Asia Pacific

Artificial intelligence, cloud computing and data centres led to a spike in electricity demand between 2020 and 2023.

The United Nations’ digital agency says that operational carbon emissions for the world’s top tech companies rose an average of 150 percent between 2020 and 2023 as investments in artificial intelligence (AI) and data centres drove up global electricity demand.

Operational emissions for Amazon grew 182 percent in 2023 against 2020 levels, while emissions for Microsoft grew 155 percent, Facebook and Instagram owner Meta grew 145 percent, and Google parent company Alphabet grew 138 percent over the same period, according to the UN’s International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

The figures include the emissions directly created by the companies’ operations as well as those from purchased energy consumption. They were included in a new report from ITU assessing the greenhouse gas emissions of the world’s top 200 digital companies between 2020 and 2023.

The UN agency linked the sharp uptick to recent breakthroughs in AI and the demand for digital services like cloud computing.

“Advances in digital innovation – especially AI – are driving up energy consumption and global emissions,” said Doreen Bogdan-Martin, who heads the ITU.

While these innovations mark dramatic technological breakthroughs, left unchecked, emissions from top-emitting AI systems could soon hit 102.6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent per year, the agency said.

“Currently, there are no standards or legislative requirements for companies to disclose their AI emissions or energy consumption, which makes understanding the impact of AI on company-level energy use less straightforward,” the report said.

“However, data from company reports show an increasing trend in operational emissions for companies with a high level of AI adoption.”

The AI and cloud computing boom has led to a similar spike in electricity demand from data centres, which help power digital services. Electricity consumption by data centres has grown 12 percent year-on-year since 2017, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).

Data centres alone consumed 415 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity – or 1.5 percent of global power demand. If the demand for data centres continues to grow at this pace, it will hit 945 TWh by 2030, surpassing Japan’s annual electricity consumption, according to the IEA.

Power-hungry digital companies, meanwhile, consumed an estimated 581 TWh of electricity in 2024, or roughly 2.1 percent of global demand, according to the report, although demand was highly concentrated among top firms.

According to data supplied by 164 out of 200 companies in the report, just 10 generated 51.9 percent of their electricity demand in 2023, the report said. They were China Mobile, Amazon, Samsung Electronics, China Telecom, Alphabet, Microsoft, TSMC, China Unicom, SK Hynix and Meta.

Publicly available emissions data for 166 out of the 200 companies revealed that they emitted 297 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent per year in 2023, the same as the combined emissions of Argentina, Bolivia and Chile.

The failed mission comes two years after the Japanese start-up’s first moonshot ended in a crash landing.

A Japanese-made private lunar lander has crashed while attempting to touch down on the moon, with its makers officially declaring the mission a failure.

Tokyo-based company ispace said on Friday that its lander, named Resilience, dropped out of lunar orbit as planned and that the mission appeared to be going well.

But flight controllers lost contact with Resilience, which was carrying a mini rover, moments before its scheduled touchdown on the surface of the moon following an hourlong descent. Ground support was met with silence as they attempted to regain contact with the lander and after several hours declared the mission a failure.

The company’s livestream of the attempted landing then came to an abrupt end.

“We have to take seriously what happened,” ispace CEO and founder Takeshi Hakamada said after the failed mission, as he apologised to everyone who contributed.

This is the firm’s second failed attempt to soft land on the lunar surface, coming two years after the Japanese start-up’s first attempt to reach the moon ended in a crash landing.

Launched in December 2022, the firm’s Hakuto-R Mission 1 reached lunar orbit but crashed during its final descent after an error caused the lander to believe it was lower than it actually was.

That mission’s successor, Resilience, was launched in January from Florida on a long, roundabout journey. It shared a ride on a SpaceX rocket with Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost, which, upon reaching the moon first in March this year, made the US firm the first private entity to make a “fully successful” soft landing there.

The 2.3-metre (7.5-foot) Resilience lander was targeting the top of the moon, where the ispace team had chosen a flat area with few boulders in Mare Frigoris, or Sea of Cold, to land.

Resilience was expected to beam back pictures within hours of landing, before ispace’s European-built rover – named Tenacious – would have been lowered onto the lunar surface this weekend. The rover, made of carbon fibre-reinforced plastic and sporting a high-definition camera, would then have scouted out the area and scooped up lunar dirt for NASA.

Resilience was also carrying a toy-sized red house created by Swedish artist Mikael Genberg. Moonhouse, as the model Swedish-style cottage was called, was intended to be the moon’s first “building”, in a nod to Hakamada’s vision of humans living and working there as early as the 2040s.

But ispace’s now second failed landing has left the Japanese entrepreneur’s vision in doubt. The aerospace company’s next, much bigger lander is scheduled to launch by 2027 with NASA’s involvement.

Prior to Friday’s failed mission, the Japanese firm’s chief financial officer, Jumpei Nozaki, promised to continue its lunar quest regardless of the outcome.

But Jeremy Fix, chief engineer for ispace’s US subsidiary, said at a conference last month that the firm does not have “infinite funds” and cannot afford repeated failures.

Company officials said this latest failed mission cost less than the first one – which exceeded $100m – but declined to provide an exact figure.

Full restoration of the North Korean navy destroyer is expected before a major communist party meeting later this month.

North Korea has raised a capsized warship and moored it at a port in the country’s northeast for repair, after the vessel was damaged during a failed inaugural launch in May, the country’s state news media reports.

KCNA reported that “after restoring the balance of the destroyer early in June, the team moored it at the pier” in the city of Chongjin on Thursday.

The report on Friday aligns with South Korea’s military assessments and recent commercial satellite images, which indicated that the 5,000-tonne destroyer has been restored to an upright position following the “serious accident” on May 21, when it suffered damage to its hull after a transport cradle detached prematurely during a launch ceremony.

The failed side-launch of the ship, which was witnessed by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, also left the vessel partially capsized in a port.

Kim described the incident as a “criminal act caused by absolute carelessness”. As part of a probe into the accident, four officials were arrested and accused of tarnishing North Korea’s national dignity, according to KCNA.

Experts will now examine the warship’s hull for the next stage of restorations, to be carried out at Rajin Dockyard over the coming week to 10 days, KCNA said. The ship’s full restoration is expected to be completed before a ruling party meeting later this month.

Jo Chun Ryong, a senior official from North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party, was quoted by KCNA as saying that the “perfect restoration of the destroyer will be completed without fail” before the deadline set by the country’s ruler, Kim.

The damaged warship is North Korea’s second known destroyer and is seen as a crucial asset in Kim’s goal of modernising his country’s naval forces.

The South Korean military estimates, based on its size and scale, that the new warship is similarly equipped to the 5,000-tonne destroyer-class vessel Choe Hyon, which North Korea also unveiled last month.

Pyongyang has said the Choe Hyon is equipped with the “most powerful weapons”, and that it would “enter into operation early next year”.

South Korea’s military said the Choe Hyon could have been developed with Russian assistance, possibly in exchange for Pyongyang deploying thousands of soldiers to help Moscow fight Ukraine.

Kim has framed the modernisation of his military as a response to threats from the US and South Korea, who are key allies and regularly conduct military drills together.

The North Korean leader has also said that the acquisition of a nuclear-powered submarine would be the next step in strengthening his country’s navy.

On Wednesday, Kim met with Russian Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu in Pyongyang in the latest sign of the countries’ deepening ties, which were elevated when they signed a mutual defence pact in June last year that obliges them to provide immediate military assistance to each other using “all means” necessary if either faces “aggression”.

Three Maori Party MPs were suspended from New Zealand’s Parliament for performing a haka in protest of a bill backed by a far-right coalition partner that they say was an attack on Indigenous people. The bill was defeated, but tensions remain high.

Indonesia shut out China 1-0 in their Asian Football Confederation Group C qualifier for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

Indonesia have kept alive their hopes of qualifying for the FIFA World Cup for only the second time in their history with a nervy 1-0 win that has ended opponents China’s hopes of qualifying.

Oli Romeny scored the only goal of Thursday’s game from the penalty spot in the first half of the Asian Football Confederation qualifier in Jarkarta.

The spot kick was awarded after Yang Zexiang brought down Ricky Kambuaya on the stroke of half-time. It dealt a blow to the Chinese, whose defence was mounting pressure on the hosts, given the expectations on them.

In the first kickoff of the day in the group, Australia took a giant stride towards sealing another qualification spot by beating already qualified Japan 1-0.

Aziz Behich scored the winner with a curling effort from the edge of the box in the 90th minute.

Saudi Arabia hosted Bahrain in the final kickoff of the day in Group C. Anything other than a win for the home side would guarantee Australia’s progress while Bahrain needed a win themselves to retain a chance of climbing above Indonesia into the final playoff spot.

Kambuaya had Indonesia’s first sighter, but the effort from range flew wide of the right-hand upright.

Wang Yudong, making his international debut at 18, was the brightest spark in China’s start and steered an effort wide after a counter off the back of mounting pressure from the hosts.

Han Pengfei had China’s best chance, though, when he flashed his header over the bar from Serginho’s corner.

Romeny had twice had near misses himself, one just wide and the other too close to the keeper, before slotting home the crucial kick from the spot.

Indonesia travel to Japan for their final group game on Tuesday.

US president previously said it was ‘hard to make a deal’ with the Chinese leader as talks continue over trade.

United States President Donald Trump has spoken with Chinese President Xi Jinping by phone as the two countries continue to clash over trade relations, which Trump has sought to aggressively reshape through a series of tariffs.

The Chinese state media outlet Xinhua reported that the phone call on Thursday took place at the request of the US. Trump had said the day before that reaching a deal with China was proving difficult.

In the first readout of the call, Trump posted on his social media site, Truth Social, “I just concluded a very good phone call with President Xi, of China, discussing some of the intricacies of our recently made, and agreed to, Trade Deal. The call lasted approximately one and a half hours, and resulted in a very positive conclusion for both Countries.”

“There should no longer be any questions respecting the complexity of Rare Earth products. Our respective teams will be meeting shortly at a location to be determined. During the conversation, President Xi graciously invited the First Lady and me to visit China, and I reciprocated,” he added.

Trump also noted the conversation was focused almost entirely on trade and that neither the Russia-Ukraine war nor the Iran nuclear talks were mentioned.

On Wednesday, Trump had posted: “I like President XI of China, always have, and always will, but he is VERY TOUGH, AND EXTREMELY HARD TO MAKE A DEAL WITH!!!”.

For his part, Xi was quoted by Chinese State TV as saying after the call Thursday, the two countries should strive for a win-win outcome and that dialogue and cooperation are the only right choice for both. The two sides should respect each others’ concerns, he added.

Xi also stressed that the US should handle the Taiwan issue very “carefully”.

China and the US reached a 90-day agreement on May 12 to bring down tariffs amid a trade war initiated by the Trump administration, but tensions have remained high since then.

Washington imposed significant tariffs on Beijing, but eventually eased off amid concerns about the potential economic fallout of a sustained trade war between the world’s two largest economies.

Critics have accused Trump of causing enormous disruptions in the global economy and then backing down when China or the European Union hit back forcefully.

The Trump administration has also launched a crackdown on Chinese international students living in the US, threatening to revoke student visas of those associated with the Chinese Communist Party or who the government claims pose vaguely defined threats to US national security. More than 277,000 Chinese students were enrolled in US universities during the 2023-2024 academic year.

China said such steps, along with others targeting China’s technology sector, violate the temporary trade truce reached with the US in May.

“These practices seriously violate the consensus,” the Ministry of Commerce in Beijing said in a recent statement.

While disputes between Washington and Beijing over issues such as trade and technology have been a common feature of their relations for decades, these tensions have ratcheted up as Trump sets out to change what he sees as a global imbalance of commercial exchange between the US and other countries, including China.

Eid al-Adha is celebrated on the third day of Hajj. Here’s how to say ‘Eid Mubarak’ in different languages.

Eid al-Adha, also known as the Feast of the Sacrifice, is observed on the third day of Hajj, which falls on the 10th of Dhul-Hijja, the 12th and final month of the Islamic calendar.

Eid al-Adha is the second major festival in the Islamic calendar, celebrated roughly 70 days after Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of Ramadan, the holy month of fasting.

When is Eid al-Adha?

This year, the first day of Eid al-Adha falls on June 6 in Saudi Arabia and neighbouring countries, while some other countries will mark it on June 7.

There are about 1.9 billion Muslims around the world, approximately 25 percent of the world population. Indonesia has the world’s highest Muslim population, with some 230 million Muslims living in the country. Pakistan is second with about 212 million Muslims, followed by India (200 million), Bangladesh (150 million) and Nigeria (100 million).

What happens during Eid al-Adha?

In the days leading up to Eid al-Adha, Muslims prepare by preparing their homes, buying new clothes and planning special meals for the occasion.

On the first day of Eid, those who are financially able are required to sacrifice an animal – usually a sheep, goat, cow, or camel – and distribute a portion of the meat to the less fortunate. This act commemorates the Prophet Abraham’s (Ibrahim) willingness to sacrifice his son Ishmail (Ismael) in obedience to God.

The rest of the holiday is spent visiting family and friends, exchanging greetings and gifts, and sharing festive meals.

Eid greetings in different languages

The most common greeting is Eid Mubarak. The Arabic saying translates to “blessed Eid”.

Here is how people say Eid Mubarak in different languages around the world.

Mastering control of the ever rising and falling rattan chinlone ball instils patience, a veteran of Myanmar’s traditional sport says.

“Once you get into playing the game, you forget everything,” 74-year-old Win Tint says.

“You concentrate only on your touch, and you concentrate only on your style.”

Chinlone, Myanmar’s national game, traces its roots back centuries. Described as a fusion of sport and art, it is often accompanied by music and typically sees men and women playing in distinct ways.

Teams of men form a circle, passing the ball among themselves using stylised movements of their feet, knees and heads in a game of “keepy-uppy” with a scoring system that remains inscrutable to outsiders.

Women, meanwhile, play solo in a fashion reminiscent of circus acts – kicking the ball tens of thousands of times per session while walking tightropes, spinning umbrellas and balancing on chairs placed atop beer bottles.

Participation has declined in recent years with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, followed by the 2021 military coup and subsequent civil conflict.

Poverty is on the rise, and artisans face mounting challenges in sourcing materials to craft the balls.

Variants of the hands-free sport, colloquially known as caneball, are played widely across Southeast Asia.

In Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia, participants use their feet and heads to send the ball over a net in the volleyball-style game “sepak takraw”.

In Laos, it is known as “kataw” while Filipinos play “sipa”, meaning kick.

In China, it is common to see people kicking weighted shuttlecocks in parks.

Myanmar’s version is believed to date back 1,500 years.

Evidence for its longevity is seen in a French archaeologist’s discovery of a replica silver chinlone ball at a pagoda built during the Pyu era, which stretched from 200 BC to 900 AD.

Originally, the sport was played as a casual pastime, a form of exercise and for royal amusement.

In 1953, however, the game was codified with formal rules and a scoring system, part of efforts to define Myanmar’s national culture after independence from Britain.

“No one else will preserve Myanmar’s traditional heritage unless the Myanmar people do it,” player Min Naing, 42, says.

Despite ongoing conflict, players continue to congregate beneath motorway flyovers, around street lamps dimmed by wartime blackouts and on purpose-made chinlone courts – often open-sided metal sheds with concrete floors.

“I worry about this sport disappearing,” master chinlone ball maker Pe Thein says while labouring in a sweltering workshop in Hinthada, 110km (68 miles) northwest of Yangon.

“That’s the reason we are passing it on through our handiwork.”

Seated cross-legged, men shave cane into strips, curve them with a hand crank and deftly weave them into melon-sized balls with pentagonal holes before boiling them in vats of water to enhance their durability.

“We check our chinlone’s quality as if we’re checking diamonds or gemstones,” the 64-year-old Pe Thein says.

“As we respect the chinlone, it respects us back.”

Each ball takes about two hours to produce and brings business-owner Maung Kaw $2.40.

But supplies of the premium rattan he seeks from Rakhine state in western Myanmar are becoming scarce.

Fierce fighting between military forces and opposition groups that now control nearly all of the state has made supplies precarious.

Farmers are too frightened to venture into the jungle battlegrounds to cut cane, Maung Kaw says, which jeopardises his livelihood.

The warning from China’s embassy in the Philippines follows criticism from a top EU official about Beijing’s conduct.

China has told the European Union to stop “provoking trouble” in the South China Sea after EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas expressed concerns about Beijing’s coercive activities in the strategically important waterway.

“We urge the EU to genuinely respect China’s territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests in the South China Sea and to stop provoking trouble,” a spokesperson for China’s embassy in Manila said in a statement on Thursday.

China said the EU had no right to interfere in regional issues, and advised the Philippines that it should stop “fantasising about relying on external forces” to resolve disputes regarding the sovereignty of the South China Sea.

The warning from China’s embassy follows a meeting between Kallas and the Philippines’ foreign minister, Enrique Manalo, in Manila earlier this week, where they announced a new security and defence dialogue between the EU and the Philippines to counter threats like foreign interference, cyberattacks and misinformation campaigns.

The two sides also expressed concerns about China’s “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive measures” against Philippine vessels and aircraft carrying out lawful maritime operations in the South China Sea.

When asked by reporters about the EU’s red lines towards China in the South China Sea, Kallas said that the EU is committed to upholding peace and a rules-based order.

“We reject any unilateral changes to the status quo, including use of coercion,” Kallas said.

Half a dozen countries, including the Philippines, lay claim to different parts of the South China Sea, but Beijing claims sovereignty over almost all of it.

The conflicting claims extend into the exclusive economic zones of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam, leading to frequent altercations between China and its neighbours.

Parliament voted to impose record suspensions on the trio of legislators for their protest haka.

New Zealand legislators have voted to suspend three MPs who performed a Maori haka in the House to protest against a controversial bill.

The MPs from Te Pati Maori – the Maori Party – were handed the toughest sanctions ever imposed on legislators by New Zealand’s parliament on Thursday.

Te Pati Maori co-leaders Rawiri Waititi and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer were both suspended from parliament for 21 days.

Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke, New Zealand’s youngest legislator, 22, was suspended for seven days.

The length of the bans was recommended by parliament’s privileges committee, which advised the trio should be suspended for acting in “a manner that could have the effect of intimidating a member of the House”.

It recommended Maipi-Clarke be given a shorter sanction because she had written a letter of “contrition” to the parliament.

Previously, the longest suspension imposed on an MP had been a three-day ban.

Prior to Thursday’s vote, Maipi-Clarke told legislators that the suspension was an effort to stop Maori from making themselves heard in parliament.

“Are our voices too loud for this house? Is that the reason why we are being silenced?” she said. “We will never be silenced and we will never be lost.”

The legislators had performed the haka in parliament in November. Their protest interrupted voting during the first reading of a proposed bill to legally define the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi, the 1840 pact between the British Crown and Indigenous Maori leaders signed during New Zealand’s colonisation.

The proposed law prompted widespread protests amid concerns it would erode Maori rights. It was later scrapped.

Maipi-Clarke had begun the protest by ripping a copy of the legislation, before she and fellow MPs approached the leader of the right-wing party that had backed the proposed law.

Their actions prompted complaints from fellow MPs to the parliament’s speaker that their protest was disorderly, and the matter was sent to parliament’s privileges committee, prompting months of debate.

A report from the privileges committee said that while both haka and Maori ceremonial dance and song are not uncommon in parliament, members were aware that permission was needed from the speaker beforehand.

Vietnam’s declining birthrate is most pronounced in urban areas, while nationally, male births still outnumber female.

Vietnam has scrapped its longstanding two-child policy as it aims to reverse its declining birthrate and ease the pressure from an ageing society.

All restrictions were removed this week, and couples will be free to have as many children as they choose, according to Vietnamese media.

Minister of Health Dao Hong Lan said that a future shrinking population “threatens Vietnam’s sustainable economic and social development, as well as its national security and defence in the long term,” the Hanoi Times reported.

Between 1999 and 2022, Vietnam’s birthrate was about 2.1 children per woman, the replacement rate needed to keep the population from shrinking, but the rate has started to fall, the news outlet said.

In 2024, the country’s birthrate reached a record low of 1.91 children per woman.

Regional neighbours like Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong all have declining birthrates, but their economies are more advanced than Vietnam’s.

Vietnam’s working-age population is expected to peak around 2040, according to the World Bank, and it aims to avoid the trap of “getting old before it gets rich”.

The country’s communist government introduced the two-child policy in 1988 to ensure it had adequate resources as it transitioned from a planned to a market economy. At the time, Vietnam was also still overcoming the effects of decades of war.

Vietnam’s two-child policy was most strictly enforced with members of Vietnam’s Communist Party, according to the Associated Press, but families everywhere could lose out on government subsidies and assistance if they had a third or fourth child.

As well as a declining birthrate, Vietnam is also facing significant imbalances across different regions and social groups, the Ministry of Health said.

The declining birthrate is most pronounced in urban areas such as Ho Chi Minh and the capital Hanoi, where the cost of living is highest. But there are also significant disparities in gender. Last year, Vietnam’s sex ratio at birth was 111 boys to every 100 girls.

The disparity between male and female births is most pronounced in North Vietnam’s Red River Delta and the Northern Midlands and Mountains, according to the World Bank, and lowest in the Central Highlands and Mekong River Delta.

Vietnam prohibits doctors from telling parents the sex of their children to curb sex-selective abortions, but the practice continues, with doctors communicating via coded words, according to Vietnamese media.

Left unchecked, the General Statistics Office warned there could be a “surplus of 1.5 million men aged 15-49 by 2039, rising to 2.5 million by 2059”.

In a bid to reverse this trend, the Health Ministry separately proposed tripling the fine for “foetal gender selection” to about $3,800.

The United States will begin revoking visas for Chinese students. The State Department said this will include those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party as well as those studying in “critical fields”, though it did not provide details. This is to stop the exploitation of US universities and protect national security, according to the statement. Who is losing out in this latest development in US-China tensions?

Growing strains in US-China relations over implementation of agreement to roll back tariffs and trade restrictions.

United States President Donald Trump has said his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, is tough and “extremely hard to make a deal with”, days after he accused China of violating an agreement to roll back tariffs and trade restrictions.

“I like President Xi of China, always have, and always will, but he is VERY TOUGH, AND EXTREMELY HARD TO MAKE A DEAL WITH,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social online platform on Wednesday, amid growing tensions between the two nations over their tariff truce.

On Monday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt had said Trump would speak with Xi to iron out differences on last month’s tariff agreement, among larger trade issues.

In May, American and Chinese negotiators had struck a deal in Geneva that lowered US tariffs on goods from China from 145 percent to 30 percent. In exchange, China dropped its tariffs on US goods from 125 percent to 10 percent.

Analysts had described the agreement as unexpected, pointing out that the two sides had been so widely apart on their tariff dispute. Still, the deal was seen as a welcome development averting a bigger showdown that unnerved the global market.

But on Monday, China’s Ministry of Commerce said the US has “severely violated” the deal, adding that it would take steps to defend its interests.

US violations included the halting sales of computer chip design software to Chinese companies, the blocking of usage of Chinese-made chips from the tech giant Huawei, as well as the cancellation of visas for Chinese students, the Commerce Ministry said.

The ministry also said US actions severely violate an agreement reached in January during an earlier phone call between Xi and Trump.

Trump had also ranted on social media last week, accusing Beijing of “totally” violating the agreement with the US.

He did not specify which provisions in the May tariffs deal were violated. But US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer was later quoted in media reports as saying Beijing had failed to remove non-tariff barriers levied against the US, as agreed under the deal.

Last week, a US trade court ruled that Trump overstepped his authority in imposing the bulk of his tariffs on imports from China and other countries under an emergency powers act.

Less than 24 hours later, a federal appeals court reinstated it, saying it was considering the government’s appeal.

President Lee Jae-myung has pledged to tackle the economy and improve relations with North Korea after his swearing-in.

South Korea’s new President Lee Jae-myung has pledged to “heal wounds” after months of political and economic turmoil across the country and to reopen dialogue with North Korea in his first speech after taking office following a landslide win at the polls.

Lee, who hails from the liberal Democratic Party of Korea, replaces ousted President Yoon Suk-yeol, who last year triggered a national emergency when he briefly imposed martial law, citing antistate forces and North Korean infiltration.

After taking the oath of office at parliament on Wednesday, Lee pledged to help South Korea reverse course following months of uncertainty and political protest.

South Korea has also found itself under attack from the United States, a top economic and security ally, where trade protectionism is on the rise under President Donald Trump.

“A Lee Jae-myung government will be a pragmatic pro-market government,” Lee said in a speech.

Lee said he would try to make headway in South Korea’s relations with Pyongyang, working to “deter North Korean nuclear and military provocations while opening communication channels and pursuing dialogue and cooperation to build peace on the Korean Peninsula”.

“We will heal the wounds of division and war and establish a future of peace and prosperity,” he said.

“No matter how costly, peace is better than war,” he added.

Lee also warned that “rising protectionism and supply chain restructuring” posed a threat to South Korea’s export-driven economy, and said he would address cost-of-living concerns facing middle- and low-income families.

South Korea’s caretaker government, which ruled after Yoon’s ouster, failed to negotiate a trade deal with the Trump administration to cut down proposed tariffs on imports from the country.

Trump’s 25 percent “Liberation Day” tariffs on South Korea – aimed at addressing the US trade imbalance – are currently on pause pending negotiations, but South Korean exporters were hit with a new 50 percent tariff on steel and aluminium products.

Lee won this week’s snap election with 49.4 percent of the vote, well ahead of conservative candidate Kim Moon-soo, as South Korean voters turned out in the highest numbers since 1997.

US federal prosecutors have charged two Chinese nationals with smuggling a toxic fungus into the United States, which authorities claim could be turned into a “potential agroterrorism weapon”.

The charges against Jian Yunqing, 33, and Liu Zunyong, 34, two researchers from China, were unsealed by the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan on Tuesday. The pair face additional charges of conspiracy, visa fraud and providing false statements to investigators.

Prosecutors allege that Liu smuggled the fungus, called Fusarium graminearum, into the US so he could carry out research at a University of Michigan laboratory where his girlfriend, Jian, worked.

Fusarium graminearum causes “head blight”, a disease in crops like wheat, barley, maize and rice, and is “responsible for billions of dollars in economic losses worldwide each year”, according to the charges.

The pathogen also poses a danger to humans and livestock, and can cause “vomiting, liver damage, and reproductive defects”.

The investigation was carried out by US Customs and Border Protection and the FBI, whose mandate includes investigating foreign and economic espionage as well as counterterrorism.

Jian was earlier arrested by the FBI and is due to appear in federal court this week, where her ties to the Chinese government are also under scrutiny at a time of increased paranoia within the US government about possible Chinese infiltration.

Jian allegedly received funding from the Chinese government to carry out research on the same toxic fungus in China, according to the charges.

The Associated Press news agency, citing the FBI, said that Liu was sent back to China from Detroit in July 2024 after airport customs authorities found the fungus in his backpack. He later admitted to bringing the material into the US to carry out research at the University of Michigan, where he had previously worked alongside his girlfriend, the AP said.

During their investigation, the FBI found an article on Liu’s phone titled “Plant-Pathogen Warfare under Changing Climate Conditions”. Messages on the couple’s phones also indicated that Jian was aware of the smuggling scheme, and later lied to investigators about her knowledge.

It is unlikely that Liu will face extradition as the US does not have an extradition treaty with China.

FBI director Kash Patel claimed on X that China was “working around the clock to deploy operatives and researchers to infiltrate American institutions and target our food supply, which would have grave consequences”.

New… I can confirm that the FBI arrested a Chinese national within the United States who allegedly smuggled a dangerous biological pathogen into the country.

The individual, Yunqing Jian, is alleged to have smuggled a dangerous fungus called “Fusarium graminearum,” which is an…

— FBI Director Kash Patel (@FBIDirectorKash) June 3, 2025

The Chinese Embassy in Washington, DC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The University of Michigan on Tuesday issued a brief statement condemning “any actions that seek to cause harm, threaten national security, or undermine the university’s critical public mission”.

The case comes just a week after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio pledged to start “aggressively” revoking the visas of Chinese students in the US on national security grounds.

Targeted students include Chinese nationals with ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), an institution that counts about 100 million members. While some Chinese may join for ideological reasons, membership in the CCP comes with perks like access to better jobs and educational opportunities.

It is not uncommon for students from elite backgrounds, like those studying in the US, to also be members of the CCP.

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has previously pledged to “firmly safeguard the legitimate rights and interests” of its students studying overseas following news of the visa crackdown.

Lee Jae-myung’s hardscrabble path to the South Korean presidency mirrors his country’s stratospheric rise from grinding poverty to one of the world’s leading economies.

When Lee, a scandal-prone school dropout-turned-lawyer who was elected in a landslide on Tuesday, was born in 1963, South Korea’s gross domestic product (GDP) per capita was comparable with sub-Saharan African nations.

South Korea was so poor, in fact, that Lee’s exact birthday is a mystery – his parents, like many families alert to the sky-high infant mortality of the era, took about a year to register his birth.

Yet even by the standards of the day, Lee’s early years were marked by deprivation and adversity, including stints as an underage factory labourer.

Known for his populist and outspoken style, Lee, the standard bearer for the left-leaning Democratic Party, has often credited his humble beginnings with moulding his progressive beliefs.

“Poverty is not a sin, but I was always particularly sensitive to the injustices I experienced because of poverty,” Lee said in a speech in 2022.

“The reason I am in politics now is to help those still suffering in the pit of poverty and despair that I managed to escape, by building a fair society and a world with hope.”

The fifth of seven children, Lee dropped out of school in his early teens to move to Seongnam, a satellite city of Seoul, and take up employment to support his family.

At age 15, Lee was injured in an accident at a factory making baseball gloves, leaving him permanently unable to straighten his left arm.

Despite missing years of formal education, Lee graduated from middle and high school by studying for the exams outside of work hours.

In 1982, he gained admission to Chung-Ang University in Seoul to study law and went on to pass the bar exam four years later.

During his law career, Lee was known for championing the rights of the underdog, including victims of industrial accidents and residents facing eviction due to urban redevelopment projects.

In 2006, Lee made his first foray into politics with an unsuccessful bid for the mayorship of Seongnam, which he followed two years later with a failed run for a parliamentary seat in the city.

In 2010, he finally broke into politics by winning Seongnam’s mayoral election on his second attempt and went on to earn re-election four years later.

From 2018 to 2021, Lee served as governor of Gyeonggi, the country’s most populous province, which surrounds Seoul.

Both as mayor and governor, Lee attracted attention beyond his immediate electorate by rolling out a series of populist-flavoured economic policies, including a limited form of universal basic income.

After stepping down as governor, Lee entered the national stage as the Democratic Party candidate in the 2022 presidential election, which he lost to Yoon Suk-yeol by 0.73 percent of the vote – the narrowest margin in South Korean history.

Despite facing a slew of political and personal scandals, culminating in at least five legal cases, Lee led the Democratic Party to one of its best results in last year’s parliamentary elections, delivering it 173 seats in the 300-seat National Assembly.

After Yoon’s impeachment and removal from the presidential office following his short-lived declaration of martial law in December, Lee earned his party’s nomination without serious challenge, garnering nearly 90 percent of the primary vote.

“His communication style is direct and straightforward, and he is astute at recognising social and political trends, which is a rare quality among politicians of his generation in Korea,” Lee Myung-hee, an expert on South Korean politics at Michigan State University, told Al Jazeera.

“However, this direct communication style can sometimes hinder his political advancement, as it may easily offend his opponents.”

During his election campaign, Lee played down his progressive credentials in favour of a more pragmatic persona and a milder iteration of the populist economic agenda that powered his rise to national prominence.

In the weeks leading to the vote, Lee’s victory was rarely in doubt, with his closest competitor, Kim Moon-soo, of the conservative People Power Party, often trailing the candidate by more than 20 points in opinion polls.

‘A progressive pragmatist’

As president, Lee has pledged to prioritise the economy, proposing, among other things, a major boost in investment in artificial intelligence, the introduction of a four-and-a-half-day work week, and tax deductions for parents in proportion to the number of children they have.

On foreign affairs, he has promised to mend relations with North Korea while pushing for its ultimate denuclearisation – in keeping with the traditional stance of his Democratic Party – and maintain the US-Korea security alliance without alienating China and Russia.

“I would call him a progressive pragmatist. I don’t think he will stick to any consistent progressive lines or even conservative lines,” Yong-chool Ha, director of the Center for Korea Studies at the University of Washington, told Al Jazeera.

“Critics call him a kind of manipulator; his supporters call him flexible,” Ha said.

“I would say he is a survivor.”

While Lee will enter office with the backing of a commanding majority in the National Assembly, he will take stewardship of a country that is deeply polarised and racked by divisions following Yoon’s impeachment.

“The Korean political landscape remains highly polarised and confrontational, and his ability to navigate this environment will be crucial to his success,” said Lee, the Michigan State University professor.

Lee will also have to navigate a volatile international environment shaped by the wars in Gaza and Ukraine, great power rivalries, and United States President Donald Trump’s shake-up of international trade.

For Lee personally, his election, after two unsuccessful bids for the presidency, marks an extraordinary comeback befitting the against-the-odds origin story that propelled his rise.

Lee had been facing five criminal proceedings, including charges of election law violations and breach of trust in connection with a land corruption scandal.

Following his election, Lee is all but certain to avoid trial during his five-year term in office.

Under the South Korean constitution, sitting presidents enjoy immunity from prosecution, except in cases of insurrection or treason – although there is debate among legal scholars about whether the protection extends to proceedings that are already under way.

To remove ambiguity, the Democratic Party last month passed an amendment to the criminal code stating that criminal proceedings against a person who is elected president must be suspended until the end of their term.

Did you know that women already control a third of the world’s private wealth— and that number is expected to soar past 50% in the next 5 years? But how can you be part of that growth?

Now You Know speaks with Cristina Jaeger, the founder of HerFinancialFreedom. Cristina’s mission is to close the gender gap in wealth and investing and help women gain financial independence. She shares tips on how women can meet their financial goals.

Japan has introduced new rules restricting how names are spelled and pronounced. The new regulations, announced last week, aim to quell a growing practice of Japanese parents giving their babies unconventional names, known as “kira kira”, or glittery, in kanji, one of Japan’s major writing systems.

But why are such names a problem for Japanese authorities? And do the new rules spell disaster for parents who want to break the mould and name their children Nike, the shoe brand, or Pikachu, the little lagomorphic animated character with lightning powers, which is part of the Japanese media franchise Pokemon?

What are kira kira names?

A kira kira name is a non-traditional name where the pronunciation is unusual or does not match the standard or phonetic pronunciation in kanji.

Japan primarily uses three systems of writing: hiragana, katakana and kanji. Kanji employs Chinese characters and is used in writing names. Parents in Japan can choose from among 2,999 kanji characters to name their child – out of these, 2,136 characters are commonly used. Hiragana and katakana can also be used.

Kira kira names, while relatively uncommon, started to grow in popularity in Japan in the 1980s, influenced by pop culture, brands and popular games like Pokemon or characters from the world of Tokyo-based animation house Studio Ghibli.

Parents pick what they want to call their child – say, Pikachu or the fictional character Hello Kitty. Then, they try to piece together kanji characters that sound like the name they picked.

But often, the kanji pronunciation is nowhere near what the name is supposed to sound like.

What’s the problem with kira kira names?

The names are spelled a certain way, but are meant to be pronounced very differently, making it difficult even for Japanese speakers to read the name correctly, causing confusion at places like hospitals and schools.

Take a name written like “今鹿” in kanji characters. Those letters suggest a pronunciation like “imashika”, typically a family name, said John Maher, a linguist at Temple University’s Japan campus who specialises in the sociolinguistics and languages of the country.

However, what the parents might have intended is the given name “Naushika,” inspired by the titular character of Hayao Miyazaki’s 1984 animated Studio Ghibli film, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind.

“A primary school teacher taking roll stares at the kanji of the little girl in the front row and scratches her head. ‘Huh? Naushika?! Are you kidding me?’ It’s the name of a Ghibli studio anime film,” Maher told Al Jazeera.

He cited another example — “七音,” which is pronounced as “nanane,” typically a given name. However, it is supposed to be pronounced like “doremi” – either a nod to the early 2000s anime, Ojamajo Doremi, or to a character in the manga series Doraemon.

“It’s causing a public fuss for one basic reason: frustration in everyday life. Schoolteachers cannot figure out how to pronounce their pupils’ names. Bosses cannot figure out their worker names,” said Maher.

Why do people use kira kira names?

The “glittery” names appear to represent an effort to subvert tradition.

A study using data from Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance from 1913 to 2015 revealed that variations in naming patterns were growing over the course of the century.

Still, “until the government’s National Institute for the Japanese Language conducts an objective study, we don’t have the numbers”, Maher said. The National Institute for the Japanese Language (NINJAL) is a Tokyo-based independent research institute for the Japanese language, established in 1948 with the purpose of researching the Japanese language and making recommendations about its correct usage.

Linguist and author Adam Aleksic said he believed the trend represented a pushback against tradition.

“There used to be traditional names and these names are a reaction against those cultural heirlooms,” Aleksic told Al Jazeera.

But he added that this phenomenon was not restricted to Japan. “There are pop culture names everywhere,” Aleksic said, citing the example of how many parents around the world named their children Katniss after the popularity of the dystopian book series, the Hunger Games, and the resulting films.

In Japan, he said, the rise in kira kira names might represent a cultural trend towards individuality, “probably because of Western influence, whereas historically, it [Japan] was more of a collectivist culture”.

What has the Japanese government done?

The recent law was an amendment to a family registry law originally passed on June 2, 2023, Jay Allen, a Tokyo-based journalist for a publication called Unseen Japan, told Al Jazeera.

The revised law, which came into effect on May 26, requires families to register furigana readings of names on the family register. A furigana reading is a smaller script comprising syllabaries in hiragana and katakana to indicate the phonetic reading of kanji names.

Previously, the furigana was not notarised on the family register. Allen explained that the change would allow authorities to check for any mismatches between spelling and pronunciation.

Now, Japanese authorities will mail notifications to households to confirm the phonetic readings of the names of the members. This will be done not only for newborns, but for every household member with existing registered names. While older people with kira kira names will not have to change names, experts said, this exercise would help the government know exactly how all names are supposed to be pronounced.

Those who want to correct the phonetic readings of their names will need to submit corrections within a year of receiving the notification. Parents of newborns may have to explain the pronunciation of their children, and local media have reported that they may be referred to legal bureaus.

The government has not directly banned kira kira names, but the new law seeks to restrict parents from using unorthodox pronunciations of kanji characters. “If they’re using kanji, which most Japanese parents do, then they have to show that the pronunciations they chose somehow relate to common pronunciations for those kanji.”

Allen explained that the new law rejects names that have no relationship to the kanji spelling; and names that are easy to mispronounce.

What’s next?

Aleksic said that he believes that the new law could lead to a decrease in non-standard pronunciations. However, he added that parents might find other ways to make their children’s names unique and interesting, “maybe [using] rare characters, maybe focusing more on katakana”.

“I strongly believe that the desire for individuality wins out in the end and these parents will find other ways to make their [children’s] names unique, and then that will still annoy the old guard.”