Live headlines from trusted global sources. Click any story to open it on the original website.
More than one-third of Americans see China, and not the United States, as the global leader in artificial intelligence (AI), according to a Pew Research Centre survey released on Thursday, as US President Donald Trump confirmed the technology would be on the agenda when his Chinese counterpart visits the US later this year. The survey found that 36 per cent of Americans believe China is more advan...
Ackbar Abbas, a Hong Kong-born scholar whose influence extended beyond academia to shape artists, filmmakers, writers and many others, died on July 13 at the age of 84 after a brief battle with cancer. Over decades of teaching at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) and the University of California, Irvine (UCI), Abbas did not simply analyse Hong Kong – he altered the way Hong Kong could be described...
Even as local retail spending remains resilient, Hong Kong consumers are shopping more across the border in mainland China, drawn by lower prices and wider adoption of digital payments, according to data from payment giant UnionPay International. Offline UnionPay card spending in mainland China by Hong Kong residents rose nearly 30 per cent year on year in the first half of 2026, while online and ...
Indian activist Sonam Wangchuk ended a 26-day hunger strike on Friday over leaked medical school entrance exam papers that protesters say enabled cheating, but demonstrations demanding the education minister’s resignation were set to continue in the biggest youth-led challenge to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government. Youth protesters, led by the self-named Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) movement...
The White House threw a US-Saudi Arabia nuclear deal into question on Thursday, a day after it was signed, emphasising that it depended on the oil-rich Gulf country recognising Israel under a 2020 diplomatic initiative. “The Civil Nuclear Deal … will be approved, but is totally subject to Saudi Arabia joining the very respected and successful Abraham Accords,” US President Donald Trump wrote on so...
There is a change in the skies and waters around Taiwan. In the first half of this year, the number of People’s Liberation Army (PLA) fighter jets detected near the island more than halved year on year to 1,334. It was a three-year low and marked the lowest operational tempo since 2023, according to a tally by the South China Morning Post based on data from Taiwan’s defence ministry. At the same t...
US senators broadly agree that Chinese connected vehicles should be kept off American roads. But a bipartisan attempt to codify and expand existing restrictions has exposed divisions over whether the proposed ban could ensnare European carmakers and increase costs for American electric-vehicle producers. The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation advanced the Connected Vehicle S...
The United States imposed late on Thursday a fresh wave of tariffs against 60 economies, including China, Japan, South Korea, India and European Union member states, hours before a temporary 10 per cent blanket levy was due to expire. The tariffs, ranging from 10 to 12.5 per cent, are the outcome of a Section 301 investigation into forced labour, with Washington arguing that existing measures have...
The United States imposed late on Thursday a fresh wave of tariffs against 60 economies, including China, Japan, South Korea, India and European Union member states, hours before a temporary 10 per cent blanket levy was due to expire. The tariffs, ranging from 10 to 12.5 per cent, are the outcome of a Section 301 investigation into forced labour, with Washington arguing that existing measures have...
The United States imposed late on Thursday a fresh wave of tariffs against 60 countries, including China, Japan, South Korea, India and European Union member states, hours before a temporary 10 per cent blanket levy was due to expire. The tariffs, ranging from 10 to 12.5 per cent, are the outcome of a Section 301 investigation into forced labour, with Washington arguing that existing measures have...
Mid-July should have been a moment of quiet satisfaction in Beijing. Fresh data showed China’s favourability surpassing that of the United States in 25 of 37 nations surveyed by Pew Research Centre, including key European countries. Domestically, the second-quarter gross domestic product growth of 4.3 per cent, while softer than the first financial quarter, kept the annual target within reach. The...
Donald Trump’s Justice Department will withdraw subpoenas issued to New York Times journalists who reported on security concerns about the president flying on a Qatari-donated Air Force One, a prosecutor said at a court hearing on Thursday. The subpoenas issued by Manhattan US Attorney Jay Clayton on July 10 are the latest instance of the Trump administration seeking to force journalists to divul...
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told Brazil that Beijing would continue to support its sovereignty, security, and development interests, hours after a 25 per cent US tariff on Brazilian goods took effect. Wang met Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira on Wednesday in Manila, on the sidelines of the 59th meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) foreign ministers, where Vieir...
The Pentagon has added Fudan University and Shanghai Jiao Tong University to a list of foreign institutions deemed a threat to US national security, extending Washington’s research-security crackdown to two of China’s most prestigious civilian universities. The updated list identifies 88 institutions in mainland China and bars US Department of Defence-funded researchers from collaborating with the...
The Houthi militia in Yemen appears to be allowing some ships to pass through the Bab al-Mandab strait at the mouth of the Red Sea, despite its blockade of shipping to Saudi Arabia, experts said on Thursday. A Chinese oil tanker, Cosco Shipping’s VLCC Xin Long Yang, has been granted permission to pass through the waterway, according to the trade publication Lloyd’s List. It said Chinese tankers re...
US President Donald Trump promised “major military punishment” for Iran and its Houthi allies after the Yemeni fighters struck two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea, extending the Middle East war to a second major shipping chokepoint. Fears that disruption could widen to block another sea route sent global oil prices surging in one of the steepest rises of the war. Brent crude rose more than 6 per...
US President Donald Trump promised “major military punishment” for Iran and its Houthi allies on Thursday after the Yemeni fighters struck two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea, extending the Middle East war to a second major shipping chokepoint. Fears that disruption could widen further to block another sea route sent global oil prices surging in one of the steepest rises of the war. Brent crude ...
US President Donald Trump promised on Thursday “major military punishment” for Iran and its Houthi allies, after the Yemeni fighters struck two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea, extending the Middle East war to a second major shipping chokepoint. Fears that disruption could widen further to block another sea route sent global oil prices surging in one of the steepest rises of the war. Brent crude ...
Greece on Thursday approved the multibillion-dollar purchase of Israeli anti-missile, anti-aircraft and anti-drone weaponry to set up an “Achilles Shield” protective dome, a defence ministry source said. Around €3 billion of a broader €4.2 billion (US$4.8 billion) spending spree will go towards Israeli-made systems for the new shield, the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “Greece ha...
The EU has watered down its latest round of sanctions on Moscow after concluding that banning Greek companies from transporting Russian gas to third countries could hand strategically important shipping assets to China. To remove a Greek veto against the 21st package of measures aimed at hobbling Russia’s war machine, the bloc’s member states agreed to allow EU operators to continue transporting R...
German police on Thursday detained a 20-year-old man after he fatally stabbed another man inside a bank branch in the southern city of Regensburg, in an incident that initially raised fears of a hostage-taking. Special forces officers detained the German national inside the building about three hours after the incident was reported, a police statement said. Paramedics had earlier managed to admini...
A man died following a knife attack at a bank in the German city of Regensburg, a police spokeswoman told dpa on Thursday, adding that the suspected attacker remains inside the building with other people. Special forces have arrived at the scene and the area around the branch has been cordoned off. Initial reports suggested the perpetrator was holding people hostage inside the bank branch, but thi...
A man died following a knife attack at a bank in the German city of Regensburg, a police spokeswoman told dpa on Thursday, adding that the suspected attacker remains inside the building with other people. Special forces have arrived at the scene and the area around the branch has been cordoned off. Initial reports suggested the perpetrator was holding people hostage inside the bank branch, but thi...
A friend of a man who went on a deadly stabbing spree at a Manchester synagogue was jailed for life by a UK court on Thursday for planning a separate terror attack with him. Jihad Al-Shamie went on a knife rampage targeting a mosque in the northwestern city last October that killed two people. Al-Shamie was later shot dead by police. His friend Mohammad Bashir, 31, last month pleaded guilty to the...
At Zion Foodtrucks in the US state of Colorado, American-made steel and aluminium are combined with globally sourced stoves, refrigerators, vents and titanium piping to transform everyday vehicles into mobile restaurants. But instead of benefiting from Donald Trump’s push to revive US manufacturing, the company says it has been squeezed by higher costs and tougher competition. Since taking office,...
One soldier died and four were injured on Thursday when a military helicopter crashed in the Czech Republic, the army said. “A Venom helicopter has crashed at the 22nd helicopter base in Namest nad Oslavou. Five soldiers were on board. Emergency services are currently deployed at the scene,” the army wrote on social media. In a later post, it added that one soldier was killed and four injured in t...
Hong Kong police have arrested a 72-year-old local man for practising dentistry illegally at a shop used by a mainland Chinese dental clinic to promote its business in the city, following calls from the local industry for tighter regulatory oversight of such activities. The arrests were made during a joint operation conducted by police and the Department of Health on Thursday at a shop on 37 King’...
Hong Kong police have arrested a 72-year-old local man for practising dentistry illegally at a shop used by a mainland Chinese dental clinic to promote its business in the city, following calls from the local industry for tighter regulatory oversight of such activities. The arrests were made during a joint operation conducted by police and the Department of Health on Thursday at a shop on 37 King’...
A Hong Kong woman has paid tribute to the late screen legend Patrick Tse Yin, revealing that he saved her brother from drowning decades ago on a boat trip. Veteran actor, director and producer Tse, nicknamed “Brother Four”, died on July 16 at the age of 89, marking the loss of one of the last remaining icons from the golden era of local cinema, when the city’s film industry held sway across Southe...
Scientific ties can be a stabilising force in relations between China and the US but as the two countries jostle for a hi-tech edge, maintaining these links will mean going beyond simple competition versus cooperation. To get there, Beijing and Washington will need to keep in continuous contact and have clearly defined boundaries, with narrower areas of collaboration. That was the finding Zhao Min...
