Top Asian News 7:50 a.m. GMT

Her parents were injured in a Tesla crash. She ended up having to pay Tesla damages

BEIJING (AP) — Zhang Yazhou was sitting in the passenger seat of her Tesla Model 3 when she said she heard her father’s panicked voice: The brakes don’t work! Approaching a red light, her father swerved around two cars before plowing into an SUV and a sedan and crashing into a large concrete barrier. Stunned, Zhang gazed at the deflating airbag in front of her. She could never have imagined what was to come: Tesla sued her for defamation for complaining publicly about the car’s brakes — and won. A Chinese court ordered Zhang to pay more than $23,000 in damages and publicly apologize to the $1.1 trillion company.

US aid freeze sets back fight against human trafficking in Cambodia

BANGKOK (AP) — President Donald Trump’s freeze on foreign assistance has dealt a blow to organizations fighting human trafficking and forced labor in Cambodia, where tens of thousands of people are held captive and forced to work in call centers running telephone scams. Hundreds of thousands of people work in remote compounds in countries including Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos where they run online scams targeting people all over the world, including Americans, according to U.N. estimates. Some are trafficked and lured to the jobs under false pretenses and forced to work against their will. A shelter for people who manage to leave these compounds run by the Catholic charity Caritas recently let some victims go and may stop accepting further victims due to the funding squeeze, two sources with direct knowledge of the situation said.

Nearly everyone in the world breathes bad air. This is what you can do to lower your risk

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — Everyone loves a breath of fresh air. Unfortunately, too often our air is anything but fresh. While air quality varies dramatically from place to place and day to day, nearly the entire world — about 99% of the global population — is exposed to air at some point that doesn’t meet the strict standards set by the World Health Organization, the agency has reported. Polluted air, laden noxious gasses or tiny, invisible particles that burrow into human bodies, kills 7 million people prematurely every year, the U.N. health agency estimates. And for the millions living in some of the world’s smoggiest cities — many of them in Asia like New Delhi; Dhaka, Bangladesh; Bangkok and Jakarta, Indonesia — bad air might seem inescapable.

Leaders of Indonesia and Turkey hold talks on defense and economic ties

BOGOR, Indonesia (AP) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met his Indonesian counterpart Prabowo Subianto on Wednesday for talks aimed at strengthening economic and defense ties between the two Muslim-majority nations. The two countries are holding their first High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council summit after agreeing to create the forum at a meeting in Bali in 2022. Erdogan’s state visit to Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country and Southeast Asia’s largest economy, was his second stop in a four-day visit that also includes Malaysia and Pakistan. “This meeting is the highest regular bilateral forum between the two countries where all matters of common interest will be discussed, including strategic issues and priorities,” said Indonesian foreign ministry spokesperson Rolliansyah Soemirat ahead of the visit.

Teacher questioned in stabbing death of first-grader in South Korea

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korean police on Tuesday were questioning an elementary school teacher who allegedly stabbed a first-grader to death in the city of Daejeon. The killing on Monday during after-school care has shocked the nation and prompted the country’s acting president to order school safety standards reviewed. The female suspect was receiving medical treatment for self-inflicted wounds following the death of the girl in an audio-visual room on the second floor of the school, said Yuk Jong-myeong, chief of Daejeon’s western district police station. The suspect, reported to be in her 40s, told police that she had recently returned to work after a period of leave for health reasons, Yuk said.

Trump says he is considering tariff exemptions on Australian steel and aluminum

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump said he agreed to consider a tariff exemption on Australian steel and aluminum imports after a telephone call on Tuesday with Australia’s prime minister. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese argued for an exemption during the call, which was scheduled before Trump announced tariffs on steel and aluminum imports on Monday. Trump said the United States trade surplus with Australia was one of the reasons he was considering an exemption from the tariffs. “We actually have a surplus,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office about trade with Australia. “It’s one of the only countries which we do.

India wants to embrace nuclear power. To do it, it’ll need a lot of time and money

BENGALURU, India (AP) — India wants more nuclear power, has pledged over $2 billion toward research and will change laws to boost investment to do it. The pledges were made by India’s finance minister earlier this month as part of a plan to expand electricity generation and reduce emissions. Nuclear power is a way to make electricity that doesn’t emit planet-warming gases, although it does create radioactive waste. India is one of the world’s biggest emitters of planet-heating gases and over 75% of its power is still generated by burning fossil fuels, mostly coal. India wants to install 100 gigawatts of nuclear power by 2047 — enough to power nearly 60 million Indian homes a year.

A former aide to New York governors and her husband face new charges in foreign agent of China case

NEW YORK (AP) — A former aide to two New York governors and her husband are facing additional charges in a case accusing her of acting as an agent of the Chinese government. Linda Sun and Chris Hu pleaded not guilty to the charges at a hearing Tuesday in Brooklyn federal court, according to prosecutors. Sun, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in China, held numerous posts in New York state government over a roughly 15-year career, including deputy chief of staff for Gov. Kathy Hochul and deputy diversity officer under former Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Prosecutors have said Sun, at the behest of Chinese officials, promoted Chinese government priorities within New York state government, such as preventing representatives of the Taiwanese government from having access to the governor’s office.

South Korea’s top think tank lowers economic growth projection, citing Trump’s tariffs

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s top economic think tank slashed its growth forecast for the country’s economy for the second time in four months on Tuesday, expressing concern about the impact of U.S. President Donald Trump’s expanding tariffs. The state-run Korea Development Institute now projects South Korea’s economy to grow by 1.6% in 2025, which is 0.4 percentage points lower than its previous estimate announced in November. Kim Jiyeon, a KDI economist, said the “deterioration of the trade environment” following Trump’s inauguration was a major factor. South Korea is also grappling with political instability caused by the impeachment and criminal indictment of President Yoon Suk Yeol after he briefly imposed martial law in December.

A timeline of US-China tit-for-tat tariffs since Trump’s first term

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — China’s tit-for-tat duties on U.S. imports took effect Monday, just hours after U.S. President Donald Trump announced that he wants to slap new duties on all steel and aluminum imports to the U.S. The rapid-fire shots of tariffs and import curbs hearken back to Trump’s first term in office, when the U.S. and China engaged in a trade war that spanned most of Trump’s first four years in office and was continued to a certain extent under his successor, Joe Biden. Less than a month after returning to the White House on Jan. 20, Trump slapped 10% duties on all Chinese imports, a move that’s expected to raise prices on goods including laptops, toys and fast fashion.