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Beijing and Brussels remain “deadlocked” on trade in medical devices following discussions in Beijing this week, a source said, adding that “intensive consultations” were under way about Brussels’ plan to launch import safeguards against made-in-China plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs). Vice-Minister of Commerce Ling Ji – China’s deputy international trade representative – held discussions w...
Chinese carmakers have gained ground in Europe’s shift to electric cars, emerging as the biggest winners in plug-in hybrids despite moves by Brussels to curb their expansion. As petrol prices climbed across the EU, hitting a record high of more than €2.30 a litre (US$9.91 a US gallon) in Germany this month, the move to battery power gathered pace. Battery-electric registrations jumped 62.7 per cen...
The Philippines’ decision to block messaging platform Discord for less than a day following a series of school shootings has raised questions about the government’s response to child safety online, with analysts describing the move as a show of regulatory muscle that did little to address underlying problems. The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) announced on Thursday ...
Six people, including four tourists, were missing after a building collapsed following an explosion early Friday in Athens’ historic Plaka district that was probably due to a huge gas leak. The city’s mayor Haris Doukas called the blast an “unbelievable disaster” and spoke of the likelihood of an “explosion triggered by … a very significant gas leak” that led to the collapse of the two-storey buil...
Five people were missing on Friday after an explosion caused a residential building to collapse in a touristic area of central Athens, injuring three people and damaging houses, shops and cars across a historic neighbourhood. It was not immediately clear what caused the blast in the two-storey building in Plaka near some of Athens’ most popular sites including the Acropolis and the Temple of Zeu...
An explosion caused a residential building to collapse in the crowded tourist centre of Athens on Friday, injuring three people and damaging houses, shops and cars across a historic neighbourhood. It was not immediately clear what caused the blast in the two-storey building in Plaka near some of Athens’ most popular sites including the Acropolis and the Temple of Zeus, sending rocks and broken gl...
Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump discussed artificial intelligence (AI) and Taiwan at the White House on Thursday as part of a state visit dominated by pageantry. On AI, Xi said that “the right thing to do is to draw on each other’s strengths, not guard against each other”, according to a statement from the Chinese foreign ministry. He also backed continued dialogue about...
Chinese President Xi Jinping’s trip to the US will conclude not at the diplomatic negotiating table, but in front of America’s founding documents. After morning tea in the White House Red Room, US President Donald Trump and his wife Melania will take Xi and his wife Peng Liyuan on a tour of the National Archives, the home of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and other texts that es...
Chinese President Xi Jinping’s trip to the US will conclude not at the diplomatic negotiating table, but in front of America’s founding documents. After morning tea in the White House Red Room, US President Donald Trump and his wife Melania will take Xi and his wife Peng Liyuan on a tour of the National Archives, the home of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and other texts that es...
Chinese President Xi Jinping’s trip to the US will conclude not at the diplomatic negotiating table, but in front of America’s founding documents. After morning tea in the White House Red Room, US President Donald Trump and his wife Melania will take Xi and his wife Peng Liyuan on a tour of the National Archives, the home of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and other texts that es...
Property developer-turned-president Donald Trump appeared to relish showing off the White House’s latest building works to Xi Jinping on Thursday, eager to give his Chinese counterpart a glimpse of his construction ambitions since they last met in China. In May, Trump was hosted at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People, a sprawling complex that the US president compares with his planned White House b...
A major coal deal in Indonesia is set to secure a powerful new partner for one of the country’s biggest miners, even as the industry worries a delay in the government’s approval of production quotas could have a severe impact on the business outlook. Low Tuck Kwong and his daughter Elaine Low, the biggest shareholders of Bayan Resources, agreed on September 16 to sell a 30 per cent stake in Indone...
Investor appetite for hotel assets increased in Hong Kong and the wider Asia-Pacific region in the first half of the year as consumers showed growing eagerness to travel and constrained supply supported property values, according to CBRE. The region netted US$8 billion of investment in the period, up 21 per cent from a year earlier, with Japan, mainland China and South Korea attracting the most ac...
Former Malaysian leader Najib Razak has no money to pay the fine to secure his transfer to house arrest, his lawyers have said, as they question the delay in releasing the full details of the conditional pardon granted by Malaysia’s king last week. King Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar last Friday decreed that Najib would be allowed to serve out the remainder of his sentence at home, on condition that he p...
Zhou Hongxu, the official who oversees President Xi Jinping’s security, made an appearance at the White House state banquet on Thursday night, alongside a cohort of other rising Chinese officials. The banquet’s guest list described the 55-year-old People’s Liberation Army (PLA) major general as both director of the Central Guard Bureau and deputy director of the Communist Party’s General Office – ...
Nepal’s Prime Minister Balendra Shah proposed a climate alliance with neighbouring India and China, urging action to protect the fragile Himalayan ecosystem after catastrophic flooding across the region. “Glaciers and floods do not travel with stamps and passports,” Shah told world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly in New York. “As an urgent first step, we propose that we establish th...
If the American guests seated at the head table with President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump at Thursday’s White House state dinner were any indication, Washington now views its relationship with Beijing largely through the prism of technology. Analysts said the seating arrangement underscored how tech industry titans driving the global AI infrastructure boom were pushing to draw the tw...
More than 1,000 visitors have flocked to one of Hong Kong’s most popular geological attractions on the morning of the Mid-Autumn Festival, putting a new real-name reservation system through its first major holiday test. As mainland Chinese tourists started visiting the city for the long weekend, crowds were seen streaming towards the Po Pin Chau section of the High Island Geo Trail in Sai Kung und...
Singapore and China should look to the next phase of cooperation through potential projects in artificial intelligence and the green economy, after decades of economic ties anchored by industrial parks, eco-cities and transport corridors. Singapore Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong said on Friday that the relationship had “never been static”, arguing that the economic challenges of each era shape...
President Emmanuel Macron said France would send troops to defend an oil plant in Saudi Arabia as the Iran-backed Houthi militia took responsibility for new attacks on the kingdom. Macron said in a television interview Thursday with TF1 and France 2 that he would send soldiers and military support to help protect the Saudi port of Yanbu. Saudi Arabia came under attack from the Houthi militia on Th...
Mooncakes, a sweet staple for China’s annual Mid-Autumn Festival, are not just for people any more. Humans are pulling back, but dogs are digging in. So are cats. Pet mooncakes are popping up across China, from major retailers such as Sam’s Club to online stores and small bakeries. And many are quickly selling out. In the southwestern metropolis of Chengdu, a pack of pet mooncakes selling online f...
Hong Kong’s health minister has rejected claims that authorities favour mainland nurses over local candidates, saying locally trained professionals have “very good chances” of finding work even as public hospitals struggle to recruit. Secretary for Health Lo Chung-mau said on Friday that the Hospital Authority had hired 95 per cent of local applicants for nursing positions over the past year. The ...
Hong Kong’s health minister has rejected claims that authorities favour mainland nurses over local candidates, saying locally trained professionals have “very good chances” of finding work even as public hospitals struggle to recruit. Secretary for Health Lo Chung-mau said on Friday that the Hospital Authority had hired 95 per cent of local applicants for nursing positions over the past year. The ...
This live article is freely available to our registered users. Please log in or create an account. Xi’s US summit: Access real-time updates, geopolitical risk analysis, and exclusive reporting from an Asian perspective. Subscribe now with our limited-time offer to stay ahead. Chinese President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart Donald Trump have met in Washington for an eagerly anticipated summit, ...
This live article is freely available to our registered users. Please log in or create an account. Xi’s US summit: Access real-time updates, geopolitical risk analysis, and exclusive reporting from an Asian perspective. Subscribe now with our limited-time offer to stay ahead. Chinese President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart Donald Trump have met in Washington for an eagerly anticipated summit, ...
Hong Kong’s first astronaut has delivered a Mid-Autumn Festival blessing to residents from outer space, expressing her deep affection and longing for her home city. “Looking at the moon from here and looking down at the earth, I increasingly miss my family and friends in Hong Kong,” Lai Ka-ying said in a Mandarin speech recorded in China’s Tiangong space station. “On this occasion of the Mid-Autum...
When US President Donald Trump hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping in the East Room, every detail of the state dinner was steeped in symbolism, with sparkling wine served as a nod to a pivotal moment in Sino-US relations and references to “ping-pong diplomacy”. The meal opened with a toast of Schramsberg Blanc de Noirs, a vineyard selected to honour the historic 1972 “Toast to Peace” shared by the...
A veteran Malaysian politician pleaded not guilty on Friday to a sedition charge over remarks backing a rival claimant to the Negeri Sembilan throne amid the months-long royal crisis. Rais Yatim, 84, a former cabinet minister and president of Malaysia’s Senate, was charged at the Sessions Court in Ayer Keroh, Melaka, for his comments on June 5, during a ceremony proclaiming Tunku Nadzaruddin Tuank...
While their husbands held talks at the White House, Melania Trump hosted Peng Liyuan at the Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art on Thursday, where the famed Chinese soprano softly hummed along to a youth choir’s performance of a familiar classic. Footage shows the Hope Chinese School youth choir waving Chinese and American national flags during their rendition of the song “Jasmine Flower”, wh...
Online ride-hailing giant Uber will close a second Hong Kong metered taxi platform that it acquired by the end of this year, just over six months after it bought out the business. Uber said on Friday that it would fully integrate the services on FlyTaxi into its own platform by the end of the year, saying it aimed to provide “optimal” support for drivers and users. “As part of this integration, th...
