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A trial of a US citizen of Chinese descent accused of creating a covert police station in Manhattan opened on Wednesday, considering evidence of what the US government says is part of Beijing’s bid to expand its influence well beyond Chinese shores. Lu Jianwang, 64, faces three charges in the US Eastern District Court of New York: acting as an unauthorised agent of China; conspiracy to act as a fo...
US President Donald Trump’s landmark visit to China comes as the Iran war disrupts global energy supplies, fuels economic uncertainty and adds fresh strain to Washington-Beijing ties. In the first part of a series examining how rivalry, interdependence and geopolitical crises are reshaping the relationship between the two powers, we look at the Arctic as an arena for competition. The Arctic is hea...
The US Air Force is targeting a Fourth of July delivery for a Boeing 747 gifted by Qatar that would join the Air Force One fleet in time for the nation’s 250th anniversary, a US official and a person familiar with the programme said. The White House accepted the luxury jet from Qatar in 2025 and asked the Air Force to rapidly upgrade the aircraft to presidential standards, with L3Harris tapped to...
“In an increasingly severe security environment, no single country can now protect its own peace and security alone,” declared Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi last month, signalling a major shift in Tokyo’s defence posture. “Under the new system, we will strategically promote equipment transfers while making even more rigorous and cautious judgments on whether transfers are permissible,” sh...
The scheduled summit next week between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping will almost certainly include proclamations about cooperation, friendship and respect between the leaders of the world’s two largest economies, but beneath the surface, major trade conflict is building, said trade experts on Wednesday. In the past, a weaker China was forced to grit its teeth and grudg...
It was billed as an Atlantic odyssey to some of the most remote islands in the world. Instead, the cruise on the hantavirus-stricken MV Hondius was left stranded off Cabo Verde, formerly known as Cape Verde, with passengers in their cabins, medical workers in protective suits tending to the sick and the ship’s operator seeking a safe port. The outbreak has left three dead and eight confirmed or su...
It was billed as an Atlantic odyssey to some of the most remote islands in the world. Instead, the cruise on the hantavirus-stricken MV Hondius was left stranded off Cabo Verde, formerly known as Cape Verde, with passengers in their cabins, medical workers in protective suits tending to the sick and the ship’s operator seeking a safe port. The outbreak has left three dead and eight confirmed or su...
It was billed as an Atlantic odyssey to some of the most remote islands in the world. Instead, the cruise on the hantavirus-stricken MV Hondius was left stranded off Cabo Verde, formerly known as Cape Verde, with passengers in their cabins, medical workers in protective suits tending to the sick and the ship’s operator seeking a safe port. The outbreak has left three dead and eight confirmed or su...
Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy will not serve time with an electronic ankle tag as punishment for illegal funding of his 2012 re-election bid, an informed source said Wednesday. Sarkozy, 71, has faced a raft of accusations since leaving office after a single term from 2007 to 2012. He has denied all allegations in all cases. Last year, he became modern France’s first-ever president to go ...
US forces struck an Iranian oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman on Wednesday, even as Washington and Tehran appeared to move closer to a tentative agreement to end their two-month war, with US President Donald Trump warning that renewed bombing could begin if Iran rejects the proposed deal. A US fighter jet disabled the tanker by targeting its rudder as the vessel attempted to breach an American naval ...
Israel struck Beirut on Wednesday for the first time since agreeing to a ceasefire with Hezbollah last month, with Israel saying it targeted a commander of the militant group’s elite Radwan force in the city’s southern suburbs. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz announced the action in a joint statement. Israeli media reported that the commander was killed ...
Israel struck Beirut on Wednesday for the first time since agreeing to a ceasefire with Hezbollah last month, with Israel saying it targeted a commander of the militant group’s elite Radwan force in the city’s southern suburbs. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz announced the action in a joint statement. Israeli media reported that the commander was killed ...
The FBI has opened a criminal leak investigation focusing on a journalist who wrote a critical article about Kash Patel, the head of the US law enforcement agency, the cable news channel MS Now reported on Wednesday. Patel filed a US$250 million suit last month against The Atlantic magazine and the author of the article, Sarah Fitzpatrick, calling it a “sweeping, malicious, and defamatory hit piec...
The FBI has opened a criminal leak investigation focusing on a journalist who wrote a critical article about Kash Patel, the head of the US law enforcement agency, the cable news channel MS Now reported on Wednesday. Patel filed a US$250 million suit last month against The Atlantic magazine and the author of the article, Sarah Fitzpatrick, calling it a “sweeping, malicious, and defamatory hit piec...
Ted Turner created CNN in 1980, revolutionising the way America, and the world, got their news, and then went on to become one of the most prominent business leaders and philanthropists of his era. A brash risk taker, Turner – whose death aged 87 was announced on Wednesday – helped reshape the television industry in the late 20th century. He also made a name for himself with spectacular business d...
The finance director of Hong Kong Chu Hai College has been arrested on suspicion of embezzling HK$770,000 (US$98,262) after the head of the institution reported the case to the police. Jane Zhang, president of the Tuen Mun‑based college, contacted police on April 29 after the Bank of China alerted her on April 17 to three unusual transactions from the college to the suspect’s personal account, amo...
A young woman has been accused of helping to rob four people as a teenager by luring them to a remote area in Hong Kong where her gang was waiting to use violence and take nude photos to force them to pay. Hau Yan-ki, an unemployed 23-year-old, is on trial at the High Court on Wednesday for her role in three alleged robberies that took place in a row between November 19 and 22, 2020, during which ...
Pope Leo will inaugurate the soaring central tower of Barcelona’s famed Sagrada Familia basilica when he visits Spain next month in a week-long trip that will also take him to a migrant reception centre in the Canary Islands, the Vatican said on Wednesday. The June 6-12 visit will first bring Leo to Madrid for meetings with the government, parliament and King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia. He will a...
Pope Leo will inaugurate the soaring central tower of Barcelona’s famed Sagrada Familia basilica when he visits Spain next month in a weeklong trip that will also take him to a migrant reception centre in the Canary Islands, the Vatican said on Wednesday. The June 6-12 visit will first bring Leo to Madrid for meetings with the government, parliament and King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia. He will al...
A passenger bus collided head-on with a fuel tanker truck on a highway on Indonesia’s Sumatra island on Wednesday, killing at least 16 people and injuring four others, officials said. The crash occurred around midday on the Trans-Sumatra Highway in North Musi Rawas regency of South Sumatra province, when an intercity bus carrying at least 20 people struck a tanker truck travelling in the opposite ...
The YJ-20 is China’s first sea-based hypersonic anti-ship missile to have entered mass production, giving the People’s Liberation Army a decisive strike advantage over all rival surface combatants worldwide. The YJ-20, with its remarkable range, hypersonic speed and near-invulnerability to interception, has been tailor-made for the Chinese navy’s Type 055 destroyer’s 112-cell vertical launch syste...
Government inspectors did not foresee engineering firms colluding to deceive authorities over the use of substandard renovation materials at a Hong Kong residential estate devastated in the city’s deadliest fire in decades, a public inquiry has heard. Andy Ku Siu-ping, a senior maintenance surveyor of the Housing Bureau’s Independent Checking Unit, on Wednesday blamed “systemic defects” for the bo...
Hong Kong received more than 1 million mainland Chinese visitors during the five-day Labour Day “golden week” holiday, a 10 per cent rise from a year ago, exceeding government expectations, but industry leaders said their spending was uneven. Immigration Department data showed the city recorded 1.01 million mainland visitor arrivals between May 1 and 5, surpassing the forecast of 980,000. Chief Se...
The government-appointed administrator of Wang Fuk Court, the Hong Kong estate devastated by a deadly fire last November, will hold two online meetings with displaced residents this month after 240 flat owners threatened legal action in a petition. Hop On Management Company announced on Wednesday that the Zoom meetings will take place from 7pm to 9pm next Tuesday and from 2pm to 4pm on May 20. Par...
The government-appointed administrator of Wang Fuk Court, the Hong Kong estate devastated by a deadly fire last November, will hold two online meetings with displaced residents this month after 240 flat owners threatened legal action in a petition. Hop On Management Company announced on Wednesday that the Zoom meetings will take place from 7pm to 9pm next Tuesday and from 2pm to 4pm on May 20. Par...
US companies boosted payrolls in April by the most in over a year, the latest evidence of stabilisation in the labour market. Private-sector payrolls rose 109,000 in April after a revised 61,000 advance in the prior month, according to ADP Research data out on Wednesday. The median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of economists called for a 120,000 increase. More than half of the hiring advance was ...
A visit by Vietnam’s leader to India is set to enhance New Delhi’s growing influence with Hanoi while allowing the Southeast Asian country to hedge against China in the event of any escalation in maritime disputes. Vietnamese President To Lam’s trip underscores concerns from both countries of being “overly dependent” on any superpower, according to political analysts. Lam arrived in Delhi on Tuesd...
Beneath the surface of the world’s oceans lies an infrastructure so essential, modern life would stall without it – yet so invisible it rarely enters public debate. Submarine cables, slender fibre-optic systems laid across the seabed, carry over 95 per cent of global internet traffic, transmitting the data that underpins financial markets, diplomatic exchanges and everyday communication. What appe...
The Communist Party chief of Hefei – a growing tech hub and capital of China’s central Anhui province – has been placed under investigation, the country’s top corruption watchdog announced on Wednesday. Fei Gaoyun, once widely recognised as a rising star in the “seventh-generation” of future national leaders, is the latest senior official to be snared in President Xi Jinping’s long-running anti-co...
The leaders of Hong Kong and Uzbekistan met on Wednesday to strengthen trade ties, as China and the Central Asian country signed 15 bilateral agreements covering areas such as infrastructure, healthcare and metal production. At a meeting at Government House with Uzbek Prime Minister Abdullah Nigmatovich Aripov, Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu pledged to expand Hong Kong’s presence in Belt and Roa...
