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In the past, the last day of state visits to China has typically featured a deal-signing ceremony presided over by leaders from both sides. However, the last day of US President Donald Trump’s visit to Beijing was marked by discussions with Chinese President Xi Jinping in a more intimate setting and an assurance that both would continue to meet this year. The two men strolled the gardens of the se...
Hong Kong health authorities have ordered hospitals to stop using a batch of blood pressure monitoring sets after an improperly sealed device was linked to the death of an elderly man undergoing a heart operation. The Department of Health also said on Friday that it had ordered the local supplier to halt sales of the affected batch and it was investigating the incident at Tuen Mun Hospital. The Ho...
Blink and you might miss the few stone walls that are all that is left of the village that Yusuf Abu Hamam’s family was forced to flee when he was an infant in 1948. The village, al-Joura, was demolished by the Israeli military at the time. It has since vanished under neighbourhoods of the southern Israeli city of Ashqelon and the grounds of a national park. The neighbourhood where Abu Hamam’s fam...
Hong Kong police have proposed introducing legislation enforced by a designated agency to criminalise bid-rigging, along with more attractive leniency and cooperation agreements for whistle-blowers, in the wake of the city’s deadliest fire in decades. In a submission to a judge-led independent committee investigating last November’s disaster at Wang Fuk Court released on Friday, Superintendent Lam...
The United States will not fight a war over Taiwan, President Donald Trump has declared, while revealing that he and Chinese leader Xi Jinping “talked a lot” about the island during his state visit to Beijing. However, Trump stopped short of approving arms sales to the island, leaving open the future of major arms packages. In an interview with Fox News host Bret Baier in Beijing, Trump said: “I’m...
The United States will not fight a war over Taiwan, President Donald Trump has declared, while revealing that he and Chinese leader Xi Jinping “talked a lot” about the island during his state visit to Beijing. However, Trump stopped short of approving arms sales to the island, leaving open the future of major arms packages. In an interview with Fox News host Bret Baier in Beijing, Trump said: “I’m...
Peugeot and Jeep, owned by French-Italian automotive group Stellantis, have committed to fresh investments to build electric cars with its partner Dongfeng Motor, as more international marques join the fight against Chinese rivals in the world’s largest car market. Stellantis announced on Friday that four electric vehicles (EVs) under the two storied auto brands would roll off the production lines...
US President Donald Trump – known for his combative and prolific social media style – struck an unusually restrained online tone during his state visit to China. Trump has shared only 10 social media updates since landing in Beijing on Wednesday evening – mostly videos of his arrival in Beijing and official greetings received from Chinese President Xi Jinping. The latest posts include hailing Xi a...
US President Donald Trump and Chinese officials discussed artificial intelligence “guardrails” and Nvidia’s H200 chips during his just-ended state visit to Beijing. Speaking to reporters on Air Force One during his return flight, Trump said the two sides “talked about possibly working together for guardrails” on AI, characterising them as “standard guardrails that we talk about all the time”. Rega...
Thirty-four European states plus Australia, Costa Rica and the EU said on Friday they would join a future special tribunal for Ukraine to prosecute Russia over its invasion of the country. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed an accord with the Council of Europe last year to create a legal body to prosecute the “crime of aggression” in the invasion Russia launched in February 2022. The Co...
Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to pay a state visit to the US in September, the first in more than a decade, as the two powers seek stability amid their deepening rivalry. Shortly after leaving Beijing, where he held a summit with President Xi Jinping, US President Donald Trump told reporters on Air Force One that he and his Chinese counterpart would meet three more times this year. He s...
Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to pay a state visit to the US in September, the first in more than a decade, as the two powers seek stability amid their deepening rivalry. Shortly after leaving Beijing, where he held a summit with President Xi Jinping, US President Donald Trump told reporters on Air Force One that he and his Chinese counterpart would meet three more times this year. He s...
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has lauded the resilience of Hong Kong’s economy, noting a sustained recovery despite economic activity having yet to return to pre-Covid levels, while warning of downside risks stemming from escalating geopolitical tensions. It also urged Hong Kong to pursue medium-term financial reforms, including the introduction of a goods and services tax, to stabilise an...
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has lauded the resilience of Hong Kong’s economy, noting a sustained recovery despite economic activity having yet to return to pre-Covid levels, while warning of downside risks stemming from escalating geopolitical tensions. It also urged Hong Kong to pursue medium-term financial reforms, including the introduction of a goods and services tax, to stabilise an...
The summit between presidents Xi Jinping and Donald Trump was watched closely around the world for welcome moves towards stability but it also triggered anxiety among traditional US allies. In Japan, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi was arranging calls with Trump and making plans to visit South Korea as the meetings in Beijing wrapped up, according to Japanese public broadcaster NHK. It quoted a gove...
A Chinese-made tiger’s head bag carried by Elon Musk’s young son in Beijing has prompted a wave of interest online. Musk’s six-year-old son X Æ A-Xii, dressed in a Chinese style silk jacket, was pictured carrying the brown shoulder bag with a tiger’s face when he visited the Great Hall of the People with his father in Beijing. The photo quickly went viral on Chinese social media. The Tesla boss wa...
Collections from Hong Kong’s M+ museum will be exhibited in Paris alongside those from Centre Pompidou in France under a five-year deal signed by the two institutions, which also covers research and talent exchange. The memorandum of understanding for a multi-year strategic partnership was signed on Friday by Suhanya Raffel, M+ director, and Laurent Le Bon, Centre Pompidou’s president, at the Hong...
US President Donald Trump invested millions of dollars in Apple and Nvidia in the first quarter, according to financial disclosures released as he was wrapping up his first state visit to China since 2017. According to a filing disclosed by the US Office of Government Ethics on Thursday, Trump increased investment in Apple and Nvidia, whose CEOs were part of the president’s high-profile business d...
Fans of Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace all have their own reasons for loving the epic novel. Some read it as a story of personal growth, reflected in Prince Andrei’s spiritual quest. Others favour its portrayal of the Russian aristocracy in the early 19th century. As for myself, the novel punctured the myth of the military genius – not just Napoleon’s. The book’s final section on Tolstoy’s philosophy...
Rescue teams in the Indian Ocean archipelago of the Maldives searched for a second day Friday for the bodies of four missing Italians following the country’s deadliest diving accident, officials said. Italy’s foreign ministry said on Thursday night that five citizens had died while diving, with Maldivian authorities recovering one body. Maldives Minister of Tourism Mohamed Ameen said coastguard of...
US President Donald Trump said China has agreed to purchase at least 200 commercial aircraft from Boeing, and up to 750 if certain conditions are met – a commitment which would end a nearly decade-long order drought – following a state visit to Beijing, where Trump said a purchase of up to 450 aircraft engines from General Electric was also agreed upon. “We made a lot of great trade deals, includi...
The presence of President Donald Trump’s top science adviser and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang in the US delegation to Beijing this week has drawn attention to whether AI was on the talks’ agenda. When asked if the talks between Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping produced any results relevant to AI collaboration, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun did not give a direct answer. “Chin...
The Hong Kong government’s first land sale in the current financial year has drawn six bids, according to the Development Bureau, including those from the city’s largest developers, suggesting a more confident outlook for the residential property market. At the close of tender for Tung Chung Town Lot No 54 at Area 106A on Friday noon, Sun Hung Kai Properties (SHKP) submitted a solo bid, while Kerr...
Stephen Miran’s departure from the US Federal Reserve Board of Governors will smooth the leadership transition to incoming chair Kevin Warsh, but his exit is unlikely to alter the central bank’s policy trajectory, analysts said. The move is also sparking speculation about what comes next for Miran – a former top economic adviser to US President Donald Trump – with market watchers debating whether ...
A Hong Kong property developer has been sued for HK$130 million (US$16.6 million) over allegedly breaching guarantor obligations in two bond subscription agreements, becoming the latest lawsuit to implicate the embattled company and following its founder’s sudden death earlier this week. Lofter Group, known for its urban renewal projects across the city’s core districts, and an affiliated company ...
Beyond the crimson walls west of the Forbidden City, where broad lakes shimmer beside stately pavilions and lush greenery, Zhongnanhai has long stood as the secluded heart of Chinese power – a political sanctuary where phones fall silent and access is tightly controlled. Yet there was a rare glimpse of the interior of the walled-off compound on Friday morning, as President Xi Jinping hosted Donald...
A widely touted economic hub in the Philippines will involve eight more countries, signalling greater international confidence in the long-term viability of the ambitious project to boost connectivity and trade in a key region. The Luzon Economic Corridor (LEC), a trilateral infrastructure initiative led by the US, Japan, and the Philippines, is set to receive additional support from Canada, Austr...
The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the continent’s top public health body, on Friday confirmed a new Ebola outbreak in Congo’s remote Ituri province, with 246 suspected cases and 65 deaths recorded so far. The deaths and suspected cases have been recorded mainly in the Mongwalu and Rwampara health zones, the organisation said in a statement. The Ebola virus is highly cont...
Shortly after US President Donald Trump departed Beijing, China’s ruling Communist Party has called for strengthening the real economy – particularly manufacturing – to gain a competitive edge in the global economy. An article in Qiushi, set to be published on Saturday, curated selections from past speeches by President Xi Jinping to reiterate “our economy was built on the real economy and it must...
A young Chinese couple who were both diagnosed with a rare autoimmune disorder a year after getting married have lost their newborn baby. The couple in northern China’s Tianjin municipality were diagnosed with Bickerstaff brainstem encephalitis last year. The husband, surnamed Li, said only four couples in the world had been diagnosed with the disorder at the same time, and they were the first cas...
