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Gunmen on motorbikes in India’s West Bengal ambushed and killed a political aide from the ruling Hindu-nationalist party days after it swept state elections, police said on Thursday. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won a resounding victory on Monday in the eastern state of more than 100 million people, taking 207 of the 294 assembly seats, for its first-ever state victo...
Russia told foreign governments and organisations to evacuate diplomatic staff and citizens from Kyiv, saying a retaliatory strike would be inevitable if Ukraine tried to attack Moscow during World War II Victory Day celebrations on May 9. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said late Wednesday that Russia had sent a message to all accredited embassies urging them to take “very, very seri...
Russia warned foreign diplomats in Kyiv that it would attack the city if Ukraine disrupted World War II commemorations in Moscow this weekend, as attacks from both sides continued into Thursday. Russia did not elaborate on its threat, and Ukraine did not immediately respond. Russia and Ukraine traded strikes on Thursday, wounding 13 people in the Russian border city of Bryansk and one person in Uk...
Russia warned foreign diplomats in Kyiv that it would attack the city if Ukraine disrupted World War II commemorations in Moscow this weekend, as attacks from both sides continued into Thursday. Russia did not elaborate on its threat, and Ukraine did not immediately respond. Russia and Ukraine traded strikes on Thursday, wounding 13 people in the Russian border city of Bryansk and one person in Uk...
The queues start to form before the lunchtime rush at Phed Mark, a Bangkok kitchen with a pop-up feel that dishes up steaming plateloads of pad kaphrao – a runny fried egg with fiery minced meat over rice – to a clientele of mainly Chinese tourists. Founded by YouTuber Mark Wein, Phed Mark has turned a Thai staple into a must-eat for Chinese visitors, who defy the heat to patiently wait each day o...
A virus found in shrimp and fish may cause an eye disease in humans, according to a recent study that marks the first known case of a pathogen from aquatic animals infecting people. Those “who handle dissected aquatic animals daily without adequate protection or eat raw aquatic animals daily are at high risk” of being exposed to the virus, the researchers cautioned in their recently published pape...
A virus found in shrimp and fish may cause an eye disease in humans, according to a recent study that marks the first known case of a pathogen from aquatic animals infecting people. Those “who handle dissected aquatic animals daily without adequate protection or eat raw aquatic animals daily are at high risk” of being exposed to the virus, the researchers cautioned in their recently published pape...
Malaysian King Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar arrived in Moscow on Thursday for a high-profile visit that comes as Kuala Lumpur looks for alternative oil sources amid the Iran war-linked fuel crisis. Sultan Ibrahim landed at Vnukovo-2 International Airport at 4.20pm local time on Thursday, according to Malaysian reports, and was received by Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko, senior protocol ...
This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing. The second of three witnesses from the Housing Bureau’s Independent Checking Unit (ICU) testified on Thursday at a hearing into Hong Kong’s deadliest fire in decades. The government-appointed independent committee continued to question members of the unit over ...
This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing. The second of three witnesses from the Housing Bureau’s Independent Checking Unit (ICU) is set to testify on Thursday at a hearing into Hong Kong’s deadliest fire in decades. The government-appointed independent committee will continue to question members of th...
This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing. The second of three witnesses from the Housing Bureau’s Independent Checking Unit (ICU) is set to testify on Thursday at a hearing into Hong Kong’s deadliest fire in decades. The government-appointed independent committee will continue to question members of th...
A South Korean appeals court reduced the sentence of former prime minister Han Duck-soo on Thursday by eight years for crimes relating to ex-president Yoon Suk-yeol’s martial law declaration. Yoon’s decree in December 2024 briefly suspended civilian rule and plunged South Korea into chaos, but only lasted around six hours as opposition lawmakers moved quickly to overturn it in a vote. A lower cour...
A Hong Kong motorcyclist has been killed after reportedly losing control of his vehicle and overturning inside the Eastern Harbour Crossing, with police launching an investigation. Police said on Thursday that the accident occurred in Kwun Tong shortly after midnight, at about 12.51am, as the motorcycle was travelling through the tunnel towards Hong Kong Island. The vehicle is believed to have str...
In the weeks leading up to Donald Trump’s second inauguration, conservatives in Japan were delighted and hopeful that his return would usher in robust economic growth, new trade opportunities and a stronger security relationship with Tokyo. Now, barely 18 months later, many of the conservatives admit to being shocked at the state of the bilateral relationship and mounting global uncertainties due ...
Chloe Wang, a 26-year-old fund employee in Shenzhen, said she “definitely wouldn’t” pay for a subscription to Doubao, Chinese tech giant ByteDance’s artificial intelligence chatbot, at its proposed price. “I’m willing to pay for AI tools, but I don’t think it’s worth that much – even though I find Doubao relatively easy to use among domestic AI products,” said Wang, who uses the app occasionally f...
New Zealand is weighing the purchase of advanced warships from Japan or the UK to modernise its ageing fleet and bolster its defence capability. The South Pacific nation, member of the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing network alongside Australia, the US, the UK and Canada, is focused on Japanese Mogami-class or the UK’s Type 31 frigates. Discussions are under way with the Royal Australian Navy and t...
Ahead of US President Donald Trump’s grand entry to Beijing on May 14, his cavalcade is already on the move in the Chinese capital. Two black SUVs with tinted windows and US government plates were spotted on a Beijing highway, according to images that circulated on Wednesday, signalling the start of an intense security build-up for the year’s most significant diplomatic event – the China-US summit...
North Korea’s UN envoy said his country was not bound by the non-proliferation treaty (NPT) on nuclear weapons and external pressure would not change its status as a nuclear-armed state, official media reported on Thursday. Pyongyang threatened to withdraw from the treaty in 1993 and formally did so in 2003. It has since conducted six nuclear tests – prompting a raft of international sanctions – a...
A new study from the University of Chile suggests that common artificial sweeteners may trigger biological changes that are passed down to future generations. The research focused on sucralose and stevia, two of the world’s most widely used non-nutritive sweeteners (NNS). The additives could alter gut microbiota, gene expression and metabolism in mice, with some effects persisting in their first- ...
Profit trajectories between automotive assemblers and electric vehicle (EV) battery producers in China are set to diverge further due to lacklustre car sales and buoyant demand for energy-storage systems. Leading players, including China’s EV battery king Contemporary Amperex Technology Ltd (CATL), would continue to attract buying interest in their shares, spurred by improved profitability, accord...
The revival of Chinese hanfu, or traditional dress of the Han people, in recent years has drawn attention to the complicated etiquette surrounding buttons. As the Xinzhongshi, or neo-Chinese style clothing, took over the market in recent years, some people complained online that they had bought clothes that would bring bad luck. The telltale sign was the number of buttons on a garment. In some Ch...
Traffic accidents involving animals in Hong Kong have skyrocketed more than 11-fold over the past four years, with advocacy groups attributing it to a wave of pet abandonments and the blurring of urban-rural boundaries caused by large-scale development. The latest data submitted to the Legislative Council on Wednesday showed reports of animal-related traffic accidents received by police surged fro...
North Korea has removed references to “national reunification” from its constitution and newly defined its territory as land bordering South Korea, a move analysts say may signal Pyongyang’s intent to avoid direct conflict with Seoul. The constitutional overhaul is widely seen as aligning with the North’s evolving stance towards Seoul – shifting away from reunification and towards a more formalise...
North Korea has removed references to “national reunification” from its constitution and newly defined its territory as land bordering South Korea, a move analysts say may signal Pyongyang’s intent to avoid direct conflict with Seoul. The constitutional overhaul is widely seen as aligning with the North’s evolving stance towards Seoul – shifting away from reunification and towards a more formalise...
A US federal judge on Wednesday released a document described as a suicide note purportedly written by the late Jeffrey Epstein and including the line: “It is a treat to be able to choose one’s time to say goodbye”. Epstein, the disgraced financier and accused sex trafficker, was found dead in his Manhattan jail cell in August 2019 in what was ruled a suicide. The handwritten note was said to h...
A note Jeffrey Epstein’s former cellmate claimed he found after the financier’s first suspected jail suicide attempt was made public on Wednesday after it had been sealed and locked in a courthouse vault for nearly five years as part of an unrelated legal dispute. US District Judge Kenneth Karas in White Plains, New York, ordered the note’s release after The New York Times petitioned last week to ...
US President Donald Trump’s lawyer, hoping for an eventual Supreme Court victory, has asked a federal appeal court in New York to temporarily block a long-time columnist from collecting a US$83 million defamation award. The lawyer, Justin D. Smith, told the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals in a filing on Tuesday to stay its decision supporting the award so that Trump will not have to pay writer E. ...
A trial of a US citizen of Chinese descent accused of creating a covert police station in Manhattan opened on Wednesday, considering evidence of what the US government says is part of Beijing’s bid to expand its influence well beyond Chinese shores. Lu Jianwang, 64, faces three charges in the US Eastern District Court of New York: acting as an unauthorised agent of China; conspiracy to act as a fo...
US President Donald Trump’s landmark visit to China comes as the Iran war disrupts global energy supplies, fuels economic uncertainty and adds fresh strain to Washington-Beijing ties. In the first part of a series examining how rivalry, interdependence and geopolitical crises are reshaping the relationship between the two powers, we look at the Arctic as an arena for competition. The Arctic is hea...
The US Air Force is targeting a Fourth of July delivery for a Boeing 747 gifted by Qatar that would join the Air Force One fleet in time for the nation’s 250th anniversary, a US official and a person familiar with the programme said. The White House accepted the luxury jet from Qatar in 2025 and asked the Air Force to rapidly upgrade the aircraft to presidential standards, with L3Harris tapped to...
