Asia news

• Plastic paradise: on the frontlines of the fight to clean up pollution in Bali – in pictures

  15-11-2025 15:00 via theguardian.com
  In January the island’s beaches were inundated with waves of plastic pollution, a phenomenon that has been getting worse by the year. Photographer and film-maker Sean Gallagher travelled to Bali to document the increasing tide of rubbish washing up on beaches and riverbanks, and the people facing the monumental challenge of cleaning up. His portraits are on show now as part of the 2025 Head On photo festival at Bondi Beach promenade until 30 November Continue reading...
  
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• Pacifist Japan confronts a political assassin

  15-11-2025 06:00
  The trial of Shinzo Abe’s killer is testing the country’s moral limits
  
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• Kim Yong-nam, North Korean politician, 1928-2025

  15-11-2025 06:00
  Bound by his ferocious loyalty to the ruling dynasty, the former head of state enjoyed a decades-long career in Pyongyang
  
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• Inside the war over Bangalore Palace

  15-11-2025 06:00
  In the heart of south India, a legal battle is raging over the future of a royal residence
  
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• China left with tomato paste mountain as sales to Italy collapse

  15-11-2025 06:00
  Dramatic slump in imports this year hailed by champion of Italian ingredients as an ‘important victory’
  
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• China advises against travel to Japan amid escalating row over PM’s Taiwan comments

  15-11-2025 04:46 via theguardian.com
  Sanae Takaichi says the use of force against Taiwan could warrant a military response from TokyoChina has advised its citizens to avoid travelling to Japan, escalating a diplomatic feud sparked by comments from Tokyo’s new prime minister about a hypothetical attack on Taiwan.Sanae Takaichi told Japan’s parliament on 7 November that the use of force against the self-ruled island claimed by China could warrant a military response from Tokyo. Japan has since said its position on Taiwan
  
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• China urges citizens not to visit Japan over Taiwan row

  15-11-2025 04:31 via bbc.com
  Japanese PM Sanae Takaichi had suggested Tokyo could take military action if Beijing attacked Taiwan.
  
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• Indonesia’s Prabowo accused of whitewashing Suharto era

  15-11-2025 02:00
  President’s move to honour former dictator as national hero raises fears of democratic backsliding
  
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• The scientist who helped win the fight to protect a sacred piece of the Pacific

  15-11-2025 00:00 via theguardian.com
  Respected ocean expert Katy Soapi continues to advocate to protect Tetepare,one of the last untouched places in Solomon IslandsScientist Katy Soapi’s earliest memories are of the sea. She grew up on Rendova, a lush island in western Solomon Islands, and life centred around the ocean.“I remember when the big waves came, we would dive under them and come up laughing on the other side. Being part of those natural elements brought me so much joy.” Continue reading...
  
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• Modi's alliance celebrates decisive win in Indian state election

  14-11-2025 23:16 via bbc.com
  The polls in November saw a 66.91% turnout - Bihar state’s highest since its first election in 1951.
  
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• US stocks steady after global tech rout

  14-11-2025 22:14
  Doubts over December interest rate cut from Federal Reserve exacerbate jitters about high valuations
  
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• Global markets struggle after tech sell-off and fears over Chinese economy

  14-11-2025 19:24 via theguardian.com
  Reaction follows Wall Street’s worst day in a month and unprecedented slump in investment in ChinaBusiness live – latest updatesGlobal markets suffered another day of volatile trading after a tech sell-off that fuelled Wall Street’s worst day in a month and weak economic data from China showed an unprecedented slump in investment.The FTSE 100 fell by 1.1% in London, closing down about 100 points at 9,698, as bellwether banking stocks tumbled. Barclays, Lloyds and NatWest slumpe
  
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• White House memo claims Alibaba is helping Chinese military target US

  14-11-2025 19:00
  National security document outlines intelligence on tech support given to PLA ‘operations’
  
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• China voices ‘extreme disappointment’ with Dutch minister at centre of car chip row

  14-11-2025 18:04 via theguardian.com
  Vincent Karremans called semiconductor supply chain crisis a ‘wake-up call for western leaders’The Chinese government has expressed “extreme disappointment” with the Dutch minister at the heart of a row over chip supply to the car industry.A spokesperson for the ministry of commerce was responding to an interview by Vincent Karremans on Thursday in which he described the standoff between China and the European Union as a “wake-up call” for western leaders. Con
  
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• AI firm claims it stopped Chinese state-sponsored cyber-attack campaign

  14-11-2025 17:27 via theguardian.com
  Anthropic says financial firms and government agencies were attacked ‘largely without human intervention’A leading artificial intelligence company claims to have stopped a China-backed “cyber espionage” campaign that was able to infiltrate financial firms and government agencies with almost no human oversight.The US-based Anthropic said its coding tool, Claude Code, was “manipulated” by a Chinese state-sponsored group to attack 30 entities around the world in
  
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• US stocks gain ground after global tech rout

  14-11-2025 16:57
  Doubts over December interest rate cut from Federal Reserve exacerbate jitters about high valuations
  
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• Modi boosted by BJP election triumph in India’s poorest state

  14-11-2025 16:50
  Bihar poll solidifies prime minister’s control of northern Hindu heartland and helps it rebuild national momentum
  
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• US stocks sink as global tech rout deepens

  14-11-2025 15:43
  Doubts over December interest rate cut from Federal Reserve exacerbate worries about high valuations
  
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• Ex-Bangladesh leader charged with crimes against humanity wants vote ban lifted

  14-11-2025 13:43 via bbc.com
  Sheikh Hasina tells the BBC she hopes a ban on her party will be lifted before general elections due next year.
  
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• Dozens of Australian and NZ schools shut over asbestos risk in children's sand

  14-11-2025 13:27 via bbc.com
  The Australian regulator has recalled several sand products used by children for play, but says the risk from them is "low".
  
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• Global stock sell-off deepens over tech fears and US rate cut doubts

  14-11-2025 10:53
  Investors are worried about the high valuation of companies and boom in AI spending
  
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• Global stock sell-off deepens on tech fears and US rate cut doubts

  14-11-2025 10:53
  Investors worry over high valuation of companies
  
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• Japan enlists drones and ex-soldiers to battle surge in bear attacks

  14-11-2025 09:50
  Declining human population and climate change have led to record number of human deaths this year
  
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• Global stock sell-off deepens on tech fears and doubts over US rate cuts

  14-11-2025 09:37
  Investors worry over high valuation of companies
  
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• European and Asian stocks drop as US tech sell-off spreads

  14-11-2025 09:21
  Investors worry over high valuation of companies
  
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• Global markets fall after tech sell-off and fears over Chinese economy

  14-11-2025 09:18 via theguardian.com
  Reaction follows Wall Street’s worst day in a month and unprecedented slump in investment in ChinaBusiness live – latest updatesGlobal markets have fallen after a tech sell-off that fuelled Wall Street’s worst day in a month and weak economic data in China showing an unprecedented slump in investment.Japan’s tech-heavy Nikkei fell 1.8% on Friday, South Korea’s Kospi plunged 2.6% and there was a 1.5% fall in Australia, after a torrid day on Wall Street as Nvidia and
  
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• Asian stocks drop as US tech sell-off spreads

  14-11-2025 08:49
  Falls were sharpest in AI stocks, including chipmakers SK Hynix and Samsung
  
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• Man who grabbed Ariana Grande in Singapore charged in court

  14-11-2025 08:14 via bbc.com
  Johnson Wen rushed at the actress in Singapore, during the Asia-Pacific premiere of Wicked: For Good.
  
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• China and Saudi Arabia among nations receiving climate loans, analysis reveals

  14-11-2025 08:00 via theguardian.com
  Investigation by Guardian and Carbon Brief finds just a fifth of funds to fight global heating went to poorest 44 countriesChina and wealthy petrostates including Saudi Arabia and UAE are among countries receiving large sums of climate finance, according to an analysis.The Guardian and Carbon Brief analysed previously unreported submissions to the UN, along with data from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), that show how billions of dollars of public money is being
  
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• China investment falls by most since the pandemic

  14-11-2025 06:42
  Weak housing prices and slowing industrial output point to flagging economic momentum
  
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• Global markets extend slide

  14-11-2025 06:23
  Drop in AI stocks in Asia including SoftBank and chipmakers SK Hynix and Samsung
  
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• That’s annoying — Japan is no longer cheap

  14-11-2025 06:00
  Topix trades at a discount to peers but is still historically low, despite recent rally
  
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• China’s secretive gold purchases help fuel record rally

  14-11-2025 06:00
  Growing amount of unreported transactions presents challenge for bullion market traders
  
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• Global markets extend sell-off over tech jitters and rate cut uncertainty

  14-11-2025 05:30
  Drop in AI stocks in Asia including SoftBank and chipmakers SK Hynix and Samsung
  
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• Two hours a night: Japan PM’s sleep schedule prompts concerns about work-life balance

  14-11-2025 05:19 via theguardian.com
  Takaichi caused a stir last week after she summoned aides to her office for a 3am meeting to prepare for a budget committee hearingJapan’s prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, has said she gets by on just two to four hours sleep a night – prompting concern over her commitment to a better work-life balance among the country’s fatigued employees.Pointing to the bags beneath her eyes, Takaichi told MPs that she survives on minimal sleep – a habit she shares with her political her
  
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• ‘Reframes history’: fears Māori knowledge diluted in plan to revise New Zealand curriculum

  14-11-2025 04:42 via theguardian.com
  Minister rejects claims Māori history is being sidelined in rewrite which includes cutting some references to the Treaty of WaitangiAs cows grazed sleepily in a nearby paddock, then-14-year-old Leah Bell watched as a local Māori elder cried.She was standing at the site of the massacre at Rangiaowhia, where Māori were deliberately burnt to death by the British crown in 1864. The site was just down the road from her Waikato high school. But she had never heard about it; in history,
  
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• China house prices decline by most in a year

  14-11-2025 04:31
  Weak property market and deepening investment woes point to flagging economic momentum
  
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• Xi’s military purge raises doubts about China’s war readiness

  14-11-2025 03:22
  Analysts link removal of top commanders to change in People’s Liberation Army operations near Taiwan
  
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• India’s private sector wants government to spend more

  14-11-2025 02:30
  Also in this newsletter: the world’s most dangerous roads
  
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• FirstFT: Toyota pledges to invest additional $10bn in US

  13-11-2025 22:25
  Also in today’s newsletter, new fees imposed by EU on Shein and Temu packages and fresh interest to buy foreign assets of Lukoil
  
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• India and Pakistan need mediators not arms suppliers

  13-11-2025 19:30
  The countries that helped broker peace earlier this year are now selling advanced weapons to the nuclear-armed neighbours
  
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• Will China win the AI race? You asked, we answered

  13-11-2025 15:01
  The FT’s John Thornhill and Eleanor Olcott replied to reader questions
  
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• Jujutsu Kaisen: Execution review – spectacular if baffling anime is out to thrill and bewilder

  13-11-2025 14:00 via theguardian.com
  Remix of old and new material from TV series includes tremendous battle sequences but there’s an awful lot of lore for new viewers to catch up withHere’s an unusual proposition: a film that opens with a kind of super-edit, cutting together chunks culled from many hours’ worth of plot and spectacle from the Jujutsu Kaisen TV series, which is then followed by some all-new episodes of the TV series; playing together in full as a movie, in the cinema. Is it a movie borrowing bits f
  
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• Will China win the AI race? Submit your questions now

  13-11-2025 13:59
  Take part in a live Ask an Expert Q&A with the FT’s John Thornhill and Eleanor Olcott now
  
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• Indian police investigate Kashmir link to Delhi blast

  13-11-2025 11:43 via bbc.com
  Investigators are checking if the blast has any links to the recent arrests of seven men by Kashmir police.
  
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• Thai king becomes country's first monarch to visit China

  13-11-2025 10:09 via bbc.com
  It's the first-ever visit to China by a reigning Thai monarch, amid warming bilateral ties.
  
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• City on Fire review – Tarantino-inspiring Hong Kong thriller burns with grit and moral tension

  13-11-2025 10:00 via theguardian.com
  Ringo Lam’s 1987 cop yarn starring a magnetic Chow Yun-fat delivers the violent realism and emotional heft that shaped Reservoir Dogs’ bloody caperRingo Lam’s Hong Kong cop thriller gained a new level of recognition in the west when Quentin Tarantino admitted he’d borrowed heavily from its plot for his own Reservoir Dogs. In truth, apart from the bare bones of the plot (culminating in that famous Mexican standoff), there’s little comparison. No wisecracking about Ma
  
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• ‘I’d do it all again,’ says Dutch minister at heart of car chip standoff with China

  13-11-2025 09:00 via theguardian.com
  Exclusive: Vincent Karremans says row with Beijing that threatened global car production is ‘wake-up call’ to westA bitter battle over the future of a Chinese-owned chipmaker in the Netherlands that threatened to cripple the global car industry is a “wake-up call to Europe and the west”, the minister at the heart of the row has warned.The six-week standoff between the EU and Beijing over Nexperia and its vital supplies of automotive semiconductors has served up a sobering
  
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• Drugs disguised as tea keep washing up on this S Korean holiday island

  13-11-2025 07:04 via bbc.com
  Some 28kg of ketamine have been found washed up on the island's beaches in the past two months.
  
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• Amid Japan’s surge in bear attacks, a torrent of AI-generated videos is adding to anxiety

  13-11-2025 06:37 via theguardian.com
  Videos show schoolgirls fighting off animals, while others show people feeding bears, with some so realistic that users struggled to distinguish between fact and fictionIf a record number of fatal bear attacks wasn’t terrifying enough, experts say a torrent of AI-generated videos in Japan purporting to show people in close encounters with the animals is only adding to public anxiety – and could put people at greater risk.While headlines about real attacks and disruption appear on a r
  
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