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Plans to build 12,000 public flats on part of Hong Kong’s oldest golf course have been thrown into serious doubt after the government chose not to appeal a court’s decision to uphold a ruling revoking the project’s environmental approval. Authorities said on Thursday that they had decided against appealing after “holistically” considering legal advice following the Court of Appeal’s decision to up...
Russian drone and missile strikes on Ukraine’s capital Kyiv and its northeast killed eight people on Thursday in attacks that included a maternity hospital and a farm, officials said. Moscow has stepped up its air war in recent months, deploying more of its faster and harder-to-stop drones while Ukraine is short of interceptors to down ballistic missiles. Two people died in the latest assault on ...
Efforts to detect multiple cancers through a single blood draw are gathering momentum after US regulators endorsed the technology for the first time, although experts say wider adoption in Hong Kong still faces challenges as doctors remain cautious about its clinical value. In a landmark decision for the emerging field of multi-cancer early detection (MCED) blood tests, a US Food and Drug Administ...
For millions of Indians, buying a cup of chai or groceries from roadside vendors has come to mean reaching for their phones rather than wallets – a habit made possible by a system that has so far charged consumers nothing for such everyday transactions. Now, a decade after the government launched the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), India is asking some merchants to pay for the hugely popular sys...
Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to the US is his first to the country since 2023 and his eighth face-to-face meeting with Donald Trump. From informal walk-and-talks to a state dinner, Xi’s meetings across four American administrations show how personal rapport and official diplomacy reflect the growing complexity of US-China relations. Xi’s first US visit as president: a shirtsleeves summit I...
The artificial intelligence road map presented at its flagship Apsara Conference this week showcased a pragmatic pivot by Chinese tech giant Alibaba Group Holding, offering a clearer path to monetisation despite a sharp escalation in capital expenditure, analysts said. The conference, which ran from Tuesday to Thursday under the theme “Intelligence goes beyond”, highlighted “Alibaba’s disciplined ...
China and the United States agreed to extend a trade-war truce by two months to January 10, as President Xi Jinping arrived in Washington for a summit with US President Donald Trump. The short extension will let the US assess whether China is meeting trade commitments, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox News on Wednesday following “unscheduled” extra talks with Chinese Vice-Premier He Lifen...
Singapore police have launched an investigation after a video of a man allegedly filming female students using smart glasses went viral, sparking concerns about privacy and safety. In the social media video, a man wearing black-rimmed glasses and a face mask is seen walking behind two female students wearing what appear to be uniforms from Raffles Institution, a premier school in the city state. T...
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr is weighing an absolute pardon for Mary Jane Veloso, a former death row inmate detained since her 2010 conviction for drug trafficking in Indonesia. “The Office of the President is seriously considering granting an absolute pardon to Mary Jane Veloso on humanitarian grounds in support of the government’s commitment to protecting Filipino migrant workers,” ...
The recent strength in Hong Kong’s exports extended into August, with the value jumping by 53 per cent to HK$667.9 billion (US$85.6 billion) – the second-highest level on record after July’s peak – on strong demand for artificial intelligence-related products. Provisional figures released by the Census and Statistics Department on Thursday showed that the total value of exports rose to HK$667.9 bi...
The Philippine Senate has made it mathematically easier to convict Vice-President Sara Duterte-Carpio, but observers said the ruling could intensify a battle over an impeachment trial already viewed by the public as deeply divisive. The Senate, sitting as an impeachment court, ruled on Wednesday that only senator-judges who are able to take part in the trial should be counted in determining the th...
Former Hong Kong television actress Leila Tong Ning has been sued for allegedly breaching her management contract by abandoning her professional duties while suffering from depression and dyeing her hair without her agency’s consent. The High Court writ, filed by agency Tenjinmura Ongaku Limited, also accuses the 44-year-old former Television Broadcasts (TVB) artist of “coercive conduct” and accep...
China and the United States must prevent their AI competition from escalating into a cold war, a top Chinese policy adviser has warned, while asserting that a complete decoupling would be difficult. The remarks from Zheng Yongnian, a leading political scientist and dean of the school of public policy at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, come ahead of the Xi-Trump summit in Washington,...
Malaysia’s haze crisis has flared again just weeks after emergency measures and cloud-seeding operations brought temporary relief, with experts warning that smoke from Indonesian fires could continue drifting across the country until monsoon winds change. All 108 schools in Serian, a district in the state of Sarawak on Malaysian Borneo, were ordered to close on Thursday after the air pollutant ind...
As Chinese President Xi Jinping arrives in Washington for his much-anticipated summit with US President Donald Trump, it is clear which country emerged stronger from the tariff shock. Last month, China’s exports rose 25 per cent in annualised terms, causing the country’s trade surplus to swell to US$119 billion and putting it on track to exceed last year’s record of US$1.2 trillion. Moreover, Chin...
A fundraiser to help pay disgraced former leader Najib Razak’s 50 million ringgit (US$12.3 million) fine has become a lightning rod for insults and mockery, as Malaysians continue to pile criticism on a decision last week to allow him to spend the rest of his jail sentence under house arrest. King Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar last Friday granted Najib a “conditional pardon”, which will allow the jailed...
The synergy between sports and philanthropy took centre stage earlier this month at the two-day PBC (Philanthropy for Better Cities) Forum 2026, convened by The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust, in association with the Institute of Philanthropy (IoP), at Hong Kong’s West Kowloon Cultural District. IoP was established by the Club and its Charities Trust in 2023, and is dedicated to promoting p...
Indonesia’s navy commissioned its first aircraft carrier on Thursday after acquiring the former Italian vessel to strengthen its maritime defences and disaster response. The Italian flag on the former ITS Giuseppe Garibaldi was replaced with the Indonesian flag on the carrier renamed the KRI Sriwijaya-100 as part of its official transfer at the ceremony held at Tanjung Priok seaport in North Jakar...
At Joint Base Andrews where Donald Trump rolled out the red carpet for the visiting Chinese president, Xi Jinping appeared unfazed during a ceremonial flyover by a screeching US bomber while the US president visibly winced at the noise. As Xi arrived at the military base just outside Washington, he was greeted with a ceremony that included the US Air Force band playing the American and Chinese nat...
At Joint Base Andrews where Donald Trump rolled out the red carpet for the visiting Chinese president, Xi Jinping appeared unfazed during a ceremonial flyover by a screeching US bomber while the US president visibly winced at the noise. As Xi arrived at the military base just outside Washington on Thursday, he was greeted with a ceremony that included the US Air Force band playing the American and...
Hong Kong has cut its rate of cancer-related deaths by more than 40 per cent over the past three decades, the health minister said, as the city’s leader renewed his pledge to make it a hub for medical innovation. Secretary for Health Lo Chung-mau outlined the city’s progress in cancer control at the World Cancer Congress, which is being held in Hong Kong for the first time. Citing figures from 199...
US President Donald Trump’s choice of attire at Joint Base Andrews on Wednesday drew online attention as he made a rare personal appearance to welcome Xi Jinping. Trump was on the tarmac to greet Xi on Wednesday evening as the Chinese president arrived in Washington for his first US state visit in more than a decade. But while temperatures at the airbase were around 19 degrees Celsius (66 degrees ...
As a Rohingya exile who abandoned his life in Malaysia to return to Myanmar, Ismail’s bleak prospects may portend what awaits others caught in Kuala Lumpur’s migrant crackdown. Weeks ago, the 25-year-old was eking out a living at a Malaysian fish market, one of legions of the Muslim minority group who left Myanmar to escape violence some monitors say amounted to genocide. But a wave of anti-Rohing...
China Asset Management (Hong Kong), the offshore arm of one of mainland China’s largest asset managers, launched three exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the city on Thursday, expanding its product line-up as investors seek more diversified strategies amid market volatility. The three products – a Hong Kong high-dividend ETF, a Hong Kong growth ETF and a Hong Kong-US “Halo” ETF – are scheduled to lis...
Chinese medical scientists have shattered the brief window of time available to limit stroke damage, effectively shielding injured brain cells and dramatically improving the odds of a full recovery. Brain cells start dying within minutes of a clot blocking an artery, leading to facial droop, affected speech and in severe cases, paralysis or death. Emergency treatments, such as clot-busting drugs o...
Chinese medical scientists have shattered the brief window of time available to limit stroke damage, effectively shielding injured brain cells and dramatically improving the odds of a full recovery. Brain cells start dying within minutes of a clot blocking an artery, leading to facial droop, affected speech and in severe cases, paralysis or death. Emergency treatments, such as clot-busting drugs o...
Hong Kong will introduce security arrangements, including contingency plans for potential terrorist attacks, for the coming Apec meeting to ensure it is held safely and smoothly while minimising disruption to residents’ daily lives, the security chief has said. The Apec Finance Ministers’ Meeting will be held in the city for the first time on October 20 and 21, at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhi...
Hong Kong’s Electrical and Mechanical Services Department (EMSD) is considering an appeal against the non-custodial sentence of an engineer held liable for faulty lift installation work in Queen Mary Hospital’s new clinical block. The department said on Thursday it was seeking legal advice on whether to apply for a review of lift engineer Law Wing-chai’s sentence after he was deemed responsible fo...
CNN, MS NOW and Politico requested an urgent court hearing on Thursday after their reporters were barred from the White House despite a judge’s order that their access be restored. “This morning journalists from each of CNN, MS NOW, and Politico attempted to enter the White House and were turned away,” the news outlets said in a court filing. “Plaintiffs respectfully request that the court set a h...
A federal judge ordered US President Donald Trump on Thursday to restore White House access for journalists from CNN, MS NOW and Politico, saying his ban on the three media outlets was likely unconstitutional. In a major setback for Trump in one of his biggest battles with the media, US District Judge Tim Kelly issued his order in a lawsuit that the news organisations filed contesting the...
