Top Asian News 3:57 a.m. GMT

Thailand’s Parliament is set to choose a new prime minister with Thaksin’s daughter as nominee

BANGKOK (AP) — The daughter of the divisive former leader Thaksin Shinawatra was nominated and endorsed Friday to get Parliament’s approval as the new prime minister in a vote two days after a court removed the last one over an ethics violation. Paetongtarn Shinawatra, 37, is the leader of the Pheu Thai party and the sole nominee. She does not hold an elected office, which the law doesn’t require of prime ministerial candidates. The parliament also does not require her to be present at the vote. If Paetongtarn is approved in Parliament’s vote, she will become Thailand’s second female prime minister and the country’s third leader from the Shinawatra family, after her father and her aunt Yingluck Shinawatra.

Thai courts that have disbanded multiple governments are accused of setting back democracy

BANGKOK (AP) — Wednesday’s decision by Thailand’s Constitutional Court to oust Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin after just under a year in office was jarring, but not entirely a surprise given what critics say is the expanding overreach of unelected bodies. Thais have long been accustomed to sudden changes of government due to military coups, numbering more than a dozen since the 1930s. But in the past two decades, they have increasingly seen such changes imposed by the courts, which have ousted four prime ministers and dissolved three election-winning political parties, often on narrow technical grounds. In most cases the targets were viewed as challengers to the traditional royalist establishment, whose most powerful defenders are the army and the courts.

Flights and trains canceled in Tokyo area as a strong typhoon swerves nearby

TOKYO (AP) — Flights and trains in the Tokyo area were canceled Friday, and people were warned of strong winds, heavy rains and potential flooding and mudslides as a typhoon swerved near Japan on its way further north in the Pacific Ocean. Typhoon Ampil was forecast to reach the waters near Tokyo in the evening then continue north, bringing stormy conditions to the northern Kanto and Tohoku regions early Saturday. It had sustained winds of 162 kph (101 mph) with higher gusts Friday morning and was moving north at 20 kph (12 mph), the Japan Meteorological Agency said. Ampil was not expected to make landfall and would weaken to a tropical storm by Sunday.

Bangladeshi protesters attack supporters of ex-premier Hasina and harass journalists

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Hundreds of student protesters and political activists in Bangladesh, armed with bamboo sticks, iron rods and pipes, on Thursday, assaulted supporters of the ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and prevented them from reaching the previous house of her father and assassinated independence leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in the capital. The house in Dhaka’s Dhanmondi area was turned into a museum to showcase narratives and other objects about a military coup on Aug. 15, 1975, when Rahman was assassinated along with most of his family members. The house, now called Bangabandhu Memorial Museum, was torched by the protesters hours after Hasina’s downfall on Aug.

Australian breaker Rachael Gunn says ridicule of her Olympic performance has been ‘devastating’

SYDNEY (AP) — Australian breaker Rachael Gunn said the backlash to her much-ridiculed Olympic performance has been “devastating,” adding Thursday that she took the competition seriously and gave her best effort. The 36-year-old b-girl known as Raygun said in a video posted to social media that she wasn’t prepared for the level of negative attention she has received since judges awarded her zero points in her Olympic debut. Meanwhile, the Australian Olympic Committee criticized an anonymous online petition attacking the Paris Games competitor, saying it was “vexatious, misleading and bullying.” “I didn’t realize that that would also open the door to so much hate, which has, frankly, been pretty devastating,” Gunn said.

TikTok compares itself to foreign-owned American news outlets as it fights forced sale or ban

TikTok on Thursday pushed back against U.S. government arguments that the popular social media platform is not shielded by the First Amendment, comparing its platform to prominent American media organizations owned by foreign entities. Last month, the Justice Department argued in a legal brief filed in a Washington federal appeals court that neither TikTok’s China-based parent company, ByteDance, nor the platform’s global and U.S. arms — TikTok Ltd. and TikTok Inc. — were entitled to First Amendment protections because they are “foreign organizations operating abroad” or owned by one. TikTok attorneys have made the First Amendment a key part of their legal challenge to the federal law requiring ByteDance to sell TikTok to an approved buyer or face a ban.

Panda twins are born in Hong Kong to Ying Ying, the world’s oldest first-time mom

HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong welcomed the birth of its first locally born giant pandas on Thursday, with their mother becoming the world’s oldest first-time mother of its kind on record, the theme park that houses them announced. Ying Ying, the mother, gave birth to the twins — one male and one female — at Ocean Park just a day before she turned 19 years old, the park said in a statement. She and her partner Le Le are the second pair of pandas gifted by China to Hong Kong since the former British colony returned to China’s rule in 1997.

Mongolia is in the tourism spotlight and making it easier to visit. Reindeer sledding, anyone?

ULAANBAATAR, Mongolia (AP) — With its reindeer sleigh rides, camel racing and stunning landscapes with room to roam, Mongolia is hoping to woo visitors who are truly looking to get away from it all. Like most countries, its tourism industry was devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic, and it has launched a “Welcome to MonGOlia” campaign to win people back. The government has added flights and streamlined the visa process, offering visa-free visits for many countries. At least 437,000 foreign tourists visited in the first seven months of this year, up 25% over the same period last year, including increasing numbers from Europe, the U.S.

India’s Modi voices concern over unrest in neighboring Bangladesh and attacks on Hindus there

NEW DELHI (AP) — Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday expressed concern over the unrest that led to a change of government in neighboring Bangladesh and the attacks on Hindus and other minorities there. Modi addressed his nation from New Delhi’s 17th-century Mughal-era Red Fort on its 78th Independence Day and assured Bangladesh that India would continue to support it in developing its economy. “We hope the situation gets normal there soon,” Modi said in a speech broadcast live. Bangladesh’s former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina fled to India on Aug. 5 after weeks of violent protests that prompted her ouster.

Kishida vows to push rules-based order as Japan’s defense chief visits Yasukuni 79 years after WWII

TOKYO (AP) — Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida vowed to step up his country’s effort to defend a rules-based international order in a peace pledge made Thursday on the 79th anniversary of Japan’s defeat in World War II. “We will never again repeat the tragedy of war” and will stick to the country’s postwar pacifist resolve, he said at a solemn ceremony at the Budokan hall. “In the world where tragic battles have persisted, Japan will continue its effort to maintain and strengthen the rules-based, free and open international order” and endeavor to resolve difficult global issues, Kishida said. Kishida noted that more than 3 million Japanese were killed in the war.