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A new political party called Restore Britain is threatening the rise of Nigel Farage’s hard-right group, with a tougher anti-immigrant stance and the backing of tech trillionaire Elon Musk. Led by businessman and ex-football chairman Rupert Lowe, Restore is tipped to deprive Farage’s Reform UK party of victory over the ruling Labour Party in a crunch special election on Thursday. Lowe, 68, formed ...
Captain Raman Kapoor was loading oil at an Iraqi port when word reached him that the United States and Iran were at war. Within hours, his tanker was trapped north of the Strait of Hormuz with 24 crew members aboard, as missiles began arcing across the sky overhead. “We were stuck inside the war zone and everyone was so scared and clueless about what to do,” Kapoor, 48, recalled. “We all felt so t...
The leaders of the world’s richest democracies are talking about how to tackle some of the world’s biggest problems this week, but hot mics at the G7 summit revealed that conversations also covered lighter fare. Sports. Cigarettes. The weather. And something about Greenland? As world leaders made their way into conference rooms at a lakeside resort, microphones set up for their weighty discussions...
A group of Malaysian tourists is facing intense backlash for filming strangers and mocking locals in China as “smelly”, sparking debate on travel etiquette and national image. The clips, which also appeared to show the visitors shouting insults in Malay while travelling in the country, were allegedly first posted on TikTok by user @ekyn.wong. They were later deleted from the account when checked b...
Scientists have known for decades that massive undersea flows called turbidity currents can reshape ocean floors and damage the vital cables which carry global internet traffic. But how they form and behave has remained elusive until now. An international team led by Tsinghua University has found that these flows are more common than previously believed, forming in gentle environments such as rese...
Hong Kong teachers will have to complete at least 30 hours of digital education training every three years, as authorities unveil a blueprint to boost the use of technology in schools. As part of the initiative, primary and secondary schools will also be required to incorporate digital elements into their annual school development plans, while an innovation and technology curriculum will be rolled...
A major bakery chain has been hit by a ransomware attack on its internal network, prompting Hong Kong’s privacy watchdog to seek details to assess the risk of a potential data leak. Kee Wah Bakery, known for its local and Chinese pastries, revealed the incident on Tuesday, after its internal network malfunctioned on Friday last week. A preliminary investigation found that a ransomware attack had t...
With the card-collecting hobby turning into a moneymaking venture with thousands of ringgit moved in single transactions, Malaysia’s tax authorities are keeping a close eye out for any tax discrepancies and doing audits to clarify statuses. The Inland Revenue Board (LHDN) said it is aware of the growing market for high-value collectibles, in particular trading cards, and urged collectors to be awa...
When Celine Teo feels homesick, she visits Singaporean eatery Vanda Room in Beijing’s central business district to enjoy delicacies such as chicken rice and laksa. “Being able to enjoy a familiar dish abroad always brings a sense of comfort and connection to home,” said the 25-year-old undergraduate, who has lived in China for four years. But Teo worries these connections are thinning, as some Sin...
Alcohol has played a central role in human culture for at least 10,000 years, with the earliest known alcoholic beverage – a rice wine – originating from the Henan province of central China. However, much of our understanding of these early adult beverages is superficial at best. Recently, a handful of studies from China are shedding light on what the oldest Chinese residents were drinking and how...
Taiwan’s recent launch of Himars rockets westwards towards the Taiwan Strait highlights how the island’s defensive strategy is shifting to the use of mobile strike weapons to disrupt a mainland Chinese attack before it reaches shore. The exercise on June 10 was the first time the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System had been launched in the direction of mainland China. Beijing has yet to respond ...
Some may feel a lump in their throats as they watch Hong Kong’s first astronaut, Lai Ka-ying, make history, but few see it as anything more than an inspirational story for our youth. In reality, space, which can feel lofty and far away to pragmatic Hongkongers, could hold the key to our city’s economic future. In my previous column, we discussed why Hong Kong represents China’s best chance to buil...
An asteroid discovered by a Hong Kong-born astronomer has been named after a firefighter who died in the city’s deadliest blaze in decades, with his fiancée expressing gratitude for a move that turned him into an eternal “star”. Ho Wai‑ho, 37, was killed in the Wang Fuk Court fire in Tai Po last November while helping to evacuate residents. To honour his sacrifice, amateur astronomer William Yeung...
The expected reopening of the Strait of Hormuz under a US-Iran ceasefire framework could ease pressure on South Korea’s energy-dependent economy while creating a thornier diplomatic problem for Seoul: how much should it contribute to securing the waterway? That question is likely to shadow President Lee Jae Myung’s visit to the Group of Seven summit this week in Evian-les-Bains, France, where the ...
One of President Donald Trump’s pet beauty projects for Washington was supposed to make the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool look blue, like part of the US flag. Enter Mother Nature. Algae has proliferated in the water, turning it a swampy green. “Can you see it in my photos? Oh well, I’ll just use a filter to hide the algae,” said Farrah Lu, a 43-year-old tourist from China. The invasion comes ju...
SpaceX roared past Amazon’s market valuation on Tuesday and briefly topped that of Microsoft, rapidly scaling the list of the world’s most valuable companies on a topsy-turvy trading day fuelled by frenzied action in the firm’s newly listed option contracts. SpaceX shares rose 4.8 per cent to close at US$201.80, giving Elon Musk’s company a market value of roughly US$2.655 trillion – some US$800 ...
The race for artificial intelligence has hardened into a two-power contest between the United States and China, fought over rare earths, data and the rules governing the technology, with Latin America and Europe sidelined, Brazil’s top foreign policy adviser said on Tuesday. Celso Amorim, a former foreign and defence minister, made the case at the Forte de Copacabana International Security Confere...
As trade tensions between Beijing and Brussels continue to rise, China’s firms in the European Union have been forced to walk a delicate tightrope: expanding their presence in the lucrative market while grappling with heightened regulatory hurdles and rapid geopolitical shifts. In the second part of this three-part series, we look at whether China and the EU are heading for a full-blown trade conf...
The Russia-India-China (RIC) dialogue is back in the diplomatic conversation. It has not formally restarted, and no summit is on the horizon. But the signals are here. In 2025, Moscow again pushed for reviving the RIC format. India said any meeting would have to be arranged in a “mutually convenient manner”, a cautious but open formula. China said it was willing to maintain communication with Russ...
The two-week US trip by Taiwan’s main opposition leader offered Washington a different take on cross-Strait relations, although whether it will change anything remains in question, some experts said. Kuomintang (KMT) chairwoman Cheng Li-wun landed back in Taipei early on Tuesday, concluding a five-stop visit she called “beyond expectations”. Cheng began her trip on June 1, visiting San Francisco, ...
The two-week US trip by Taiwan’s main opposition leader offered Washington a different take on cross-Strait relations, although whether it will change anything remains in question, some experts said. Kuomintang (KMT) chairwoman Cheng Li-wun landed back in Taipei early on Tuesday, concluding a five-stop visit she called “beyond expectations”. Cheng began her trip on June 1, visiting San Francisco, ...
The two-week US trip by Taiwan’s main opposition leader offered Washington a different take on cross-Strait relations, although whether it will change anything remains in question, some experts said. Kuomintang (KMT) chairwoman Cheng Li-wun landed back in Taipei early on Tuesday, concluding a five-stop visit she called “beyond expectations”. Cheng began her trip on June 1, visiting San Francisco, ...
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang – whose work helped enable artificial intelligence – stressed in an interview on Tuesday that society has no choice but to change in the advent of AI. Huang has been optimistic about the technology’s potential to rapidly change society, creating faster economic growth and more scientific breakthroughs. But as the head of a computer chip company now developing AI systems, Hu...
US President Donald Trump has invoked the Defence Production Act in a bid to bolster weapons stockpiles that critics say have been strained by the war in Iran and other conflicts. This came as Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi held a telephone call with his Pakistani counterpart on Tuesday during which they spoke about the memorandum of understanding between the US and Iran. That MOU, announced on ...
US President Donald Trump has tapped the Defence Production Act in a bid to bolster weapons stockpiles that critics say have been strained by the war in Iran and other conflicts. This came as Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi held a telephone call with his Pakistani counterpart on Tuesday during which they spoke about the memorandum of understanding between the US and Iran. That MOU, announced on S...
US President Donald Trump invoked the Defence Production Act in an effort to bolster delivery of weapons whose stockpiles critics say have been strained by the war in Iran and other conflicts. The president cited “systemic constraints in the munitions industrial base” in his order for Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth to make “voluntary agreements and plans of action” to address the depleted US defen...
A department store in central Paris announced on Tuesday the end of its cooperation with Chinese ultra-fast fashion giant Shein, which, French media reported, could see the e-commerce platform’s first physical store closed by this Christmas. La Societe des Grands Magasins (SGM), owner of the historic BHV Marais, which sits opposite Paris City Hall a few hundred meters from Notre-Dame cathedral, ha...
A department store in central Paris announced on Tuesday the end of its cooperation with Chinese ultra-fast fashion giant Shein, which, French media reported, could see the e-commerce platform’s first physical store closed by this Christmas. La Societe des Grands Magasins (SGM), owner of the historic BHV Marais, which sits opposite Paris City Hall a few hundred meters from Notre-Dame cathedral, ha...
Two passengers were killed late on Tuesday when a truck slammed into their taxi on a wet highway in Hong Kong, with the cab flipping at least six times and tossing one of the victims onto the road. Police said the collision occurred at about 10pm on Tsing Sha Highway in Cheung Sha Wan as both vehicles were heading eastbound. The taxi was struck by the light goods truck near Hoi Lai Estate. The tax...
Russia said one of its warships fired warning shots on Tuesday near a yacht making a “dangerous approach” in the English Channel, though Britain evaluated that the shots were “not aimed at the vessel”. The incident involved the Russian frigate Admiral Grigorovich and a UK-registered yacht around 20 nautical miles (37km) south of the Isle of Wight, just outside British waters, a UK defence source s...
