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Hungary’s government announced an investigation on Monday into a large foreign investment by Chinese carmaker BYD negotiated by a former foreign minister who last week resigned from parliament to take an executive position at the company. Peter Szijjarto’s announcement last Wednesday that he would take the job at the world’s top electric carmaker prompted accusations of a conflict of interest and ...
Mexican drug kingpin Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada was sentenced on Monday to life in prison in the US, after a plea deal last year in which he admitted to shipping millions of kilograms of cocaine over decades as leader of the violent Sinaloa Cartel. US District Judge Brian Cogan handed down the sentence at a hearing in Brooklyn federal court. Zambada is one of the most high-profile Mexican drug traf...
As trade tensions with China reach boiling point, EU officials are ramping up engagement with Beijing in search of an off-ramp. Quietly behind the scenes, though, Europe is preparing for a trade war. In Brussels, a steely determination has set in to ensure the bloc’s manufacturing heartlands are not deindustrialised by the “China Shock 2.0”. With some industries already haemorrhaging jobs, the EU’...
Chinese start-up Moonshot AI’s Kimi K3 has narrowed the country’s artificial intelligence gap with the US to “a matter of weeks”, fuelling jitters in Silicon Valley over its lead in frontier AI as China doubles down on its open-source strategy. The Beijing-based unicorn released the Kimi K3, a massive 2.8 trillion-parameter large language model, late last week. According to the company, the model ...
Beijing and Manila have exchanged fresh accusations over a clash in the South China Sea, just as China’s top diplomat is due to attend the Asean foreign ministers’ meeting in the Philippines. On social media late on Monday, the China Coast Guard said that at around 9am that morning as a small Chinese coastguard vessel was patrolling near Second Thomas Shoal, two rubber dinghies were launched “ille...
China appears to be developing one of its largest fast combat-support ships for the future long-range operations of its Type 004 aircraft carrier, which is still under construction. Commercial satellite imagery captured on July 2, provided by Planet Labs and published by defence news outlet TWZ, shows construction progress at the Comec Longxue shipyard near Guangzhou and reveals fresh details of t...
Andy Burnham became Britain’s seventh prime minister in a decade on Monday, pledging to break with the politics of the past to deliver a new economic model to benefit a nation “fed up” with a revolving door of leaders. In front of dozens of supporters outside his new office and residence at 10 Downing Street, Burnham said politicians had failed to bring the stability needed to raise living standar...
A teenager died and several people were injured during celebrations of Spain’s victory in the World Cup after a fountain collapsed in western Spain, local authorities and media said on Monday. “The city hall of Ciudad Rodrigo expresses its sadness and presents its condolences for the death of a boy of 13,” the municipality said in a Facebook post. “What should have been a celebration of Spain’s te...
Singapore’s acting minister-in-charge of Muslim affairs Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim resigned within a month of the prime minister learning about his improper interactions with a woman, a move observers say shows Lawrence Wong’s swift handling of the first scandal under his watch to contain any political fallout. They told This Week in Asia that while there was no affair in Faishal’s case, it made sen...
Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas announced on Monday that it had elected Khalil al-Hayya, the group’s lead negotiator in indirect ceasefire talks with Israel, as the new head of its political bureau. “The Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) announces the election of brother mujahid Khalil al-Hayya as head of the movement’s political bureau, succeeding the martyred leader Yahya al-Sinwar,” Hamas...
A group of Czech lawmakers are visiting China in the first high-level engagement between the two countries since 2019, a move Chinese analysts described as “testing the waters” rather than representing a more substantive thaw. Tomio Okamura, speaker of the Chamber of Deputies and head of the delegation, has told local media he was hoping to secure agreements on more direct flights, an increase in ...
Taiwan is reviewing liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports from Papua New Guinea after the Pacific nation said it would close Taipei’s unofficial representative office. PNG announced last week that it would immediately shut down the office, with Foreign Minister Justin Tkatchenko saying the move reflected the government’s “unwavering commitment to the one-China policy” ahead of the 50th anniversary o...
Facing Europe’s ever-widening trade deficit with Beijing, Berlin is increasingly singing the same tune as Paris. The two nations displayed a united front at this year’s Franco-German Ministerial Council, which will soon be put on paper in a joint road map due by September at the request of Germany. “Our work between Germany and France is indispensable at a time when Russia threatens our security, ...
The EU on Monday slapped a €550 million (US$630 million) fine on online retailer AliExpress for allowing the sale of illegal products, including unsafe toys and cosmetics. The European Union said AliExpress also did not do enough to stop the sale of counterfeit products and that when the platform detected illegal goods were on sale, many remained online for several weeks. The EU found some of the ...
Domestically produced novel drugs accounted for more than 80 per cent of market approvals in China in the first half of the year, reflecting a “leap” in the quality of the country’s pharmaceutical innovation, according to a government spokesman. A total of 38 innovative drugs were cleared for sale in the six-month period, of which 31 were home-grown medicines, said Ministry of Industry and Informa...
A Hong Kong court has sentenced a man with an intellectual disability to two years and four months in prison for inciting subversion, promoting a pro-Taiwan party and disseminating anti-Communist Party messages, with the judge noting his condition had affected his moral judgment. District Court Judge Stanley Chan Kwong-chi on Monday handed the sentence to Chan Ho-hin, a 23-year-old waiter, who had...
The Hong Kong Palace Museum signed a deal with Uzbekistan’s Islamic Civilisation Centre on Monday to collaborate on future exhibitions, academic research and other projects. The signing ceremony on Monday also marked the first official reciprocal visit by a Central Asian cultural institution since Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu led a delegation to the region last month. Dr Louis Ng Chi-wa, direc...
A Hong Kong court has ordered the release of 14 defendants charged over the alleged murder of a former triad gangster five years ago, finding that prosecutors had failed to prove the deceased sustained fatal head injuries as a result of deliberate assaults rather than from boxing bouts at his gym. The High Court on Monday directed a jury to acquit the defendants of all charges after ruling the evi...
China’s military mouthpiece on Monday dedicated a full page to warning about Japan’s expanding offensive drone capabilities, which it said threatened regional peace and security. PLA Daily said Japan’s right-wing political forces had long sought to bypass Tokyo’s constitutional ban, adopted after World War II, on offensive combat capabilities. Unmanned platforms have allowed Japan to circumvent th...
As China is ending tax exemptions that helped fuel the rise of its electric-vehicle (EV) and solar industries, analysts said it could add to the cost of producing an EV and put pressure on manufacturers, as Beijing steps up efforts to curb overcapacity and price wars. The levy could add about 1,000 yuan (US$147) to the cost of producing an EV, analysts estimated – a modest increase per car, but a ...
Bourse operator Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX) is considering extending trading hours to align with moves by global peers and sharpen the city’s competitiveness as an international financial centre. HKEX and the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) confirmed that they were discussing the matter, but did not give details. The discussion was in an early stage and options included extendi...
A girl in China, who was recently admitted to the prestigious Tsinghua University with an extremely high score on the national university entrance exam, has gone viral on social media after it emerged that her parents had never sent her to after-school tutoring classes, choosing instead to provide a relaxed home environment. Xu Yifang graduated from Xuchang High School in central China’s Henan pro...
[The content of this article has been produced by our advertising partner.] Yew Chung International School of Hong Kong (YCIS Hong Kong) celebrates the remarkable achievement of 2026 cohort in the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP). This year, 2 students obtained a perfect score of 45 points; 2 students and 4 students achieved 44 points and 43 points respectively. Apart from the ...
Hong Kong customs officers arrested more than a dozen people and seized counterfeit merchandise worth over HK$159 million (US$20.3 million) during the World Cup period, with authorities warning of a rise in young people seeking to make “quick money” from selling such items. The Customs and Excise Department said on Monday that it had detected 50 infringements during an eight-week operation from Ma...
China and the United States have stayed in contact about exchanges between their leaders this year, Beijing said just hours after America’s top diplomat downplayed the possibility that allegations of Chinese meddling in US elections would derail high-level engagement. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian said on Monday that the Chinese and American sides had “maintained communication regard...
China and the US have stayed in communication on leader exchanges this year, Beijing said on Monday, hours after America’s top diplomat downplayed whether Donald Trump’s accusation of Chinese election meddling would derail high-level engagement. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian on Monday said the Chinese and American sides had “maintained communication regarding the arrangements for the...
Hong Kong’s Performing Arts Expo (HKPAX), a HK$40 million (US$5 million) event scheduled for October 2026 to boost the city’s international image as a cultural centre, has cut ticket prices and diversified its programming to attract attendance during a tough global economic climate, its new leadership says. Launched by the Hong Kong Arts Development Council (ADC) in 2024, the biennial five-day eve...
Malaysia is stepping up surveillance on its eastern flank, pushing ahead with plans for a long-range radar at a frontline South China Sea outpost and launching newly operational drones. The upgrades reflect Kuala Lumpur’s bid to improve its ability to detect threats as the Philippines revives its claim over Sabah state in Malaysian Borneo and Chinese patrols persist near its offshore energy fields...
Veteran Hong Kong actor, film director and producer Patrick Tse Yin has died at the age of 89. His daughter Jennifer announced the star’s death in a Facebook post, writing: “With profound sadness, our family announces the passing of our beloved father, Patrick Tse. “He passed away peacefully at the hospital, surrounded by the love of his family, after a period of declining health. “Our father live...
A Hong Kong dermatologist received a suspended punishment after being found guilty of professional misconduct by the Medical Council for failing to prevent improper advertisements on the mainland Chinese social media platform RedNote. The medical watchdog on Monday said that Dr Tinny Ho Tin-yee could be struck off the practitioners’ register for six months if she failed to complete the three-year ...
