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US space agency Nasa has unveiled far-reaching plans for its first moon base that could see people living and working on the lunar surface within six years. Located at the moon’s south pole, the outpost, which eventually may have sites spread out over hundreds of square kilometres, would be established in a phased approach, which builds capability over time. The pioneering development was designed...
Nasa is already ordering landers, rovers and drones for a sprawling moon base, less than two months after the Artemis II’s record-breaking lunar fly-around. The space agency outlined the first phase of its moon base plans on Tuesday, awarding hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts to four US companies. Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin will provide a pair of landers to deliver moon buggies to the luna...
A video of Robert F. Kennedy Jnr wrangling two snakes bare-handed captured the internet’s fascination on Tuesday, the latest animal encounter the US health secretary has shared publicly that has sparked intrigue and in some cases concern. Kennedy shared the clip of himself grabbing the tails of the non-venomous black racer snakes on his personal social media accounts, noting in the caption that he...
A Hong Kong medical technology firm manufacturing tailor-made body implants will expand research initiatives and explore setting up a factory in Central Asia, in a further collaboration which one expert said could also benefit the city. Koln 3D, Hong Kong’s first orthopaedic and metal component printing technology company, revealed its plan ahead of Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu’s coming visit ...
Panama’s foreign minister used a United Nations Security Council debate on Tuesday to call for dialogue over confrontation, saying his country was “born to connect oceans, continents, cultures and economies” in a speech delivered before an assembly chaired by China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, as the two countries navigate their worst bilateral crisis since establishing ties in 2017. China holds the r...
The US government will shortly issue a formal call for public comment on which Chinese products should qualify for lower tariffs under a newly established bilateral “Board of Trade”, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer announced on Tuesday. “We’ll be putting out a Federal Register notice shortly,” Greer told a Council on Foreign Relations gathering in Washington. “I’ve seen it, I’ve looked at i...
US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said on Tuesday that the government would seek public comment on which Chinese goods should be eligible for lower tariffs. Washington and Beijing have agreed to a joint “Board of Trade” to initially determine about US$30 billion of non-strategic goods on which the two countries can lower or eliminate tariffs. Greer said a public notice will be issued soon. ...
Dandong, the Chinese border city that faces North Korea across the Yalu River, is a barometer of ties between Beijing and Pyongyang. While lockdowns during the coronavirus pandemic led North Korea to sink into even greater isolation than usual, the resumption of cross-border rail links in recent months has triggered a pickup in activity, with freight volumes rising and local travel agencies report...
The US is preparing offensive weapons to blind China’s military satellites in any future conflict, even as the two sides lack reliable channels to manage risks in an increasingly crowded orbit, defence analysts said on Tuesday. Kari Bingen, director of the Aerospace Security Project at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and a former US deputy under secretary of defence for i...
A massive chemical tank holding nearly 3.4 million litres of a highly corrosive liquid imploded and collapsed Tuesday at a Washington paper mill, killing at least one worker and leaving nine others unaccounted for with no hope for rescue, authorities said. Another nine people were injured, some severely, in the spill at Nippon Dynawave Packaging Co in Longview. The cause remained unclear. “At the ...
A massive chemical tank holding nearly 3.4 million litres of a corrosive liquid imploded and collapsed Tuesday at a Washington paper mill, killing at least one worker and leaving nine others unaccounted for, authorities said. Nine other people were injured in the spill, some severely. Emergency responders were still working on recovery efforts at Nippon Dynawave Packaging Co in Longview, but hours...
The implosion of a chemical tank at a pulp and paper mill in southwestern Washington state on Tuesday injured at least 10 people, while an undisclosed number of others had been killed or remained missing, authorities said. In a joint statement, Nippon Dynawave Packaging and local first response agencies confirmed there had been fatalities. Cowlitz Fire and Rescue Chief Scott Goldstein later told a...
When Washington, Beijing and Moscow begin to treat one another as bargaining partners again, northeast Asia feels the pressure. Taiwan, Korea, sanctions, energy routes, nuclear risks and missile defence are no longer separate theatres. They increasingly belong to one strategic conversation between the US, China and Russia. Northeast Asia itself is already being reorganised through three trilateral...
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi took a swipe at the United States at a press conference at the United Nations on Tuesday as he touted the need to safeguard multilateralism and the UN Charter in times of great instability. “As we have seen for the recent period of time, the purposes of the UN Charter have been disregarded, the basic norms of international relations have been undermined, and world ...
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi took a swipe at the United States at a press conference at the United Nations on Tuesday as he touted the need to safeguard multilateralism and the UN Charter in times of great instability. “As we have seen for the recent period of time, the purposes of the UN Charter have been disregarded, the basic norms of international relations have been undermined, and world ...
The foreign ministers of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, or Quad, nations gathered in New Delhi on Tuesday in a coordinated display of unity aimed at reaffirming the bloc’s relevance amid recent shifts in geopolitical dynamics. The Quad, comprising the United States, Japan, Australia and India, aims to promote a “free and open” Indo-Pacific and balance China’s expanding influence in the strat...
Last year’s brazen robbery of the Louvre – when thieves made off with jewellery worth some US$100 million – is set to become a film, a publisher said on Tuesday. French director Romain Gavras – whose work includes 2025 Hollywood film Sacrifice starring Anya Taylor-Joy and music videos including most recently a hypnotic schoolboy choreography for GENER8ION – will draw inspiration from the investiga...
Last year’s brazen robbery of the Louvre – when thieves made off with jewellery worth some US$100 million – is set to become a film, a publisher said on Tuesday. French director Romain Gavras – whose work includes 2025 Hollywood film Sacrifice starring Anya Taylor-Joy and music videos including most recently a hypnotic schoolboy choreography for GENER8ION – will draw inspiration from the investiga...
The UK smashed a century-old temperature record for the second time in 24 hours on Tuesday as a spring heatwave continued to scorch parts of western Europe, triggering government warnings about risks to life. Several drownings were reported in Britain and France as people tried to cool down. A temperature of 35.1 degrees was recorded at London’s Kew Gardens, Britain’s Met Office weather service sa...
Iran started restoring access to the internet – a sign that the longest shutdown of its kind in history is easing amid a diplomatic push to end the war with the US. Monitoring group NetBlocks said there was a “partial restoration” on Tuesday after 88 days of near-total blackout on the national network, showing connectivity had risen from close to zero to around 35 per cent of typical levels. “In l...
US President Donald Trump’s health was under scrutiny once again on Tuesday as he had his annual medical examination just days before his 80th birthday. The oldest US president ever sworn into office, Republican Trump has repeatedly boasted of his mental and physical vigour compared to Democratic predecessor Joe Biden. But the check-up at Walter Reed Military Hospital comes amid speculation about ...
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Debates continued to rage online after a Hong Kong school principal was filmed verbally abusing two South Asian security guards in Singapore, with viewers divided over whether his behaviour reflected a lack of manners or racial bias. Lee Cheuk-hing, the principal of San Wui Commercial Society Secondary School in Tuen Mun, was caught on camera behaving badly and swearing at two security guards duri...
US President Donald Trump’s administration proposed asking federal workers to sign non-disclosure agreements, according to a government statement made public on Tuesday, with the goal of preventing them from sharing confidential information with journalists. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the human resources office for the US government, said it wanted to create a non-disclosure agreeme...
Indonesia has blocked predictions market Polymarket as part of its crackdown on online gambling, its communications and digital ministry said, days after the site took bets on a premature end to Prabowo Subianto’s presidency. Gambling is illegal in Indonesia and authorities have been clamping down on online betting. “The government will not allow any form of online gambling in Indonesia,” the min...
Hong Kong authorities have launched a public consultation on overhauling fire safety regulations, six months after the city’s deadliest inferno in decades, proposing to expand firefighters’ law enforcement powers and impose additional responsibilities on management firms and contractors. The Security Bureau and the Fire Services Department on Tuesday began a one-month consultation exercise on prop...
Huawei Technologies has engineered a workaround to one of China’s most crippling chipmaking bottlenecks, but analysts warn that the nation’s path to semiconductor independence is still constrained by manufacturing challenges. The US-sanctioned tech giant on Monday introduced a new scaling law and a chip architecture designed to deliver products equivalent to an advanced 1.4-nanometre processing no...
Palestinian shepherd Sameeha Rasheed was planning for the sacred ritual of sacrificing her family’s sheep for the Eid al-Adha holiday, one of the holiest occasions in Islam, but West Bank Jewish settlers stole them in a predawn raid, she said. Instead of celebrating, Rasheed has been left with nothing and has also been deprived of the income she would have received from selling the sheep not used ...
There are growing doubts within China’s space sector that Starship, the world’s most powerful rocket being developed by SpaceX in the United States, will ever overcome its engineering and financial challenges and deliver for founder and CEO Elon Musk. Starship’s latest flight on Friday – weeks before the company’s expected initial public offering (IPO) – was described as “mostly successful” by the...
An explosion damaged a tanker close to its waterline as it sailed off Oman, a marine monitor said on Tuesday, as tensions remained high around the blockaded Strait of Hormuz. “The crew and vessel are safe, although the master reports some bunker fuel has discharged into the sea,” UK Maritime Trade Operations said. The incident, in the Gulf of Oman about 60 nautical miles east of Muscat, was an “ex...
