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President Donald Trump said on Monday that the US already has guardrails in place to regulate and prosecute AI companies, appearing to play down concerns expressed by industry leaders over the weekend about misuse of artificial intelligence. “The only control or ‘guardrails’ that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT, and the U.S.A. has that, in spades!” Trump wrote on Truth Soci...
The family photograph did the political work the summit’s final declaration could not. Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian leader Vladimir Putin, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi stood shoulder to shoulder as the Brics summit closed in New Delhi on Sunday – a single frame capturing an 11-nation bloc that now spans four continents and nearly half the wor...
Singapore’s Defence Minister Chan Chun Sing is set to visit China from Tuesday to Thursday at the invitation of his Chinese counterpart Dong Jun and will speak at the Beijing Xiangshan Forum for the second consecutive year. His visit comes as defence analysts tell This Week in Asia that ties with Beijing are important for the city state’s balancing strategy with Washington. Singapore and the Unite...
A Hong Kong court has remanded a district councillor in custody pending sentence after convicting him of unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl 15 years ago, rejecting his claim that the allegation was politically motivated. Yuen Long District Council member Sei Chun-hing, 39, is set to become the first elected officer to face imprisonment for a criminal offence since a Beijing-led electoral overhau...
The China-United States Exchange Foundation has launched a permanent tribute webpage to Tung Chee-hwa, Hong Kong’s first chief executive, and collected more than 100 reflections from political and business heavyweights around the world. The foundation, established by Tung in 2008, said the webpage, which launched on Monday, included tributes from Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus and Max Baucus, forme...
Researchers from China’s leading universities and tech giants are setting their sights on a crucial new front in the AI race with the US: developing systems capable of building better versions of themselves without human intervention. In a joint paper published on Thursday, researchers from ByteDance, Tsinghua University and the Shanghai Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, among others, outlined a...
A man has been arrested for allegedly defrauding an education consultant of nearly HK$3 million (US$382,500) by claiming he could secure dozens of places at a Hong Kong school, the South China Morning Post has learned. A police source said on Monday that the suspect, a 51-year-old Hongkonger, who claimed to be a businessman, signed a contract with a woman education consultant, 45, on March 1, 2024...
Two minibus taxis collided head-on, and an SUV crashed into them on one of South Africa’s main highways, killing at least 21 people and leaving four others seriously injured, authorities said on Monday. The crash on Sunday night in the Western Cape Province took place between the small towns of Prince Albert and Leeu-Gamka, around 380km (235 miles) east of Cape Town, according to the Road Traffic ...
President Donald Trump’s claim that the new White House ballroom will top China’s Great Hall of the People has thrust the Beijing landmark back into the spotlight just as Chinese President Xi Jinping prepares for his US visit later this month. Speaking at a Republican midterm convention in Dallas last week, Trump described the Great Hall of the People – China’s most prestigious venue for legislati...
Energy ministers and executives met in Bangkok on Monday to discuss the prolonged price increase for liquefied natural gas (LNG) triggered by the Iran war, with Southeast Asia’s growth ambitions and climate goals on the line as the cost of powering economies shifting to artificial intelligence soars. On the first day of Gastech 2026, one of the world’s largest energy conferences, policymakers impl...
Uzbekistan’s recent confirmation that China’s J-10CE fighters have entered into service in its air force ended months of speculation. It is the latest of three developments that include Pakistan’s use of J-10CEs in combat last year and Bangladesh’s draft procurement paper for the Chinese aircraft. Read separately, each looks like a win for the J-10CE. Taken together, however, they show something n...
Police in Guangzhou said on Monday they had apprehended a man in the southern Chinese city’s university town district after receiving reports that he was wielding a knife and injuring pedestrians. Emergency services started receiving calls around 5.20pm local time about multiple stabbings in front of a hotpot restaurant in the Xiaoguwei Island area of Panyu district, according to an alert sent out...
Guangzhou police apprehended a man in the southern Chinese city’s university town district after receiving reports that he was wielding a knife and injuring pedestrians, according to a police statement. According to an alert by the Panyu district branch of the Guangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau, at about 5.20pm local time, emergency services received calls about multiple stabbings in front...
Guangzhou police apprehended a man in the city’s university town district after receiving reports that he was wielding a knife and injuring pedestrians, according to a police statement. According to an alert by the Panyu district branch of the Guangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau, at about 5.20pm local time, emergency services received calls about multiple stabbings in front of a hotpot rest...
Guangzhou police apprehended a man in the city’s university town district after receiving reports that he was wielding a knife and injuring pedestrians, according to a police statement. According to an alert by the Panyu district branch of the Guangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau, at about 5.20pm local time, emergency services received calls about multiple stabbings in front of a hotpot rest...
Hong Kong should overhaul its ecotourism planning and allow visitors to book ahead at more of its popular countryside attractions, a lawmaker has said, after a survey found most residents believed the city had strong potential for nature-focused experiences but lacked enough quality options. A poll of 651 residents commissioned by lawmaker Perry Yiu Pak-leung’s office and think tank New Youth Foru...
Hong Kong authorities are expected to provide more incentives to encourage under-enrolled public schools to merge to survive, while announcing housing measures and tax reductions to tackle the falling birth rate in this week’s policy address, the South China Morning Post has learned. A government source told the South China Morning Post that the policy address by Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu o...
Taiwan’s military has taken delivery of 291 one-way attack drones from US maker Anduril Industries, only to find they came without chargers and require American assistance to recharge them. The revelation involving the Altius-600M loitering munitions has prompted Taiwan’s opposition lawmakers to question the military’s procurement and logistical planning, days before the drones join other weapons ...
Iran’s nuclear chief was blocked from attending an annual conference on Monday at the headquarters of the UN’s nuclear agency in Vienna after US pressure, both Washington and Tehran said. US Energy Secretary Chris Wright confirmed to reporters that Washington had applied pressure to stop Mohammad Eslami from entering Austria, saying “he’s a sanctioned individual and we don’t want sanctioned indivi...
Shanghai’s bustling riverfront has become the latest testing ground for urban logistics technology, with McDonald’s and Chinese food-delivery giant Meituan joining forces to launch the country’s first catering brand-exclusive drone-delivery route. Commencing operations last week, the new service allows visitors strolling or exercising along the scenic West Bund area in Shanghai’s Xuhui district to...
A group of 14 government employees can only recover their shares of a HK$30 million (US$3.8 million) Mark Six windfall through civil legal proceedings after a colleague allegedly refused to split the prize and disappeared, a lawyer has said. Vitus Lawyers principal partner Vitus Leung Wing-hang told the South China Morning Post on Monday that retrieving the money would not be easy for the victims,...
A group of 14 government employees can only recover their shares of a HK$30 million (US$3.8 million) Mark Six windfall through civil legal proceedings after a colleague allegedly refused to split the prize and disappeared, a lawyer has said. Vitus Lawyers principal partner Vitus Leung Wing-hang told the South China Morning Post on Monday that retrieving the money would not be easy for the victims,...
Malaysia’s Negeri Sembilan royal crisis escalated on Monday after the state’s customary council said six men behind the latest attempt to remove ruler Tuanku Muhriz Munawir could be regarded as having committed grave disloyalty to the monarch. The ruling deepens a months-long struggle over Malaysia’s only elective monarchy, where a rival group of traditional chiefs has sought to depose Muhriz and ...
A second federal judge late on Sunday moved to block President Donald Trump’s administration from implementing a new US Postal Service rule that would tighten mail-in voting requirements, though the US Supreme Court is still weighing the administration’s request to overturn a separate order blocking the rule. Washington-based US District Judge Carl Nichols’ decision comes as Trump’s Republicans...
Japan is looking to develop submarine-detecting quantum sensors for aerial drones, the latest move in a growing undersea competition pitting China against the United States and its allies across the Indo-Pacific. Released in late August, Tokyo’s defence budget request for fiscal 2027 includes research into a smaller, more capable quantum magnetic sensor, a technology that uses the properties of at...
Finland has decided to join France’s forward nuclear deterrence initiative, extending the measure to a country sharing a long border with Russia, the two countries said in a joint statement on Monday. France is extending its nuclear deterrent to European allies as the continent reassesses its security in the wake of US President Donald Trump’s shake-up of Nato. “Finland has decided to join forward...
A Hunan restaurant brand from China has become a sensation in the US, yet faces scrutiny at home regarding its once-esteemed title of “Stir-Fried Pork King.” Founded in 2003, Chef Fei has evolved into one of China’s most recognisable Hunan restaurant chains, celebrated for its fiery flavours and signature stir-fried pork dish. The brand now operates over 200 outlets nationwide and reports having s...
Hong Kong’s silver economy is set to become a HK$500 billion (US$63.8 billion) market by 2034, the city’s finance chief has said, urging the elderly care industry to deploy technology and explore cross-border opportunities. Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po said on Monday that Hong Kong’s ageing population presented both a challenge and a “promising blue ocean” market opportunity for the city, w...
Calls by US tech leaders for a voluntary slowdown in artificial intelligence development have run into sharp pushback from Chinese researchers and state media, who question whether the proposal is a genuine push for responsibility or an effort to entrench America’s technological lead. The debate intensified on Monday when OpenAI CEO Sam Altman joined a growing chorus of Silicon Valley leaders dema...
Hong Kong’s younger generation of tycoons is becoming increasingly active in the city’s initial public offering market through family offices and private investments. But their investments extend beyond the property and traditional financial sectors associated with their predecessors, into technology and digital finance. Prominent business leaders Cheng Chi-heng of New World Development and Peter ...
