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Archaeologists and researchers at the ancient Roman site of Pompeii have used artificial intelligence for the first time to digitally reconstruct the face of a man killed in the AD 79 eruption of Mount Vesuvius that smothered the city, offering a new way to understand one of history’s most famous natural disasters. The digital portrait represents a man whose remains, along with those of another pe...
Archaeologists at the ancient Roman site of Pompeii have used artificial intelligence for the first time to digitally reconstruct the face of a victim of the AD 79 eruption of Mount Vesuvius that smothered the city, offering a new way to understand one of history’s most famous natural disasters. The digital portrait represents an older man who was among two victims discovered as they attempted to ...
Nato is considering ending its recent practice of holding annual summits, six sources told Reuters, a move that could avoid a potentially tense encounter with US President Donald Trump in his final year in office. Trump’s administration has engaged repeatedly in scathing criticism of many of the US-led defence alliance’s 31 other members, most recently berating some for not providing more help to ...
Nato is considering ending its recent practice of holding annual summits, six sources told Reuters, a move that could avoid a potentially tense encounter with US President Donald Trump in his final year in office. Trump’s administration has engaged repeatedly in scathing criticism of many of the US-led defence alliance’s 31 other members, most recently berating some for not providing more help to ...
A small plane crashed on Monday in South Sudan near the capital Juba, killing all 13 passengers and the pilot, local officials said. On top of instability, conflict and poverty, South Sudan also lacks reliable transport infrastructure with frequent plane crashes attributed to overloading and bad weather. The plane was a Cessna that departed Juba International Airport at 9.15am local time and crash...
A Cessna aircraft crashed on Monday on the outskirts of the South Sudanese capital, killing all 13 passengers and the pilot, the country’s civil aviation authority said. The authority said preliminary reports indicate that the plane may have crashed due to adverse weather that caused poor visibility. Among those on board were two Kenyan nationals, while the rest were South Sudanese, officials sai...
Yoyo Yue has spent much of her life navigating the complex US immigration system. The 31-year-old Chinese content creator moved from China to a US boarding school, went to university, secured an H-1B visa and later a “green card” – a path long considered the “gold standard” for skilled foreign workers. Now, she said, that path felt far less certain. “The H-1B path today comes with significant unce...
Britain’s parliament will vote on Tuesday on a possible inquiry into Prime Minister Keir Starmer, looking at whether he misled the House of Commons over the appointment of former US ambassador Peter Mandelson. Any such inquiry could have serious implications for Starmer’s future. He has so far resisted pressure to quit over his decision to hire Mandelson, but if found to have knowingly misled par...
Alibaba Group Holding gained approval from the Hong Kong stock exchange to proceed with a proposed spin-off of a warehouse park in mainland China, two years after the tech giant withdrew the listing plan of its logistics arm Cainiao. The e-commerce giant said it could separate an infrastructure real estate investment trust (Reit) and list it on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, with the underlying asse...
The coming summit between Chinese President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart Donald Trump offers a window to stabilise bilateral ties through trade deals, but former diplomats and business figures have urged the leaders to move beyond commerce during their talks. At a forum held by the Centre for China and Globalisation (CCG) in Beijing on Sunday, analysts and former officials called on the leade...
Two months after US and Israeli strikes began, their war on Iran has settled into a costly stalemate. The fighting has paused under a fragile Pakistan-brokered ceasefire, but the Strait of Hormuz remains blocked, direct talks have collapsed and neither side shows signs of yielding. Last weekend, Washington’s envoys cancelled their planned trip to the Pakistani capital for further talks after Tehra...
Chinese optical chipmaker Yuanjie Semiconductor Technology reported an elevenfold surge in first-quarter profits as domestic firms capitalise on soaring demand for computing power amid the artificial intelligence boom and the country’s tech self-sufficiency drive. Net profit in the three months ended March 31 jumped 1,153 per cent year on year to 179 million yuan (US$26.2 million), while revenue g...
Yellowstone is the world’s largest active volcanic systems – whose eruption is hundreds of times more powerful than Vesuvius’ blast and ash could blanket half the US – and yet scientists could not agree on what drives its underground magma system. But a new finding detailed by Chinese researchers could settle the dispute. They declared that Yellowstone’s magma channels were not blasted open by mag...
Government surveyors failed to detect major fire risks at a housing complex destroyed in Hong Kong’s deadliest inferno in decades because they were following outdated guidelines that did not require in-person inspections of renovation works, a public inquiry has heard. The independent committee was told on Monday that illegal alterations to Wang Fuk Court’s emergency passages during the HK$336 mil...
Hong Kong’s Security Bureau has defended its decision to appoint singer Hins Cheung as a mentor in a “rehabilitation project” for youngsters arrested during the 2019 protests, saying it welcomes individuals from all backgrounds to share positive life experiences following criticism from internet users in mainland China. The project, which has been running for two years, aims to support the rehabil...
Chinese robotaxi firms from Pony AI to WeRide are accelerating global roll-outs of commercial fleets, leveraging cost competitiveness from the country’s world-leading new energy vehicle (NEV) supply chain and improved operational efficiency, company executives have said. China’s NEV supply chain had helped reduce the total cost of Pony AI’s upgraded seventh-generation robotaxi – including the base...
Contemporary Amperex Technology Ltd (CATL) has taken a leap forward in commercialising sodium-ion batteries, signing a large supply contract with an energy-storage system (ESS) provider amid high demand for power infrastructure after the global oil shock. The world’s largest electric vehicle (EV) and ESS battery maker announced on Monday that it would deliver 60 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of sodium-ion ...
The bitter legal fight between Elon Musk and the leadingAIe firm, OpenAI, led by Sam Altman, may come down to a few pages in one executive’s personal diary. “This is the only chance we have to get out from Elon,” wrote Greg Brockman, OpenAI’s president and a co-founder, in the autumn of 2017. “Is he the ‘glorious leader’ that I would pick?” Brockman’s diary entry is part of the thousands of page...
The long-standing rivalry between China’s two largest economic heavyweights – with each boasting a gross domestic product comparable to Group of Seven members Italy and Canada – reflects the regional dynamism and shifting economic gravity within the world’s second-biggest economy. Jiangsu has been threatening to end Guangdong’s uninterrupted reign as China’s largest provincial economy since the la...
The Strait of Hormuz is usually described as a chokepoint. Today, it is more than that. It is the hinge point between war and peace in the Gulf. Roughly a fifth of the world’s oil and gas trade passes through this narrow waterway. When it was secure, the global economy barely noticed it. As soon as it was threatened, prices jumped, shipping costs rose and military tensions spread beyond the region...
Hong Kong plans to table a bill by year-end to standardise regulation of future mass transit projects, including Kai Tak and East Kowloon, the transport chief has said, as lawmakers raise concerns over fares and long-term service quality. Secretary for Transport and Logistics Mable Chan told lawmakers on Monday that the government was pursuing policy innovation by adopting open tenders for future ...
Taiwan has received its final shipment of US-made M1A2T Abrams tanks, completing a long-delayed order aimed at modernising the island’s ageing armoured forces. Considered one of the world’s most powerful tanks, the vehicles are expected to bolster the island’s defence amid rising military pressure from Beijing. The shipment of 28 tanks arrived at the Port of Taipei over the weekend and was moved o...
China’s drug maker WuXi AppTec reported record first-quarter revenue, as a robust order backlog and sustained demand from global pharmaceutical companies supported growth. For the three months ended March 31, the Shanghai- and Hong Kong-listed company posted revenue of 12.44 billion yuan (US$1.72 billion), up 28.81 per cent year on year, according to a filing released on Monday. Net profit climbed...
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari is on a week-long visit to China with a focus on economics and trade. Zardari arrived in China on Saturday and the Pakistani foreign ministry said he would be visiting Changsha in the central province of Hunan, then head to Sanya in the island province of Hainan on Tuesday, where he would stay until he heads home on Friday. “During the visit, the president will...
The Chinese military aired footage over the weekend of YJ-20 hypersonic anti-ship missile launches, as joint US-Philippines-Japan drills heighten tensions in the disputed South China Sea. China Military Bugle, a social media account run by the People’s Liberation Army, posted a video on Sunday of the PLA Navy conducting strike tests at sea, including multiple YJ-20 launches. The post did not speci...
India and New Zealand on Monday signed a free-trade agreement to deepen economic ties and expand market access, as both countries navigate mounting global trade disruptions. The deal comes as New Delhi moves to diversify export markets to offset the impact of steep tariffs imposed by the United States and instability in shipping and energy routes due to the Iran war. For New Zealand, the agreement...
Hong Kong police have arrested nine men in a crackdown on child pornography linked to a seven-jurisdiction operation in which more than 300 suspects were detained across Asia. Police said on Monday the city had joined a coordinated international operation involving Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, Thailand and Brunei, targeting offences related to the production, distribution and possessio...
Japan’s first female prime minister is facing a growing backlash from women new to political activism, as alarm spreads over her government’s push to revise the country’s pacifist constitution and expand its role in arms exports. The women are part of a protest wave that has grown from a few thousand people in late February to tens of thousands outside the National Diet in Tokyo, where demonstrato...
Europe’s territorial integrity is a “red line” in Finland’s relations with the United States and other powers, according to Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen. “I can only say that certainly territorial integrity is the red line. “We defend the UN Charter, the territorial integrity of nations and sovereignty, and if need be, then we have to react through the means which we have at hand,” she told the...
A former Hong Kong prison officer has admitted severely wounding an inmate by repeatedly thrusting a stick into the man’s rectum after being sprinkled with baby powder during a game. Tam Lik-chung, an ex-assistant officer in the Correctional Services Department, pleaded guilty in the District Court on Monday along with an inmate, Ho Lik-wun, who had helped hold down the victim. Tam, 33, had been o...
