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China’s military apparently released the first official footage of its sixth-generation fighter over the weekend – a move that analysts said might suggest Beijing was ahead of its competitors, including the US, in developing the next generation of warplanes. China Military Bugle, the official press account of the People’s Liberation Army, published a four-minute video on Sunday marking the 10th an...
Russian missiles and drones killed at least 11 civilians and injured 40 others in Ukraine on Monday in what President Volodymyr Zelensky described as “horrific attacks”, while the nation’s energy grid buckled under temperatures in excess of 36 degrees Celsius, hit by the deadly heatwave that has afflicted much of Europe. Russian drone and missile attacks have decimated Ukraine’s energy network sin...
After rejecting a government spending package, Taiwan’s opposition Kuomintang (KMT) has submitted its own proposal worth several billion dollars more to boost the military’s unmanned vehicle capabilities and the island’s broader drone sector. The move reflects growing consensus across Taiwan’s political spectrum that unmanned systems will be central to the island’s defence in the future. Defending...
A heatwave sweeping across Europe has triggered a massive surge in sales for Chinese home appliances, with e-commerce giant Alibaba recording triple-digit growth for air conditioners and fans on its overseas platforms. On AliExpress, Alibaba’s international retail site, the June debut of air conditioners in Germany saw warehouse inventory for a 2.35-kilowatt Midea model completely wiped out by Thu...
A heatwave sweeping across Europe has triggered a massive surge in sales for Chinese home appliances, with e-commerce giant Alibaba recording triple-digit growth for air conditioners and fans on its overseas platforms. On AliExpress, Alibaba’s international retail site, the June debut of air conditioners in Germany saw warehouse inventory for a 2.35-kilowatt Midea model completely wiped out by Thu...
Six people were killed in a shooting on Monday at a youth welfare facility in the northern German town of Stade, police said. Five people – four women and a man – died at the scene of the shooting. A sixth, also an adult, died later in hospital. A main suspect was arrested, while another two people were subject to “police measures” on suspicion of involvement, police said in a statement without el...
Five people were killed in a shooting on Monday at a youth welfare facility in the northern German town of Stade, police said. Two people were arrested, including the suspected shooter. Other people were wounded, police said, but they did not give a figure. Police said the shooting took place in the facility on Dankersstrasse, a street south of the town centre. That facility includes temporary acc...
China has tested a desert moss that may one day be used to colonise Mars by reviving it inside a mini space laboratory, state broadcaster CCTV said on Monday. The plant, a highly drought-resistant species called Syntrichia caninervis, was revived after being subjected to a series of extreme space conditions – including microgravity, intense radiation and severe dehydration – showing it is remarkab...
China has hopes for a desert moss that it says could colonise Mars following a revival experiment inside a mini space laboratory that showed it was remarkably resilient, state broadcaster CCTV said on Monday. The plant, a highly drought-resistant species called Syntrichia caninervis, was revived after it was subjected to a series of extreme space conditions – including microgravity, intense radiat...
For much of the 20th century, the “American dream” was perhaps the most successful export in human history. It reached far beyond American borders. Millions of people around the world, including generations of Chinese families, believed in its promise. Study hard. Work hard. Build a career. Buy a home. Raise a family. Create a better life than the previous generation. The dream was never about bec...
Hong Kong police have arrested 78 people in a citywide crackdown on online shopping fraud, solving 165 cases involving more than HK$5 million in losses, including one victim who was cheated out of HK$1.2 million while seeking cheaper medicine. Officers arrested 59 men and 19 women aged between 15 and 73 during the operation, code-named “Blacksword”, which ran from June 15 to 26. Of them, 69 were s...
The deadly heatwave that’s set temperature records across western Europe for more than a week has shifted east to scorch Hungary, Romania and the Balkans. Hungary’s Budapest is expected to top 40 degrees Celsius (104F) on Tuesday, according to models from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts. Belgrade in Serbia and Bucharest in Romania will reach 38 degrees and 37 degrees, respec...
Two People’s Liberation Army (PLA) naval vessels are set to visit Hong Kong for a five-day port call from July 2, during which residents will be able to board them and take part in cultural exchange activities. China’s Ministry of National Defence said on Monday that a PLA naval task group would visit Hong Kong waters from Thursday to next Monday to mark the 29th anniversary of the city’s return t...
At a test facility in China, a hypersonic engine that reshapes its internal airflow channel – much like a throat tightening and relaxing – has operated continuously from a relatively modest Mach 1.8 (nearly twice the speed of sound) all the way to Mach 6 without failing. And the material that kept superheated gases from escaping? Essentially the same black mineral found inside a pencil: graphite. ...
Andy Burnham, Britain’s presumptive next prime minister, has set out details giving more powers to local government as part of a plan to spread wealth and economic growth. Saying Westminster “is not working” and is “broken”, he set out a sweeping economic vision in a key speech from Manchester – where he was mayor for nine years – to bring voters, colleagues and financial markets up to speed with ...
The Hong Kong government watchdog has slammed the Transport Department over systemic deficiencies that allowed “queuing gangs” to abuse public resources, along with “massive digital failures” that left overseas and mainland Chinese applicants with a negative impression. An investigation by the Office of the Ombudsman, released on Monday, revealed that a group of seven agents exploited the ticketin...
South Korea’s World Cup squad is set to be greeted on arrival by heightened police security rather than the usual airport welcome ceremony, as fury over head coach Hong Myung-bo’s failed campaign spills into online death threats, viral restaurant bans and renewed calls for sweeping changes inside the country’s football establishment. Hong and eight players, including Kim Min-jae, Hwang Hee-chan, H...
Inadequate monitoring, lengthy repairs and poor information for hikers are among the “deficiencies” that have undermined public safety and visitors’ experience at Hong Kong’s country parks, according to the city’s ombudsman, which urged relevant authorities to overhaul how they manage and maintain facilities. In a report released on Monday, the Office of the Ombudsman said it made 42 recommendatio...
China’s top anti-espionage agency on Monday warned gamers that a company with overseas defence ties may be obtaining geospatial data via an augmented reality game. The warning quoted media reports about “the militarisation of civilian data” that said billions of environmental scans from a popular mobile phone game were being used to train AI models with potential battlefield applications. In a soc...
As more patients recover from the world’s largest recorded Bundibugyo Ebola outbreak, doctors are beginning to piece together how the rare virus behaves, offering the clearest picture yet of one of the disease’s least-studied strains. The number of recoveries reported by Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) health authorities almost doubled in a week, rising to 148 on Thursday from 80 on June 18, ev...
China is providing an additional 100 million yuan (US$14.7 million) worth of relief items to Venezuela after two earthquakes last week left at least 1,450 dead, including eight Chinese citizens. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun on Monday said Beijing had decided to furnish the relief items in addition to cash aid already extended to the country. China had also provided satellite image...
Hong Kong has proposed a statutory seven-day cooling-off period and a 14-day refund window for prepaid beauty and fitness contracts as part of the efforts to strengthen consumer protection amid persistent complaints against unfair trade practices and high-pressure sales tactics. The measures form part of three major policy recommendations suggested by the government as it launched a two-month publ...
More than 80 per cent of owners of the fire-ravaged housing estate, Wang Fuk Court, have accepted the Hong Kong government’s buy-back offer, a day before the deadline for them to secure priority flat selection under a special sales plan. The Housing Bureau said in a statement on Monday that it had received a total of 1,635 signed letters of acceptance, accounting for about 82.4 per cent of the tot...
Malaysia has narrowed its search for a replacement anti-ship missile system to four potential suppliers after Norway revoked an export licence for a deal that Kuala Lumpur said was already more than 90 per cent paid for. The cancellation came after Oslo tightened arms-export rules in a shift that analysts say reveals how access to advanced arms can depend as much on supplier-country politics as on...
An anti-narcotics police officer in China who has been working on the frontline without obscuring her identity for the past nine years, incurring more than 10 injuries, has won massive admiration from the mainland public. Li Xiangli is the only female police station chief in Yunnan province, located in the southwestern part of the country. She and her 47 colleagues are stationed at a checkpoint in...
Overnight ground operations and strikes by Pakistani forces have killed at least 36 civilians and injured more than 160 others, Afghan officials said on Monday, as tensions between the neighbours further escalated. One official said the attacks would be met with retaliation. Pakistani security forces carried out a ground operation along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border late on Sunday, followed by s...
[The content of this article has been produced by our advertising partner.] This year’s event drew more than 60,000 visits over two days at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. Around 120 shortlisted teams from primary and secondary schools presented inventions that combine AI with other technologies to tackle everyday challenges. Secretary for Innovation, Technology and Industry Prof...
A Hong Kong physiotherapist has been scammed out of HK$5 million (US$637,570) after falling victim to an online investment trap that involved helping a virtual “beautiful assistant” hit sales targets, police have said. The case, revealed by police on Monday via their Facebook page, was among more than 80 reports of online investment scams received in the past week, with total losses exceeding HK$8...
The People’s Liberation Army said it dispatched vessels and aircraft to the South China Sea in response to a joint US-Philippine maritime drill in the waters near Scarborough Shoal over the weekend. The PLA’s statement came a day after Manila said four Chinese vessels monitored a US-Philippine maritime exercise near the disputed shoal, which was reported by Philippine media on Monday. A week ago, ...
A labour saga in Singapore involving migrant workers going unpaid for months after a contractor fled the country has raised questions about wage policies for unskilled staff, even as authorities respond with the speed and efficiency emblematic of the city state. Last week, hundreds of migrant workers in services such as air-conditioning, plumbing and construction showed up at the Minister of Manpo...
