Asia

The BBC’s Stephen McDonell breaks down what to look out for as China’s leaders meet this week.

Japanese World Cup-winner Yuki Nagasato, who made history by playing for a senior men’s team in 2020, brings her trailblazing 24-year career to an end.

4 days agoShareSaveLaura BickerChina correspondentReporting fromBeijingShareSave”China will fight to the bitter end of any trade war,” the foreign ministry spokesperson in Beijing declared, after China announced tit-for-tat tariffs on agricultural imports from the US.
This came within minutes of a new 10% US levy on Chinese imports that came into effect on Tuesday – which adds to existing tariffs both from Trump’s first term and those announced last month.
But China’s latest retaliatory measures are an opening swing, not a direct punch.
It shows some strength, and it has the potential to sting parts of the United States, but also leaves room to negotiate or escalate if necessary.
“We advise the US to put away its bullying face and return to the right track of dialogue and co-operation before it is too late,” foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian added.
This is the second round of tariffs the two countries have imposed on each other since February. But this time China is hitting Donald..

1 day agoShareSaveTiffanie TurnbullBBC News, SydneyShareSaveA second Sydney nurse who allegedly appeared in a video that made threats towards Israeli patients has been charged by police.
Ahmad Rashad Nadir, 27, and Sarah Abu Lebdeh, 26, were both suspended from their duties at Bankstown Hospital in February after the video was released online. It was filmed on an anonymous online platform which pairs people randomly for a chat.
Authorities say there is “no evidence” the pair actually harmed patients.
Mr Nadir was charged on Wednesday with using a carriage service to threaten, menace or harass, and with possessing a prohibited drug.
Carriage services refer to modern communication systems such as phones and the internet.
Ms Lebdeh was charged last week with three offences: threatening violence to a group, using a carriage service to threaten to kill, and using a carriage service to harass or cause offence.
Neither person has entered a plea to the charges, but Mr Nadir apologised last mon..

2 days agoShareSavePeter Hoskins and Kelly NgBBC NewsReporting fromSingapore ShareSaveChina has set an economic growth target for this year of “around 5%” and pledged to pump billions of dollars into its ailing economy, which is now facing a trade war with the US.
Its leaders unveiled the plan as thousands of delegates attend the National People’s Congress, a rubber-stamp parliament, which passes decisions already made behind closed doors.
But the week-long gathering is closely watched for clues on Beijing’s policy changes – and this year is more significant than most.
President Xi Jinping had already been battling persistently low consumption, a property crisis and unemployment, before Donald Trump’s new 10% levy on Chinese imports came into effect on Tuesday.
This follows the 10% tariff imposed in early February, taking the total US levy to 20%. And it hits what has been a rare bright spot for the Chinese economy: exports.
Beijing hit back almost immediately on Tuesday, just as it d..

2 days agoShareSaveGavin ButlerBBC NewsShareSaveJapan has deployed more than 2,000 firefighters to battle the country’s biggest forest fire in three decades.
At least one person has died in the blaze, which has torched more than 5,200 acres around the northern Japanese city of Ofunato since Thursday, according to the Fire and Disaster Management Agency (FDMA).
Although January to March is typically Ofunato’s driest season, the area saw less rainfall last month than any February in more than 20 years – recording just 2.5 millimetres, compared to the usual average of 41.
About 4,600 people remain under government-issued evacuation orders as the fire continues to burn.
Some 2,000 have already left the area to stay with friends or relatives, and more than 1,200 have evacuated to shelters, officials said.
The fires are burning in a forest area of Iwate Prefecture, which is Japan’s second largest prefecture and has the country’s second-lowest population density.
More than 80 buildings are es..

3 days agoShareSaveNikita YadavBBC News, DelhiShareSaveDozens of construction workers have been pulled out alive from metal containers after they were buried by an avalanche in the Himalayas in India’s Uttarakhand state.
They survived – some as long as nearly two days – as the containers in which they were living had enough oxygen to sustain them until rescuers could dig them out, Indian media reported quoting officials.
On Friday, 54 workers were buried when the avalanche hit a construction camp near Mana village. Eight were killed, while the other 46 were rescued.
The operation lasted almost 60 hours in sub-zero temperatures and concluded on Sunday.
Most of the labourers, who were working on a highway expansion project, were able to “withstand the wrecking avalanche” because of the containers, rescuers told The Indian Express newspaper.
“These metal shelters saved most of them. They had just enough oxygen to hold on until we got them out,” a senior rescue official told The Times o..

12 hours agoShareSaveKelly NgBBC NewsShareSaveAn adventurer who tried to row across the Pacific Ocean from the United States to Australia has been rescued just days before he reached his final destination.
Lithuanian rower Aurimas Mockus sounded a distress signal late on Friday after he was stranded by a cyclone, and surrounded by towering waves and strong winds packing up to 100 km/h (62 mph), local media reported.
Authorities made radio contact with Mr Mockus the next day when he was about 740km east of Mackay, a city on Australia’s east coast in the Coral Sea.
By the time he was rescued on Monday morning, the 44-year-old had spent nearly five months alone at sea.
Mr Mockus is getting medical treatment on an Australian warship, which will take him to Sydney, the Australian navy said.
He was attempting to become one of few rowers who have crossed the Pacific alone and without stopping.
Among them are Britons Peter Bird and John Beeden, who achieved the feat in 1983 and 2015 respec..

15 hours agoShareSaveKelly NgBBC NewsShareSaveOne of the world’s most prolific blood donors – whose plasma saved the lives of more than two million babies – has died.
James Harrison died in his sleep at a nursing home in New South Wales, Australia on 17 February, his family said on Monday. He was 88.
Known in Australia as the man with the golden arm, Harrison’s blood contained a rare antibody, Anti-D, which is used to make medication given to pregnant mothers whose blood is at risk of attacking their unborn babies.
The Australian Red Cross Blood Service who paid tribute to Harrison, said he had pledged to become a donor after receiving transfusions while undergoing a major chest surgery when he was 14.
He started donating his blood plasma when he was 18 and continued doing so every two weeks until he was 81.
In 2005, he had the world record for most blood plasma donated – a title he held until 2022 when he was overtaken by a man in the US.
Harrison’s daughter, Tracey Mellowship, said h..