China

Sydney — Australia and Indonesia have agreed to a new defense deal which will boost military cooperation between the two Indo-Pacific neighbors. The accord was negotiated Tuesday during a visit to Australia by Indonesia’s incoming president, Prabowo Subianto. The defense cooperation agreement will allow Australian and Indonesian militaries to operate from each other’s countries. The Canberra government says it is the “most significant” pact the two …

BANGKOK — Thailand has detected an mpox case in a European man who arrived from Africa last week and is awaiting test results to determine the strain, a disease control official said on Wednesday.   Thai authorities were treating the case as if it were the Clade 1 form of mpox, as the person, a 66-year-old European man with residency in Thailand, had arrived on Aug. …

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TEHRAN, Iran — A bus carrying Shiite pilgrims from Pakistan to Iraq crashed in central Iran, killing at least 28 people, an official said Wednesday. The crash happened Tuesday night in the central Iranian province of Yazd, said Mohammad Ali Malekzadeh, a local emergency official, according to the state-run IRNA news agency. Another 23 people suffered injuries in the crash, 14 of them serious, he added. …

JAKARTA, Indonesia — A flood of Chinese products into Indonesia has hit local manufacturers hard, prompting the government to look for ways to placate domestic producers while avoiding angering the country’s biggest trading partner. Garment makers — both home-based piecework producers and factories — have appealed for help as they lose market share to low-cost apparel and textiles from China. A surge of products bought online …

Beijing — Rising unemployment in China is pushing millions of college graduates into a tough bargain, with some forced to accept low-paying work or even subsist on their parents’ pensions, a plight that has created a new working class of “rotten-tail kids.” The phrase has become a social media buzzword this year, drawing parallels to the catchword “rotten-tail buildings” for the tens of millions of unfinished …

tokyo — During his term, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has transformed Japan’s defense posture amid growing threats from China, Russia and North Korea. After nearly three years in power, however, Kishida is set to leave office, having announced earlier this month that he would not run in September’s election to lead his ruling Liberal Democratic Party, amid low approval ratings and corruption allegations within the LDP.  …

WASHINGTON — A classified nuclear strategic plan approved by President Joe Biden this year is not a response to a single country or threat, the White House said on Tuesday, after the New York Times reported it reoriented the U.S. deterrence strategy to focus on China’s expansion of its nuclear arsenal for the first time. The U.S.-based Arms Control Association said it understood U.S. nuclear weapons …

Palestinian residents of a Jerusalem neighborhood have appealed to the Israeli Supreme Court demanding they be supplied with more water. The 120,000 residents of the area say they receive water only three hours a week. Linda Gradstein reports for VOA from Kufr Aqab. Camera: Ricki Rosen. …

Turkey’s embargo on trade with Israel faces growing scrutiny amid opposition claims it’s being increasingly circumvented. The accusations come as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan seeks to play a leading role in opposing Israel’s war on Hamas. Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul. …

Bangkok — Ethnic and resistance forces in Myanmar have completely blocked a key trade route to China, halting cross-border commerce and further damaging Myanmar’s already struggling economy. The Mandalay-Lashio-Muse Road is considered the most strategically important road in the country’s northern Shan State. Formerly known as the “Burma Road,” locals commonly call it the “pearl necklace,” as it connects Myanmar’s second largest city of Mandalay with …

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Bangkok — Promoted to the prime minister’s office after a court ruling took out her predecessor, experts say Thailand’s youngest ever leader, Paetongtarn Shinawatra, may be the last card her political dynasty has to play as it seeks to win back the Thai electorate.  But the risks of frontline Thai power have been spotlighted in recent weeks by judges who have once more shown they are …

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Bangkok — The brother of a prominent Cambodian activist has been arrested by local authorities, according to the activist and a Thai human rights group. Hay Vannith, a Cambodian scholar, was arrested and detained at the Poi Pet border in northwestern Cambodia after trying to travel to Thailand, Hay Vanna told VOA. Hay Vanna, a Cambodian political activist who lives in Japan, said Vannith was detained …

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Beijing — Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged to strengthen ties with Fiji in a world beset with “turmoil” as he met the Pacific island’s Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka in Beijing on Tuesday. China has stepped up its courtship of South Pacific nations in recent years, triggering concern among Western powers — particularly the United States and Australia — that have historically held sway over the region. Rabuka met …

NEW DELHI — India and Malaysia will seek to expand economic ties and strengthen cooperation on defense and security, the leaders of the two countries said on Tuesday.  This came during Malaysian Prime Minster Anwar Ibrahim’s visit to India, his first since he took office in 2022, where he met with his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi.  Recently, Anwar has sought to move closer to China, with …

Bangkok — Politicians in Thailand must reform the judiciary to prevent interventions that have the country “going around in circles,” a recently banned opposition figurehead said, after two big rulings that dissolved his party and dismissed a prime minister. Pita Limjaroenrat, whose now defunct Move Forward Party was blocked from forming a government last year, said a 10-year political ban would not weaken his resolve to …

Manila — The Philippines on Tuesday said China’s coast guard was not helping efforts to build confidence in the South China Sea, after accusing it of ramming and damaging its vessels in the latest in a succession of altercations. The Philippines urged China to refrain from aggressive actions and adhere to international law, said Alexander Lopez, a spokesperson for the country’s maritime council, an inter-ministerial body …

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced Monday that Israel confirmed its support for a proposal to achieve a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war. The top U.S. diplomat urged Hamas to back the proposal as well, saying it would help alleviate the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias reports. …

state department — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in Tel Aviv late Monday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had accepted an American “bridging proposal” on a Gaza cease-fire deal, and that it was now up to Hamas to agree. Meanwhile, a polio vaccination campaign in Gaza is expected to move forward as planned in late August and September, regardless of the outcome of …

BERLIN — Two German warships await orders from Berlin, their commander said, to determine whether next month they will be the first German naval vessels in decades to pass through the Taiwan Strait, drawing a rebuke from Beijing. While the U.S. and other nations, including Canada, have sent warships through the narrow strait in recent weeks, it would be the German navy’s first passage through the …