Top Asian News 3:56 a.m. GMT

South Korea and US will start summer military drills next week to counter North Korean threats

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea and the United States will begin their annual joint military exercises next week with a focus on improving their combined capabilities to deter and defend against growing North Korean nuclear threats, the allies said Monday. The drills could trigger a belligerent response from North Korea, which portrays them as invasion rehearsals and have used the allies’ military cooperation as a pretext to advance the development of nuclear weapons and missile systems. South Korean and U.S. military officials said this year’s Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise, scheduled for Aug. 19-29, will include computer-simulated exercises designed to enhance readiness against such threats as missiles, GPS jamming and cyberattacks, and concurrent field maneuvers and live-fire exercises.

7 prominent Hong Kong activists fail to overturn their convictions over 2019 protest

HONG KONG (AP) — Seven of Hong Kong’s most prominent pro-democracy activists lost their final bid to overturn their convictions at the city’s top court on Monday over their roles in one of the biggest anti-government protests in 2019. Jimmy Lai, founder of the now-defunct Apple Daily newspaper; Martin Lee, the founding chairman of the city’s Democratic Party; and five former pro-democracy lawmakers were found guilty in 2021 of organizing and participating in an unauthorized assembly. Their convictions dealt a blow to the city’s flagging pro-democracy movement during a political crackdown on dissidents following the protests. Last year, the activists partially won their appeal at a lower court, with their convictions quashed over the charge of organizing an unauthorized assembly.

Storm dumps intense rainfall on northern Japan, sending some people to shelters

TOKYO (AP) — A slow-moving storm has been dumping intense rains on northern Japan, swelling rivers, sending residents to shelters and disrupting traffic during a Japanese Buddhist holiday week. The storm was once Typhoon Maria but has weakened, with winds now blowing up to 90 kph (56 mph). It made landfall near Ofunato City in Iwate prefecture Monday morning and was expected to cut across the Tohoku region as it moved northwest at 15 kph (9 mph), according to the Japan Meteorological Agency. The Fire and Disaster Management Agency said no damage or injuries were reported so far, but authorities have cautioned about the risks of flooding and mudslides and advised 170,000 residents in Iwate and neighboring Aomori and Miyagi prefectures to go to shelters.

Bangladesh’s chief justice resigns under pressure as Yunus-led interim government starts working

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Bangladesh’s Chief Justice Obaidul Hassan resigned Saturday following new protests by a group of students and other demonstrators, as the country’s interim government led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus started functioning days after a mass uprising forced Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to resign and flee to India. Asif Nazrul, law, justice and parliamentary affairs adviser to the interim government, said in a video message posted on Facebook that his office received the resignation letter and they would forward it to the country’s figurehead President Mohammed Shahabuddin for further procedures. Five other top judges in the Supreme Court also resigned later on Saturday, in an attempt by the new government to reorganize the judiciary.

Bangladesh protests are not the first time student uprisings have helped bring about radical change

BANGKOK (AP) — In Bangladesh, weeks of protests against a quota system for government jobs turned into a broad uprising that forced the prime minister to flee the country and resign. The demonstrations began peacefully last month and were primarily led by students frustrated with the system that they said favored those with connections to the ruling party. But it turned violent on July 15 as student protesters clashed with security officials and pro-government activists. Former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina fled this week after the unrest during which nearly 300 people died, including both students and police officers. Students or other young people have frequently played pivotal roles in popular uprisings that have brought down governments or forced them to change policies.

Ethnic armed group suspected of deadly attack in Myanmar on Rohingya trying to flee fighting

BANGKOK (AP) — At least 150 civilians from Myanmar’s Muslim Rohingya minority may have been killed this week in an artillery and drone attack in the western state of Rakhine that survivors suspect was carried out by a major force in the resistance to military rule. The Arakan Army, the military wing of the state’s Rakhine ethnic group, denied responsibility for the assault Monday on Rohingya trying to flee fierce fighting in Maungdaw town by crossing the Naf River into Bangladesh. A statement issued Friday by an international medical assistance group, Doctors Without Borders, said that in the past week, it has been treating increasing numbers of Rohingya people with violence-related injuries who managed to cross the border into Bangladesh.

AP PHOTOS: 172-year-old Japanese factory preserves traditional way of making cast iron cookware

OSHU, Japan (AP) — Katsunori Suzuki is one of a few craftsmen in Japan still producing cast iron cookware by hand using laborious traditional techniques. The president of the 172-year-old foundry where he works says she wants to keep the tradition alive, even if it costs much more to produce. Suzuki uses moist sand and a few other ingredients to make the molds using a method called “tegome,” or “hand stuffing.” He spends hours tamping the sand in an iron frame to compress it just the right amount to create the mold, in which he carves detailed designs for the pot.

Philippine military says Chinese air force jets endangered its patrol plane with flares, risky moves

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The Philippine military chief condemned Saturday what he said was the provocative actions of two Chinese air force aircraft that executed a dangerous maneuver and dropped flares in the path of a Philippine air force plane on routine patrol in the South China Sea. All those aboard the Philippine air force NC-212i light transport plane were unharmed and returned safely to Clark Air Base north of Manila after Thursday morning’s incident over the Scarborough Shoal, Gen. Romeo Brawner said, without providing other details. A top Philippine security official told The Associated Press that the Chinese jets flew at a “very close distance” to the Philippine air force turbo-prop plane and “put the lives of our pilots in real risk and danger.” Another security officer said at least eight flares came from the Chinese fighter jets.

Attack on Pakistani army posts leaves 3 soldiers and 4 insurgents dead

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Militants attacked three army posts in northwest Pakistan on the border with Afghanistan on Friday, triggering intense shootouts that killed three soldiers and four insurgents, the military said. The attacks happened in the Tirah Valley in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, the military said in a statement. It said a search operation was underway in the area to eliminate any other insurgents and security forces were “determined to wipe out the menace of terrorism.” The military gave no further details, but a breakaway faction of the Pakistani Taliban in a statement claimed responsibility for the attacks. The Gul Bahadur group is based in Afghanistan, authorities say.

Thailand’s reformist Move Forward Party, dissolved by court order, regroups as People’s Party

BANGKOK (AP) — Just two days after being disbanded by court order, Thailand’s main progressive political party regrouped Friday under a new name and vowed to continue its fight for reforms despite continuing opposition from the conservative establishment that blocked the party from taking power despite finishing first in last year’s election. Leaders of the dissolved Move Forward Party announced they were forming a new party to be called the People’s — or Prachachon — Party. Critics say the party’s dissolution was the latest attack on the country’s progressive movement in a yearslong legal campaign by conservative forces. Thailand’s Constitutional Court on Wednesday unanimously ruled that the Move Forward Party violated the constitution by proposing to amend a law that criminalizes insulting the royal family.