Asia

China anger as US amends wording on Taiwan independence4 days agoKelly NgBBC NewsThe US State Department has dropped a statement from its website which stated that Washington does not support Taiwan’s independence – a move which has sparked anger in China.
China said the revision “sends a wrong… signal to separatist forces advocating for Taiwan independence”, and asked the US to “correct its mistakes”.
The department’s fact sheet on Taiwan-US relations earlier included the phrase “we do not support Taiwan independence” – this was removed last week as part of what it said was a “routine” update.
A US spokesperson was quoted as saying that it remains committed to the “One China” policy, it said, where US recognises and has formal ties with China rather than Taiwan.
China sees self-governed Taiwan as a breakaway province that will eventually be part of the country, and has not ruled out the use of force to achieve this.
But many Taiwanese consider themselves to be part of a separate n..

Does the world’s largest religious gathering ever go to sleep? The BBC filmed through the night to find out.

S Korea removes Deepseek from app stores over privacy concerns2 days agoJoão da SilvaBusiness reporterJean MackenzieSeoul correspondentReporting fromSeoulSouth Korea has banned new downloads of China’s DeepSeek artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot, according to the country’s personal data protection watchdog.
The government agency said the AI model will become available again to South Korean users when “improvements and remedies” are made to ensure it complies with the country’s personal data protection laws.
In the week after it made global headlines, DeepSeek became hugely popular in South Korea leaping to the top of app stores with over a million weekly users.
But its rise in popularity also attracted scrutiny from countries around the world which have imposed restrictions on the app over privacy and national security concerns.
South Korea’s Personal Information Protection Commission said the DeepSeek app became unavailable on Apple’s App Store and Google Play on Saturday evening.
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How Trump’s ‘drill, baby, drill’ pledge is affecting other countries14 hours agoNavin Singh KhadkaEnvironment Correspondent, BBC World ServiceThe UN climate summit in the United Arab Emirates in 2023 ended with a call to “transition away from fossil fuels”. It was applauded as a historic milestone in global climate action.
Barely a year later, however, there are fears that the global commitment may be losing momentum, as the growth of clean energy transition is slowing down while burning of fossil fuels continues to rise.
And now there is US PresidentDonald Trump’s “national energy emergency”, embracing fossil fuels and ditching clean energy policies – that has also begun to influence some countries and energy companies already.
In response to Trump’s “drill, baby, drill” slogan aimed at ramping up fossil fuel extraction, and the US notifying the UN of its withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement, Indonesia, for instance, has hinted that it may follow suit.
“If the United States doe..

Illegal and unseen: Nine surprising facts about Indians in the US3 days agoSoutik BiswasIndia correspondent•@soutikBBCDonald Trump has made the mass deportation of undocumented foreign nationals a key policy, with the US said to have identified about 18,000 Indian nationals it believes entered illegally.
Last week Narendra Modi said India would take back its nationals who were in the US illegally, and also crack down on the “human trafficking ecosystem”.
“These are children of very ordinary families, and they are lured by big dreams and promises,” he said during his visit to Washington.
Now a new paper by Abby Budiman and Devesh Kapur from Johns Hopkins University has shed light on the numbers, demographics, entry methods, locations and trends relating to undocumented Indians over time.
Here are some of the more striking findings.
Unauthorised immigrants make up 3% of the US population and 22% of the foreign-born population.
The number of undocumented Indians among them is contested h..

Pritam Singh: Singapore opposition leader guilty of lying to parliament2 days agoKelly NgReporting fromSingapore State CourtsSingapore’s opposition leader Pritam Singh has been found guilty of lying under oath to a parliamentary committee.
A court imposed the maximum fine of S$7,000 ($5,223; £4,148) for each of two charges. Singh said that he would appeal against the conviction and sentence.
The charges relate to Singh’s handling of Raeesah Khan, a former lawmaker from his party, who lied to parliament in a separate case.
The verdict in this high-profile trial comes as Singapore is gearing up for its next general election, which must be held by November. Singh’s Workers’ Party holds nine out of 87 elected seats in parliament.
Under Singapore’s constitution, any MP can lose their seat or be barred from running for office for five years if they are fined at least S$10,000 or jailed for more than a year.
The election department has since clarified that the S$10,000 threshold only ap..

Families’ heartbreak after deadly Delhi railway station crush2 days agoAbhinav Goel and Dilnawaz PashaBBC Hindi, DelhiOn Sunday morning, the New Delhi Railway Station in India’s capital looked much like it always does: bustling, with its many platforms full of eager, impatient passengers waiting to catch their trains.
But on Saturday night, a deadly crush – reportedly caused by overcrowding – killed at least 18 people and left several injured.
According to officials, two trains had been delayed at the station, while a third – heading to Prayagraj city where the massive Hindu religious festival, Kumbh Mela, is being held – was waiting to depart as people pushed against each other.
The crush occurred after “a passenger slipped and fell on the stairs”, a spokesperson for Indian Railways said.
Opposition leaders have criticised the government, alleging that Indian Railways did not make adequate arrangements to manage crowds at the station.
An investigation has been launched, and authoritie..

Eighteen killed in New Delhi station crush 6 hours agoDilnawaz Pasha, Abhinav Goel & Alex TherrienBBC Hindi and BBC NewsReporting fromDelhi and LondonA crush at New Delhi Railway Station has left around 18 people dead and at least 10 injured.
Thousands of people reportedly crammed into the railway station on Saturday night as they tried to board delayed trains.
Four of the victims were children, while 10 were women, according to a list released by officials.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said his thoughts were “with all those who have lost their loved ones” in a post on X.
Crowd crushes are common in India where there is frequent overcrowding at religious events, festivals and public spaces.
The incident comes weeks after 30 people were killed in a pre-dawn crush at the religious festival, Kumbh Mela, in northern India, where tens of millions of Hindus had gathered to bathe in sacred river waters on one of the holy days of the six-week event.
In Delhi, witnesses told BBC Hindi t..

The A-level student who became an enemy of the Chinese state3 days agoFrances MaoBBC NewsReporting fromLondonJust over a year ago, Chloe Cheung was sitting her A-levels. Now she’s on a Chinese government list of wanted dissidents.
The choir girl-turned-democracy activist woke up to news in December that police in Hong Kong had issued a $HK1 million ($100,000; £105,000) reward for information leading to her capture abroad.
“I actually just wanted to take a gap year after school,” Chloe, 19, who lives in London, told the BBC. “But I’ve ended up with a bounty!”
Chloe is the youngest of 19 activists accused of breaching a national security law introduced by Beijing in response to huge pro-democracy protests in the former British colony five years ago.
In 2021, she and her family moved to the UK under a special visa scheme for Hong Kongers. She can probably never return to her home city and says she has to be careful about where she travels.
Her protest work has made her a fugitive of..

‘I believe in my guide runner more than myself’, says blind Indian athlete4 days agoDivya AryaBBC Hindi”When I was growing up, everyone in my village would say: ‘She is blind, she is a waste’,” says Rakshitha Raju. Now, aged 24, she is one of India’s top middle distance para athletes. “It makes me so proud,” she says.
Rakshitha was born blind in a remote village in southern India and had lost both her parents by the age of 10. She was raised by her grandmother who is hearing and speech impaired.
“Both of us are disabled, so my grandma understood me,” she says.
When Rakshitha was about 13, the sports teacher at her school took her aside and told her she had the potential to be a great athlete.
“I wondered: ‘How? I am blind, so how do I run on a track I can’t see?'” she recalls.
Her teacher explained that visually impaired runners can have a guide, who runs alongside them. The athletes are joined by a tether – a short strap with a loop on both ends for each of them to hold on to.
For a w..