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This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing. The Hong Kong Observatory issued an amber rainstorm warning for more than three hours on Tuesday evening. The warning, the lowest level in a three-tier system, was issued at 6.15pm and cancelled at 9.55pm. The alert signals that more than 30mm (1.2 inches) of r...
This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing. The Hong Kong Observatory issued an amber rainstorm warning at 6.15pm on Tuesday, signalling that more than 30mm (1.2 inches) of rain had fallen or was expected to fall across the city within an hour. The forecaster said downpours were likely to continue, with ...
A Swedish court on Tuesday sentenced a 61-year-old man to four years and five months in prison for having “ruthlessly exploited” his wife to have sex with scores of men for payment. The man was convicted of “aggravated pimping” as well as attempted rape, assault and issuing threats, as well as a minor drug offence, the court said in a statement, noting the actions took place over three years. “The...
The US military is planning a permanent war-ready weapons stockpile for its Marine Corps on Australia’s southeast coast beyond the range of most Chinese missiles, according to tender documents and officials. The development of the stockpile, a first for the Marine Corps in Australia, came as the US was keen to leverage the continent’s strategic location in the South Pacific to counter China’s rapi...
An owner of a Hong Kong private tutorial centre has admitted to molesting five boys and filming some of the offences, claiming he did so out of curiosity. Yu Hey-tsit, 46, pleaded guilty at the High Court on Tuesday to 15 counts of indecent assault and four of making child pornography. The crimes came to light on August 24, 2023, after a 12-year-old boy confided in his grandmother that Yu had kiss...
An owner of a Hong Kong private tutorial centre has admitted molesting five boys and filming some of the offences, claiming he did so out of curiosity. Yu Hey-tsit, 46, pleaded guilty at the High Court on Tuesday to 15 counts of indecent assault and four of making child pornography. The crimes came to light on August 24, 2023, after a 12-year-old boy confided in his grandmother that Yu had kissed ...
China’s top legislative body will discuss a bill next week to authorise Hong Kong’s jurisdiction over part of the redeveloped Huanggang Port in Shenzhen that will adopt a “co-location” arrangement when it opens next month. Meetings to be held by the National People’s Congress Standing Committee between June 23 and 26 in Beijing were announced on Tuesday after its chairman, Zhao Leji, chaired a dis...
China’s top legislative body will discuss a bill next week to authorise Hong Kong’s jurisdiction over part of the redeveloped Huanggang Port in Shenzhen that will adopt a “co-location” arrangement when it opens next month. The meetings to be held by the National People’s Congress Standing Committee between June 23 and 26 in Beijing were announced on Tuesday after its chairman, Zhao Leji, chaired a...
China’s top legislative body will discuss a bill next week to authorise Hong Kong’s jurisdiction over part of the redeveloped Huanggang Port in Shenzhen that will adopt a “co-location” arrangement when it opens next month. The meetings to be hosted by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC) between June 23 and 26 in Beijing were announced on Tuesday after its chairman, Zhao ...
China’s largest ground-based arms manufacturer is displaying air defence systems specifically for drone warfare, along with advanced artillery equipment at this year’s Eurosatory exhibition in France. Demand for air defence solutions is skyrocketing, fuelled by the conflict in Ukraine and the US-Israeli war on Iran which have been largely defined by the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) and mi...
Indonesia has vowed to overhaul the country’s ambitious free nutritious meals programme following public pressure and recent allegations of corruption – a move analysts described as a “moderate” concession in lieu of an “embarrassing” discontinuation of President Prabowo Subianto’s flagship initiative. The US$15 billion initiative aims to reach 83 million schoolchildren, pregnant women, breastfeed...
China’s “Goose Leg Auntie” has come under fire after allegedly selling cheaper duck legs as raw materials. Chen Xiufeng, a 56-year-old street vendor in Beijing, built a loyal following with her 16 yuan (US$2) roast “goose legs”, promoted through social media pre-order groups. After arriving in Beijing in 2000 to sell fruit outside university gates, Chen later became known as “Goose Leg Auntie” bec...
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Tuesday that ending the war on all fronts, including in Lebanon, was “the most important” issue in the peace deal with the United States announced the day before. “The important point I want to emphasise here is that in our view, there are two parties to this memorandum – one side is America and Israel, and the other side is Iran and Hezbollah,” said ...
When the ground tore open beneath the Philippines last week, Roldan Dante was working in a nearby town. By the time he could return, his home in Glan, Sarangani province, had collapsed. His wife and two young children were gone. “If only I had known this was going to happen, I would have picked them up,” he told This Week in Asia, as social workers pressed government cash aid into his hands. “I fe...
When the ground tore open beneath the Philippines last week, Roldan Dante was working in a nearby town. By the time he could return, his home in Glan, Sarangani province, had collapsed. His wife and two young children were gone. “If only I had known this was going to happen, I would have picked them up,” he told This Week in Asia, as social workers pressed government cash aid into his hands. “I fe...
A 6.7-magnitude earthquake shook part of central Indonesia’s Sulawesi island on Tuesday, causing scattered damage and rattling residents of a city devastated by a quake and tsunami eight years ago. The strong shaking sent people fleeing into open areas in and around Palu, a city of about 400,000 people and the capital of Central Sulawesi province. Several hospitals evacuated patients, some with IV...
“Overcapacity” has become the buzzword in Washington and Brussels. American and European policymakers insist China churns out far more steel, electric vehicles and green technology than it can absorb, flooding the world with subsidised goods. Yet the economic data tells a different story: of double standards, protectionist impulses and a habit of moving the goalposts. Start with steel. Western off...
China’s ruling Communist Party has announced a new branch of President Xi Jinping’s political thought, which stresses governing the party with discipline and unified leadership. During a national conference on party building on Monday, the concept of “Xi Jinping Thought on Party Building” was hailed as “a milestone in the history of Marxist theory on party building and in the history of Chinese Co...
China’s ruling Communist Party has announced a new branch of President Xi Jinping’s political thought, which stresses governing the party with discipline and unified leadership. During a national conference on party building on Monday, the concept of “Xi Jinping Thought on Party Building” was hailed as “a milestone in the history of Marxist theory on party building and in the history of Chinese Co...
Hong Kong’s privacy watchdog has launched a data privacy academy as part of efforts to align with the national strategy of developing the city into an international high-calibre talent hub. Announcing the news at the 30th Anniversary Privacy Protection Summit on Tuesday, Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data Ada Chung Lai-ling said the office would also strive to implement and support the city’s ...
Nisa Mohd did not send her daughter to boarding school unprepared. Before the now 17-year-old left for Melaka, her mother enrolled her in silat, the Malay martial art, and made one instruction clear: report any trouble immediately. She still watches for shifts in her daughter’s mood each time they speak. Millions of parents across Malaysia recognise her vigilance, with the country still following ...
Nisa Mohd did not send her daughter to boarding school unprepared. Before the now 17-year-old left for Melaka, her mother enrolled her in silat, the Malay martial art, and made one instruction clear: report any trouble immediately. She still watches for shifts in her daughter’s mood each time they speak. Millions of parents across Malaysia recognise her vigilance, with the country still following ...
Disney opens Shanghai park, with eye to future By Mandy Zuo (Additional reporting by Nikki Sun) This article was first published on June 16, 2016 China represents “incredible potential” for Walt Disney, said company chairman Bob Iger ahead of the opening of its Shanghai theme park today (June 16, 2016). The US$5.5 billion complex is the first step onto mainland soil by the Western media giant as i...
A poultry stall at a Hong Kong market has been disinfected after an environmental sample tested positive for the H9 bird flu virus, with shoppers remaining largely unfazed despite a recent infection involving a two-year-old boy. The affected stall, the only live poultry shop operating inside Sha Tin’s Wo Che Market, temporarily suspended operations on Tuesday morning for cleaning. The shop owner a...
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, one of Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin’s closest allies, said in an interview published on Monday that Russia and Ukraine must compromise to end the war that has raged for more than four years with no end in sight. Lukashenko, whose ex-Soviet state has been improving ties with Washington, also said that he would not rule out meeting US President Donald Tru...
Radar-absorbing materials have long been associated with stealth fighters, cruise missiles and other high-end military platforms for which performance often comes at a high cost. But in China, some stealth coatings could be moving into large-scale industrial production and driving prices down fast. A team from Foshan University reported a low-cost microwave-absorbing composite made from expanded g...
Alibaba Group Holding has launched its first suite of artificial intelligence models for robots, joining a global race to move AI out of chatbot windows and into the physical world. The Hangzhou-based tech giant on Tuesday introduced the Qwen Robot Suite, marking its latest foray into “embodied AI” – machines that can perceive, reason and interact with physical environments. Developed by Alibaba’s...
China’s Miao ethnic group reveres trees, believing that they symbolise the life of humans, they also worship the vegetation at important stages of life. The Miao people, whose population numbers over 10 million, inhabit central and southern China’s Guizhou, Yunnan, Guangxi provinces, and have a traditional Flower-Jump Festival every year. At this time, people gather around a 10-metre-tall flower t...
Shipowners will not resume transit through the Strait of Hormuz for weeks until they are confident that the US-Iran deal is “material”, the CEO of Japan’s Mitsui O.S.K. Lines told the Financial Times in an interview published on Tuesday. The Iran war that began on February 28 with US-Israeli strikes largely stopped shipping through the transit route for around a fifth of the world’s oil and liq...
The drones are grounded, tankers are reportedly moving again through the Strait of Hormuz and an electronically signed memorandum of understanding has formalised the pause. After 108 days, thousands dead and hundreds of billions of US dollars stripped from the global economy, the US-Israel war on Iran has ended – for now. Not with victory. Not with defeat. With a freeze. The United States and Isra...
