Asia Pacific

President Marcos said in July there were anomalies in 9,855 flood-control projects worth more than $9.5 bn.

Thousands of protesters have gathered in the Philippine capital, Manila, angered over a corruption scandal involving flood control projects that are believed to have cost billions of dollars.

With organisers hoping to draw one of the largest turnouts of anticorruption protests in the country on Sunday, police and troops were put on alert to prevent any possible outbreak of violence.

There has been deadly violence in another Southeast nation, Indonesia, recently, where protesters, infuriated by police violence, parliamentarians’ wages and soaring inflation, have been staging nationwide demonstrations.

Protesters in Manila waved Philippine flags and held a banner that read “No more, too much, jail them”, as they marched, demanding the prosecution of all those involved.

“I feel bad that we wallow in poverty and we lose our homes, our lives and our future while they rake in a big fortune from our taxes that pay for their luxury cars, foreign trips and bigger corporate transactions,” student activist Althea Trinidad told The Associated Press news agency.

“We want to shift to a system where people will no longer be abused.”

According to the AFP news agency, an estimated 13,000 people gathered in Manila’s Luneta Park by Sunday morning.

Anger has been mounting over the so-called ghost infrastructure projects since President Ferdinand Marcos Jr highlighted the scandal in July during his annual State of the Nation speech.

Marcos later established an independent commission to investigate what he referred to as anomalies in many of the 9,855 flood-control projects that were worth more than 545 billion pesos ($9.5bn).

Outrage from the public worsened after a wealthy couple, Sarah and Pacifico Discaya, who operated several construction companies, won flood control contracts that showed dozens of European and US luxury cars and SUVs they owned.

Marcos said on Monday that he did not blame people for protesting against the scandal “one bit” and called for the demonstrations to be peaceful. The president added that the army was on “red alert” as a precaution.

Reporting from Manila, Al Jazeera’s Barnaby Lo said the protest was being led by Christian churches of all denominations, but the Catholic Church has “historically” been able to “galvanise the Filipino people”.

“It’s not a coincidence that these protests are happening on September 21, which is the anniversary of the declaration of martial law by former President Ferdinand Marcos Sr and is taking place on the very highway where two people power revolutions took place,” Lo said.

Lo added that protesters want the president to institute “lasting reforms” that would “eradicate any opportunity for corruption at any level of government”.

Aly Villahermosa, a 23-year-old nursing student, told AFP that she had waded through floods in the storm-prone country.

“If there’s a budget for ghost projects, then why is there no budget for the health sector?” she said, adding that the theft of public funds was “truly shameful”.

Six of seven board seats for TikTok’s US operations will be held by Americans, White House press secretary says.

A deal between Washington and Beijing for the Chinese parent company of video-sharing app TikTok to sell its US operations would see the formation of an American-majority board, the White House has announced.

“There will be seven seats on the board that controls the app in the United States, and six of those seats will be Americans,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News on Saturday.

According to Leavitt, a deal could be signed “in the coming days”.

Leavitt’s comments come one day after US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping held talks in a bid to finalise an agreement that will allow TikTok to continue operating in the United States amid threats of a ban.

While Trump described the conversation as being a “very good call … appreciate the TikTok approval” on his Truth Social platform, China did not confirm any agreement between the two sides.

It has been reported that Larry Ellison, the billionaire cofounder of tech firm Oracle, is part of an investor group whose companies are looking to buy the app.

Leavitt on Saturday seemed to confirm Oracle’s participation in purchasing TikTok.

“The data and privacy will be led by one of America’s greatest tech companies, Oracle, and the algorithm will also be controlled by America as well,” she told Fox News.

“So all of those details have already been agreed upon. Now we just need this deal to be signed.”

TikTok boasts about 175 million users in the US, making it one of the top five social media apps.

However, the platform has been beset by controversies when lawmakers under the Joe Biden administration passed legislation to force the platform to divest itself of its ownership by the Chinese internet company ByteDance.

Both Democrats and Republicans supported the legislation due to security concerns that Beijing could have access to TikTok data and could spread Chinese propaganda through TikTok’s algorithm.

Trump himself proposed banning TikTok during his first term as US president, signing two executive orders in August 2020 that were aimed at restricting the app. However, the US president did a U-turn, pledging to “save” the popular app during his 2024 re-election campaign.

China has consistently denied claims by US lawmakers that Beijing pressures apps like TikTok to collect personal information for the state.

United States President Donald Trump has spent the better part of this week touting a TikTok “deal” with China, but experts say it is far from finalised after both sides shared details of his phone call with President Xi Jinping.

The two leaders spoke by phone on Friday, their first call in three months, but there was no announcement of the sale of the popular social media app that has 170 million US users.

While Trump, in a post after the call on Truth Social, said “It was a very good call … appreciate the TikTok approval”, the version from Beijing was not as clear.

“On TikTok, Xi said China’s position is clear: the Chinese government respects the will of firms and welcomes companies to conduct business negotiations on the basis of market rules to reach a solution consistent with Chinese laws and regulations while balancing interests,” according to the meeting summary in Xinhua, the Reuters news agency reported.

Experts were not surprised.

“Trump is the type of person who often announces frameworks or deals to have deals or a deal that still has a lot of details to be worked out, and this seems to be another example of that,” said Rachel Ziemba, adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security.

The bigger trade deal is likely to wait till Trump and Xi meet on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum that starts on October 31 in Gyeongju in South Korea, “if that happens”, added Ziemba.

Despite the lack of any specific developments from Friday’s call, experts agree that the leaders talking is in itself a sign of a thaw, especially as Xi had previously refused to get on the phone with Trump, despite the multiple meetings in Geneva, London and most recently in Madrid.

“At least they have broken ice after a long while, and it seems like they are ready to negotiate other more difficult issues,” said Wei Liang, a professor at Middlebury Institute of International Studies, where she specialises in international trade and Chinese foreign economic policy, among other topics.

Some scholars, she said, had likened the last few months as worse than the peak of the Cold War between the US and the former Soviet Union, where leaders of the two countries at least had a hotline in place.

The call was days after Trump extended, for the fourth time, a deadline for China’s ByteDance to divest its ownership of TikTok or face a ban in the US under a law passed last year with overwhelming bipartisan support and one that was later upheld by the Supreme Court.

“It will be a very complicated transaction, if it happens,” said Robert Rogowsky, adjunct professor of trade and economic diplomacy at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, both because Beijing is reluctant to exit the app and because of the lack of clarity of future owners and rules around that.

“The value of TikTok is the algorithm which selects for us what we want to see, but in a way that is remarkably controlling,” said Rogowsky.

While the focus in debates on TikTok’s ownership has centred around data security, the real problem, instead, is its “ability to influence” viewers through the algorithm, said Rogowsky.

“Think about the power that would confer on the owners, the power of that incredibly sophisticated algorithm that drives people’s viewing, when that is under the control of a political party or groups [aligned with one], gives them tremendous power to influence.”

Middlebury’s Liang adds that it is unlikely that China would let go of the algorithm and expects “a graceful exit” that would allow both the US and China to get what they want from this deal.

China’s ‘stronger, bolder stand’

Any hammering out of a bigger trade deal on the multiple other issues, including US access to rare earth metals and China’s purchase of Russian oil and access to US semiconductor chips, will have to wait for the two leaders to meet, experts say.

“What is clear is that Trump himself is not in a space to impose new tariffs on China, and that is a reflection of the fact that the US government has mixed interests with respect to China, and the Chinese control some very important choke points,” said Ziemba, referring to China’s hold over critical minerals.

Rogowsky agrees that “China is taking a much stronger, bolder stand with regard to the US, partly because that’s the China way.”

But it is also likely that Beijing has some justification for that confidence, he said, referring to Beijing’s directive to businesses to avoid buying chips from US chip giant Nvidia.

“While US is trying to control what sort of chips go to China, they have declined to buy those, probably because they have the technology to design equally good or better and cheaper chips,” he said. Plus, with US dependence on Chinese rare earth metals, Beijing is “feeling strong enough to confront the US”.

US and Chinese presidents to discuss deal to keep popular social media app online in US, trade relations.

President Trump reiterated call to reclaim the huge airbase, but Taliban says US must engage without seeking military presence.

Afghanistan has rejected a call from President Donald Trump for the United States military to return to the country and reclaim the Bagram airbase.

A foreign ministry official declared on social media on Friday that Kabul is ready to engage, but maintained that the US will not be allowed to re-establish a military presence in the central Asian country.

Trump said on Thursday that his administration is pressing to “get back” the base at Bagram. The US president, who has long expressed hope of reclaiming the facility, noted that its position is strategically vital due to its proximity to China.

“We’re trying to get it back,” Trump announced. “We gave it to [the Taliban] for nothing,” he complained, adding that Bagram is “exactly one hour away from where China makes its nuclear missiles”.

However, Taliban officials have dismissed the idea.

“Afghanistan and the United States need to engage with one another … without the United States maintaining any military presence in any part of Afghanistan,” Zakir Jalal, a foreign ministry official, posted on social media.

Kabul is ready to pursue political and economic ties with Washington based on “mutual respect and shared interests,” he added.

Lying just north of Kabul, Bagram, which hosted a notorious prison, served as the centre of the US military’s operations during its two-decade occupation of Afghanistan.

Thousands of people were also imprisoned at the site for years without charge or trial by the United States during its so-called “war on terror”, and many of those were abused or tortured.

The Taliban retook the facility in 2021 following the US withdrawal and the collapse of the Afghan government.

Trump has repeatedly expressed regret that the base was abandoned, arguing that Washington should have maintained a small force, not because of Afghanistan but because of its location near China.

The latest remarks came as Trump confirmed for the first time that his administration has been in talks with Taliban officials.

Over the weekend, Adam Boehler, his special hostage envoy, and Zalmay Khalilzad, a former US envoy for Afghanistan, met Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi in Kabul. Discussions reportedly centred on American citizens detained in Afghanistan.

US officials have been weighing the possibility of re-establishing a presence at Bagram since at least March, according to reports cited by the US media outlet CNN.

Trump and his advisers argue that the airfield could provide leverage, not only over security, but also allow access to Afghanistan’s valuable mineral resources.

The US does not officially recognise the Taliban government, which returned to power in 2021 after 20 years of conflict with American-led forces.

Authorities say Russians and Ukrainians are collaborating to form crime rings on Indonesia’s most famous holiday island.

An Indonesian court has sentenced a Ukrainian man to life in prison for his role in a large-scale Russian-Ukrainian drug ring operating on the tourist island of Bali.

Thai authorities arrested Roman Nazarenko, who was listed as a fugitive by Interpol, at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport in December as he attempted to flee to Dubai, then extradited him to Indonesia.

Nazarenko had spent seven months on the run after police raided a holiday villa in Bali in May 2024, finding a laboratory in the basement used to grow marijuana and produce a precursor of the synthetic drug ecstasy.

During Nazarenko’s trial at Denpasar District Court on Thursday, prosecutors argued he was one of the masterminds of a drug ring.

The Ukrainian claimed he was tricked into joining the ring and sat silently as the panel of three judges handed down a life sentence.

“There is no reason to forgive or justify the defendant; he deserves to be punished commensurate with what he has done,” presiding Judge Eni Martiningrum said.

“His crime could damage the mental state of the young generation.”

Marthinus Hukom, the head of Indonesia’s National Narcotics Agency, said there is a growing issue of Russians and Ukrainians collaborating in crime rings on Indonesia’s most famous holiday island.

“This is a very unique phenomenon,” Hukom said.

“Two countries that are at war, but here in Bali, their citizens are partners in crime, engaging in illicit drug trafficking.”

Authorities also arrested two Ukrainian brothers, Mykyta Volovod and Ivan Volovod, and a Russian man, Konstantin Krutz, during the earlier raid on the villa. The same court sentenced each of the men to 20 years in prison.

Prosecutors argued that the Volovod brothers were the drug producers, while Krutz sold their product.

Prosecutors have also identified a Russian man, Oleg Tkachuck, who they believe to be the drug ring’s overall mastermind. He remains at large.

According to the Volovod brothers, Tkachuck paid them $30,000 in September 2023 to install equipment at the villa to produce hydroponic marijuana and mephedrone – used in the production of ecstasy pills.

According to prosecutors, Nazarenko recruited the other convicted men for Tkachuck, as well as provided equipment and marijuana seeds, and oversaw operations of the lab.

Nazarenko argued in court that he had been tricked by Tkachuck and expressed remorse for his role in the drug operation.

Indonesia has some of the strictest drug laws in the region, with drug smugglers sometimes executed by firing squad.

Bali, meanwhile, has become a magnet for thousands of people from Russia and Ukraine fleeing the horrors of war since President Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion in early 2022.

Russian visitors, in particular, more than tripled between 2022 and 2024 – growing from 57,860 to 180,215 last year.

North Korea ‘is in its strongest strategic position in decades’, US military intelligence said in May.

North Korea’s Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un has said the use of artificial intelligence is a “top priority” in modernising his country’s increasingly sophisticated weapons technology and building up drone capabilities, state media reports.

During a visit to the Unmanned Aeronautical Technology Complex in the capital Pyongyang on Thursday, Kim presided over performance tests of multipurpose drones and unmanned surveillance vehicles, North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said on Friday.

According to KCNA, the North Korean leader emphasised “rapidly developing the newly-introduced artificial intelligence technology” as a “top priority” in order to increase his military’s unmanned weapons systems.

Kim also called for “expanding and strengthening the serial production capacity of drones”.

The visit to the aeronautical complex comes just a week after Kim oversaw another test of a new solid-fuel rocket engine designed for intercontinental ballistic missiles, which he hailed as a “significant” expansion of Pyongyang’s nuclear capabilities.

North Korea’s military power includes nuclear-armed ballistic and cruise missiles, an increasing stockpile of nuclear weapons and a nascent spy satellite programme, according to the United States Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA).

North Korean active duty personnel now number an estimated one million troops, and are supplemented by more than seven million reservists – out of a population of roughly 25.6 million.

The country’s level of AI development is less certain, however.

One report from independent analysis group 38 North found North Korea has engaged in cross-border collaborative AI research with academics in the US, China and South Korea despite sanctions, suggesting it has undertaken “substantial efforts” to catch up in the AI race.

Those efforts have largely relied on China, one of the world’s most dominant AI players, the 38 North report added.

While Pyongyang has long depended on China politically and economically, under Kim, it has steadily sought to strengthen its relationship with Russia.

Last year, Kim and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a mutual defence treaty that raised eyebrows in the West.

Pyongyang may not have benefitted as handsomely as Moscow from the deal.

A German think tank recently reported that while North Korea has provided nearly $10bn in weapons to Moscow, along with tens of thousands of soldiers to help Russian forces battle Ukraine, it has only received some $457m to $1.19bn in return.

Moscow’s aid has consisted mainly of food, fuel, air defence systems and possibly some fighter aircraft for North Korea.

Earlier this month, Kim appeared in Beijing with both his Chinese and Russian counterparts – President Xi Jinping and President Putin – in what analysts viewed as a stark display of North Korea’s desire to take up the world stage.

In May, the DIA reported that North Korea “is in its strongest strategic position in decades, possessing the military means to hold at risk US forces and US allies in Northeast Asia, while continuing to improve its capability to threaten the US”.

For his part, Kim has panned joint US-South Korea drills as “a rehearsal of a war of aggression” against his country.

Families in Taiwan will receive cash incentives for newborns and fertility treatment.

Taiwan has announced that it is fighting back against low population growth with a new subsidy programme to encourage families to have more children.

Taiwan’s cabinet on Thursday approved standardised cash payouts to families for each newborn and the coverage of a larger proportion of infertility treatment costs, Focus Taiwan reported.

Under the new plan, families will receive $3,320 per newborn, Taiwan News reported, with twins qualifying for a payment of nearly $7,000. The previous system included payouts that ranged from $1,300 to $2,300 per baby, depending on the mother’s employment status.

Taiwan became a “super-aged society” in 2025, meaning that more than 20 percent of its population is aged 65 or older. The island nation has one of the lowest birth rates in the world, CNN reported last year, with its total birth rate in 2022 hitting just .087.

Countries need to maintain a total fertility rate of 2.1 children per woman to hit what the French Institute for Demographic Studies calls “replacement level,” meaning the number of children a couple must have to replace themselves in the population.

Taiwan saw its ninth consecutive year of declining birth rates in 2024, according to Taiwan’s Ministry of the Interior.

The country’s benefits will also extend to couples facing infertility. Women aged 39 and under will reportedly be eligible to receive subsidies for up to six attempts at in vitro fertilization (IVF). Women between the ages of 39 and 45 will receive subsidies for their first three attempts.

Low-and middle-income households will be eligible to receive nearly $5,000 per attempt at IVF.

Minister without Portfolio Chen Shih-chung told Taiwan News the recently announced subsidies are expected to help more than 120,000 families.

Other countries in the region have experimented with the type of programme Taiwan is looking to implement. Parents in Hong Kong receive over $2,500 for each newborn, and parents in South Korea can receive over $2,200 once they’ve had two or more children, CNN reported.

Taiwan’s policy changes are expected to go into effect in January 2026.

Follow our live build-up, results and live text and photo commentary stream from the World Athletics Championship 2025.

Australian PM Albanese fails to sign mutual defence pact a week after also failing to sign security deal with Vanuatu.

Australia has failed to secure a defence treaty with Papua New Guinea (PNG) that would have seen their militaries commit to defending each other in the case of an armed attack.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and PNG Prime Minister James Marape signed a “defence communique” in the capital Port Moresby on Wednesday instead of the anticipated mutual defence treaty.

Albanese’s failure to sign the defence deal with PNG, the largest Pacific Island nation, comes on the heels of last week’s failed attempt by the Australian prime minister to secure a security partnership with fellow Pacific nation Vanuatu.

Both security deals are seen as part of Australia’s push to counter China as a rising power in the Pacific region.

Waiting a little longer to sign the treaty with PNG was “perfectly understandable”, Albanese told reporters, adding that he expected it to be signed in the “coming weeks”.

“The wording has been agreed to. The communique today, as signed, outlines precisely what is in the treaty,” Albanese said, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).

Joint communique between Papua New Guinea and Australia on a Mutual Defence Treaty, signed today. 🇵🇬🇦🇺 pic.twitter.com/rSUCHPLCJW

— Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) September 17, 2025

Marape told reporters there was “no sticking point”, suggesting that the mutual defence treaty could be signed shortly.

Marape also said that China had no hand in delaying the signing of the deal with Australia.

The Australian prime minister said earlier that the delay was due to a meeting of the PNG cabinet failing to reach a quorum of members to endorse the treaty.

Vanuatu security partnership also delayed

Last week, officials in Vanuatu said that the government’s coalition partners required further scrutiny of the security partnership with Australia, worth some $500 million Australian dollars ($326.5m), as there were fears it could limit the country’s access to infrastructure funding from other countries.

China is Vanuatu’s largest external creditor and has provided loans for Chinese firms to undertake major infrastructure projects in the country.

PNG’s Marape struck a more optimistic tone on Wednesday, telling journalists that it was in his country’s and Australia’s mutual interests to work side by side on defence.

“I made a conscious choice that Australia remains our security partner of choice,” Marape said, according to the Reuters news agency.

Australia’s delays in sowing deeper defence ties with PNG and Vanuatu in the Pacific region come as the much-vaunted AUKUS submarine deal between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States, remains under a cloud amid a review of the original 2021 deal by the Pentagon.

US defence officials have said they ordered the review to reassess if it was in line with President Donald Trump’s “America First” agenda.

Despite the review, Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles said in June that he was confident that the AUKUS plan to provide Australia with closely-guarded US nuclear propulsion technology, worth hundreds of billions of dollars, to build next-generation nuclear submarines would proceed.

In a tetchy exchange with an Australian reporter on Tuesday, Trump revealed that Albanese would be visiting him shortly in Washington, DC.

When asked whether it was appropriate for a president to have so many business dealings, Trump told the ABC reporter that he was “hurting” relations between the US and Australia.

“You’re hurting Australia. In my opinion, you are hurting Australia very much right now, and they want to get along with me,” Trump told the reporter.

“You know, your leader is coming over to see me very soon. I’m going to tell him about you. You set a very bad tone,” Trump said, before sharply telling the reporter to be “quiet”.

Albanese is scheduled to attend the United Nations General Assembly in New York next week.

The United States and China have reached a framework agreement to transfer TikTok’s ownership to US control.

Officials from both countries made the announcement on Monday.

The short-form video app was set to be banned in the US by Wednesday if its owner ByteDance did not agree to sell the company to a US-based operation or if the US did not extend a pause of the ban, which the White House has already done three times, most recently in June. 

US President Donald Trump applauded the deal, which will be confirmed when he discusses it with his Chinese counterpart President Xi Jinping on Friday.

“A deal was also reached on a “certain” company that young people in our Country very much wanted to save,” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social on Monday.

“The relationship remains a very strong one!!!”

The White House declined to outline the terms of the deal, which was negotiated during trade talks between the two countries in Madrid. The two-day meeting, which wrapped up on Monday, was the latest in a slew of negotiations that began in May.

“We’re not going to talk about the commercial terms of the deal. It’s between two private parties, but the commercial terms have been agreed upon,” US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told reporters.

Bessent and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, who was also part of the trade delegation in Madrid, said China wanted concessions on trade and technology in exchange for agreeing to divest from the popular social media app.

“Our Chinese counterparts have come with a very aggressive ask,” Bessent said, adding, “We are not willing to sacrifice national security for a social media app.”

“TikTok’s divestment agreement not only keeps the app running in the US, but is also expected to help de-escalate a tense trade standoff and lay groundwork for further trade talks between the US and China,” Maria Pechurina, director of international trade at Peacock Tariff Consulting, told Al Jazeera. “Both US and Chinese delegations explicitly linked the fate of TikTok to progress on tariff reductions and related trade concessions during their conversations in Madrid.”

The deal comes despite the US pushing other nations to impose tariffs on China over purchases of Russian oil, which Bessent said was discussed briefly with the US’s Chinese counterparts.

Experts warn to be wary of the deal being set until Xi and Trump speak on Friday.

“It’s important to note that the Chinese often see the signing of a deal as the beginning, and not the end, of any negotiations. The devil would lie in the details behind the optics. Also expect much haggling on important details that may take years,” Usha Hayley, a professor of international business at Wichita State University who specialises in Chinese industry, told Al Jazeera.

“The deal, when reached, would reflect the convergence of technology, national security, and geopolitics,” said Hayley. “TikTok sits at the centre of US concerns about data access, influence over public discourse, and Beijing’s reach into global tech. Washington is stating that the US views digital platforms as strategic assets, not private businesses.”

TikTok did not respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment.

The looming ban

Trump proposed banning TikTok during his first term as US president, signing two executive orders in August 2020 that were aimed at restricting the app.

In April 2024, under then-President Joe Biden, the White House signed a law formally banning TikTok unless it sold its US operations. The ban was supposed to take effect on January 19, the last day of the Biden administration. Biden said he would not enforce the ban and said that he would leave that decision to the next administration.

Two days before the January deadline, on January 17, the Supreme Court stepped in to weigh in on TikTok’s challenge to the law and upheld the law. The app went dark briefly before the ban was paused during the early days of Trump’s subsequent presidency.

The pause was initially for 90 days and was later extended multiple times throughout the year.

The cultural importance to Trump

TikTok’s cultural relevance has grown significantly in recent years, serving both as a tool for organising and activism, and as a platform to reach the public, particularly young voters. In April 2024, the pro-Trump videos on TikTok were nearly double those supporting Biden, who was then the Democratic nominee, the New York Times reported, citing TikTok’s internal data.

Trump’s broader use of newer media was widely cited as a factor in his 2024 election victory. His campaign regularly engaged with right-leaning podcasts and influencers — such as Joe Rogan and Theo Von — to reach conservative audiences. It also targeted disillusioned men, who were drawn to influencers promoting traditional notions of masculinity, often conflated with conservative viewpoints.

A Pew Research Center study from November found that news influencers — defined as those who discuss “current events and civic issues” and have at least 100,000 followers across any social media platform – are more likely to lean conservative. A separate report from Pew in February found that news influencers posted more content supporting Trump than former Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump’s 2024 election opponent: 28 percent for Trump versus 24 percent for Harris.

TikTok’s role in spreading far-right narratives is not limited to US politics. The platform has reportedly influenced German state elections, contributing to the rise of far-right leaders, and has similarly affected far-right candidates in Poland, Sweden, and France.

Aerial video from the Philippines shows dozens of shanty homes burning in the Tondo area of Manila, where a fire displaced more than 1,100 families. Fire crews worked through Saturday night before declaring the blaze under control in the early hours of Sunday.

Kim Jo Yong says the upcoming drills ‘will undoubtedly bring about negative consequences’ for Seoul and its allies.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s influential sister has condemned upcoming joint military exercises between the United States, Japan and South Korea, calling them “dangerous” and a “reckless show of strength”.

The comments by Kim Yo Jong, published by state media on Sunday, come a day before Seoul and its allies begin drills combining naval, air and missile defence exercises off South Korea’s Jeju Island.

The drills, called the “Freedom Edge”, will last through Friday.

Kim Yo Jong, who is vice department director of the North Korean governing party’s central committee, slammed the drills as a “dangerous idea”.

“This reminds us that the reckless display of power displayed by the US, Japan, and South Korea in the wrong places, namely around the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, will undoubtedly bring about negative consequences for themselves,” Kim Yo Jong said, using the official name for North Korea.

The statement follows a visit by her brother to weapons research facilities this week, where he said Pyongyang “would put forward the policy of simultaneously pushing forward the building of nuclear forces and conventional armed forces”.

North Korea perceives the trilateral drills as “scenarios for limited or full-scale nuclear strikes and attempts to neutralise its launch platforms”, Hong Min, a senior analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification, told the AFP news agency.

“The North is likely using the allied exercises as a pretext to push ahead with nuclear modernisation and conventional upgrades,” he added.

Aside from the trilateral exercises, the US and South Korea also plan to stage the “Iron Mace” tabletop exercises next week on integrating their conventional and nuclear capabilities against North Korea’s threats, South Korean local media reported.

South Korea hosts about 28,500 American soldiers in its territory.

“Iron Mace” will be the first such drills taking place under US President Donald Trump and newly elected South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, who have expressed willingness to resume dialogue with North Korea.

If “hostile forces” continue to boast about their power through those joint drills, North Korea will take countermeasures “more clearly and strongly”, North Korea’s top party official Pak Jong Chon said in a separate dispatch via the state news agency KCNA.

Since a failed summit with the US in 2019 on denuclearisation, North Korea has repeatedly said it will never give up its nuclear weapons and declared itself an “irreversible” nuclear state.

Kim Jong Un has been emboldened by the war in Ukraine, securing critical support from Russia after sending thousands of North Korean troops to fight alongside Moscow.

Moscow and Pyongyang signed a mutual defence pact last year when Russian President Vladimir Putin visited the reclusive state.

The Asian Champions League begins on Monday, elevated by a host of star names, including Cristiano Ronaldo.

Former English Premier League stars could make the difference in the Asian Champions League that begins Monday. Ivan Toney, Jesse Lingard, Riyad Mahrez and Darwin Nunez all have a chance of winning Asian football’s premier club tournament.

Saudi clubs dominated last season, providing three of the semifinalists before Al-Ahli won the final in front of 60,000 spectators at Jeddah in May. Al-Ittihad and Al-Hilal are also back and expected to challenge again for the title.

Since the country’s Public Investment Fund took over the leading clubs, including Cristiano Ronaldo’s Al-Nassr, in 2023, Saudi Pro League clubs have spent about $1.5bn on players.

Toney signed for Al-Ahli from Brentford in August 2024 and would welcome more success in Asia.

“It was great to win the Champions League in front of our fans, and they are so passionate,” Toney told The Associated Press news agency.

The England striker scored six goals in last season’s continental tournament and has forged a fruitful relationship with Riyad Mahrez, who won the UEFA Champions League with Manchester City in 2021.

“If you get into the right positions in the area, then great players like Mahrez will find you,” Toney said. “The standard in Saudi Arabia is very high.”

There are 24 teams in the group stage, split into western and eastern zones in Asia, with the top eight from each progressing to a round of 16.

Riyadh’s Al-Hilal is the most successful club in the tournament’s history with four titles, and was the only Asian team to get out of the group stage at the Club World Cup in June, defeating Manchester City to reach the quarterfinals.

Al-Hilal has been bolstered by the $70m signing of Uruguayan striker Nunez from Liverpool.

Coach Simone Inzaghi guided Inter Milan to the final of the UEFA Champions League and a 5-0 loss to Paris Saint-Germain before quitting in June and moving to Al-Hilal.

The Italian coach will be hoping to go one better in Asia.

Two-time champion Al-Ittihad, meanwhile, is looking to Karim Benzema and N’Golo Kante, who have won the European version, to do the same in Asia.

Former Manchester United and England star Lingard is flying the flag for FC Seoul. The South Korean league is the most successful in Asian club competitions with 12 titles overall, but has produced just one winner since 2016.

Lingard joined the K-League team in 2023 and, after a slow start, became club captain and a fan favourite.

“Now, we have to compete in the league as well as the AFC Champions League Elite,” Lingard said. “As captain, I will do my best to help the team achieve good results.”

Seoul FC coach Kim Ki-dong is giving the 32-year-old Lingard more responsibility.

“He has played for England and in the Premier League, but this will be his first AFC Champions League,” Kim said. “I know he’s really looking forward to this, and he’s working hard for it.”

Japanese clubs have offered most of the opposition to Saudi clubs recently. Kawasaki Frontale beat Al-Nassr in the semifinals in April but didn’t qualify this time.

J-League champion Vissel Kobe may present the strongest challenge, but of the 12 eastern teams, only South Korea’s Ulsan has been a previous champion.

China’s plan to build a nature reserve in the Scarborough Shoal brings strong responses from the Philippines and US.

United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio has expressed support for Manila’s opposition to Beijing’s plan to designate the contested Scarborough Shoal as a “nature reserve”, characterising the move as part of a broader Chinese strategy of coercion in the South China Sea.

“The US stands with our Philippine ally in rejecting China’s destabilising plans to establish a ‘national nature reserve’ at Scarborough Reef,” Rubio wrote on the X social media platform on Friday.

“This is yet another coercive attempt to advance China’s interests at the expense of its neighbours and regional stability,” Rubio said.

“… Claiming Scarborough Reef as a nature preserve is another example of Beijing using pressure tactics to push expansive maritime and territorial claims, disregarding the rights of neighbouring countries,” he added in a statement.

On Wednesday, China’s State Council revealed its intention to establish a nature reserve spanning 3,500 hectares (8,650 acres) on the disputed islet, describing the initiative as an “important guarantee for maintaining … diversity, stability and sustainability”.

While Scarborough Shoal lies 240km (150 miles) west of the Philippines’ main island of Luzon and is included in the country’s exclusive economic zone, it has been under Beijing’s control since 2012.

China’s nature reserve plans drew a string of strong responses from the Philippines, where the Department of Foreign Affairs promised on Thursday to lodge a “formal diplomatic protest against this illegitimate and unlawful action”.

According to the Philippine Star news outlet, Philippine National Security Adviser Eduardo Ano said China’s planned “Huangyan Island National Nature Reserve” is “patently illegal”.

Ano cited violations of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), the 2016 arbitral ruling in favour of Manila regarding China’s claims in the sea, and the 2002 Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea.

“This move by the People’s Republic of China is less about protecting the environment and more about justifying its control over a maritime feature that is part of the territory of the Philippines and its waters lie within the exclusive economic zone of the Philippines,” Ano was quoted in the newspaper.

“It is a clear pretext towards eventual occupation,” he said.

Leading Filipino business newspaper BusinessWorld included excerpts from analysts who said Beijing is likely testing Manila’s resolve in asserting its claim over the region.

“China will likely want to see what the response will be from the Philippines,” said Julio S. Amador III, chief executive officer at Manila-based geopolitical risk firm Amador Research Services.

“If it sees that there is no effective pushback, then there is a strong possibility that it will try to do the same over other features,” Amador said.

Last month, the Philippines, Australia and Canada held joint naval drills east of Scarborough Shoal to simulate aerial attacks and how to counter such threats.

China, for its part, has insisted it will defend the area.

China asserts sovereignty over nearly the entire South China Sea – a strategic maritime corridor through which more than $3 trillion in trade passes each year – despite competing territorial claims from the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, and Vietnam.

‘Mass surveillance’ tech has enabled world’s most restrictive state to exert ‘control in all parts of life’, UN Human Rights Office says.

North Korea has further tightened its grip on its population over the past decade, executing people for activities like sharing foreign TV dramas, according to a major United Nations report.

The UN Human Rights Office said on Friday that tech-enabled state repression under the Kim dynasty, which has governed with absolute power for seven decades, had grown over a decade of “suffering, repression, and increased fear”.

“No other population is under such restrictions in today’s world,” concluded the agency’s report, which is based on interviews with more than 300 witnesses and victims who had fled the country and reported the further erosion of freedoms.

“To block the people’s eyes and ears, they strengthened the crackdowns. It was a form of control aimed at eliminating even the smallest signs of dissatisfaction or complaint,” recounted one escapee, cited in the report.

James Heenan, head of the UN Human Rights Office for North Korea, told a Geneva briefing that the number of executions for both normal and political crimes had increased since COVID-era restrictions.

An unspecified number of people had already been executed under new laws imposing the death penalty for distributing foreign TV series, including the popular K-Dramas from South Korea, he added.

The clampdown has been aided by the expansion of “mass surveillance” systems through technological advances, which have subjected citizens to “control in all parts of life” over the past 10 years, the report said.

Heenan also reported that children were being made to work in forced labour, including so-called “shock brigades” for tough sectors such as coal mining and construction.

“They’re often children from the lower level of society, because they’re the ones who can’t bribe their way out of it, and these shock brigades are engaged in often very hazardous and dangerous work,” he said.

Last year, the UN indicated that the forced labour could, in some cases, amount to slavery, making it a crime against humanity.

The sweeping review comes more than a decade after a landmark UN report documented executions, rapes, torture, deliberate starvation, and the detention of between 80,000 and 120,000 people in prison camps.

The new report covered developments since 2014, noting the government’s adoption of new laws, policies and procedures providing a legal framework for repression.

UN rights chief Volker Turk said in a statement: “If the DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] continues on its current trajectory, the population will be subjected to more suffering, brutal repression and fear.”

North Korea’s Geneva diplomatic mission and its London embassy have not yet commented on the report.

Anti-Muslim incidents in person have increased by 150 percent – and by 250 percent online — according to an independent report.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has said his government will “carefully consider” the recommendations of an independent report which found that anti-Muslim incidents in the country have “skyrocketed” since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza.

During a media briefing at the Commonwealth Parliament Offices in Sydney on Friday, Albanese said targeting Australians based on their religious beliefs was an attack on the country’s core values.

“Australians should be able to feel safe at home in any community … we must stamp out the hate, fear and prejudice that drives Islamophobia and division in our society,” he said.

Aftab Malik, who has been serving as the government’s special envoy to combat Islamophobia since last October, was appointed to the three-year role to recommend steps to prevent anti-Muslim hatred. The appointment came as Australia had been experiencing a surge in anti-Semitic and Islamophobic incidents since the start of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza following the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attacks on southern Israel.

The independent report, released on Friday and Malik’s first since assuming the position, said the normalisation of Islamophobia has become so widespread in Australia that many incidents are not even getting reported.

“The reality is that Islamophobia in Australia has been persistent, at times ignored and other times denied, but never fully addressed,” said Malik, appearing alongside Albanese.

“We have seen public abuse, graffiti … we have seen Muslim women and children targeted, not for what they have done, but for who they are and what they wear.”

The 60-page report’s 54 recommendations to the government include a review of counterterrorism laws and procedures to investigate potential discrimination.

Malik also recommended a wide-ranging inquiry into Islamophobia to investigate its main drivers and potential discrimination in government policies.

Islamophobia had intensified since the al-Qaeda attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001 and had become entrenched, said Malik.

Islamophobic incidents in person had skyrocketed by 150 percent — and by 250 percent online — since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza, Malik said.

The Australian government has acknowledged steep rises in both Islamophobic and anti-Semitic incidents in Australia.

Jillian Segal was appointed envoy to combat anti-Semitism in July 2024.

Segal recommended, in her first report two months ago, that Australian universities lose government funding unless they address attacks on Jewish students, and that potential migrants be screened for political affiliations.

According to the 2021 Australian Census, 3.2 percent of the Australian population is Muslim.

Islamophobia has also risen across Europe, fuelled by political parties touting a populist anti-immigration stance.

The state-of-the-art Fujian is in the final stages of testing before it officially begins active service in China’s navy.

China’s newest aircraft carrier transited through the Taiwan Strait as part of a research and training exercise before its entry into service, according to the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN).

PLAN spokesperson Senior Captain Leng Guowei said on Friday that the Fujian was bound for the South China Sea, where it will undergo testing.

“The cross-regional tests and training are a routine mission of the carrier’s construction process and do not target any specific objects,” Leng said, according to Chinese state media.

The 80,000-tonne Fujian has not been officially commissioned for service, but it will soon join the Liaoning and Shandong vessels as China’s third and most advanced aircraft carrier.

Fu Qianshao, a Chinese military affairs expert, told China’s State-run news outlet Global Times that the Fujian’s research trip to the South China Sea is a sign the aircraft carrier is nearly complete. It earlier underwent tests in the East China Sea and Yellow Sea.

The Fujian’s route was not unexpected, as Chinese state media shared photos and videos of the aircraft carrier leaving Shanghai’s shipyard on Wednesday.

A step forward for China’s blue water navy.

🇨🇳China’s third aircraft carrier, the Fujian passes through Taiwan Straits to hold tests, training in #SouthChinaSea.

By the way, the Taiwan Strait is not ‘international waters’.

The Fujian is China’s first fully domestically… pic.twitter.com/3ffANYEbMH

— Shen Shiwei 沈诗伟 (@shen_shiwei) September 12, 2025

Japan’s Maritime Self-Defense Force on Thursday spotted the Fujian sailing near the disputed but uninhabited Senkaku Islands, in the direction of the Taiwan Strait, accompanied by two PLAN destroyers.

The Senkaku Islands are known as the Diaoyu Islands in China and the Diaoyutai Islands in Taiwan.

The Fujian is just the second aircraft carrier in the world, after the USS Gerald Ford, to host an electromagnetic catapult system that makes it easier for aircraft to take off and land.

Developing such a launch system is a sign that the technology gap between China and the US is closing, according to maritime expert and former United States Air Force Colonel Ray Powell, but there are still some limitations.

The Fujian is 20 percent smaller than US super aircraft carriers and conventionally powered rather than nuclear-powered, Powell said.

The real challenge for China, Powell told Al Jazeera, will be crewing its aircraft carriers as the PLAN will need to divide veteran crew members between the three carriers: Fujian, Liaoning and Shandong.

“China is closing the hardware gap, but developing the operational expertise for effective blue-water carrier ops is what the US has spent nearly a century perfecting,” he said.

While no date has been announced yet for the Fujian’s official commission into active service, the US Naval Institute (USNI) said it is expected to “coincide with a date that holds historical significance to China”.

Possible dates include September 18, the anniversary of Japan’s 1931 invasion of Manchuria, or China’s October 1 national holiday, the USNI said.

Just 41 percent of US firms optimistic about the five-year business outlook in China, chamber of commerce says.

US businesses in China are less optimistic about conditions in the country than at any point in the last quarter-century, a survey has revealed.

Only 41 percent of US businesses are optimistic about the five-year business outlook in China, according to the survey released on Wednesday by the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai.

The figure, down from 47 percent in 2024, is the lowest since AmCham Shanghai began releasing its annual business report in 1999.

Just 45 percent of respondents said they expected revenues to increase in 2025, AmCham Shanghai said, which would be a record low if realised.

Just 12 percent ranked China as their headquarters’ top investment destination, also the lowest in the survey’s history, according to the business chamber.

Businesses cited US-China tensions and broader geopolitical pressures as the biggest challenges to operating.

Nearly half of respondents called for the removal of all US tariffs on Chinese goods, with 42 percent supporting the scrapping of Chinese tariffs on US products, according to AmCham Shanghai.

Despite the worsening sentiment, businesses also reported positive developments over the past year.

More than 70 percent of respondents said they were profitable in 2024, up from a record low of 66 percent in 2023.

And nearly half of respondents said the regulatory environment in China was transparent, a 13-percentage point jump from the previous year.

“Government efforts to improve the regulatory environment have been noticed by members, but they are overshadowed by US-China trade tensions,” AmCham Shanghai chair Jeffrey Lehman said in a statement.

“We urge both governments to create a stable and transparent framework that is conducive to cross-border trade and investment.”

The latest gauge of business sentiment comes as China’s slowing economy is facing a raft of challenges ranging from US President Donald Trump’s trade war to weak consumption and a years-long property downturn.

On Wednesday, China’s National Bureau of Statistics said that consumer prices fell in August at their fastest rate in six months, the latest sign of anaemic demand in the world’s second-largest economy.

Carsten Holz, an expert on the Chinese economy at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, said that the AmCham survey’s results showed that the uncoupling of the US and Chinese economies was “well under way.”

“The results mirror the findings of a May 2025 European Chamber of Commerce in China report that business optimism of European firms in China has never been as low as it currently is,” Holz told Al Jazeera.

“These findings are in line with China’s policy of achieving self-sufficiency across all sectors of its economy.”

Australian Defence Minister Richard Marles says large underwater attack drones have ‘very long range’ of operations.

Australia will spend 1.7 billion Australian dollars ($1.1bn) on a fleet of extra-large underwater “Ghost Shark” attack drones, in a move that officials said would supplement the country’s plans to acquire sophisticated nuclear-powered submarines.

Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles said on Wednesday that the Ghost Shark autonomous underwater vehicles will complement Australia’s naval surface fleet and submarines to provide “a more capable and more lethal navy”.

“This is a profoundly important capability for the Royal Australian Navy,” Marles said.

“We have consistently articulated that Australia faces the most complex, in some ways, the most threatening, strategic landscape that we have had since the end of the second world war,” Marles said.

The government said it signed the $1.1bn, five-year contract with Anduril Australia to build, maintain and develop the uncrewed undersea vehicles in Australia.

“This is the highest tech capability in the world,” Marles said, adding that the drones would have a “very long range” as well as stealth capabilities.

Australia is in the midst of a major military restructuring, focused on bolstering its long-range strike capabilities in an effort to balance China’s expanding military might in the Asia Pacific region.

Marles also said that Australia was now a leading player in “the world in terms of autonomous underwater military capabilities, and Ghost Shark is capable of engaging in intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and strike”.

Dozens of Ghost Sharks will be built in Australia, with opportunities to export to the country’s allies, Australian Minister for Defence Industry Pat Conroy said, adding that the first Ghost Sharks will be in service at the beginning of 2026.

Australia’s Defence Science and Technology Group has said it wants to incorporate autonomous technology into the country’s defence forces because Australia has a vast coastline and up to 3 million square kilometres (1.1 million square miles) of northern ocean that needs to be defended, but only a relatively sparse population.

Separately, Australia plans to build stealth, nuclear-powered submarines with the United Kingdom and the United States under the AUKUS programme over three decades.

But critics of the AUKUS deal in the US have questioned why Washington would sell nuclear-powered submarines to Australia without stocking its own military first.

As a result of the criticism, US President Donald Trump’s administration has put AUKUS under review to ensure it aligns with his “America First” agenda.