Top Asian News 4:46 a.m. GMT

Party of Sri Lanka’s new Marxist-leaning president takes large lead in parliamentary vote

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — The party of Sri Lanka’s new Marxist-leaning President Anura Kumara Dissanayake took a large lead Friday in early results from the parliamentary elections, in an apparent solid mandate for his program for economic revival. Dissanayake’s National People’s Power Party won 15 of the 22 electoral districts whose results have been released so far by the Elections Commission. Dissanayake was elected president on Sept. 21 in a rejection of traditional political parties that have governed the island nation since its independence from British rule in 1948. But he received just 42% of the votes, fueling questions over his party’s outlook in Thursday’s parliamentary elections.

Australia’s plan to ban children from social media proves popular and problematic

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — How do you remove children from the harms of social media? Politically the answer appears simple in Australia, but practically the solution could be far more difficult. The Australian government’s plan to ban children from social media platforms including X, TikTok, Facebook and Instagram until their 16th birthdays is politically popular. The opposition party says it would have done the same after winning elections due within months if the government hadn’t moved first. The leaders of all eight Australian states and mainland territories have unanimously backed the plan, although Tasmania, the smallest state, would have preferred the threshold was set at 14.

APEC leaders to open Lima summit as Trump prepares to return to office

LIMA, Peru (AP) — Representatives from 21 members representing the Pacific Rim are meeting in Peru on Friday for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, the first global summit since U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s victory featuring several major world leaders. The annual gathering brings together countries and members that jointly account for almost two-thirds of global GDP and half the world’s trade, according to organizers. They confirmed heads of government attending in Lima include outgoing U.S. President Joe Biden, China’s President Xi Jinping, Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Indonesia’s President Prabowo Subianto, Japan’s Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, among others, as the world wonders how a new U.S.

China’s president unveils a megaport in Peru, but locals say they’re being left out

CHANCAY, Peru (AP) — On the edge of Peru’s coastal desert, a remote fishing town where a third of all residents have no running water is being transformed into a huge deep-water port to cash in on the inexorable rise of Chinese interest in resource-rich South America. The megaport of Chancay, a $1.3 billion project majority-owned by the Chinese shipping giant Cosco, is turning this outpost of bobbing fishing boats into an important node of the global economy. From the presidential palace in Lima, 60 kilometers (37 miles) south of the port inauguration ceremony, China’s President Xi Jinping watched a livestream of the ribbon-cutting alongside his Peruvian counterpart, Dina Boluarte, late Thursday.

North Korea tests exploding drones as Kim calls for mass production

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea tested exploding drones designed to crash into targets and leader Kim Jong Un called for accelerating mass production of the weapons, state media said Friday. The country’s latest military demonstration came as the United States, South Korea and Japan engaged in combined military exercises involving advanced fighter jets and a U.S. aircraft carrier in nearby international waters, in a display of their defense posture against North Korea. North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency published photos of Kim talking with officials near at least two different types of unmanned aerial vehicles. They included those with X-shaped tails and wings that look similar to the ones the country disclosed in August, when Kim inspected another demonstration of drones that explode on impact.

With Peru in the global spotlight for APEC, so is one of the world’s least popular presidents

LIMA, Peru (AP) — It was a big day for Peru’s accidental president, Dina Boluarte, whose official schedule has been blank for months. On Thursday, the high-profile Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Lima thrust Boluarte — among the world’s least popular presidents, with a mere 4% public approval rating — into the bright lights of a convention center packed with world leaders, prominent CEOs and visiting dignitaries. It’s not just that Boluarte, long a low-profile and low-paid civil servant, has never before rolled out the red carpet for powerful leaders like U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping since taking office in December 2022.

Japanese Princess Yuriko, wartime Emperor Hirohito’s sister-in-law, dies at 101

TOKYO (AP) — Japanese Princess Yuriko, the wife of wartime Emperor Hirohito’s brother and the oldest member of the imperial family, has died after her health deteriorated recently, palace officials said. She was 101. Yuriko died Friday at a Tokyo hospital, the Imperial Household Agency said. It did not announce the cause of death, but Japanese media said she died of pneumonia. Born in 1923 as an aristocrat, Yuriko married at age 18 to Prince Mikasa, the younger brother of Hirohito and the uncle of current Emperor Naruhito, months before the start of World War II. She has recounted living in a shelter with her husband and their baby daughter after their residence was burned down in the U.S.

Lawmakers stage Māori protest in New Zealand’s parliament during fraught race relations debate

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — A vote in New Zealand’s parliament was suspended and two lawmakers ejected on Thursday when dramatic political theater erupted over a controversial proposed law redefining the country’s founding agreement between Indigenous Māori and the British Crown. Under the principles laid out in the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi, which guide the relationship between the government and Māori, tribes were promised broad rights to retain their lands and protect their interests in return for ceding governance to the British. The bill would specify that those rights should apply to all New Zealanders. The bill has scant support and is unlikely to become law.

AP PHOTOS: Once-traditional camel trading fair in India transformed into tourist attraction

PUSHKAR, India (AP) — It’s early morning in Pushkar, a city at the edge of the Thar desert in the northwestern Indian state of Rajasthan, and a herd of about a dozen camels led by two men is returning, raising a golden sand cloud. The camels had been out grazing in the night at the foothills of the ancient Aravali mountain range, and their handlers spent the night out in the open. For the next two hours or so, when the heat is still bearable, prospective buyers will look for bargains among hundreds of camels that have been brought to be sold by herders and farmers from surrounding districts.

Chinese and Philippine forces again avoid a clash in a fiercely disputed shoal under a rare deal

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The Philippine navy transported food and other supplies to a territorial ship outpost in a shoal in the South China Sea without any confrontation with Chinese forces guarding the disputed area, officials said Friday. The Philippine delivery of supplies and military personnel on Thursday to the Second Thomas Shoal was the third such trip that did not lead to any confrontation since July, when both sides signed a rare deal to stop an alarming spike in violent confrontations. “The Armed Forces of the Philippines continues to uphold its mandate of safeguarding Philippine sovereignty and ensuring the welfare of its stationed personnel in the West Philippine Sea,” military spokesperson Col.