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German Chancellor Friedrich Merz signalled a major shift in Berlin’s economic relations with Beijing on Friday, saying the Chinese currency was undervalued by 30 per cent, well above the International Monetary Fund’s estimate of “about 16 per cent”. Speaking in Brussels after a European Council summit, Merz said China was “flooding markets” through the use of “high subsidies”, adding that “subsidi...
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz signalled a major shift in Berlin’s economic relations with Beijing on Friday, saying the Chinese currency was undervalued by 30 per cent, well above the International Monetary Fund’s estimate of “about 16 per cent”. Speaking in Brussels after a European Council summit, Merz said China was “flooding markets” through the use of “high subsidies”, adding that “subsidi...
A Hong Kong taxi fleet has terminated its collaboration with a driver after a cab stopped in the middle of the road in Tsuen Wan for two passengers to alight and take their suitcases out from the boot, with authorities requesting a report from the operator. A video circulating on social media on Friday shows the two passengers, each with two suitcases, crossing two lanes of traffic on Castle Peak ...
In the Moscow district of Maryino on Friday, shopkeeper Andrei Kondratyev braced for more Ukrainian attacks and possible petrol shortages, saying Russians needed to “get used to” a new reality. A day earlier, Kyiv set an oil refinery ablaze in the nearby Kapotnya area in its biggest drone attack on Moscow in years, engulfing the Russian capital in smoke. Such scenes were unthinkable when Moscow la...
Authorities in Indonesia’s tourist island of Bali foiled an attempt to illegally trade 21 protected green sea turtles, police said on Friday. Bali police seized the live animals during a raid on the Pegametan coast of the island on June 10, after local residents reported suspected illegal turtle trading activity in the area, said Nanang Pri Hasmojo, head of law enforcement at the force. Police arr...
Authorities in Indonesia’s tourist island of Bali foiled an attempt to illegally trade 21 protected green sea turtles, police said on Friday. Bali police seized the live animals during a raid on the Pegametan coast of the island on June 10, after local residents reported suspected illegal turtle trading activity in the area, said Nanang Pri Hasmojo, head of law enforcement at the force. Police arr...
Authorities in Indonesia’s tourist island of Bali foiled an attempt to illegally trade 21 protected green sea turtles, police said on Friday. Bali police seized the live animals during a raid on the Pegametan coast of the island on June 10, after local residents reported suspected illegal turtle trading activity in the area, said Nanang Pri Hasmojo, head of law enforcement at the force. Police arr...
A Chinese hypersonic missile faster than five times the speed of sound, racing just above the sea surface, while staying below the radar horizon. Could this be a new nightmare for the US Navy? Possibly, if a new ambitious low-altitude hypersonic flight research programme launched by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) on Monday yields results. The programme will look into the technology that cou...
Hosting the Asian debut of the Hyrox World Championships could bring more high-spending visitors to Hong Kong and the city’s selection as host may have been driven by its proximity to the vast mainland China market, experts have said. The announcement that the pinnacle event of the fitness race would take place at the AsiaWorld-Expo in June next year was made on Thursday in Sweden, which is hostin...
Hosting the Asian debut of the Hyrox World Championships could bring more high-spending visitors to Hong Kong and the city’s selection as host may have been driven by its proximity to the vast mainland China market, experts have said. The announcement that the pinnacle event of the fitness race would take place at the AsiaWorld-Expo in June next year was made on Thursday in Sweden, which is hostin...
Hong Kong’s education authorities are likely to miss the deadline for unveiling a concept plan for a proposed university town in the first half of this year, as the project must align with the city’s inaugural five-year plan, which is set to be released in the third quarter. A source familiar with the development said on Friday that at least two higher education institutions tipped to be granted s...
A British court sent two men to prison on Friday for setting fire to property linked to Prime Minister Keir Starmer in a plot orchestrated by a mysterious Russian-speaking figure. Ukrainian national Roman Lavrynovych, 22, and Stanislav Carpiuc, a 27-year-old Romanian citizen, were jailed for seven years and two years, respectively, after being found guilty of conspiracy to damage property by fire....
The son of Myanmar’s jailed pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has said his mother’s “spirit cannot be caged”, in a moving video greeting for her 81st birthday – a milestone she again marks while confined by the junta. Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s de facto leader until the 2021 coup removed her administration, was jailed for 33 years following that military takeover on charges including election fraud an...
An exodus of private business jets from China since the days of Covid-19 appears to be stabilising this year amid a potential shift in demand across industries, suggesting that sales by cash-strapped owners of the multimillion-dollar assets have largely run their course, according to an aviation-services firm. While a few deliveries of new business jets in China are currently “pending”, very few w...
We’ve never had it so good. The S&P 500 and Nikkei 225 have hit record highs this month. SpaceX had its spectacular initial public offering, the largest in history. The company raised an eye-popping US$75 billion and saw a sharp rise in its share price to a mind-blowing valuation of US$2.5 trillion in two days. The US-Iran deal on reopening the Strait of Hormuz caused petrol prices to drop back to...
Italy’s foreign minister on Friday cancelled a visit to the United States over reported comments by US President Donald Trump that appeared to mock Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. “The grave and offensive words of President Trump … offend the whole of Italy,” Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, who had been due to visit the US on Sunday and Monday, said on social media. Meloni said she was “stunned” b...
Chinese authorities will promote the further integration of AI and consumption, according to a plan released by the Ministry of Commerce and seven other ministries. It includes 17 new measures that aim to create new drivers of consumption growth by embedding artificial intelligence in consumer goods, services and the retail and commerce sectors through new smart products, robots, subsidies, infras...
Iran’s Strait of Hormuz body said on Friday it would waive planned fees to use the strait during a 60-day negotiation period under the memorandum of understanding signed with the United States this week. Ships seeking passage through the strait while the interim agreement was in force must submit transit requests at least 48 hours before arrival, Iran’s Persian Gulf Strait Authority said...
Hong Kong police have arrested nine people in connection with two burglaries at a farm in Tin Shui Wai, with some of the stolen items already pawned in Macau and the total losses exceeding HK$2.7 million (US$344,500) in cash, watches, jewellery and gold. Senior Inspector Lam Ka-kit of Yuen Long district’s crime squad said the suspects, comprising eight men and a woman, allegedly belonged to a synd...
A Vietnamese national deported to South Sudan by Donald Trump’s administration under its controversial third-country deportation programme was repatriated to Vietnam on Friday after spending more than a year in detention. South Sudan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced the repatriation of 44-year-old Tuan Phan at a press briefing on Friday. “We are grateful that while in our custody Mr Phan wa...
Hong Kong’s pet funeral service providers have urged the government to allow animal ashes to be placed alongside those of their owners, citing a growing demand for such arrangements amid a rapidly expanding afterlife market for furry friends. Petmento, part of local group Sage laGreen Funeral Services, said it had been asking the government to relax regulations by allowing animal ashes to be place...
The Chinese embassy in the UK has called on the British government to “stop its acts of slander and suppression” after a court jailed two men linked to the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in London for up to 10 years for spying on activists. Bill Yuen Chung-biu, a manager at the office, was sentenced on Thursday to eight years behind bars for assisting a foreign intelligence service, while co-...
The Chinese embassy in the UK has called on the British government to “stop its acts of slander and suppression” after a court jailed two men linked to the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in London for up to 10 years for spying on activists. Bill Yuen Chung-biu, an office manager at the office, was sentenced on Thursday to eight years behind bars for assisting a foreign intelligence service, w...
Arsenio Butil Jnr fell to his knees and began to pray when last week’s deadly 7.8-magnitude earthquake began shaking his home on the coast of the southern Philippines. When he opened his eyes, he saw a once-familiar shoreline changing in real time, with swathes of previously submerged coral suddenly pushing above the waterline. The June 8 quake, driven by a shifting of the nearby Cotabato Trench, ...
Australia has supplied the Philippine coastguard with a new batch of aerial and underwater drones that could significantly enhance Manila’s capability to monitor activities in the disputed South China Sea. The systems would help the coastguard gather evidence and enhance deterrence across the contested waters, including areas within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone, where Manila has faced ...
A defence fair in Beijing has shown portable laser weapons that can be carried by a single soldier to shoot down drones, realising a vision that was once the domain of science fiction. The Lijian series, meaning “sharp swords”, developed by Chinese defence supplier Harbin Xinguang Optic-Electronics Technology, was displayed at the Defence Information Equipment & Technology Exhibition 2026, a three...
A Chinese man whose dating of a woman consisted of a five-minute video call before marrying her within three days regretted what he had done just nine days later. The 32-year-old man, surnamed Gu, who is from the eastern province of Zhejiang and is a single child, blamed parental pressure for his rash decision. He spent 200 yuan (US$30) to register with a local matchmaking centre, which introduced...
A social media post by London Mayor Sadiq Khan calling his city and Singapore global powerhouses has ignited scrutiny of both places, with critics arguing that they are worlds apart. Khan, who was in Singapore this week, posted a picture of himself standing in front of the Marina Bay skyline on Sunday with the caption: “This is what it looks like when two global powerhouses unite. Delighted to be ...
A fire that broke out at a primary school in Tokyo on Friday, injuring eight pupils and two teachers before being extinguished, authorities said. The fire was reported around 11am, according to the local fire department. It started in a room next to the music room on the top floor of Takinogawa Dai-san Elementary School in the Kita area of the Japanese capital. It was extinguished at around 1.45pm...
