Top Asian News 8:22 p.m. GMT
King Charles tells summit the past can’t be changed as leaders ask Britain to reckon with slavery
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — King Charles III told a summit of Commonwealth countries in Samoa on Friday that the past could not be changed as he indirectly acknowledged calls from some of Britain’s former colonies for a reckoning over its role in the trans-Atlantic slave trade. The British monarch told leaders in Apia that he understood “the most painful aspects of our past continue to resonate.” But Charles stopped short of mentioning financial reparations that some leaders at the event have urged, and instead exhorted them to find the “right language” and an understanding of history “to guide us towards making the right choices in future where inequality exists.”
Thousands of children adopted by Americans are without citizenship. Congress is unwilling to act
HENDERSON, Nev. (AP) — The 50-year-old newspaper was turning yellow and its edges fraying, so she had it laminated, not as a memento but as proof — America made a promise to her, and did not keep it. She pointed to the picture in the corner of her as a little girl in the rural Midwest, hugging the family Yorkshire terrier, with dark pigtails and brown eyes so round people called her Buttons. Next to her sit smiling, proud parents — her father an Air Force veteran who had survived a German prison camp in World War II and found her in an orphanage in Iran.
Thousands were adopted to the US but not made citizens. Decades later, they risk being deported
The United States has brought hundreds of thousands of children from abroad to be adopted by American families. But along the way it left thousands of them without citizenship, through a bureaucratic loophole that the government has been aware of for decades, and hasn’t fixed. Some of these adoptees live in hiding, fearing that tipping off the government could prompt their removal back to the country the U.S. claimed to have rescued them from. Some have already been deported. A bill to help them has been introduced in Congress for a decade, and is supported by a rare bipartisan coalition — from liberal immigration groups to the Southern Baptist Convention.
Calls for reparations for Britain’s slave trade are rooted in dark legacy
LONDON (AP) — A debate about reparations for Britain’s role in the slave trade overshadowed a summit in Samoa of the Commonwealth, many of whose member nations were once British colonies. Britain insists it will not pay to make amends for the historic wrong, but both King Charles III and Prime Minister Keir Starmer addressed the issue indirectly at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. “None of us can change the past but we can commit with all our hearts to learning its lessons and to finding creative ways to right the inequalities that endure,” Charles said. The legacy of slavery is interwoven in some of Britain’s richest and most revered institutions — from the Church of England to the insurance giant Lloyd’s of London to the monarchy itself.
Ukraine’s Zelenskyy says North Korean troops are poised to join the war, cancels UN chief’s visit
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — North Korean troops are poised to be deployed by Russia on the battlefield in Ukraine as early as this weekend, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy claimed Friday. Western officials have warned that North Korean units joining the fight would stoke the almost three-year war and bring geopolitical consequences as far away as the Indo-Pacific region. The possibility has alarmed leaders and deepened diplomatic tensions. White House national security spokesman John Kirby said Friday that the top national security advisers for the United States, Japan and South Korea met and “expressed grave concern” about North Korea’s troop deployments for potential use with Russia on the battlefield against Ukraine.
Storm blows away from northern Philippines leaving 82 dead but forecasters warn it may do a U-turn
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Tropical Storm Trami blew away from the northwestern Philippines on Friday, leaving at least 82 people dead in landslides and extensive flooding that forced authorities to scramble for more rescue boats to save thousands of terrified people, who were trapped, some on their roofs. But the onslaught may not be over: State forecasters raised the rare possibility that the storm — the 11th and one of the deadliest to hit the Philippines this year — could make a U-turn next week as it is pushed back by high-pressure winds in the South China Sea. A Philippine provincial police chief said Friday that 49 people were killed mostly in landslides set off by Trami in Batangas province south of Manila.
Japan’s ruling party may struggle in Sunday’s vote, but its decades of dominance won’t end
TOKYO (AP) — Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba ’s ruling party, dogged by corruption scandals and plunging support, faces its toughest challenge in more than a decade in Sunday’s parliamentary election. This could set up a very short-lived time in office for Ishiba, who only took power earlier this month. But even if he may have to take responsibility and step down as head of the party and prime minister, it won’t cause his Liberal Democratic Party to fall from power. That’s because the party, which has had a stranglehold on power since 1955, easily dominates a fractured, weak opposition, which has only ruled twice, and briefly, during that time.
India and Germany look to bolster ties as Modi and Scholz hold talks in New Delhi
NEW DELHI (AP) — Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Friday held wide-ranging discussions to bolster strategic ties between the two countries as Berlin looks to strengthen its relationship with New Delhi at a time when the West is seeking to counter China’s growing influence in the region. Modi and Scholz met in New Delhi where the two countries signed various agreements on enhancing cooperation in the defense sector, information technology, clean energy, skill development and artificial intelligence. Scholz — accompanied by several key ministers and business leaders — is leading a high-level delegation as part of his three-day visit to India.
Criminals may be leveraging climate change as record acreage burns in Brazil’s Amazon
BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — Wildfires in Brazil have swept through an area the size of Switzerland, a level of destruction that will take decades to recover, if it ever does, according to a new satellite assessment. The breadth of forest that has been lost or degraded was revealed as smoke that has blanketed the country cleared, thanks to rains that may be ending the worst drought Brazil has ever recorded. “The data is exceptionally alarming, it’s a very abrupt surge,” Ane Alencar, science director at the Amazon Environmental Research Institute, a Brazilian nonprofit, told The Associated Press. The area that burned between January and mid-October 2024 represents an 846% increase over the same period in 2023.
The son-in-law of former Myanmar’s strongman is arrested over Facebook posts
BANGKOK (AP) — Myanmar’s security forces arrested the son-in-law of the country’s former longtime military ruler, Than Shwe, for allegedly posting inflammatory statements on his Facebook account, the state-run media said Friday. Nay Soe Maung, a 67-year-old retired colonel and a former army medical officer, was the latest to be arrested and jailed for writing Facebook posts that allegedly spread inflammatory news. His arrest came two weeks after he posted criticism of the current military leader and his condolences for the death of Zaw Myint Maung, a senior member of Myanmar’s former ruling party whose government was ousted during the 2021 military takeover.