Live headlines from trusted global sources. Click any story to open it on the original website.
Foreign carmakers have been slashing the prices of petrol-powered cars they make in China by more than 20 per cent to survive in a cutthroat market amid weakening consumer demand. Last month, big international marques including Volkswagen and Toyota offered average discounts of 23.4 per cent on cars powered by internal combustion engines, according to data from the China Passenger Car Association ...
A 106-year-old man in eastern China has inspired many online with his unconventional lifestyle and enduring marriage. Wang Dinggao, from Rui’an in Zhejiang province, remains remarkably independent despite experiencing some hearing loss, according to the mainland media outlet Daxiang News. In contrast to most people, he adheres to a “reverse schedule”: sleeping around 4 or 5pm, waking at 1am, enjoy...
A fraying global economic order could push South Korea and Japan towards deeper trade integration, with business leaders and analysts saying the two neighbours stand to benefit from such a partnership despite lingering historical wounds. The two countries could draw closer as the era of relatively open global trade gives way to tit-for-tat tariffs and supply-chain disruptions due to conflicts in t...
Deep in the southern border zone of Johor, Malaysia, separated from Singapore by a narrow strait, a steady flow of commuters moves seamlessly between the two sovereign neighbours. Beyond the immediate checkpoints, a short 30-minute train ride connects visitors to regional hubs such as Kulai, where a vastly different dynamic comes into view – one defined by the rapid expansion of digital infrastruc...
American artificial intelligence (AI) giant Anthropic has accused its Chinese AI rivals DeepSeek and Moonshot on Thursday of covertly routing customer requests to its Claude models, then showing users the responses as if they were from their own models. The new allegations mark a further escalation in US criticism of China’s AI industry practices. Earlier this week, three US government agencies, i...
Police say five people have died and 40 others were injured after a Dutch tour bus slammed into a roadside crash barrier and overturned in eastern Switzerland. The bus, with 45 people on board, overturned Thursday afternoon between the villages of Susch and Zernez in the Alpine canton of Graubuenden. According to the Dutch Federation of Travel Agencies, the coach left the Netherlands on Monday and...
Several people were killed and injured when a coach carrying Dutch tourists in eastern Switzerland crashed, police said on Thursday. The accident happened at about 4.45pm between the communes of Susch and Zernez in the far-eastern canton of Graubunden. The coach hit a safety barrier before overturning and plunging down an embankment, a local police spokesman told Swiss media. The Dutch Federation ...
Several people were killed and injured when a coach carrying Dutch tourists in eastern Switzerland crashed, police said on Thursday. The accident happened at about 4.45pm between the communes of Susch and Zernez in the far-eastern canton of Graubunden. The coach hit a safety barrier before overturning and plunging down an embankment, a local police spokesman told Swiss media. The Dutch Federation ...
Hong Kong’s home prices will end the year 15 per cent higher than a year earlier, but still 16 per cent below their high-water mark in 2021, according to local property agency Midland Realty. Underpinning the positive forecast, the city’s banks were not likely to follow an increase in US interest rates by the Federal Reserve if one occurred this year, executives from the agency said at a press con...
The “revenge dress” worn by the late Princess Diana in 1994 is up for auction at Sotheby’s for the first time in nearly three decades. The black silk evening dress by Greek designer Christina Stambolian is estimated to fetch as much as £220,000 (US$298,110) when it goes on sale on December 9 during Sotheby’s Luxury Week in New York, the auction house said on Thursday. Diana wore the dress in June ...
The “revenge dress” worn by the late Princess Diana in 1994 is up for auction at Sotheby’s for the first time in nearly three decades. The black silk evening dress by Greek designer Christina Stambolian is estimated to fetch as much as £220,000 (US$298,110) when it goes on sale on December 9 during Sotheby’s Luxury Week in New York, the auction house said on Thursday. Diana wore the dress in June ...
Venezuela’s former first lady wants to be let out of jail while she and her husband await trial on US drug-trafficking charges. Cilia Flores, the wife of ex-Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, “deserves the opportunity to await her trial while on home confinement” while dealing with a heart condition that has only got worse since she has been in jail, her lawyers wrote in court papers filed on We...
Venezuela’s former first lady wants to be let out of jail while she and her husband await trial on US drug-trafficking charges. Cilia Flores, the wife of ex-Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, “deserves the opportunity to await her trial while on home confinement” while dealing with a heart condition that has only got worse since she’s been in jail, her lawyers wrote in court papers filed on Wedn...
Beijing is weighing plans to send a group of top tech, electric vehicle and aerospace executives to accompany Chinese President Xi Jinping to Washington later this month, as the two sides race to finalise details for the closely watched visit. The South China Morning Post first reported on August 28 that Chinese and US officials were negotiating whether business leaders would join Xi’s delegation ...
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio held talks in Peru on Thursday on countering Beijing’s growing footprint around the strategic Chancay megaport, drawing a sharp response from China’s embassy in Lima, which defended its investments and took aim at Washington’s strict visa rules. Rubio met President Keiko Fujimori at the Government Palace, where she confirmed Peru would join the Shield of the Ameri...
The ocean looks like peace from afar and truth up close, they say. But beneath the waves, the map of the world’s oceans is far less settled than it looks. Today, dozens of sea borders remain unresolved. Like so many conflicts, they owe their origins to complicated questions of where one country’s territory ends, and another’s begins. Many involve overlapping claims to areas rich in resources; and ...
The Swiss federal intelligence service on Thursday published a 200-page dossier on the notorious Nazi war criminal Josef Mengele, the German doctor known as the “Angel of Death” for conducting horrific medical experiments on prisoners at Auschwitz. During World War II, Mengele served at the Auschwitz extermination camp in Nazi-occupied Poland, where about 1.1 million people were killed, around 1 m...
Canada has agreed to a C$350 million (US$254 million) aid package for Kyiv to acquire air defence interceptors, Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Thursday, after meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Kyiv is running critically low on US-made Patriot interceptors capable of stopping Russia’s ballistic missiles at a time when Moscow is stepping up its attacks. “As Russia escalates its b...
Chinese scientists have developed a way to generate a fourfold increase in power output of hydrogen fuel cells, an advance that could broaden their use from road vehicles to space missions. Hydrogen is widely viewed as a promising clean energy source for a low-carbon future. Fuel cells convert the chemical energy in hydrogen directly into electricity, producing water as their only exhaust. In a st...
Sales of previously owned homes in the United States slowed last month to their weakest pace in more than a year, as would-be buyers waited for relief on mortgage rates before purchasing. Contract closings slipped 2 per cent to an annualised rate of 3.98 million in August, data released on Thursday by the National Association of Realtors showed. Last month marked one of only two times since the au...
Mainland Chinese have paid tribute to Hong Kong’s first chief executive, the late Tung Chee-hwa, for introducing a solo-travel scheme more than two decades ago that opened the city to millions of travellers and created indelible memories for middle-class families. The Individual Visit Scheme has grown from a handful of cities in Guangdong province in 2003 to its current 59 spanning the country as ...
A former vice-president of Hong Kong’s stock exchange operator has been charged by the city’s corruption watchdog with allegedly failing to comply with a statutory order to declare his assets during a probe. Geoffrey Tong Po‑hang, 39, former vice-president of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX), faces a count of failing to comply with a notice issued under the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance, ...
Key witnesses are expected to testify in Chinese tech giant Huawei Technologies’ landmark criminal case on Thursday in Brooklyn, New York, as it enters its second day of testimony. It comes after a US government lawyer told federal jurors on the opening day that Huawei engaged in criminal activities to achieve “growth at any cost”, while a lawyer for the company said that Huawei employees deemed t...
Key witnesses are expected to testify in Chinese tech giant Huawei Technologies’ landmark criminal case on Thursday in Brooklyn, New York, as it enters its second day of testimony. It comes after a US government lawyer told federal jurors on the opening day that Huawei engaged in criminal activities to achieve “growth at any cost”, while a lawyer for the company said that Huawei employees deemed t...
A key witness is expected to testify on Chinese tech giant Huawei Technologies’ alleged theft of trade secrets on Thursday as the company’s landmark criminal trial in Brooklyn, New York, enters its second day of testimony. It comes after a US government lawyer told federal jurors on the opening day that Huawei engaged in criminal activities to achieve “growth at any cost”, while a lawyer for the c...
A key witness is expected to testify on Chinese tech giant Huawei Technologies’ alleged theft of trade secrets on Thursday as the company’s landmark criminal trial in Brooklyn, New York, enters its second day of testimony. It comes after a US government lawyer told federal jurors on the opening day that Huawei engaged in criminal activities to achieve “growth at any cost”, while a lawyer for the c...
A key witness is expected to testify on Chinese tech giant Huawei Technologies’ alleged theft of trade secrets from Japanese rival Fujitsu on Thursday as the company’s landmark criminal trial in Brooklyn, New York, enters its second day of testimony. It comes after a US government lawyer told federal jurors on the opening day that Huawei engaged in criminal activities to achieve “growth at any cos...
US wholesale inflation picked up more than expected in August, government data showed Thursday, driven by higher energy costs in the month – particularly for diesel – as the US war with Iran continued. Rising prices at the pump are squeezing US households and businesses weeks ahead of key midterm elections, pressuring President Donald Trump’s administration, as average diesel costs hit new highs. ...
As China expands its submarine fleet, the US Navy is looking to develop a compact air-launched torpedo that could enable more crewed and uncrewed aircraft to attack submarines from farther away. The US Naval Air Systems Command issued a request for information – a step towards development – to industry in late August for the Silent Anvil Air-Launched Torpedo (SAA-LT). While air-launching a torpedo...
The widening yield spread between Chinese and American government bonds is unlikely to trigger catastrophic capital flight from China, according to investment executives at Marsh Investment, who attribute the record spread to the United States’ fiscal pressures and global macro trends rather than a structural retreat for Chinese assets. The spread between benchmark 10-year US Treasury bonds and eq...
