Asia Pacific

Tens of thousands of volunteers have taken part in building 108 Buddhist stupas in Bhutan’s new “mindfulness” city, as the Himalayan kingdom embarks on an ambitious project to boost economic growth.

The 15-metre-tall (50ft) stupas, sacred Buddhist monuments found across the Himalayas, were installed on Sunday along 12km (7.5 miles) of riverbank near the Indian border, at the site of the future Gelephu Mindfulness City.

More than 40,000 volunteers participated in building the structures as “a physical form of prayer made permanent in stone and earth”, after starting work after midnight, officials said. The number 108 is sacred in Buddhism, widely practised in Bhutan.

About 200,000 people attended the ceremony, or nearly a fourth of the population, officials told the AFP news agency.

“I was worried that raising 108 stupas in a single day might not succeed,” Bhutan’s King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck said in a speech at the ceremony.

“But everything went successfully, and for that, I am truly grateful.”

Bhutanese leaders hope that Gelephu Mindfulness City, conceived by the king and designed by Danish architects, will boost the country’s economy and persuade more young people to stay, attracting investment in sustainable business, green technology, education, tourism and financial services.

Bhutan is facing massive economic challenges, from rising unemployment and falling birth rates to the mass migration of skilled workers.

The city, currently a small town with a population of about 10,000, is in southern Bhutan, along the border with India, about 240km (150 miles) south of Thimphu, the nation’s capital.

The king established the special zone by royal charter in 2024, saying its purpose was to “create a vibrant economic hub”.

The landlocked Himalayan nation, with a population of just under 800,000 and wedged between China and India, is known for its policy of prioritising “Gross National Happiness” alongside economic growth.

“This occasion will be recorded in our history for generations to come,” said Nima Gyeltshen, 65, head of the Organisation for Youth Empowerment, which helps young Bhutanese find work.

Cryptocurrency ambitions

Analysts have questioned whether Bhutan can attract sufficient investment to realise its vision for the new city.

But Indian billionaire Gautam Adani, head of the ports-to-power conglomerate, joined the project as a founding member in January.

The site is set to be connected to India’s rail network in neighbouring Assam, with an international airport slated to open in 2029.

The project is also linked to Bhutan’s cryptocurrency ambitions, with the kingdom mining Bitcoin using surplus hydropower and pledging to use digital assets to support the city’s development.

Bishnu Maya Moktang, a resident who attended Sunday’s ceremony, said she was excited about the upcoming mindfulness city.

“I hope to live long enough to see it,” Moktang, 56, told AFP.

“My parents died young, and they would never see the city. I feel fortunate.”

Marc Marquez takes 44-point lead over Jorge Martin and can seal the MotoGP title in Qatar next weekend.

Reigning ‌MotoGP champion Marc Marquez has won the Malaysian Grand Prix to ⁠take a 44-point lead over absent title rival Jorge Martin in the championship and inch closer to retaining his title.

The Ducati rider shot out of the blocks and beat his brother Alex, the pole-sitter, into the ⁠opening turn on Sunday in Sepang.

Alex Marquez was able to quickly regain the lead but ran wide a turn later to hand it back, and his brother made no mistakes from that point on to claim ⁠the chequered flag for the first ⁠time since 2018.

Victory moved seven-time MotoGP champion Marc Marquez up to 399 points in the championship standings, 44 ahead of Martin, who did not compete after suffering a wrist fracture.

If Marc Marquez is able to extend his lead to 74 points at next week’s Qatar Grand Prix, he could seal an eighth championship title ‌with two rounds remaining in the season.

“We did a perfect race, so I’m super, super happy,” said the winner, who won the race by more than four seconds.

“But my mentality still cannot change. I have to keep focus, keep pushing. There are not many races to go, but there are many moments left. So we must be super confident.”

Saturday’s sprint winner, Pedro Acosta of KTM, finished second while Gresini’s Alex Marquez was third.

After losing the lead ⁠to his brother, Alex Marquez was drawn into a duel with Acosta, ⁠who stuck to the wheel of the Gresini rider for several laps before expertly overtaking him at the midway point of the race.

By then, however, the distance to the leader had already grown too large to overcome.

Aprilia rider Marco Bezzecchi, ⁠an outside contender for the title, finished in sixth place after being overtaken late by both Trackhouse rider Ai Ogura and Tech3’s Enea Bastianini.

Marc Marquez’s main title rival, Martin, had initially looked set to return ⁠in Malaysia and briefly tried to compete in Saturday morning’s practice session.

However, the Aprilia rider was visibly struggling and eventually did not take part in qualifying, ending his weekend early to continue his recovery from the fracture he sustained in a crash ‌at Phillip Island, Australia, last week.

The Spaniard, who won the title in 2024, conceded that his MotoGP title challenge was essentially over after his withdrawal.

The MotoGP season next moves to the Lusail International ‌Circuit ‌for the Qatar Grand Prix, which is set to go ahead next weekend despite pushback from riders concerned about going there during the United States-Israel war on Iran.

It is being called the biggest cryptocurrency heist in history – and the shocks are still reverberating through the industry.

The target of this recent hack was Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange.

Attackers stole about $6.3bn in client assets.

Analysts suspect hackers backed by the North Korean government carried out the theft.

Critics are calling for more regulations to restore the trust of investors.

So, is cryptocurrency still safe? And can these kinds of attacks even be prevented?

Presenter: Mohammed Jamjoom

Guests:

Lee Reiners – Lecturing fellow at Duke University and a former US Federal Reserve Bank examiner

Geoff White – Investigative journalist and author of The Lazarus Heist

Anupam Chander – Professor of law and technology at Georgetown University, who specialises in the global regulation of new technologies

Simon Harmer picked a career-best 6-16 as South Africa beat Australia by 176 runs to clinch Test series 2-1.

Australia ‌captain Pat Cummins said it was fair to ask questions about his side after they ⁠slipped to two heavy ⁠defeats in a row against hosts South Africa to lose the three-match series 2-1 at Newlands on Saturday.

Set 288 for victory, Australia were rocked early on and could ⁠manage only 111 to lose the third Test by 176 runs, following their defeat by an innings and 31 runs in the second match in the series.

Australia next host New Zealand, and Cummins ⁠said the series loss meant questions were inevitable as South Africa took over from them as the number one side in the Test world rankings.

“We lost two games in a row. I think it’s fair to be asking questions and we’ll be asking them internally as well,” Cummins told reporters. “We are a very good ‌side, but I think we need to get a little bit better if we want to get back to number one [in the world].

“Maybe that’s a change of style, maybe it’s a change of personnel in some instances. We’ll work it out.”

Cummins made the surprise decision to bowl first after winning the toss on the first morning, something that had been done only 11 times before in Tests at Newlands since 1889.

As it proved, batting last was difficult on a wearing ⁠surface, and Australia fell to the spin of Simon Harmer, who took ⁠career-best figures of 10-120 in the match.

“We knew it was going to be a high-scoring game,” Cummins said. “We probably thought it was going to do a little bit more on day one than it did.

“You don’t win the toss and think you’re ⁠going to bowl the opposition out for 100 or 200, but we thought we could get 10 wickets on day one and that would ⁠put us right ahead of the game.”

Cummins said poor decisions cost ⁠his batters and that their chase was as good as over in the first half-hour of the day.

“Chasing 280-odd was never going to be easy, but we all turned up today and saw a pretty clear path forward. I thought it was ‌achievable, but we never really gave ourselves a chance,” he said.

“There were a few really poor decisions. I know it’s a day-five wicket, but I don’t think it was drastic. There were runs to ‌be ‌scored out there; there were lots of balls to face.

“I think there are a few decisions the boys would like back. We have to get better. It’s happened a few times now.”

The joint statement comes as US President Donald Trump seeks a new meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

The United States, South Korea and Japan have reiterated their longstanding call for North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons, a move  Pyongyang has repeatedly ruled out.

The three countries addressed the issue on the sidelines of the Group of 20 (G20) meeting in the US city of Atlanta on Thursday, with their top diplomats reaffirming their “resolute commitment to the complete denuclearisation” of North Korea, according to a readout by the US Department of State.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun and Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi also pledged the “full implementation” of United Nations Security Council resolutions, including a ban on supporting revenue for North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.

The statement comes despite repeated overtures to North Korea by US President Donald Trump, who held a series of historic summits with its leader, Kim Jong Un, during his first term in office and has continued to call Kim a “friend”.

Last year, Trump bucked a long-held US policy by conceding that North Korea was already “sort of a nuclear power”.

More recently, he has played down concerns about North Korea’s nuclear programme and expressed a desire to meet Kim again. Speculation is mounting that the two leaders could reconnect at next month’s APEC summit in China, which Trump is due to attend.

Analysts and South Korea’s spy agency say Kim may have conveyed Pyongyang’s position on potential talks with Trump to Beijing during a recent visit to the Chinese border city of Dandong.

South Korea’s dovish President Lee Jae Myung – who has repeatedly offered Pyongyang talks without preconditions – suggested in September that Washington seek a freeze, rather than the immediate elimination, of the North’s nuclear programme in return for sanctions relief.

Critics have said such an approach risks tacitly accepting North Korea as a nuclear-armed state while allowing Pyongyang to win sanctions relief without giving up its arsenal.

Despite long-running UN sanctions, North Korea, which is backed by Russia and China, has enshrined its status as a nuclear-armed state in law. Pyongyang’s government has declared its atomic arsenal to be permanent and irreversible.

Pyongyang denounced a joint statement on Saturday by a group of nations monitoring sanctions implementation against it, pledging that “the stereotyped sanctions racket of the US and the West can neither influence the position of the DPRK (North Korea) as a nuclear weapons state.”

Switzerland formally reopens diplomatic office in North Korea after its closure in 2020.

Switzerland has formally reopened its diplomatic office in North Korea as Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis held talks in Pyongyang about normalising political relations between the two countries.

On Friday Cassis wrapped up a two-day visit to North Korea – the first by a Swiss government minister in more than two decades – in which he discussed “regularising political relations and reestablishing a political dialogue”, he wrote on X.

Cassis, who is also Switzerland’s vice president, met Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui and Jo Yong Won, a secretary of the Central Committee of the ruling Korean Workers’ Party.

“We also exchanged views on security on the Korean Peninsula and broader Eurasian security challenges,” he added on X.

After the formal reopening of the Swiss diplomatic office on Thursday, Cassis posted that he was “pleased” to mark a “new chapter” in his country’s presence in Pyongyang, hailing the office as a “concrete step towards strengthening direct dialogue” with North Korea.

The office, operational since October 19, will not have an ambassador. It reports to the Swiss embassy in Beijing, which handles diplomatic and consular relations with North Korea. The office had closed in March 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“This office will help to strengthen direct contacts with the authorities of the DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] and support political dialogue with them,” the Swiss Foreign Ministry said.

North Korea’s state news agency KCNA confirmed Cassis’s arrival in the country on Thursday but gave no details on the purpose of the visit. It had not been known beforehand whether he would meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, and there has been no report of a meeting.

Bern said it intended to maintain its commitment to the region amid heightened tensions and limited international contact with North Korea, having been one of the few Western countries to keep up a dialogue with Pyongyang.

The last Swiss Federal Council member to visit was then-Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey, in 2003.

Cassis crossed into South Korea on Friday for the final leg of his regional trip.

According to the Swiss foreign ministry, his talks in Seoul will focus on security on the peninsula, prospects for easing regional tensions and bilateral ties.

Switzerland’s involvement on the Korean Peninsula dates back more than 70 years, including its role on the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission.

Also in South Korea, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz invoked his country’s reunification during a visit to the inter-Korean border. “Let us hope that Korea, too, will one day have the chance to regain its national unity,” he said.

Court rules Patterson will spend the rest of her life behind bars after denying parole.

An Australian court has dismissed an appeal by “mushroom murderer” Erin Patterson against her conviction and ruled that she should spend the rest of her life behind bars.

A three-judge panel at the Supreme Court of Victoria delivered its ruling on Friday. The justices said that Patterson, who was convicted last year of murdering three of her estranged husband’s ⁠relatives with a meal ⁠laced with deadly mushrooms, should not have the chance of parole.

“This offending was extraordinarily cold and calculated, and stands to be ⁠denounced in the strongest terms,” Justice Stephen McLeish, speaking on behalf ⁠of the panel, told the Melbourne court.

“In all the circumstances, after anxious consideration, we have concluded that the case involved such shocking criminality that it is inappropriate ⁠to fix a non-parole period.”

Patterson, then 51, was ⁠convicted for the murder of her mother-in-law and father-in-law, Gail and Donald Patterson, and Gail’s sister, Heather Wilkinson, by serving them a lunch of beef wellington laced with death cap mushrooms.

She was also convicted of the attempted ‌murder of Ian Wilkinson, Heather’s husband, who survived the meal.

Her crimes involved an “elaborate series of deceptions” including falsely claiming a cancer diagnosis to explain the absence of her two children from the lunch, the judge noted.

The survivor testified that Patterson had told her guests she wanted their advice about what to tell the children about her diagnosis.

Patterson was sentenced to ⁠life in prison with a 33-year non-parole period, among the longest terms ever handed to a woman in Australia. She has always denied wrongdoing, saying the deaths were accidental.

Her lawyers had argued that certain evidence should have been kept from the trial, that her cross-examination ‌was unfair, and that placing the jury in the same hotel as other parties to the case compromised the result. Judges found these grounds for an appeal to be insufficient.

She can apply to Australia’s High Court to overturn the verdicts on her sentence and her convictions. The High Court is her last appeal option.

Patterson is only the second woman in Australia to be imprisoned for life without possibility of parole. The first is meatworker Katherine Knight, who was sentenced in New South Wales state in 2001 for the murder a year earlier of her partner John Price, whom she’d stabbed at least 37 times.

Former president faces renewed death penalty demand as he appeals life sentence for insurrection.

South Korean prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for former President Yoon Suk-yeol over his failed attempt to impose military rule.

The team led by special prosecutor Cho Eun-suk renewed the demand at an appeal hearing in Seoul on Thursday, arguing that Yoon’s actions threatened South Korea‘s democracy.

He was sentenced to life imprisonment in February after being convicted of leading an insurrection.

Prosecutors had previously sought the death penalty at Yoon’s original trial in January, but the court sentenced him to life imprisonment the following month.

At Thursday’s hearing at the Seoul High Court, a prosecutor said there was “no reason to hesitate” over imposing the death penalty, according to South Korea’s Yonhap news agency.

South Korea retains the death penalty but has not carried out an execution since 1997.

Prosecutors argued that this long pause should not prevent judges from sentencing Yoon to death.

Yoon declared martial law on December 3, 2024, deploying soldiers and police to the National Assembly, South Korea’s parliament.

Lawmakers overcame a security blockade to vote down the measure, forcing the government to withdraw it about six hours after it was announced.

The lower court found that Yoon had tried to stop parliament from functioning, detain political opponents and remain in control of the country for an extended period.

Yoon’s lawyers told reporters on Thursday that he had intended to warn an opposition-controlled parliament against what he considered attempts to obstruct his government, not to establish authoritarian rule.

Speaking at the Seoul High Court on October 27, Yoon also denied seeking to establish a long-term dictatorship, according to the Hankyoreh newspaper.

The crisis led parliament to impeach Yoon in December 2024. South Korea’s Constitutional Court, which decides whether to uphold impeachments, removed him from office in April 2025.

The appeals court plans two more hearings, including Yoon’s final statement on November 5.

Kylian Mbappe, Real Madrid and La Liga have apologised for the French striker’s comments about Mao Zedong, but the damage to their reputation in China will not be easily or quickly repaired, experts say.

The France captain, one of the best footballers on the planet, is at the centre of a controversy after a video emerged this week of him appearing to make fun of former leader Mao.

Mbappe talked about being amused by an internet meme of his face digitally altered onto “some guy, think he’s a Chinese dictator”.

Mao remains officially revered as the hero of the communist revolution and founder of the People’s Republic of China.

He is blamed by historians for millions of deaths, but publicly mocking him is taboo, and Mbappe’s remarks saw him become the latest foreign sports figure or entity to infuriate Beijing.

Leading Chinese brands cut ties with the 27-year-old, and Spanish top-flight matches will be pulled from state television broadcaster CCTV’s schedule.

Chinese state media and social media users lined up to lambast Mbappe, although they were left in the dark about what exactly he said.

China is the world’s second-biggest economy and most lucrative market. Within two days, as the video, purportedly filmed in April, circulated online, the striker, his club Real Madrid and La Liga apologised.

A spokesman for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the government took Mbappe’s apology “seriously”.

‘Very damaging incident’

So is that the end of the matter?

“Viewed from a calm, objective and emotion-free standpoint, this is clearly a very damaging incident,” Yan Qiang, a veteran sports commentator, told the AFP news agency.

“It causes serious damage to the image of La Liga and Real Madrid in China.

“In the age of the mobile internet, things blow up on social media quickly and emotions run high.

“An apology does not necessarily mean the end of the story.

“It’s better to have an apology than no apology at all, but it’s definitely not the end of the story.”

The furore and the fallout are not an unfamiliar tale.

Various overseas sports leagues or players have found themselves in hot water for comments on topics that are politically sensitive to China.

China effectively cut ties with the National Basketball Association (NBA) in the United States in 2019 after then-Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey tweeted his support for Hong Kong protesters.

NBA executives said Morey had the right to freedom of expression. In contrast, La Liga immediately distanced itself from what Mbappe said.

Basketball is among the most popular sports in China along with football. However, Morey’s remark saw the NBA wiped from CCTV for more than a year.

NBA preseason matches returned to China only last year.

Australian National University lecturer Debby Chan called the NBA case – and now Mbappe’s – an illustration of China’s consumer nationalism, where online sentiment and state media converge into “a spiral of outrage”.

NBA commissioner Adam Silver said the league lost “hundreds of millions of dollars” over the split.

No way back for Mbappe, Real Madrid and La Liga?

Spanish football also has a lot to lose.

A source within La Liga told AFP that China and the US alone finance the “majority” of international broadcasting rights, which were valued at 748 million euros ($834m) for the 2024-25 season.

According to the Real Madrid-affiliated newspaper Marca, the Madrid club generates 10 to 15 percent of its jersey and other merchandise sales in China.

Real Madrid also counts Chinese companies among its main sponsors, with Hisense, sports betting firm Kaiyun Sports and Linglong Tire all featuring prominently.

Adam Zhang, founder of the Beijing-based Key-Solution Sports Consulting, said showing fast and heartfelt remorse was the first step.

“This will influence the decision on whether to continue the broadcast ban and, if so, for how long,” he told AFP.

Sports commentator Yan cast doubt on whether the reputation of Mbappe, whose face has adorned drink bottles and advertising campaigns in China, can ever fully recover.

“Judging by commercial sponsorships and big ad campaigns he appeared in during the World Cup, he has a huge influence in China,” he said.

“If that influence can’t be sustained, there can be no talk of commercial interests, and La Liga and Real Madrid will definitely be badly affected.”

Yan said it was “genuinely hard to predict” what happens next.

“In the short term, I’m certainly not optimistic,” he added.

“If they want to repair their image and the relationship, their future actions and behaviour will be key.”

The opening pair put on 133-run partnership as India chased down 199 to wrap up the five-match T20I series.

An aggressive partnership between Abhishek Sharma and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi propelled India to a six-wicket win and a series victory over New Zealand in Wellington.

India sewed up the five-match Twenty20 International (T20I) series on Tuesday with two games to spare, chasing down New Zealand’s total of 198 in just 13.2 overs, with Abhishek blasting 113 and Sooryavanshi 45.

The opening pair’s 133-run partnership in just 7.1 overs obliterated the New Zealand bowling attack with one of the most destructive partnerships in T20I history.

Jacob Duffy’s first over went for 26 runs, and the openers never let up.

Abhishek hit nine fours and 11 sixes in his 38-ball knock, receiving a standing ovation when he eventually fell to the bowling of Kyle Jamieson.

By that stage, India had reached 178-2 in just 10 overs.

“The key was pretty simple: Vaibhav and I enjoyed our time,” Abhishek said of their partnership.

“When we were fielding, we saw there was some extra bounce. Vaibhav started off well, and we took the momentum from there.”

Sooryavanshi was promoted to open alongside Abhishek after batting at number three in the second T20I, hitting four fours and four sixes in his 19-ball innings.

“Getting 100 in five overs – I have not seen that before at the international level,” India captain Shreyas Iyer said.

“Credit where it is due, the way they played was exceptional.”

India won the toss for the third time in three matches and again elected to bowl.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Arshdeep Singh extracted prodigious seam from the pitch, beating the outside edge of New Zealand openers Tim Seifert and Finn Allen.

Seifert was removed top-edging Singh for two, before Daryl Mitchell joined Allen and combined for an 86-run partnership.

Mitchell was quick to assess the conditions and moved around the crease to counteract the seam movement.

He seized on any short deliveries with powerful strikes to the short square boundaries, hitting five fours and five sixes on his way to 89 from 52 balls.

Allen made 40 from 25 balls before departing, and Mitchell found another powerful partner in Bevon Jacobs, who hit an unbeaten 39 from 23 deliveries.

The fourth T20I is at Auckland’s Eden Park on Friday.

Mbappe appears to say that the funniest internet meme he had seen was of his face photo-shopped onto that of “a Chinese dictator”.

Kylian Mbappe has been dropped by two major brands in China after a video circulated online in which the French football superstar apparently joked about former Chinese leader Mao Zedong.

In China, jokes about Mao, the country’s founding leader who died in 1976, are considered disrespectful and remain a social taboo.

“Our company firmly opposes and has a zero-tolerance policy towards any behaviour that offends national sentiments,” drinks giant Dongpeng said in a statement on Tuesday, adding that “with immediate effect we are terminating all cooperation with Kylian Mbappe”.

Advertisements showing AI-generated images of the 27-year-old France captain drinking a Dongpeng sports drink were regularly shown in China during this year’s FIFA World Cup.

Mengniu, China’s largest dairy producer, also cut ties with the Real Madrid forward, who until this incident was hugely popular among Chinese fans with millions of followers on social media.

Mbappe is fondly nicknamed “Guigui”, the Chinese translation of “turtle”, due to his popularity as a character in a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles meme.

“With immediate effect our company is terminating all cooperation with Kylian Mbappe,” Mengniu said in a statement.

“Mengniu firmly opposes and has a zero-tolerance policy towards any words or actions that hurt the feelings of the Chinese people,” it added.

The announcements came after a video emerged online with Mbappe saying the funniest internet meme he had seen was of his face digitally altered onto that of “some guy – I think he’s a Chinese dictator”.

This was an apparent reference to a meme of Mbappe superimposed on an image of Mao, one of several using the footballer’s face and other historical figures.

“Dongpeng Beverage ends cooperation with Mbappe” was the top-trending topic on Chinese social media site Weibo.

One Weibo user said the “extremely serious wrong remarks … crossed the red line. They are completely unacceptable.”

Others urged Dongpeng to remove Mbappe’s image from their energy drink bottles.

Dongqiudi, one of China’s biggest online football outlets, said in a statement on Monday evening that Mbappe’s remarks were “offensive to China and the Chinese people” and “have hurt the feelings of Chinese football fans and the Chinese people”.

In September, Mbappe addressed a previous meme depicting him as a military dictator in an interview with French sports newspaper L’Equipe.

“There’s a part of it that’s funny. You can tell that, for some people, it’s all in good fun. But there is another part that’s a bit less funny because of the damage such people have caused throughout history,” he said.

“Being compared to individuals who murder others, or who have brought misery to millions upon millions of people – well, I don’t think I’ve ever done anything like that in my life,” he said.

The furore in China came a day after Mbappe lost out to Harry Kane for the Ballon d’Or, the most prestigious individual award in football.

Global sports stars who have commented on sensitive topics such as Taiwan, Tibet and Hong Kong have previously caused controversy in China and been dumped by sponsors there.

Former NBA player Dwight Howard referred to Taiwan as a country in 2023 as he appeared in a video with the island’s vice president and current President William Lai Ching-te, causing fury on Chinese social media.

Beijing claims Taiwan is its territory and has threatened to use force to take control.

Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey posted a tweet in 2019 supporting Hong Kong protests, leading to China suspending sponsorship deals with the NBA and pulling games off Chinese television for a year.

Prince Ali bin Hussein said nobody was allowed to speak, question, debate or talk with the media at the AFC Congress.

The head of Jordan’s Football Association (JFA), Prince Ali bin Hussein, has accused FIFA President Gianni Infantino of hijacking the Asian Football Confederation Congress for political purposes ahead of his re-election bid for a fourth term.

At the AFC’s extraordinary congress in Tokyo on Friday, its president Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al-Khalifa endorsed Infantino’s bid for re-election as FIFA president.

Months after the confederation accused Infantino of a “fundamental breach of trust” over the abandoned FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) proposal, Sheikh Salman told the congress that Asia was now united behind Infantino.

But JFA’s Prince Ali, who has been a vocal critic of FIFA’s leadership, painted a starkly different picture of events in Tokyo.

“Having come back from Tokyo where the AFC Congress took place, the first two days were about football, which we all serve. The last day was pure politics at the behest of Gianni Infantino,” Prince Ali wrote on X.

“There were reports that Asia has a united position when it comes to electing the next FIFA President. In fact, nobody was allowed to speak, question, debate or talk with the media.

“Lack of transparency leads to lack of accountability. No amount of coercion, threats or bribes should be allowed.”

Prince Ali did not elaborate on his statement.

Al Jazeera reached out to FIFA and the AFC for a comment but had not received a response at the time of publication.

Infantino also addressed the AFC Congress, giving Sheikh Salman his backing for another term.

In August, Prince Ali launched a public attack on Infantino, accusing him of “blackmail” and saying FIFA had offered to help solve the kingdom’s problems in exchange for his endorsement.

Two days later, Prince Ali confirmed Jordan’s players and staff had received outstanding reward money for their participation in the 2025 Arab Cup.

The association had been waiting since December for prize money for reaching the Arab Cup final in Qatar.

On Saturday, Infantino laughed off questions about whether he had considered resigning in the wake of the failed FFE proposal, pointing to what he described as overwhelming support from member associations around the globe.

The Swiss-Italian administrator’s re-election prospects were strengthened significantly after the AFC endorsement, leaving Europe increasingly isolated and exposing the lack of a challenger.

The victory helped the Kazakh take a big step towards securing the year-end number one ranking.

Elena Rybakina blazed past unseeded Canadian Leylah Fernandez 6-2 6-2 in the Ningbo Open final to retain her title and lift her first trophy as the world number one ahead of the WTA Finals next month.

The victory on Sunday also helped the Kazakh take a big step towards securing the year-end number one ranking, further burnishing a spectacular season in which she won the Australian Open title before adding the US Open crown to reach the summit.

Top seed Rybakina made the breakthrough with her trademark power in the fifth game and then unleashed a searing crosscourt backhand winner to go 4-2 up, before the 27-year-old wrapped up the opening set in only 38 minutes.

World number 30 Fernandez made a bright start to the next set but Rybakina absorbed the pressure and raised her level to force an error and break for 2-1, with the three-time Grand Slam champion breezing to victory from there.

Rybakina’s latest triumph is a timely lift after setbacks in Beijing and Wuhan, as she turns her attention to the Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo this week before launching her title defence at the season finale in Indian Wells from November 8.

Race delayed by two hours before being cancelled due to low visibility despite a sellout crowd at Phillip Island.

The final Australian MotoGP at the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit has been called off due to heavy rain, ruining the farewell for one of the championship’s most beloved circuits.

It was a crushing blow for the sold-out crowd at Phillip Island on Sunday before the Australian Grand Prix moves to the streets of Adelaide next year.

The Moto2 and Moto3 races were cancelled first, and the MotoGP race was delayed by two hours due to the weather before organisers threw in the towel and finally called it off at 3:40pm (04:40 GMT).

“Due to limited visibility affecting the operation of the medical helicopter the MotoGP Grand Prix race has been cancelled,” MotoGP said in a statement.

“The MotoGP riders will do a lap behind the safety car and stop on the main straight to greet the fans.”

Riders say farewell to fans in final parade

The dark clouds and pelting rain brought down the visibility around the circuit, affecting the medical helicopter, which would take 45 minutes to reach the circuit from mainland Melbourne in an emergency.

Other than two years lost to the COVID-19 pandemic, the seaside track south of Melbourne had been a fixture on the world championship calendar for 30 years and produced some of Australian motorcycling’s most memorable moments.

Australian two-time world champion Casey Stoner celebrated six wins there in succession from 2007 to 2012 while compatriot Mick Doohan sealed his fifth and final world title with victory in the 1998 race.

The raincoat-clad fans who persevered through the precipitation were treated to a farewell lap from the MotoGP riders, who waved as they slowly made their way around a soaking wet track.

Home racer Jack Miller did his best to entertain his supporters with a series of tricks, including a stand-up wheelie over the finish line, before heading over to the grandstand and throwing his gloves and boots into the crowd.

Miller dejected, sigh of relief for Martin

The Pramac Racing rider, a strong performer in the wet, cut a dejected figure when he was interviewed after completing his lap.

“This is a tough pill to swallow,” said the 31-year-old, who will be leaving MotoGP at the end of the season after more than a decade to join Pata Maxus Yamaha in the World Superbike Championship.

“You know, I was praying for rain all weekend. We got the rain, but obviously, we weren’t organised enough to get the racing going, so it’s a tough one.

“You guys deserve better. Honestly, all of you have done a fantastic job turning out for Phillip Island.”

Rain had been expected for the weekend, but MotoGP did not revive its 2023 strategy for the circuit when the Grand Prix was moved ahead to Saturday and the sprint scheduled for Sunday.

That sprint race three years ago was eventually called off.

The cancellation of the race also ended the opportunity for seven-time MotoGP champion Marc Marquez to extend his lead in the championship standings, particularly after his title rival Jorge Martin was declared unfit to compete in the race after fracturing his wrist.

Martin held the championship lead heading into the weekend but finds himself 10 points behind Marquez after failing to finish Saturday’s sprint following a gruesome crash.

On Sunday, Martin’s Aprilia team said he would not travel back to Spain to undergo treatment, however, boosting the 2024 champion’s hopes of racing at next week’s Malaysian Grand Prix and remaining in the title fight.