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US-Canada bridge opens in Detroit even as trade disputes test the neighbours’ ties
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US-Canada bridge opens in Detroit even as trade disputes test the neighbours’ ties

A major new bridge linking Canada and the United States at Detroit, Michigan opened on Monday to lorries, cars and other vehicles, the climax of a years-long project that lately had been bruised a bit by international politics. Descendants of Gordie Howe, the hockey legend whose name is on the bridge, were among the first to cross over the Detroit River, which separates Detroit from Windsor, Ontar...

Trump foe Comey urges judge to toss ‘86 47’ seashell post case
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Trump foe Comey urges judge to toss ‘86 47’ seashell post case

Former FBI director James Comey urged a judge on Monday to throw out federal charges against him, arguing that a photo of seashells arranged on a beach he posted on social media was not a call to violence against President Donald Trump but protected political speech. Comey’s lawyers argue the government cannot prove the Instagram photo of seashells in the numerical arrangement of “86 47” constitut...

James Comey says seashells post was a political speech, not a threat against Trump
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James Comey says seashells post was a political speech, not a threat against Trump

Former FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) director James Comey urged a judge on Monday to throw out federal charges against him, arguing that a photo of seashells arranged on a beach he posted on social media was not a call to violence against US President Donald Trump but protected political speech. Comey’s lawyers argue the government cannot prove the Instagram photo of seashells in the numer...

Bill Oddie, wildlife champion and Goodies star, dies at 85
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Bill Oddie, wildlife champion and Goodies star, dies at 85

UK television personality Bill Oddie, best known for his role in the television comedy series The Goodies and presenter of nature shows, has died aged 85, his agent said on Monday. “Bill was a multitalented celebrity – wildlife presenter, broadcaster, comedian, writer, songwriter, musician and conservationist,” Oddie’s agent, David Foster, said in a statement. “Yet it was never fame that he valued...

Bill Oddie, wildlife presenter and star of British comedy series The Goodies, dies at 85

Bill Oddie, wildlife presenter and star of British comedy series The Goodies, dies at 85

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UK television personality Bill Oddie, best known for his role in the television comedy series The Goodies and presenter of nature programmes, has died aged 85, his agent said on Monday. “Bill was a multitalented celebrity – wildlife presenter, broadcaster, comedian, writer, songwriter, musician and conservationist,” Oddie’s agent David Foster said in a statement. “Yet it was never fame that he val...

UK’s Burnham meets Zelensky, pledges ‘Stone Cloak’ tech for Ukraine’s drones

UK’s Burnham meets Zelensky, pledges ‘Stone Cloak’ tech for Ukraine’s drones

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British Prime Minister Andy Burnham held his first meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at a UK naval base on Monday, pledging new “Stone Cloak” jamming technology to help safeguard Ukraine’s drones on the battlefield. The meeting on the dockside and on board an aircraft carrier in the southern city of Portsmouth was Burnham’s first bilateral with a foreign leader and comes ahead of...

Zelensky arrives in UK for talks with Burnham ahead of Trump meeting

Zelensky arrives in UK for talks with Burnham ahead of Trump meeting

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in the UK on Monday for talks with new Prime Minister Andy Burnham, with Britain set to offer Kyiv fresh help to breach Russian air defences. “The key priorities are air defence, maritime security, and joint defence production,” Zelensky said in a social media post on his arrival. “Over the years of the full-scale war, we have built the strongest rela...

UK’s new PM Burnham welcomes Zelensky as first foreign visitor

UK’s new PM Burnham welcomes Zelensky as first foreign visitor

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Britain’s ⁠new prime minister, Andy Burnham, welcomed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as his first international visitor on Monday, in a move that underscores London’s steadfast support for Ukraine, Burnham’s office said. The two leaders met at a naval base, where they were due to hear how UK-led training programmes are helping strengthen Ukraine’s armed forces and deliver results on the ba...

UK funeral director faces jail over bodies left ‘on racks’

UK funeral director faces jail over bodies left ‘on racks’

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A British funeral director faced prison on Monday over a scandal that saw bodies left “stored on racks” and uncremated while relatives were handed other people’s ashes, sparking calls for better regulation of the industry. An ex-employee described Robert Bush’s funeral parlour as a “horror scene”, prosecutor Chris Paxton said at the start of a five-day sentencing hearing. Police who searched his p...

Trump, tariffs and ties with China at stake in Brazilian presidential race

Trump, tariffs and ties with China at stake in Brazilian presidential race

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With less than three months to go until Brazil’s presidential election, China is closely watching a high-stakes political duel between a Beijing-friendly incumbent and his pro-Washington challenger. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who maintains close ties with Beijing, is seeking a fourth non-consecutive term. His rival, Senator Flavio Bolsonaro – son of former president Jair Bolson...

From Moonshot to Enflame: how Tencent is betting big on China’s AI champions

From Moonshot to Enflame: how Tencent is betting big on China’s AI champions

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Tencent Holdings is quietly reallocating its venture capital bets away from legacy internet assets to double down on China’s highest-profile artificial intelligence champions. While the tech giant’s sprawling portfolio spans mobile gaming, e-commerce and consumer goods globally, its AI strategy has rapidly accelerated. Earlier this month, Tencent trimmed its long-held stake in Kuaishou Technology ...

Philippines’ Marcos uses national address to promise relief, but funding questions loom

Philippines’ Marcos uses national address to promise relief, but funding questions loom

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Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr used his 2026 State of the Nation Address (Sona) on Monday to promise relief from taxes, electricity charges and high rice prices, while pledging to pursue corruption cases linked to a flood-control scandal that has battered his administration. But while analysts said the one-and-a-half-hour speech addressed issues Filipinos had expected Marcos to confront...

China’s localised data centre push drives AI ambitions amid overbuilding concerns

China’s localised data centre push drives AI ambitions amid overbuilding concerns

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Despite their strikingly different approaches to developing and deploying artificial intelligence, one aspect is common across China and the United States: data and computing centres are proliferating in both countries, especially in remote locations. While the US is seeing residents and localities fight back against plans for data centres in their backyards, regional officials in China are embrac...

Why use rare earths in rubber production? Chinese scientists are engineering tougher tyres

Why use rare earths in rubber production? Chinese scientists are engineering tougher tyres

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Chinese researchers have completed trials of a new rare earth-based synthetic rubber production facility, industrialising a major raw material for manufacturing electric vehicle and heavy-duty vehicle tyres. High-quality synthetic rubber, most of which uses metal as a catalyst during production, is vital to the transport industry, manufacturing and national defence. The unit, built by Xinjiang-bas...

Hong Kong banks in early stages of preparing for quantum computing threats, HKMA says

Hong Kong banks in early stages of preparing for quantum computing threats, HKMA says

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Hong Kong’s banking sector is still in the early stages of preparing for cybersecurity risks posed by quantum computing, the city’s de facto central bank said on Monday as it unveiled a new benchmark to track the industry’s readiness. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) launched its first Quantum Preparedness Index (QPI), which gave the sector a score of 2.3 out of 10, indicating that most ban...

Hong Kong’s wild boar population halves under capture-and-kill strategy

Hong Kong’s wild boar population halves under capture-and-kill strategy

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The number of wild boars in Hong Kong has declined by more than half in the four years since authorities adopted a capture-and-kill policy, with HK$105.6 million (US$13.46 million) spent over the same period. A Legislative Council study published on Monday found that the number of boars culled since 2021 rose elevenfold to 723 last year under the new policy. Over the same period, the number of inj...

Is Kim Yo-jong’s rebuke a sign North Korea is ditching Asean diplomacy?

Is Kim Yo-jong’s rebuke a sign North Korea is ditching Asean diplomacy?

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A rare rebuke of Asean by the powerful sister of North Korean ruler Kim Jong-un signals the bloc’s waning relevance to the nuclear-armed state, analysts say. Kim Yo-jong on Monday condemned a call by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations for the country’s denuclearisation, saying the statement “distorted the essence of the situation in the Korean peninsula”. At the annual Asean Regional Forum...

Singapore detains 3 ‘self-radicalised’ teens over planned attacks

Singapore detains 3 ‘self-radicalised’ teens over planned attacks

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Singapore authorities said on Monday they had arrested three teenagers over separate plots to carry out shooting, stabbing and bomb attacks, warning of the threat of “youth radicalisation” in the security-conscious city state. The three boys, detained between April and June, had been “self-radicalised” online, adopting violent extremist ideologies, the Internal Security Department (ISD) said. They...

Iran halts strikes as Trump gives space to talks

Iran halts strikes as Trump gives space to talks

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Iran and the United States held their fire on Monday, handing Gulf shipping and the oil industry a respite from missile strikes as Donald Trump’s UN envoy said the president was “giving talks some space”. Tehran said it had halted retaliatory attacks against Washington’s allies in the Middle East, and US ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz told Fox News Sunday that, while forces remained “...

New DNA tracking helps spot rare ‘Tai O fish’ in Hong Kong waters after 10 years

New DNA tracking helps spot rare ‘Tai O fish’ in Hong Kong waters after 10 years

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A Hong Kong academic has used environmental DNA technology to detect the critically endangered Chinese bahaba – commonly known as the “Tai O fish” – in local waters for the first time in more than a decade. Jack Ip Chi-ho, an assistant professor at Lingnan University’s division of science, co-led the study with Wang Junjie, a professor at South China Normal University in mainland China. Together, ...

India is losing its regional primacy as Beijing and Washington move in

India is losing its regional primacy as Beijing and Washington move in

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South Asia is undergoing a gradual but important shift. Smaller states now command a widening array of options, and India’s primacy is quietly giving way. The lesson is clear. Regional leadership can no longer rest on geography and must be sustained through credible and mutually beneficial engagements that compare favourably with the alternatives. China’s challenge begins at India’s border. Both c...

Will the heat from a cooking oil scandal help the opposition in Taiwan?

Will the heat from a cooking oil scandal help the opposition in Taiwan?

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Taipei mayor Wayne Chiang Wan-an has emerged as the biggest political winner from an opposition protest against the government’s handling of a food safety scandal that drew what organisers said were more than 200,000 people onto the streets of the city. The unexpectedly large turnout appears to have given the island’s main opposition party, the Kuomintang, fresh momentum ahead of the local electio...

French police arrest man who wounded 3 with knives in Paris

French police arrest man who wounded 3 with knives in Paris

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French police detained a man ‌on Monday after he attacked three women with knives near Porte de Clichy in Paris, Interior Minister Laurent Nunez told reporters. The man attacked the three women, who were aged 19, 24 and 36, with two kitchen knives, severely wounding two ⁠of them, Nunez said. Video aired on social media and verified by ‌Reuters showed a man with long black hair, wearing a cream tra...

Paris police arrest man who wounded 3 with knives

Paris police arrest man who wounded 3 with knives

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A French off-duty policeman on Monday detained a man after he allegedly attacked and wounded three women with two kitchen knives in Paris, a minister and police said. Three women aged 19, 24 and 36 were taken to hospital after the assault at around 11.30am in the Porte de Clichy area in the north of the capital, Interior Minister Laurent Nunez and Paris police said. Two were gravely wounded, but t...

US criticism of Malaysia’s Israel stance spotlights growing ‘disconnect’

US criticism of Malaysia’s Israel stance spotlights growing ‘disconnect’

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US criticism of Malaysia’s entry ban on Israeli nationals is unlikely to force a major shift in the country’s foreign policy, analysts have said, after Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim rejected accusations that the move was antisemitic. The remarks escalated a dispute that has drawn in members of the US Congress, Malaysia’s long-standing refusal to recognise Israel and the widening international debat...

China condemns US over new Section 301 tariffs – but holds off on retaliation

China condemns US over new Section 301 tariffs – but holds off on retaliation

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The Ministry of Commerce has objected to Washington’s latest tariff on Chinese goods but signalled it will hold off on retaliation for now, noting the 12.5 per cent duty keeps the United States within the ceiling that the Trump administration promised in earlier talks. Washington was manipulating the issue of forced labour, the ministry said in a statement on Monday, calling the Section 301 invest...

Hong Kong set for stronger storms and wetter winter this year as El Nino intensifies

Hong Kong set for stronger storms and wetter winter this year as El Nino intensifies

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Hong Kong should prepare for stronger storms and a warmer, wetter winter this year as the current El Nino phenomenon is likely to intensify into a super event, a local green group and a leading meteorologist have said. Typhoons heading for Hong Kong this year were set to grow more powerful, as El Nino raised sea temperatures and provided storms with more moisture and energy, Friends of the Earth (...

Hong Kong High Court judge Wilson Chan told to retire over repeated plagiarism

Hong Kong High Court judge Wilson Chan told to retire over repeated plagiarism

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Chief Justice Andrew Cheung Kui-nung has told a Hong Kong High Court judge to retire early after reprimanding him for plagiarising submissions in a judgment, describing a series of such incidents as undermining public confidence. The city’s top judge said on Monday that Wilson Chan Ka-shun’s repeated judicial plagiarism had adversely affected the interests of the parties concerned, imposed an unne...

China charges alleged scam kingpin Chen Zhi with intentional injury: report

China charges alleged scam kingpin Chen Zhi with intentional injury: report

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Alleged scam-network mastermind Chen Zhi could face the death penalty, with Chinese prosecutors adding intentional injury to the list of charges against him. Chen, 38, was extradited from Cambodia to China six months ago and formally arrested on July 6, according to Chinese business magazine Caixin. He founded the Cambodian conglomerate Prince Group, which authorities say was linked to a sprawling...