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Former US president Joe Biden’s prostate cancer has spread to other parts of his body and is causing him pain, even as he continues to speak out on public issues, his son Hunter said in an interview. In a wide-ranging interview with the BBC broadcast late on Friday, Hunter Biden grew emotional as he discussed his father’s condition, describing it as very sad to watch. “The cancer has spread, metas...
In northern Nigeria, 1,500 couples have tied the knot at a mass wedding organised by the state. The two-day ceremony in Kano State was aimed at people who, for financial reasons, would otherwise struggle to afford a wedding. According to the regional government, each bride received a dowry of 200,000 naira (US$147) as well as support to set up a small business. The couples were also given househol...
Last month, as thousands of young Indians led by a group calling itself the Cockroach Janta Party, marched towards Parliament in New Delhi, they were met with tear gas and struck with batons by the police. It appeared that India’s moment in South Asia’s Gen Z revolution had finally arrived. As one journalist observed, for the first time since 2014 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi took office, fea...
The Strait of Hormuz is, by some accounts, named for a Zoroastrian deity destined to emerge victorious after a 9,000-year stand-off with an adversary. Iran’s leaders feel their own victory is at hand and will not require the same epic patience. They are betting that military pressure will ultimately force the US to accept their control over the crucial waterway for global energy – and that time is...
Ukraine on Saturday denied targeting Bulgaria after a drone exploded close to the strategic Trans-Balkan gas pipeline linking Turkey to Ukraine near the Romanian border. Bulgaria’s defence ministry said the drone was of a type “widely used by the Ukrainian military”, and the foreign minister summoned the Ukrainian ambassador for a meeting on Monday in response, her office said. Kyiv said it was “i...
Kosovo’s parliament had to be suspended on Saturday after an opposition lawmaker pelted caretaker Prime Minister Albin Kurti with eggs, as a long-running political crisis threatens to trigger another snap election. Europe’s youngest democracy has faced three elections in less than two years, with successive parliaments collapsing under deep political divisions. Kurti, who has been in days-long neg...
The United Arab Emirates on Saturday said Iran had targeted a tanker belonging to the state-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) while it was transiting the Strait of Hormuz. Iran has imposed an effective blockade of the strait and wants to charge users for passage, which the US fiercely opposes, and is in talks with nearby Oman over arrangements for the strait’s future management. The UAE...
The advancement and diversification of Beijing’s anti-ship missile platforms have bolstered its denial capabilities in the first island chain and could divert US and allied navies from warfare in a Taiwan Strait contingency, according to analysts. Last week, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV released a video of a Type 052D destroyer firing a YJ-20 hypersonic anti-ship missile from its vertical launch...
The advancement and diversification of Beijing’s anti-ship missile platforms have bolstered its denial capabilities in the first island chain and could divert US and allied navies from warfare in a Taiwan Strait contingency, according to analysts. Last week, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV released a video of a Type 052D destroyer firing a YJ-20 hypersonic anti-ship missile from its vertical launch...
A girl died from critical wounds Saturday after a pupil opened fire at a secondary school and his home outside Bangkok the day before, bringing the death toll from the attack to nine people. The 14-year-old opened fire at around 10am on Friday at Debsirin Nonthaburi School in Nonthaburi province northwest of the Thai capital before apparently taking his own life. He also appeared to have killed hi...
In a historic breakthrough, a Chinese-led international team of scientists has confirmed the existence of the glueball – a rare form of matter made entirely of force. The finding was announced by a Chinese research team on Thursday at the International Conference on High Energy Physics in Natal, Brazil. Held every two years, the event features some of the most significant advancements in the field...
Robot dogs could one day lead the way across the moon, patrolling research stations, scouting hazards and helping astronauts search for scientifically valuable rocks, according to a blueprint by researchers working on China’s lunar base. The concept envisions three astronauts working alongside intelligent machines. As the crew explores the moon’s surface, one astronaut would direct two robot dogs ...
A Manila-bound Cebu Pacific flight returned to Hong Kong airport after its cargo door was suspected to have opened on Saturday. Police said officers were alerted at 3.05pm to the incident involving flight CEB143. The aircraft, an Airbus A321, landed safely at Hong Kong International Airport and no one was injured, the force said. According to the flightradar24 website, the Philippine low-cost carr...
A Manila-bound flight returned to Hong Kong airport after its cargo door was suspected to have opened on Saturday. Police said officers were alerted at 3.05pm to the incident involving flight CEB143. The plane landed safely at Hong Kong International Airport and no one was injured, the force said. According to the flightradar24 website, the Philippine airline Cebu Pacific flight was originally sch...
At least 12 flights connecting Hong Kong with mainland China, Taiwan and Japan have been cancelled as Typhoon Dolphin gradually moves away from Japan’s Okinawa prefecture and approaches eastern China. Hongkongers in Okinawa whose travel plans were disrupted by Dolphin were able to partially resume their itineraries as supermarkets and aquariums reopened. But an accommodation and car rental operato...
Following Italy’s rejection of its ultimatum to lift the border checks imposed in response to the Ceuta migration crisis, Spain has in turn announced that it will carry out checks on travellers from Italy. From midnight on Saturday, travellers from Italy would initially be subject to random checks at ports and airports until September 7, Spanish state broadcaster RTVE reported, citing a decree iss...
Taiwan’s leader rehearsed a late-night emergency evacuation during the island’s largest annual military exercise in response to growing concerns over potential “decapitation” strikes by the People’s Liberation Army, local media reported on Thursday. Under cover of darkness on Wednesday night, William Lai Ching-te, wearing body armour and a helmet, was transported from his Presidential Office in a ...
A coalition of Hong Kong employers has called on the government to freeze the pay of foreign domestic workers this year, warning that any wage increases may result in mass sackings. They also proposed a new pay-for-performance mechanism to allow employers to reward high-performing helpers more than poor performers. Two employers’ groups – the International Domestic Service Industry Development Fed...
Global pharmaceutical giants are doubling down on investing in China’s fast-growing biotech companies given the sector’s huge room for valuation growth, according to speakers at the Global Health Summit, which concluded in Hong Kong on Saturday. “Multinational pharmaceutical companies are shifting their business strategies in China away from asset-heavy operations,” said Xu Chenming, head of the h...
Overwhelmed by a high volume of inquiries, a 17-member Hong Kong charity offering pro bono help to migrant workers has turned to artificial intelligence (AI) to scale up its operations. David Bishop, co-founder and director of local non-governmental organisation Migrasia, described the systemic abuse embedded in global labour migration as an existential “climate change-level” crisis, as ageing pop...
Four people, including a child, were killed in Russian attacks on the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, and the surrounding region, local officials said on Saturday, as Ukraine hit another oil refinery in Russia. Residents endure regular drone and missile barrages that Kyiv’s depleted air defences are struggling to counter amid Moscow’s four-year-old full-scale invasion, while repeated Ukrainian strikes on...
Though the relationship between the Chinese and Indian governments has been thawing, Beijing has yet to win over the Indian public as it lacked a long-term strategy and communication channels, according to Chinese researchers. Beijing needed to find common ground by expanding its bottom-up strategies as “a matter of urgency”, Zhou Qingan, dean of Tsinghua University’s school of journalism, and Li ...
Amazon has confirmed it is financing a massive, private gas power plant in Texas that could become the single largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. It is the latest example of tech giants going off the grid to get their AI operations online faster. The news was first reported by market intelligence company Cleanview, which reviewed satellite imagery to connect three data...
Hong Kong parents should have their children vaccinated against respiratory infections as the city faces a triple threat from influenza, Covid-19 and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), a medical expert has said. Dr Mike Kwan Yat-wah, an honorary clinical associate professor in the University of Hong Kong’s department of paediatrics and adolescent medicine, warned on Saturday that the current summe...
The world might be dividing into rival camps and competing trade blocs, but international capital flows remain footloose and fancy free. In so doing, they pose a threat to what remains of stability in the real economy. A good example of this growing potential for international contagion is the influence of the weak yen on global stock prices. The Japanese currency is expected to remain weak for th...
Hong Kong should follow international peers in legislating to bar children under 16 from social media to combat cyberbullying and addiction, education experts and lawmakers have said, while stressing the need for broad social consensus. At a panel discussion on Saturday to examine proposals to restrict social media access for under-16s, educators and lawmakers argued that legislation was needed to...
An artificial intelligence (AI)-generated actress has amassed 400,000 followers on a leading social media platform in China within just two months, with a miniseries she stars in garnering an astonishing 250 million views. The success of the virtual star Fang Taozi, who is claimed to be 20 years old, has sparked intense discussion and widespread anxiety within the industry regarding the potential ...
South Korea’s national football association apologised on Saturday after a media report alleged it had provided “sexual services” to foreign referees when they were in the country for international matches more than a decade ago. South Korean broadcaster JTBC reported on Thursday that the Korea Football Association (KFA) had provided such services to foreign referees on multiple occasions in 2...
Hong Kong’s commerce chief is set to lead a delegation of mainland Chinese and local firms to Malaysia next week, noting that about 200 enterprises from across the border have already set up offices in the city since last year, using it as a stepping stone to go global. Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development Algernon Yau Ying-wah also said on Saturday that the city was eyeing emerging mar...
Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis launched ballistic missiles and drones at displacement camps and residential neighbourhoods in the city of Marib on Friday, killing two people and wounding 14, state news agency SABA reported, citing local authorities. Yemen’s army said early on Saturday it had responded against Houthi forces on several fronts. The army did not give details of the operations or say whe...
