Malaysia

As rules-based order frays, the world’s middle powers are being forced to pick sides – or carve out a path of their own.

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim joins Sreenivasan Jain to debate justice, trade and sovereignty in an age of great-power rivalry, and to ask a pointed question: when the superpowers ignore the rules they wrote, can smaller nations still hold them to account – or is that just talk?

Contributors: Anwar Ibrahim, prime minister of Malaysia

There seem to be more significant upgrades from a number of teams this year, McLaren’s being the latest. Will the top four teams be bringing many more in the second half of the season or is there a limit to what they can do? – Richard

All the F1 teams headed into 2026 knowing that the season would be defined by development.

When there is a new rule set, this is always the case. The longer a set of rules exists, the more a) the car designs converge; b) teams get into diminishing returns.

But at the start, progress comes faster and in bigger steps, and that explains the fluctuation in form between the top teams so far this season.

Typically, a team will bring an upgrade, their competitiveness will increase, but then it will shift as other teams bring their own upgrades.

The longer a team leaves it between upgrades, the more they fall back.

That’s why McLaren, for example, made a leap forward with their Miami upgrade, but slowly slipped back as Mercedes and Ferrari brought their own big developments in Canada and Spain.

Then, McLaren leapt forwards – even more than they expected – with their Hungary upgrade. And they have another due in Zandvoort. And more to come after that.

Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull also have developments to come after the summer break.

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella said in Hungary: “I still believe that if we want to be in a position to fight for victories consistently in the future, we need to keep our focus on delivering more upgrades. That is the plan, but we are not naive. We know that this will be the plan for all the teams.

“Like it’s always been in this 2026 season, it’s a matter of a race of upgrades. And the good news is that McLaren is now back in this race of upgrades while fighting for the lead.

“But I expect that the car that will be the best car at the end of the season will keep adding tenths of a second in the next 11 races, probably as much as half a second. So definitely a lot of work ahead of everyone, not only McLaren.”

The limiting factor is the cost cap – all teams are restricted to spending no more than $215m on racing and development this season.

This means teams have to be strategic in how they deploy their new parts, “rather than just throwing it in at every grand prix, like in the past”, as Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff put it in Hungary.

He added: “We’re bringing upgrades, we’re closely monitoring how much we can bring. At the moment, cost cap-wise, we’re in a good spot. We’ve tried to have it a little bit more second-half-of-the-season weighted, and we’ll see if that’s enough.”

Why don’t McLaren make their own engines? They often seem to struggle because they rely on others’ (Mercedes) power units, who are also a direct competitor. Surely McLaren have the expertise and they could benefit their road car industry and their F1 car if they became a works team. – Jack

Making a Formula 1 engine is a highly specialised enterprise. It’s also extremely expensive. The manufacturers supplying engines to F1 this year have all spent hundreds of millions of pounds developing their power-units.

Apart from Red Bull, all are car manufacturers who have wider automotive companies to offset the cost, and expertise on which to lean.

There is now an engine budget cap, set at $190m in a company’s inaugural year, and $148.5m after that.

McLaren is a road-car manufacturer. But it does not build engines. It outsources its engines to a UK company called Ricardo.

The plans for the next F1 engine, due in either 2030 or 2031, are still being formalised, and there is considerable debate about them.

However, one aspect all stakeholders are agreed upon is for the costs to come down, perhaps even to the point where becoming a supplier of customer engines becomes a viable business proposition, which is not the case at the moment.

McLaren have proved they can win titles as a customer team, but they have also had frustrations with their Mercedes relationship this year. They have discovered how customer teams are on the back foot when it comes to maximising the operations of such complex engines at the start of a new regulation cycle.

As for the future, McLaren Racing chief executive officer Zak Brown said at the Monaco Grand Prix: “Priority one is to stay with Mercedes. They’ve been a great partner. Any time a new regulation comes out, we’ll take a look and see, is it something technically that’s interesting? Is it something fiscally that makes sense?

“We’ll go through that process when that happens. But sitting here right now, we’re extremely happy with Mercedes and we anticipate continuing with them.”

FIFA face global mutiny as Asian Football Confederation stand with Europe and North America after their boycott threats.

The ‌Asian Football Confederation has said it “stands in solidarity” with regional ⁠bodies UEFA and ⁠CONCACAF in opposing plans to sell a stake in the World Cup to private investors but stopped short of threatening ⁠to boycott events run by FIFA, global football’s governing body.

The confederation in a statement on Friday expressed “deep concern” over the proposed establishment of a $20bn commercial ⁠subsidiary, FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE), to run the World Cup and FIFA’s other events.

“The fact that the situation has reached the point where the real possibility of a FIFA World Cup boycott has entered public discourse should concern everyone ‌who cares about the future of our game,” the statement said.

“Football should never have been placed in such a position.”

UEFA, European football’s governing body, voted unanimously on Thursday to boycott all FIFA events unless the plans were dropped. CONCACAF, the regional federation for North America, Central America and the Caribbean, has also rejected ⁠FIFA’s proposal.

On Thursday, AFC President Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa had said the way the proposal had been made was “totally unacceptable”, in a letter to member associations.

The AFC said “the proposed FFE cannot realistically achieve the necessary broad consensus and ⁠unity required to move forward.

“The FIFA World Cup ⁠is the pinnacle of global football and derives its strength from the participation of all confederations and the world’s leading football nations.”

The AFC also made a thinly veiled attack on the ⁠governing body’s president, Gianni Infantino, saying the plan “has exposed fundamental weaknesses in FIFA’s consultation and decision-making processes that ⁠must now be addressed”.

Even after FIFA issued ⁠a new statement on Friday, saying each national association “should be allowed to review the proposal and have a say in shaping their own future”, the AFC said “central concerns surrounding governance, ‌institutional process and meaningful consultation remain unanswered”.

It said the furore must become a catalyst for institutional reform at FIFA, and that “meaningful democracy is not ‌measured ‌solely by the opportunity to vote.

“It begins with transparent governance, timely consultation, informed deliberation and genuine participation throughout the decision-making process.”

Malaysian police have detained more than 100 Rohingya refugees and asylum seekers who were seeking help from the UN after they were evicted from their homes. A rise in online hate speech and misinformation has led to more harassment of the group in Malaysia.

The Bahrain and Saudi Arabia Grands Prix were initially scheduled for April but were called off in March as a result of the war launched by the US/Israel against Iran.

F1 is keen to host at least 21 races, because any less than that would activate contractual clauses that could see the sport have to pay rights fees back to broadcasters and may also mean the same for teams with sponsorship budgets.

The arrangement between Bahrain and Malaysia was heavily influenced by Bahrain’s Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa.

The Bahrain race has been Prince Salman’s pet project since it made its debut in 2024. Bahrain’s sovereign investment fund is also the owner of the McLaren F1 team.

F1 president and chief executive officer Stefano Domenicali said: “We are delighted to confirm that Malaysia will host the Bahrain Grand Prix in 2026. Once again, the sport has demonstrated its ability to adapt, find solutions, and deliver, creating an exciting moment for everyone who follows Formula 1.

“I would like to express our sincere thanks to His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, King of Bahrain, His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa and His Majesty Sultan Ibrahim, King of Malaysia, as well as their respective governments for making this extraordinary outcome possible through their vision, commitment, and decisive action.”

Sepang, which last hosted a race in 2017 and made its debut on the F1 calendar in 1999, is a popular track with fans and Domenicali added: “Malaysia is an incredible country, and Sepang holds a special place in Formula 1 history. It will provide a spectacular setting for racing and an unforgettable experience for fans at the circuit and watching around the world.”

A travel enthusiast who has been to airports around the world claims that one in Europe is the hub he’d never want to fly through again, despite it being named the best in the continent

A college student who has visited over 60 countries, passing through 90 airports along the way, has revealed his list of the five worst places to fly.

Theo, who posts as theoandtheglobe on TikTok, is a 22-year-old travel enthusiast who has made hundreds of videos documenting his trips, racking up over 47,800 followers on the platform in the process. But despite his deep love of travel, there are certain airports he would avoid in the future.

And topping his list is an airport that’s a major hub in Europe, with many Brits passing through to visit the City of Love or just to catch connecting flights. Theo started his list with: “First, Charles de Gaulle. CDG in Paris. I mean, pretty obvious and easy. It’s just a super chaotic airport, really inconvenient to fly through, and not fun.”

Theo’s comments come despite the Parisian hub being named the Best Airport in Europe in the 2026 Skytrax World Airport Awards. The airport gets mixed reviews online. One passenger said: “CDG airport is located in the suburbs of Paris. Despite being one of Europe’s busiest transportation hubs, I found it a bit weird. Immigration and customs procedures are manual and there are few counters, resulting in long wait times.”

But one happy traveller wrote: “I’ve travelled quite a bit to many airports and this one has to be the largest. It’s quite beautiful for the most part with impressive architectural features, various well-thought-out amenities, and shops and restaurants all over the place.”

Theo continued his list of airports that left him unimpressed, saying: “Second is Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. Super far from the city, terrible location, and the way they do security is the worst of any airport I go through, I’ve been through or flown through.

“It’s literally like, they do security at the start of a set of 10 gates, but there’s only one person working at the security. The person in front of me brought a full bottle of water and it took like 10 minutes, and I almost missed my flight. A very weird, inconvenient way to do security.”

“Third is Hong Kong. This airport is too reliant on modern technology. If you have a problem with your passport or boarding pass or anything, you have to wait way too long to see [a person]. There’s basically no employees here. It’s just kinda like a giant modern building, that happens to be an airport, and there’s no one working there.”

Continuing his list, Theo put Delhi fourth.

“This is for two reasons. Delhi actually is a really nice building and a really nice airport, but the two reasons are they check your documents outside of the airport. And it’s actual soldiers. I know it’s their job, but why are they holding freaking AK-47s? Why are they checking my documents to get into the airport? Pretty ridiculous.”

He added: “And the second reason is to go through security. You need to take out every single wire. You need to take out all your phone chargers, all your portable chargers, all your AirPods. It’s everything. It’s ridiculous if I’m being honest and security takes way too long.”

He finished his list by saying: “Last but not least is Bogota airport, and this airport is just not prepared for the people it gets. Avianca makes it a big hub of people transiting through from North America to South America. And you can tell the airport is just not meant or built for that at all. It’s a pretty bad building in my opinion.”

Have a story you want to share? Email us at webtravel@reachplc.com

The airline cancelled its flights from London-Gatwick back in 2012, but now it’s back offering an affordable route to Asia via the Middle East with flights resuming this autumn after its break

A low-cost airline that axed its flights from the UK over 14 years ago is set to resume services with a new route from London-Gatwick, creating an affordable way to visit Asia.

AirAsia X, a Malaysian airline, launched flights to Kuala Lumpur from London-Stansted back in 2009, moving the service to London Gatwick in 2011. This made it the first budget carrier covering the so-called Kangaroo Route, connecting long-haul travel between Australia, Southeast Asia and Europe.

But just one year later, AirAsia X withdrew from unprofitable routes, including London, focusing instead on its operations in Sydney and Beijing.

The airline has now announced that it’ll once again offer flights to London-Gatwick. Although the newer flights will offer a stopover in Bahrain in the Middle East in order to cut costs. Flights will be on an Airbus A330-300, holding up to 377 passengers, which, on most airlines, has a 2-4-2 seat configuration in economy class.

The route was due to launch in June, but due to the conflict in the Middle East, it’ll now launch four times a week from August 27, before being available daily on dates from November 2.

Flights from Kuala Lumpur to the UK will leave at 10pm, stopping in Bahrain for an hour and 45 minutes, then arriving at London-Gatwick at 6.25am the following day.

London-Gatwick services will depart at 9.25am, with a two-hour stopover in Bahrain, before heading onto Kuala Lumpur for an arrival time of 9.25am the next day. This puts the journey time at 16-and-a-half hours overall, split almost evenly between the two legs of the flight.

Flights are now available to book online via Skyscanner, with dates in November currently showing at £551 return, which includes a small personal item and a carry bag, but no checked luggage. Travellers can also book the route for Bahrain alone if they wish.

If you prefer a direct flight, then British Airways flies to the city from London-Heathrow daily, while Malaysia Airlines also flies the same route twice a day, although these options are likely to be more expensive.

Kuala Lumpur is Malaysia’s capital, and it’s a vibrant city with plenty to do. You can see its stunning high-rise skyline from the Petronas Twin Towers, the tallest twin towers in the world that have a skybridge connecting them. Merdeka Square in its centre hosts a range of unique architecture, from British colonial to Moorish and modern, showing all the different styles that make this city so unique. Just outside the city, the Batu Caves are a huge draw for tourists, as they contain a number of Hindu temples and one of the tallest statues of a Hindu god in the world.

Pierre-Hugues Schmit, the chief executive of London-Gatwick airport, previously said in a statement: “The arrival of AirAsia X and flights to Kuala Lumpur is fantastic news for London Gatwick passengers. The new daily service will provide excellent opportunities to visit the city or onward connectivity across the region – ideal for holidaymakers, businesses and the many British‑Malaysian families who will now have even better options for visiting friends and relatives.”

Have a story you want to share? Email us at webtravel@reachplc.com

Those trapped in the compounds include Chinese, Philippine, Taiwanese, Malaysian and Brazilian nationals.

More than 5,300 people remain trapped in online scam centres in Myanmar near the Thai border, despite a multinational crackdown in the region last year, a human rights group says.

The Thai-based Civil Society Network for Human Trafficking Victim Assistance (CSNHTV) sent a letter to Thai police urging them to take action. It said many of those trapped were foreign nationals held at four locations inside areas controlled by the Myanmar Democratic Karen Buddhist Army militia.

According to the CSNHTV, an estimated 1,600 people trapped are Chinese nationals, and about 200 are people of Myanmar, along with people from the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia, Brazil, Russia, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, and Zimbabwe.

“Many of these compounds have yet to be dismantled or subjected to rescue operations to free all remaining victims,” it said.

“As a result, these syndicates continue to engage in online fraud and human trafficking, causing harm to victims around the world, particularly in the United States and Europe.”

Scam centres in Southeast Asia, including those in Myanmar and Cambodia, run illegal online schemes that are designed to defraud people worldwide.

“Litany of abuse”

The centres grew significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic in the region, and were initially tied to poorly run casinos and online gambling. They have now become a multibillion-dollar industry, according to the United Nations.

A UN report in February said the facilities are mostly staffed by foreign nationals who have been trafficked by criminal gangs and subjected to abuse.

It found instances of “torture and other ill-treatment, sexual abuse and exploitation, forced abortions, food deprivation, solitary confinement, among other grave human rights abuses”.

“The litany of abuse is staggering and at the same time heart-breaking,” UN Human Rights chief Volker Turk said.

“Yet, rather than receiving protection, care and rehabilitation as well as the pathways to justice and redress to which they are entitled, victims too often face disbelief, stigmatisation and even further punishment.”

Malaysia has introduced new regulations preventing children under the age of 16 from registering accounts on social media platforms as part of a broader effort to improve online safety and protect minors from harmful digital content.

Under the new rules, major social media companies including Meta Platforms, TikTok, and Alphabet will be required to verify users’ ages using government issued records before allowing new account registrations.

The policy took effect on Monday and is being enforced by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission. Companies that fail to comply could face fines of up to 10 million ringgit, equivalent to approximately 2.5 million dollars.

Authorities emphasized that the measure is not intended to block children from using the internet entirely, but rather to ensure greater responsibility among technology companies, parents, and guardians in protecting young users online.

How the New Rules Will Work

The new framework requires social media platforms to implement age verification systems that cross check user information against official government records.

While the restrictions immediately apply to new account registrations, existing users will also be subject to age verification measures during a six month implementation period.

The move places greater responsibility on technology companies to ensure that underage users are not able to bypass age requirements through inaccurate information during the registration process.

Growing Concerns Over Children’s Online Safety

Malaysia’s decision reflects increasing global concern about the impact of social media on children and teenagers.

Governments around the world have raised alarms over issues including exposure to harmful content, cyberbullying, online exploitation, misinformation, and the effects of excessive social media use on mental health.

Policymakers argue that stronger safeguards are needed as digital platforms become a central part of daily life for younger generations.

Malaysia’s Wider Crackdown on Online Content

The age restrictions are part of a broader effort by Malaysian authorities to regulate online platforms more aggressively.

Officials have reported a significant increase in harmful online content in recent years and have intensified monitoring of material that could inflame racial or religious tensions. Authorities have also targeted content viewed as insulting or critical of the country’s monarchy.

The government says social media companies must play a more active role in preventing harmful content from reaching vulnerable audiences.

Why It Matters

Malaysia’s decision places it among a growing group of countries seeking stricter regulation of social media platforms and greater protections for children online.

The policy could become a model for other governments considering similar measures, particularly as concerns over digital safety continue to grow worldwide. It also increases pressure on technology companies to develop more reliable age verification systems while balancing privacy concerns and user accessibility.

The move highlights the growing debate over who should bear responsibility for protecting children online, governments, technology firms, or parents.

Key Stakeholders

Children and Teenagers

Young users will face stricter age verification requirements before being allowed to create social media accounts.

Parents and Guardians

Families are expected to play a larger role in monitoring children’s online activities and ensuring compliance with age restrictions.

Social Media Companies

Major technology platforms must implement and maintain age verification systems while ensuring compliance with Malaysian regulations.

Malaysian Government

Authorities aim to reduce children’s exposure to harmful content and strengthen oversight of online platforms.

Digital Rights and Privacy Advocates

Advocacy groups will closely monitor how age verification systems are implemented and whether they affect privacy and data protection standards.

What Happens Next

Social media companies now have six months to complete age verification checks for existing users and fully integrate compliance systems for new registrations.

Regulators are expected to monitor implementation closely and may impose penalties on platforms that fail to meet requirements. The effectiveness of the policy will likely be assessed based on whether it reduces underage access and limits exposure to harmful content.

Other countries in the region may also watch Malaysia’s experience as they consider similar online safety measures.

Analysis

Malaysia’s new restrictions reflect a broader global shift toward stronger regulation of digital platforms, particularly where children are concerned. Governments are increasingly moving away from voluntary industry guidelines and toward legally enforceable requirements that place direct responsibility on technology companies.

The success of the policy will depend largely on the effectiveness of age verification systems. If implementation is weak, underage users may still find ways to access platforms. If verification measures are too strict, however, concerns about privacy, data security, and accessibility could emerge.

The regulation also signals a growing willingness among governments to intervene in how social media platforms operate. As concerns about online safety continue to rise, Malaysia’s approach may become an important test case for balancing child protection, digital rights, and platform accountability in the years ahead.

With information from Reuters.

Rescuers face heavy rains, equipment failures in search for two people trapped in central Laos cave by flash floods.

Heavy rains have threatened to delay the search for two people who remain missing in a flooded cave in Laos, after five others were rescued after being trapped underground for more than a week.

Finnish diver Mikko Paasi, one of the first international rescuers to arrive at the site, told The Associated Press news agency that rains on Sunday had filled the cave up to the second chamber, preventing divers from entering until pumps can lower the water level.

A drainage pump also broke, making the situation even more difficult, said fellow diver Yoshitaka Isaji of Japan.

Rescue teams from Laos and neighbouring Thailand have been working together over the past week to rescue the trapped villagers, alongside divers from countries including Finland, Malaysia, Japan, Indonesia, France and Australia.

Seven people entered the cave in a remote mountainous area of central Xaysomboun province last week to look for valuable minerals such as gold, before being trapped by a flash flood that blocked their way out, according to local media reports.

One other person escaped and alerted the authorities.

A Laotian rescue group said on Sunday it had received “substantial” information on the cave system from the five men who were rescued earlier this week. “The hope is that today’s mission will locate both remaining victims,” the group wrote on social media.

The rescued men were being treated at a local hospital and were doing well, Malaysian diver Lee Kian Lie, who is taking part in the operation, told AP.

“We interviewed them about how the deeper part of the cave looks like. We will continue to search based on the information we have, and perhaps we will be able to get to the other two,” he said.

Rescuers said they navigated more than 200m (650 feet) into the cave and discovered five chambers in the system. The five people rescued so far were found in the fifth chamber.

Paasi, the Finnish diver, told AP that the survivors reported a narrow crack in the fifth chamber that could be a passage leading to a deeper part of the cave system.

“This was the only place that we haven’t checked in the mine, where the two lost miners could still be,” he said in a video interview.

The five men who were rescued – identified by their first names as Khamla, Mued, Ee, Ing and Laen – were first found last Wednesday.

The first man was safely extracted on Friday, guided through a narrow flooded passage by an expert diver. The remaining four left the cave on Saturday, after the water receded enough for them to walk out on their own, rescuers said.

Videos posted online on Saturday showed emotional moments as the men emerged one by one from the cave. Some collapsed on the ground at the cave’s entrance, and were hugged by a group of workers who cried with joy.

Later moments showed them lying on stretchers, wrapped in foil blankets and fitted with oxygen masks before being transported out.