Live headlines from trusted global sources. Click any story to open it on the original website.
Huawei Technologies is making rapid progress in rolling out a new breed of advanced chip based on its self-developed Tau Scaling Law, with the Chinese company set to adopt the processors across the newly released Mate 90 smartphone series. The roll-out marks another step forward in the Chinese tech giant’s push to overcome stringent US export curbs, which has seen Huawei rewire its smartphone busi...
Ross Surace is preparing to raise the price of a coffee by 50 Australian cents and a panini by A$1 (US$0.70) when the country bans credit card surcharge fees starting on Thursday. The co-owner of Lennox Street Deli in Melbourne’s Moonee Ponds neighbourhood said bank-imposed card fees already cost his business more than A$1,000 (US$690) a week, even after the cafe recoups some of the expense by add...
Switzerland’s glaciers, which are disproportionately impacted by climate change, have lost nearly 20 per cent of their mass in five years, experts said on Thursday, with 2026 registering the second biggest melt on record. Swiss glaciers saw 5.5 per cent of their volume melt away this year, the Glacier Monitoring in Switzerland (GLAMOS) network found in a new study, published after a record hot sum...
Researchers have identified a potential source of uranium in a long-explored mining district in the southern Philippines, as Manila moves to establish nuclear power and expand its critical minerals industry. The discovery, which could provide uranium for the nuclear fuel cycle if further exploration confirms its viability, was made in the Larap-Paracale mining district in Camarines Norte province,...
A growing number of young Chinese women are paying for romantic photo shoots with male models, seeking a brief taste of love through a novel form of emotional companionship. This trend has gained significant traction on mainland social media, with customers spending up to 8,000 yuan (US$1,200) for an hour-long session featuring couple-style poses, including hand-holding, embraces, staged kisses, a...
The Chinese ambassador to the United States, Xie Feng, on Wednesday described the personal rapport and “mutual respect” between Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump as the “most valuable strategic asset in our bilateral relations”. “Their personal connection and in-depth dialogue have helped keep China-US relations on course at critical moments,” Xie said during a speech mark...
US President Donald Trump has announced US$200 billion in energy investments from South Korea, including US$54 billion towards a long-discussed liquefied natural gas project in Alaska and more than US$100 billion in planned longer-term nuclear power investments. Besides the Alaska LNG project and pipeline and the nuclear plants, the Trump administration announced a US$22.3 billion natural gas-fire...
Perhaps no story illustrates the secret of China’s industrial success better than its rise as the world’s gold superpower. China has revered the metal for millennia, yet it has never had a gold-based economy. Its own deposits were simply too scarce. In 1975, as China began its economic modernisation, it desperately needed gold to fund reform and build up foreign reserves. Despite its best efforts,...
Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee and senior government officials are attending a ceremony and a National Day reception as the city celebrates the 77th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.
Some Hong Kong retailers are forecasting double-digit sales growth over the National Day “golden week” holiday, but industry leaders have warned that the expected influx of mainland Chinese visitors may deliver far smaller gains across the sector as tourists remain cautious about spending. The cautious outlook came after authorities estimated that about 1.29 million mainland visitors were expected...
The two Koreas urgently need to restore military communication to prevent a landmine dispute in the demilitarised zone (DMZ) from escalating into an armed clash, according to observers. The danger is growing as North Korea presses ahead with leader Kim Jong-un’s order to fortify its side of the 4km (2.5 mile) wide buffer zone separating it from the South. South Korea views the works, including the...
A woman who filed a lawsuit saying she was sexually assaulted by seven men at a Cornell University fraternity house told police weeks after the incident that she could “say with 100 per cent confidence I was raped”, according to a report by CBS New York, which said it obtained a transcript of her interview with investigators. The transcript, which has not been publicly released, raises new questio...
US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that he discussed the release of political prisoners in China with his counterpart, Xi Jinping, in Washington last week. “We talked, and I think we had some very, very important discussions. Hopefully fruitful discussions,” Trump told reporters in the White House. Families had stepped up pressure on the Trump administration to push Beijing to release the...
US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that he discussed the release of political prisoners in China with his counterpart, Xi Jinping, in Washington last week. “We talked, and I think we had some very, very important discussions. Hopefully fruitful discussions,” Trump told reporters in the White House. Families had stepped up pressure on the Trump administration to push Beijing to release the...
At a hearing reviewing China’s compliance with its World Trade Organization (WTO) commitments, a senior US trade official said Beijing was targeting entire industrial sectors for global dominance while retaining a non-market economic system. Terry McCartin, Assistant US Trade Representative (USTR) for China, Mongolia and Taiwan Affairs, said China’s anticompetitive behaviour posed a major challeng...
The fields in Xinjiang’s Awati county – a cotton hub hit by US sanctions – were nearly ready for the October harvest. Yusup Molamaiti, a 36-year-old technician, recalled what it was like manually planting and harvesting 37 mu (about 2.5 hectares or 6 acres) of scattered plots of land. “Planting a single mu took up to three hours with two people laying plastic film by hand,” he said. Harvesting wou...
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth announced on Wednesday that the United States has slashed the number of its generals and admirals by 20 per cent, in a move he said is aimed at “accountability”. Hegseth suggested the cuts targeted officers who failed to get on board with his efforts to ensure the military is focused on war-fighting rather than the “woke” policies of previous administrations, desc...
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth announced on Wednesday that the United States has slashed the number of its generals and admirals by 20 per cent, in a move he said is aimed at “accountability”. Hegseth suggested the cuts targeted officers who failed to get on board with his efforts to ensure the military is focused on war-fighting rather than the “woke” policies of previous administrations, desc...
US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer on Wednesday proposed a new global framework to tackle excess steel production capacity on the sidelines of the ongoing Group of 20 Trade Ministers’ meeting, just days after Chinese President Xi Jinping’s state visit to the United States. “The United States has taken robust measures, and it probably makes sense for other countries to do that too,” Greer said ...
When I first heard about the Hong Kong government’s plans to allow the importation of specially qualified carers to look after the elderly, my mind turned to some colloquial English expressions. The first was “set the cat among the pigeons”, which basically means to say or do something that causes a good deal of trouble, alarm, anger or controversy in a peaceful situation. The immediate trigger fo...
Israel’s leader credited the Indian pilot of a Dubai-Tel Aviv flight, as well as the aircraft’s passengers, with averting catastrophe on Wednesday after the man was attacked by his co-pilot, sparking a fight for control of the aircraft and forcing an emergency landing. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the co-pilot of the flydubai jet had been trying to crash it and kill all its passengers, w...
Israel’s leader credited the Indian pilot of a Dubai-Tel Aviv flight, as well as the aircraft’s passengers, with averting catastrophe on Wednesday after the man was attacked by his co-pilot, sparking a fight for control of the aircraft and forcing an emergency landing. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the co-pilot of the flydubai jet had been trying to crash it and kill all its passengers, w...
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the Indian pilot who was wounded in an altercation with his co-pilot who allegedly tried to crash a Dubai-Tel Aviv flight on Wednesday. “My salute to the Indian pilot Captain Smit Machchhar for his extraordinary bravery. Despite being stabbed and seriously injured, he fought back... preventing a catastrophic mid-air disaster. He saved the lives of ...
Britain’s MI5 spy agency issued an unprecedented alert on Wednesday to warn that a Chinese organisation was involved in funding academic research into topics such as AI on behalf of Beijing’s state security service. In its “Espionage Alert”, MI5 said more than 100 UK-based academics had contributed to projects funded by the China General Technology Research Institute (CGTRI), which had “very stron...
China will charge an extra 55 per cent tariff on Brazilian beef from Thursday after Brazil filled its import quota for the year and has not agreed to let Brazilian exporters use the unfilled quota of neighbouring Uruguay, industry sources said. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce announced the surtax on Wednesday, a day after China’s customs administration confirmed that Brazil had used all of its 1....
China will charge an extra 55 per cent tariff on Brazilian beef from Thursday after Brazil filled its import quota for the year and has not agreed to let Brazilian exporters use the unfilled quota of neighbouring Uruguay, industry sources said. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce announced the surtax on Wednesday, a day after China’s customs administration confirmed that Brazil had used all of its 1....
A pilot programme between the UK and France that aimed to curb the number of migrants crossing the English Channel in small boats has been scrapped, Britain’s government said on Wednesday. In a statement, the Home Office said the so-called “one in, one out” deal is “no longer processing new cases”. Under the plan, people who arrived in the UK after making the dangerous crossing across the Channel ...
British Prime Minister Andy Burnham on Wednesday said there were “strong indications” Iran was involved in suspicious activity at a UK airbase that triggered a major security incident this weekend. “There are strong indications that Iran played a part in what happened over the weekend at RAF Fairford,” Burnham told the BBC, referring to Sunday’s bomb scare near the airbase in southwest England, wh...
British Prime Minister Andy Burnham on Wednesday said there were “strong indications” that Iran was involved in suspicious activity at a UK airbase that triggered a major security incident this weekend. “There are strong indications that Iran played a part in what happened over the weekend at RAF Fairford,” Burnham told the BBC, referring to Sunday’s bomb scare near the airbase in southwest Englan...
A US appeal court on Wednesday halted the execution of death row inmate Christa Pike in Tennessee, less than two hours before she was scheduled to become the first woman that state has put to death in more than 200 years. The 6th US Circuit Court of Appeals ordered a “short stay of execution” to give it time to weigh Pike’s claim that her allegations of childhood sexual abuse were not adequately ...
