Top Asian News 3:54 a.m. GMT

North Korea test-launches 2 ballistic missiles, after end of new US-South Korea-Japan drill

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea test-fired two ballistic missile Monday but one of them possibly flew abnormally, South Korea’s military said, a day after the North vowed “offensive and overwhelming” responses to a new U.S. military drill with South Korea and Japan. The Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement the missiles were launched 10 minutes apart in a northeasterly direction from the town of Jangyon in southeastern North Korea. It said the first missile flew 600 kilometers (370 miles) and the second missile 120 kilometers (75 miles), but didn’t say where they landed. North Korea typically test-fires missiles toward its eastern waters, but the second missile’s flight distance was too short to reach those waters.

Australia appoints second woman governor-general in 123 years to represent British monarch

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Australia appointed Sam Mostyn on Monday as only its second woman governor-general, a largely ceremonial role representing the British monarch who is the nation’s head of state. It is the first such Australian appointment since the reign of King Charles III began in 2022 and the first by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s center-left Labor Party government that wants to replace the British monarch with an Australian president as head of state. The businesswoman and gender equality advocate, who in 2005 became the first woman Australian Football League Commissioner, was sworn in as Australia’s 28th governor-general since 1901.

Family demands accountability for NY police killing of 13-year-old boy. Police said he aimed BB gun

On Wednesday, Nyah Mway finished middle school in the central New York city where his family moved about a decade ago as refugees from Myanmar, relatives said. By Friday night, the 13-year-old was fatally shot by police who’d tackled him to the ground after he allegedly pointed what turned out to be a BB gun at them during a foot chase. Struggling to comprehend his death, his anguished relatives and outraged members of their immigrant community called Sunday for justice for him and accountability for police. “We came to the United States, finally, to get the education and to get the good jobs here” and hoping for a peaceful life after decades of strife and violence in Myanmar, said Lay Htoo, who identified himself as one of Nyah’s cousins.

The Taliban tell the West to look past harsh edicts on Afghan women and girls and build ties

ISLAMABAD (AP) — The Taliban on Sunday told the West to look past the measures they have imposed on Afghan women and girls for the sake of improving foreign relations. Their chief spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the Taliban uphold certain religious and cultural values and public aspirations that “must be acknowledged” to facilitate progressive bilateral relations rather than encountering disputes and stagnation. Mujahid made his demand on the opening day of a United Nations-led meeting in Qatar on increasing engagement with Afghanistan and to have a more coordinated response to the country’s issues. It’s the third such U.N.-sponsored gathering in Doha.

US wants Boeing to plead guilty to fraud over fatal crashes, lawyers say

The U.S. Justice Department is pushing Boeing to plead guilty to criminal fraud in connection with two deadly plane crashes involving its 737 Max jetliners, according to several people who heard federal prosecutors detail a proposed offer Sunday. Boeing will have until the end of the coming week to accept or reject the offer, which includes the giant aerospace company agreeing to an independent monitor who would oversee its compliance with anti-fraud laws, they said. The case stems from the department’s determination that Boeing violated an agreement that was intended to resolve a 2021 charge of conspiracy to defraud the U.S.

As North Korean and Chinese threats rise, US looks to lock in defense partnerships with Asian allies

GIMHAE AIR BASE, South Korea (AP) — The United States wrapped up its first multidomain exercise with Japan and South Korea in the East China Sea on Saturday, a step forward in Washington’s efforts to strengthen and lock in its security partnerships with key Asian allies in the face of growing threats from North Korea and China. The three-day Freedom Edge increased the sophistication of previous exercises with simultaneous air and naval drills geared toward improving joint ballistic-missile defense, anti-submarine warfare, surveillance and other skills and capabilities. The exercise, which is expected to expand in years to come, was also intended to improve the countries’ abilities to share missile warnings — increasingly important as North Korea tests ever-more sophisticated systems.

For India’s garbage pickers, a miserable and dangerous job made worse by extreme heat

JAMMU, India (AP) — The putrid smell of burning garbage wafts for miles from the landfill on the outskirts of Jammu in a potentially toxic miasma fed by the plastics, industrial, medical and other waste generated by a city of some 740,000 people. But a handful of waste pickers ignore both the fumes and suffocating heat to sort through the rubbish, seeking anything they can sell to earn at best the equivalent of $4 a day. “If we don’t do this, we don’t get any food to eat,” said 65-year-old Usmaan Shekh. “We try to take a break for a few minutes when it gets too hot, but mostly we just continue till we can’t.”

At least 9 dead including an entire family when landslides hit Nepal villages

KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — Landslides triggered by heavy rainfall on Saturday killed at least nine people including an entire family while they were sleeping in Nepal’s mountainous districts, officials said. The landslides buried houses in three separate areas in the country’s mountainous region, about 250 kilometers (156 miles) west of the capital, Kathmandu, according to Nepal’s National Disaster Rescue and Reduction Management Authority. Five members of the same family were killed when their house was swallowed by a landslide while they were asleep at Malika village in Gulmi district. The victims included a couple, their daughter-in-law and two grandchildren including an 8-month-old girl.

An AP Photographer picked his own path when trying to make the perfect Mud People Festival photo

BIBICLAT, Philippines (AP) — Aaron Favila has been working for The Associated Press in the Philippines for 26 years, covering everything from politics to crime to sports to disasters to everyday people. He was at the Mud People Festival in Bibiclat in the northern Philippines for the first time since 2016 when he made this extraordinary photo. Here’s what he had to say about the shot. There are many religious festivals in predominantly Roman Catholic Philippines and each has a unique flavor to it. The Mud People Festival, or “Taong Putik,” is very unique and was worth a revisit because the last time we covered this was in 2016.

What to know about Mongolia as it holds a democratic election in the shadow of authoritarian giants

ULAANBAATAR, Mongolia (AP) — Mongolia, where parliamentary elections were being held Friday, is a sparsely populated and landlocked Asian nation known for its bitter winter cold and independent spirit. As a democracy of just 3.4 million people in the shadow of two much larger authoritarian states, China and Russia, it has taken on symbolic importance in an era when democracy is under pressure or in crisis in many countries, including the United States. In an earlier era, the fierce nomadic tribes of the Mongolian steppe were widely feared, at one point conquering China and expanding west across Asia to the edges of Europe.