TIAN MACLEOD JI

A worker carries a box of supplies for a Mixue store in Jakarta, Indonesia, Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim)
Make room Starbucks and McDonald’s. China’s Mixue and other brands win fans in Southeast Asia
Chinese food and beverage brands are gaining fans across Southeast Asia, offering alternatives to big name American chains and expanding Beijing’s commercial and cultural sway in neighboring economies.
 
A family member mourns during the cremation ceremony for victims of a school bus fire, at Wat Khao Phraya Sangkharam School, Lan Sak, Uthai Thani province, Thailand, Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Chatkla Samnaingjam)
Small town in Thailand hold mass cremation for 23 who died in a school trip bus fire
Mourners wept and monks prayed at a cremation ceremony in a small town in central Thailand for 23 young students and teachers who died in last week’s bus fire on a school field trip.
 
A worker feeds discarded textiles to a shredding machine at the Wenzhou Tiancheng Textile Company, one of China's largest cotton recycling plants in Wenzhou in eastern China's Zhejiang province on March 20, 2024. The recycling factory that repurposes discarded cotton clothes is trying to deal with the urgent waste problem. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
Takeaways from AP’s report on how China’s textile recycling efforts take a back seat to fast fashion
China is the world’s largest textile producer and consumer, throwing away 26 million tons of clothes each year, mostly made of unrecyclable synthetics.
 
A worker feeds discarded textiles to a shredding machine at the Wenzhou Tiancheng Textile Company, one of China's largest cotton recycling plants in Wenzhou in eastern China's Zhejiang province on March 20, 2024. The recycling factory that repurposes discarded cotton clothes is trying to deal with the urgent waste problem. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
26 million tons of clothing end up in China’s landfills each year, propelled by fast fashion
China is the world’s largest textile producer and consumer, throwing away 26 million tons of clothes each year, mostly made of unrecyclable synthetics.
 
Rowena He poses for a photograph after the play "May 35th," whose title is a roundabout way to refer to June 4, in London, Thursday, May 30, 2024. As the 35th anniversary of Beijing's Tiananmen Square crackdown neared, Rowena He, a prominent scholar of the bloody chapter of modern China, was busy flying between the United States, Britain and Canada to give a series of talks. Each was aimed at speaking out for those who cannot. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
After crackdown on Hong Kong, overseas communities carry the torch to keep Tiananmen memories alive
China has quashed large-scale commemorations of Tuesday’s 35th anniversary of Beijing’s Tiananmen Square crackdown within its borders.
 
Pan Gongsheng, Governor of People's Bank of China, speaks at a sub forum ahead of the annual Boao Forum held in Boao in southern China's Hainan province on Wednesday, March 27, 2024. China's central bank governor calls for accleration of reforms on quta allocation at IMF to increase the voice of Asia (AP Photo/Olivia Zhang)
Top Chinese official says green, high tech development key as nation seeks to spur economy
A top Communist Party official says China is committed to introducing reforms that will upgrade the technological level of its largely manufacturing-based economy. and generate huge revenues from green technologies that would drive around $1.4 trillion in annual revenues.
 
FILE- Agnes Chow, center, a prominent pro-democracy activist who was sentenced to jail for her role in an unauthorized protest, is released in Hong Kong Saturday, June 12, 2021. One of Hong Kong’s best-known pro-democracy activists, who moved to Canada to pursue further studies, said she would not return to the city to meet her bail conditions, becoming the latest politician to flee Hong Kong under Beijing's crackdown on dissidents.(AP Photo/Vincent Yu, File)
Democracy activist Agnes Chow says she still feels under the watch of Hong Kong police in Canada
Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Agnes Chow says she still feels under the watch of the Chinese territory’s police after moving to Toronto. Chow was arrested in 2020 under a Beijing-imposed national security law but wasn’t charged.
 
Visitors evacuate from a shopping mall in Bangkok, Thailand, Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2023. Hundreds of shoppers fled the major shopping mall in the center of the Thai capital Bangkok on Tuesday afternoon after what sounded like gunshots were heard inside. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)
Shooting at major Bangkok shopping mall kills 2 people, and a teen suspect is arrested
Authorities in Thailand’s capital say two people were killed when a teenage boy with a handgun opened fire in a major shopping mall in the center of Bangkok.
 
This video grab shows Kim Aris displaying an old family photo of his mother, Myanmar's ousted and detained leader Aung San Suu Kyi during an interview with The Associated Press in London, Wednesday, Sept. 13, 2023. Aris, Suu Kyi's younger son, expressed concern about the health of his mother, who was arrested when her government was toppled by the army in February 2021, remains in detention, apparently in a prison in the Myanmar capital Naypyitaw. (AP Photo/Tian Macleod Ji)
Son of Aung Sang Suu Kyi is worried about her health in detention and about Myanmar’s violent crisis
The son of ousted Myanmar leader Aung Sang Suu Kyi says he has always avoided talking to the media, but this time is different.