Live headlines from trusted global sources. Click any story to open it on the original website.
Hong Kong authorities are gauging public feedback on a possible shift in the supply ratio of public rental flats to subsidised sale homes to an even 50:50 split, the housing minister has said. Secretary for Housing Winnie Ho Wing-yin told a planning forum on Saturday that the total supply of public housing would reach 196,000 flats over the next five years. Under measures outlined in Chief Executi...
A recent US executive order requires major arms manufacturers to trace their multi-tier supply chains and actively phase out Chinese rare earths, aiming to end years of reliance on cheap minerals from China. Far from a radical policy shift, industry observers view the directive as a long-overdue enforcement crackdown designed to inflict short-term contractor pain for long-term national security ga...
A man has been killed and three people seriously injured after a severe storm struck the Saxon Switzerland region in the eastern German state of Saxony, police said on Friday. There were no reports of missing people, said a spokesman for the Dresden Emergency Services Control Centre. According to the control centre, a 38-year-old man lost his life near the Felsenbühne open-air theatre in Rathen wh...
The Hong Kong garrison of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) celebrated the 99th anniversary of the military’s founding on Saturday with a reception at the barracks on Stonecutters Island, with a top officer pledging to expand its role in promoting patriotic and defence education across the city. Speaking at the reception at the Ngong Shuen Chau Barracks, garrison political commissar Rear Admiral ...
Sweden has introduced tougher penalties for gang-related offences, allowing courts to impose prison sentences up to twice as long as before, as the country cracks down on organised crime. Under the new law, which took effect on Saturday, gang members convicted of certain offences can face sentences up to double the previous maximum. For example, a gang member caught carrying a firearm previously f...
Chinese President Xi Jinping has honoured a veteran naval test pilot with a first-class merit award for defence science and technology. The pilot, Yang Yong, who had previously been awarded seven second- and third-class merit awards, has been testing planes launched from the country’s most advanced aircraft carrier, the Fujian. Yang featured in a documentary that aired this week on state broadcast...
Hong Kong police have arrested 57 people, including a 14-year-old boy, in a crackdown on triad-linked illegal debt collection. Police said on Saturday that the operation, launched last month, had dismantled an illegal debt collection syndicate, along with a prostitution venue, a drug den and three illegal gambling parlours. Fifty-seven people, aged 14 to 70, were arrested and some of them had tria...
Japan’s Kumamoto prefectural government said on Saturday it has ended rescue operations at an Aeon shopping centre where seven workers died in an explosion shortly after a magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck the southwestern Japan prefecture four days earlier. Officials said there should be no more people unaccounted for after local police and firefighters, joined by the Self-Defence Forces and others...
The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) carried out a missile test in the Pacific last month. The July 6 launch – in which a dummy warhead travelled 8,000km (5,000 miles) – was China’s first confirmed submarine-based missile test since 1982, and the first known firing from a nuclear-powered submarine. The type of missile used has not been officially confirmed, but a report in the Global Times – a newsp...
As China’s era of catch-up growth fades, experts warn that profound issues in research culture and institutional incentives may hamstring the country’s ambition to become a leader in scientific innovation. In a dialogue held at the Shanghai Academy of Natural Sciences (SANS) last month, leading scholars discussed the hurdles China faces with Kevin Kelly, the founding executive editor of Wired maga...
Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu and his ministers will hold the first district consultation session to gather views on his coming policy address and the city’s inaugural five-year plan in Tuen Mun on Sunday. Only government-chosen residents and district representatives were invited to the exchange at the venue, sources said on Saturday. Lee would also only address media inquiries after ...
Hangzhou Library, located in eastern China’s Zhejiang province, is affectionately dubbed “the warmest library” because it opens its doors to beggars and scavengers, even featuring a statue of one such individual. Notably, it was the first library in the country to welcome readers without requiring a library card, providing free access to all. When this inclusive policy was initiated in 2008, a rea...
The number of registered electors in Hong Kong’s geographical constituencies has dropped for a fifth consecutive year to 4.12 million, with the largest decline recorded in those aged 21 to 25. But the city also added nearly 64,900 people to the voter rolls this year, the highest annual increase since 2021, according to provisional figures released by the Registration and Electoral Office on Saturd...
The total number of registered electors in Hong Kong’s geographical constituencies has dropped for a fifth consecutive year to 4.12 million, while the tally of newly registered voters climbed to its highest level since 2021. According to figures released by the Registration and Electoral Office on Saturday, the 4.12 million eligible voters for geographical constituencies in the 2026 provisional re...
Several major stress tests involving more than 10,000 people – including Hong Kong civil servants – will be carried out at the newly revamped Huanggang Port border crossing, as part of more than 100 exercises to be conducted in the coming months to ensure smooth and safe operations, the city’s security chief has revealed. But Secretary for Security Chris Tang Ping-keung on Saturday stopped short o...
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said on Saturday it had received reports of two maritime incidents off Oman, including one in which a tanker was struck by an unknown projectile. In the first incident, a tanker was hit about 11 nautical miles northeast of Oman’s Lima. The vessel reported it was “struck by an unknown projectile which has caused damage to the engine room” and ...
After a successful trial at a substation, China plans to expand the application of quantum technologies – including precision sensors and computer simulations – across its power grid to help prevent blackouts. During the 18-month trial in Hefei in Anhui province, quantum technology was used to rapidly detect and diagnose equipment defects and faults in the power system, according to a report publi...
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he wanted to “forgive” protesters who abused him during recent youth-led demonstrations that dealt a rare political setback to his government. The remarks came after the online Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) mobilised large protests in New Delhi and other cities over examination paper leaks, posing the biggest challenge to Modi’s government in recent years. So...
The Chinese military held joint naval and air drills near Scarborough Shoal, a disputed reef in the South China Sea, on Saturday. The training exercise came after Beijing hit out at the Philippines for an “illegal” attempt to extend its seabed rights off the coast of Palawan and map out its claims to the reef. “This is a necessary action taken in light of the current situation in the South China S...
The Chinese military held joint naval and air drills near Scarborough Shoal, a disputed reef in the South China Sea, on Saturday. The training exercise came after Beijing hit out at the Philippines for an “illegal” attempt to extend its seabed rights off the coast of Palawan and map out its claims to the reef. “This is a necessary action taken in light of the current situation in the South China S...
When a powerful earthquake jolted southern Japan this week, rattling homes and knocking out water and electricity, Tomoko Takaoka bundled up her beloved fluffy dogs and went in search of a safe place to stay. Unable to reach her parents, the 31-year-old factory worker turned to a nearby evacuation centre only to discover that Ku the chihuahua and Sheri the chihuahua-poodle mix were not welcome....
High in the eastern Himalayas, where yak caravans once carried silk and salt between empires, a border crossing closed by suspicion six years ago is stirring back to life. The Nathu La Pass, a remote border trading post connecting India’s Sikkim state with China’s Tibet region at 4,310 metres (14,140 feet) above sea level, reopened to commerce on Saturday for the first time since 2020. For the rou...
Changing the smoking culture on the city’s construction sites will “take time”, Hong Kong’s labour commissioner has said as authorities completed 1,200 site inspections and issued 36 fixed-penalty notices in the first two weeks of a smoking ban at such locations. Commissioner for Labour Sam Hui Chark-shum said on Saturday that Labour Department officials also issued nine improvement notices to con...
A political row is threatening to undermine Taiwan’s efforts to increase its stockpiles of military drones and has raised questions about the future of its domestic manufacturers. On Monday, lawmakers failed to agree on competing versions of a bill to buy and develop military drones after six hours of debate. While the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the opposition broadly agree on t...
France and Italy bolstered border controls on Saturday after about 60,000 people crossed into Spain’s enclave in North Africa, sparking one of the largest migrant crises for the European Union in recent years. The migrants entered Ceuta from Morocco, the enclave’s regional president Juan Jesus Vivas told reporters, but by Friday evening, officials said more than 48,000 had returned. To cross into ...
British trip-hop band Massive Attack has been barred from performing in Singapore after an investigation found two members unfurled a Palestinian flag during a concert, police said. Two band members who held the flag on stage during a concert on Wednesday were also banned from re-entering Singapore and issued with warnings, police said in a statement late on Friday, without naming the pair. Singap...
Russian attacks on Kyiv and its suburbs killed 10 people early Saturday, officials said, as Ukrainian drones sank a huge Russian container ship in the Black Sea. The exchange in attacks come after the United Nations found June was the deadliest month for civilians in Ukraine since April 2022. Russia has stepped up long-range strikes on the capital in recent months, while Ukraine is chronically ...
Russian strikes on Ukraine’s capital killed at least nine people and wounded more than a dozen others, local officials said on Saturday, after Kyiv’s mayor warned of a ballistic missile attack. It comes after the United Nations found June was the deadliest month for civilians in Ukraine since April 2022. Russia has stepped up long-range strikes on the capital in recent months, while Ukraine is ...
Russian strikes on Ukraine’s capital killed at least four people and wounded more than a dozen others, local officials said on Saturday, after Kyiv’s mayor warned of a ballistic missile attack. It comes after the United Nations found June was the deadliest month for civilians in Ukraine since April 2022. Russia has stepped up long-range strikes on the capital in recent months, while Ukraine is ...
Lawmakers from Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) have launched a group aimed at promoting the rapidly growing trading card industry, seeing its potential as a globally competitive content sector. The group, consisting of some 20 lawmakers, is seeking to improve the trading card environment by setting up rules to address issues such as counterfeit cards and bulk purchases for resale. It...
