Schools in Thailand conducted active shooter drills on ⁠Wednesday, as authorities ⁠moved to strengthen security measures ⁠two weeks after a 14-year-old opened fire at a school and killed at least eight people. At the Surasamontree School in Bangkok, students took part in a “run, hide, fight” exercise, with ‌a police officer dressed in black and acting as a mock attacker, armed with a handgun and an assault rifle firing blanks. Students ran from the gunman and hid under tables and behind locked...

Some Chinese women are investing thousands of yuan (equivalent to several hundred US dollars) to learn how to heal from the scars inflicted by narcissistic partners, recognise their behaviours, and even counter them. On Chinese social media, multiple coaches offer guidance to those struggling with “people with NPD” (narcissistic personality disorder) in their intimate relationships. NPD has become a trending topic on Chinese social media. The hashtag #NPD boasts 630 million views and 4.7 million...

With Chinese President Xi Jinping’s planned visit to the United States just weeks away, Washington and Beijing are still struggling to arrange a hoped-for dialogue on artificial intelligence, with the venue, participants and scope of the talks yet to be settled. Two sources familiar with the discussions said Washington had yet to decide which part of the US government should take the lead. The two sides had also not agreed on whether technical experts and private-sector representatives should be...

Read more: https://sc.mp/841640 Bangladesh has launched a women-only “Pink Bus” service in Dhaka staffed entirely by female drivers and conductors. Created to provide a safe, dedicated transit option for women, the programme is operating 14 buses. Ten started running in the capital Dhaka on Tuesday and on Wednesday the cities of Chittagong and Bogra each received two new lines.

Public registration for Hong Kong’s flagship annual cycling event will open on Thursday, with more than 6,500 places available across two non-competitive rides scheduled for October 11. This year’s Hong Kong Cyclothon, hosted by the Hong Kong Tourism Board, will feature a new extended 56km (34.8 miles) non-competitive ride on a “Five Tunnels, Three Bridges” route. The new route will take participants along the newly opened Central Kowloon Bypass for the first time, spanning six districts: Yau...

China-based LandSpace successfully launched a Zhuque-3 rocket and recovered its first stage, a breakthrough in the nation’s efforts to develop reusable boosters that can slash the cost of space launches. The first stage of the 66-metre (217-foot) rocket touched down in Minqin County, Gansu province, northwest China, on Wednesday after an eight-minute flight that delivered a Honghu-3 internet satellite into space. Take-off occurred 390 km (242 miles) away at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in...

Thailand is ready to shift its approach to a slow-burn insurgency in its Muslim-majority deep south and revitalise a peace process, Bangkok’s chief negotiator has said, as violence simmers in one of Southeast Asia’s longest-running conflicts. Any such move could mark a return to addressing the political roots of a conflict that has killed more than 7,800 people since 2004, when the latest round of the insurgency led mainly by the Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN) flared in Thailand’s southernmost...