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Jailed Hong Kong opposition activist Joshua Wong Chi-fung has admitted instigating international sanctions against central and local authorities six years ago, such as urging foreign businesses to avoid investment in mainland China and petitioning an Israeli forensic tech firm to terminate its services for the city’s police force. The High Court heard on Wednesday that Wong, 29, had conspired with...
The murder case against the Utah man accused of assassinating conservative activist Charlie Kirk last year is headed for trial, and the defendant could face the death penalty if he is convicted. Utah District Judge Tony Graf on Tuesday sided with prosecutors who said they had “overwhelming” evidence that suspect Tyler Robinson shot Kirk once in the neck as the ally of US President Donald Trump spo...
China’s health regulators have granted approvals for a string of brain-technology products this year, as domestic start-ups push to transform the treatment of conditions ranging from paraplegia to Alzheimer’s and depression. The approvals come as Beijing bids to lead the world in brain-computer interfaces – devices that allow patients to control digital devices using thought alone – offering gener...
A thief was sentenced to 26 months and two weeks’ jail on Tuesday for his role in a Singapore Chinatown diamond heist. He had hidden a custom-made fake gem in his mouth, switched it for the real diamond and concealed the genuine stone the same way. Serasiya Milan Ramnikbhai, a 30-year-old from India, pleaded guilty to a charge of theft with common intention. His accomplice, 41-year-old Mangroliya ...
Japan’s most dangerous delicacy is getting harder to prepare safely as warming seas push different pufferfish species into the same waters, where they are inbreeding to produce hybrids whose lethal toxins are not yet fully understood. Fugu – the collective Japanese name for several species of edible pufferfish – is prized as much for the danger surrounding its preparation as for its subtle flavour...
China has spent years articulating its preferred principles for the world order. In June, it went a step further, bringing many of them together in a white paper on global governance and setting out how its Global Governance Initiative should translate principles into practice. Two ambitions sat side by side: an “equal and orderly multipolar world” and a “universally beneficial and inclusive econo...
A growing number of Chinese workers are sharing tips on social media to combat “office ageing.” Suggestions range from applying sunscreen and using full-face masks to setting up parasols at their desks. Recently, a RedNote user with the handle @lelehangmu from Jiangsu province in eastern China shared that just one month into his job, his complexion had noticeably darkened, and his eyes frequently ...
Solar power has overtaken coal as China’s largest source of installed power generation capacity for the first time, marking a landmark shift in the world’s largest energy market, according to government data. By the end of July, China’s installed photovoltaic capacity had reached 1,286 gigawatts, accounting for 31.5 per cent of the total, the National Energy Administration (NEA) reported on Tuesda...
When six Chinese heavy transport planes entered European airspace in April 2022, it was not just their cargo that drew international attention. Bound for Serbia, the Y-20 aircraft had flown thousands of kilometres from China carrying components of the Chinese-made FK-3 surface-to-air missile system. A second wave of six aircraft followed, bringing the operation to 12 sorties in what was then China...
The University of Hong Kong (HKU) is partnering with tech giants to offer on-site artificial intelligence (AI) laboratories at its expanded Shanghai campus, which welcomed more than 300 students for the new term earlier this week. The campus in Zhangjiang Science City is also expected to expand its intake next year, when the university’s medicine and engineering programmes launch there. Its comput...
As Enflame Technology gears up for a 6.12 billion yuan (US$910.3 million) initial public offering on Shanghai’s Star Market, the Chinese artificial intelligence chipmaker must convince investors that its specialised chip strategy can withstand fierce competition from Huawei Technologies and other domestic rivals, while reducing its heavy revenue dependence on major backer Tencent Holdings. Online ...
North Korea has never named her, confirmed her age or acknowledged her as Kim Jong-un’s heir. Yet South Korea’s spy agency says the evidence is now unmistakable: his daughter Kim Ju-ae has “effectively” become the successor-in-waiting. The assessment, delivered in a closed-door briefing to the National Assembly’s intelligence committee, was shared with journalists by Youn Kun-young of the ruling D...
A senior Russian aide suggested on Tuesday that Chinese President Xi Jinping, US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin could hold a trilateral meeting at the next Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit. Leaders of the 21-member grouping are scheduled to meet in Shenzhen, the Chinese economic powerhouse in southern China, on November 18 and 19, setting up the possibil...
President Donald Trump pressed US oil refiners to boost domestic production of petrol and diesel during a closed-door meeting on Tuesday, as he contends with high prices and mounting cost-of-living concerns before November’s midterm elections. Trump made clear he wanted lower prices at the pump for Americans and asked executives how to increase refining capacity, according to a White House officia...
US lawmakers are trying to identify which foreign countries are the biggest sources of unlawful robocalls targeting Americans, as Congress steps up efforts to combat a surge in phone scams. The inquiry follows a string of US government reports tying much of the financial damage from scams to Chinese criminal networks based in Southeast Asia. The House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Communications...
Taiwan’s defence ministry has warned that the People’s Liberation Army is stepping up its preparations for a blockade of the island, adding that it is sharpening its plans to break such a cordon in response. The assessment was made in the ministry’s “2026 China Military Power Report”, which was submitted to the legislature this week along with its five-year force development plan and next year’s p...
On August 26, a section of glacier collapsed at an altitude of more than 5,000 metres on the Nepalese side of the Himalayas. The falling ice and rock accelerated down a steep valley at about 50 metres per second, scouring debris and transforming into a high-speed mudslide that slammed into Gyirong Port on the Chinese side just seven minutes later. The force of the flow largely buried and obliterat...
The US Congress on Tuesday advanced a new bill that seeks to establish American global leadership in open-source artificial intelligence, an area where China currently dominates, by promoting adoption of US open-source models and publicising risks associated with using their Chinese counterparts. The legislation was one of several proposals marked up in the US House of Representatives targeting Ch...
Prime Minister Andy Burnham faced lawmakers in the House of Commons on Tuesday for the first time since becoming UK leader six weeks ago, with wars in Europe and the Middle East weighing on his promise to kick-start the economy, ease the cost of living and oversee a radical redistribution of power from London to Britain’s regions. On the day parliament returned from its summer break, Burnham said ...
Syria was constructing a nuclear reactor in Deir el-Zour under the leadership of ousted former president Bashar al-Assad, according to a UN report seen Tuesday by Associated Press. Inspectors with the UN nuclear watchdog visited several sites in Syria in August and carried out verification work that confirmed the existence of a long-suspected nuclear site, according to the confidential report circ...
Syria was constructing a nuclear reactor in Deir el-Zour under the leadership of ousted former president Bashar al-Assad, according to a UN report seen Tuesday by Associated Press. Inspectors with the UN nuclear watchdog visited several sites in Syria in August and carried out verification work that confirmed the existence of a long-suspected nuclear site, according to the confidential report circ...
Inspectors with the UN nuclear watchdog visited several sites in Syria in August and carried out verification work, according to a confidential report circulated to member states and seen Tuesday by Associated Press. Based on this visit, the International Atomic Energy Agency reported that it is “able to establish that the former Syrian authorities had failed to report nuclear material, facilities...
US President Donald Trump launched new air strikes on Iran on Tuesday, the latest chapter as the president has swung in recent weeks between economic and military pressure tactics, all the while claiming that Tehran was on its heels. US Military Central Command announced on social media that the attacks were in response to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’s recent attempted attacks on commerc...
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney told the Trump administration on Tuesday to “stop doing memes, stop throwing shade and stop trying to be tough”, as he pushed back against a fresh wave of attacks from Washington. Carney said US-Canada trade talks could resume if Washington became serious about negotiations, but he also accused the US of pursuing terms that he said could leave Canadian industrie...
The German government on Tuesday blamed Russia for an attempted attack at Leipzig/Halle Airport last month using a drone laden with explosives, and announced that it would shut down a Russian consulate among other measures against Moscow. The drone was found near a Ukrainian plane on the evening of August 4, and the device was defused. German officials said at the time that the incident posed a ne...
A Bank of America vice-president, Erin Piacenti, was killed in a stabbing at Times Square on Monday. Piacenti, 32, was a vice-president in BofA’s business selection and conflicts unit, according to her LinkedIn profile. “We are shocked and deeply saddened by the tragic loss of our colleague. She was a valued teammate who will be greatly missed. Our hearts go out to her family and all of her lo...
A Bank of America vice-president, Erin Piacenti, was killed in a stabbing at Times Square on Monday. “We are shocked and deeply saddened by the tragic loss of our colleague. She was a valued teammate who will be greatly missed. Our hearts go out to her family and all of her loved ones,” the US banking giant said in an emailed statement to Reuters. Piacenti – a vice-president of business selec...
Tram services between Wan Chai and Admiralty in Hong Kong were suspended Tuesday night due to a power failure, the second such incident in two days. The Transport Department issued a special traffic bulletin at 9.37pm, saying it had been notified by Hong Kong Tramways that eastbound and westbound services between Admiralty MTR station and Tonnochy Road were suspended because of an electricity faul...
The latest trade war between the United States and Canada marks a turning point with key lessons for China and other major US trading partners as well as risks, say analysts and former trade officials, as US President Donald Trump continues to put his blunt stamp on global institutions. The breakdown in ties between Washington and Ottawa, one of the largest trade relationships in the world, opens ...
Not even the world’s fastest sprinters could have outrun the devastating floodwaters that struck a border crossing between China and Nepal last week, according to one of the first peer-reviewed assessments of the disaster. Researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) calculated that the surface velocity of the debris flow was 19 metres per second (62 feet per second) when it struck the c...
