Top Asian News 2:20 a.m. GMT

New US ambassador, former senator and business executive David Perdue, arrives in China

BEIJING (AP) — The new U.S. ambassador to China, former senator and business executive David Perdue, arrived in Beijing on Thursday, just days after China and the U.S. agreed to a temporary break in their damaging tariff war. Perdue said on X that it is an honor to represent President Donald Trump as ambassador. “I am ready to get to work here and make America safer, stronger, and more prosperous,” he wrote. Perdue, 75, had a long career as an executive in firms from clothing to retail. He was based in Hong Kong as head of the Asia operations for Sara Lee Corp.

Manny Pacquiao returning to the ring after losing Philippines senatorial race

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Boxing great Manny Pacquiao is coming out of retirement to fight Mario Barrios for the WBC welterweight crown in July. Pacquiao’s team made the announcement on Thursday, just hours after he conceded defeat in a bid for another seat in the Philippines Senate. “His comeback aligns with his scheduled induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in June, capping a storied sports legacy that continues to inspire millions of Filipino people,” the press statement said. It was not clear if the fight at a Las Vegas venue to be decided is a one-off or if 46-year-old Pacquiao is coming out of a four-year retirement to box full-time.

Decorated Australian veteran loses his defamation appeal over killings in Afghanistan

Australia’s most decorated living war veteran Ben Roberts-Smith on Friday lost his appeal of a civil court ruling that blamed him for unlawfully killing four Afghans while he served in Afghanistan. Three federal court judges unanimously rejected his appeal of a judge’s ruling in 2023 that Roberts-Smith was not defamed by newspaper articles published in 2018 that accused him of a range of war crimes. Justice Anthony Besanko had ruled that the accusations were substantially true to a civil standard and Roberts-Smith was responsible for four of the six unlawful deaths he had been accused of. Roberts-Smith has never faced criminal charges, which must be proven to the higher standard of beyond reasonable doubt.

New Zealand’s Parliament will debate suspending Māori lawmakers who performed a protest haka

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — A New Zealand parliamentary committee has recommended the unprecedented suspensions of three Māori lawmakers for performing a protest haka in the debating chamber last year. The haka is a chanting dance of challenge of great cultural importance in New Zealand, and the three lawmakers from Te Pāti Māori, the Māori party, performed one to oppose a controversial bill that would have redefined the country’s founding document. A committee Wednesday recommended record suspensions and severe censure — the harshest penalties ever assigned to New Zealand parliamentarians — after finding the trio in contempt of Parliament. Government bloc lawmakers, who hold the majority, are expected to endorse the penalties in a vote Tuesday.

China allows visa-free entry for 5 Latin American nations to boost ties

BEIJING (AP) — China will allow visa-free entry for nationals of five Latin American countries for one year to boost closer connections with the region. Starting June 1, citizens of Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru and Uruguay will be allowed to enter China for up to 30 days without a visa, China’s Foreign Ministry announced Thursday. The trial program will be in effect for one year. “We welcome more foreign friends to visit China, to experience the colorful and vibrant China,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said at a daily briefing. Beijing hosted the China-CELAC, or Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, Forum earlier this week, aiming at strengthening its alliances in the region as a counterweight to U.S.

Australian prime minister speaks of Beijing prisoner’s courage, resilience and hope

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Thursday spoke of the courage, resilience and hope of Australian citizen Yang Hengjun, who was convicted last year in China of espionage. The plight of the 59-year-old Chinese-born democracy blogger, who was arrested on arrival in China on a flight from New York in 2019, remains an impediment to an improving bilateral relationship between Canberra and Beijing. Albanese said Yang had recently written to him from a Beijing prison. “It was a message of profound courage and resilience and hope despite his difficult circumstances,” Albanese told reporters in Jakarta, where he was making his first overseas visit since his government was reelected on May 3.

Australian leader visits Indonesia seeking deeper economic and defense ties

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Australia’s newly reelected Prime Minister Anthony Albanese met with Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto on Thursday in a visit aiming to strengthen his country’s economic and defense ties with its closest major neighbor. Albanese arrived in the capital, Jakarta, on Wednesday evening, a day after his new government was sworn in to a second three-year term following an emphatic election victory May 3. “I am here in Indonesia because no relationship is more important to Australia than this one,” Albanese said in a joint press statement with Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto after a meeting, Albanese did not comment on media reports that Russia had told Indonesia it wants to base its long-range warplanes in Papua, the most eastern Indonesian province, a plan that was raised as a security issue during the Australian election campaign.

An American basketball player arrested in Indonesia for alleged drug smuggling

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — An American basketball player for the Indonesian league was arrested for allegedly attempting to smuggle illegal drugs to the country, police said Thursday. The Southeast Asian country has extremely strict drug laws, and convicted smugglers are sometimes executed by firing squad. Jarred Dwayne Shaw, 34, from Dallas, Texas, was arrested May 7, after police raided his apartment in Tangerang regency, just outside the capital, Jakarta, and seized 132 pieces of cannabis candies, said Ronald Sipayung, the Soekarno-Hatta Airport police chief. The arrest followed a tip from the airport’s customs that reported Shaw had received a suspicious airway package from Thailand, Sipayung said.

In India, Indigenous women and their ‘dream maps’ seek to protect lands from climate change

KORAPUT, India (AP) — At a small stream in India’s eastern state of Odisha, Indigenous villagers catch eels and fish for a dinner celebrating an annual harvest festival. The bounty of communal farming, foraging and fishing marks the start of a new season. But the fish and other resources have been dwindling. “Nowadays, the rains come late, affecting our farming, leading to a decrease in production,” said Sunita Muduli, a Paraja tribeswoman from Putpondi village. She stood on freshly tilled fields that would be sown again with millet before the increasingly unpredictable monsoon rains. The Indigenous Adivasis have lived in these villages for millennia.

Japan starts emergency inspections on nearly 200 military training planes after crash

TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s air force has begun emergency safety inspections on all of its nearly 200 military training aircraft after one of the planes crashed minutes after takeoff, officials said Thursday. The T-4 training aircraft, operated by the Japan Air Self-Defense Force, or JASDF, and carrying two service members, crashed into a reservoir Wednesday, minutes after taking off from Komaki Air Base in the central Japanese prefecture of Aichi. While the search operation for the missing aircraft and the two crew members continued Thursday, the military announced that it had started emergency inspections on all remaining 196 of the training planes deployed at JASDF bases across the country.