Live headlines from trusted global sources. Click any story to open it on the original website.
Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu has said his annual policy address will serve as a progress report on the city’s five-year plan, describing the first simultaneous consultation of the two documents as “especially meaningful”. In his first townhall meeting, held on Sunday as part of a public consultation exercise to gather feedback on Hong Kong’s first five-year plan and his fifth annual policy add...
US President Donald Trump knows the world hangs on his every word. Now he wants you to pay for it. The social media posts of the world’s most powerful man went on sale on Saturday, when his Truth Social business began offering sneak peeks of them to Wall Street traders willing to pay up. The move raises the prospect of big profits for Trump’s company and big questions about insider trading and usi...
On a midsummer Thursday night, the entertainment district of Hongdae in Seoul is slowly coming alive. Short for Hongik University, Hongdae neighbours several university campuses and typically attracts thousands of young people to its flashy streets. Just a few blocks away from the main clubbing area, the atmosphere is quieter with hardly any patrons at a row of pubs and restaurants. “Hongdae is no...
Researchers from China’s national police academy have developed an AI framework that can detect illicit cryptocurrency transactions with nearly 90 per cent overall accuracy, according to a recent study. Cryptocurrency transactions are growing rapidly, but their pseudonymous and cross-border nature can provide channels for money laundering and other illegal activities. In an article published in th...
Every summer, mainland Chinese parents send their children to join a variety of costly physical training camps or even travel to Africa to observe animal migrations. Over the past two years, new financial quotient (FQ) training classes aiming to cultivate “little Warren Buffetts” have gained significant popularity among parents concerned about their children’s futures, as reported by Phoenix Weekl...
Old, dense and diverse, Sham Shui Po exemplifies many practical challenges associated with grass-roots governance in Hong Kong: ageing buildings, narrow alleys, low-income households, elderly residents living alone and routine issues that demand constant attention. As an ancient maxim states: “Government means rectitude. If you set a righteous example, who will dare to act otherwise?” My extensive...
Beauticians from outside Hong Kong are performing illegal cosmetic procedures such as botulinum toxin and filler injections in the city, with middlemen setting up online “secret societies” or chat groups for customers to share information, industry experts have revealed. A beauty industry expert and a plastic surgeon said they had seen or received reports of botched procedures by beauty practition...
New Zealand’s defence diplomacy has shifted into overdrive this year, with Wellington sealing three major Pacific security agreements in less than four months. Since April, the country has signed a defence pact with Papua New Guinea, locked in a security declaration with the Cook Islands and floated the idea of joining a fledgling Australia-Fiji defence alliance. Analysts say the common thread is ...
A shooting at an In-N-Out Burger restaurant in southern Idaho on Saturday afternoon left multiple people dead and others injured, police said. The shooter was among the dead, Twin Falls Police Chief Matthew Hicks said in a news conference. “We believe the threat to the community is over,” Hicks said, adding that he did not yet know exactly how many were killed or wounded, and officials were still ...
The crushing defeat of Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition in the Negeri Sembilan polls has raised doubts about his political strategy, as state rival but federal ally Barisan Nasional (BN) grows in dominance. Analysts say BN’s effective cooperation with opposition party Perikatan Nasional (PN) could reshape Malaysia’s political landscape ahead of the next natio...
Iran warned this weekend against any “adventurous action” by the US and said it would retaliate decisively if American forces follow through on US President Donald Trump’s threats of fresh attacks on Iranian targets. Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi’s comments in separate phone calls on Saturday with senior Turkish, Pakistani and Saudi officials came just hours after Kuwait’s army said it de...
Vincent Pastore, a veteran actor who played mobsters and tough guys, and was best known for playing Salvatore “Big Pussy” Bonpensiero on The Sopranos, has died. He was 80. Bob McGowan, who had managed Pastore since his run on The Sopranos, told Associated Press that he learned of his death on Saturday from another client and actor on the show, Vincent Curatola. He said Pastore had been found in hi...
Having marked its 99th anniversary on August 1, the People’s Liberation Army is now just one year away from its centenary goals, with its evolution highlighting the past, present and future of China’s military strategy. In the third part of a series, Yuanyue Dang and William Zheng examine how Beijing leans on Mao-era doctrines and anti-corruption drives to guarantee absolute party control over the...
China’s export boom is reaching its limits. The country’s next phase of growth will come not from shipping more goods abroad, but from exporting its factories, technologies and brands. China is running up against the limits of its old model. It is obvious as the economy looks increasingly K-shaped. Weak consumer confidence and a prolonged property slump continue to sap domestic demand, forcing man...
At least 13 people died when a small plane carrying tourists to view Peru’s famed Nazca Lines archaeological site crashed, police said on Saturday. “We have information that 11 passengers and two crew members have died,” Police Major Jorge Andrade told reporters from the crash site in the country’s south. The incident happened just after 1pm local time after the plane took off from the airport in ...
US President Donald Trump posted on Saturday that he disagrees with his own Justice Department’s findings that a flawed installation, not vandalism, caused the lining of the newly renovated Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington to peel. “I disagree 100% with Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, on the Reflecting Pool,” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Socia...
A home-made bomb carried by a woman killed at least three people and injured 21 near an upscale restaurant in central Moscow on Saturday evening, authorities said, amid unconfirmed speculation on social media that the attack may have been linked to the war in Ukraine. Russia’s National Anti-Terrorism Committee (NAK) said an unidentified woman carrying an improvised explosive device had tried to g...
An explosion at a Moscow restaurant on Saturday that killed three people and wounded 21 more was a bombing, Russia’s national anti-terrorism committee said, the Tass state news agency reported. “A home-made explosive device blew up at a restaurant in Kudrinskaya Square in Moscow, killing three people,” said the committee, quoted by Tass. An unidentified woman who attempted to carry the explosive d...
An explosion at a Moscow restaurant on Saturday that killed three people and wounded 21 more was a bombing, Russia’s national anti-terrorism committee said, the Tass state news agency reported. “A home-made explosive device blew up at a restaurant in Kudrinskaya Square in Moscow, killing three people,” said the committee, quoted by Tass. An unidentified woman who attempted to carry the explosive d...
An explosion on Saturday near a Moscow cafe killed at least three people and wounded another 15, police said, without saying what caused the blast. “From the information we have, an explosion happened today at around 8.10pm near a summer cafe, causing three deaths and 15 injured, of varying degrees of seriousness,” Moscow police told state news agency RIA Novosti. Investigators and police forensic...
A truck bomb exploded on Saturday near a Colombian police station not far from the Venezuelan border, wounding 14 people just days before president-elect Abelardo de la Espriella takes office. The government in Bogota blamed rebels from the National Liberation Army (ELN), the country’s largest active guerrilla group, for the early-morning blast in the northern city of Cucuta. Eleven police officer...
Colombia’s government on Saturday blamed the nation’s largest remaining rebel group for an explosion outside a police base that injured 11 officers and killed a police dog. The attack took place early Saturday in Cucuta, a city along Colombia’s border with Venezuela, where drug gangs and rebel groups have long fought for the control of smuggling routes. General William Rincon, the director of Colo...
The White House has used a song by Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny, a well-known opponent of US President Donald Trump’s immigration policies, as music for a video about operations by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The clip, which shows arrests of migrants, drew criticism on social media and can now only be viewed on TikTok without the music of the song “La MuDANZA” (The Move) from...
The Israeli military said on Saturday that it killed several Hezbollah fighters in south Lebanon and that an Israeli soldier was injured there despite a ceasefire. The military said it identified several Hezbollah fighters overnight inside what Israel has labelled a “security zone” in southern Lebanon which its forces occupy. “Following the identification, the soldiers struck the terrorists and el...
US embassies in capitals across the Middle East on Saturday warned American citizens to beware of an “unforeseen escalation” in the regional conflict and urged them to be ready to leave. The warning, posted online by US embassies in Bahrain, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates came a day after US President Donald Trump threatened to hit Ira...
Hongkongers should brace for more bad weather over the next few days. The Hong Kong Observatory warned on Saturday that showers would be heavy at times with squally thunderstorms over the coast of southern China in the next couple of days under the influence of a broad trough of low pressure and an active southerly airstream. Meanwhile, authorities said they received six landslide reports between ...
Celebrated Nepali climber Nirmal Purja, who set a record for the fastest ascent of the world’s 14 highest mountains, died in an avalanche during an expedition in Pakistan, his company said on Saturday. “Today it is with profound sadness and immense heartbreak that we confirm that Nirmal ‘Nimsdai’ Purja tragically lost his life following the avalanche on Broad Peak,” his expedition organising com...
Celebrated Nepali climber Nirmal Purja, who set a record for the fastest ascent of the world’s 14 highest mountains, died in an avalanche during an expedition in Pakistan, his company said on Saturday. “Today it is with profound sadness and immense heartbreak that we confirm that Nirmal ‘Nimsdai’ Purja tragically lost his life following the avalanche on Broad Peak,” his expedition organising com...
Celebrated Nepali climber Nirmal Purja, who set a record for the fastest ascent of the world’s 14 highest mountains, died in an avalanche during an expedition in Pakistan, his company said on Saturday. “Today it is with profound sadness and immense heartbreak that we confirm that Nirmal ‘Nimsdai’ Purja tragically lost his life following the avalanche on Broad Peak,” his expedition organising com...
Hong Kong authorities are gauging public feedback on a possible shift in the supply ratio of public rental flats to subsidised sale homes to an even 50:50 split, the housing minister has said. Secretary for Housing Winnie Ho Wing-yin told a planning forum on Saturday that the total supply of public housing would reach 196,000 flats over the next five years. Under measures outlined in Chief Executi...
