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Young Malaysians brew goal for traditional tuak drink to become national success
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Young Malaysians brew goal for traditional tuak drink to become national success

At Raffly Langi’s family longhouse in Sarawak, on Malaysian Borneo, the tuak rice wine did not come in a branded bottle or a tasting flight. His aunt has brewed the drink for Gawai, the harvest festival celebrated by Dayak communities, an umbrella term for indigenous groups in Sarawak whose longhouses have long been centres of family, rituals and communal life. She made it from steamed glutinous r...

Filipino-Americans rattled by Trump’s migrant-chasing ‘xenophobia’ games
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Filipino-Americans rattled by Trump’s migrant-chasing ‘xenophobia’ games

The recent release of classic arcade games on the White House website, which allow players to deport migrants and build a border wall, has stoked more fear and anger among Filipino-Americans, as observers call out the “xenophobic” tactics in US President Donald Trump’s widening immigration crackdown. Analysts and immigrant advocates described the games, unveiled on Thursday, as “frightening”, triv...

72-year-old hiker dies after collapsing on challenging Hong Kong trail
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72-year-old hiker dies after collapsing on challenging Hong Kong trail

An elderly man has died after collapsing while hiking on a scenic yet notoriously challenging trail in southern Hong Kong. Police received a report at 9.13am on Sunday from a passer-by regarding the 72-year-old man surnamed Kwok, who collapsed at Yuk Kwai Shan on Ap Lei Chau. A Government Flying Service helicopter airlifted Kwok, who was unconscious and had sustained scratches to his head and feet...

Elderly hiker dies after collapsing at scenic spot in Hong Kong
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Elderly hiker dies after collapsing at scenic spot in Hong Kong

An elderly man has died after being airlifted to hospital following his collapse while hiking at a popular scenic spot in southern Hong Kong. Police said they received a report at 9.13am on Sunday from a passer-by about an incident involving a 72-year-old man surnamed Kwok at Yuk Kwai Shan on Ap Lei Chau An ambulance was dispatched to the scene, while a Government Flying Service helicopter took hi...

Elderly hiker airlifted to hospital after collapsing at scenic spot in Hong Kong

Elderly hiker airlifted to hospital after collapsing at scenic spot in Hong Kong

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An elderly man has been airlifted to hospital after collapsing while hiking at a popular scenic spot in southern Hong Kong. Police said they received a report at 9.13am on Sunday from a passer-by about an incident involving a man in his seventies at Yuk Kwai Shan on Ap Lei Chau An ambulance was dispatched to the scene, while a Government Flying Service helicopter took him to Pamela Youde Nethersol...

Tesla to exhibit Cybercab robotaxi in China: can it spark buzz amid slow sales?

Tesla to exhibit Cybercab robotaxi in China: can it spark buzz amid slow sales?

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Tesla is facing weaker sales in China this year, but the American electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer is looking to generate a buzz in its second-largest market by exhibiting its new self-driving vehicle, the Cybercab. The robotaxi – which operates entirely without a steering wheel, pedals or rear-view mirrors – would debut in major Chinese cities, including Beijing and Shanghai, starting mid-Septe...

Cold comfort: Japan’s Hokkaido battles cockroach surge amid global warming

Cold comfort: Japan’s Hokkaido battles cockroach surge amid global warming

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In all his five decades of living in Hokkaido, Makoto Watanabe cannot recall ever being confronted by a cockroach. But he admits being alarmed by reports that the despised insects are taking advantage of global warming to gain a foothold in a part of Japan where winters were previously considered too hostile for large colonies to emerge. “When I was a university student in Tokyo 30 years ago, I us...

Red tape, high cost: can Hong Kong’s new yacht scheme chart a smoother course?

Red tape, high cost: can Hong Kong’s new yacht scheme chart a smoother course?

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Retired harbour pilot Alex Yu Chi-leung sailed his 50-foot wooden yacht, Bowline, from Causeway Bay in Hong Kong to Dongao Island in Zhuhai under a new cross-border yachting scheme last week, but bureaucratic hurdles and shallow waters tempered the excitement of the leisure trip. It was Yu’s first voyage under the scheme, but it could also be his last unless mainland Chinese authorities improve ce...

China begins mining iron from tailings, low-grade ore that can meet its demand for decades

China begins mining iron from tailings, low-grade ore that can meet its demand for decades

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China has launched a world-first industrial-scale facility to extract iron from previously discarded mine tailings and ultra-low-grade ore, turning waste into a valuable resource that can reduce its dependency on overseas supply. According to the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) last Tuesday, a production line capable of processing 5.56 million tonnes of refractory iron ore and tailings per year ...

Signalling fault disrupts Hong Kong high-speed rail service, delaying 15 trains

Signalling fault disrupts Hong Kong high-speed rail service, delaying 15 trains

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At least 15 high-speed cross-border train services were delayed after a signalling fault prompted a 45-minute disruption of northbound services in Hong Kong on Sunday morning. The Transport Department said at around 8.30am that the MTR Corporation had notified authorities that high-speed rail services would be delayed due to a “signal fault”. At around 9.15am, the department said the MTR had resol...

Junior Chinese customs officer killed in mudslide just 4 days into job deeply moves public

Junior Chinese customs officer killed in mudslide just 4 days into job deeply moves public

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The tragic death of a junior Chinese customs officer on the Sino-Nepal border, who had only been in her position for four days before being killed in a catastrophic mudslide, has stirred immense heartbreak online. Twenty-four-year-old Li Leiyang began her role as a plant quarantine officer at the Customs at Gyirong Port in Tibet on August 21, according to a report by news portal 163.com. On August...

Hired, then what? Malaysia’s deaf workers push past entry-level jobs

Hired, then what? Malaysia’s deaf workers push past entry-level jobs

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Yap Yee Lin has been serving espresso at a Starbucks in Malaysia since 2012, longer than many of his colleagues have worked anywhere. But it was only last year, after 13 years with the company, that he was promoted to shift manager at a branch in Kuala Lumpur’s Bangsar Village II. The wait says less about Yap, who is deaf, than it does about how rare that kind of promotion still is for deaf worker...

Elderly riders bear brunt of rising New York City subway attacks

Elderly riders bear brunt of rising New York City subway attacks

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Attacks on elderly straphangers are fuelling a spike in felony assaults within the New York City subway system, New York Police Department’s transit chief Joseph Gulotta said on Friday. As the NYPD contends with a 9 per cent jump in felony assaults in the city transit system this year, the department’s transit chief said roughly half of all attacks on the rails are targeting a few select groups. “...

In an era of extreme summers, it’s time to look beyond air conditioning

In an era of extreme summers, it’s time to look beyond air conditioning

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The Labour Department recently upgraded its Heat Stress at Work Warning system, making it easier for higher-tier alerts to be sent out, so that employers and workers, especially those who have to work outdoors, can react quickly during very hot weather. Unfortunately, the most we seem to be able to do is issue warnings and recommend passive mitigation measures such as relaxing the work schedule, r...

Why Chelsea football shirts are making Hong Kong fans nervous about crypto laws

Why Chelsea football shirts are making Hong Kong fans nervous about crypto laws

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English Premier League football club Chelsea’s lucrative new front-of-shirt sponsorship deal with a stablecoin issuer has left Hong Kong fans and retailers concerned about whether wearing or selling the top counts as illegal promotion under digital currency laws. Chelsea signed the deal with Circle to feature its USDC stablecoin brand on player jerseys for the 2026-27 season in late August, just t...

Viral Jennie clip tests limits of South Korea’s AI deepfake laws

Viral Jennie clip tests limits of South Korea’s AI deepfake laws

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For a few seconds during Blackpink member Jennie’s headline set at Tokyo’s Summer Sonic festival last month, it looked like something had come undone. She turned away from the crowd, adjusted herself and then, the moment was gone. But online, the clip never disappeared – and more than 10 million views later, it has become the latest test of South Korea’s fight against AI-enabled sexual abuse. Fans...

Argentina threatens to sanction oil projects around Falkland Islands

Argentina threatens to sanction oil projects around Falkland Islands

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Argentina has announced that it will investigate and sanction oil companies working near the Falkland Islands without authorisation, after President Javier Milei said the “winds of change” favour his country’s claim to the archipelago. Britain and Argentina fought a 10-week war in 1982 over the South Atlantic islands, a British overseas territory that Argentines call Las Malvinas. Argentina’s pres...

UK’s Prince William to represent King Charles at funeral of Norway’s King Harald

UK’s Prince William to represent King Charles at funeral of Norway’s King Harald

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Britain’s Prince William will attend the funeral of Norway’s late King Harald next week in place of his father King Charles, Buckingham Palace said on Saturday. The heir to the throne is set to represent his father at the funeral on September 9, having also attended the funeral of Pope Francis last year on behalf of the king. British monarchs do not attend funerals of other heads of state per prot...

German rocket reaches space as Europe enters satellite launch race

German rocket reaches space as Europe enters satellite launch race

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German start-up Isar Aerospace on Saturday launched its first rocket into space from a site in Arctic Norway, bringing Europe closer to offering satellite flights from its own soil. The uncrewed Spectrum rocket was the first commercial flight to reach orbit from continental Europe, ‌where several nations have said they want a share of a growing market for space missions. “We’re in orbit! And just ...

Gen Z is turning filial piety into a career path

Gen Z is turning filial piety into a career path

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Hong Kong has always had a simple answer to what young people should do with their lives: study hard, get a job, work harder, buy a flat and eventually complain about the next generation. That formula is becoming harder to sell. A whole lexicon has grown up around Generation Z’s uneasy relationship with work. In mainland China, there are “full-time children”, young adults who stay home and receive...

At least 22 dead, several injured, in fire at DR Congo wedding reception

At least 22 dead, several injured, in fire at DR Congo wedding reception

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A fire at a wedding party in Democratic Republic of Congo’s capital Kinshasa left at least 22 people dead, the regional mayor said on Saturday. Several others were injured. The fire started on Friday night and continued into early Saturday in a building in Lingwala in northern Kinshasa. The building’s narrow hallways were constricted by people trying to escape the fire. Several people - some alive...

Commemoration held for late Serb war criminal Ratko Mladic

Commemoration held for late Serb war criminal Ratko Mladic

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A commemoration was held on Saturday in Belgrade for war criminal Ratko Mladic two days ahead of his burial, attended by dozens of former military staff, family members and officials. Mladic died last week after suffering several strokes while serving a life sentence in The Hague for war crimes committed during the 1990s war in Bosnia. His body was returned to Serbia on a government plane on Thurs...

Competitors dig deep at Hungarian gravedigging contest

Competitors dig deep at Hungarian gravedigging contest

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A gravedigging contest in a Hungarian cemetery may sound like the opening line of a comedy sketch. It proved to be anything but as 38 competitors grabbed picks and shovels on Saturday. The Hungarian Association of Cemetery Maintainers and Operators organises the contest to showcase the gravedigging trade and its skills, and shake off death-related taboos. The dry summer-baked soil in the public ce...

Egypt sentences TV presenter, 11 others to death in drugs case

Egypt sentences TV presenter, 11 others to death in drugs case

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An Egyptian court sentenced a well-known television presenter and 11 others to death for manufacturing and trafficking narcotics in a sprawling drugs case, official media reported on Saturday. The presenter, Sarah Khalifa, 39, is best known for her programme Mission Impossible, which dealt with issues concerning security and crime. The state-linked Al-Ahram newspaper said a Cairo court sentenced “...

2 pilots killed after Greek air force plane crashes at annual air show

2 pilots killed after Greek air force plane crashes at annual air show

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A Greek air force plane crashed at an air show north of Athens on Saturday, killing the two pilots, officials said, as thousands of people attended the event. A fire after the crash sent up large plumes of black smoke. There were no injuries among the spectators. The crash of the twin-seat Phantom F4 jet took place during a low-altitude manoeuvre. Air force officials in Greece said the bodies of t...

US ambassador calls violent Israeli settlers ‘terrorists’ after weeks of West Bank unrest

US ambassador calls violent Israeli settlers ‘terrorists’ after weeks of West Bank unrest

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The United States ambassador to Israel condemned Israeli settler violence in the occupied West Bank again on Saturday, calling the behaviour an “act of terror” as he visited Palestinian American residents shaken by months of attacks. Mike Huckabee referred to such settlers as “terrorists”, a word that US officials usually reserve for Palestinian militants. “If there are squatters that come in and ...

US strikes 3 Iranian oil tankers after warships targeted, military says

US strikes 3 Iranian oil tankers after warships targeted, military says

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US Central Command (CENTCOM) said it hit three Iranian oil tankers on Saturday, including one off the coast of Kharg Island adjoining Iran’s major oil export hub. CENTCOM said the strikes were conducted after Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) launched ballistic missiles at a pair of US Navy ships. “Let the message to the IRGC be clear: If you shoot at two of our ships, we will impose...

US ‘disables’ or ‘destroys’ 3 Iran oil tankers after warships targeted

US ‘disables’ or ‘destroys’ 3 Iran oil tankers after warships targeted

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The US military says it has struck three Iranian oil tankers after Navy warships were targeted with missiles. The military’s statement on Saturday said an aircraft carrier and a destroyer evaded “multiple unprovoked Iranian attacks” and no US personnel were hurt. It said two Iranian oil carriers were “permanently disabled” and the third, unladen one, was destroyed. The US statement said the tanker...

Hong Kong’s first astronaut Lai Ka-ying to give live lecture from space

Hong Kong’s first astronaut Lai Ka-ying to give live lecture from space

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Hong Kong’s first astronaut Lai Ka-ying and her two fellow Shenzhou-23 crew members will deliver a live lecture from space for students and teachers in the city and neighbouring Macau. Hong Kong authorities revealed on Saturday plans for live broadcasts of “Tiangong Class” to take place soon, without specifying the date and time. The activity, jointly organised by the Hong Kong and Macau governmen...