution could amount to a breach of international law. The next day, 36-year-old Datchinamurthy Kataiah won a last minute reprieve from Singapore's top court, thereby suspending his execution. We talk to journalist and anti-death penalty activist Kirsten Han.

Mourners flocked to the site where Japan's former prime minister was shot. Shinzo Abe's body has been moved to Tokyo from Nara, where he was attacked while giving a speech.

Disrupted supply chains, skyrocketing food prices and shortages: Singapore is feeling the consequences of the pandemic and the Ukraine war.

Japan is the only G7 country which does not recognise same-sex unions. But this week, its capital Tokyo began rolling out a partnership certificate scheme. It allows same-sex couples to be treated as married couples for certain public services, this for the first time. Those services include housing, medicine and welfare.

Parliament scrapped a rarely enforced colonial-era law criminalizing sex between men. However, it introduced a constitutional amendment that stands in the way of marriage equality.

Although Japan is the only G7 country where same-sex marriages are illegal, there have recently been some positive changes for the LGBT community. Last November, Tokyo's metropolitan government introduced partnership certificates that entitle gay couples to certain public services that were once reserved for straight couples.

Missing Chinese investment banker Bao Fan was preparing to move some of his fortune from China and Hong Kong to Singapore in the months leading up to his disappearance, according to four people with knowledge of his plans.