Defence Tech & Sovereignty: Malaysia says it wants stronger domestic defence technology, signing a cooperation deal between Weststar Defence Industries and Australia’s Rocket Technologies to build aerospace capability and cut reliance on foreign assets. Aviation & Digitalisation: Kazakhstan’s President Tokayev met Air Astana’s CEO as the airline plans fleet expansion (including Boeing 787s) and route growth, with digitalisation a key theme. DeepTech Funding: Ruya Ventures closed a €43m fund to help lab-born deep-tech cross into scalable, real-world deployment. Disaster Recovery: The ADB approved $200m emergency assistance for Sri Lanka after Cyclone Ditwah, targeting resilient rebuilding of roads, irrigation, housing and livelihoods. AI in the Real World: An AI underwater monitoring system on Lake Victoria triggered SMS alerts that helped fish farmers prevent mass die-offs. Cloud & Local Latency: AWS launched its Hanoi Local Zone, aiming to keep latency-sensitive workloads in Vietnam for fraud detection, gaming and smart factory alerts. Data Centres Under Scrutiny: A fresh debate continues over data centres’ environmental and social impacts across the region. Aviation Carbon Offsets: A UN-backed airline carbon scheme could drive major demand for high-integrity credits in Southeast Asia if governments authorise more projects. Quantum/Space: ICEYE and AgniKul Cosmos plan an end-to-end sovereign SAR capability using Indian-built satellites and indigenous launches. Manufacturing for AI Racks: Vertiv opened a Johor plant to make power and cooling gear for rising AI data centre demand.