Asia

A Singapore court has fined a French student S$600 ($465; £348) for licking a straw from an orange juice vending machine and putting it back into its dispenser. Didier Gaspard Owen Maximilien, 19, pleaded guilty to one count of public nuisance. Maximilien, who is studying in Singapore, posted the video …

Japan’s south-western Kyushu region has had more than 100 aftershocks since it was struck on Tuesday by a magnitude 6.8 earthquake which left at least 13 people dead. Many others were said to be in “cardiopulmonary arrest” – a term often used in preliminary reports in Japan before a death …

Korean pop group BTS have announced they will not submit their music for consideration at the 2027 Grammy Awards. The news came in a co-ordinated Instagram post, with all seven members of the band uploading an identical statement. “We have decided not to enter the Grammys this year,” a translation …

Business was winding down for the day at Sendan Shokudo, a diner in Japan’s southwestern city of Yatsushiro, when the whole building suddenly lurched. Everything on the kitchen shelves cascaded to the floor; bowls and glasses shattered. The restaurant’s co-owner, 75-year-old Hiroko Ogata, had just walked in. “I was surprised, …

A magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck south-west Japan, leaving several people injured and prompting a brief tsunami advisory that was lifted within the hour. More that 150,000 people have been asked to move to evacuation shelters following the quake, which hit inland in Kyushu island at 16:27 local time (07:27 GMT). …

Former Hong Kong opposition leader Wu Chi-wai has been allowed to stay in the UK with his family for six months, after initially being detained at the border. Wu had arrived at London’s Heathrow Airport last Wednesday, where he was detained for nearly 10 hours and initially refused entry, he …

When Shalini Patra watched the rain on 19 July from her home in Jorhat district in the northeast Indian state of Assam, she didn’t know that her life was about to change. In the afternoon, the 18-year-old suddenly heard the sound of rushing water and people shouting. “Within minutes, knee-deep …

Indonesia’s immigration authorities have banned two Dutch nationals for organising an illegal running event that had also allegedly discriminated against locals. The run organised by the expatriate-focused group Entourage Bali drew heated backlash after testimonies circulated online that the club had appeared to reject Indonesian applicants while accepting foreigners. The …

Shares in China’s biggest memory chip maker have surged by more than 470% as they made their debut on the Shanghai Stock Exchange’s tech-heavy STAR Market. The surge has pushed CXMT’s stock market valuation to around 3.3 trillion yuan ($487.3bn; £364.9bn), making it the most valuable listed company in mainland …

Between 2020 and May 2026, Comwel ruled that 46 warehouse and delivery workers, including Jang, died of a stroke or heart disease that count as work-related deaths. Jang aside, it’s unclear how many of them worked overnight shifts. Comwel did not say how many of these cases were also investigated …

Thousands of people have taken to the streets in the Indian capital Delhi as part of the cockroach protests, calling for educational reforms and the resignation of a government minister. BBC Verify has been analysing videos from across the capital, which show security officers firing so-called pellet guns towards protesters. …

Two Chinese academics have won the world’s top prize for mathematics for the first time, according to state media. Chinese mathematicians Hong Wang and Yu Deng won alongside John Pardon from the US and Jacon Tsimerman from Canada. They each won 15,000 Canadian dollars ($10,500; £8,000). Both won for solving …

The chairman of corporate giant SK Group has been ordered by a South Korean court to pay his ex-wife 944bn won (£483m; $644m) in a case that local media has called the “divorce of the century“. The award, which still needs to be finalised, is below the initial 1.38tn won …

A South Korean court has acquitted a woman previously convicted of murdering a baby she delivered in hospital – the latest twist in a case that has gripped the country and fuelled debate about its murky abortion laws. The woman had wanted to terminate her pregnancy at 36 weeks, but …

Sri Lanka’s health authorities attribute the surge in dengue infections to a cyclone that tore through the island last December, scattering debris that have turned into new breeding grounds for mosquitoes. The government has tasked the military to use drones to scan the rooftops of homes, schools and construction sites, …

A White House adviser has accused China’s Moonshot AI of a “large scale” effort to steal the capabilities of top US artificial intelligence (AI) models. US President Donald Trump’s Science and Technology adviser Michael Kratsios said Moonshot AI carried out the campaign through what is known as distillation – when …

On 21 July 2025, a training aircraft took off from a Bangladesh Air Force Base in Dhaka at around 13:00 local time (07:00 GMT) and crashed soon after in the Uttara neighbourhood. Images from the scene hours after the crash showed scores of emergency service workers sorting through charred rubble …

Japan has experienced its first “kokushobi”, or “cruelly hot day”, as temperatures in parts of the country climbed past 40C (104F). The term was introduced in April by the country’s weather agency to describe days when temperatures reach 40C, with the aim of more effectively warning the public about dangerous …

At least 12 workers were killed after a portion of an under-construction tunnel collapsed following a gas explosion in India’s north-eastern Sikkim state, officials said. Rescue operations are continuing to locate 13 others who are reported to be trapped in the tunnel since Monday’s collapse. The National Disaster Response Force …

Former Australia batter David Warner has pleaded guilty to drink driving, after being charged following a random breath test in Sydney in April. The plea had been expected after his lawyer, Bobby Hill, said after a court hearing in May that the cricketer accepted responsibility and knew his behaviour had …