Top Asian News 3:59 a.m. GMT

Macron puts trade and Ukraine as top priorities as China’s Xi opens European visit in France

PARIS (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron held talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Monday that focused on trade disputes — including lifting immediate tariff threats on Cognac exports — and Ukraine-related diplomatic efforts. Xi was in France for a two-day state visit to open his European tour. Speaking alongside Xi after their meeting at the Elysee presidential palace, Macron said that France hopes China’s influence on Moscow would help to move Russia toward ending the war in Ukraine. “We welcome the Chinese authorities’ commitments to refrain from selling any weapons or aid” and to “strictly control” sales of products and technologies that can be used for both civilian and military purposes, Macron said.

Call it Cognac diplomacy. France offered China’s Xi a special drink, in a wink at their trade spat

PARIS (AP) — How do you smooth over trade tensions with the all-powerful leader of economic powerhouse China? Charm him with a bottle of Cognac, or two. That seemed to be French President Emmanuel Macron’s strategy with his carefully selected gift list for visiting Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday. China recently opened an anti-dumping investigation into European brandy — which mainly means French Cognac. It’s seen as retaliation for EU investigations into Chinese subsidies for electric cars and medical devices. Those disputes were central to talks between Xi and Macron on Monday. Macron said afterward that he thanked Xi for his “openness about the provisional measures toward French Cognac.” According to the protocol of formal state visits, the two leaders then exchanged gifts.

US and Philippine forces stage combat drills near strategic channel off southern Taiwan

ITBAYAT, Philippines (AP) — U.S. Marines and their Filipino counterparts darted out of Black Hawk helicopters during combat drills Monday in the Philippines’ northernmost island town along the strategic Bashi Channel off southern Taiwan — a flashpoint in the military rivalry between Washington and Beijing. The show of allied battle readiness in Itbayat in Batanes province is part of annual military exercises that started last month, dubbed Balikatan, Tagalog for “shoulder-to-shoulder,” and involving more than 16,000 American and Philippine military personnel. This year’s exercises by the longtime treaty allies — the largest yet — are meant to deter possible aggression. They come against the backdrop of China’s increasingly assertive actions in the disputed South China Sea, where Chinese and Philippine coast guards and accompanying ships have had several increasingly tense faceoffs since last year.

Australia accuses China of unsafe behavior when fighter jet released flares in a helicopter’s path

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Australia has protested to Beijing through multiple channels that a Chinese fighter jet endangered an Australian navy helicopter with flares over international waters, the prime minister said Tuesday. The incident occurred Saturday as the Australian air warfare destroyer HMAS Hobart was enforcing U.N. Security Council sanctions against North Korea in international waters in the Yellow Sea, officials said Monday. There were no injuries or damage reported. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the Australian public expected an explanation from China. “We’ve just made it very clear to China that this is unprofessional and that it’s unacceptable,” Albanese told Nine Network television.

How a beach trip in Mexico’s Baja California turned deadly for surfers from Australia and the US

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Two Australians and an American were doing what they loved on the stunning, largely isolated stretch of Baja California’s Pacific coast. Their last images on social media showed them sitting and gazing at the waves, contemplating the breaks. What happened to end their lives may have been as random as a passing pickup truck full of people with ill intent. The surfers were shot in the head, their bodies dumped in a covered well miles away. How it unfolded was the stuff of nightmares. Brothers Jake and Callum Robinson from Australia and American Jack Carter Rhoad had apparently stopped to surf the breaks between Punta San José, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Ensenada, and La Bocana, further north on the coast.

Powerful ethnic armed group in western Myanmar claims to capture base and hundreds of soldiers

BANGKOK (AP) — A powerful ethnic minority armed group battling Myanmar’s army in the country’s west claimed Monday to have taken hundreds of government soldiers prisoner when it captured a major command post. The Arakan Army, the well-trained and well-armed military wing of the Rakhine ethnic minority movement, has been on the offensive against army outposts in the western state of Rakhine — its home ground — for about six months. The group said in a video statement posted on the Telegram messaging app that soldiers belonging to the military government’s Operational Command No. 15 headquarters in Rakhine’s Buthidaung township surrendered after a siege.

As China and Iran hunt for dissidents in the US, the FBI is racing to counter the threat

WASHINGTON (AP) — After a student leader of the historic Tiananmen Square protests entered a 2022 congressional race in New York, a Chinese intelligence operative wasted little time enlisting a private investigator to hunt for any mistresses or tax problems that could upend the candidate’s bid, prosecutors say. “In the end,” the operative ominously told his contact, “violence would be fine too.” As an Iranian journalist and activist living in exile in the United States aired criticism of Iran’s human rights abuses, Tehran was listening too. Members of an Eastern European organized crime gang scouted her Brooklyn home and plotted to kill her in a murder-for-hire scheme directed from Iran, according to the Justice Department, which foiled the plan and brought criminal charges.

Activists in Bangladesh march through universities to demand end to Israel-Hamas war

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Thousands of activists in Bangladesh backed by the ruling party’s student wing marched through universities around the country Monday to demand an end to the Israel-Hamas war and the creation of an independent Palestinian state. Activists of the Bangladesh Chhatra League marched through the campus of the prestigious Dhaka University chanting anti-Israel slogans, carrying Bangladeshi and Palestinian flags and spreading banners saying “Free Palestine, Stop Genocide.” Many other students also joined the rally, organizers said. Bangladesh, a Muslim-majority nation of nearly 170 million people, maintains no diplomatic relations with Israel and has called for an independent Palestinian state.

Boy shot dead after Perth stabbing was in deradicalization program, but no ties seen to Sydney teens

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — A 16-year-old boy who was shot dead by police after stabbing a man in the Australian west coast city of Perth had been in a deradicalization program but had no links to an alleged network of teen extremists in the east coast city of Sydney, authorities said. The boy had participated in the federally funded Countering Violent Extremism program for two years but had no criminal record, Western Australia Police Minister Paul Papalia said Monday. “The challenge we confront with people like the 16-year-old in this incident is that he’s known to hold views that are dangerous and potentially he could be radicalized,” Papalia said.

Qantas agrees to pay $79 million in compensation and a fine for selling seats on canceled flights

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Qantas Airways agreed to pay 120 million Australian dollars ($79 million) in compensation and a fine for selling tickets on thousands of cancelled flights, the airline and Australia’s consumer watchdog said on Monday. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission sued the Sydney-based airline in the Federal Court last year. The commission alleged that Qantas engaged in false, misleading or deceptive conduct by advertising tickets for more than 8,000 flights from May 2021 through to July 2022 that had already been canceled. Qantas agreed to settle the suit by paying a AU$100 million ($66 million) fine to the Australian government and a projected AU$20 million ($13 million) to more than 86,000 affected customers.