Top Asian News 11:34 a.m. GMT

India’s steel expansion threatens climate goals and global efforts to clean up industry: report

BENGALURU, India (AP) — India’s plans to double steel production by the end of the decade could jeopardize its national climate goals and a key global target to reduce planet-heating gas emissions from the steel industry, according to a report released Tuesday. The report by Global Energy Monitor, an organization that tracks energy projects around the globe, said efforts to decarbonize steelmaking are gaining traction around the world. However, in India, which is the world’s second largest steel-producing nation, overwhelming reliance on coal-based technologies presents a big challenge. “India is now the bellwether of global steel decarbonization,” said Astrid Grigsby-Schulte, project manager of the Global Iron and Steel Tracker at GEM and report co-author.

How uproar over a Māori haka, beloved in New Zealand life, sowed chaos and gridlock in Parliament

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — The haka, a chanting dance of challenge, is sacred to New Zealand’s Māori people but it’s become a beloved cultural institution among New Zealanders of all races. Spine-tingling performances at sports events, funerals and graduations often go viral online, a non-partisan point of pride for the country abroad. But one haka performed in protest in New Zealand’s Parliament by three legislators last November has provoked fierce division among lawmakers about whether it was an act of peaceful dissent, or disruptive and even intimidating to their opponents. A vote to approve unprecedented, lengthy bans from Parliament for the Māori party lawmakers who enacted the protest was unexpectedly suspended on Tuesday.

Record-setting British climber says he will scale Everest again next year, targeting his 20th summit

KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — A British climber who scaled Mount Everest for the 19th time, breaking his own record for the most ascents of the world’s highest peak by a non-Sherpa guide, returned from the mountain on Tuesday and said he is already planning his next attempt. Kenton Cool, 51, from southwest England, scaled the 8,849-meter (29,032-foot) summit on Sunday before flying on a helicopter with his clients back to the Nepalese capital, Kathmandu. “I am 51 now, and I have been coming here since 2004 to climb Everest,” Cool said at Kathmandu’s airport on Tuesday. “I have at least one more climb for next year — maybe 20 or 21 (total).

Cambodia’s ‘Day of Remembrance’ marks the 50th anniversary of the Khmer Rouge genocide

CHOEUNG EK, Cambodia (AP) — About 2,000 people attended Cambodia’s annual Day of Remembrance Tuesday to mark half a century since Cambodia’s communist Khmer Rouge launched a four-year reign of terror that caused the deaths of about 1.7 million people. Some three dozen student actors from a Phnom Penh art school re-enacted brutalities under the Khmer Rouge, which held power from 1975-1979, when an estimated one-quarter of Cambodia’s population was wiped out due to tortures, executions, starvation and misrule. The official ceremony honoring the victims of what a U.N.-backed tribunal judged to be genocide was held at Choeung Ek, site of a Khmer Rouge “Killing Field” about 15 kilometers (10 miles) south of the capital Phnom Penh.

Forget China’s navy, Chinese small boats landings on Taiwan are a new source of concern

TAIPEI (AP) — China has long sought to intimidate Taiwan with its massive navy, air force and the world’s largest standing army, but it’s mere dinghies that are now causing the most consternation. Taiwan’s coast guard has documented five cases totaling 38 Chinese citizens crossing the 160-kilometer (100-mile) wide Taiwan Strait separating the self-governing island democracy from the authoritarian Chinese mainland, according to the body’s deputy director-general Hsieh Ching-chin. That includes at least one case posted to Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, in which a man speaking with a strong mainland Chinese accent is seen planting a Chinese flag on what he says is a Taiwanese beach.

Thousands protest after a suspected drone strike kills 4 children in northwest Pakistan

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — A suspected drone strike killed four children and wounded five others in northwest Pakistan, prompting thousands of residents to stage a protest by placing the children’s bodies on a main road to demand justice, local elders said on Tuesday. It wasn’t immediately clear who was behind Monday’s attack in Mir Ali, which has been a stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban, and there was no comment from the army. “We are not blaming anyone, but we want justice, and the government should tell us who killed our children,” local tribal elder Mufti Baitullah said. He warned that the protest, currently staged at one regional roadblock, could expand if authorities fail to answer.

A car runs a red light and kills 3 people in Taiwan, including two 12-year-old girls

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — A stream of people in Taiwan left flowers and bags of snacks on Tuesday near the intersection where a driver plowed through pedestrians the previous day, killing three people including two 12-year-old girls. The crash, which left the 78-year-old driver in a coma, saddened many on this self-governing island of 23 million people off China’s east coast. A video posted on X by Taiwan’s Central News Agency showed people praying and bowing their heads in front of rows of colorful flowers and bags of snacks. Taiwanese often place snacks as offerings, sometimes those that were the favorites of the deceased.

Taiwan’s president downplays tariff tensions with the US as ‘frictions between friends’

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — The Taiwanese president said Tuesday that trade tensions between the United States and Taiwan are just “frictions between friends” in a show of optimism as tariff negotiations are underway with Washington. U.S. President Donald Trump imposed 32% tariffs on all imports from Taiwan as part of sweeping duties levied against all U.S. trading partners last month. The tariffs on Taiwanese goods were subsequently lowered to 10% for 90 days to allow for trade negotiations. Officials from both sides held a first round of talks last month, to be followed by another one in the coming weeks. In a speech marking his first year as president and focusing on Taiwan’s strategies to defuse the effects of U.S.

A British man on trial in Bali for a drug offense pleads for a lenient sentence

DENPASAR, Indonesia (AP) — A British man on trial for drug offenses pleaded for leniency Tuesday in a court on the Indonesian tourist island of Bali after a charge that could carry the death penalty was dropped. Thomas Parker, from Cumbria in northwest England, was arrested on Jan. 21, at a villa near Kuta beach, a popular tourist spot, after he allegedly collected a package from a motorcycle taxi driver at a nearby street. According to the court document obtained by The Associated Press, Parker was noticed “acting suspiciously” by officers while he was collecting the package. He allegedly discarded it in a panic and fled when police approached him.

Thailand and Indonesia announce strategic partnership, vow to boost economic and defense ties

BANGKOK (AP) — Indonesia and Thailand agreed Monday to elevate their relationship to a strategic partnership, during the first state visit by an Indonesian president in 20 years and agreed to push for greater trade and investment. President Prabowo Subianto, who took power last year, was welcomed by Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra in intermittent rain at Government House in Bangkok. As is traditional, the two leaders reviewed an honor guard before heading inside to hold bilateral talks on the future shape of their relationship. Subianto’s visit also coincided with the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries.