Top Asian News 3:56 a.m. GMT

South Korean presidential election roiled by coffee beans, Chanel bags and room salon

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s presidential race has devolved into personal attacks and petty disputes, drowning out meaningful policy debate after former conservative leader Yoon Suk Yeol’s ouster over his martial law fiasco. The bitter mudslinging between liberal frontrunner Lee Jae-myung and conservative opponent Kim Moon Soo escalated during Tuesday night’s final presidential debate, with Lee branding Kim “Yoon Suk Yeol’s avatar” and Kim denouncing Lee as a “harbinger of monster politics and dictatorship.” Here is a look at the words and controversies that have roiled the presidential contest as two days of early voting begins Thursday ahead of the June 3 election: Consistently trailing Lee in opinion polls, Kim has focused on dredging up his legal troubles and casting the outspoken Democratic Party candidate as a dangerous, hardline populist whose economic promises are detached from reality.

A look at key events that triggered South Korea’s snap presidential election

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — After months of political turmoil, South Koreans head to the polls next week to elect a president to succeed disgraced former leader Yoon Suk Yeol, who was ousted from office over his ill-fated decision to impose martial law in December. Here is a timeline of events that led to Tuesday’s tense snap election: According to their criminal indictments, Yoon meets with his defense minister to discuss gridlock in the National Assembly as liberal opposition lawmakers use their majority to impeach senior officials and prosecutors and cut government budgets. Prosecutors say Yoon told the minister he wanted to take “emergency measures” against the opposition, something they allege he had been saying for months.

AP PHOTOS: Hundreds scale Mount Everest in a weather-hit climbing season

KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — Hundreds of climbers and their Sherpa guides scaled Mount Everest this month in Nepal, struggling against harsh weather to make it to the summit of the world’s highest mountain before the climbing season finishes at the end of May. Though several climbers did manage to reach the summit in mid-May, weather conditions deteriorated for days, forcing a retreat to base camp for many, including Kami Rita Sherpa, who was attempting to break his own record by scaling the peak for a 31st time. He did manage to scale the 8,849-meter (29,032-foot) peak on May 27, but several climbers were not so lucky.

Thai and Cambodian soldiers clash briefly in a disputed border area, killing 1

BANGKOK (AP) — A Cambodian soldier was killed when Thai and Cambodian troops briefly fired at each other in their disputed border area Wednesday, officials said. Cambodian army spokesperson Mao Phalla said the Cambodian troops were conducting a routine patrol along the border when the Thai side opened fire. The Thai army’s statement said the Cambodian soldiers entered a disputed area and Thai soldiers approached the area to negotiate but due to misunderstanding, the Cambodian side opened fire and the Thai soldiers then retaliated. The clash lasted about 10 minutes until local commanders spoke to each other and ordered a ceasefire, the Thai army said, adding that the two were negotiating.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio says the US will begin revoking the visas of Chinese students

WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday the U.S. will begin revoking the visas of some Chinese students, including those studying in “critical fields.” China is the second-largest country of origin for international students in the United States, behind only India. In the 2023-2024 school year, more than 270,000 international students were from China, making up roughly a quarter of all foreign students in the United States. “Under President Trump’s leadership, the U.S. State Department will work with the Department of Homeland Security to aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students, including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields,” Rubio wrote.

Head of human smuggling plot gets 10 years after family of 4 froze to death on US-Canada border

FERGUS FALLS, Minn. (AP) — More than three years after a family of four from India froze to death while trying to enter the U.S. along a remote stretch of the Canadian border in a blizzard, the convicted ringleader of an international human smuggling plot was sentenced in Minnesota on Wednesday to 10 years in prison. Federal prosecutors had recommended nearly 20 years for Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel, and nearly 11 years for the driver who was supposed to pick them up, Steve Anthony Shand, who got 6 1/2 years Wednesday with two years’ supervised release. “The crime in many respects is extraordinary because it did result in the unimaginable death of four individuals, including two children,” U.S.

France’s Macron presses ahead in his Southeast Asia tour with talks in Indonesia

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — The French president met with his Indonesian counterpart on Wednesday as Emmanuel Macron continued his week-long trip to Southeast Asia focused on strengthening regional ties in an increasingly unstable global landscape. Macron and France’s first lady Brigitte Macron arrived in Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta, on Tuesday evening for the second stop in his tour after Vietnam, where Macron signed a deal to sell Hanoi 20 Airbus planes. On arrival, Macron had warm words for Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, describing him as a brother and “a great friend of mine.” Military cooperation between Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s largest economy, and France grew in recent years, starting in 2019 when Subianto became defense minister.

Southeast Asia’s illicit methamphetamine trade is at a record high, the UN says

BANGKOK (AP) — The illicit trade in methamphetamine and other dangerous drugs is growing by leaps and bounds in Southeast Asia, with record levels of seizures serving as an indicator of the scale, U.N experts on the drug trade said in a new report Wednesday. Methamphetamine seizures, primarily in Southeast Asia, totaled 236 tons in 2024, a 24% increase over 2023. The increase applied to both crystal methamphetamine and methamphetamine tablets, the latter priced for a mass market, going for as little as U.S. $0.60 apiece in Myanmar. About 1 billion tablets were seized last year in Thailand. “The sustained flood of methamphetamine to markets in the region has been driven by industrial-scale production and trafficking networks operated by agile, well-resourced transnational organized criminal groups,” says the report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, or UNODC.

Supporters of Bangladesh’s ex-Premier Khaleda Zia rally to call for a general election

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Tens of thousands of students and youths from a leading Bangladeshi political party rallied in the capital, Dhaka, on Wednesday, calling for a general election in December as discontent grows with the interim government appointed after the ouster of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in August. Activists from three groups linked to the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, or BNP, headed by former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia gathered on the streets outside its party headquarters, under heightened security. Wednesday’s rally was held after weeks of political tensions after interim leader and Nobel Peace laureate Muhammad Yunus threatened to quit and the influential military chief publicly declared his support for an election in December.

In Japan, bobtail cats are considered good luck. Nagasaki is filled with them

NAGASAKI, Japan (AP) — In Japan, bobtail cats are considered good luck and Nagasaki is the place to find them. They are known as “omagari neko (bent-tail cats)” or “kagi neko (hook cats)” and have their own society of admirers and even a dedicated Shinto shrine. Their tails come in varieties including hook-shaped at the tip, curved or in a bun, explained Kazuya Hideshima, a worker at Omagari Neko Shrine and member of the Nagasaki Cat Society. Past findings have indicated bobtails accounted for nearly 80% of the cats in Nagasaki, twice the occurrence of anywhere else in Japan. Japanese cats are believed to have come from China in the 6th century with Buddhist monks, serving as rat hunters to protect religious scriptures on ships.