Category Archives: Asia Pacific

Xi-Trump meeting: America has discovered that bullies can be bullied back

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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.

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Donald Trump praises ‘great’ Washington meeting with Anthony Albanese as leaders dine at Apec

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US president tells reporters he and Australian PM ‘working on a lot of things together’

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.

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Vietnamese arrivals in UK by irregular means will be fast-tracked for deportation, says No 10

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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.

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Trump and Xi talks could end months of global economic chaos

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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.

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BBC journalist barred from leaving Vietnam and interrogated repeatedly

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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.

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Man deported to Laos despite US court order blocking his removal, attorneys say

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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.

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Japanese PM promises golden age in relations with US during Trump visit

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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.

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First person arrives on Nauru triggering Australia’s $2.5bn deal with island nation

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Deal between federal government and Nauru expected to last 30 years and apply to around 350 people released under high court’s NZYQ ruling

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.

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Bear attack survival tips released in Japan as encounters surge

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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.

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US and China reach ‘final deal’ on TikTok sale, treasury secretary says

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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.

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Trump oversees Thailand-Cambodia ceasefire signing as Asia tour gets under way

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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.

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Thailand’s Queen Mother Sirikit dies at 93 after more than a decade out of the public eye

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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.

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Surgeons remove up to 100 magnets from New Zealand teenager’s intestines

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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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‘Sacred sanctuary’: North Korea starts building memorial to soldiers killed in Ukraine war

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At least 600 North Korean soldiers have been killed and thousands more wounded fighting in Russia’s war against Ukraine

North Korea has begun constructing a memorial for its soldiers killed fighting in Russia’s war on Ukraine, state media reported, as leader Kim Jong-un hailed a “historic peak” in ties with Moscow.

The so-called Memorial Museum of Combat Feats will be built in the capital, Pyongyang, where Kim and Russia’s ambassador to North Korea attended a groundbreaking ceremony, according to a reports by the Korean Central News Agency on Thursday.

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New Zealand ‘mega strike’: 100,000 public sector workers demand better conditions

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Teachers, nurses and public service staff among those walking off job and also pressing for more government investment in health and education

An estimated 100,000 nurses, teachers and public sector staff walked off the job in New Zealand on Thursday to call on the government to better fund and resource public services, in one of the country’s largest ever strikes.

The so-called “mega strike” brought together workers from multiple sectors, including more than 60,000 school teachers, 40,000 nurses and salaried medical specialists and 15,000 public service staff.

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Trump administration considering curbs on exports to China made with US software

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Plan would include everything from laptops to jet engines, to retaliate against Beijing’s latest round of rare earth export restrictions

The Trump administration is considering a plan to curb a dizzying array of software-powered exports to China, from laptops to jet engines, to retaliate against Beijing’s latest round of rare earth export restrictions, according to a US official and three people briefed by US authorities.

While the plan is not the only option on the table, it would make good on Donald Trump’s threat earlier this month to bar “critical software” exports to China by restricting global shipments of items that contain US software or were produced using US software.

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Thailand to let Myanmar refugees work to counter aid cuts and labour shortages

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The move, welcomed by UN, will allow thousands of people living in camps to support themselves and their families

Thailand is setting a global precedent this month by giving refugees permission to work in the country in an effort to tackle aid cuts and its own labour shortages.

More than 87,000 refugees living in nine refugee camps along Thailand’s border with Myanmar have been totally reliant on handouts of food and foreign aid.

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‘A perfect coincidence’: rare red lightning captured in New Zealand skies

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Photographers capture extremely unusual phenomenon – also known as red sprites – against backdrop of the Milky Way

A trio of photographers in New Zealand have captured images of “red sprites”, or red lightning, one of the rarest light phenomena in the world, in which luminous crimson flashes appear in the sky.

New Zealand photographer Tom Rae and Spanish photographers Dan Zafra and José Cantabrana set out to shoot the Milky Way over the Ōmārama Clay cliffs in the South Island on 11 October, when they chanced upon the extraordinary event.

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British woman on death row in Bali for drug smuggling to be repatriated

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Lindsay Sandiford, 68, has been on death row in Indonesia since 2012, after authorities found 3.8kg of cocaine in her suitcase

A British woman will avoid execution for drug smuggling in Indonesia under an agreement between the two nations to repatriate her and another Briton serving a life sentence.

Lindsay Sandiford, 68, has been imprisoned in Bali since 2012. She was arrested at the resort island’s airport after authorities found 3.8kg of cocaine worth $2.5m hidden in the lining of her suitcase. During the trial, she said she was forced to carry the drugs by a gang that threatened her children.

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A Trump visit, a creaking coalition and a cost of living crisis: Japan’s new PM needs a fast start

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Sanae Takaichi has made history but will have little time to settle in before negotiating the pitfalls of rising prices, power struggles and a mercurial US president

It is hard to overstate the symbolism of Sanae Takaichi’s achievement in becoming the first female prime minister of Japan, a country that consistently ranks poorly in global gender equality comparisons, not least in politics and business.

However, she will have precious little time to savour her historic appointment on Tuesday.

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