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As China and Russia rallied dozens of countries in Bishkek to shape a multipolar world order, Washington’s envoys were splitting the spotlight by meeting several Central Asian presidents in the Kyrgyz capital this week. The manoeuvring showed that the US was likely to continue its outreach to the region and seek to blunt Beijing’s influence, but it would be “unrealistic” for Washington to force Ce...
China is beginning to match its economic presence abroad with the military reach required to operate across it. The clearest evidence came from Egypt. Chinese J-16 fighters flew there recently, supported by YU-20 tankers that refuelled them in the air. The Chinese jets are taking part in Egypt’s “Eagles of Civilisation” alongside Egyptian Rafales and MiG-29s. This is the first time China has sent ...
About 1.4 million students in six Indonesian provinces had shifted to online learning due to poor air quality triggered by forest and land fires, an official said on Wednesday. As of September 2, around 1.43 million students from 12,874 schools in six of the provinces hit hardest by forest and land fires had been studying remotely, Gogot Suharwoto, an education ministry official, told the media...
Aptly dubbed the Pinglu 001, the first command and management vessel for the Pinglu Canal was delivered on Monday and will soon enter service as China prepares to open the strategic waterway designed to support surging trade with Southeast Asia. The delivery marks one of the final steps before the 72.7 billion yuan (US$10.8 billion) megaproject is expected to officially open later this month after...
Japan’s plans to transfer ageing warships to the Philippines and Indonesia could turn older military hardware into geopolitical leverage, deepening regional security ties while helping Tokyo counterbalance Beijing’s growing influence, observers say. Such transfers, they said, fit into Tokyo’s broader security assistance toolkit to strengthen partners’ capabilities and forge longer-term defence rel...
Hong Kong education authorities have reminded a school to consider the needs of students when enforcing rules after many were forced to wait in a long line outside the campus in the rain to have their uniforms and hair checked on the first day of the new academic year. The Education Bureau also made a similar call to another school, where students deemed to have failed with hair grooming rules wer...
Hong Kong customs has arrested a man and seized HK$42 million (US$5.3 million) worth of the illegal narcotic “space oil” from a drug workshop fitted with a semi-automated production line capable of producing up to 160,000 cartridges in a short period. Senior investigator Chan Kit-lun of the Customs and Excise Department’s drug investigation bureau said officers intercepted a suspicious man on Tues...
Hong Kong customs has arrested a man and seized HK$42 million (US$5.3 million) worth of the illegal narcotic “space oil” from a drug workshop fitted with a semi-automated production line capable of producing up to 160,000 cartridges in a short period. Senior investigator Chan Kit-lun of the Customs and Excise Department’s drug investigation bureau said officers intercepted a suspicious man on Tues...
Hong Kong customs officers have arrested a woman for allegedly using aggressive tactics to sell skincare products at a local beauty chain formerly operating under the Opatra London brand, bringing the number of arrests in the case to three, the South China Morning Post has learned. A source said the saleswoman, who is in her twenties, was suspected of pressuring a customer into making purchases at...
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian leader Masoud Pezeshkian at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit have put the spotlight on New Delhi’s ability to mediate major conflicts. Positioned between Russia and the West, and with working ties across rival camps in the Middle East, India is seen by some analysts as a potent...
– Ireland needs to be prepared for a vote on whether to reunify with the UK’s Northern Ireland region, Irish Foreign Minister Helen McEntee has said. “I do believe that there will be a border poll at some stage,” McEntee told reporters in Wicklow, Ireland, ahead of a European Union foreign ministers meeting on Wednesday. “It is for the people of Northern Ireland to decide this and it is only where...
Anthropic’s powerful new Claude Fable 5.1 model has widened its lead in performance benchmarks over Chinese rivals, even as budget-friendly open-weight models from China continue to gain commercial traction globally. The American company said on Wednesday that Fable 5.1, along with a restricted-access version called Mythos 5.1, was the world’s most advanced model for software coding and complex kn...
As the US resumes strikes on Iran to force an end to the six-month-old war, Tehran is turning to multilateral groupings like the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) and Brics for political and diplomatic cover. At the SCO summit in Bishkek on Tuesday, world leaders made veiled references to the instability in the Middle East without naming the United States directly, in apparent tacit backing ...
As the US resumes strikes on Iran to force an end to the six-month-old war, Tehran is turning to multilateral groupings like the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) and Brics for political and diplomatic cover. At the SCO summit in Bishkek on Tuesday, world leaders made veiled references to the instability in the Middle East, without naming the United States directly, in apparent tacit backing...
At Risa’s Massage, Fai cancelled her holiday to be at work this week; suitmaker Tito has laid on a made-in-24-hours special for US Navy visitors and hawker Pui is aiming to sell 15 watches in the five days the USS Abraham Lincoln will be in Pattaya. On Wednesday, the Thai resort city began to welcome over 5,000 sailors and Marines, finally on shore leave after being at sea for a record 286 days. I...
Hong Kong will stage a 23-minute fireworks display over Victoria Harbour on China’s National Day on October 1 under the theme “Eternal Radiance”. The HK$18 million (US$2.3 million) extravaganza, exclusively sponsored by insurance provider Sun Life Hong Kong, will mark the 77th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. Coordinated by the Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau, the ...
Hong Kong’s Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) has unveiled standards for the use of government computer systems after uncovering loopholes, including requiring bureaus and departments to ensure compliance when requesting digital project funds. Danny Woo Ying-ming, commissioner of the ICAC, said on Wednesday that an investigation had found that some procedures for government computer...
Hong Kong’s Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) has publicly unveiled its standards for the use of government computer systems after uncovering loopholes, including requiring bureaus and departments to self-check their compliance when requesting digital project funds. Danny Woo Ying-ming, commissioner of the ICAC, said on Wednesday that an investigation by his agency had found that so...
A delegation from the European Commission has been locked in talks with Chinese officials in Beijing, as the sides look to find a diplomatic off-ramp from a looming trade war before an October deadline set by Brussels. The EU team was spearheaded by Denis Redonnet, the bloc’s top trade enforcement officer, who was recently made point person on China trade policy – a recognition that in EU circles,...
US membership-only retailer Sam’s Club has sped up its expansion in China this year, with the launch of its sixth Beijing location on Monday drawing long queues of eager shoppers. The Walmart-owned warehouse retailer has found a winning formula in China, with its value pricing and exclusive goods attracting middle-class consumers even as some foreign brands shut down stores or pull out of the coun...
A woman in China, suffering from severe scoliosis, has gone viral after accusations that she is “making money by doing nothing” surfaced. This scrutiny followed the revelation that her boyfriend, Yan Ruize, worked gruelling food-delivery shifts to fund her much-needed surgery. He Ling, 23, hails from southwest China’s Sichuan province and was diagnosed with congenital scoliosis – a sideways curvat...
India’s stronger-than-expected first quarter growth has bolstered analysts’ confidence that it can sustain its momentum through the rest of the financial year and remain the world’s fastest-growing major economy – even as it remains exposed to high oil prices caused by the US-Iran war. The Indian economy grew 7.8 per cent in the April-June quarter, comfortably beating the Reserve Bank of India’s f...
Major Chinese foundry Hua Hong Grace Semiconductor is pouring US$2 billion into a massive capacity expansion in the Chinese chip production hub of Wuxi, racing to meet skyrocketing domestic demand for AI infrastructure and bypass US tech curbs. The fresh capital would fund the construction of a new 12-inch speciality line, its third facility in the eastern Chinese city, the country’s second-larges...
A Hong Kong advocacy group has urged the government to let residents use a portion of their mandatory pension savings for home purchases, one of several proposals submitted ahead of the policy address later this month. The Federation of Public Housing Estates noted on Wednesday that recent cuts to administration fees for the Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF) – the city’s compulsory retirement scheme ...
For the first time in recent history, Danish conscripts have been deployed to Greenland, as Denmark moves to bolster its presence in the Arctic after US demands to acquire the territory. US President Donald Trump has repeatedly sought to acquire the semi-autonomous Danish island, citing national security concerns and accusing Copenhagen of neglecting Arctic defence. Denmark and Greenland have ...
Chinese President Xi Jinping touched down in Egypt on Tuesday, the second stop in a potentially busy month of travel that will probably conclude with a White House meeting. “Once you drink from the Nile, you are destined to return,” the Chinese leader said on arrival at Cairo International Airport. Xi is likely to sign economic agreements with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi on Wednesday a...
Top performers BYD and Leapmotor clawed their way up higher in terms of sales last month, even as China’s electric vehicle (EV) market was shrinking amid weaker consumer demand. However, smaller players were expected to face falling sales and mounting losses for the rest of the year as competition got fiercer, according to analysts. BYD, the world’s largest EV builder, saw its sales in August surg...
China is cracking down on artificial intelligence-generated “slop” – low-grade, mass-produced synthetic content cluttering social media and news feeds – as part of a sweeping campaign against the abuse of the generative technology, the country’s top internet watchdog said on Wednesday. In a statement posted to its website, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) said it had scrubbed more than...
China is cracking down on artificial intelligence-generated “slop” – low-grade, mass-produced synthetic content cluttering social media and news feeds – as part of a sweeping campaign against generative technology abuse, the country’s top internet watchdog said on Wednesday. In a statement posted to its website, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) said it had scrubbed more than 5.61 milli...
International students in the United States are facing new hurdles when it comes to internships and off-campus work after several major universities paused or restricted certain forms of Curricular Practical Training (CPT). CPT is a form of work authorisation that allows foreign students to take part in internships and other practical training related to their studies. The changes follow two Augus...
