Hundreds of fans, some of whom had travelled from as far away as Mexico, gathered to welcome the band members back to civilian life
K-pop superstars RM and V from the band BTS have been discharged from South Korea’s military after fulfilling their mandatory military service.
They each saluted upon their release on Tuesday in Chuncheon City as about 200 fans, some of whom travelled from Mexico, Turkey and Brazil, cheered.
Continue reading...Exclusive: In the first legal challenge to the plan, top climate lawyers claim the government relies too heavily on forestry and failed to consult the public
Hundreds of top environment lawyers are suing the New Zealand government over what they say is its “dangerously inadequate” plan to reduce emissions to net zero by 2050.
It is the first time the country’s emissions reduction plan has faced litigation, and the lawyers believe it is the first case globally that challenges the use of forestry to offset emissions.
Continue reading...Suspension comes as 13m students take four-day gaokao tests for limited spots at country’s universities
Big Chinese tech companies appear to have turned off some AI functions to prevent cheating during the country’s highly competitive university entrance exams.
More than 13.3 million students are sitting the four-day gaokao exams, which began on Saturday and determine if and where students can secure a limited place at university.
Continue reading...The Liaoning carrier, accompanied by two missile destroyers and a supply ship, entered Japan’s exclusive economic zone before exiting to conduct military drills
A Chinese aircraft carrier group has entered an area of Japan’s territorial waters for the first time, prompting concern in Tokyo over China’s expanding naval reach.
The Liaoning carrier, accompanied by two missile destroyers and a supply ship, entered Japan’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) on Saturday evening, Japan’s defence ministry said, before exiting to conduct military drills.
Continue reading...Nattapong Pinta had been seized in the Hamas-led 7 October 2023 attack and killed, according to Israeli military
The Israeli military has retrieved the body of a Thai hostage, Nattapong Pinta, who had been held in Gaza since Hamas’s attack on 7 October 2023, according to defence minister, Israel Katz. .
Pinta’s body was held by a Palestinian militant group called the Mujahideen Brigades, and was retrieved from the area of Rafah in southern Gaza, Katz said. His family in Thailand has been notified.
Continue reading...Wong accused of conspiracy in move rights groups condemn as ‘outrageous’ attempt to keep influential dissident imprisoned
Jailed pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong has been hit with further national security charges, a move rights groups said showed the Hong Kong government was trying to keep dissidents behind bars for as long as possible.
Wong, a well-known activist who has been in jail for more than four years either awaiting trial or serving sentences, is accused of conspiracy to collude with a foreign country. He appeared in court on Friday to hear the charge and did not apply for bail.
Continue reading...Survey shows correlation between use of Chinese-owned platform and approval of unification with China
Taiwanese people who spend large amounts of time on TikTok are more likely to agree with some pro-China narratives, a survey has suggested.
The study, conducted by the Taiwan-based DoubleThink Lab, surveyed people across Taiwan in March, asking a series of questions about politics and democracy in Taiwan and China, and their views on unification of the two sides.
Continue reading...Dairy is the country’s largest export industry, but recent figures from Stats NZ show domestic butter prices have surged 65% and people are getting desperate
New Zealanders are driving cross-country for hours in pursuit of cheap butter while some are ordering it from Australia or even churning their own cream, as the country battles sky-high dairy prices.
Despite dairy being the country’s largest export industry, recent figures from Stats NZ show domestic butter prices surged 65% in the year to March, pushing the average price for 500g to $7.42 (£3.30) – that’s up about $3 from this time last year.
Continue reading...Across the US, hundreds of thousands of Chinese students are now uncertain about their academic future and some are considering moving away
Chinese students in the United States are questioning their future in the country after the state department announced last week that it would “aggressively” revoke visas for Chinese students and enhance scrutiny of future applications from China and Hong Kong.
Chinese students hoping to study at Harvard, the US’s oldest and wealthiest university, are under particular pressure after the Trump administration announced on Wednesday that it was banning the school from enrolling new foreign students. The presidential proclamation cited Harvard’s links with China as a particular cause for concern.
Continue reading...Resilience would have made history as the first non-US commercial lander to make a successful touchdown
An attempt to land a commercially built spacecraft on the surface of the moon looked to have ended in failure on Thursday, two years after its predecessor, launched by the same Japanese company, crashed following an uncontrolled descent.
Resilience, an un-crewed vehicle from the Tokyo company ispace, would have made history as the first non-US commercial lander to make a successful touchdown, scheduled for 3.17pm ET Thursday (4.17am JST Friday) at Mare Frigoris (the Sea of Cold) in the far north of the moon.
Continue reading...US president says he accepted invitation in first phone conversation between leaders since January
Donald Trump said he had accepted an invitation to meet Xi Jinping in China after a phone conversation on trade was held between the leaders of the world’s two largest economies.
In a post on Truth Social, the US president said the “very good” call lasted about 90 minutes and the conversation was “almost entirely focused on trade”.
Continue reading...Parliament votes to enact punishment after hours of fraught debate including attitudes towards Māori culture
New Zealand legislators have voted to enact record parliamentary suspensions for three MPs who performed a Māori haka to protest against a controversial proposed law.
Hana-Rāwhiti Maipi-Clarke received a seven-day ban and the leaders of her political party, Te Pāti Māori (the Māori party), Debbie Ngarewa-Packer and Rawiri Waititi, were barred for 21 days. Three days had previously been the longest ban for a New Zealand MP.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Government review into how the influencer obtained citizenship found no fault with his documents and Tate will remain a citizen
Vanuatu is not planning to revoke the citizenship of Andrew Tate, with a government spokesperson confirming that the influencer remains a Vanuatu citizen, and the government is not taking any steps to reverse that.
This week investigative outlet, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) revealed that Tate obtained Vanuatu citizenship around the time of his 2022 arrest by Romanian authorities on charges including rape and human trafficking.
Continue reading...New government data shows the number of births reached 686,061 in 2024, a decline of 5.7% from the previous year and the lowest since statistics were first kept in 1899
Japan’s struggle to encourage couples to have more children has been given greater urgency after data showed the annual number of births dropped to below 700,000 for the first time since records began more than a century ago.
According to government data released this week, the number of births reached 686,061 in 2024, a decline of 5.7% from the previous year and the lowest since statistics were first kept in 1899. The data excludes babies born to foreign residents.
Continue reading...World Meteorological Organization report says record heat in 2024 was driven by climate crisis and intersected with extreme weather events
Almost 40 million sq kilometres of ocean around south-east Asia and the Pacific – an area five times the size of Australia – was engulfed in a marine heatwave in 2024, a World Meteorological Organization (WMO) report has revealed.
WMO scientists said the record heat – on land and in the ocean – was mostly driven by the climate crisis and coincided with a string of extreme weather events, from deadly landslides in the Philippines to floods in Australia and rapid glacier loss in Indonesia.
Continue reading...Authorities seek to increase number of births amid fear ageing society could threaten economic growth plans
Vietnam has scrapped a longstanding policy limiting families to two children, as the communist-run country grapples with a declining birthrate.
State media announced on Wednesday that couples could make their own decisions about how many children to have, and how much time to wait between births, reversing a decades-old preference for one- or two-child families.
AFP contributed to this report.
Continue reading...Lee Jae-myung must tackle US leader’s trade war as he attempts to revive Asia’s fourth biggest economy
Two years ago, the then South Korean president, Yoon Suk Yeol, serenaded Joe Biden in the White House with a rendition of American Pie. The foundations of Washington’s ties with Seoul, one of its most important allies in the Asia-Pacific, appeared as firm as Yoon’s more-than-passable crooning.
As he prepares to replace the now-disgraced Yoon, South Korea’s new leader, Lee Jae-myung, will have to strike a very different note with Biden’s successor in the White House.
Continue reading...Date of 4 June remains one of China’s strictest taboos, with government using increasingly sophisticated tools to censor its discussion
The world will never forget the Tiananmen Square massacre, the US secretary of state and Taiwan president have said on the 36th anniversary of the crackdown, which China’s government still tries to erase from domestic memory.
There is no official death toll but activists believe hundreds, possibly thousands, were killed by China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in the streets around Tiananmen Square, Beijing’s central plaza, on 4 June 1989.
Continue reading...New president faces formidable challenges that could plunge his term into crisis before it has even begun
Lee Jae-myung will need to draw on his considerable survival instincts as he attempts to steer South Korea out of the political morass of the past six months.
The liberal candidate, who on Tuesday became the country’s president at the third attempt after defeating his conservative rival, Kim Moon-soo, has promised to govern for all South Koreans – and for good reason. After a swift transfer of power that see him take office on Wednesday, Lee will inherit a deeply scarred country.
Continue reading...Liberal who led campaign to oust Yoon Suk Yeol wins race as conservative opponent concedes defeat
Liberal candidate Lee Jae-myung has won the vote to become South Korea’s new president after a snap election triggered by a brief period of martial law imposed by the now-impeached former leader, Yoon Suk Yeol.
With 100% of the ballots counted, Lee won 49.42% of nearly 35 million votes cast, while his conservative rival Kim Moon-soo had taken 41.15%, according to national election commission data, which said turnout was the highest for a presidential election since 1997.
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