Top Asian News 3:43 a.m. GMT

Japan approves plan to sell fighter jets to other nations in latest break from pacifist principles

TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s Cabinet on Tuesday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it’s developing with Britain and Italy to other countries, in the latest move away from the country’s postwar pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project and part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to countries other than the partners.

Why is Japan changing its ban on exporting lethal weapons, and why is it so controversial?

TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s Cabinet OK’d a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets to other countries on Tuesday, its latest step away from the pacifist principles the country adopted at the end of World War II. The controversial decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in a year-old project to develop a new fighter jet together with Italy and the U.K., but it’s also part of a move to build up Japan’s arms industry and bolster its role in global affairs. For now, Tokyo says that it doesn’t plan to export co-developed lethal weapons other than the new fighters, which aren’t expected to enter service until 2035.

Shohei Ohtani says he never bet on sports, interpreter Ippei Mizuhara stole money, told lies

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Shohei Ohtani said Monday he never bet on sports or knowingly paid any gambling debts accumulated by his longtime interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara. Instead, the Los Angeles Dodgers star claims his close friend lied to him for years and stole millions from the two-time MVP. Ohtani gave his version of events during a news conference at Dodger Stadium, five days after Mizuhara was fired by the Dodgers following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well over $1 million. “I am very saddened and shocked someone whom I trusted has done this,” the Japanese star said while sitting next to Will Ireton, the team’s manager of performance operations, who translated.

A London court will rule on Tuesday whether WikiLeaks’ Assange can challenge extradition to the US

LONDON (AP) — A London court is due to rule whether WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange gets one final appeal in England to challenge extradition to the United States on espionage charges. Two judges are scheduled to issue a judgment Tuesday morning in the High Court that could put an end to Assange’s long legal saga — or extend it further. If he fails in winning the right to appeal, his legal team fears he could be swiftly sent to the U.S. to face charges, though they’re likely to ask the European Court of Human Rights to block any transfer. Assange, 52, has been indicted on 17 espionage charges and one charge of computer misuse over his website’s publication of a trove of classified U.S.

US and UK go after Chinese hackers accused of state-backed operation against politicians, dissidents

WASHINGTON (AP) — Hackers linked to the Chinese government launched a sweeping, state-backed operation that targeted U.S. officials, journalists, corporations, pro-democracy activists and the U.K.'s election watchdog, American and British authorities said Monday in announcing a set of criminal charges and sanctions. The intention of the campaign, which officials say began in 2010, was to harass critics of the Chinese government, steal trade secrets of American corporations and to spy on and track high-level political figures. Western officials disclosed the operation, carried out by a hacking group known as APT31, while sounding a fresh, election-year alarm about a country long seen as having advanced espionage capabilities.

New Zealand joins US and UK in alleging it was targeted by China-backed cyberespionage

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Hackers linked to the Chinese government launched a state-sponsored operation that targeted New Zealand’s Parliament in 2021, the country’s security minister said on Tuesday. New Zealand’s allegation comes a day after American and British authorities announced a set of criminal charges and sanctions against seven hackers, all believed to be living in China, who targeted U.S. officials, journalists, corporations, pro-democracy activists and the U.K.’s election watchdog. “The use of cyber-enabled espionage operations to interfere with democratic institutions and processes anywhere is unacceptable,” Minister Responsible for the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) Judith Collins said in a media statement.

AP PHOTOS: India celebrates Holi, the Hindu festival of color that marks the reawakening of spring

NEW DELHI (AP) — Millions of Indians celebrated Monday the Hindu Holi festival, dancing to festive music, exchanging food and drink and smearing each other with red, green, blue and pink powder, turning the air into a joyful kaleidoscope of color. Widely known as the Hindu festival of colors, Holi marks the arrival of the spring season in India, Nepal and other South Asian countries as well as the diaspora. It celebrates the divine love between the Hindu god Krishna and his consort Radha, and signifies a time of rebirth and rejuvenation, embracing the positive and letting go of negative energy

Senior doctors in South Korea submit resignations, deepening dispute over medical school plan

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Senior doctors at major hospitals in South Korea began submitting their resignations en masse on Monday in support of medical interns and residents who have been on strike for five weeks over the government’s push to sharply increase medical school admissions. The senior doctors’ action isn’t likely to cause an immediate worsening of hospital operations in South Korea because they have said they would continue to work even after submitting their resignations. But prospects for an early end to the medical impasse were dim, as the doctors’ resignation submissions came after President Yoon Suk Yeol called for talks with doctors while suggesting a possible softening of punitive steps against the striking junior doctors.

How EU deforestation laws are reordering the world of coffee

BUON MA THUOT, Vietnam (AP) — Le Van Tam is no stranger to how the vagaries of global trade can determine the fortunes of small coffee farmers like him. He first planted coffee in a patch of land outside Buon Ma Thuot city in Vietnam’s Central Highland region in 1995. For years, his focus was on quantity, not quality. Tam used ample amounts of fertilizer and pesticides to boost his yields, and global prices determined how well he did. Then, in 2019, he teamed up with Le Dinh Tu of Aeroco Coffee, an organic exporter to Europe and the U.S., and adopted more sustainable methods, turning his coffee plantation (field) into a a sun-dappled forest.

Six more bodies are found days after a boat of Rohingya refugees capsized off Indonesia

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (AP) — Six more bodies of Rohingya refugees have been found at sea off Indonesia after a boat with more than 150 people aboard capsized last week, local authorities said Monday. The bodies of the six women were found off the coast of Aceh province, search and rescue officials said in a statement. Five bodies were found over the weekend. The United Nations refugee agency confirmed with survivors that the women had been on their boat, staff member Faisal Rahman said. The agency has said the boat carrying Rohingya Muslims left a refugee camp in Bangladesh but capsized on Wednesday.