Top Asian News 2:52 a.m. GMT

India’s parliament passes controversial bill that would change Muslim endowments

SRINAGAR, India (AP) — India’s parliament early Thursday passed a controversial bill moved by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government to amend laws governing Muslim land endowments. The bill would add non-Muslims to boards that manage waqf land endowments and give the government a larger role in validating their land holdings. The government says the changes will help to fight corruption and mismanagement while promoting diversity, but critics fear that it will further undermine the rights of the country’s Muslim minority and could be used to confiscate historic mosques and other property. Debate in the Lower House was heated as the Congress-led opposition firmly opposed the proposal, calling it unconstitutional and discriminatory against Muslims.

Myanmar’s military declares a ceasefire to ease quake relief as deaths pass 3,000

BANGKOK (AP) — Myanmar’s ruling military declared a temporary ceasefire in the country’s civil war Wednesday to facilitate relief efforts following a 7.7 magnitude earthquake that has killed more than 3,000 people. The surprise announcement by military leaders who also head the unelected government came late Wednesday on state television MRTV, which said the halt in fighting would run until April 22 to show compassion for people affected by Friday’s quake. The announcement followed unilateral temporary ceasefires announced by armed resistance groups opposed to military rule, and the military warned that those groups must refrain from attacking the state and regrouping, or else face “necessary” measures.

The world reacts with caution to US ‘reciprocal’ tariffs against dozens of nations

BANGKOK (AP) — The sweeping new tariffs announced Wednesday by U.S. President Donald Trump were met initially with measured reactions from key trading partners, highlighting the lack of appetite for a full-fledged trade war. Trump presented the import taxes, which he calls “reciprocal tariffs” and range from 10% to 49%, in the simplest terms: the U.S. would do to its trading partners what he said they had been doing to the U.S. for decades. “Taxpayers have been ripped off for more than 50 years,” he said. “But it is not going to happen anymore.” The president promised that “Jobs and factories will come roaring back into our country.” He framed it not just as an economic issue, but a question of national security that threatens “our very way of life.” Financial markets were jolted, with U.S.

Counting the potential toll of Trump’s tariffs on major Asian economies

BANGKOK (AP) — The trade war that U.S. President Donald Trump has escalated in his second term is a challenge for all Asian economies, large and small, in an era when the most populous region of the world is expected to drive global economic growth. Export manufacturing and free trade helped transform China and other Asian countries into economic powerhouses over the past decades. Trump’s barrages of tariffs, aimed at compelling companies to keep or set up their factories in the United States, are rupturing trade agreements often made at great political cost to trading partners. The White House says the criteria for raising tariffs will include not just U.S.

Worried families and search dogs bond during the long days of rescue effort at Bangkok collapse

BANGKOK (AP) — For most of the day, somberness clouded over a makeshift shelter set up for grief-stricken relatives of dozens of workers who remain missing at the building collapse in Bangkok. They huddled together, a short distance from the rubble, awaiting news for their loved ones to be found. But for a few minutes, their faces broke out in smiles, as a group of fluffy, playful golden retrievers approached the waiting relatives on a break from the dogs’ rescue mission. Bangkok is more than 800 miles (1,287 kilometers) from the epicenter of the magnitude 7.7 earthquake that struck Myanmar on Friday.

China conducts military drills focusing on Taiwan Strait

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — China conducted military drills around Taiwan for a second day Wednesday, focusing on the Taiwan Strait — a crucial conduit for international trade separating the self-governing island democracy from China. The Strait Thunder-2025A drills were held in the middle and southern areas of the strait, a People’s Liberation Army spokesperson said. Taiwan’s military said that it was closely monitoring the drills, but there was nothing unusual on the island of 23 million people that China claims as its own territory. The latest exercises “focus on subjects of identification and verification, warning and expulsion, and interception and detention so as to test the troops’ capabilities of area regulation and control, joint blockade and control, and precision strikes on key targets,” Eastern Theater Command spokesperson Shi Yi was quoted as saying on the Chinese Defense Ministry’s Weibo social media account.

High waves cause damage on Sydney waterfront

SYDNEY (AP) — Sydney beachfront properties were flooded and coastal infrastructure damaged after a large swell combined with a king tide to batter the Australian shore, officials said Thursday. Several homes were evacuated at Botany Bay in Sydney’s south around midnight as waves surged across the coast, according to New South Wales State Emergency Service spokesman Andrew Edmunds. Further north at Sydney’s premier Bondi Beach, the coast was lashed by a 5.5-meter (18-foot) swell, officials said. Windows were shattered at Bondi Icebergs Swimming Club, a waterfront pool, gymnasium and restaurant complex. CCTV footage showed waves bursting through glass doors after 11 p.m.

By the numbers: US deployment of B-2 bombers as tensions ramp up with Houthis and Iran

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Satellite images analyzed Wednesday by The Associated Press show the deployment of at least six nuclear-capable B-2 Spirit bombers to Camp Thunder Bay on the island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. The presence of the bombers comes as the United States continues an intense airstrike campaign targeting Yemen’s Houthi rebels. The B-2 has been used in combat to target the Houthis in the past. The Diego Garcia base is south of India and within striking distance of both Iran and Yemen. Tensions also remain high between Iran and the U.S. over Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program.

Amazon’s last-minute bid for TikTok comes as a US ban on the platform is set to take effect Saturday

WASHINGTON (AP) — Amazon has put in a bid to purchase TikTok, a Trump administration official said Wednesday, in an eleventh-hour pitch as a U.S. ban on the platform is set to go into effect Saturday. The official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the Amazon offer was made in a letter to Vice President JD Vance and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. The New York Times first reported on the bid. President Donald Trump on Inauguration Day gave the platform a reprieve, barreling past a law that had been upheld unanimously by the Supreme Court, which said the ban was necessary for national security.

South Korea’s Constitutional Court will rule Friday on Yoon’s impeachment

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s Constitutional Court will rule Friday on whether to formally dismiss or reinstate impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol — a decision that either way will likely deepen domestic divisions. The court has been deliberating on Yoon’s political fate after the conservative leader was impeached in December by the National Assembly, which is controlled by the liberal opposition, over his brief imposition of martial law that triggered a massive political crisis. Millions of people have rallied around the country to support or denounce Yoon. Police said they’ll mobilize all available personnel to preserve order and respond to possible acts of vandalism, arson and assault before and after the court’s ruling.