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For decades, Umno was the party that defined power in Malaysia. Now, after years of scandal, defeat and uneasy coalition politics, it is turning to its birthplace of Johor to prove it can still win on its own terms. The southern state’s snap election will test whether the United Malays National Organisation (Umno) can still attract Malay voters, defend its strongest remaining state government and ...
Chinese authorities have praised the return of Tianya – which was one of the country’s most popular internet forums in the pre-algorithm, pre-short-video era – while cautioning that freedom of speech must be balanced with responsibility. The pioneering web portal was launched by Tianya Community Network Technology Co. in 1999, when the internet was in its infancy in China, but suddenly closed in A...
Hong Kong Legislative Council president Starry Lee Wai-king has urged officials to respect lawmakers’ dissenting views amid a recent rise in government pushback, stressing that public policies “always have pros and cons”. Speaking at a media gathering on Tuesday, Lee said she had relayed lawmakers’ concerns to the government regarding officials’ recent rebuttals. She described the relationship bet...
Hong Kong’s retail sales rose by 8.6 per cent year on year in April, extending the upturn for a 12th consecutive month, although industry leaders warned that a broad-based recovery had yet to take hold, with gains driven by specific factors rather than a general rebound in consumer spending. Provisional figures released by the Census and Statistics Department on Tuesday showed retail sales reached...
Hong Kong’s retail sales rose by 8.6 per cent year on year in April, extending the sector’s recovery for a 12th consecutive month, supported by continued growth in visitor arrivals and holiday spending. Provisional figures released by the Census and Statistics Department on Wednesday showed retail sales reached HK$31.4 billion (US$4 billion) in April, compared with HK$28.9 billion a year earlier. ...
The surge of interest in Chinese humanoid robotics has raised a practical question for investors, corporate strategists and supply chain executives: who makes the parts? Reduction gears. Torque sensors. Precision bearings. Industrial software. The further one traces the supply chain, the more often the answer leads to companies that are not household names or well understood by foreign investors. ...
The arrest of Philippine Senator Jinggoy Estrada has deepened a stand-off in the Senate, leaving the chamber split between two 11-member blocs and raising the risk of a wider political crisis, analysts told This Week in Asia. They warned the stalemate could stall legislation, delay military appointments and complicate Vice-President Sara Duterte-Carpio’s impeachment trial, leaving the Senate’s bas...
A renowned artificial intelligence researcher who spearheaded foundational AI research for TikTok owner ByteDance has announced his departure from the company. The unexpected development comes as the firm is increasingly looking to monetise its core AI offerings, including subscription plans for its flagship consumer AI app Doubao. Gu Quanquan, also an associate professor of computer science at th...
A prominent Hong Kong basketball coach has apologised after a viral video showed him forcing a pupil to slap himself in front of others in a school playground circulated online. The clip – involving basketball veteran Yung Kam-wah – also sparked concern from a child protection group, which warned that such acts could cause physical injury and emotional harm. In the video circulating on social medi...
A viral video showing a basketball coach forcing a pupil to slap himself in front of others at a Hong Kong school has sparked concern from a child protection group, which warns the act could cause physical injury and emotional harm. In a video circulating on social media platform Threads on Tuesday, three men in white T-shirts are seen standing around a boy on a school playground in broad daylight...
Malaysia has urged Norway to help expedite a refund for the cancelled missile procurement deal, with Defence Minister Mohamed Khaled Nordin insisting that Oslo cannot absolve itself of responsibility. Khaled said he had recently met Norway’s defence minister and conveyed Malaysia’s position that the Norwegian government’s refusal to approve an export licence was the cause of the issue. “The source...
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr’s net satisfaction rating has hit an all-time low, with observers citing deep-seated economic anxieties as the main driver behind the slump – even as expanded media exposure has helped boost awareness of his foreign policy initiatives. The latest Social Weather Stations survey put Marcos’ net satisfaction rating at minus 15 in March: a 12-point drop from m...
Social welfare authorities have applied for a protection order for a baby without documentation after police arrested his parents who continue to refuse a DNA test for the boy’s registration on privacy grounds. The couple were detained on Tuesday following an intervention by the city’s welfare minister, who said authorities only received an email reply from them on Monday evening after five days o...
Hong Kong police have arrested the parents of a baby without a legal identity after they continued to refuse a DNA test for the boy’s birth registration on privacy grounds. The couple were detained on Tuesday following an intervention by the city’s welfare minister, who said authorities only received an email reply from them on Monday evening after five days of unsuccessful attempts to contact the...
Hong Kong authorities have arrested the parents of a baby without legal identity after they continued to refuse a DNA test for the infant’s birth registration on privacy grounds. The arrest followed an intervention by the city’s welfare minister on Tuesday, who said authorities had received an email reply from the couple only on Monday evening after five days of unsuccessful attempts to contact th...
The parents of a Hong Kong baby without legal identity have insisted on not providing DNA proof for birth registration on privacy grounds, with the city’s welfare minister saying authorities would “strive to meet” the family after finally receiving an email reply from them. Secretary for Labour and Welfare Chris Sun Yuk-han on Tuesday said that the Social Welfare Department had finally received a ...
The parents of a Hong Kong baby without legal identity have insisted on not providing DNA proof for birth registration on privacy grounds, with the city’s welfare minister saying authorities would “strive to meet” the family after finally receiving an email reply from them. Secretary for Labour and Welfare Chris Sun Yuk-han on Tuesday said that the Social Welfare Department had finally received a ...
A vehicle fire in an undersea tunnel prompted the partial closure of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge for about 40 minutes on Tuesday afternoon, resulting in major traffic disruptions. The authority managing the bridge said in a social media post that the incident began at 12.58pm when a truck pulled over after one of its tyres caught fire. “A rapid, coordinated response involving bridge firefigh...
A vehicle fire in the undersea tunnel of the Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge caused major traffic disruption on Tuesday afternoon, prompting a partial closure of the key link between the three cities. The Transport Department said at 1.55pm that the incident occurred in the tunnel bound for Zhuhai and Macau, with the middle and slow lanes closed. Footage circulating online shows the tunnel filled wi...
The head of the World Health Organization on Monday concluded his visit to Democratic Republic of Congo by briefing the president on the response to the Ebola outbreak, which an aid agency warned was likely much larger than official figures show. The outbreak, already the third-largest on record, persisted for weeks undetected, say health officials, who are now behind the curve and struggling to ...
The waters off eastern Taiwan have become a new flashpoint after Tokyo and Manila announced formal negotiations to delimit the maritime boundary of the exclusive economic zones (EEZs) and continental shelf between Japan and the Philippines. On Monday, China’s coastguard carried out enforcement patrols in the region, exercising Beijing’s claimed right to maintain its own EEZ and continental shelf r...
A valiant official in China has been dubbed “Mud Buddha” after a photograph emerged of him covered in sludge while he was averting disaster by evacuating residents before a catastrophic landslide. From the evening of May 17 to the early morning of May 18, a downpour hit Shanghongyan Village in Maguan county, southwestern Yunnan province. At its height, the level of precipitation reached 256mm, the...
Hong Kong will relaunch direct flights with Almaty in Kazakhstan in the first quarter of next year, the city’s leader has announced in a breakthrough which businesses have said will be essential for easing travel and strengthening ties with Central Asia. Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu, who is leading a high-powered delegation to the region, also said on Tuesday that the city would start delibera...
Discrimination towards foreign residents in Japan has expanded from Koreans and Kurds to Muslims as their population is estimated to have nearly doubled in recent years, according to observers and community members. Misinformation and hate speech are spreading on Japanese social media and mosques are receiving a barrage of abusive phone calls and emails. Some are asking why they are suddenly being...
Shares of Tencent Holdings surged 10 per cent on Tuesday, driven by investor optimism over reports that the Chinese tech giant is close to launching an artificial intelligence agent within its super app WeChat. Tencent was testing a prototype AI agent for the WeChat ecosystem, which boasts 1.4 billion active users, and planned to start the compliance process as soon as this month for a public laun...
Shares of Tencent Holdings surged as much as 8 per cent on Tuesday, driven by investor optimism over reports that the Chinese tech giant is close to launching an artificial intelligence agent within its super app WeChat. Tencent was testing a prototype AI agent for the WeChat ecosystem, which boasts 1.4 billion active users, and planned to start the compliance process as soon as this month for a p...
A top US general’s description of South Korea as a “dagger in the heart of Asia” aimed at China has laid bare the differences in how Washington and Seoul view their alliance and Beijing. US Forces Korea commander General Xavier Brunson made the blunt remark in a podcast interview hosted by the US Army War College on May 22, drawing a backlash both from Beijing and from Seoul itself. South Korea’s ...
A Taiwanese air force aircraft crashed during a training mission on Tuesday, killing two experienced pilots and prompting renewed scrutiny of the island’s ageing fleet of T-34 basic trainers. The T-34C aircraft went down at about 8.08am at Gangshan Air Base in Kaohsiung, southern Taiwan, while conducting a simulated engine-failure exercise, according to the island’s air force. Both pilots on board...
Russian drones and missiles pounded the Ukrainian capital Kyiv and other cities early on Tuesday, killing at least 18 people and wounding more than 100, authorities said, following days of warnings about Moscow’s plans for a major assault. Russia has targeted Ukraine’s power supply and infrastructure in a war now more than four years old, while Ukraine has stepped up attacks this year on Russian o...
Russian drones and missiles pounded the Ukrainian capital Kyiv and other cities early on Tuesday, killing at least 11 people and wounding more than 100, authorities said, following days of warnings about Moscow’s plans for a major assault. Russia has targeted Ukraine’s power supply and infrastructure in a war now more than four years old, while Ukraine has stepped up attacks this year on Russian o...
