Asia Pacific

For decades, China powered spectacular growth through exports, infrastructure and cheap credit. But that old model is running out of steam, even as it hits a record trade surplus with the world this year.

The property sector is drowning in debt, confidence is fading, and consumers are holding back. Now, Beijing faces its toughest test yet: how to keep the world’s second-largest economy growing without relying much on the engines that once drove it.

A new five-year plan promises “high-quality growth” built on technology and self-reliance. But trade tensions with the United States could make the climb even steeper.

Economists credit US President Donald Trump’s tariff campaign with reducing trade between Germany and the US, its top trading partner last year.

China overtook the United States as Germany’s largest trading partner during the first eight months of 2025, preliminary data from the German statistics office has shown.

The data indicated that German imports and exports with China totalled $190.7bn (163.4 billion euros) from January to August, while trade with the US amounted to $189bn (162.8 billion euros), according to Reuters calculations.

The US was Germany’s top trading partner in 2024, ending an eight-year streak for China. Germany had sought to reduce its reliance on China, citing political differences and accusing Beijing of unfair practices.

But trade dynamics shifted again this year, with US President Donald Trump’s return to the White House and his renewed tariff campaign.

The tariffs have pushed down German exports to the US, which fell 7.4 percent in the first eight months of the year compared with 2024.

In August, exports to the US also fell 23.5 percent year-on-year, showing that the trend is accelerating.

“There is no question that US tariff and trade policy is an important reason for the decline in sales,” said Dirk Jandura, president of the BGA foreign trade association.

Jandura added that US demand for classic German export goods, such as cars, machinery and chemicals, had fallen.

With the ongoing tariff threat and the stronger euro, German exports to the US are unlikely to rebound any time soon, said Carsten Brzeski, global head of macro at the financial institution ING.

Exports to China fell even more sharply than those to the US, dropping 13.5 percent year-on-year to $63.5bn (54.7 billion euros) in the first eight months of 2025.

By contrast, imports from China rose 8.3 percent to $126.4bn (108.8 billion euros).

“The renewed import boom from China is worrying – particularly as data shows that these imports come at dumping prices,” said Brzeski.

He warned that the trend not only increases German dependence on China, but could add to stress in key industries where China has become a major rival.

“In the absence of economic dynamism at home, some in Germany may now be troubled by any shifts on world markets,” said Salomon Fiedler, an economist at the bank Berenberg.

DEVELOPING STORYDEVELOPING STORY,

Experts warned N Korea could launch provocative missile tests before or during the upcoming APEC summit in South Korea.

North Korea has fired multiple, short-range ballistic missiles towards waters off its eastern coast, South Korea’s military said, marking its first missile launch in months.

The launch of missiles on Wednesday morning comes a week before South Korea hosts the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, which will see Chinese President Xi Jinping, United States President Donald Trump, and other world leaders gather in the South Korean city of Gyeongju for talks.

South Korea’s military said that it “detected several projectiles, believed to be short-range ballistic missiles” fired towards the East Sea, which is also known as the Sea of Japan, the official South Korean Yonhap news agency reports.

“Our military has stepped up monitoring in preparation for (the possibility of) additional launches and is maintaining a steadfast readiness posture while sharing relevant information with the US and Japan,” South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said, according to Yonhap.

North Korea last fired short-range ballistic and cruise missiles towards the East Sea on May 8 and May 22 , meaning the latest launch is the first under South Korea’s new president, Lee Jae Myung, who took office in June, Yonhap said.

Experts had warned that North Korea could launch provocative missile tests before or during the APEC summit to underscore its commitment to being recognised as a nuclear-armed state, the Associated Press news agency reports.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un earlier this month displayed a new long-range Hwasong-20 Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM), described as the country’s “most powerful”, during a huge military parade in Pyongyang, with top Chinese, Russian and other leaders in attendance.

The parade, which marked the 80th anniversary of the founding of North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party, highlighted Kim’s strengthening diplomatic presence on a regional and global level and his consistent drive to build sophisticated weapons capable of delivering nuclear payloads.

Pyongyang has long rejected international bans on its weapons development, which it says is necessary to protect North Korea from potential attack by its enemies, the US and South Korea.

Trump met the North Korean leader during his first term in office, and said recently that he hopes to meet Kim again, possibly this year.

Pyongyang has said that Kim is open to future talks with Trump, but with the caveat that North Korea will never agree to relinquish its nuclear arsenal.

Relations between the United States and China are tense, once again, with experts saying that the administration of US President Donald Trump “doesn’t quite know how to deal with China”.

The latest flare-up took place when Beijing, on October 9, expanded its restrictions on the export of rare-earth metals, increasing the number of elements on the list.

China has the largest reserves and the majority of processing facilities of rare-earth metals that are used in a range of daily and critical industries like electric vehicles, smartphones, laptops and defence equipment.

In a first, it also required countries to have a licence to export rare-earth magnets and certain semiconductor materials that contain even trace amounts of minerals sourced from China or produced using Chinese technology.

China’s actions on rare-earths also came after the US expanded its Entity List, a trade restriction list that consists of certain foreign persons, entities or government, further limiting China’s access to the most advanced semiconductor chips, and added levies on China-linked ships both to boost the US shipbuilding industry and loosen China’s hold on the global shipping trade. China retaliated by applying its own charges on US-owned, operated, built or flagged vessels.

“For the US, its actions on chip exports and shipping industry fees were not related to the trade deal with China,” said Vina Nadjibulla, vice president for research and strategy at the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada.

Since then, the two countries have also been in an “information war”, said Nadjibulla, each blaming the other for holding the world hostage with its policies.

But beyond the rhetoric, the world is seeing China really up its game.

“For the first time, China is doing this extra-terrestrial action that applies to other countries as well [with its amped up export restrictions on rare-earths]. They are prepared to match every US escalation, and have the US back down,” Nadjibulla said. “This is a very different kind of a trade war than we were experiencing even three months ago.”

This was a “power play” by China in the run-up to a planned meeting later this month between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in South Korea because “China has decided that the leverage is on their side,” said Dexter Tiff Roberts, a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council Global China Hub, pointing out that after some initial noise with Trump saying there was no reason to meet Xi any longer, the meeting is back on.

“If you look at the approach of the Trump administration right now, they are all over the place,” said Roberts.

Roberts was referring not only to the multiple tariff threats that the US has issued both on China and on specific industries and the carve-outs that were soon announced on those, but also in its statements on the Trump-Xi meeting, with Trump saying it was not happening, only to reverse that two days later.

“The Trump administration doesn’t quite know how to deal with China,” said Roberts. “They don’t understand that China is willing to accept a lot of pain,” and will not be easily cowed by US threats.

Beijing, on the other hand, has realised that Trump is determined to get his big deal with China and wants his state visit to seal that, maybe because “he feels that is important to his credentials as a big deal maker,” added Roberts, but that he cannot get there without giving more to China.

“China saw that they could push harder in the lead-up to the meeting.”

Wei Liang, a professor at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies who specialises in international trade and Chinese economic foreign policy, agrees.

“Trump has a track record of TACO,” she said, referring to a term coined by a Financial Times columnist in May, which stands for “Trump always chickens out” in reference to his announcing tariffs and then carving out exemptions and pushing out implementation dates.

“He cares more than any other US president [about] stock market reactions, so definitely will be more flexible to making concessions. This is the inconsistency that has been captured by his negotiation partners,” Liang said.

China’s defiant stance also comes at a time of its own political concerns, Liang added.

While the domestic economy is “a black box” with no reliable data available on growth, employment and other criteria, the consensus among China experts is that the country has been hit by the tariffs, economic growth has slowed, and unemployment has ramped up.

As China started its four-day fourth plenary session on Monday where it plans to approve the draft of its next five-year national economic and social development plan, Xi can use the moment to tell his domestic audience that the country’s problems are stemming from Trump’s policies and the whole world is suffering because of those tariffs and it’s not related to Chinese policies, Liang said.

A possible decoupling

All of this also signals that Beijing seems to be prepared to “decouple” from the US more than ever, a significant change in mentality, as, in the past, the standard response to the idea was that it would be a “lose-lose” situation for both countries, Liang told Al Jazeera.

But in the last few years, China has diversified its exports to other countries, especially those in its Belt and Road Initiative, the ambitious infrastructure project that it launched in 2013 to link East Asia through Europe and has since expanded to Africa, Oceania and Latin America.

Even when it comes to things that it needs from the US – soya beans, aeroplanes and high-tech chip equipment – it can find other suppliers or has learned to work around that need, as is the case for the chip equipment, Liang pointed out.

In the meantime, especially in the years since the US-China trade war started under Trump as president in his first term, China has brought in a set of national security laws – including its version of the US Entity List, through which it is setting limits on those exports, Nadjibulla said.

“Everybody should have been preparing the way the Chinese have been preparing. We breathed a sigh of relief when there was a change in government [in the US after the first Trump administration], but China kept preparing,” she said.

“This should be a wake-up call for all countries to find other sources for its needs. Everyone should be redoubling their efforts to diversify, because we have now seen the Chinese playbook.”

Appointment clinched via a last-minute coalition deal, but government remains without a majority, leaving the risk of instability.

Japan’s parliament has elected ultraconservative Sanae Takaichi as the nation’s first female prime minister.

A protege of assassinated former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Takaichi received  237 votes in the 465-seat lower house of parliament on Tuesday to confirm her in the role.

The victory follows a last-minute coalition deal by her Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) with the right-wing Japan Innovation Party (JIP), also known as Ishin, on Monday. However, her government is still two seats short of a majority, suggesting a risk of instability.

Takaichi replaces Shigeru Ishiba, ending a three-month political vacuum and wrangling since the LDP – which has governed Japan for most of its post-war history – suffered a disastrous election loss in July.

Her victory marks a pivotal moment for a country where men still hold overwhelming sway. But it is also likely to usher in a sharper move to the right on immigration and social issues, with little expectation that it will help to promote gender equality or diversity.

Takaichi has stonewalled measures for women’s advancement. She supports the imperial family’s male-only succession and opposes same-sex marriage and allowing separate surnames for married couples.

The LDP had earlier lost its longtime partner, the Buddhist-backed Komeito, which has a more dovish and centrist stance.

Komeito ended the partnership due to its concerns that the LDP was not prepared to fight corruption.

“Political stability is essential right now,” Takaichi said at the signing ceremony with the JIP leader and Osaka Governor Hirofumi Yoshimura. “Without stability, we cannot push measures for a strong economy or diplomacy.”

JIP will not hold ministerial posts in Takaichi’s Cabinet until his party is confident about its partnership with the LDP, Yoshimura said.

After years of deflation, Japan is now grappling with rising prices, something that has caused public anger and fuelled support for opposition groups, including far-right upstarts.

Like Abe, Takaichi is expected to favour government spending to jumpstart the weakened economy. That has prompted a so-called “Takaichi trade” in the stock market, sending the Nikkei share average to record highs, the most recent on Tuesday.

But it has also caused investor unease about the government’s ability to pay for additional spending in a country where the debt load far outweighs annual output.

Shortly after the lower house vote, Takaichi’s elevation to prime minister was also approved by the less-powerful upper house. She will be sworn in as Japan’s 104th prime minister on Tuesday evening.

Takaichi is also running on a deadline, as she prepares for a major policy speech later this week, talks with United States President Donald Trump and regional summits.

The military also confiscated 30 Starlink satellites from the sprawling KK Park scam centre on the border with Thailand.

Myanmar’s military says it has arrested more than 2,000 people in a raid on KK Park, an infamous scam centre on the border with Thailand, according to state media.

The sprawling compound was used by international criminal syndicates to carry out illegal gambling, money laundering, and online romance and investment scams, the Myanmar Alin daily reported on Monday.

Operations were spread across more than 250 low-rise buildings, according to the media report. They included warehouses, shophouses, and dozens of one and two-storey buildings.

During the raid, the military also seized 30 Starlink satellites, Myanmar Alin said.

The satellites are built and run by Starlink, a subsidiary of Elon Musk’s SpaceX, and can keep compounds connected to the internet, even during power cuts.

Authorities also arrested 2,198 people, among them 445 women, 1,645 men and 98 male security guards, although the newspaper did not list their nationalities.

KK Park is located in Kayin State’s Myawaddy Township, which lies just across the river from the Thai border town of Mae Sot.

The area has seen recent fighting between Myanmar’s military, the People’s Defence Force – the armed wing of Myanmar’s National Unity Government, formed by elected lawmakers, which operates from exile after it was ousted in the 2021 military coup – and armed Karen ethnic groups, according to Myanmar Alin.

Myanmar has been embroiled in a civil war since the coup in 2021, with fighting between the military, armed opposition groups and ethnic armies.

Military spokesperson Major-General Zaw Min Tun said on Monday in a statement that the top leaders of the Karen National Union, one of the groups fighting the military, were involved in the scam projects at KK Park, according to the Associated Press news agency.

Myanmar has been under pressure from Thailand and China to curb scam centre activity, which has drawn in criminal groups, particularly Chinese crime syndicates.

The issue became a cause célèbre in China in January when Chinese actor Wang Xing was trafficked to a scam centre and later rescued by Thai police.

Employees of the scam centres are often themselves victims of human trafficking, lured by the promise of employment but then forced to carry out online scams in slave-like conditions, according to rights groups.

Thai police estimate that as many as 100,000 people are working in scam operations on the Thai-Myanmar border alone, according to Reuters.

Scam centres have spread across Southeast Asia over the past five years, but their epicentre has been in Myanmar and Cambodia. They net international criminal groups billions of dollars each year.

The Department of the Treasury in the United States in September sanctioned more than 20 companies and individuals in Cambodia and Myanmar who were allegedly involved in scam operations.

US President Donald Trump said the deal had been negotiated over the last four to five months.

United States President Donald Trump and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese have signed an agreement on rare earth and critical minerals as China tightens control over global supply.

The two leaders signed the deal on Monday at the White House.

Trump said the agreement had been negotiated over four or five months. The two leaders will also discuss trade, submarines and military equipment, Trump said.

Albanese described it as an $8.5bn pipeline “that we have ready to go”.

The full terms of the agreement were not immediately available. The two leaders said part of the agreement had to do with processing of the minerals. Albanese said both countries will contribute $1bn over the next six months for joint projects.

China has the world’s largest rare earths reserves, according to the US Geological Survey data, but Australia also has significant reserves.

The two leaders also planned to discuss the $239.4bn agreement, reached in 2023 under then-US President Joe Biden, in which Australia is to buy US nuclear-powered submarines in 2032 before building a new submarine class with Britain.

US Navy Secretary John Phelan told the meeting the US and Australia were working very closely to improve the original framework for all three parties “and clarify some of the ambiguity that was in the prior agreement”.

Trump said these were “just minor details”.

“There shouldn’t be any more clarifications, because we’re just, we’re just going now full steam ahead, building,” Trump said.

Australian officials have said they are confident it will proceed, with Defence Minister Richard Marles last week saying he knew when the review would conclude.

China’s rare earth export controls

Ahead of Monday’s meeting between the two leaders, Australian officials have emphasised Canberra is paying its way under AUKUS — a trilateral military partnership between the US, Australia and the United Kingdom, contributing $2bn this year to boost production rates at US submarine shipyards, and preparing to maintain US Virginia-class submarines at its Indian Ocean naval base from 2027.

The delay of 10 months in an official meeting since Trump took office has caused some anxiety in Australia as the Pentagon urged Canberra to lift defence spending. The two leaders met briefly on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York last month.

Australia is willing to sell shares in its planned strategic reserve of critical minerals to allies including Britain, as Western governments scramble to end their reliance on China for rare earths and minor metals.

Top US officials last week condemned Beijing’s expansion of rare earth export controls as a threat to global supply chains. China is the world’s biggest producer of the materials, which are vital for products ranging from electric vehicles to aircraft engines and military radars.

Resource-rich Australia, wanting to extract and process rare earths, put preferential access to its strategic reserve on the table in US trade negotiations in April.

A cargo plane arriving from Dubai ran off the runway and into the sea while landing at Hong Kong International Airport. Two security workers on the ground were killed, and all four crew members were rescued.

Right-wing Japan Innovation Party says it will support the governing LDP, allowing Sanae Takaichi to be voted in as leader.

Hardline conservative Sanae Takaichi appears set to become Japan’s first female premier as the governing Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) prepares to sign a coalition deal.

Hirofumi Yoshimura, coleader of the Japan Innovation Party, known as Ishin, said on Monday that his right-wing party was prepared to back a Takaichi premiership, providing the LDP with the support it needs to remain in power.

The LDP had appeared on the cusp of losing power when Japan’s legislature meets for an extraordinary session to vote for the next prime minister on Tuesday.

“I told Takaichi that we should move forward together,” Yoshimura told reporters in Osaka as he made the 11th-hour announcement. He added that he would meet Takaichi at 6pm local time (09:00 GMT) to sign the agreement.

The deal clears the way for Takaichi to win Tuesday’s vote, which will see her replace incumbent Shigeru Ishiba, who has resigned.

Political turmoil

Takaichi, a 64-year-old China hawk from the right-wing party, became leader of the LDP earlier this month.

Her bid to become Japan’s first female premier was disrupted when the centrist Komeito party ended a 26-year alliance with the LDP.

Coming just days after Takaichi’s election as the LDP leader, the move plunged the country into a political crisis.

The Buddhist-backed Komeito said the LDP had failed to tighten funding rules in the wake of a slush fund scandal. It was also unnerved by Takaichi’s ultraconservative positions, including a history of harsh rhetoric on China, despite Takaichi having toned that down recently.

The deal between the LDP and Ishin would deliver a combined 231 seats in the lower house of parliament, two short of a majority, meaning the new coalition would still need support from other parties to push through legislation.

But should the vote for Ishiba’s replacement go to a second-round run-off, Takaichi would only need support from more MPs than the other candidate.

Muted response from women

Despite Takaichi appearing set to break the glass ceiling to become the first female premier, many Japanese women were not celebrating her rise.

“The prospect of a first female prime minister doesn’t make me happy,” sociologist Chizuko Ueno posted on X, saying her leadership “doesn’t mean Japanese politics becomes kinder to women”.

Chiyako Sato, a political commentator for the Mainichi newspaper, said Takaichi’s policies were “extremely hawkish and I doubt she would consider policies to recognize diversity”.

The incident is the first alleged defection of a North Korean soldier in more than a year.

South Korea says it has taken a North Korean soldier into custody after he crossed the country’s heavily guarded border.

The soldier crossed the military demarcation line (MDL) that divides the peninsula on Sunday, according to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, which said it “tracked and monitored” the soldier before securing him.

South Korea’s military said it would investigate the circumstances of the soldier’s crossing – a relatively rare incident in the mine-strewn border zone between the two nations still technically at war.

South Korean media described the crossing near the central part of the border as a “defection”, with the Chosun Ilbo daily saying the soldier expressed his wish to defect after being approached by a South Korean soldier.

If confirmed, the soldier would join tens of thousands of North Koreans who have fled poverty and repression in North Korea since the peninsula was split by war in the 1950s. Last year, 236 North Koreans arrived in the South, with women accounting for 88 percent of the total.

The last time a soldier from North Korea, which derides defectors as “human scum”, escaped to the South was in August last year.

Most defectors, however, take a different route – escaping across North Korea’s border with China before eventually making their way to the South. Direct crossings between the two Koreas are relatively rare and extremely risky, as the border area is full of mines and well-monitored on both sides.

Hong Min, a senior analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification, said the latest soldier who crossed the border may have been able to navigate the dangerous terrain due to his “likely familiarity with the area”.

“The latest crossing will not be received positively by Pyongyang, as he could provide the South with information on its troop movements and operations in the border area,” the analyst told the AFP news agency.

In July, a North Korean civilian crossed the border by foot in a 20-hour operation aided by the South’s military.

The latest crossing came four months after liberal politician Lee Jae-myung took office as South Korean president, following months of political chaos, which began with the conservative President Yoon Suk-yeol’s short-lived attempt to impose martial law in December.

Lee has taken a different stance from his predecessor on North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, promising to “open a communication channel with North Korea and establish peace on the Korean Peninsula through talks and cooperation”.

Diplomatic efforts have stalled on the Korean Peninsula since the collapse of denuclearisation talks between Washington and Pyongyang in 2019 during the first United States President Donald Trump administration, after a series of Trump-Kim summits, globally watched spectacles that bore little concrete progress.

The Japanese legislature, known as the Diet, is set to meet for an extraordinary session to vote for the next prime minister.

The vote on Tuesday follows the collapse of a 26-year-old partnership earlier this month between the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and the smaller Komeito party after Sanae Takaichi took the helm of the LDP.

The LDP has been the dominant force in Japanese politics since the 1950s, but over the past two years, it has lost its majority in both legislative houses after failing to address a series of problems, including a major corruption scandal and Japan’s cost-of-living crisis.

Now, the LDP is at risk of losing power completely unless it can bring another opposition party to its side.

Some Japanese media reports suggested on Sunday that the LDP had reached an agreement with the Japan Innovation Party (Nippon Ishin) to form a coalition that would ensure that Takaichi is elected prime minister. But details of the partnership remain unclear, and the two sides have yet to confirm it.

Who is Sanae Takaichi, and why is she controversial?

Takaichi, 64, is the former protege of late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and a member of the LDP’s conservative faction.

She was chosen to replace Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba as head of the LDP after he stepped down in September. Takaichi ran on a platform of aggressive fiscal expansion to resolve Japan’s ongoing economic problems.

Takaichi is also known as a foreign policy hawk who wants to strengthen Japan’s military, and she holds conservative views on same-sex marriage.

Following her election as LDP leader on October 4, the LDP and Komeito held policy negotiations. They hit an impasse when Takaichi failed to address Komeito’s concerns about corporate donations, according to Jeffrey Hall, a lecturer at Japan’s Kanda University of International Studies.

The disagreement follows a recent LDP scandal that revealed that party members had diverted more than 600 million yen (approximately $4m) of donations to a slush fund.

“[Takaichi] didn’t give them what they considered a serious answer on their concerns about corruption scandals, and they wanted more serious regulations around funding, especially corporate donations,” he told Al Jazeera.

Can Takaichi still become the next prime minister?

Takaichi still has the chance to become Japan’s first female prime minister, but experts say it will take some horse-trading.

The LDP has 196 seats in the lower house of the Diet, and Takaichi needs at least 233 seats to secure a majority. She could do this by negotiating with one of Japan’s other opposition parties, like the Japan Innovation Party.

Conversely, if opposition parties worked together, they could form a new government, but experts like Kazuto Suzuki, a professor at the University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Public Policy, say this would be challenging due to ideological disagreements.

The situation is very different from 2009, when the LDP last lost power, to a unified opposition, for three years.

“If the opposition is able to rally for the unified candidate, it is possible that Takaichi will lose, but more likely, Takaichi will win not by majority but as the first of the two candidates [in a run-off vote],” Suzuki said.

“But even if Takaichi wins, she is based on a very small minority,” he said. “It will be extremely difficult for Takaichi and the LDP to conduct policies of their own.”

Who could challenge Takaichi for the top job?

Experts say that Takaichi’s most likely challenger is Yuichiro Tamaki, 56, the leader of the conservative Democratic Party for the People (DPFP).

While the party holds 27 seats, it could secure a majority if it cooperated with the centre-left Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDP), which holds 148 seats, and the Japan Innovation Party, which holds 35 seats.

The DPFP and the CDP were once part of the same party but split due to ideological differences over foreign policy and the future of Japan’s military.

The Japan Innovation Party and the DPP also clash over policies like economic reform and deregulation, according to Stephen Nagy, a professor of politics and international studies at Japan’s International Christian University.

“There are a lot of contradictory positions that will make it unlikely they can form a coalition,” Nagy said.

In a more likely scenario, the Japan Innovation Party will form a coalition with the LDP, he said. They share views on major policy concerns like the United States, China, Taiwan, immigration, and the future of the imperial family.

What does this mean for Japan and the LDP?

Experts say the LDP will likely retain its hold over the government for now, but Takaichi will be a much weaker prime minister than many of her predecessors.

“The bigger question is whether she will survive more than a year, and there are external factors like the US relationship and [US President Donald] Trump’s unpredictability, and internal factors such as the direction of the economy and whether she’ll make decisions about Yasukuni shrine,” said Nagy, referring to the shrine to Japan’s war dead that includes war criminals.

Takaichi will also have to find a way to work with Japan’s other parties, and that means negotiating or softening her stance on more controversial policies.

Kanda University’s Hall said this could be a watershed moment for Japanese politics, especially if the opposition parties can retain their support from voters.

“We have a situation where there are several centre-right parties, there’s a far-right party, and there are a few smaller left-wing parties. There just simply isn’t the math for one party to put together a stable coalition with a partner that agrees with it on the big issues,” he told Al Jazeera.

“With this kind of multi-party democracy, they’re going to have new norms develop, where parties are more willing to compromise if they want to form a government – and if they don’t… then we’ll see no-confidence votes that oust prime ministers,” he said.

Mitchell Marsh powered Australia to ODI victory against India as Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli failed in their return to international cricket.

Australia’s stand-in captain Mitchell Marsh continued his fine run of form on Sunday, scoring 46 not out and leading his side to a seven-wicket triumph over India in the weather-affected first one-day international (ODI) at Perth Stadium.

India limped to 136-9 from 26 overs, interrupted four times by rain, setting Australia a revised target of 131 which the hosts reached in 21.1 overs.

The sea of blue in the 42,423-strong crowd did not have to wait long to see Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli after India were put into bat.

Having retired from the game’s other formats with an eye on the 2027 World Cup, the former captains made their return to national duty for the first time since winning the Champions Trophy in March.

Neither looked convincing against Australia’s pace bowlers, with Rohit edging Josh Hazlewood to second slip on eight and Kohli cutting Mitchell Starc to a diving Cooper Connolly at backward point for a duck.

“All of their batters are world-class and legends of the game,” said spinner Matthew Kuhnemann, who picked up 2-26. “In one-day cricket, especially, to get wickets up front makes a massive difference.”

India captain Gill out cheaply

New one-day skipper Shubman Gill was dismissed for 10 when he tickled seamer Nathan Ellis to wicketkeeper Josh Philippe, leaving India reeling at 37-3 when light drizzle halted play for two hours.

The crowd applauded sarcastically when the covers were removed, then in earnest when Shreyas Iyer (11) slashed Hazlewood to the fence. The bowler got his revenge in his next over, however, as Philippe took another leg-side catch.

Kuhnemann and medium-pacer Mitch Owen kept up the pressure and halted any momentum Axar Patel (31) and KL Rahul (38) generated, although Nitish Kumar Reddy brought some excitement with a rapid 19 off 11 balls.

Deputising for Pat Cummins, whose Ashes hopes remain uncertain due to a back injury, man-of-the-match Marsh kick-started Australia’s reply by bludgeoning three sixes, carrying over impressive form against South Africa and New Zealand.

Philippe, playing his first ODI since 2021 due to the absence of Josh Inglis and Alex Carey, supported his skipper with an aggressive 37 before holing out to Arshdeep Singh in the deep.

Matt Renshaw helped his team home with 21 not out, while Arshdeep, Axar and Washington Sundar claimed one wicket apiece.

“We knew we didn’t have that many runs, but we just wanted to express ourselves,” Arshdeep said.

The series moves to Adelaide on Thursday before concluding in Sydney on Saturday.

The technology is expected to boost capacity in environmental monitoring, urban planning and disaster management.

Pakistan has sent its first-ever hyperspectral satellite into orbit, a “major milestone” it says will help advance national objectives from agriculture to urban planning.

The country’s space agency, SUPARCO, announced the “successful launch” of the H1 satellite from northwestern China’s Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre on Sunday.

Hyperspectral satellites can detect subtle chemical or material changes on the ground that traditional satellites cannot, making them especially useful for things like tracking crop quality, water resources or damage from natural disasters.

Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the technology is expected to “significantly enhance national capacities” in fields like precision agriculture, environmental monitoring, urban planning and disaster management.

It said its ability to pinpoint geohazard risks will also contribute to development initiatives such as the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which seeks to build infrastructure linking China’s northwestern Xinjiang province with Pakistan’s Gwadar Port.

🔊PR No.3️⃣1️⃣0️⃣/2️⃣0️⃣2️⃣5️⃣

SUPARCO Successfully Launches Pakistan’s First Hyperspectral Satellite https://t.co/N6dil4vaMe
🔗⬇️ pic.twitter.com/rFDSSIcstv

— Ministry of Foreign Affairs – Pakistan (@ForeignOfficePk) October 19, 2025

“The data from the Hyperspectral Satellite is poised to revolutionise agricultural productivity, bolster climate resilience, and enable optimised management of the country’s vital natural resources,” SUPARCO chairman Muhammad Yousuf Khan was quoted as saying in Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper.

‘Pivotal step’

Pakistan also hailed H1’s deployment as a “pivotal step forward” in its space programme, as well as a reflection of its longstanding partnership with China in the “peaceful exploration of space”.

“The mission reflects the ever-growing strategic partnership and deep-rooted friendship between the two nations, who continue to cooperate in advancing peaceful space exploration and harnessing its benefits for socioeconomic development,” said the Foreign Ministry.

The mission is part of a recent push in Pakistan to grow its space programme, which has sent three satellites into orbit this year, according to SUPARCO.

The two other satellites – EO-1 and KS-1 – are “fully operational in orbit”, reported Pakistan’s The News International newspaper.

It may take about two months to calibrate the H1 satellite’s systems before it is fully operational this year, according to a SUPARCO spokesperson quoted in Pakistani media.

Cheng Li-wun will take over the leadership of Kuomintang party on November 1.

Taiwan’s main opposition party has chosen a new reformist leader who is critical of high defence spending but envisions peace with neighbouring China, whose sovereignty claims over the island have long roiled ties.

Members of the opposition Kuomintang (KMT) party, which traditionally has had warm ties with Beijing, voted to elect former lawmaker Cheng Li-wun as chairperson on Saturday.

Cheng, 55, who defeated former Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin and four others, will take over the party leadership on November 1.

The election of Cheng, who warns against letting Taiwan “become the sacrifice of geopolitics”, has deep implications for domestic politics at a time of heightened military and political tensions with China.

While the KMT does not control the presidency, the party and its ally – the small Taiwan People’s Party – together hold enough seats to form a majority bloc in the legislature, creating a headache for the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) trying to get the budget and its legislation passed.

Speaking at party headquarters in Taipei, Cheng said the KMT under her leadership would be a “creator of regional peace”.

“The KMT will make our home the strongest shelter for everyone against life’s storms. Because we will safeguard peace across the Taiwan Strait,” she said. “We must not let Taiwan become a troublemaker.”

Accusations of Chinese interference

Cheng, who started out in politics in the DPP, said during the campaign that she did not support increasing the defence budget, a key policy of President William Lai Ching-te’s administration that also has strong backing from the United States.

Cheng beat the establishment candidate Hau, 73, with more than 50 percent of the vote, though turnout was less than 40 percent of the party members.

But accusations of Chinese interference in the election from a key supporter of Hau’s, the KMT’s vice presidential candidate last year, Jaw Shau-kong, overshadowed the campaign. Jaw said social media accounts had spread disinformation about Hau.

The head of Taiwan’s National Security Bureau, Tsai Ming-yen, said it found more than 1,000 videos discussing the election on TikTok, in addition to 23 YouTube accounts posting related content, with over half of the YouTube accounts based outside of Taiwan. He did not say which candidates these videos supported or directly answer whether they were based in China.

DPP spokesperson Wu Cheng claimed that Chinese interference was obvious and the KMT should carefully guard against it, saying his party hoped that the new chair would prioritise Taiwan’s safety over party interests.

Cheng rejected the allegations of China influencing her party as “very cheap labels”.

Beijing, for its part, said the election was a KMT matter and that some online comments from mainland China internet users did not represent an official stance.

Liberal Democratic Party leader Sanae Takaichi appears back on track to become Japan’s first female prime minister.

Japan’s governing party and the main opposition are set to form a coalition government, setting the stage for Sanae Takaichi to become the country’s first female prime minister, local media report.

Sanae Takaichi, the leader of the conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), and Hirofumi Yoshimura, the head of the smaller right-leaning Japan Innovation Party (JIP), known as Ishin, are set to sign an agreement on their alliance on Monday, Japan’s Kyodo news agency reported on Sunday.

Takaichi became leader of the governing LDP earlier this month, but her bid to become Japan’s first female premier was derailed by the collapse of her governing coalition.

Since then, the LDP has been working to cobble together a different political alliance, putting her chances for the top job back on track.

“The LDP has entrusted Takaichi with handling the coalition matter, while the JIP will hold an executive board gathering in Osaka on Sunday and a plenary meeting of lawmakers the following day before giving final approval to the agreement with the LDP,” Kyodo reported.

Japan’s leading Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper also said that Takaichi and Yoshimura were “likely to sign a coalition agreement after talks on Monday”.

Reports of a new coalition come after the LDP’s junior partner, the Komeito party, left the governing coalition after 26 years, plunging the country into a political crisis.

The sealing of an alliance between the LDP and JIP could lead to Takaichi’s election as premier as early as Tuesday, but the parties are still two seats short of a majority to pass the vote.

Should the vote go to a second-round run-off, however, Takaichi would only need support from more MPs than the other candidate.

The moves to form a coalition come just days before the expected arrival in Japan of United States President Donald Trump.

Trump is scheduled to travel to Japan before the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in South Korea.

Members of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) have voted to postpone approving a plan to curb shipping emissions, after United States President Donald Trump threatened to impose sanctions on countries that supported the measure.

The vote on Friday set back plans to regulate the shipping industry’s contributions to climate change by at least 12 months, even though the Net Zero Framework (NZF) had already been approved by members of the London-based IMO, a United Nations body, in April.

The decision to formally delay adopting the framework until late next year came a day after President Trump took to his Truth Social platform, saying: “I am outraged that the International Maritime Organization is voting in London this week to pass a global Carbon Tax.”

“The United States will NOT stand for this Global Green New Scam Tax on Shipping,” he said, telling countries to vote against the plan.

Washington also threatened to impose sanctions, visa restrictions and port levies on countries that supported the deal.

In advance of this week’s meeting in London, about 63 IMO members who had voted for the plan in April were expected to maintain their support for curbs on emissions, and others were expected to join the initiative to formally approve the framework.

Following Trump’s social media threat, delegates in London instead voted on a hastily arranged resolution to push back proceedings on the matter, which passed by 57 votes to 49.

The IMO, which comprises 176 member countries, is responsible for regulating the safety and security of international shipping and preventing pollution on the high seas.

Since returning to power in January, Trump has focused on reversing Washington’s course on climate change, encouraging fossil fuel use by deregulation, cutting funding for clean energy projects and promising businesses to “drill, baby drill”.

‘A missed opportunity’

A spokesman for UN chief Antonio Guterres called Friday’s decisions “a missed opportunity for member states to place the shipping sector on a clear, credible path towards net zero emissions”.

The International Chamber of Shipping, representing more than 80 percent of the world’s fleet, also expressed disappointment.

“Industry needs clarity to be able to make the investments needed to decarbonise the maritime sector,” the chamber’s Secretary-General Thomas Kazakos said in a statement.

Disappointed, but still very much Committed! https://t.co/7P192kAvCx

— Thomas A. Kazakos (@ThomasKazakos) October 17, 2025

Ralph Regenvanu, the minister for climate change for Vanuatu, said the decision to delay the vote by 12 months was “unacceptable given the urgency we face in light of accelerating climate change”.

“But we know that we have international law on our side and will continue to fight for our people and the planet,” Regenvanu added.

Leading up to Friday’s decision, China, the European Union, Brazil, Britain and several other members of the IMO had reaffirmed their support.

Countries that opposed the measures included Russia and Saudi Arabia.

A Russian delegate described the proceedings as “chaos” as he addressed the plenary on Friday after talks had lasted into the early hours.

Argentina and Singapore, two countries that had previously voted in support of the framework in April, were among those that voted to postpone introducing it this week.

If it had been formally adopted this week, the Net Zero Framework (NZF) would have been the first global carbon-pricing system, charging ships a penalty of $380 per metric tonne on every extra tonne of CO2-equivalent they emit while rewarding vessels that reduce their emissions by using alternatives.

The framework plan is intended to help the IMO reach its target of cutting net emissions from international shipping by 20 percent by 2030 and eliminating them by 2050.

Climate change is already beginning to affect shipping and the safety of seafarers, including by changing ocean currents and causing more frequent and severe storms.

Proposals to reduce reliance on dirtier bunker fuel in the shipping industry include using ammonia and methanol, as well as fitting cargo ships with special sails.

Commercial flights between the countries to restart as diplomatic thaw eases tensions over border clashes.

State-backed China Eastern Airlines will resume Shanghai-Delhi flights from November 9, the airline’s website shows, as China and India resume direct air links amid a diplomatic thaw, largely triggered by aggressive United States trade policies, after a five-year freeze.

The flights will operate three times a week on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays, the airline’s online ticket sales platform showed on Saturday.

China Eastern Airlines did not immediately respond to the Reuters news agency’s emailed request for comment.

India’s foreign ministry said earlier this month that commercial flights between the two neighbouring countries would restart after a five-year freeze.

The announcement followed Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first visit to China in more than seven years, for a summit meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation regional security bloc. The two sides discussed ways to improve trade ties, while Modi raised concerns about India’s burgeoning bilateral trade deficit.

India and China’s foreign ministries did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the Shanghai-Delhi flights.

India’s largest carrier, IndiGo, previously announced it would start daily nonstop flights between Kolkata and Guangzhou.

State-backed Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport said at the time of the IndiGo announcement that it would encourage airlines to open more direct routes, such as between Guangzhou and Delhi.

Direct flights between the two countries were suspended during the COVID pandemic in 2020 and did not resume after deadly clashes along their Himalayan border led to a prolonged military stand-off later that year.

Four Chinese soldiers and 20 Indian soldiers were killed in the worst violence between the neighbours in decades.

India and China’s diplomatic thaw comes amid US President Donald Trump’s increasingly belligerent trade polices.

The US president raised the tariff rate on Indian imports to a stiff 50 percent in September, citing the nation’s continuing purchases of Russian oil.

He also urged the European Union to impose 100 percent tariffs on China and India, ostensibly as part of his efforts to pressure Moscow to end its war in Ukraine.

The country is hit by some 20 storms and typhoons a year, striking disaster-prone areas where millions live in poverty.

Thousands of residents of a Philippine island have fled their homes along the Pacific coast as weather experts warned of coastal flooding ahead of the approach of Tropical Storm Fengshen, rescue officials said.

The eye of the storm was forecast to brush past Catanduanes, an impoverished island of 270,000 people, later on Saturday with gusts of up to 80km/h (50mph).

Fengshen will bring heavy rainfall, along with a “minimal to moderate risk” of coastal flooding from 1.2-metre (3.2-foot) waves being pushed ashore, the government weather service said.

More than 9,000 residents of Catanduanes moved to safer ground, the provincial disaster office said, in an often-repeated drill on the island that has previously been the first major landmass hit by cyclones that form in the western Pacific Ocean.

The Catanduanes provincial government ordered local officials to “activate their respective evacuation plans” for residents of “high-risk areas”, including the coast, low-lying communities and landslide-prone slopes, rescue official Gerry Rubio told the AFP news agency.

The Philippines is hit by an average of 20 storms and typhoons each year, striking disaster-prone areas where millions of impoverished people live.

Scientists warn that storms are becoming more powerful as the planet warms due to human-driven climate change.

Fengshen comes as the country is still reeling from a series of major earthquakes and typhoons that killed dozens of people in recent weeks.

Earlier this month, at least 79 people were killed in a magnitude 6.9 earthquake in Cebu province in the central Philippines.

Days later, another earthquake struck, this time a magnitude 7.4 off the coast of the southern Philippines, killing at least six people and triggering a second, magnitude 6.9 quake later in the day. Tsunami warnings were issued after each earthquake.

In late September, several people were killed and thousands were evacuated from villages and schools in the northern Philippines, while offices were closed, as Typhoon Ragasa struck.

South Korea has banned citizens from going to parts of Cambodia amid growing concerns over the country’s scam industry.

Dozens of South Korean nationals who had been detained in Cambodia for alleged involvement in cyberscam operations have been returned home and placed under arrest, according to South Korean authorities.

Officers arrested the individuals on board a chartered flight sent to collect them from Cambodia, a South Korean police official told the AFP news agency.

“A total of 64 nationals just arrived at the Incheon international airport on a chartered flight,” the official said on Saturday, adding that all of the individuals have been taken into custody as criminal suspects.

South Korea sent a team to Cambodia earlier this week to investigate dozens of its nationals who were kidnapped into the Southeast Asian nation’s online scam industry.

South Korean National Security Adviser Wi Sung-lac previously said the detained individuals included both “voluntary and involuntary participants” in scam operations.

On Friday, Cambodian Ministry of Interior spokesman Touch Sokhak said the repatriation agreement with South Korea was the “result of good cooperation in suppression of scams between the two countries”.

Online scam operations have proliferated in Cambodia since the COVID-19 pandemic, when the global shutdown saw many Chinese-owned casinos and hotels in the country pivot to illicit operations.

Operating from industrial-scale scam centres, tens of thousands of workers perpetrate online romance scams known as “pig-butchering”, often targeting people in the West in a vastly lucrative industry responsible for the theft of tens of billions of dollars each year.

Pig-butchering – a euphemism for fattening up a victim before they are slaughtered – often involves fraudulent cryptocurrency investment schemes that build trust over time before funds are stolen.

Parallel industries have blossomed in Laos, the Philippines and war-ravaged Myanmar, where accounts of imprisonment and abuse in scam centres are the most severe.

An estimated 200,000 people are working in dozens of large-scale scam operations across Cambodia, with many scam compounds owned by or linked to the country’s wealthy and politically connected. About 1,000 South Korean nationals are believed to be among that figure.

On Tuesday, the United States and United Kingdom announced sweeping sanctions against a Cambodia-based multinational crime network, identified as the Prince Group, for running a chain of “scam centres” across the region.

UK authorities seized 19 London properties worth more than 100 million pounds ($134m) linked to the Prince Group, which markets itself as a legitimate real estate, financial services and consumer businesses firm.

Prosecutors said that at one point, Prince Group’s chair, Chinese-Cambodian tycoon Chen Zhi, bragged that scam operations were pulling in $30m a day.

Chen – who has served as an adviser to Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet and his father, long-ruling former Prime Minister Hun Sen – is also wanted on charges of wire fraud and money laundering, according to the UK and US.

Still at large, he faces up to 40 years in prison if convicted.

The move by the UK and US against the Prince Group came as South Korea announced a ban on travel to parts of Cambodia on Wednesday amid growing concerns over its citizens entering the scam industry.

South Korean police have said they will also conduct a joint investigation into the recent death of a college student in Cambodia who was reportedly kidnapped and tortured by a crime ring.

The South Korean student was found dead in a pick-up truck on August 8 in Cambodia’s southern Kampot province, with an autopsy revealing he “died as a result of severe torture, with multiple bruises and injuries across his body”.