Top Asian News 3:52 a.m. GMT

BTS looks to reunite this year as 2 more members finish their military service

CHUNCHEON, South Korea (AP) — K-pop superstars RM and V are the latest members of BTS to be discharged from South Korea’s military after fulfilling their mandatory service. They each saluted upon their release Tuesday in Chuncheon City as about 200 fans, some of whom traveled from Mexico, Turkey and Brazil, cheered. Reina Lorena Quintero Sevilla spent nearly 18 hours on a plane from Mexico City. “I swear, it didn’t feel that long because we’re so excited to be here, to watch the boys get released, excited to be in South Korea, in the hometowns of our boys, who we love, who we adore,” she said.

The US and China are holding trade talks in London after Trump’s phone call with Xi

LONDON (AP) — High-level delegations from the United States and China met in London on Monday to try and shore up a fragile truce in a trade dispute that has roiled the global economy, A Chinese delegation led by Vice Premier He Lifeng held talks with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer at Lancaster House, an ornate 200-year-old mansion near Buckingham Palace. Wang Wentao, China’s commerce minister, also was part of Beijing’s delegation. The talks, which may continue Tuesday, follow negotiations in Geneva last month that brought a temporary respite in the trade war.

Tough talk drags on in Cambodia-Thailand border standoff. But tensions appear to be easing

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Cambodia’s defense ministry on Monday said that the country’s troops haven’t withdrawn from a patch of land whose ownership is hotly disputed by neighboring Thailand, but the declaration also echoed recent statements by both sides seeking a peaceful resolution to their competing border claims. Cambodian and Thai authorities engaged in saber-rattling last week, after an armed confrontation at the border on May 28 left one Cambodian soldier dead. The incident, which each side blamed on the other, reportedly took place in a relatively small “no man’s land” constituting territory along their border that both countries claim is theirs.

US reports the arrest of another Chinese scientist with no permit to send biological material

DETROIT (AP) — A Chinese scientist was arrested while arriving in the U.S. at the Detroit airport, the second case in days involving the alleged smuggling of biological material, authorities said Monday. The scientist is accused of shipping biological material months ago to staff at a laboratory at the University of Michigan. The FBI, in a court filing, described it as material related to certain worms and requires a government permit. “The guidelines for importing biological materials into the U.S. for research purposes are stringent, but clear, and actions like this undermine the legitimate work of other visiting scholars,” said John Nowak, who leads field operations at U.S.

Explosion at a US air base in southern Japan injures 4 Japanese soldiers

TOKYO (AP) — An explosion at a storage site for unexploded ordnance at a U.S. military base on Japan’s southern island of Okinawa injured four Japanese soldiers, though the injuries are not life-threatening, officials said Monday. The four soldiers sustained finger injuries while working at a facility that belongs to Okinawa prefecture and temporarily stores unexploded ordnance, mostly from wartime and found on the island, local officials said. One of the harshest battles of World War II was fought on Okinawa. Prefectural officials said the injuries were not life-threatening, but no other details were immediately known. The U.S. Air Force said in a statement that the explosion occurred at the facility managed by the Okinawa prefectural government at Kadena Air Base’s munitions storage area.

Australian reporter hit by nonlethal round during live report from LA immigration protests

NEWCASTLE, Australia (AP) — An Australian television journalist was hit in the leg by a nonlethal round Sunday while reporting live from downtown Los Angeles on the large-scale protests over President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown and subsequent deployment of California National Guard troops to the city. Video of the incident released by 9News shows correspondent Lauren Tomasi, microphone in hand, reporting live when an officer behind her suddenly raises their firearm and fires a nonlethal round at close range. Tomasi, who doesn’t appear to be wearing personal protective equipment, cries out in pain and clutches her lower leg as she and her cameraman quickly move away from the police line.

Explosion and fire hit Singapore-flagged container ship off southern Indian coast

NEW DELHI (AP) — An explosion and subsequent fire were reported onboard a Singapore-flagged container ship off the coast of Kerala in southern India on Monday, a spokesperson for the Indian Coast Guard said. Of the 22 crew members onboard the MV Wan Hai 503, 18 abandoned the vessel with assistance from the Indian Navy and Coast Guard while four are missing, Commandant Amit Uniyal said in a statement. One of the rescued crew members sustained serious injuries. Two of the four missing are nationals of Taiwan, one is from Indonesia and one from Myanmar, Uniyal said. The navy and coast guard have launched a search operation for the missing, aided by a Dornier aircraft.

Chinese hackers and user lapses turn smartphones into a ‘mobile security crisis’

WASHINGTON (AP) — Cybersecurity investigators noticed a highly unusual software crash — it was affecting a small number of smartphones belonging to people who worked in government, politics, tech and journalism. The crashes, which began late last year and carried into 2025, were the tipoff to a sophisticated cyberattack that may have allowed hackers to infiltrate a phone without a single click from the user. The attackers left no clues about their identities, but investigators at the cybersecurity firm iVerify noticed that the victims all had something in common: They worked in fields of interest to China’s government and had been targeted by Chinese hackers in the past.

Chinese ship runs aground off Philippines-occupied island in the disputed South China Sea

PUERTO PRINCESA, Philippines (AP) — A Chinese ship ran aground in stormy weather in shallow waters off a Philippines-occupied island in the disputed South China Sea, prompting Filipino forces to go on alert, Philippine military officials said Sunday. When Filipino forces assessed that the Chinese fishing vessel appeared to have run aground in the shallows east of Thitu Island on Saturday because of bad weather, Philippine military and coast guard personnel deployed to provide help but later saw that the ship had been extricated, regional navy spokesperson Ellaine Rose Collado said. No other details were immediately available, including if there were injuries among the crewmembers or if the ship was damaged, Collado said.

Kyrgyzstan removes towering Lenin statue from second city

LONDON (AP) — Authorities in the second-largest city in Kyrgyzstan, Osh, have removed a towering statue of Vladimir Lenin thought to be the tallest of the revolutionary Soviet leader in Central Asia. The 23-meter (75-foot) monument was erected in 1975 when Kyrgyzstan was part of the Soviet Union. Photos appeared online Saturday showing the statue flat on the ground after being lowered by a crane. While many countries formerly part of the Soviet Union have moved to downplay their ties to Russia as part of efforts to reshape national identity, the monument was taken down with little public fanfare and officials in Osh framed the removal as routine city planning.