Top Asia Pacific Breaking News: Morning Edition

U.S. President Donald Trump's comment that he is discussing potential arms sales to Taiwan with Chinese President Xi Jinping is raising concerns in Taipei as the island democracy relies on U.S. backing in the face of China 's territorial claims. On Monday, Trump told journalists he is discussing the potential sales with the Chinese leader, an unexpected statement that experts say might violate decades-old foreign policy principles defining the United States' relationship with self-ruled Taiwan. "I've talked to him about it. We had a good conversation, and we'll make a determination pretty soon," Trump said when asked about Xi's opposition to the arms sales.

BEIJING (AP) - An explosion at a fireworks' shop in China's Hubei province on Wednesday killed 12 people, state media reported, the second such explosion as the country celebrates the Lunar New Year. Emergency responders put out the blaze at the fireworks shop in the town of Xiangyang, in central Hubei province, on Wednesday afternoon, according to the official Xinhua News Agency. Investigators are now looking into the cause of the explosion, the report said without giving further details. Fireworks are a large part of the Lunar New Year celebration in China, but their use has also been the cause of multiple accidents.

TOKYO (AP) - Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi on Wednesday expressed hopes of deepening her relationship with U.S. President Donald Trump and strengthen cooperation between the two countries in rare earths development and other areas of economic security when she visits Washington next month. Takaichi, at a news conference late Wednesday, expressed hopes to strengthen cooperation with the U.S., especially in economic security, as tensions between Tokyo and Beijing have risen over the last few months. Takaichi, elected as Japan's first female leader in October, was reappointed by Parliament as prime minister earlier in the day and formed her second Cabinet, following a landslide election win last week.

MANILA, Philippines (AP) - Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte said Wednesday she would seek the presidency in the 2028 elections - a bid that would have to withstand new impeachment attempts in Congress and criminal complaints that could ban her from public office if convicted. She made the announcement in a televised speech where she renewed allegations of corruption and misrule against President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. They were running mates in a whirlwind alliance in the 2022 election but have since had a bitter falling out. She and her family have blamed Marcos for the detention of her father, former President Rodrigo Duterte, who faces a potential trial for crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court, which ordered his arrest and detention in the Netherlands last year over his deadly anti-drugs crackdown.

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) - An ungainly barrel of a shark cruising languidly over a barren seabed far too deep for the sun's rays to illuminate was an unexpected sight. Many experts had thought sharks didn't exist in the frigid waters of Antarctica before this sleeper shark lumbered warily and briefly into the spotlight of a video camera, researcher Alan Jamieson said this week. The shark, filmed in January 2025, was a substantial specimen with an estimated length of between 3 and 4 meters (10 and 13 feet). "We went down there not expecting to see sharks because there's a general rule of thumb that you don't get sharks in Antarctica," Jamieson said.

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) - Indonesia is tightening state control over the world's largest nickel supply after years of betting the metal would anchor a homegrown electric-vehicle industry, and just as global demand begins shifting away from heavy reliance on nickel. The move could still ripple through global EV supply chains as the United States and China compete for critical minerals. Indonesia sits at the center of the nickel market: its share of global supply jumped to about 60% in 2024 from 31.5% in 2020, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence, after former President Joko Widodo banned raw ore exports, drawing a surge of Chinese-backed investment into refining.

KARNAL, India (AP) - Farmer Bir Virk tapped the iPad mounted beside his tractor's steering wheel and switched the vehicle to automatic mode. The machine moved forward and began harvesting potatoes on its own in the fields of Karnal, a city in northern India. Some 145 kilometers (90 miles) away in the country's capital of New Delhi, educator Swetank Pandey employed similar automation at his coaching academy. He used algorithms to scan and grade handwritten exam papers from candidates for India's competitive civil services. In both cases, the same invisible hand was at work: artificial intelligence. From farms to classrooms, AI is fast emerging as a tool for many Indians to boost efficiency and cut time, costs and labor.

NEW DELHI (AP) - A private Indian university was booted from a top artificial intelligence summit in New Delhi on Wednesday after one of its staffers displayed a commercially available robotic dog made in China, claiming it was the university's own innovation. According to two government officials, Galgotias University was ordered to take down its stand at the summit a day after the university's professor of communications, Neha Singh, told state-run broadcaster DD News that robotic dog Orion was developed by the Centre of Excellence at the university. Internet users, however, quickly identified the robot as the Unitree Go2, sold by China's Unitree Robotics with a starting price tag of $1,600 and used widely in research and education.

ISLAMABAD (AP) - More than a dozen former international cricket captains have urged Pakistan's government to ensure better treatment in prison and medical care for former cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan, citing concerns about his eyesight, as his party demanded Wednesday he be shifted to hospital from prison. In a letter to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, 14 former captains, including India's Sunil Gavaskar and Kapil Dev, called for Khan to be treated with "dignity and basic human consideration," expressing concern about reports that the vision in his right eye had worsened in detention. "Recent reports concerning his health - particularly the alarming deterioration of his vision while in custody - and the conditions of his imprisonment over the past two and a half years have caused us profound concern," the cricketers wrote.

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) - Australia's government banned an Australian citizen with alleged ties to the militant Islamic State group from returning home from a detention camp in Syria, the latest development in the case of fraught repatriation of families of IS fighters. The woman was planning to join another 33 Australians - 10 women and 23 children - and fly on Monday from Damascus, Syria, to Australia, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said Wednesday. But the group was turned back by Syrian authorities to the Roj detention camp, due to unspecified procedural problems. The Australian government had acted on news that the group planned to leave Syria, Burke said.