All passengers, including a venture capitalist and a pilot, are paying customers and are expected float around the pod for a few minutes before returning to earth.Reuters

The West misunderstands China’s efforts at boosting innovation and satisfying domestic demand as seeking to undermine foreign competitors. While oversupply is a valid concern, a bigger problem is concentrated production among a small cluster of firms which US tariffs on China will not address.David Dodwell

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi was travelling in Iran’s East Azerbaijan province when the incident happened near Jolfa, a city on the border with Azerbaijan.Associated Press

Yao Yang from Peking University says a developed, capitalist market and openness to immigrants helped the United States lead the way over the past century.Phoebe Zhang

Wang Yi meets Tajik President Emomali Rahmon in Dushanbe as part of four-day trip to Central Asia, which will include an SCO foreign ministers’ meeting in Astana.Orange Wang

The West misunderstands China’s efforts at boosting innovation and satisfying domestic demand as seeking to undermine foreign competitors. While oversupply is a valid concern, a bigger problem is concentrated production among a small cluster of firms which US tariffs on China will not address.David Dodwell

Beijing and Moscow are doing some things right but bigger picture forces are at play, analyst says.Jevans Nyabiage

Commerce ministry move targeting EU, US, Japan and Taiwan comes shortly after CCTV-linked social media channel warns of Beijing’s deep toolbox against ‘double standards’ EU probes.Orange Wang

Indonesia is the third country in Southeast Asia where Starlink will operate. Starlink was launched at three Indonesian health centres on Sunday.Reuters

Indonesia is the third country in Southeast Asia where Starlink will operate. Starlink was launched at three Indonesian health centres on Sunday.Reuters

Thousands of tonnes of waste have been left on the world’s highest mountain over the years. Some working on the clean-up say the only way to stop more piling up is putting curbs on expeditions.Bibek Bhandari

Thousands of tonnes of waste have been left on the world’s highest mountain over the years. Some working on the clean-up say the only way to stop more piling up is putting curbs on expeditions.Bibek Bhandari

Trump also promised to boost the Texas energy industry and vowed to implement history’s largest deportation of undocumented migrants.Tribune News Service

Critics say the Philippine president’s new rights ‘super body’ is superfluous – and an attempt to ‘deodorise his administration’s odious human rights record’.Sam Beltran

Critics say the Philippine president’s new rights ‘super body’ is superfluous – and an attempt to ‘deodorise his administration’s odious human rights record’.Sam Beltran

Mainland youth raised on Taiwanese pop culture are curious about the island, but two-way travel ban and uneasy ties create barriers.Hayley Wong

Tang is the first member of the Communist Party’s current Central Committee to come under investigation for ‘discipline violations’.Phoebe Zhang

Mainland China will become the largest single market for Mirxes’ core product, a stomach cancer detection kit that was key to the company’s development, according to Zhou Lihan, its CEO and co-founder.Meredith Chen

The influence and spending potential of China’s Gen Z population make them a major target group for many brands, both large and small.Salina Li,Sophie Chew

The EU’s net-zero plan for buildings is a good model. For a start, Hong Kong needs a mandatory energy label for buildings as a basis, and a combination of information, incentives and regulation to succeedMark Hinnells

In the run-up to William Lai’s inauguration on Monday, reluctance in the military to remove statues of the late leader raises questions about its loyalty.Lawrence Chung

New measures certainly show desire ‘to put a floor under the property slump’ ahead of third plenary session in July, but focus certain to be on ‘new productive forces’, observer says.Jane Cai,Laura Zhou

By cosying up to Hungary’s Orban and Serbia’s Vucic, two leaders with possibly the worst reputations in Europe, China risks tarnishing its image in return for superficial and short-term gains.Matteo Garavoglia

Shortly before being served, the ex-New York mayor had taken to social media to taunt officials, saying they must dismiss the charges if they couldn’t find him.Tribune News Service

Director Patryk Vega uses AI to put the ruler’s face on an actor’s body to create a biopic that depicts the ruler from age 10 up to his fictional death.Agence France-Presse

The dispatch of such a specialised China watcher to the embassy is part of the Biden administration’s efforts to reinforce intelligence gathering.Kyodo

Concerns about an Asian currency war and what it would mean for the world economy have been underpinned by a strong US dollar. Some economies may choose to intervene in currency markets, but the big question is whether China will devalue the yuan or proceed with cautionAnthony Rowley

The Philippine president told military graduates Manila faced ‘a blatant disregard of internationally accepted principles’.Agence France-Presse

Rahm Emanuel visited Ishigaki and Yonaguni, an island facing Taiwan, where he interacted with Japanese troops and the local fishing community.Associated Press

Fuji City residents complain that tourists are flocking to the Fuji Dream Bridge to catch a view of the famous mountain and leaving a mess behind.Julian Ryall

A Chinese high-speed railway line in Indonesia has been open for six months – and is popular enough that new trips have been added – but high debt levels are raising questions about its long-term utility.Ralph Jennings

India’s PM denies his ruling Hindu-nationalist party wants a two-thirds parliamentary majority to strip the word ‘secular’ from the constitution. The opposition aren’t so sure.Biman Mukherji

French President Emmanuel Macron’s ambitions to deepen French influence in the Pacific, where China is expanding its security ties, could be put at risk by the heavy-handed response to civil unrest in New CaledoniaReuters

A civil society group is urging Marcos Jnr to start a social media regulatory board but analysts fear the move could be targeted at silencing critics.Raissa Robles

The US$370 million project is key to New Delhi’s plans to ramp up trade with Central Asia and promote it as a counterweight to Beijing’s growing economic presence in the region.Junaid Kathju

The project will see the construction of military barracks and other infrastructure aimed at countering China’s activities in the disputed waters.Jeoffrey Maitem

The conservatives among Vietnam’s future leaders could seek closer ties with China to ensure the regime’s survival, analysts say.SCMP Reporter

The Dali’s crew – made up of 20 men from India and one from Sri Lanka – was mostly unharmed during the collision, but have not been allowed to leave the container ship and remain stranded.Tribune News Service

North Korea fired a suspected ballistic missile toward waters off its east coast, hours after the outspoken sister of leader Kim Jong-un blasted as “fiction” accusations that her nation was exporting weapons to Russia.Bloomberg

Five people have been detained over the attack at a police station including the suspect’s father and a couple who were at the station.Joseph Sipalan,Hadi Azmi

Activists and analysts expressed concern the deployment of the Typhon mid-range missile system could provoke retaliation from Beijing.Jeoffrey Maitem

Tokyo said it was ‘extremely regrettable’ that Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin had made an assertion ‘contrary to the facts’.Kyodo

With global warming becoming a major issue, India must tackle climate change in a more comprehensive and methodical way.Biman Mukherji

The State Department said American Christina Chapman helped three North Koreans in an ‘illicit telework employment’ scheme that earned US$6.8 million for Pyongyang.Bloomberg

Threats included office damage, slashed car tyres, letters with box-cutter blades, and messages about ‘crazy ideas’ and conspiracy theories.Julian Ryall

Sonthaya Oakkharasr and Sudthisak Rinthalak, who worked in the plantations near Kibbutz Be’eri, were originally thought to have survived the October 7 attack.Agence France-Presse

India’s intelligence activities have led to accusations against the Research and Analysis Wing by countries such as the UK, Pakistan and Canada.Vasudevan Sridharan

A Seoul court rejected a request by doctors and medical students to stop a government plan to increase medical school quotas, as a months-long strike by junior medics drags on.Associated Press

Dozens of Thai cannabis advocates urged the government to abandon its plans to re-list marijuana as a narcotic, a week after it announced its dramatic policy U-turn just two years after de-criminalising it.Reuters

A senator claimed Chinese diplomats might be expelled if an investigation found they had violated the country’s anti-wiretapping law.Jeoffrey Maitem