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British Prime Minister Keir Starmer insisted on Wednesday he would not resign, claiming allegations of misleading MPs over his appointment of a party loyalist as UK envoy to Washington had been “put to bed”. Starmer’s remarks in parliament came as the beleaguered premier faced fresh calls to step down over his admitted error of judgment in appointing veteran former politician Peter Mandelson to th...
Washington’s reported plan to have embassies team up with the American military’s “psyops” department to boost the US’ image could backfire and actually damage the country’s credibility, according to analysts. The strategy amounts to using “propaganda to fight the truth”, according to Tad Stoermer, a historian and former lecturer at Johns Hopkins University. Amid slipping global approval, the US i...
China has named the two Pakistani astronauts selected to train for a mission to its space station this year, Xinhua said on Wednesday. After undergoing assessments, one of the men will serve as a payload specialist on a space mission alongside the Chinese crew to become the first foreign astronaut to enter the Tiangong space station. Muhammad Zeeshan Ali and Khurram Daud will soon arrive in China ...
Hong Kong authorities have proposed new offences with tougher punishments for fire installation contractors who fail to obtain prior approval before deactivating firefighting systems or do not report malfunctions within 24 hours, in the wake of the city’s deadliest fire in decades, the South China Morning Post has learned. Other proposed changes included drastically increasing the maximum penalty ...
Hong Kong authorities have proposed new offences with tougher punishments for fire installation contractors who fail to obtain prior approval before deactivating firefighting systems or do not report malfunctions within 24 hours, in the wake of the city’s deadliest fire in decades, the South China Morning Post has learned. Other proposed changes included drastically increasing the maximum penalty ...
China’s electric vehicle (EV) makers could introduce a lidar sensor-based intelligent driving system in models priced as low as 60,000 yuan (US$8,795) this year, reflecting intensifying competition and falling costs, according to AI-driven tech firm Robosense. This price point is the lowest for models on sale in China’s market, excluding mini vehicles sold for less than 50,000 yuan, indicating fie...
The Iran crisis loomed large in discussions when Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez met President Xi Jinping on separate visits to Beijing last week. Both meetings focused on the need for a comprehensive and sustainable security architecture for the Middle East. This week, on a phone call with Saudi Crown Prince M...
PLA warships transited sensitive international waterways off southwestern Japan twice this week, a rare move seen as a clear warning to Tokyo over its recent actions relating to Taiwan. The transits marked the start and end of exercises in the western Pacific, outbound through the Yokoate Channel on Sunday and back via the Yonaguni-Iriomote Waterway on Wednesday. In a statement on Wednesday, the E...
Nepal’s home minister stepped down on Wednesday over growing criticism of his finances after less than a month in office he won on an anti-corruption platform. Sudan Gurung, a key figure in the Gen-Z protests last September that toppled Nepal’s previous government, said he was stepping down to ensure a “fair investigation”. “I have resigned from the position of Home Minister with effect from today...
The bourse operators of Hong Kong and Malaysia are exploring a range of collaborations, from dual listings and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to Islamic finance, to forge closer ties between the city and the Southeast Asian country. Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX) CEO Bonnie Chan Yiting and Boursa Malaysia CEO Dato Fad’l Mohamed unveiled their joint development plans in a media briefing in H...
The United Nations voiced alarm on Wednesday at the number of people being executed in Singapore for drug-related offences, saying it was incompatible with human dignity. UN rights chief Volker Turk said there had been a general shift away from the use of capital punishment in Asia, and Singapore was one of only a few countries imposing the death penalty for drug-related crimes not involving inten...
Beijing has praised the decision by three African countries to deny overflight clearance for Taiwanese leader William Lai Ching-te, whose trip to eSwatini was cancelled a day before his scheduled departure. Lai had been due to leave on Wednesday for a five-day trip to eSwatini, the only African country that maintains diplomatic ties with Taiwan, to attend celebrations marking the 40th anniversary ...
China is embarking on a sweeping overhaul of its industrial architecture, aiming to fuse software and steel as part of a 100-trillion-yuan (US$14.7 trillion) undertaking to modernise its service sector while pushing manufacturing into the future. The State Council’s blueprint, unveiled on Tuesday, said the valuation target for the service sector was achievable by 2030 as advanced manufacturing inc...
More than 600 defaulters aged 60 and above have failed to repay their student loans under five government financial assistance schemes designed to fund their tertiary and post-secondary studies, with the average amount owed standing at HK$17,400 (US$2,220). In a reply to questions from lawmakers on Wednesday, the Education Bureau said it had recorded 9,838 default cases, involving 8,494 people, un...
Authorities have found the body of one of the six missing crew members from a cargo ship that overturned near the Northern Mariana Islands during a typhoon. US Air Force divers “used an underwater remotely operated drone to search the interior of the vessel” and recovered the body on Tuesday, the US Coast Guard said in a news release. Additional divers from the Japan Coast Guard further examined t...
Iran fired on three ships in the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday, underscoring the ongoing threat to global energy supplies and complicating efforts to bring the United States and Iran together for talks to end the war. The attacks, which Iranian media said were carried out by Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, came after US President Donald Trump said the US would indefinitely extend the ceas...
The Hollywood film The Devil Wears Prada 2 is facing accusations of racism in China after it released a clip that shows a nerdy Asian character with a name that allegedly sounds similar to the derogatory “Ching Chong”. In the clip posted by a Chinese influencer, an Asian assistant character introduces herself as “Jin Chao”, which many online observers believed to sound like “Ching Chong”, a deroga...
The Hollywood film The Devil Wears Prada 2 is facing accusations of racism in China after it released a clip that shows a nerdy Asian character with a name that allegedly sounds similar to the derogatory “Ching Chong”. In the clip posted by a Chinese influencer, an Asian assistant character introduces herself as “Jin Chao”, which many online observers believed to sound like “Ching Chong”, a deroga...
A public inquiry into Hong Kong’s deadliest fire in decades has exposed confusion among government departments over their roles in supervising large renovation projects, with a fire services officer insisting his department was not responsible for handling complaints about flammable building materials because it lacked expertise in construction. Michael Yung Kam-hung, an assistant director of the ...
A public inquiry into Hong Kong’s deadliest fire in decades has shed light on government departments’ confusion over their roles in supervising large-scale renovation projects, with a fire service official insisting his department was not responsible for handling complaints about flammable building materials because it lacked expertise in construction. Michael Yung Kam-hung, an assistant director ...
A French campaign group said on Wednesday it has sued companies selling nitrous oxide – also known as laughing gas – using what the activists alleged was “deceptive” marketing targeting young people, despite the health impacts. The Antoine Alleno Association – a road safety group headed by Michelin-starred chef Yannick Alleno, whose son was killed in 2022 by a speeding driver – said it had filed t...
China has launched what it calls the world’s first “panoramic” carbon accounting system, a model that revises down the country’s emissions compared to other estimates and raises them for the United States. Unlike other models that assign responsibility for emissions based on total carbon output from facilities such as power plants and factories, the new model gives greater weight to the consumers ...
US President Donald Trump announced a last-minute indefinite extension of a ceasefire with Iran and downplayed reports about an intercepted ship carrying a “gift from China” to Tehran. The US would avoid military action against Iran “until such time as their leaders and representatives can come up with a unified proposal”, Trump said on social media on Tuesday. He cited a request from Pakistan as ...
Asia is entering a dangerous summer for food production as scientists warn of a “super El Nino” suppressing rainfall while the war on Iran drives up energy and fertiliser costs for farmers. India’s Meteorological Department has forecast a below-average monsoon, after two successive years of above-normal rains, while in Australia – a major wheat producer and exporter – a shortage of farm inputs and...
Flights between China and Japan faced even more cancellations in March – with further cuts expected during the coming Labour Day holiday – as political tensions between the Asian neighbours continue to simmer. A total of 2,691 China-Japan flights were scrapped last month, according to figures from the data platform DAST cited by Chinese media outlet Yicai. That brought the cancellation rate to nea...
[The content of this article has been produced by our advertising partner.] Octopus is moving further into Hong Kong’s transport system with the rollout of a taxi booking feature in its app, as the city steps up efforts to modernise a traditionally cash-heavy sector through regulation and fintech. The new “Easy Ride” feature allows passengers to book, ride and pay for taxis in a single interface, ...
Eight mainland China-based companies – five of them biotech firms – passed listing hearings on the Hong Kong stock market in April, clearing the way for them to tap the city’s deep liquidity. The influx, including an AI-driven drug discovery firm, a driverless technology developer and a maker of industrial robots, comes as the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) has been pushing private ...
[The content of this article has been produced by our advertising partner.] The Hong Kong Sevens concluded successfully this evening (19 April) at Kai Tak Stadium with The Hong Kong Jockey Club having supported the tournament for the fifth consecutive year as the Official Community Partner. This year, the Club has also become the Official Community Partner of the Hong Kong Football Club 10s for ...
US Federal Reserve chair nominee Kevin Warsh’s policy vision – outlined during his Senate confirmation hearing – signals an extension of “America First” into monetary policy, Chinese analysts said. “Warsh’s policy proposals … mark a shift from acting as a ‘global central bank’ supplying unlimited liquidity worldwide to a new approach focused on tightly controlling the overall monetary spigot, prio...
In the spring of 2026, amid a fragile ceasefire in the Strait of Hormuz, President Donald Trump continues to insist that the United States is untouched by disruptions in the Persian Gulf. “We don’t use it”, he has claimed, echoing years of “energy dominance” rhetoric. The numbers tell a different story. The United States remains a net importer of crude oil. Its refineries are engineered for the me...
