Former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad said the deal amounted to ‘handing over’ the country’s independence
Malaysia’s government has been forced to defend its new trade deal with the US after opposition politicians, analysts and civil society groups warned that the deal was “one-sided” and could compromise the country’s sovereignty.
Investment, trade and industry minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz has called the trade deal “the best possible outcome for Malaysia.”
Continue reading...Minister says obligations for school boards to ‘give effect’ to the treaty are unfair while critics argue the move will sideline Indigenous education
A plan by New Zealand’s government to scrap a legal requirement on schools to incorporate local Māori culture in classrooms has been condemned by teachers, principals and school boards.
Since 2020, school boards have been obligated to “give effect” to the Treaty of Waitangi, New Zealand’s founding document signed in 1840 between Māori tribes and the British Crown and instrumental in upholding Māori rights.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Sources say a Sudanese national and another man were chartered to the former regional processing centre last week, joining one other person
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Another two men from the NZYQ-affected cohort have been deported to Nauru in a process human rights advocates say is shrouded in secrecy.
Sources told Guardian Australia a Sudanese national, who was detained in the Yongah Hill centre just outside of Perth, and another man held in a different centre were chartered to Nauru last week.
Continue reading...Sheffield Hallam University ordered professor to cease human rights study into Uyghurs forced labour in China
An investigation into allegations that a British university was subjected to pressure from Beijing authorities to halt research about human rights abuses in China has been referred to counter-terrorism police.
The Guardian reported on Monday morning that Sheffield Hallam University, home to the Helena Kennedy Centre for International Justice (HKC) research institution, had ordered professor Laura Murphy to cease research on supply chains and forced labour in the country in February.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Leading professor at Sheffield Hallam was told to cease research on supply chains and forced labour in China after demands from authorities
A British university complied with a demand from Beijing to halt research about human rights abuses in China, leading to a major project being dropped, the Guardian can reveal.
In February, Sheffield Hallam University, home to the Helena Kennedy Centre for International Justice (HKC), a leading research institution focused on human rights, ordered one of its best-known professors, Laura Murphy, to cease research on supply chains and forced labour in China.
Continue reading...Dutch-controlled company informs customers about suspension but is said to want to de-escalate trade war
Nexperia, the EU-based automotive chipmaker at the centre of a geopolitical dispute, has suspended supplies to its Chinese factory, stepping up a trade war that threatens to halt production at carmakers around the world.
The company wrote to customers this week informing them all supplies to a Chinese plant had been suspended.
Continue reading...RFA will begin closing overseas bureaus, as well as laying off and paying severance to staff members, with the hope that it could return in the future
Radio Free Asia (RFA) has said it is suspending its news operations due to the US government shutdown and the Trump administration’s cuts to government-funded news services.
“RFA has been forced to suspend all remaining news content production – for the first time in its 29 years of existence,” said Bay Fang, RFA’s president and CEO, in a statement.
Continue reading...Outcome appears closer to truce than durable peace but outline of broader diplomatic relationship is visible
When Donald Trump launched his trade war against China in April, threatening tariffs as high as 145%, the Chinese government said it would never bow to blackmail and vowed to “fight to the end”.
The question now is whether the consensus reached between Trump and Xi Jinping in Busan, South Korea, on Thursday means that the fight really has come to an end, and if so on whose terms.
Continue reading...US president tells reporters he and Australian PM ‘working on a lot of things together’
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After waiting a long time to meet Donald Trump, Anthony Albanese has now done so twice in 10 days, as his US counterpart talks up cooperation on rare earths and other issues.
Albanese followed last week’s trip to Washington by sitting next to the US president on Wednesday evening at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit dinner in Gyeongju, South Korea.
Continue reading...Starmer signs agreement with visiting Vietnamese leader after surge in clandestine arrivals from country
Vietnamese people who arrive in the UK by irregular means will be fast-tracked for deportation under a new agreement, Downing Street has said.
After a surge in clandestine arrivals from the south-east Asian country last year via small boats and in the back of lorries, the deal is supposed to cut red tape and make it faster and easier to return those with no right to be in the UK.
Continue reading...High on agenda for the leaders of the US and China will be rare earths and tariffs, with a chance of a relationship reset
Ahead of Thursday’s long-awaited first meeting between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping since the US president’s return to office, officials from both sides have been hammering out the contours of what a trade deal between Washington and Beijing might look like, an agreement that could bring an end to months of global economic chaos caused by the US-China trade war.
The two leaders have not met in person since 2019. Since then, the war in Ukraine and increasing concern in Washington about China’s technological advances, as well as longstanding issues about the imbalanced US-China trade relationship, have strained the bonds between the two superpowers.
Continue reading...BBC ‘deeply concerned’ for journalist’s wellbeing after Vietnamese police withhold their ID card and passport
Vietnamese authorities have barred a BBC journalist from leaving the country and subjected them to days of interrogation, in a press freedom case that comes to light during a high-profile visit by Vietnam’s leader to the UK.
The journalist, a Vietnamese citizen who lives and works in Thailand, had returned to their home country in August to renew their passport, according a source with knowledge of the situation.
Continue reading...District judge told Ice to keep Alabama man in US while he showed what judge called ‘substantial claim’ to citizenship
Immigration officials have deported a father living in Alabama to Laos despite a federal court order blocking his removal from the US on the grounds he has a claim to citizenship, the man’s attorneys said on Tuesday.
US district judge Shelly Dick last week ordered US Immigration and Customs Enforcement to keep Chanthila “Shawn” Souvannarath, 44, in the United States while he presented what the judge called his “substantial claim of US citizenship”, court records show. He was born in a refugee camp in Thailand but was granted lawful permanent residence in the US before his first birthday, according to court filings.
Continue reading...Sanae Takaichi says she will nominate Trump for peace prize as two leaders sign agreement on rare earths
Japan’s new prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, has pledged to realise a “golden age” in relations with the US and to “fundamentally reinforce” her country’s defence posture at the start of a visit by Donald Trump.
The US president, who is in Japan on the second leg of a week-long tour of Asia, and Takaichi quickly signed an agreement laying out a framework to secure the mining and processing of rare earths and other minerals.
Continue reading...Deal between federal government and Nauru expected to last 30 years and apply to around 350 people released under high court’s NZYQ ruling
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Australia has commenced its $2.5bn deal with Nauru to offload more than 350 people from the NZYQ cohort after the home affairs minister, Tony Burke, confirmed the first arrival had landed on the tiny Pacific island last week.
Burke said Nauruan authorities had confirmed the arrival on Friday, as reported by the ABC, triggering the first yearly instalment of $408m.
Continue reading...Governor of one prefecture says he is considering asking the military for help to tackle increasing attacks amid thousands-strong bear population
Knowing what to do in the event of a close encounter with a bear was once a concern only for hikers and foragers in Japan. Now, however, people in populated areas are being urged to learn how to protect themselves following a spate of attacks, as the animals leave their natural habitats in search of food.
Bear encounters are generating almost daily headlines. In the past week in Akita prefecture, the animals attacked a jogger and a walker in built-up areas, while another terrorised four people before holing up inside a nearby house. None of the victims was seriously injured.
Continue reading...Scott Bessent said plan was part of framework for trade deal but did not share details on transferring app’s ownership
US treasury secretary Scott Bessent claimed on Sunday that the US and China have finalized the details of a deal transferring TikTok’s US version to new owners.
“We reached a final deal on TikTok,” Bessent said on Sunday on CBS’s Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan. Alluding to Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, Bessent continued: “We reached [a deal] in Madrid, and I believe that as of today, all the details are ironed out, and that will be for the two leaders to consummate that transaction” during a meeting scheduled for Thursday in Korea.
Continue reading...Trump has begun a five-day trip to Malaysia, Japan and South Korea, his first visit to the region since taking office in January
Donald Trump has overseen the signing of a ceasefire agreement between Thailand and Cambodia on the first day of an Asia tour where he will seal new trade agreements and hold a crucial meeting with Xi Jinping.
The US president arrived in Malaysia on Sunday before the Asean summit in the capital, Kuala Lumpur. At a ceasefire ceremony in front of a sign that read “Delivering Peace”, the Thai prime minister, Anutin Charnvirakul, and his Cambodian counterpart, Hun Manet, signed an expanded ceasefire deal related to a deadly five-day conflict in July.
Continue reading...Prime minister Charnvirakul cancels trip to Asean summit in Malaysia after news of the Queen Mother’s death
Thailand’s Queen Mother Sirikit, who brought glamour to a postwar revival in the country’s monarchy and who, in later years, would occasionally wade into politics, has died aged 93, the Thai Royal Household bureau has announced.
The palace said she had been hospitalised since 2019 due to several illnesses and developed a bloodstream infection on 17bOctober before passing away late on Friday.
Continue reading...Boy, 13, swallowed the high-power magnets after apparently buying them from the online retailer Temu
A 13-year-old boy in New Zealand swallowed up to 100 high-power magnets he bought online, forcing surgeons to remove tissue from his intestines, doctors said on Friday.
After suffering four days of abdominal pain, the unnamed teenager was taken to Tauranga hospital in the North Island. “He disclosed ingesting approximately 80 to 100 5x2mm high-power (neodymium) magnets about one week prior,” said a report by hospital doctors in the New Zealand Medical Journal.
This article’s byline was amended on 25 October 2025 to correct the news agency it was attributed to. An earlier version incorrectly attributed it to Associated Foreign Press; however the correct agency was Agence France-Presse.
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