Top Asian News 10:45 a.m. GMT

US and China take a step back from sky-high tariffs, agree to pause for 90 days

GENEVA (AP) — U.S. and Chinese officials said Monday they had reached a deal to roll back most of their recent tariffs and call a 90-day truce in their trade war for more talks on resolving their trade disputes. Stock markets rose sharply as the globe’s two major economic powers took a step back from a clash that has unsettled the global economy. U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said the U.S. agreed to drop its 145% tariff rate on Chinese goods by 115 percentage points to 30%, while China agreed to lower its rate on U.S. goods by the same amount to 10%.

Trump’s mediation offer renews focus on Kashmir after India-Pakistan clash risked broader war

SRINAGAR, India (AP) — A series of military strikes last week by India and Pakistan brought the nuclear-armed rivals closer to a broader war. The possibility of a nuclear conflagration seemed real and the fighting only stopped when global powers intervened. Experts say the crisis deepened the neighbors’ rivalry as both crossed a threshold with each striking the other with high-speed missiles and drones. The tit-for-tat strikes also brought Kashmir again into global focus, as the U.S. President Donald Trump offered mediation over the simmering dispute that has long been described as the regional nuclear flashpoint. Paul Staniland, South Asia expert and a professor of political science at the University of Chicago, said the four days of fighting shows that “India now feels substantial space to directly target Pakistan, as well as that Pakistan is willing to escalate in response.” Unlike in past years, when fighting was largely limited to Kashmir, the two armies last week fired missiles and drones at each other’s military installations deep inside their cities and exchanged gunfire and heavy artillery along their frontier in Kashmir.

India and Pakistan faced a new crisis. Here’s a look at their history of armed conflict

NEW DELHI (AP) — After days of intense firefights, Indian and Pakistani authorities said on Monday there were no reported incidents of firing overnight along the heavily militarized region between their countries, the first time in recent days that the two nations were not shooting at each other. India and Pakistan on Saturday reached an understanding to stop all military actions on land, in the air and at the sea, in a U.S.-brokered ceasefire to stop escalating hostilities between the two nuclear-armed rivals that threatened regional peace. Within hours of the ceasefire announcement, however, militaries in both the countries accused each other of violations, raising fears if the agreement would hold.

India claims its strikes inside Pakistan territory last week killed over 100 militants

ISLAMABAD (AP) — India’s military strikes into Pakistan-controlled Kashmir and Pakistan earlier this week killed more than 100 militants including prominent leaders, the head of India’s military operations claimed Sunday. Lt. Gen. Rajiv Ghai, the director general of military operations, said India’s armed forces struck nine militant infrastructure and training facilities, including sites of the Lashkar-e-Taiba group that India blames for carrying out major militant strikes in India and the disputed region of Kashmir. “We achieved total surprise,” Ghai said at a news conference in New Delhi, adding Pakistan’s response was “erratic and rattled.” The two countries agreed to a truce a day earlier after talks to defuse their most serious military confrontation in decades.

Australian prime minister names new Cabinet that drops Israel critic

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Australia Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced his new Cabinet on Monday after former minister Ed Husic blamed his demotion on his own criticism of Israel’s war in Gaza. Albanese named the 30 lawmakers who will fill Cabinet and outer-ministry positions after his center-left Labor Party won a landslide victory in the May 3 elections. Labor has claimed 92 seats in the 150-seat House of Representatives, the lower chamber where parties need a majority to form government. As vote counting continues, Albanese said his government could hold as many as 95 seats. Labor had never held more seats since the first Parliament sat in 1901, he said.

Detained ex-President Duterte is among the candidates in Philippines midterms

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Even though he is detained in The Hague, former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is among the candidates vying for some 18,000 national and local seats in Monday’s midterm elections that analysts say will decide if he and his family continue to hold political power. Duterte has been in custody of the International Criminal Court since March, awaiting trial for crimes against humanity over a brutal war on illegal drugs that has left thousands of suspects dead during his presidency 2016-2022. It hasn’t stopped him from running for mayor of his southern Davao city stronghold. Under Philippine law, candidates facing criminal charges, including those in detention, can run for office unless they have been convicted and have exhausted all appeals.

A Buddhist statue stolen from a Japanese temple nearly 13 years ago is returned from South Korea

TOKYO (AP) — A 14th century Korean Buddhist statue stolen from a Japanese temple nearly 13 years ago was returned on Monday, following a yearslong legal battle between Japan and South Korea over its ownership that had further strained sensitive ties between the two Asian neighbors. Dozens of temple members and local residents standing by the roadside applauded to welcome the statue as a truck carrying a wooden container with it arrived at Kannonji, a temple on Japan’s western island of Tsushima. The statue is expected to be kept at a local museum following a ceremony at the temple later in the day.

US touts ‘substantial progress’ in tariff talks with China, but details are still scarce

GENEVA (AP) — The lead U.S. negotiator in trade talks with China cheered “a great deal of productivity” in resolving differences between the world’s two leading economic powers, after officials wrapped two days of bargaining in Switzerland following President Donald Trump imposing steep tariffs and Beijing retaliating. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Sunday there was “substantial progress” in the weekend sessions but offered scant information on exactly what negotiations entailed. He said more details would come at a briefing Monday. U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer suggested that an agreement had been reached but provided no details. He and Bessent briefly addressed reporters once talks had wrapped at the stately villa that serves as the residence of the Swiss ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, but did not take questions.

Bangladesh’s former ruling party slams government decision to ban all its activities

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Bangladesh’s former ruling party accused Sunday the interim government of “stoking division” and trampling on “democratic norms” by banning all of its activities. The government, headed by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was ousted following a deadly mass uprising, announced late Saturday the Awami League party can no longer be active online and elsewhere in the South Asian country under the Anti-Terrorism Act. The law affairs adviser, Asif Nazrul, said the ban would remain until a special tribunal completes a trial of the party and its leaders over the deaths of hundreds of students and other protesters during an anti-government uprising in July and August last year.

Passenger bus skids off a cliff in Sri Lanka, killing 21 people and injuring 35

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — A passenger bus skidded off a cliff in Sri Lanka’s tea-growing hill country on Sunday, killing 21 people and injuring 35 others, a police spokesman said. The accident occurred in the early hours of Sunday near the town of Kotmale, about 140 kilometers (86 miles) east of Colombo, the capital, in a mountainous area of central Sri Lanka, police said. Police spokesman Buddhika Manathunga said 21 people died and another 35 were being treated in hospitals. Local television showed the bus lying overturned at the bottom of a precipice while workers and others helped remove injured people from the rubble.