Move brings an end to a 60 day visa-free stay that was agreed with 93 countries, including the UK, US and much of Europe
Thailand is drastically cutting the length of visa-free stays for tourists from more than 90 countries in an effort to curb crime involving foreign nationals, officials said on Tuesday.
Tourism is vital to the south-east Asian nation’s economy, but foreign arrivals are yet to return to their pre-Covid levels.
Continue reading...‘Tank Day’ event causes outrage with ‘malicious mockery’ of deadly crackdown during dictatorship era
The chief executive of Starbucks in South Korea has been fired after the company ran a promotional event using slogans that evoked a massacre of pro-democracy protesters during the country’s dictatorship era, sparking outrage and boycott calls.
The coffee chain launched a “Tank Day” campaign on 18 May for its “Tank” tumbler series. The date coincides with one of the most politically sensitive days in South Korea’s calendar, when citizens commemorate the 1980 democratisation movement in Gwangju, 167 miles (270km) south-west of Seoul.
Continue reading...Chinese state media say Beijing emerging as ‘focal point of global diplomacy’ with Russian leader arriving on Tuesday
Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin exchanged “congratulatory letters” on Sunday ahead of the Russian president’s visit to Beijing this week, four days after Donald Trump left China after a high-stakes summit.
Xi said bilateral cooperation between Russia and China had “continuously deepened and solidified”, Chinese state media reported, with this year marking the 30th anniversary of the two countries’ strategic partnership.
Continue reading...Naegohyang FC due to play Suwon FC in semi-final of Asian Women’s Champions League on Wednesday
A North Korean women’s football club has arrived in South Korea for an AFC Women’s Champions League semi-final, marking the first visit by athletes from the isolated state to the South in eight years.
The delegation of 27 players and 12 staff entered the country on Sunday before Wednesday’s match between Naegohyang FC and South Korea’s Suwon FC Women in Suwon.
Continue reading...Thai authorities say 32 others injured near Makkasan station after freight train strikes bus and fire breaks out
At least eight people were killed and 32 others were injured in Thailand after a freight train struck a bus at a rail crossing in Bangkok, rescue officials and a deputy transport minister said.
Firefighters and rescue crews were dispatched as flames engulfed the bus and nearby vehicles close to the airport rail link’s Makkasan station, officials said, adding that the collision also involved cars and motorcycles.
Continue reading...Family and supporters had hoped the US president could help free the 78-year-old British citizen during summit talks in Beijing
Donald Trump raised the case of jailed Hong Kong democracy campaigner Jimmy Lai in talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping but was told it “is a tough one”.
Family and supporters of the 78-year-old British citizen had hoped the US president could help secure his release.
Continue reading...Change reflects both transformation of US in Trump era and China’s increasing confidence on world stage
Asked before he departed for Beijing if he would raise with the Chinese president the case of Jimmy Lai, the pro-democracy activist jailed in Hong Kong, Donald Trump said: “I’ll bring him up.”
But, the US president added: “It’s like saying to me, ‘If Comey ever went to jail, would you let him out?’ It might be a hard one for me.” Trump was referring to James B Comey, a former FBI director and a frequent target of Trump’s ire.
Continue reading...US president has said he and Chinese leader ‘settled a lot of different problems’ but has given little detail on solutions
Donald Trump’s whirlwind trip to Beijing – the first US presidential visit in nearly a decade – wrapped up with much fanfare but little clarity about what was actually achieved.
Trump said on Friday he and Xi Jinping, China’s leader, “settled a lot of different problems that other people wouldn’t have been able to solve”. But he didn’t provide much detail on what those solutions were.
Continue reading...Mirroring of each other’s attire may signal alignment – though the look wasn’t a huge departure for either leader
When Donald Trump and Xi Jinping met for a welcome ceremony in Tiananmen Square this week with the world’s gaze on them, they mirrored one another in strikingly similar suits.
Both were blue, single-breasted with flap pockets. Both had two buttons with only the top one done up. Both wore red ties.
Continue reading...William Majcher was accused of helping Chinese police coerce a Vancouver-area real estate investor, accused of fraud, to return to China
A retired police officer Canada accused of being an agent for China has been acquitted of national security charges after prosecutors failed to prove he acted illegally.
William Majcher, who served in the RCMP’s financial crime unit, was charged in 2023 over allegations he had breached Canada’s Security of Information Act by helping Chinese police coerce a Vancouver-area real estate investor, accused of fraud, to return to China.
Continue reading...Ronald dela Rosa, wanted over involvement in Duterte’s ‘war on drugs’, reportedly left heavily guarded building before dawn
A Philippine lawmaker wanted by the international criminal court for his alleged role enforcing Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody anti-drugs crackdown has secretly fled the senate after spending days holed up in the building to avoid arrest.
The senate president, Alan Peter Cayetano, confirmed to the media that senator Ronald dela Rosa was “no longer in the building” after reports that he had slipped out of the heavily guarded building before dawn.
Continue reading...Ahead of the crucial talks, security has been heightened in Beijing, with the US president set to meet Xi at the Great Hall of the People
I’m now sitting in the press filing centre at the China World Hotel in Beijing. Two American flags and a wooden lectern bearing a “United States embassy Beijing” seal stand on a black podium against a black curtain beneath a giant crystal chandelier.
There are TVs on either side of the podium: one showing CNN, the other Fox News. Sadly, that is as close as many reporters will get to seeing Xi Jinping and Donald Trump in action today.
Continue reading...Case attracts widespread attention as example of China balancing enthusiastic adoption of AI with job security
A court in China has ruled in favour of a worker whose company replaced him with artificial intelligence (AI), awarding him more than £28,000 in compensation.
The worker, whose surname is Zhou, joined a tech company in the eastern city of Hangzhou in 2022 as a quality assurance supervisor overseeing large language models used in AI products.
Continue reading...Ronald dela Rosa, accused of crimes against humanity by international criminal court, has holed up in building to evade arrest
Gunshots have been fired in the Philippines senate as a senator who is wanted by the international criminal court (ICC) remained holed up in the building to evade arrest.
Ronald dela Rosa, a Philippine senator accused of crimes against humanity for his role in overseeing the former president Rodrigo Duterte’s “war on drugs”, has spent two nights in the country’s senate in a standoff with the authorities.
Continue reading...US’s apparent decline has fuelled growing Chinese nationalism while US president has lost his novelty value
Yaoji Chaogan, a no-frills canteen next to Beijing’s historic Drum and Bell towers, once proudly displayed photographs of Joe Biden, who visited the restaurant when he was US vice-president in 2011. Biden’s visit went viral in China, with media praising his “noodle diplomacy” (one of the dishes that Biden ordered was zhajiang mian, a traditional style of Beijing noodles with bean paste).
But evidence of Biden’s visit was removed when the restaurant was redecorated a few years ago. A visit from a US leader is no longer something to boast about.
Continue reading...Fugitive faces charges including corruption and money laundering in US and Malaysia for role he allegedly played in scandal
The fugitive Malaysian financier Jho Low, a central figure in the multibillion-dollar scandal at the state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), is reportedly seeking a pardon from the US president, Donald Trump.
Low faces multiple charges including corruption and money laundering in the US and Malaysia for the important role he allegedly played in the misappropriation of at least $4.5bn (£3.3bn) from 1MDB.
Continue reading...Former police chief Ronald dela Rosa spends night at senate office after another Duterte ally offers protective custody
The unusual pursuit was captured on CCTV cameras inside the Philippine senate. Ronald dela Rosa, a longtime ally of the former president Rodrigo Duterte, raced along the hallways of the upper house complex, stumbling on the staircase, as he fled government agents.
“They want to forcibly bring me to The Hague, to surrender me there,” Dela Rosa said later on a Facebook livestream, pleading for public support.
Continue reading...Calbee to switch its brightly coloured packaging to black and white because war has disrupted supply of certain raw materials used in ink
Japan’s biggest snack maker has been forced to use black-and-white packaging for some flagship products because of ink ingredient shortages caused by the strait of Hormuz blockade.
Calbee, whose potato chip brands in particular are known for brightly coloured bag designs, said 14 of its products would switch to monochrome branding by the end of May.
Continue reading...Taiwan, tariffs and the strait of Hormuz are on the meeting’s agenda for Beijing – but will the US president be forced to ask for help in ending his war with Iran?
On 20 February, a White House official confirmed that US president Donald Trump would be travelling to Beijing the following month to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Top of the agenda: the US-China trade war.
One week later, Trump approved joint strikes with Israel against Iran, starting a new war in the Middle East. Its ramifications have spread far beyond the region and caused alarm in Beijing. The presidential summit was postponed.
Continue reading...Vice-president is accused of misusing public funds and threatening the lives of President Marcos Jr and his wife
The Philippine vice-president, Sara Duterte, has been impeached over allegations she misused public funds, amassed unexplained wealth and threatened the lives of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and his wife, in a case that could complicate her presidential ambitions.
Duterte, the daughter of the detained former president Rodrigo Duterte, was impeached by an overwhelming majority of lawmakers in the House of Representatives, which is dominated by allies of Marcos.
Continue reading...