Each year, Taiwan’s Golden Melody Festival conferences, which take place before the Golden Melody Awards, bring together local and international music industry experts across a series of keynotes and panels covering topics ranging from the global market and music production to extended economic value and industry trends.

The festival’s first market presentation, titled “The Rise of Asia’s Live Music Economy,” featured Justin Sweeting, co-founder and head of music at Hong Kong’s outdoor music and arts festival Clockenflap, and Mia Min Yen, founder of Woozi Studio, LLC, an agency that bridges the gap between East and West, who shared their perspectives on the evolving landscape of Asia’s live music market.

At the presentation, Sweeting made the structural case for Asia as a key touring destination. Rising costs in Europe and North America are pushing artists and promoters to look eastward, while the region’s geographic proximity and well-connected transportation networks make multi-country routing far more practical than it once was. Collaborative projects like Sunset Rollercoaster’s AAA Tour, he noted, have shown how teams across Asia can pool resources, align on market strategies, and collectively expand what is possible for touring across the region. He also stressed that government support, solid infrastructure, and cultural awareness – knowing when not to schedule, whether around Lunar New Year or Ramadan, and when to lean in during peak festival seasons – are just as critical to long-term success.

“The pandemic reset many people’s relationships with live music. I’d argue there’s a depth of appreciation now which was amplified after being taken away for so long,” Sweeting tells Variety.

Sweeting painted a picture of a region whose time has come. “Broadly speaking, Asia is very much a growth story and I’d say this is the result of several factors coming together. On the audience side, the region has a massive, youthful middle class across Southeast Asia, China, South Korea and India with rising disposable income and a genuine hunger for live experiences,” he says.

Yen agrees the ground has shifted. “Fans’ listening habits and ways of discovering music have evolved, driving a dramatic shift in festival curation over the last ten years. Today’s audiences prioritize community, shared identity and experience, over traditional, commercial, or genre-based lineups,” she tells Variety.

That emotional investment has translated into higher spending and higher expectations. “No longer is a fan just buying a ticket, but investing in a memory. From the queue experience to merch offerings, everything needs to be considered and to feel special,” Sweeting adds.

On the question of sustainable growth, Yen is direct. “I think there needs to be room for local promoters to thrive. The live music industry cannot be a monopolistic market. Furthermore, a clearer division of labor is essential, and the role of Asia-focused booking agents/agencies will undoubtedly become more prominent,” she says.

Sweeting is equally candid. “Asia is not homogeneous, and it is its diversity that presents both challenges as well as what makes the region so exciting. Distinct cultures, languages, geopolitical factors, currencies, tax and visa regulations and more, mean that there are complexities throughout,” he says.

Looking five years ahead, Yen says: “The Southeast Asian market is set to bloom, language barriers will continue to diminish, emerging sounds from this region will become increasingly prominent, [and] more Western artists will be drawn towards this market.”

Families watched in horror as a skydiving plane crashed in France moments after takeoff Sunday, killing all 11 people aboard, according to French officials.

The single-engine Pilatus PC-6 crashed shortly after taking off from the Nancy-Essey Airfield near the city of Nancy in northeastern France. Officials said the victims included five skydiving instructors, five first-time jumpers and the pilot.

French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said some victims’ relatives watched the aircraft fall from the sky.

“Some of the victims’ families witnessed the aircraft falling with their own eyes,” Nuñez said. “So there is tremendous emotion and an even greater psychological trauma.”

MISSOURI SKYDIVING PLANE CRASH THAT KILLED ALL 12 ABOARD IS A ‘DEVASTATING LOSS,’ COMPANY SAYS

Meurthe-et-Moselle Prefect Yves Séguy said the aircraft suffered an apparent malfunction and “fell almost vertically,” narrowly missing a populated area after crashing roughly 300 yards from the runway.

Flight-tracking data from Flightradar24 showed the aircraft banked left after takeoff before disappearing from radar less than a minute into the flight.

France’s Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety (BEA), the country’s aviation accident investigation agency, said on X that it had opened a safety investigation into the crash involving the Pilatus PC-6. The agency said four investigators and one first-response investigator were dispatched to the scene.

MISSOURI SKYDIVING PLANE CRASH THAT KILLED ALL 12 ABOARD IS A ‘DEVASTATING LOSS,’ COMPANY SAYS

Authorities have not determined what caused the crash, and officials cautioned that it is too early to speculate while investigators examine the wreckage.

Nancy Mayor Mathieu Klein called the crash “an immense shock that has plunged the Greater Nancy area into mourning” in a Facebook post, offering condolences to the victims’ families and those who witnessed the tragedy.

Klein said he visited the crash site alongside regional officials and praised the “remarkable professionalism and commitment” of rescue, medical and security personnel. He also announced that Greater Nancy would open a gathering space at Marcel Picot Stadium where residents could pay their respects and show solidarity with the victims’ families.

MISSOURI SKYDIVING PLANE CRASH THAT KILLED ALL 12 ABOARD IS A ‘DEVASTATING LOSS,’ COMPANY SAYS

The Meurthe-et-Moselle prefecture said it activated a public information center Sunday afternoon to assist victims’ families and said the hotline would reopen Monday morning as recovery efforts and the investigation continue.

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Transport Minister Philippe Tabarot described the crash as the country’s deadliest skydiving aviation accident in roughly three decades.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Kyiv, Ukraine – It was, perhaps, Ukraine’s quietest victory over Russia’s oldest and closest ally.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged neighbouring Belarus to shut down four Moscow-installed relay stations that help guide Russian drone attacks on Ukraine.

The border between Ukraine and Belarus stretches for 1,084km (674 miles), mostly across swamps and Europe’s largest and densest forests.

The stations – originally cellular communication towers – relay signals for Russian drone operators and allow their unmanned aircraft to exchange information with each other and fly deep into western Ukraine, which has few drone interceptors and NATO-supplied air defence systems.

The relayers did “make the signal stronger” and the Russian attacks “more precise”, Andriy Pronin, one of the pioneers of drone warfare in Ukraine, told Al Jazeera.

Zelenskyy said on June 19 that Belarusian President Aleksander Lukashenko allowed Russia to run “equipment that corrects fire on Ukrainian civilians, specifically civilians”.

And then he issued an ultimatum that reflects Kyiv’s newfound assertiveness.

“I think one week will be enough” for Lukashenko to remove the relayers, Zelenskyy said. “If he doesn’t do that, we will.”

‘A barking dog doesn’t bite’

With its heavy bomber drones and missiles, Kyiv is capable of striking Belarus, a country about a third of the size of Ukraine whose air defence systems are too obsolete to effectively repel drone attacks.

The commander of Ukraine’s drone forces was far less diplomatic than Zelenskyy.

“A barking dog doesn’t bite,” Robert Browdy wrote on Facebook, referring to Lukashenko. “The first 500 targets [in Belarus] have been marked. A free and very practical advice – get out of Ukraine’s sight.”

Lukashenko, an ex-collective farm manager who became one of the world’s longest-ruling leaders and has helmed his nation of 10 million people since 1994, hinted that he may retaliate by targeting the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant.

The site of the world’s largest nuclear disaster sits in a forested, cordoned-off exclusion zone next to the Belarusian border – and less than 100km (62 miles) north of Kyiv.

“We have one goal, a serious one, with exact coordinates and not far from Belarus at all,” Lukashenko said in televised remarks.

But by Thursday, he quietly had shut down the relayers, Zelenskyy said.

“Whether they were dismantled or not, I honestly don’t know,” the Ukrainian president said during a news conference. “But we’re working on it. The fact is that the relayers don’t work for now.”

The last Russian drone crossed the Belarusian-Ukrainian border on Sunday, Flagstock, an independent Belarusian publication, reported, quoting residents of border regions.

Lukashenko explained the shutdown as a peacemaking step – and tried to assure the Kremlin that he is always on its side.

“I told [Ukrainian negotiators] directly, ‘Boys, you go tell your president that if he thinks he can talk to us this way and force us into the war, then he has to understand that the quality of the war will change momentarily. It will be an absolutely different war,” Lukashenko was quoted by his country’s state-run news agency, Belta, as saying.

“Our position is about peace. But in any situation, we will be next to Russia,” he said.

According to a Belarus-born, Kyiv-based analyst, Zelenskyy’s ultimatum worked.

“Ukraine deliberately ups its ante in its dialogue with Belarus,” Ihar Tyshkevich told Al Jazeera.

Apart from removing the immediate threat from drone attacks, it may herald a separate track in Ukraine’s negotiations with Belarus.

The talks may help Lukashenko “exit” Belarus’s diplomatic and economic isolation by the West and “balance Russia’s influence”, Tyshkevich said.

Lukashenko is one of the members of United States President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace, which may play a role in rebuilding post-war Ukraine.

But Kyiv would have its own list of demands before allowing Belarusian companies to take part in the restoration and letting Belarusian goods such as petrol, foodstuffs and construction materials back in.

“For Ukraine, it’s a matter of Lukashenko’s responsibility for the war and the defence of Ukraine’s interests,” Tyshkevich said.

The shutdown is Lukashenko’s “attempt to find an indirect compromise” with Kyiv, according to Volodymyr Fesenko, head of the Kyiv-based Penta think tank.

“This is a concession to Zelenskyy’s ultimatum but not a public one, not an official one,” he told Al Jazeera.

Moscow could be disappointed by Lukashenko caving in, but it has so far not commented on it.

Russia “undoubtedly saw it as a manifestation of Lukashenko’s weakness”, Fesenko said.

However, Russia “is not ready to help him, including because it lacks military resources”, he said.

On Tuesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called Zelenskyy’s ultimatum “absolutely aggressive” and added that Russian President Vladimir Putin would “soon” discuss it with Lukashenko.

A day later, Lukashenko travelled to Moscow to meet with Putin. The Kremlin did not hold a news conference and did not release any information about their meeting.

Moscow has been urging Belarus to take part in the war since its beginning, but Lukashenko repeatedly refused while managing to demand more political and economic concessions from Russia.

In late May, he and Putin presided over joint military drills that “rehearsed” the use of Russia’s nuclear weapons.

As part of the drills, Moscow supplied Minsk with modified Su-25 fighter jets, Iskander-M ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons that are reportedly stored less than 200km (124 miles) north of the Ukrainian border.

A Belarusian shift as Russia’s front-line woes grow

Lukashenko’s change of tone heralds Kyiv’s success in slowing down Moscow’s offensive and destroying oil terminals, refineries, fuel depots and supply routes in Russia and Russia-occupied Ukrainian regions.

“What’s significant is that now Ukraine acts from the position of power and Lukashenko has to reckon with it,” Fesenko said.

Ukrainian drones, for instance, could within hours kill his golden goose – the Mozyr and Novopolotsk oil refineries.

Built in the Soviet Union’s waning days, they process discounted Russian crude – and Lukashenko sells the production in Eastern Europe and Russia.

The fuel supplies have become vital for Moscow in recent weeks as every Russian region experiences petrol shortages after Ukrainian drone attacks.

Eastern European nations have long been tired of Lukashenko’s political escapades.

In 2021, he allowed thousands of refugees and migrants, mostly from the Middle East and North Africa, to arrive in Belarus and cross into Poland and Lithuania in a move that was widely seen as a response to Western sanctions.

The European Union’s executive arm, the European Commission, said on June 22 that Zelenskyy’s ultimatum affirms “Ukraine’s right to self-defence.”