Live headlines from trusted global sources. Click any story to open it on the original website.
Hong Kong public universities have admitted a record number of students applying outside the local exam system, with the intake surging by 63 per cent over seven years to account for nearly 30 per cent of the 15,000 government-funded places, the South China Morning Post has found. Meanwhile, the intake of home-grown students taking the Diploma of Secondary Education (DSE) exam has dropped by 7 per...
Indonesia produces and exports more palm oil than any other country, but when it comes to setting the price, it still plays second fiddle to Malaysia. President Prabowo Subianto wants to change that. On August 14, he announced a new exchange for commodities including palm oil, nickel and coal, targeted to begin operations on January 1. But analysts say dominance in physical supply does not automat...
British Prime Minister Andy Burnham will visit Kyiv on Monday on his first international visit since taking office last month, his office said, as Ukraine marks its 35th independence anniversary. Burnham has vowed to give strong support to Ukraine as it battles Russia’s invasion. The Labour Party leader’s visit comes as he announced that Britain had “agreed that defence firm MBDA can release class...
Syria said it held talks with Israel in Jordan on Sunday on de-escalation after recent Israeli strikes, and on keeping the country out of tensions between Israel and Turkey, an ally of Damascus. The high-level negotiations came after the sides in January agreed to establish an intelligence-sharing mechanism as they edge towards a security agreement. They also came after Israel bombed the disused A...
French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday welcomed Saudi crown prince and de facto ruler Mohammed bin Salman for a two-day visit, hosting him at the Esports World Cup before a second day focused on bilateral deals and the situation in the Middle East. A French presidential official said several agreements, on health, transport and energy, will be signed on Monday alongside talks likely to focus o...
Two years after the Audit Commission called out Hongkong Post for its lack of profitability and other failings, the postmaster finally moved to fix a structural expense: staff costs. But the audit report probably wasn’t the main catalyst for change. Rather, it was the fact the government had to ask the Legislative Council for a HK$4.6 billion (US$510 million) bailout to keep Hongkong Post operatin...
Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated this weekend from the area of Reno, Nevada, and many others were under orders to leave on Sunday as a wildfire reached the outskirts of the state’s third-most-populous city. About 42,000 residents have been displaced or are under active evacuations with an additional 45,000 in “be prepared to evacuate” status as the Hawk Fire threatened northern ...
A group of 21 former international cricket captains, including India’s Sunil Gavaskar and Kapil Dev, signed a letter to Pakistan’s government on Sunday regarding the healthcare of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan. Khan has been in prison since 2023 and was sentenced late last year along with his wife to 17 years on corruption charges they both deny. The 73-year-old, who was also a former Pa...
The US special envoy to Syria and ambassador to Turkey on Sunday walked back his comments from two days ago that Israel “still” occupies the Golan Heights in violation of UN resolutions, remarks that went against US President Donald Trump’s position on the disputed territory. Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed it in 1981. The United Nations and mos...
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he believes actions taken by dismissed Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, including his involvement in mass protests and calls for an election, were misguided, as he publicly detailed their dispute for the first time. Zelensky also alluded to problematic decisions over defence spending and said inaccurate information provided by the Defence Ministry cont...
A mountainous heap of refuse collapsed at Dar es Salam, the largest landfill in Guinea’s capital Conakry, early on Sunday killing at least 30 people, according to a provisional death toll from the country’s civil protection service. Heavy rains, which started at around 3am, washed over the refuse, triggering a landslide that buried nearby shacks. Lancine Sylla, the head of the suburb where the inc...
A mountainous heap of refuse collapsed at Dar es Salam, the largest landfill in Guinea’s capital Conakry, early on Sunday killing at least 22 people, according to a provisional death toll from the country’s civil protection service. Heavy rains, which started at around 3am, washed over the refuse, triggering a landslide that buried nearby shacks. Lancine Sylla, the head of the suburb where the inc...
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his country played no role in the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines linking Russia to Europe, following the arrest in Croatia of a second Ukrainian suspect sought by Germany. “Ukraine has never even been involved in even the idea of this operation,” Zelensky told reporters during the Ukraine Nordic-Baltic summit in Kyiv on Sunday. “I hope there w...
The Trump administration on Sunday warned that Canada would be “foolish” to think it could win a trade war with the United States, predicting a “devastating” impact on its northern neighbour. Negotiations between Washington and Ottawa broke down late Friday, putting into force new 50 per cent US tariffs impacting about US$20 billion worth of Canadian goods, or 5.5 per cent of Canadian exports to t...
Chinese archaeologists will carry out their first joint field project in South America by exploring sites dating back thousands of years in Peru as Beijing steps up its efforts to deepen cultural ties with the region. The Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences said it had signed a cooperation agreement with the Caral Archaeological Zone of the Peruvian Ministry of Cultu...
Indonesian authorities arrested 72 people suspected of starting some of the forest and peatland fires as huge blazes in central and west Indonesia triggered choking haze. Indonesia has been battling fires driven by an intensifying El Nino pattern and a prolonged dry season, generating dense smoke that crossed into Malaysia, according to Indonesia’s National Disaster Management Agency, or BNPB. Fir...
Ukraine thinks Russia is planning to draft an additional 300,000 troops for its war effort after Russian parliamentary elections in mid-September, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said. Moscow’s forces are pressing ahead with an effort to capture the rest of eastern Ukraine’s industrialised Donbas region, where its troops have ground forward at what Kyiv says is a great cost. In comment...
Next time you spot a vivid orange-yellow crust spreading across a rock in your garden, on a country wall or along a hiking trail, take a closer look – you might be standing on a fortune. A Chinese research team has found that a humble lichen could serve as a visible field indicator of unknown rare earth deposits around the world. The researchers said the lichen’s distinctive colour made it easy to...
Singapore will increase its spending on pro-family measures focusing on easing childcare costs, with Prime Minister Lawrence Wong calling them “one of the best investments” on Sunday, as the city state aims to reverse its declining fertility rate. The policy shifts announced by Wong at the annual National Day Rally, Singapore’s biggest political speech of the year, are some of the most significant...
China’s historic Chang’e-7 mission to drill for ice near the moon’s south pole has been delayed, the country’s human space flight programme authority said on Sunday. The Chang’e-7 – carrying an orbiter, a lander, a rover and a hopper – was set to lift off aboard a Long March 5 rocket from the Wenchang spaceport in southern China as early as Monday. The China Manned Space Agency said on Sunday even...
China’s historic Chang’e-7 mission to drill for ice near the moon’s south pole has been delayed, the country’s human space flight programme authority said on Sunday. The Chang’e-7 – carrying an orbiter, a lander, rover and hopper – was set to lift off aboard a Long March 5 rocket from the Wenchang spaceport in southern China as early as Monday. The China Manned Space Agency said the mission would ...
A 76-year-old man has been sent to hospital after falling on an escalator at a Hong Kong shopping centre, while two other elderly people sustained minor injuries, according to police. The force received a report at 4.19pm on Sunday that three people had fallen on an escalator in phase one of Shek Lei Shopping Centre, leaving the man trapped. He sustained injuries to his arms and legs and was taken...
A 76-year-old man has been hospitalised after falling on an escalator at a Hong Kong shopping centre, while two other elderly people sustained minor injuries, according to police. The force received a report at 4.19pm on Sunday that three people had fallen on an escalator in phase one of Shek Lei Shopping Centre, trapping the man. He sustained injuries to his arms and legs and was taken to Princes...
The United States may want the world to choose sides in the AI race with China, but in Africa, many businesses are pursuing a more pragmatic strategy: using Chinese models where they offer better value or flexibility, while keeping their options open. For example, when African insurtech platform Curacel expanded the range of artificial intelligence (AI) models powering its internal infrastructure,...
Singapore will no longer restrict the number of cinema screenings for dialect films, relaxing a decades-long policy in a significant move that analysts say was driven by recent discourse over the Chinese blockbuster Dear You. Prime Minister Lawrence Wong said on Sunday the relaxation came with the prerequisite that a Mandarin-dubbed version would be available. Restrictions for pay television conte...
In the second instalment of a five-part Health Matters wellness series on Hong Kong’s growing wellness trends, Fiona Sun looks into how residents are embracing digital detox, as experts warn that excessive screen use is linked to anxiety, depression and sleep disorders. For Robert Broad, stepping away from electronic devices has become part of a self-care routine he developed after the Covid-19 pa...
The latest US artificial intelligence (AI) and supply chain initiatives are doomed to fail, according to a prominent political scientist who also argued that efforts to restrict US companies’ access to low-cost Chinese models would backfire. Instead, he argued, the United States and China should collaborate on driving global economic development to generate the external demand needed to sustain lo...
The latest US AI and supply chain initiatives are doomed to fail, according to a prominent political scientist who also argued that efforts to restrict US companies’ access to low-cost Chinese models would backfire. Instead, he argued, the United States and China should collaborate on driving global economic development to generate the external demand needed to sustain long-term growth. “US framew...
While China’s new “AI tigers” have captured global attention for challenging Silicon Valley front-runners, a quieter wave of domestic technology companies is building in-house artificial intelligence systems serving everyday users. Beyond pure-play AI labs like DeepSeek, Z.ai (also known as Zhipu AI), Moonshot AI and MiniMax, consumer-facing platforms that span e-commerce, video gaming, social med...
A tennis ball flew across the net. On the other side, a humanoid robot crouched, shuffled sideways in a series of quick steps, adjusted its position and swung its racquet to send the ball back. The robot traded forehands and backhands with human players during singles and mixed-doubles demonstrations. At one point, while chasing a ball, it lost its balance and toppled backwards, drawing gasps from...
