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China pancake seller in US plans to run for mayor, generating buzz despite thorny past
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China pancake seller in US plans to run for mayor, generating buzz despite thorny past

A Chinese pancake seller in the US has announced plans to run for mayor within three years, despite past controversy over an arrest. Tang, 31, was born to a rural family in Sichuan, southwestern China, and left school after secondary education. He is the son of a security guard and a cleaner. After working in sales and the car industry, he moved to the US in 2022, with little English, first taking...

With fewer public spaces for Hong Kong’s helpers, where can they go to unwind?
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With fewer public spaces for Hong Kong’s helpers, where can they go to unwind?

On a recent stormy Sunday, domestic helpers on their weekly day off were seen hastily erecting tents and laying out plastic sheets under footbridges and inside transport hubs in Hong Kong’s Tsuen Wan district as they sought refuge from the downpour. Dozens of tents were pitched around the pillars of the footbridges, while other groups crowded onto narrow concrete platforms inside a bus terminus. M...

Fatal crocodile attacks in Indonesia put spotlight on habitat destruction
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Fatal crocodile attacks in Indonesia put spotlight on habitat destruction

The recent deaths of two men from crocodile attacks in North Sumatra have put a spotlight on Indonesia’s record as the country with the world’s highest number of such killings annually, raising questions over whether habitat destruction is pushing people and wildlife into increasingly dangerous contact. Environmental groups said the deaths reflected a wider pattern across the archipelago, where lo...

US citizen and journalist charged with acting as Chinese agent
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US citizen and journalist charged with acting as Chinese agent

A US citizen who lived and worked for state media in China for several years pleaded guilty on Thursday to acting as a foreign agent for Beijing after allegedly collecting US$100,000 in return for collecting intelligence in the US on “American targets” and American politicians. According to court documents, Thomas Weir Pauken II worked at the “direction and control” of Chinese officials linked to ...

Trump says he won’t nominate Pulte as permanent US spy chief after backlash

Trump says he won’t nominate Pulte as permanent US spy chief after backlash

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US President ⁠Donald Trump on Thursday indicated ⁠that he would not nominate mortgage regulator ⁠Bill Pulte to be the nation’s intelligence chief once his temporary appointment expires early next year. His comments follow a backlash against Pulte’s appointment as acting director of national intelligence from Democrats and some key senators of his Republican Party over the ‌Trump loyalist’s lack of...

Trump unveils plan to add ‘Trump promenade’ to Lincoln Memorial

Trump unveils plan to add ‘Trump promenade’ to Lincoln Memorial

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President Donald Trump on Thursday announced plans to add a potential “Trump promenade” to the iconic Lincoln Memorial, in his latest grandiose bid to leave his mark on the US capital. Trump said the walkway would link the huge marble monument, built to commemorate Civil War-era president Abraham Lincoln, to the nearby Potomac River. “They want to call it the Trump Promenade,” Trump told reporters...

Chinese satellite company releases images of Nvidia, Apple HQs

Chinese satellite company releases images of Nvidia, Apple HQs

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After it was sanctioned by the US government for allegedly helping Iran, a Chinese satellite company has released high-definition images of the Nvidia and Apple headquarters in California’s Silicon Valley. They were among photos posted on social media on Monday by Changguang Satellite based in Changchun, in northeast China. The satellite images – captured by the company’s Jilin-1 constellation – o...

China says US ‘invented’ terrorism charges to justify Cuba blockade

China says US ‘invented’ terrorism charges to justify Cuba blockade

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China accused the United States of using “invented allegations” to justify its terrorism case against Cuba, after Secretary of State Marco Rubio told senators he needed no new evidence to tie the island to violent leftist groups across the western hemisphere. Foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said on Thursday that Washington could not justify its blockade and sanctions against the island, addi...

Trump Jnr tells investors he would avoid investing in China

Trump Jnr tells investors he would avoid investing in China

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US President Donald Trump’s eldest son warned against investing in China during an event for investors on Thursday in Zurich, even as his father’s administration has pushed forward on plans to improve commercial ties between the two countries. “I wouldn’t,” Donald Trump Jnr said when asked at the invitation-only event if he would invest in China. “I don’t think we can pretend they’re an ally. That...

A UK in decline needs to rediscover supply-side economics

A UK in decline needs to rediscover supply-side economics

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I just spent two weeks in a broken Britain, which is an unfortunately apt description for a country that has fallen from its former glory. Its people are funny, witty, creative, intelligent, sports-mad and educated, part of a society that has constantly evolved over the last millennium, its imperial heritage bringing in cultures from around the globe. It is a green and pleasant land, beautiful in ...

US farm chief says reliance on China threatens American ‘freedom’

US farm chief says reliance on China threatens American ‘freedom’

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US Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins told lawmakers on Thursday that American dependence on China for food, fertiliser and other agricultural inputs poses an “existential” threat, framing food security as a national security issue while defending the White House’s reduced fiscal 2027 budget request. “If we need to rely on China for our food and our fertiliser and all the things that come with t...

Putin says Trump ideas could bring peace in Ukraine, urges Kyiv to compromise

Putin says Trump ideas could bring peace in Ukraine, urges Kyiv to compromise

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President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that US President Donald Trump’s proposals for peace in Ukraine could end the fighting, but said Kyiv needed to compromise – and that he saw no signs of that, so was ready to fight on to victory. Speaking to foreign media editors on the sidelines of Russia’s annual economic forum in what is the fifth ‌year of Europe’s deadliest land war since World War II,...

Canada PM unveils AI strategy, warns of foreign dominance

Canada PM unveils AI strategy, warns of foreign dominance

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Prime Minister Mark Carney launched his AI strategy on Thursday, warning Canada’s slow adoption of the frontier technology had created risks and that domestic capacity needed a boost to avoid it being “weaponised against us”. Reducing Canada’s reliance on the US is a central part of Carney’s agenda, and his AI strategy nodded to concern about the influence of US tech giants. “We are highly depende...

‘Persepolis’ author Marjane Satrapi dies ‘of sadness’ aged 56

‘Persepolis’ author Marjane Satrapi dies ‘of sadness’ aged 56

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Franco-Iranian author and film director Marjane Satrapi, renowned for her graphic novel and film Persepolis, has died aged 56, a year after the passing of “the love of her life”, a member of her close circle said on Thursday. “Marjane Satrapi died of sadness a little over a year after the death of Mattias Ripa, her husband and the love of her life,” they said in a statement. Born in 1969 in Rasht ...

‘Persepolis’ author Marjane Satrapi dies aged 56

‘Persepolis’ author Marjane Satrapi dies aged 56

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Franco-Iranian author and film director Marjane Satrapi, renowned for her graphic novel and film Persepolis, has died aged 56, a year after the passing of “the love of her life”, a member of her close circle said on Thursday. “Marjane Satrapi died of sadness a little over a year after the death of Mattias Ripa, her husband and the love of her life,” they said in a statement. Born in 1969 in Rasht ...

7 taken away as police ramp up patrols around former site of Tiananmen vigil

7 taken away as police ramp up patrols around former site of Tiananmen vigil

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Hong Kong police took away seven people who appeared in Causeway Bay on Thursday evening carrying flowers and dressed in black to mark the 37th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown. They included Chan Po-ying, former chairwoman of the now-defunct League of Social Democrats opposition group, and activist Virginia Fung King-man. Police said they stopped and searched five men and two women, ...

Trump foe Bolton to plead guilty in classified information case

Trump foe Bolton to plead guilty in classified information case

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Former Trump administration national security adviser John Bolton has agreed to plead guilty to a single count of retaining classified information under a deal with the US Justice Department that could allow him to avoid prison time, a person familiar with the matter said on Thursday. The deal would resolve a criminal case filed in October that charged Bolton with 18 counts of either retaining or ...

Trump foe John Bolton to plead guilty in classified information case

Trump foe John Bolton to plead guilty in classified information case

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Former Trump administration national security adviser John Bolton has agreed to plead guilty to a single count of retaining classified information under a deal with the US Justice Department that could allow him to avoid prison time, a person familiar with the matter said on Thursday. The deal would resolve a criminal case filed in October that charged Bolton with 18 counts of either retaining or ...

EU trade chief swipes at China’s overcapacity, but seeks ‘meaningful’ talks with Beijing

EU trade chief swipes at China’s overcapacity, but seeks ‘meaningful’ talks with Beijing

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EU trade chief Maros Sefcovic has called for practical approaches and “meaningful discussion” to tackle the growing trade concerns between Brussels and Beijing, following his meeting with China’s chief international trade negotiator, Li Chenggang, on the sideline of a ministerial meeting at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris. Sefcovic opened his press confere...

Public Management Programme Puts Humans at the Centre of the AI Revolution

Public Management Programme Puts Humans at the Centre of the AI Revolution

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[The content of this article has been produced by our advertising partner.] As artificial intelligence (AI) reshapes economies, labour markets and public services, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) is making a clear bet: the defining skill for tomorrow’s public leaders will not be coding, but judgment. At the helm of its Master of Public Management (MPM) programme is Progr...

‘All reasonable steps’ for site smoking ban include CCTV, cigarette storage points

‘All reasonable steps’ for site smoking ban include CCTV, cigarette storage points

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Contractors should take “all reasonable steps”, such as installing CCTV cameras and setting up temporary cigarette storage points, to comply with a coming smoking ban on construction sites, Hong Kong labour authorities have said. They should also ask individuals to stop using e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products, even though they do not require lighting, the Labour Department said on Thursday,...

Hong Kong signs 96 agreements with Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan worth US$1.65 billion

Hong Kong signs 96 agreements with Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan worth US$1.65 billion

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Hong Kong has signed 96 agreements with Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan worth US$1.65 billion during city leader John Lee Ka-chiu’s visit to Central Asia, which he hailed as a “successful” mission setting the stage for closer government and business ties with the region. Lee on Thursday also said Hong Kong had reached an agreement with Uzbekistan that paved the way for airlines on both sides to launch a...

Hong Kong’s MTR Corporation raises €3 billion in its first public euro green bond sale

Hong Kong’s MTR Corporation raises €3 billion in its first public euro green bond sale

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Hong Kong rail giant the MTR Corporation has raised €3 billion (HK$27.36 billion) by selling its first euro-denominated public green bonds, in its largest bond deal to date. The semi-privatised corporation said on Thursday that the sale also marked the largest Asia ex-Japan non-sovereign euro green bond offering. Amid a string of new rail projects in Hong Kong, the MTR Corp is raising fresh capita...

Are Japan-Philippines talks a maritime red line for China’s blue-water ambitions?

Are Japan-Philippines talks a maritime red line for China’s blue-water ambitions?

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Beijing’s strong opposition to maritime boundary talks between Manila and Tokyo reflects growing wariness over a shifting balance of power in the western Pacific. And, experts warn, these talks – part of a highly calculated geopolitical effort by US allies – could reinforce the so-called first island chain and restrict Beijing’s naval access in an area vital to any potential conflict over Taiwan: ...

Trump to nominate Todd Blanche as US attorney general

Trump to nominate Todd Blanche as US attorney general

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President Donald Trump said he would ⁠move to ⁠nominate acting US Attorney ⁠General Todd Blanche on Thursday to permanently lead the Justice Department, which would make his former personal lawyer the nation’s top law enforcement officer. “He’s acting attorney general. Tomorrow. ‌I’m instructing Dan (Scavino) and everybody else that’s involved in that very complicated process – which is going to g...

‘Brilliant’: US public cheers dancing Unitree robots while Congress looks to ban them

‘Brilliant’: US public cheers dancing Unitree robots while Congress looks to ban them

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A gulf is emerging between how the American public and lawmakers are viewing Chinese robots, analysts say, following a high-profile performance by Chinese robotics champion Unitree’s humanoid robots on US television show America’s Got Talent, which received a standing ovation from the studio audience. While ratings figures have yet to be announced, the appearance of Unitree’s G1 robots on a prime ...

Hong Kong police to launch 2-week crackdown on distracted drivers and jaywalkers

Hong Kong police to launch 2-week crackdown on distracted drivers and jaywalkers

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Hong Kong police will launch a two-week citywide crackdown on distracted driving and jaywalking after the number of people killed in traffic accidents jumped by more than 40 per cent year on year in the first five months of 2026. The force said on Thursday that 51 people died in traffic accidents between January and May 31, up by 42 per cent from the same period last year. Pedestrians accounted fo...

Hong Kong police to launch 2-week crackdown on distracted driving and jaywalking

Hong Kong police to launch 2-week crackdown on distracted driving and jaywalking

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Hong Kong police will launch a two-week citywide crackdown on distracted driving and jaywalking after the number of people killed in traffic accidents jumped by more than 40 per cent year on year in the first five months of 2026. The force said on Thursday that 51 people died in traffic accidents between January and May 31, up by 42 per cent from the same period last year. Pedestrians accounted fo...

Small plane crash in Croatia leaves 4 dead, 2 missing

Small plane crash in Croatia leaves 4 dead, 2 missing

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Four people were killed on Thursday in a plane crash on Croatia’s northern Adriatic coast, police said. “According to currently available information four people have died” in the crash of the plane in Medulin, on Croatia’s northwestern Istria peninsula, a police statement said. The accident occurred in the Campanoz area, outside the town, and “all emergency services are on the scene”, it added. T...