Top Asian News 7:27 a.m. GMT

Sri Lanka’s Marxist-leaning president appoints his Cabinet after a resounding election win

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka’s new Marxist-leaning president swore in a 21-member Cabinet on Monday after his party secured a two-thirds parliamentary majority in last week’s election. The margin of victory will allow President Anura Kumara Dissanayake to make sweeping reforms, including a campaign promise of a new constitution, without needing support from other parties. Sri Lanka is struggling to emerge from the worst economic crisis in its history, having declared bankruptcy after defaulting on its external debt in 2022. Dissanayake’s National People’s Power Party won 159 of the 225 seats in Thursday’s vote. He kept a pledge to have fewer than 25 Cabinet members, and a majority of the new ministers are first-time lawmakers.

45 pro-democracy activists face sentencing in Hong Kong. Here’s who some of them are

HONG KONG (AP) — Dozens of prominent Hong Kong pro-democracy activists are scheduled to be sentenced Tuesday in the largest case under a national security law that critics say crushed political activism in the semi-autonomous Chinese city. The convictions of the 45 activists under the Beijing-imposed law are widely seen as part of a crackdown by China that destroyed hopes for a more democratic Hong Kong. They face sentences of up to life imprisonment. The activists were among 47 people charged with conspiracy to commit subversion in 2021 for their involvement in an unofficial primary election to pick opposition candidates. They were accused of agreeing to veto government-proposed budgets indiscriminately after securing a legislative majority to force a dissolution of the legislature and then the ouster of the city’s leader.

North Korean leader calls for expanding his nuclear forces in the face of alleged US threats

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un renewed his call for a “limitless” expansion of his military nuclear program to counter U.S.-led threats in comments reported Monday that were his first direct criticism toward Washington since Donald Trump’s win in the U.S. presidential election. At a conference with army officials on Friday, Kim condemned the United States for updating its nuclear deterrence strategies with South Korea and solidifying three-way military cooperation involving Japan, which he portrayed as an “Asian NATO” that was escalating tensions and instability in the region. Kim also criticized the United States over its support of Ukraine against a prolonged Russian invasion.

Bangladesh tribunal tells investigators to finish probe against ousted premier Hasina by next month

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — A special tribunal in Bangladesh on Monday told investigators they have one month to complete their work on ousted former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her close aides who face charges of crimes against humanity after hundreds of people were killed in a mass uprising this summer. Golam Mortuza Majumdar, the head judge of the three-member International Crimes Tribunal, set Dec. 17 for investigators to finish their work, as the tribunal heard updates Monday from police about what the country’s security agencies have done to arrest Hasina and her close aides. The decision came after prosecutors sought more time for the investigation.

Australian senate censures Indigenous lawmaker who yelled at King Charles III

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australian senators on Monday voted to censure an Indigenous colleague who yelled at King Charles III during a reception in Parliament House last month. The censure of independent Sen. Lidia Thorpe is a symbolic gesture that records her colleagues’ disapproval of her conduct during the first visit to Australia by a British monarch in 13 years. The motion was carried 46 votes to 12. Government leader in the Senate Penny Wong said Thorpe’s outburst sought to “incite outrage and grievance.” “This is part of a trend that we do see internationally which, quite frankly, we do not need here in Australia,” Wong told the Senate.

Former Sydney radio broadcaster and rugby coach Alan Jones charged with sex crimes

SYDNEY (AP) — Retired Sydney radio broadcaster and former Australian national rugby coach Alan Jones was charged Monday with multiple sex crimes against males over two decades, police said. The 83-year-old will appear in a Sydney court on Dec. 18 on 24 charges relating to eight alleged victims from 2001 to 2019, Assistant Police Commissioner Michael Fitzgerald said. Fitzgerald said the youngest of the alleged victims was 17 when the first offense allegedly occurred. “In regards to the victims, we will allege that the accused knew some of them personally, some of them professionally. And we’ll also allege that some of the victims when the alleged offense took place, was the first time that they ever met the accused,” Fitzgerald told reporters.

Climate talks in Azerbaijan head into their second week, coinciding with G20 in Rio

BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) — United Nations talks on getting money to curb and adapt to climate change resumed Monday with tempered hope that negotiators and ministers can work through disagreements and hammer out a deal after slow progress last week. That hope comes from the arrival of the climate and environment ministers from around the world this week in Baku, Azerbaijan, for the COP29 talks. They’ll give their teams instructions on ways forward. “We are in a difficult place,” said Melanie Robinson, economics and finance program director of global climate at the World Resources Institute. “The discussion has not yet moved to the political level — when it does I think ministers will do what they can to make a deal.” Talks in Baku are focused on getting more climate cash for developing countries to transition away from fossil fuels, adapt to climate change and pay for damages caused by extreme weather.

Typhoon Man-yi worsens crisis from back-to-back storms that devastated the northern Philippines

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Typhoon Man-yi left at least three villagers missing, destroyed houses, knocked out power in entire towns and displaced large numbers of villagers before blowing away from the northern Philippines, worsening the crisis wreaked by five previous storms, officials said Monday. Man-yi was one of the strongest of the six major storms to hit the northern Philippines in less than a month and had sustained winds of up to 195 kilometers (125 miles) per hour when it slammed into the eastern island province of Catanduanes on Saturday night. Disaster-response officials said they were checking if the deaths of two villagers were directly related to Man-yi’s onslaught in eastern Camarines Norte province.

New Delhi closes schools, bans construction as air pollution shoots up to worst level this season

NEW DELHI (AP) — Authorities in India’s capital shut schools, halted construction and banned non-essential trucks from entering the city on Monday after air pollution shot up to its worst level this season. Residents of New Delhi woke up to thick, toxic smog enveloping the city of some 33 million as the air quality became increasingly hazardous. It rose further into the severe category, according to SAFAR, the country’s main environmental agency, which measures tiny particulate matter in the air that can enter deep into the lungs. The deadly haze covered monuments and high-rise buildings in the capital, with visibility so low that airlines warned of delays.

Australian woman accused of drug smuggling in Japan says she is innocent as trial begins

CHIBA, Japan (AP) — An Australian woman accused of smuggling amphetamines in a suitcase appeared in a Japanese court on Monday nearly two years after her arrest, saying she is innocent and that she was tricked into carrying them as part of an online romance scam. Donna Nelson from Perth, Australia, was arrested at Japan’s Narita International Airport just outside Tokyo when customs officials found about 2 kilograms (4.4 pounds) of stimulants, or phenylaminopropane, hidden in a double-bottom suitcase she was carrying. Nelson, 58, said she received the suitcase from an acquaintance of a man she met on social media and brought it from Laos to Tokyo as instructed.