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Japan’s defence minister pledged to deepen military cooperation with the Philippines during a visit Tuesday to Manila, aiming for the “early transfer” of Abukuma-class destroyers to the archipelago nation. The two countries’ shared grievances over Chinese territorial claims have seen them draw increasingly close in recent years, including the signing of a reciprocal access agreement allowing for t...
An articulated truck caught fire inside the undersea tunnel of the Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge forcing the temporary closure of city-bound lanes and disrupting traffic on Tuesday evening. The blaze was reported before 8pm in the tunnel tube of the 55km (34.17 miles) cross-border bridge. Video footage showed flames beneath the cargo truck and thick smoke filling the tunnel. The city’s Transport D...
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and successive US presidents have spent the better part of the past three decades warning that a nuclear-armed Iran would threaten the whole world. Now, thanks to the illegal US-Israeli war, Iran may have to go nuclear by claiming self-defence. After all, what is good for the goose is good for the gander. Israel would justify its clandestine nuclear weapon...
The Philippine House of Representatives has moved Vice-President Sara Duterte-Carpio’s impeachment closer to a decisive vote, the first step in a week-long process that will test whether allies of President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr have enough support to send the case to a Senate trial. The House placed the impeachment on its plenary agenda on Tuesday, a day after its justice committee endorsed the ca...
One in five people in Hong Kong feels “lonely”, with about 520,000 self-isolating and unwilling to confide in family, friends or even artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots, a survey has found. The Hong Kong Family Welfare Society on Tuesday released the survey results, which also showed the city’s family well-being index at 6.09, slightly up from 6.06 in 2024. The NGO conducted the survey between ...
China has unveiled a new supercomputer built from entirely home-grown CPUs, with the aim of beating the world’s fastest machine while sidestepping US export controls. Known as Lingsheng or LineShine, it is designed to reach 2 exaflops – or two quintillion calculations per second – edging past the 1.8-exaflop El Capitan, the current record holder at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Cal...
China has unveiled a new supercomputer built from entirely home-grown CPUs, with the aim of beating the world’s fastest machine while sidestepping US export controls. Known as Lingsheng or LineShine, it is designed to reach 2 exaflops – or two quintillion calculations per second – edging past the 1.8-exaflop El Capitan, the current record holder at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Cal...
A prominent hedge fund manager took advantage of a bank’s “wholesale collective failure” to prevent illicit trading, making HK$1.7 million (US$217,012) in a single day by using confidential information to sell shares in a Hong Kong fashion house nine years ago, prosecutors alleged on Tuesday. British-born investor Simon Sadler is on trial at the District Court alongside the now-defunct Segantii Ca...
The Chinese navy has unveiled a new anti-drone air defence system, state media reported on Monday. In recent years, drones have fundamentally transformed naval warfare and emerged as a significant threat to modern warships in conflicts such as Russia’s war against Ukraine and the US-Israeli attacks on Iran. State broadcaster CCTV said a “finalisation test” – which certifies that a weapon system’s ...
Hong Kong education authorities have contacted a school after its newly tightened rules and penalties on mobile phone use triggered an outcry among students. Under the new measures, due to take effect in the coming weeks, Form Three and Four students at the boys’ school Kwun Tong Maryknoll College will be banned from using mobile phones on campus, with devices stored in lockers and accessible only...
Hong Kong property transactions surged to a four-month high in April, while the value and volume of home sales hit their highest level in 24 months, according to the latest official data, underscoring the resilience of the city’s real estate sector amid uncertainties over interest rates and the US-Israel war on Iran. A total of 8,692 transactions across homes, offices, shops, car parking spots and...
Indonesia is moving to reshape its ride-hailing industry from the inside, with officials saying the state has acquired stakes in app companies as President Prabowo Subianto seeks to raise drivers’ earnings and rein in commission fees. The move could mark a significant shift in one of Southeast Asia’s biggest on-demand economies, where millions of drivers for platforms such as Gojek and Grab have b...
South Korea’s first home-grown combat aircraft, the KF-21, still has a “long way to go” competing globally against products from the US, Europe and China, analysts said, as the fighter jet finally rolls out. In March, Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) officially unveiled the first production unit of the KF-21 Boramae, placing Seoul in an elite group of now eight countries capable of indigenously de...
Four years after Shanghai’s harsh citywide lockdown, there are signs the city’s expatriate population – which thinned significantly during the pandemic – is starting to rebound, though with a notably different demographic profile. The sound of English, Korean and French is once again often heard drifting through the plane-tree-lined streets of Shanghai’s former French Concession – widely seen as t...
On a small island off eastern China, a group of mothers is rewriting the rules of work and family life. Known as the “Female Knights”, this determined band of women has turned food delivery into a path to financial independence and self-empowerment. Qushan Island, in Zhoushan, Zhejiang province, has a population of around 55,000. Its main industries are fishing and stone mining, and access to the ...
Sweden’s government said on Tuesday it would push forward with a plan to form a new spy agency targeting overseas threats, part of a wider reset prompted by Russia’s war in Ukraine. The new agency would be called Sweden’s foreign intelligence service (UND) and would start operations in January 2027, Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard told a press conference. “During the ongoing war in Ukrain...
Researchers at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) say they have developed a world-first nasal spray that delivers neurotherapeutic powder directly to the brain as first aid for ischemic stroke patients, with clinical trials expected by 2030. The treatment is intended for initial use by paramedics, before being rolled out to high-risk groups in care facilities and eventually the general public throu...
Hong Kong has recorded its fastest economic growth in nearly five years in the first quarter, at 5.9 per cent, driven by strong exports and private consumption despite ongoing unrest in the Middle East. The first-quarter growth exceeded the year-on-year increase of 4 per cent recorded in the fourth quarter of last year, according to advance estimates released by the Census and Statistics Departmen...
Japan and Australia agreed to step up collaboration in areas including critical minerals, defence and energy security, tackling China’s dominance of rare earths and fuel-supply disruptions caused by the Iran war. “Australia and Japan are taking action to protect our economies from future economic shocks and uncertainty,” Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in a statement after meeting ...
More than 240 owners representing over 12 per cent of households at Hong Kong’s fire-ravaged Wang Fuk Court petitioned the government-appointed administrator in late April to hold an extraordinary general meeting, saying they might seek legal action if the request was ignored. The owners said in a statement on Tuesday that they would consider applying to the Lands Tribunal if Hop On Management Com...
A Japanese infantry unit has withdrawn a new patch designed by artificial intelligence after it was criticised for being immature, “aggressive” and out of step with the public image of the country’s Self-Defence Forces (SDF). The 1st Infantry Regiment’s patch was unveiled on April 29 and features an elephant in a helmet and other combat gear, holding a machine gun across its chest. The elephant ha...
Thailand on Tuesday cancelleda long-standingg agreement with Cambodia to work towards joint offshore energy exploration, Thailand’s prime minister said, defying calls from its neighbour to stay the course on the 25-year-old pact. The Thai cabinet’s cancellation of the 2001 agreement, which seeks to develop a framework to jointly explore hydrocarbons in parts of the Gulf of Thailand where the c...
When it comes to artificial intelligence, the United States still dominates the headlines – and, by most conventional measures, the technology itself. American institutions continue to produce a large share of high-impact AI research, and private investment reached over US$109 billion in 2024, nearly 12 times China’s total, according to the Stanford Institute for Human-Centred AI. At the same time...
Four men slipped aboard in the darkness. Armed with knives and moving fast, they descended into the engine room of the Taipan as the Marshall Islands-flagged tanker threaded its way through the Singapore Strait on the night of April 22. The crew managed to raise the alarm in time and thankfully no one was hurt. But by the time the vessel was searched the intruders were gone, vanished back into the...
WeRide boss Tony Han Xu believes the first fully autonomous cars may arrive on streets by 2035, as global carmakers and tech firms accelerate the application of self-driving technologies despite roadblocks. The latest setback came when Chinese regulators stepped in after an incident in Wuhan on March 31. Authorities scaled back the issuance of new autonomous driving licences after a system failure...
As China’s role in Africa’s economy continues to grow, so do the opportunities for locals that can speak Chinese. The change is partially being driven by the expanding footprint of smaller Chinese companies, which would rather hire locally than bring their own staff from China, and by the increasing role played by African firms in trade. Few of the thousands of Chinese executives, managers and wor...
Hong Kong authorities have vowed to follow up on a case of a detached MacLehose Trail sign after a woman shared a photo of herself posing with the wooden marker on social media that went viral and sparked online discussions. The woman shared the photo on her RedNote account on Monday, the fourth day of the five-day Labour Day “golden week” holiday. The image showed her holding the trail sign besid...
A backpacker has shared photos of herself holding a MacLehose Trail sign apparently removed from its metal stand during the Labour Day “golden week” holiday, drawing criticism from Hong Kong internet users. In one of two photos posted on her RedNote account, “2 star”, on Monday, the woman is seen holding the wooden panel, with a caption reading: “This is my favourite tourist picture” and a hashtag...
A hantavirus outbreak tied to a cruise ship off Cabo Verde has grown to seven cases, including two confirmed infections, the World Health Organization said on Monday, with three deaths among those linked to the voyage. The Dutch-flagged MV Hondius is carrying 147 passengers and crew from 23 countries. Among the passengers are 17 Americans, 19 Britons and 13 from Spain. Sixty-one crew members are a...
A Malaysian minister urged the country’s police chief to clarify the status of investigations into allegations that a network of businessmen was colluding with anti-corruption agency officials to oust executives. The government has ordered law enforcement agencies, including the Malaysian Anti‑Corruption Commission (MACC), to look into the allegations involving the businessmen, nicknamed the “corp...
