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  • Iran war: US launches attacks for 11th night as Trump seeks $70bn more for military

    Iran war: US launches attacks for 11th night as Trump seeks $70bn more for military

    ### Escalating Conflict Reaches New Milestone in the Middle East
    On Wednesday, the United States launched its 11th straight night of military strikes against Iranian targets, prolonging a months-long regional conflict that has already claimed the lives of American service members, crippled global commercial shipping through one of the world’s most critical energy chokepoints, and driven international oil prices sharply higher.

    According to a public statement from US Central Command, the latest attack ran for approximately 75 minutes and was designed to target key Iranian military assets: operational command centers, naval capabilities, aircraft hangars, unmanned aerial vehicle storage sites, and core logistics infrastructure. Multiple Iranian state and semi-state media outlets confirmed the strikes hit locations across multiple regions of the country, including a military installation outside the northwestern city of Tabriz, sites in the southwestern Khuzestan Province, areas in Ilam Province near the Iraqi border, and locations in Kabudarahang County, Hamadan Province.

    ### Iran Launches Retaliatory Drone Strikes Against US Bases Across the Region
    In direct response to the latest American aggression, Iran launched a coordinated drone attack against US military facilities stationed in Kuwait, Jordan, and Bahrain, part of its stated goal to reduce Washington’s military capacity across the Middle East.

    Iran’s military confirmed it targeted ammunition depots and ground force command logistics infrastructure at Camp Doha in western Kuwait, in retaliation for what it calls repeated unprovoked attacks on Iranian territory. “The Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran – with sacred unity – stand ready to decisively counter any new conspiracy and adventurism by the enemy,” semi-official Tasnim News Agency quoted the military as saying.

    The retaliatory strikes also hit Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan and Isa Air Base in Bahrain. The Iranian military’s statement added: “The army targeted the ‘housing and welfare buildings’ and ‘equipment warehouses’ of the terrorist US army at the Azraq base in Jordan with drones in the morning. [Drones] also targeted the ‘large equipment warehouses and sheds’ and the ‘heavy aircraft maintenance and repair sheds’ of the child-killing and criminal US army at the Sheikh Isa Air Base in Bahrain.”

    ### Rising Death Toll for US Forces Amid Months of Open Conflict
    The US Department of Defense announced Wednesday that a third American soldier is now confirmed dead following an Iranian strike on Muwaffaq Salti Air Base on July 17. The 28-year-old service member had previously been listed as missing in action. His death brings the total number of US troops killed since the conflict began on February 28 to 18.

    ### Global Shipping Disruption Worsens, Spilling Beyond the Strait of Hormuz
    The conflict has caused severe disruption to international shipping lanes, with new data showing activity collapsing to historic lows at the Strait of Hormuz, the passage through which roughly 20% of global oil supplies transit daily. Shipping analytics firm Kpler reported that only three commercial vessels crossed the strait on Tuesday, down from four on Monday. For the first time in recent memory, no very large crude carriers or liquefied natural gas tankers were recorded moving through the waterway.

    The disruption has now spread to the Red Sea, where two tankers carrying Saudi crude oil bound for Asian markets reversed course near the Bab al-Mandeb Strait after Yemen’s Houthi movement threatened to enact a full blockade on Saudi shipping. Clashes between the Houthis and Yemen’s internationally recognized government have recently spilled into Saudi territory, prompting the United Arab Emirates to condemn the group’s planned blockade.

    ### Collapsed Ceasefire Deal Leaves Path to De-escalation Uncertain
    Despite the ongoing escalation, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting with Southeast Asian foreign ministers in Manila Wednesday that Washington remains open to negotiations with Tehran. The offer comes even though a previous truce agreement between the two parties has already collapsed.

    On June 17, Washington and Tehran signed a memorandum of understanding that declared an “immediate and permanent termination” of all military operations. The deal also required the US to end its naval blockade of Iran and opened a 60-day window for comprehensive long-term negotiations, with the first core requirement being a full halt to Israeli attacks on Lebanon. Washington has since failed to abide by the terms, moving to reinterpret the agreement’s provisions for freedom of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz and taking no action to stop continued Israeli strikes in Lebanon.

    “If they’re serious, we’re serious. If they’re not, then we will do what’s necessary to protect our interests, and also the interests of our allies,” Rubio said. Outside the meeting venue, anti-war protesters held signs reading “War criminals not welcome” and “Ban Trump! Ban Rubio!” to condemn the continuing conflict.

    Regional powers are pushing frantically to prevent further escalation. In a phone call held Tuesday, Qatar’s Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani and Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud discussed coordinated efforts to lower tensions. Qatar has publicly called on all parties to fully implement the US-Iran memorandum of understanding, including binding guarantees for unimpeded shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.

    ### Energy Markets React, Domestic Political Divide Grows in the US
    International energy markets reacted sharply to the escalating conflict on Wednesday, with Brent crude futures rising more than 2% to top $94 per barrel, as investors grew increasingly concerned over potential disruptions to global energy supplies.

    Back in Washington, the Trump administration is asking Congress to approve an additional $70 billion in emergency military funding for the conflict, alongside a record $1.5 trillion Pentagon budget for fiscal year 2027. The request has sparked fierce pushback from opposition lawmakers, who argue the administration is prioritizing endless war over domestic needs.

    Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand accused the White House of demanding “unlimited money for bombs” while ignoring urgent domestic priorities including healthcare, food assistance, affordable housing, and support for American farmers. Senator Gary Peters framed the conflict, which already has a mounting price tag for US taxpayers, as a failure of presidential leadership. “It’s not a question of money. It’s a question of leadership,” Peters told US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth during a recent congressional hearing.

    Independent cost trackers have already put the cumulative price of the conflict at staggering levels. The Iran War Cost Tracker, which last updated its estimates on June 16, calculated that the conflict has cost US taxpayers more than $100 billion to date. Brown University’s Iran War Energy Cost Tracker adds that American households have paid an extra $72 billion in collective fuel costs since the conflict began, equal to roughly $544 per household. With the conflict now escalating into its sixth month, analysts widely expect these costs to continue rising rapidly.

  • Mamdani says he doesn’t have authority to arrest Netanyahu, but US government does

    Mamdani says he doesn’t have authority to arrest Netanyahu, but US government does

    A high-stakes diplomatic and legal dispute has erupted over the expected September visit of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to New York City, after New York’s mayor publicly called on the U.S. federal government to enforce an outstanding International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant against the Israeli leader.

    Zohran Mamdani, mayor of New York City, laid out his position in a viral two-minute social media video posted Tuesday, just hours after former U.S. President Donald Trump stated that Netanyahu would “not be arrested, in any way, shape, or form, while in the United States of America”. The video, posted to X on July 22, 2026, has already amassed more than 30 million views.

    In the clip, Mamdani made blunt allegations against Netanyahu, calling him a war crime suspect and the mastermind of what he described as a devastating genocide against the Palestinian people. He cited multiple humanitarian and human rights claims to back his stance: pointing to soaring rates of Palestinian amputees in the Gaza Strip, referencing a United Nations report that alleged Israeli forces deliberately targeted and killed Palestinian children, and claiming the prime minister is responsible for the deaths of over 73,000 people and the maiming of tens of thousands of children. Mamdani also added that Netanyahu, who Mamdani says has ordered military strikes in six countries since 2023, is also responsible for the killings of international aid workers and journalists reporting on the conflict.

    Mamdani acknowledged that the ICC’s 2024 arrest warrant against Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant is legally justified, but confirmed that his administration has reviewed all possible legal pathways and confirmed New York City lacks independent authority to execute the warrant. He clarified that after active discussions with New York’s law department, it remains unclear whether the city can order the New York City Police Department to detain a sitting foreign leader, so the power to act rests solely with the federal government.

    “My administration has reviewed every avenue available under applicable law to determine whether New York City could execute the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant if Benjamin Netanyahu came here. It is clear that we do not have the independent legal authority to enforce this warrant. The federal government, however, does, and I call on them to join the ICC and execute this warrant,” Mamdani said in the video.

    Netanyahu is scheduled to travel to New York this coming September to attend the annual United Nations General Assembly, a regular high-level diplomatic gathering hosted by the city. The ICC issued the arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant in November 2024, charging both with war crimes and crimes against humanity allegedly committed in Gaza starting in October 2023. The warrants marked a historic first for the 24-year-old court, as it was the first time ICC judges issued arrest warrants for senior officials allied with Western powers.

    Since the warrants were issued, the ICC has faced intense backlash, including widespread criticism, threats, and punitive measures from the United States — Israel’s closest ally. The U.S. and Israel are not signatories to the Rome Statute, the international treaty that established the ICC. All 125 countries that are party to the statute, including every member of the European Union, hold a legal obligation to arrest Netanyahu and Gallant and turn them over to the court for prosecution. However, the ICC itself has no independent enforcement powers to carry out arrest warrants, and the court cannot conduct a trial in absentia.

    Mamdani’s call to action has drawn responses from pro-Palestine activists and commentators, who have pushed the mayor to go beyond rhetoric and take tangible, within-authority actions to oppose what they describe as complicity in Israeli crimes.

    Prominent Palestinian writer and activist Mohammed el-Kurd argued that Mamdani could use his municipal platform to push for action against U.S.-based groups that fund Israeli settlement activity. “If Mamdani wants to take tangible action within the bounds of his office, he could easily urge Attorney General and other relevant authorities to go after New York-registered tax-exempt organizations that funnel tens of millions of US dollars into Israeli settler expansion and violence every year,” el-Kurd noted.

    Another activist, Nerdeen Kiswani, said the city’s treatment of Netanyahu’s visit must match Mamdani’s rhetoric, to make clear the Israeli leader is not welcome in New York. “Don’t roll out the red carpet for a wanted war criminal. Don’t use the NYPD to insulate him from public outrage. Don’t suppress the New Yorkers who take to the streets demanding accountability,” Kiswani wrote on X. “If Netanyahu is truly not welcome in New York City, that principle should be reflected in how the city treats his visit, not just in rhetoric.”

  • Burnham approves US use of UK bases for some strikes on Iran, Bloomberg reports

    Burnham approves US use of UK bases for some strikes on Iran, Bloomberg reports

    In a move that continues the policy set by his predecessor Keir Starmer, British Prime Minister Andy Burnham has formally approved the United States’ use of several UK military bases to carry out what the government characterizes as “defensive” air strikes against Iran, Bloomberg News reported Wednesday.

    The decision traces back to a high-level meeting convened by Starmer this past Friday, where senior cabinet ministers and national security officials reached a provisional agreement to maintain access for US aircraft at two key facilities: the Indian Ocean base at Diego Garcia and RAF Fairford, a major air force installation in Gloucestershire. Multiple sources with direct knowledge of the meeting shared details with Bloomberg on condition of anonymity.

    After being fully briefed on the meeting’s outcome and the proposed policy, Burnham endorsed the arrangement, confirming he intends to uphold Starmer’s framework for the duration of the US’s expanded military operations against Iranian targets.

    The approval comes as US air bombardment of Iranian targets has entered its 11th consecutive night. Iranian state media has reported large explosions across multiple population centers, including the cities of Bushehr, Tabriz, Chabahar, as well as areas in the western provinces of Kurdistan and Ilam. US Central Command (Centcom), which oversees US military operations in the Middle East, has stated the strikes are targeting Iranian operations centers, logistics hubs, maritime capabilities, aircraft hangars and drone storage sites.

    Tehran has responded to the ongoing US attacks with retaliatory strikes targeting US-allied nations in the region, including Jordan, Bahrain, Syria and Kuwait.

    Burnham’s green light for continued base access is already expected to trigger significant political and public pushback in the UK. Human rights organizations have previously warned that granting the US permission to launch strikes from British territory could violate longstanding international law standards.

    Starmer first outlined his original policy in early March, framing the base access as exclusively for defensive operations. He later expanded the agreement to allow US strikes launched from UK bases to target Iranian sites connected to activity around the Strait of Hormuz, justifying the move under the legal framework of “collective self-defense” for US-aligned Gulf states.

    Yasmine Ahmed, UK director at Human Rights Watch, issued a formal letter to the prime minister pointing out that the British government’s legal justification for the policy fails to address core obligations under international humanitarian law (IHL). Ahmed referenced multiple high-profile incidents that have raised questions about US compliance with IHL, most notably a February 28 air strike on the Shajareh Tayyebeh primary school in Minab, a southern Iranian city, carried out at the opening of the US-Israeli joint assault. The attack killed more than 150 people, the vast majority of them children, and a preliminary Pentagon investigation confirmed the US military was responsible for the incident.

    Burnham’s confirmation of the policy comes just days after he held a telephone conversation with former US President Donald Trump. A public readout from the UK prime minister’s office stated that during the call, Burnham “outlined the UK’s commitment to securing the movement of shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.” In a post to his Truth Social platform following the call, Trump wrote that the discussion covered topics including North Sea oil, bilateral trade, the US-UK military alliance, and demining operations in the Strait of Hormuz, noting that the talks “went very well.”

  • Xi’s national team rides again to save swooning tech stocks

    Xi’s national team rides again to save swooning tech stocks

    TOKYO – A recent burst of momentum from Chinese artificial intelligence startup Moonshot AI gave a much-needed lift to China’s wobbly stock markets, with the firm’s breakthrough new model reminding global investors just how quickly Chinese technology is narrowing the gap with Silicon Valley’s leading players. This bright spot for China’s fast-growing new economy, however, is overshadowed by deep-seated troubles in the nation’s old economic order that are drawing growing global concern at a precarious moment for the Chinese Communist Party under Xi Jinping.

    A years-long property sector crisis, near-record youth unemployment, strained local government balance sheets, and chronically weak consumer demand have dragged on market sentiment, prompting Beijing’s so-called “national team” of state-backed market actors to intervene once again. Following a sharp selloff in technology stocks, Xi’s inner circle has activated its standard cohort of regulatory bodies, state-backed investment funds, insurers, and asset managers to shore up market confidence. In a single Sunday of action alone, Beijing-linked funds announced nearly $8.9 billion in planned domestic stock purchases.

    State-led market intervention has a well-documented history of stabilizing Shanghai share prices, with the most high-profile intervention occurring in the summer of 2015, when Chinese stocks lost one-third of their value in just a matter of weeks. That crisis triggered a whole-of-government response: waves of state capital injected into markets, trading suspensions for thousands of listed companies, a freeze on initial public offerings, and rules allowing mainland Chinese investors to pledge residential property as collateral for margin trading loans. Beijing even launched public campaigns framing domestic stock purchases as an act of national patriotism.

    Since 2015, the national team has been called into action repeatedly: during the 2018 margin call crisis tied to share-pledged financing, through the 2021–2022 COVID-19 pandemic disruptions, during 2023 ETF volatility, amid fallout from former U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade tariffs, and now, as technology stocks face another wave of turbulence. This current intervention follows widespread investor jitters over inflated chip sector valuations, amplified by extreme volatility in South Korean and Taiwanese markets. So far, the government’s effort to put a price floor under equities has delivered short-term results.

    After the ChinaAMC STAR 50 ETF – China’s largest chip-focused exchange-traded fund – plummeted 17% in a week, the sharpest selloff driven by deleveraging since 2015, reported purchases by the national team calmed investor nerves. By Tuesday, coordinated buying pushed the STAR 50 Index up 11% in a single session, its biggest one-day rally in roughly two years. The benchmark Shanghai Shenzhen CSI 300 Index now stands 1.7% higher year-to-date.

    “The national team’s buying of the STAR 50 ETF provided exactly that signal, prompting funds to wade back in after interpreting the move as an official vote of confidence,” Zhuang Jiapeng, a fund manager at Shenzhen-based JM Capital, told Bloomberg. It also reassured AI investors who, Zhuang says, “had been searching for any sign that policymakers were still willing to back the trade.”

    Despite this short-term stabilization, analysts widely agree that these interventions only address market symptoms, not the underlying structural causes of China’s economic anxiety. “China’s national team is offering market protection, not macro repair,” said Geoffrey Yu, a strategist at BNY Mellon. “State-backed equity purchases can stabilize benchmarks and reduce downside pressure, but they don’t solve weak domestic demand or the ongoing property drag. Beijing can protect prices, but confidence still requires a stronger growth impulse.”

    Even a 27% year-on-year jump in June exports, strong enough to put Beijing on track for a second consecutive annual trade surplus exceeding $1 trillion, is not enough to offset deep domestic economic strains. Analysis from Gavekal Dragonomics finds that China’s ratio of annual exports to total manufacturing sales rose to 24% in the first four months of 2026 – the highest level since the country joined the World Trade Organization in 2001. In 2019, that ratio stood at just 18.3%. Gavekal economists noted that this share “would be considered high for a small export-focused economy; for the world’s second largest economy, it’s remarkable.”

    The core challenge remains that domestic headwinds are too strong for export growth to fully offset. Xu Tianchen, an economist at the Economist Intelligence Unit, expects “continued export strength, mostly driven by AI” supported by looser policy settings. “But,” he adds, “domestic demand remains a drag. Retail sales remain pretty flat and fixed asset investment was negative last month.”

    Carlos Casanova, an economist at Union Bancaire Privée, points out that the 5.3% year-on-year gain in industrial production is “increasingly concentrated in high tech and semiconductor-related goods. In other words, the gap between exports and industrial output widened, suggesting that the current export-at-all-costs strategy is delivering limited spillovers to the broader economy and raising doubts about its durability.” Casanova adds that domestic demand remains “subdued,” while year-to-date fixed asset investment fell 5.7% through June, led by an 8.5% contraction in private investment. Real estate investment is down 18% year-to-date, and residential property sales have fallen 13.7%.

    In short, strong exports can no longer act as a cure-all for China’s economic ills, not when persistent domestic weakness is eroding confidence among both households and businesses. The AI boom is amplifying the K-shaped divergence in China’s economy, lifting high-tech production while leaving most traditional sectors behind. Xiangrong Yu, Chief China Economist at Citigroup, notes that “the benefits of this boom, however, aren’t spreading evenly across the broader economy. Consumer confidence remains subdued, having stayed negative for more than four years.”

    Households, Yu adds, “continue to save heavily, maintain large excess deposits, and show limited willingness to take on additional borrowing. Meanwhile, fading policy support and earlier stimulus effects contributed to a contraction in retail sales in May, the first decline since COVID.” Property markets, Yu says, “tell a similar story.” Conditions have improved marginally in a handful of first-tier cities that benefit from AI-related economic activity, but the national market remains broadly weak. “More generally, AI is creating pockets of strength rather than generating a broad recovery in domestic demand,” Yu explains.

    This uneven pattern extends to investment trends: AI-related investment remains robust, driven by heavy spending on hyperscale data centers and digital infrastructure, while “investment in many traditional sectors faces mounting headwinds from delayed fiscal deployment, uncertainty linked to geopolitical developments, anti-involution pressures, and squeezed profit margins.”

    The deeper, long-standing issue is that Beijing has continued to delay the sweeping structural reforms needed to stabilize China’s investment climate. The property crisis is now in its fifth year, generating the longest stretch of sustained deflation China has seen since the 1997 Asian financial crisis. Weak household demand and near-record youth unemployment have crushed consumer confidence, which explains why China’s 1.4 billion residents continue to save more than they spend.

    Permanently beating deflation requires convincing Chinese households to put their $22 trillion in accumulated excess savings into circulation. This household savings stockpile is more than four times Japan’s annual GDP, a reference point that carries heavy weight: Japan’s decades-long period of stagnation demonstrates the high cost of delaying structural reform. The issues are deeply interconnected: roughly 70% of Chinese household wealth is tied directly to residential real estate. Analysts argue that if China’s economy were more transparent, stable, and offered households viable alternative investments to property, citizens would feel far less pressure to move capital overseas. Beijing’s current policy of limiting cross-border capital outflows does not address the root problem; what is needed is deliberate work to rebuild trust, enough to convince households to invest their savings domestically.

    Beijing’s latest intervention to prop up volatile stock markets is just another short-term stopgap. Encouraging pension funds and mutual funds to increase domestic equity holdings, and prodding households to buy more shares, may support market prices through the current quarter, but it does nothing to resolve long-term weaknesses. These measures are only necessary because Beijing has moved too slowly to address the economy’s underlying structural cracks.

    A major ongoing debate in global financial circles centers on whether Beijing will choose to devalue the yuan to stimulate growth. The potential benefits are clear: a weaker yuan would further boost export competitiveness, putting Beijing on track to hit 4.5% to 5% GDP growth this year. But significant downsides have so far dissuaded Xi’s administration from pursuing this path. First, a weaker yuan would make it far harder for heavily indebted property developers to service their offshore dollar bonds, increasing default risks across Asia’s largest economy – a development the Chinese Communist Party would prefer to avoid this side of 2025, after the high-profile collapse of Evergrande. Second, the monetary easing required to push the yuan lower would undo years of progress on reducing excessive leverage across China’s financial system, progress Beijing has prioritized in recent years to improve the quality of GDP growth.

    As a result, Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang have been reluctant to allow the People’s Bank of China to pursue more aggressive monetary easing, even as deflationary pressures deepen. Many analysts argue that Beijing has proven more skilled at rhetorical commitments to reform than delivering tangible changes that would earn the trust of global investors. Too often, the article argues, Beijing has prioritized attracting foreign capital as a goal in itself, rather than first strengthening the financial system and regulatory framework to accommodate that capital sustainably.

    For example, WTO accession 25 years ago reshaped the global economy to China’s advantage but did far less to rebalance China’s own growth drivers. The 2016 inclusion of the yuan in the IMF’s special drawing rights basket did not accelerate capital account liberalization or reduce capital controls as much as global observers hoped. The 2019 inclusion of A-shares in the MSCI global index did not suddenly strengthen China’s financial system, increase government transparency, improve shareholder protections, or reduce the risks posed by the country’s massive shadow banking sector.

    Analysts conclude that genuinely strengthening the Chinese economy, and building a sustainable long-term stock rally backed by the national team, requires heavy lifting: curbing the outsized dominance of state-owned enterprises, expanding economic space for the private sector, and eliminating the risks of persistent bubbles in debt, credit, and asset markets. Developing deep, vibrant debt capital markets would catalyze growth across all sectors, particularly the high-tech industries that Premier Li has prioritized over the last year. Ending the regulatory uncertainty that has marked recent years, especially for internet platform companies, would also help attract more stable international capital to support China’s move up the global value chain.

    This week’s stock market bounce in Shanghai may suggest investors are willing to give Beijing the benefit of the doubt for now. But analysts argue it is past time for Beijing to implement meaningful reforms to strengthen its financial system, so that stock prices rise for fundamental economic reasons, not just because of state-backed buying.

  • Macao pension transfers to Guangdong accounts now operational

    Macao pension transfers to Guangdong accounts now operational

    A landmark milestone for cross-border social security connectivity between Macao and Guangdong province was achieved on Tuesday, when the first successful transfer of Macao’s central provident fund to a mainland Chinese bank account in Guangdong was completed. The transaction follows the formal rollout of an upgraded pension transfer initiative based in the Guangdong-Macao In-depth Cooperation Zone in Hengqin.

    This launch comes just one week after the Hengqin cooperation zone rolled out a parallel service enabling cross-border transfers of Macao disability benefits on July 14. Combined, the two new services have established a fully functional one-stop direct transfer channel that covers every category of Macao’s social security and livelihood-related funds, according to an official statement released by the cooperation zone administration.

    The new scheme is designed explicitly to ease financial access for Macao residents who have chosen to reside in Guangdong province. Under the streamlined framework, eligible users only need to complete a single registration process. Once registered, all qualifying fund payments are automatically transferred to the user’s Guangdong-based bank account on an ongoing basis, with no service fees charged for the cross-border transfers.

    One of the first beneficiaries of the new system is Xu, a Macao resident and native of Yangjiang, Guangdong, who returned to his home province to retire after a career in traditional Chinese medicine research. Xu explained that the new policy has eliminated the most significant logistical headache he faced in retirement. Prior to the launch of this cross-border channel, Xu was required to travel back to Macao in person to collect his pension and central provident fund payments.

    “I am not familiar with online cross-border procedures, and the constant trips back and forth consumed a great deal of my time and energy,” Xu said. Under the updated arrangement, Xu completed just one single account registration in Macao, and all future payments are now automatically routed to his account at a local branch of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China in Guangdong. “No more traveling back and forth between the two regions,” he added. “This is a tangible, visible dividend brought by the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area’s development for us Macao residents living on the mainland.”

    The fully operational transfer channel marks a key step forward in integrating livelihood services across the Greater Bay Area, addressing longstanding inconveniences for thousands of Macao residents who have retired or settled across the border in Guangdong.

  • Germany has deported a Uyghur man to China, his mother says

    Germany has deported a Uyghur man to China, his mother says

    In a move that has reignited international debate over the treatment of Uyghur ethnic minorities and global asylum policy, Germany has expelled a 21-year-old dual Chinese-Turkish Uyghur asylum seeker to China, where widespread concerns persist that he will face arbitrary detention as part of Beijing’s long-running assimilation campaign in Xinjiang. The man’s mother, Guzelay Adil, who resides in Istanbul with the rest of the family, shared details of the deportation with The Associated Press in an interview Wednesday.

    According to Guzelay Adil, her son Arafat Adil had lived with the family in Turkey after the group left China in 2017. He traveled to Germany to pursue international asylum protection, and was put on a deportation flight out of Frankfurt Airport on Tuesday. By Wednesday morning, he had landed in Beijing, where he was immediately taken into custody for interrogation. Guzelay Adil told reporters she has been told Arafat Adil is expected to board a connecting flight to Istanbul around midnight Thursday, but her fear over the outcome remains palpable. “I don’t know what would happen if my son doesn’t return to Turkey,” she said. “I hope to see my child again.”

    As of Wednesday evening, neither German federal nor Chinese national authorities had issued an immediate confirmation of the deportation. The Interior Ministry of Hesse, the German state that hosts Frankfurt and oversaw the deportation process, did not respond to AP’s request for additional details. A spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry also declined to comment on the specific case.

    The revelation of Arafat Adil’s deportation has drawn sharp criticism and concern from Uyghur rights activists worldwide, who point to Beijing’s eight-year campaign of mass detention, forced assimilation, and alleged forced labor targeting the 11 million Uyghurs and other ethnic minority groups native to Xinjiang. Sporadic unrest across the region over previous decades preceded the launch of the large-scale crackdown in 2017, which has been widely condemned by international governments and human rights organizations.

    “It’s heartbreaking to learn of another Uyghur being deported to China,” said Abduweli Ayup, founder of Norway-based Uyghur rights nonprofit Uyghur Hjelp. Ayup emphasized that the decision sends a dangerous precedent from Germany, a leading power within the European Union, that is eroding hope for Uyghur communities both inside China and among the global diaspora.

    In response to general questions about Uyghur deportation policy, the German Federal Interior Ministry noted that while there is no formal blanket ban on deporting Uyghurs to China, federal migration authorities operate under a guiding principle that Uyghurs originating from China should as a rule be granted international protection. The case has also raised questions over why German authorities deported Arafat Adil to China rather than Turkey, where he has resided since 2017 and obtained Turkish citizenship earlier this year, holding a valid Turkish passport at the time of his deportation.

    German asylum rules classify Turkey as a safe third country of origin, so it remains unclear what grounds Arafat Adil used to file his asylum claim in Germany. This is not the first time Germany has faced backlash over a Uyghur deportation: Last November, a bureaucratic error, as confirmed by government sources to German outlet Der Spiegel, led to the deportation of another Uyghur woman, Reziwanguli Baikeli, to China instead of Turkey. Unlike Arafat Adil’s current situation, Baikeli only spent a short period in Beijing before continuing on to her intended destination of Turkey.

    For years, Beijing has exerted diplomatic pressure on governments across the globe to forcibly deport Uyghurs who fled China to escape the mass detention campaign. One of the most high-profile mass deportations took place earlier this year, when Thailand expelled at least 40 Uyghur asylum seekers back to Chinese authorities in February 2025.

  • British woman jailed for blackmail after accusing banker of rape in Hong Kong

    British woman jailed for blackmail after accusing banker of rape in Hong Kong

    A 26-year-old British woman from Hackney, East London, has received a total six-year prison sentence from a Hong Kong court following her conviction on charges of blackmail and perverting the course of justice, for fabricating a rape claim to extort hundreds of thousands of Hong Kong dollars from a British banker.

    Isabel Rose met the unnamed financial professional in Thailand in December 2023, and traveled to Hong Kong on January 31, 2024, to visit him at his residential accommodation. Just one day after her arrival, she first claimed he had raped her during an encounter at his home, triggering the immediate arrest of the man by local law enforcement. The suspect was eventually released without any charges laid after investigators reviewed evidence in the case, and Rose was taken into custody the day after the arrest and charged with two criminal offenses related to the false accusation.

    Rose was formally found guilty of both counts by Hong Kong’s District Court back in March 2025, and she had continuously rejected the charges, maintaining that her rape allegation was truthful. On Wednesday, Judge Adriana Tse Ching handed down the sentencing: five years imprisonment for the blackmail charge, and three years for perverting the course of justice, with one year of the sentences to run consecutively, resulting in a total six-year term behind bars.

    The prosecution’s case rested heavily on a series of WhatsApp messages exchanged between Rose and the banker in the hours and days following the alleged incident. In a message sent the morning after the encounter, Rose first asked the man if he was upset that she did not consent to sex, to which he responded that he was not and respected her boundaries. Later that same day, Rose shifted her narrative, stating the man had violated her while she did not want sexual contact. In a surprising response, the man apologized, saying he had been intoxicated and misread her signals, a statement prosecutors later highlighted as a reflection of his momentary confusion and willingness to take responsibility for a misstep he believed he had made.

    As exchanges continued, Rose explicitly framed the encounter as rape, before turning the conversation to financial compensation. Court documents show the man initially agreed to cover Rose’s travel and accommodation costs, and transferred £5,000 to her the same day they reached an initial agreement, even attempting to send a second £5,000 transfer. Rose rejected the partial payment, claiming the amount transferred was only 10% of the total £100,000 ($134,000) she demanded, writing that the man had “100% of my soul gone.” When the banker responded that he could not afford the six-figure sum, Rose followed through on her threat and filed a formal rape report with Hong Kong Police on February 2, 2024.

    In her guilty verdict, Judge Tse relied significantly on the timeline and content of the text messages, which exposed the inconsistent and manipulative nature of Rose’s claims, local outlet South China Morning Post reported. During the sentencing hearing, Judge Tse condemned Rose’s actions as “cruel and evil,” noting that the defendant had deliberately exploited the banker’s kindness, naivety, existing friendship and romantic interest in her to orchestrate her extortion plot. The judge emphasized that Rose was fully responsible for her own criminal actions, adding that her false police report was a “vengeful and wicked” act that wasted significant law enforcement resources and put an innocent man through severe emotional and legal harm.

  • ‘Momentum is still there’: The BBC at India’s ‘cockroach’ protest

    ‘Momentum is still there’: The BBC at India’s ‘cockroach’ protest

    Even as relentless downpours swept through India’s capital city of New Delhi overnight, thousands of supporters affiliated with the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) have refused to abandon their demonstration, vowing that their push for change retains its full momentum. The unexpected heavy rainfall, which left many parts of the city waterlogged and disrupted routine daily life across the national capital, created significant challenges for protesters gathered at key protest sites across the city. Despite soaked clothing, uneven, muddy ground, and logistical hurdles that come with unseasonable heavy rain, the crowd has remained steadfast, choosing to continue their demonstration rather than stand down. Protesters and organizers with the movement have told reporters that the core momentum of their protest remains unbroken, with the widespread turnout through the storm serving as a demonstration of the depth of commitment among the movement’s supporters. The ongoing protest in the heart of India’s capital continues to draw attention to the group’s policy and political demands, as observers across the country monitor how the demonstration evolves in the coming days.

  • South Korean singer Lim Kim traces a decade of self-discovery on new album ‘Exit to Nowhere’

    South Korean singer Lim Kim traces a decade of self-discovery on new album ‘Exit to Nowhere’

    For 10 years, South Korean singer Lim Kim has quietly navigated the overlapping crossroads of the music industry, personal growth, and self-definition, asking one persistent question: Where do I belong? Her second full-length studio album, *Exit to Nowhere*, a seven-track collection, lays bare this decade-long journey of searching and becoming.

    At 32, Kim frames the new release as a reflective retrospective on the seismic shifts of her 20s and early 30s, moving past the unmoored uncertainty that defined her young adulthood into a more intentional understanding of self. “It has seven tracks, and they reflect the emotions and feelings I’ve experienced from my early 20s until now — like a chronicle of my life,” Kim shared in an exclusive interview with The Associated Press.

    The new album marks Kim’s first major full project since her 2019 extended play *GENERASIAN*, arriving 13 years after her 2011 debut full-length album *A Voice*. Throughout her career, Kim has built a reputation for pushing genre boundaries and centering themes of identity, belonging, and personal exploration, making this long-awaited return a highly anticipated moment for her fanbase.

    When Kim released *GENERASIAN*, mainstream global interest in South Korean culture and K-pop was still in its early growth phase. That project grew out of Kim’s desire to articulate her unique experience as a Korean-born Asian woman, sharing a perspective that she felt had been largely missing from mainstream cultural conversations. “That was a period when no one had really told that story properly,” she explained. “I wanted to show that perspective properly — not through the way it’s usually seen from abroad, but from my own point of view.”

    With *Exit to Nowhere*, Kim shifts her focus away from the broader cultural commentary that anchored *GENERASIAN*, turning inward toward deeply intimate personal reflection. After finishing work on her 2019 EP, Kim spent years weighing what direction to take next, framing each of her releases as a time-stamped snapshot of her emotional state in that moment. “Each album feels like a record of what I was feeling at that time, and then I move on,” she said. “This time, I wanted to focus more on my own individual story.”

    Kim first rose to fame in 2011 as one half of the beloved South Korean folk-pop duo Togeworl, before launching her solo career in 2013. She earned critical acclaim in 2020 when she took home two Korean Music Awards for her previous work.

    The album’s evocative title, *Exit to Nowhere*, references the pervasive uncertainty that shaped the years the record documents. Kim describes this period as wandering through a metaphorical “wasteland” while searching for a clear sense of direction.

    One of the album’s standout tracks, “Never Gonna Be Alone”, opens with a scene set at a wedding, unpacking the quiet paradox of feeling deeply isolated even while surrounded by celebrating crowds. Kim noted that this feeling grew more common as she entered her 30s and attended an increasing number of weddings from friends and peers. The song’s lush, warm string arrangement intentionally contrasts with the undercurrent of unease woven through its lyrics.

    Another track, “INSA” — named for the Korean word meaning “greeting” — features British rapper Bree Runway, and explores the rigid formality that defined Kim’s early interactions within the music industry. Kim opened up about feeling a persistent sense of alienation from the glamour and social circles that surround the entertainment world, explaining: “It wasn’t that I felt like one of them, but more this strange sense that I was somehow separate.”

    Kim drew inspiration for the album from a range of creators whose work similarly grapples with identity and personal transformation, including iconic South Korean novelist Yang Gui-ja, legendary American essayist Joan Didion, and Hayao Miyazaki’s celebrated Studio Ghibli animated film *Spirited Away*. For listeners who are also navigating uncharted territory and uncertain futures, Kim hopes her chronicle of self-discovery will resonate and feel familiar.

  • Amnesty International says Pakistan strike on Kabul drug treatment center may be a war crime

    Amnesty International says Pakistan strike on Kabul drug treatment center may be a war crime

    A March Pakistani airstrike that destroyed a large civilian drug rehabilitation facility in Afghanistan’s capital Kabul, leaving hundreds of civilians dead, must be probed as a potential war crime, global human rights watchdog Amnesty International has concluded following a months-long independent investigation.

    The attack, carried out on March 16 against the 2,000-bed Omid drug treatment center, has sparked sharp disagreement between the two neighboring countries over casualty numbers and the nature of the site. Afghan officials have put the death toll at roughly 400 civilians, while Pakistan has disputed that count and maintained its forces targeted a legitimate military installation storing weapons and ammunition. The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) previously confirmed at least 269 civilian deaths and 122 injuries from the strike in an independent May assessment, noting the actual fatality figure is likely far higher. Afghan authorities held multiple mass funerals for victims in the weeks following the attack.

    Amnesty published its full investigative findings on Tuesday, outlining the rigorous verification process its researchers conducted to assess Pakistan’s claims. The team analyzed and authenticated more than 60 photos and videos—including footage released by the Pakistani military itself—reviewed more than 30 pre- and post-strike satellite images of the site, and conducted dozens of interviews with witnesses and local officials.

    In its final report, the rights group confirmed it found no conclusive evidence to back Pakistan’s assertions. None of the reviewed footage showed secondary explosions immediately after the airstrike, a key indicator that ammunition or explosive stockpiles were stored at the location that would detonate following an initial impact. The Omid center had operated openly as a drug addiction treatment facility for nearly a decade, sitting on land that previously formed part of a NATO military base near Kabul’s international airport.

    The deadly strike occurred against a backdrop of escalating cross-border hostilities between Pakistan and Afghanistan that began in early 2023 and intensified dramatically in February 2024, when Pakistan formally declared it was in “open war” with Afghan authorities. UNAMA data shows that between January 1 and March 31 of this year alone, cross-border violence killed 372 Afghan civilians and injured nearly 400 more. Multiple rounds of internationally mediated peace talks have so far failed to secure a lasting ceasefire between the two sides. As recently as late June, another Pakistani cross-border attack killed at least 28 civilians across three eastern Afghan provinces, UNAMA confirmed.

    Pakistan’s core accusation against Afghanistan is that the ruling Afghan Taliban, which seized power in 2021 following the withdrawal of U.S.-led coalition forces, harbors Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militants that carry out deadly attacks inside Pakistani territory. The TTP, commonly known as the Pakistani Taliban, is organizationally separate from but militarily allied with the Afghan Taliban. Kabul has repeatedly denied Pakistan’s allegations of harboring anti-Pakistan militants.

    Amnesty’s investigation concluded the airstrike violated core tenets of international humanitarian law, which grants special protected status to medical facilities. The attack also broke the fundamental principles of distinction (separating civilian targets from military objectives), precaution (taking all feasible steps to avoid civilian harm), and proportionality (requiring that expected civilian harm does not outweigh anticipated military gains) that are designed to protect civilian populations during armed conflict.

    Isabelle Lassee, Amnesty International’s Acting Regional Director for South Asia, emphasized that the attack meets the legal threshold for a potential war crime. “Given the widely available information that the site had been used as a medical facility for more than a decade, this reflects a major failure in military planning by Pakistan that led to a significant loss of civilian life,” Lassee said. Immediately after the strike, Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar claimed on social media platform X that Pakistani forces carried out precision strikes against military infrastructure, destroying technical support hubs and ammunition storage sites at two locations in Kabul.

    Amnesty confirmed it contacted Pakistan’s foreign ministry on July 9 to request details on any domestic investigation into the strike and any evidence supporting the government’s claim that the Omid center stored weapons and ammunition. As of the publication of Amnesty’s report, the organization had not received a response from Pakistani authorities.