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Midwestern Americans watching television this summer may have been surprised to see China and bacon appearing together in political advertisements. “The corrupt Save Our Bacon scam in the farm bill – it’s a giveaway to Chinese corporations,” one advertisement declared over images of the Chinese flag and Chinese President Xi Jinping. “Whose side is your senator on? America or China?” Viewers might ...
A US Navy destroyer with about 300 sailors aboard suffered a major breakdown in the Pacific Ocean last month that left it without power for four days, the Navy confirmed in a statement. The USS Benfold “reported an engineering casualty involving its generators, causing a loss of power” on July 24, Navy spokesman Commander Matthew Comer said in the statement. The breakdown meant the crew went witho...
Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Johns Hopkins University are among 30 American institutions ordered to audit their foreign research relationships, according to US officials, as higher education representatives accused the Pentagon of implying wrongdoing without publicly presenting evidence. The identities emerged after the Department of Defence announced the audit...
Mexico is weighing plans to impose further trade restrictions on selected products from China and other countries while raising existing import taxes on others, according to four people familiar with the matter. The so-called anti-dumping measures would deepen Mexico’s alignment with Washington as President Claudia Sheinbaum pursues a multi-year extension of the North American trade pact known as ...
The United States imposed sanctions on Tuesday on the International Criminal Court’s president and a senior trial lawyer at the court, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said. The move is the latest escalation in the Trump administration’s campaign against The Hague-based court, which was established in 2002 by the international community to prosecute war crimes, genocide and crimes against humani...
Meta Platforms intentionally sought to addict children to its Facebook and Instagram platforms, a lawyer for California said on Tuesday at the start of a trial that could reshape some of the most popular apps on the planet. A bipartisan group of 29 US states is suing Meta, seeking potentially tens or hundreds of billions of dollars in penalties and changes to how Meta does business. Four lead sta...
Russian President Vladimir Putin held talks in Moscow on Tuesday with Myanmar’s junta chief-turned-president, Min Aung Hlaing, discussing a wide range of issues including prospective energy deals. Russia is the first non-neighbouring country Min Aung Hlaing has visited since becoming Myanmar’s president in April, a sign of the two countries’ deepening ties in the face of pressure from the West...
US President Donald Trump paused the planned roll-out of new tariffs on some Canadian goods late on Tuesday, after negotiations between both countries that went down to the wire. The reprieve from Trump’s 50 per cent duties would last three days, the US leader said in a social media post. This was “based on the fact that Canada and the U.S.A., subject to the finalisation of documents, have a DEAL!...
Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney has held urgent talks with US President Donald Trump, Ottawa confirmed Tuesday, in an effort to avoid fresh US tariffs on Canadian goods as a midnight deadline fast approaches. Trump signed orders for the steep 50 per cent duties last month, with the White House alleging “discriminatory treatment” by Canada against US alcohol, car and dairy products. The tariffs...
Ahead of next month’s expected summit between US President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Washington, a low profile US regulatory agency has opened a new front in the technology battle between the world’s two superpowers, even as it attempts to avoid sabotaging the vital high-stakes meeting. The latest action by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in July saw it advance stri...
US President Donald Trump said that Tuesday that no talks with Iran were under way or scheduled, as he posted a map showing the Strait of Hormuz as a new American territory in a fresh jibe at Tehran. Trump has been pressing his threat to claim sovereignty over the crucial energy waterway as the nearly six-month-old Iran war grinds on with little sign of resolution. Trump’s envoy and son-in-law Jar...
A former Mos Burger branch manager, his wife and six alleged “phantom workers” have appeared in court after being charged by the city’s corruption buster for allegedly conspiring to defraud the fast-food chain of about HK$680,000 (US$86,670) in wages. The Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) said on Tuesday that Tsui Hin‑po, former manager of the chain’s Tin Shui Wai branch, and his wi...
The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo is moving faster than any previous epidemic of the disease and risks spreading to more countries, the head of the World Health Organization has warned. “We must be frank: the epidemic is far from being under control,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told an emergency meeting on the outbreak on Tuesday. “It had a big head start,...
Some women who entered Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta on July 30 as part of a mass migrant crossing say the hardships of sleeping rough as they wait to be registered are compounded by the threat and fear of sexual harassment. More than a dozen women have set up camp on a wooded roadside running up to the barbed wire fencing that surrounds the government-run migrant reception centre, near...
The Israeli military is touted as the most powerful in the Middle East, striking targets deep into enemy territory. But for more than a week, Israeli troops have somehow failed to evict a small group of settlers sitting on rocks in the occupied West Bank. Experts says the military has long shown inertia when its task is stopping surging violence against Palestinians, due to government backing for ...
As the Iran war spills over into the Red Sea – a crucial chokepoint for Asia-Europe trade – China has marked a milestone by launching its first regular service through the Arctic’s Northern Sea Route (NSR), a development welcomed by Russia. The route, which runs along Russia’s northern Arctic coast, slashes travel time compared with alternative paths. A journey from Ningbo city on China’s southeas...
As the Iran war spills over into the Red Sea – a crucial chokepoint for Asia-Europe trade – China has marked a milestone by launching its first regular service through the Arctic’s Northern Sea Route (NSR), a development welcomed by Russia. The route, which runs along Russia’s northern Arctic coast, slashes travel time compared with alternative paths. A journey from Ningbo city on China’s southeas...
Tony Wu Yuhuai, the China-born co-founder of Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence lab, sparked discussions across Chinese social media after reportedly spending US$70 million on a six-bedroom Californian mega-mansion. The property deal, the largest so far this year in the Bay Area, pushed the thirty-something AI star under the spotlight, alongside other Silicon Valley-based Chinese talent that has ...
Hong Kong customs has raided a corporate secretarial office in Sheung Wan as part of an investigation into a local beauty chain linked to UK brand Opatra London, following six complaints alleging high-pressure sales tactics involving up to HK$100,000. Officers from the Customs and Excise Department seized documents from a unit in the Wing On Centre on Connaught Road Central on Tuesday. While liste...
Global infertility cases among women aged 35 to 49 are projected to almost double to 79.64 million by 2036, posing a major public health challenge for Hong Kong as delayed childbearing becomes increasingly common, a large-scale study has found. The study, co-led by the University of Hong Kong (HKU) and shared on Tuesday, said the city’s average maternal age was among the world’s highest and called...
Global infertility cases among women aged 35 to 49 are projected to rise by almost half to 79.64 million by 2036, posing a major public health challenge for Hong Kong as delayed childbearing becomes increasingly common, a large-scale study has found. The study, co-led by the University of Hong Kong, said on Tuesday that the city’s average maternal age was among the world’s highest and called for s...
The safe handling of dogs has become the subject of intense social media debate in Hong Kong after two small pets were fatally mauled by a large canine on the loose on Monday. The 60kg dog, which was not on a leash, killed a miniature poodle near Yoho Mall in Yuen Long and a bichon frise at nearby Lolli Park within 20 minutes of each other. The licensed animal has been captured and an investigatio...
China firmly supports Latin American nations in upholding their autonomy and pursuing international cooperation based on their own interests, Chinese President Xi Jinping told his Ecuadorian counterpart Daniel Noboa on Tuesday. “Latin American and Caribbean nations should have freedom to choose their international partners without outside interference,” Xi said, in a veiled criticism of US interve...
Chinese surgeons have enabled a man to walk again after an accident severed both his legs at the thigh, marking a rare success for advanced reconstructive procedures. After nearly 20 months of intensive post-operative recovery, the patient is reportedly able to walk indoors with a frame and manage most daily tasks unassisted. Crucially, sensation has returned to his lower legs down to his ankles. ...
More than 80 per cent of surveyed mainland Chinese companies plan to grow their overseas presence, with Hong Kong listed as their top choice for a professional services platform to support expansion, the Trade Development Council (TDC) has found. The council’s survey, published on Tuesday, also showed that about 94 per cent of respondents were eyeing countries in the Belt and Road Initiative for e...
A German court on Tuesday handed a jail sentence of one year and three months to a Ukrainian man for spying for Russia and helping prepare possible acts of sabotage. The court in Stuttgart acquitted two other Ukrainian men aged 22 and 25 who were on trial for the same plot, which involved posting test packages containing GPS trackers in March last year to Ukraine. The plan was aimed at scoping out...
A Hong Kong court has ordered the defunct Apple Daily newspaper to pay HK$1.5 million (US$191,200) in damages to a listed company and two senior executives over 10 defamatory articles that accused them of spying on the city’s pro-democracy activists at Beijing’s behest. In a written judgment delivered on Tuesday, the High Court ruled against former media boss Jimmy Lai Chee-ying’s flagship publica...
A Hong Kong court has ordered the defunct Apple Daily newspaper to pay HK$1.5 million in damages to a listed company and two senior executives over 10 defamatory articles that accused them of spying on the city’s pro-democracy activists at Beijing’s behest. In a written judgment delivered on Tuesday, the High Court ruled against former media boss Jimmy Lai Chee-ying’s flagship publication after th...
A proposed partnership between Indian industrial giant Reliance Industries and British aerospace engine maker Rolls-Royce could mark a breakthrough in India’s decades-long quest to develop a fighter jet engine, analysts have said. But they caution that money and manufacturing capabilities alone would not be enough to overcome the technical challenges of manufacturing such an engine. On Friday, the...
China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi is set to visit Seoul days after Donald Trump called for the US to scale back military exercises with South Korea, sending ripples of unease through US allies in Asia. On Sunday, the United States president posted his decision to social media, raising questions about the durability of Washington’s security commitments in a region increasingly defined by competition...
