World News Hub

Harry and Meghan’s security funding on UK return is private matter, Burnham says

Prime minister wishes couple well in their move back from the US to a non-royal residence outside London• Harry and Meghan: key moments and controversies since US moveSecurity funding for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex when they return to live in the UK this month is a “private matter”, Andy Burnham has said.News of Harry and Meghan’s planned return to Britain from the US came as a surprise to man...

Will the UK royal family welcome Harry and Meghan back? Expert urges couple to 'move slowly'

Last month, Prince Harry visited the UK with Meghan and their children, who saw King Charles for the first time since 2022.

Will the Royal Family welcome Harry and Meghan back? Expert urges couple to 'move slowly'

Last month, Prince Harry visited the UK with Meghan and their children, who saw King Charles for the first time since 2022.

Chinese AI chips fall short on coding, forcing firms to stretch scarce Nvidia supply

Chinese AI companies are optimising software to cope with surging demand for inference, as part of that workload still relies on computing power from a limited pool of high-end chips amid restricted access to Nvidia processors. Compared with training an artificial intelligence model, which relies on high-end chips, inference – a later phase in which the trained model applies its knowledge to proce...

China’s falling gaokao numbers offer a revealing snapshot

Every summer, China’s gaokao, the national higher education entrance examination, provides an unusually revealing snapshot of household expectations. The critical metrics are not average scores or admission volumes. They are the choices families make about how their children will spend four years of their lives. The 2026 examination attracted 12.9 million registered candidates. This is a decline f...

America’s favourite vegetable could be hit by California drought: Over 90% of fresh broccoli comes from the state

The ongoing drought in California threatens the broccoli supply of the entire nation. Estimates indicate that shipment reductions could exceed twenty percent if conditions worsen. Experts propose that by growing more broccoli on the East Coast, costs related to supply chains could decrease and food miles reduced, leading to a more robust and dependable broccoli market across the country.

Swiss tourist sentenced to a year in jail for insulting Bali's sacred Day of Silence

A court in Bali has sentenced a Swiss tourist to one year in prison for insulting a sacred Hindu observance

Texas wants to ban H-1Bs in public schools, Guv says there should be no foreign indoctrination in the classrooms

GCSE results: girls still ahead but gender gap narrows as hundreds of thousands of pupils receive grades – as it happened

Nearly a quarter of girls’ entries received one of the higher grades against around a fifth of those from boysAlmost one in four boys in England get top grades in mathsMyles McGinley, managing director of the Cambridge OCR exam board, said more pupils are taking GCSE business studies than in previous years, describing this generation of young people as “increasingly entrepreneurial”.He said busine...

Hong Kong’s rare plot incentive will help resurrect decaying districts, analysts say

A rare Hong Kong government incentive for developers will help revive old neighbourhoods such as Sham Shui Po, where more redevelopment projects have stalled amid a sluggish property market, analysts have said. They said on Thursday that the bonus plot ratio pilot scheme, due to launch next month, would provide private developers with a financial incentive to redevelop the city’s older neighbourho...

‘You have got to go’: former NSW minister tells Icac ‘something strange at play’ when she was sacked by Perrottet

Eleni Petinos tells inquiry her sacking as a minister in Dominic Perrottet’s government was potentially motivated by her reluctance to get rid of the building commissionerGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastThe former New South Wales fair trading minister Eleni Petinos has given evidence at a corruption inquiry that she may have been used by fellow Liberals to try to get rid...

Harvard to pay $53 million after human remains donated to its medical school were stolen and sold

Malaysia’s Anwar to visit China next month with an eye on building trade ties

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim is planning a visit to China next month – his first in over a year – as the Southeast Asian country looks to deepen trade ties with Beijing. According to people familiar with the planning, Anwar is slated to make a three-day visit to China in late September at the invitation of Premier Li Qiang, with stops in Shanghai and Hangzhou. The trip does not include a...

Henderson Land posts 66% profit surge after run of strong sales

Henderson Land Development, one of Hong Kong’s largest developers, reported a 66 per cent rise in its interim profit for the first half of the year following a strong run of property sales, according to its filing with the Hong Kong stock exchange on Thursday. The developer, controlled by the family of its late founder Lee Shau-kee, said its unaudited underlying profit attributable to equity share...

UK cinemas consider ban on Meta ‘pervert glasses’ over piracy and privacy concerns

The UK Cinema Association is weighing restrictions on Meta glasses, which can provide accessibility features but also record videos covertly.

EU’s von der Leyen warns of ‘escalating campaign of threats’ as Romania destroys naval drone – Europe live

Device was near country’s Neptun Deep gas platform in the Black SeaRomania’s military has destroyed a marine drone spotted just “a few hundred meters” from the Neptun Deep platform, a major offshore gas project in the Black Sea.The drone, spotted just “a few hundreds of meters” from the gas extraction works at the Neptun Deep platform located some 80 miles east of the city of Constanța, was destro...

For the first time in history, astronauts use portable X-ray technology in space

Bangladesh’s government under pressure as youth demand jobs

Six months into Prime Minister Tariq Rahman’s term, Bangladesh faces an energy crisis and rising prices.

Who was Hind Rajab and why is Israel investigating her killing?

After two years of denial, Israel admits firing on the 5-year-old's car. But her family and others don't expect justice.

Why do hard-sell beauty tactics persist in Hong Kong – and when can consumers fight back?

From arrests linked to the Hong Kong operations of beauty chain Opatra London to a surge in online complaints against other skincare brands, high-pressure sales tactics remain widespread and continue to take a toll on consumers. Why do such malpractices remain widespread despite the city’s Trade Descriptions Ordinance, which criminalises aggressive commercial practices that significantly impair a ...

Como mayor bans bikes in city centre after being hit ‘by one of these beasts’

Alessandro Rapinese denies accusation he is waging personal vendetta against cyclists amid a public backlashThe mayor of Como set the wheels of controversy in motion for banning bikes in the walled historic centre of the lakeside city after being hit by one.Alessandro Rapinese’s ban, which comes into force in September, targets about 30 streets and means cyclists, whether it be those on e-bikes or...

Israel is betting on Islamophobia to save its standing in the West

Netanyahu’s government is using anti-Muslim fear to rally a Western right increasingly receptive to its message.

Founder of China’s Evergrande jailed for life after pleading guilty to fraud

Hui Ka Yan also forfeits all his personal property and the company he set up is given hefty finesBusiness live – latest updatesThe founder of Evergrande, one of China’s largest property developers, has been sentenced to life in prison and had all of his personal property confiscated.Hui Ka Yan, 67 and once named by Forbes as China’s richest man, with a net worth of $42.5bn (£31.2bn) in 2017, plead...

American student says she was raped in Vietnam, pressured to drop case

An American student says she was raped during a group holiday in Vietnam, then pressured to drop the case against a wealthy suspect.

Strasbourg hospital A&E disrupted by illicit drone deliveries to nearby prison

Since early August, the Hautepierre University Hospital heliport has been shut down at night because of drone "deliveries" to Elsau prison.