Top Asian News 3:58 a.m. GMT

Pope embarks on longest, farthest and most challenging trip to Asia, with China in the background

VATICAN CITY (AP) — If any evidence were needed to underscore that Pope Francis’ upcoming trip to Asia and Oceania is the longest, farthest and most challenging of his pontificate, it’s that he’s bringing along his secretaries to help him navigate the four-country program while keeping up with work back home. Francis will clock 32,814 kilometers (20,390 miles) by air during his Sept. 2-13 visit to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore, far surpassing any of his previous 44 foreign trips and notching one of the longest papal trips ever, both in terms of days on the road and distances traveled.

Taiwan investigators to rule on further detention of former presidential candidate amid graft probe

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Taiwan investigators were expected to rule Sunday on the further detention of a former presidential candidate amid graft allegations that have sparked minor street protests by his supporters. Ko Wen-je, chairman of the Taiwan People’s Party, was held overnight and has a hearing on Sunday. Supporters gathered outside the prosecutors office in Taipei, holding signs and chanting slogans demanding Ko’s release and alleging judicial oppression. Investigators refused Ko’s request to return home out of concern he would collude with others involved in the case. Ko, who trained as a doctor and also served as mayor of Taipei, and his TPP emerged as a third force in a sometimes rambunctious democracy dominated by the ruling Democratic Progressive Party and the remainder of the Nationalist Party that fled to Taiwan after the Communist Party’s takeover of mainland China in 1949.

Storm creeps through Japan, bringing heavy rainfall to some spots for days

TOKYO (AP) — Tropical Storm Shanshan brought torrential rain Sunday to Japan ’s Shizuoka area, 180 kilometers (110 miles) southwest of Tokyo, as weather officials warned the storm would linger for several more days. Shanshan, packing winds of 65 kph (40 mph), made landfall Thursday, leaving landslides, flooded rivers, torn branches and scattered debris in its path. In southwestern Japan, people were busy cleaning up muddied homes and throwing out broken appliances. The storm is so far connected with at least six deaths, including three people who were trapped in a mudslide. It left one person missing and 127 people injured, according to Japanese public broadcaster NHK, which compiles reports from local governments.

Catholics face a shortage of priests. But one Indonesian seminary is overwhelmed with applicants

MAUMERE, Indonesia (AP) — Arnoldus Yansen thought for certain he was going to become a Catholic priest, just like his older brother, cousin and uncle. He attended St. Peter Major Seminary, a bastion of priestly vocations located in the middle of a jungle on Flores, a predominantly Catholic island in Muslim-majority Indonesia. Known familiarly as Ritapiret Seminary, St. Peter Major has produced 13 bishops, more than 580 diocesan priests and 23 deacons in nearly 70 years of existence. But Yansen won’t be among them. He tried to shake off what he thought were last-minute jitters before entering the priesthood. Instead, Yansen took off his clerical robes for good and joined the hundreds of prospective priests who resign or fail to take up Catholic vocations every year in Indonesia.

More Hong Kongers tune out the news as they adapt to Beijing’s tightening grip

HONG KONG (AP) — Hannah Wong cried when the Hong Kong government effectively forced Apple Daily and Stand News out of business three years ago. Among the last news outlets in the city willing to criticize the government openly, many saw their end as a sign that the old Hong Kong was gone for good. Today, the 35-year-old makeup artist says she’s gone from reading the news every day to reducing her intake drastically to protect herself from despair. Four years into a crackdown on dissent that’s swept up democracy-leaning journalists, activists and politicians in this autonomously-governed Chinese city, a lot of people are tuning out the news.

Chinese and Philippine vessels collide at a disputed atoll and governments trade accusations

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — China and the Philippines accused each other of causing a collision between their two vessels Saturday in the latest flareup of tensions over disputed waters and maritime features in the South China Sea. In a statement posted on social media, Chinese coast guard spokesperson Liu Dejun was quoted as saying that a Philippine ship maneuvered and “deliberately collided” with a Chinese coast guard ship “in an unprofessional and dangerous manner.” Philippine officials in Manila said it was their coast guard ship, the BRP Teresa Magbanua, that was rammed thrice by the Chinese coast guard without any provocation, causing damage to the Philippine vessel.

Japan wants its hardworking citizens to try a 4-day workweek

TOKYO (AP) — Japan, a nation so hardworking its language has a term for literally working oneself to death, is trying to address a worrisome labor shortage by coaxing more people and companies to adopt four-day workweeks. The Japanese government first expressed support for a shorter working week in 2021, after lawmakers endorsed the idea. The concept has been slow to catch on, however; about 8% of companies in Japan allow employees to take three or more days off per week, while 7% give their workers the legally mandated one day off, according to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.

UN will continue to engage the Taliban in Afghanistan despite new laws restricting women

ISLAMABAD (AP) — The United Nations will continue to engage all stakeholders in Afghanistan, including the Taliban, a U.N. spokesman said, even though Afghanistan’s rulers issued a ban on women’s voices and bare faces in public and severed ties with the U.N. mission after it criticized them. U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric in New York defended the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, or UNAMA, and its head Roza Otunbayeva, who said that the new laws provided a “distressing vision” for Afghanistan’s future. She said last week the laws extend the " already intolerable restrictions ” on the rights of women and girls, with “even the sound of a female voice” outside the home apparently deemed a moral violation.

Japan lodges formal protest over Chinese survey ship entering its territorial waters

TOKYO (AP) — Japan lodged a formal protest via China’s embassy against what it called an incursion by a Chinese survey ship into its territorial waters Saturday, the Japanese foreign ministry said. The ministry expressed “strong concern” after the ship was spotted near Kagoshima Prefecture, southwestern Japan, early in the morning. The Chinese ship, confirmed in territorial waters at 6 a.m. local time, left shortly before 8 a.m., according to Japan’s Defense Ministry, adding it was monitored by a Japanese military vessel and plane. Recently, China’s increasingly assertive activity around Japanese waters and airspace has caused unease among Japanese defense officials, also concerned about the growing military cooperation between the Chinese and Russian air forces.

AP PHOTOS: Beijing’s imperial palace bustles with throngs of visitors in Qing dynasty costumes

BEIJING, China (AP) — In Beijing’s Forbidden City, once the sprawling palace to China’s Ming and Qing emperors and their legions of guards and servants, steady streams of visitors wearing historical costumes pose for portraits, in a fashion of centuries gone by. It’s a phenomenon seen around heritage sites across China, inspired by comic book conventions and the Japanese passion for cosplay, but with additional nationalistic and cultural dimensions. Though the historical veracity of the frocks and cloaks may not be guaranteed, they draw their inspiration from Chinese painting, theater and art, especially that of the Qing, China’s last dynasty that was known for its relative prosperity and cultural advances through trade in silk and porcelain.