Top Asian News 1:51 a.m. GMT

Philippines agrees to host a US visa processing center for Afghans resettling in America

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The Philippines has agreed to a request by the United States to temporarily host a U.S. immigrant visa processing center for a limited number of Afghan nationals aspiring to resettle in America, the treaty allies announced Tuesday. The Philippine government’s approval of the request, which initially faced local concerns over potential security and legal issues, reflects how relations between Manila and Washington have deepened under President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who took office in 2022. The Department of Foreign Affairs in Manila said the agreement was undergoing final domestic procedures before it takes effect. It did not provide other details, including how many Afghans would be allowed to temporarily stay in the Philippines at any time while their special immigrant visas for resettlement to the U.S.

Indian doctors demand tougher laws after a colleague was raped and killed at a hospital

NEW DELHI (AP) — Hundreds of doctors protested near India’s Health Ministry on Monday to demand stringent laws to protect health care workers from violence and to seek justice for their colleague who was raped and killed at a state-run hospital. The protesting doctors, holding up placards like “Justice delayed is justice denied,” were stopped by police as they tried to set up free outpatient services outside the ministry in New Delhi. Doctors and medics across India have held protests, candlelight marches and temporarily refused care for non-emergency patients after the rape and killing of the 31-year-old trainee on Aug. 9 in the eastern city of Kolkata, the capital of West Bengal state.

Pakistan suffers internet slowdown as government denies setting up a national firewall

LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) — People in Pakistan reported much slower internet over the past several days with some experts on Monday estimating its speed falling to less than half its usual capacity at times. The problem has affected millions of users, disrupting businesses and drawing nationwide complaints, while authorities have denied allegations that the installation of a national firewall was behind the slowdown. Since February, users have been either unable to use social media or allowed limited access following a governmental crackdown before the Feb. 8 parliamentary election. However, internet speed has now noticeably slowed down. Users are unable to quickly send emails or use the messaging service WhatsApp, with businesspeople and doctors saying it has negatively affected their daily work, particularly receiving statements and medical reports.

India’s Modi will visit Ukraine after Zelenskyy’s criticism for meeting Putin in Moscow

NEW DELHI (AP) — Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Ukraine this week and meet with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the two countries announced Monday, weeks after he met President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. Modi will visit Ukraine on Zelenskyy’s invitation on Friday, Tanmaya Lal, a senior official at the Ministry of External Affairs, said at a briefing in New Delhi. He said the visit will provide an opportunity for the two leaders to discuss cooperation in defense, economic and business ties, science and technology and other sectors. Ukraine’s Presidential Office also announced Modi’s trip, saying it’s his first visit during which two leaders will sign multiple cooperation documents and discuss “matters of bilateral and multilateral cooperation.” Modi’s trip to Ukraine comes a month after Zelenskyy criticized his two-day visit to Moscow in July, when he met with Putin on the day Russian missiles struck across Ukraine, killing scores of people.

Japanese shrine that honors war dead, including convicted war criminals, is vandalized again

TOKYO (AP) — Tokyo’s Yasukuni Shrine, which honors Japan’s war dead, including convicted World War II war criminals, was vandalized again overnight Monday. “It is deplorable that an act seeking to denigrate the shrine’s dignity has happened again,” the shrine said in a statement. In May, a stone pillar at Yasukuni was spraypainted red. A Chinese suspect was arrested in July. Neither the police nor the Shinto shrine would go into details of the latest vandalism, saying an investigation was ongoing. Japanese media reports said graffiti reading “toilet” in Chinese, written with what appeared to be black markers, was found Monday morning on a stone pillar near the shrine’s arch.

Too many people, not enough management: A look at the chaos of ‘overtourism’ in the summer of 2024

SINTRA, Portugal (AP) — The doorbell to Martinho de Almada Pimentel’s house is hard to find, and he likes it that way. It’s a long rope that, when pulled, rings a literal bell on the roof that lets him know someone is outside the mountainside mansion that his great-grandfather built in 1914 as a monument to privacy. There’s precious little of that for Pimentel during this summer of “overtourism.” Travelers idling in standstill traffic outside the sunwashed walls of Casa do Cipreste sometimes spot the bell and pull the string “because it’s funny,” he says. With the windows open, he can smell the car exhaust and hear the “tuk-tuk” of outsized scooters named for the sound they make.

Heavy rains hit Pakistan’s south as this monsoon’s death toll rises to 209

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Flash floods triggered by monsoon rains swept through streets in southern Pakistan and blocked a key highway in the north, officials said Monday, as the death toll from rain-related incidents rose to 209 since July 1. Fourteen people died across Punjab province in the past 24 hours, said Irfan Ali, an official at the provincial disaster management authority. Most of the other deaths have occurred in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh provinces. Pakistan’s annual monsoon season runs from July through September. Scientists and weather forecasters have blamed climate change for heavier rains in recent years. In 2022, climate-induced downpours inundated one-third of the country, killing 1,739 people and causing $30 billion in damage.

Chinese and Philippine ships collide again in disputed waters, and the countries are trading blame

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Chinese and Philippine coast guard ships collided at sea, damaging at least two vessels, in an encounter early Monday near a new flashpoint in their increasingly alarming confrontations in the disputed South China Sea. Each blamed the other for the collision near Sabina Shoal, a disputed atoll in the Spratly Islands, where Vietnam and Taiwan also have overlapping claims. There were no reports of injuries. China’s coast guard accused the Philippines of deliberately crashing one of its ships into a Chinese vessel. It said in a statement on its website that two Philippine coast guard ships entered waters near the shoal, ignored a warning from the Chinese coast guard and intentionally collided with one of the Chinese boats at 3:24 a.m.

Groups say they’re shut out of global treaty talks on plastics pollution in Bangkok

Experts meet in Bangkok this week to advance what would be the first international treaty to tackle the surging problem of plastic pollution. Final treaty negotiations take place in South Korea in November. Yet most of the people who have been closely tracking the negotiations — environmentalists, tribal leaders and residents from communities hard-hit by plastic production and waste — are shut out of the talks in Bangkok. Many plastic industry representatives say they can’t get into the room either. In a series of letters to the United Nations Environment Programme, the meeting sponsor, hundreds of organizations said the closure runs counter to typical international environmental treaty-making.

US and South Korea begin military drills aimed at strengthening their defense against North Korea

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — U.S. and South Korean troops kicked off a large-scale exercise Monday aimed at strengthening their combined defense capabilities against nuclear-armed North Korea, which again accused the allies of practicing an invasion. The annual summertime exercise comes amid heightened tensions on the Korean Peninsula as the pace of both North Korea’s weapons demonstrations and the U.S.-South Korea combined military exercises have intensified in a cycle of tit-for-tat. The exercise began hours after North Korea’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement repeating the North’s contention that such exercises are “provocative war drills for aggression.” It said the North’s nuclear ambitions are thus justified, adding that it is crucial to “constantly maintain the balance of power for preventing a war by stockpiling the greatest deterrence.” The United States and South Korea described their joint drills as defensive in nature and have been expanding and upgrading their training in recent years to cope with the North’s evolving threats.