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Changing the smoking culture on the city’s construction sites will “take time”, Hong Kong’s labour commissioner has said as authorities completed 1,200 site inspections and issued 36 fixed-penalty notices in the first two weeks of a smoking ban at such locations. Commissioner for Labour Sam Hui Chark-shum said on Saturday that Labour Department officials also issued nine improvement notices to con...
A political row is threatening to undermine Taiwan’s efforts to increase its stockpiles of military drones and has raised questions about the future of its domestic manufacturers. On Monday, lawmakers failed to agree on competing versions of a bill to buy and develop military drones after six hours of debate. While the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the opposition broadly agree on t...
France and Italy bolstered border controls on Saturday after about 60,000 people crossed into Spain’s enclave in North Africa, sparking one of the largest migrant crises for the European Union in recent years. The migrants entered Ceuta from Morocco, the enclave’s regional president Juan Jesus Vivas told reporters, but by Friday evening, officials said more than 48,000 had returned. To cross into ...
British trip-hop band Massive Attack has been barred from performing in Singapore after an investigation found two members unfurled a Palestinian flag during a concert, police said. Two band members who held the flag on stage during a concert on Wednesday were also banned from re-entering Singapore and issued with warnings, police said in a statement late on Friday, without naming the pair. Singap...
Russian attacks on Kyiv and its suburbs killed 10 people early Saturday, officials said, as Ukrainian drones sank a huge Russian container ship in the Black Sea. The exchange in attacks come after the United Nations found June was the deadliest month for civilians in Ukraine since April 2022. Russia has stepped up long-range strikes on the capital in recent months, while Ukraine is chronically ...
Russian strikes on Ukraine’s capital killed at least nine people and wounded more than a dozen others, local officials said on Saturday, after Kyiv’s mayor warned of a ballistic missile attack. It comes after the United Nations found June was the deadliest month for civilians in Ukraine since April 2022. Russia has stepped up long-range strikes on the capital in recent months, while Ukraine is ...
Russian strikes on Ukraine’s capital killed at least four people and wounded more than a dozen others, local officials said on Saturday, after Kyiv’s mayor warned of a ballistic missile attack. It comes after the United Nations found June was the deadliest month for civilians in Ukraine since April 2022. Russia has stepped up long-range strikes on the capital in recent months, while Ukraine is ...
Lawmakers from Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) have launched a group aimed at promoting the rapidly growing trading card industry, seeing its potential as a globally competitive content sector. The group, consisting of some 20 lawmakers, is seeking to improve the trading card environment by setting up rules to address issues such as counterfeit cards and bulk purchases for resale. It...
A single canned ingredient imported from the Netherlands has quietly fuelled Hong Kong’s daily hustle for the past 85 years, evolving from a simple dairy product into the soul of local diner culture. For decades, the Black and White brand of full-cream evaporated milk has been a crucial element in Hong Kong-style milk tea culture and craftsmanship, giving this popular drink in the city’s cha chaan...
Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim suffered a second election setback within weeks on Saturday after his Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition lost to rivals in the Negeri Sembilan polls. Official results at midnight showed Barisan Nasional (BN) winning 18 seats, coupled with Perikatan Nasional’s (PN) seven for a supermajority of 25 over PH’s 11 in the 36-seat assembly. The country’s second state ele...
Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim faced a second election setback on Saturday as unofficial results showed rival Barisan Nasional (BN) taking an early lead in the vote count for Negeri Sembilan. The country’s second state election in under a month was a test of the stability of Anwar’s coalition government, with his Pakatan Harapan (PH) locking horns again with federal ally BN at the state le...
Voting in Malaysia’s Negeri Sembilan election has closed as attention now turns to whether Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition will retain its hold or suffer another loss to federal ally but state rival Barisan Nasional (BN). The results, due by midnight on Saturday, are expected to be yet another stability gauge of Anwar’s unity government, and may determine if a snap ge...
Voters in Malaysia’s Negeri Sembilan headed to the polls on Saturday, the second election in the past month as political allies governing the country locked horns at state levels. Candidates from Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition are going head-to-head with those of federal partner Barisan Nasional (BN), which trounced its rival in last month’s Johor race. Negeri Sembil...
As the Philippines hosted Southeast Asian foreign ministers in late July, the sea would not stay quiet. On July 20, Chinese and Philippine crews fought beside the BRP Sierra Madre with oars and batons; one Filipino sailor was reportedly injured while each side blamed the other. Days later, with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the security forum, Philippine vessels...
Playing strategic and role-playing mobile games has been a major leisure activity for Peter Lee* since he graduated in 2020, when social distancing measures during the Covid-19 pandemic left him with little to do outside working hours. Unlike console games, Lee gained a sense of belonging in the mobile gaming world, as he could interact and cooperate with players from different countries whenever ...
Sixteen years after being rescued from a river as a toddler, a young girl from eastern China earned a spot at the prestigious Peking University and shared this significant milestone with the man who saved her life. Yu Xianguo, 66, from Taizhou in Zhejiang province, is a retired naval serviceman who served five years in the military, according to mainland media outlet Xinhuanghe. In August 2010, tw...
As the People’s Liberation Army marks its 99th anniversary on August 1, one year from the deadline for its centenary goals, its evolution highlights the past, present and future of China’s military strategy. In the second part of a series, Gabriel Dominguez examines how Beijing is pushing the envelope on its near-seas island arc. Beijing has urged the People’s Liberation Army to transform into a “...
Driven by a surge in visitors from across Asia and a blockbuster June stadium concert by K-pop juggernaut BTS, international tourism in South Korea’s southern port city of Busan shattered post-pandemic records during the first half of this year. Busan welcomed more than 2.42 million foreign visitors between January and June – a 43.9 per cent jump compared to the same period last year, according to...
At a food fair in New Delhi, a vegetable exporter from the Philippines set out its wares: bags of dried moringa and lemongrass, bundles of taro leaves and a bowl of laing, the creamy coconut-milk stew made from them. The question Dry Tech Manufacturing wanted to answer was simple: could the simple Filipino food it sells under its Sheentaro brand tantalise the taste buds of the world’s most populou...
The US Justice Department moved Friday to dismiss a criminal case charging a former Olympian with deliberately damaging the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. Government lawyers said in a 20-page court filing that information provided since the indictment of David Hearn shows that the damage was the result of a “flawed installation by the contractor” as well as “the rush to complete the project pri...
Prominent US lawmakers have requested information from food delivery giant DoorDash on its use of Chinese artificial intelligence models after its co-founder disclosed that they had experimented with a model from Chinese start-up Moonshot AI, developer of the Kimi models. The move underscores growing tensions between US lawmakers and industry, as Chinese AI models have become increasingly popular ...
US Senator Steve Daines is expected to return to China for another round of talks ahead of President Xi Jinping’s planned September visit to Washington, according to people familiar with the preparations. The trip was intended to help finalise the agenda for what both sides hoped would be a high-stakes summit between Xi and US President Donald Trump, one of the sources said. Daines, a Montana Repu...
Chinese government buyers bought at least eight cargoes of US soybeans on Friday for shipment from US Gulf Coast terminals and six cargoes for shipment from Pacific Northwest ports in October and November, two US traders with knowledge of the deals said. The sales volume of at least 840,000 tonnes was among China’s largest single-day purchases this month after the world’s top soybean importer r...
Who will win the next war? That is the question posed on the cover of the latest Foreign Affairs magazine which explores, among other things, the US-China military and technological rivalry. At its core is a clash of strategic philosophies between the US-led order and China’s world view, which has propelled the latter’s rise to the world’s second great power. The magazine’s contributors reflect a ...
Google rolled back a new feature on Friday that allowed Google Earth users to generate AI visualisations on top of the service’s satellite imagery, following a furious backlash from researchers and open-source intelligence experts about the potential for disinformation. “We’ve seen geospatial professionals using this feature for a range of useful purposes, however we’ve also seen people sharing sc...
Chilean President Jose Antonio Kast received China’s ambassador to Santiago, Niu Qingbao, at the La Moneda Palace on Friday morning, in an encounter that lasted more than an hour and marked the first meeting between the two men since the right-wing leader took office in March. According to the presidency, Kast, Foreign Minister Francisco Perez Mackenna and Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Patricio T...
Beijing hit back at the White House decision to add 43 Chinese companies to a blacklist that is meant to block imports allegedly made in Xinjiang using forced labour, describing them as a “classic act of economic coercion”. Friday’s sanctions were the third time this week that Washington announced measures aimed at China. Enforcing the Uygur Forced Labour Prevention Act (UFLPA), the Department of ...
The White House on Friday added 43 Chinese companies to a blacklist that is meant to block imports made with alleged forced labour in Xinjiang, marking the third time this week Washington has announced measures aimed at China. Enforcing the Uygur Forced Labour Prevention Act (UFLPA), the Department of Homeland Security increased its entity list by 30 per cent to include companies in sectors rangin...
The US Marine Corps says the pilot of an F-35B stealth fighter ejected before the jet crashed in California, and was taken to a medical facility. The jet went down on Friday afternoon near the Miramar airbase in San Diego. A Marines statement called it a “Class A mishap”. That is the most severe mishap category, used when the damage totals more than US$2 million, an aircraft is destroyed or a serv...
The US Marine Corps says the pilot of an F-35B stealth fighter ejected before the jet crashed in California, and was taken to a medical facility. The jet went down on Friday afternoon near the Miramar airbase in San Diego. A Marines statement called it a “Class A mishap”. That is the most severe mishap category, used when the damage totals more than US$2 million, an aircraft is destroyed or a serv...
