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China gets closer to Jupiter mission by bringing Nasa’s StarNAV concept to life
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China gets closer to Jupiter mission by bringing Nasa’s StarNAV concept to life

Chinese researchers have tested a new way for spacecraft to navigate in deep space, putting a concept funded by Nasa into practice and paving the way for the country’s planned mission to Jupiter in 2030. Known as stellar aberration navigation, the approach uses tiny shifts in the relative position of stars to work out how fast a probe is moving and in what direction, allowing autonomous real-time ...

Survey finds US public opinion shifting in favour of engagement with China
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Survey finds US public opinion shifting in favour of engagement with China

On the eve of this week’s summit between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, Americans feel better about China, according to a poll released on Monday. They see Beijing as less of a threat, are less supportive of Taiwan and are more likely to favour engagement over containment than last year or in 2024, when views hit an all-time low. As with almost everything in the US the...

Air China makes special pre-summit New York flight over objections of US aviation group
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Air China makes special pre-summit New York flight over objections of US aviation group

A special Air China flight from Beijing reached New York over the objections of a trade association representing the biggest US airlines, according to a flight data tracker, and a second additional flight by the same Chinese carrier is being considered for Friday. Flight 621 took off from the Chinese capital around 4pm on Saturday and landed after 6pm local time the same day, according to global f...

No US ruling yet on Air China’s bid for extra flights during Xi Jinping’s visit
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No US ruling yet on Air China’s bid for extra flights during Xi Jinping’s visit

The US Department of Transportation has yet to announce online a decision on Air China’s application to add extra flights to support this week’s US-China high-level visit as of late Monday, Hong Kong time, after a trade association backed by the largest US airlines protested the bid. The trade group Airlines for America, which represents major US airlines, filed an objection to Air China’sbid for ...

World leaders meet at UN as planet grapples with climate change, wars, runaway AI

World leaders meet at UN as planet grapples with climate change, wars, runaway AI

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Under a global cloud of wars and bitter divisions, world leaders meet at the United Nations in New York this week facing new fears that runaway artificial intelligence could threaten humanity even as climate shocks and escalating prices are already making life much tougher for hundreds of millions of people. The annual high-level gathering at the UN General Assembly will also be consumed with majo...

Hong Kong school withdraws graduation video guideline on Cantonese after backlash

Hong Kong school withdraws graduation video guideline on Cantonese after backlash

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A leading Hong Kong secondary school has expressed regret and withdrawn guidelines accused of banning Cantonese from graduation videos after the policy sparked controversy. Good Hope School issued a public statement on Monday evening, saying it had heard concerns from the wider community and had “fully and formally withdrawn” the guidance paper for next year’s Form Six graduation class video. “Goo...

Hong Kong school withdraws Cantonese graduation video guideline after backlash

Hong Kong school withdraws Cantonese graduation video guideline after backlash

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A leading Hong Kong secondary school has expressed regret and withdrawn guidelines accused of banning Cantonese from graduation videos after the policy sparked controversy. Good Hope School issued a public statement on Monday evening, saying it had heard concerns from the wider community and had “fully and formally withdrawn” the guidance paper for next year’s Form Six graduation class video. “Goo...

Former top PLA generals expelled from Communist Party for factionalism and disloyalty

Former top PLA generals expelled from Communist Party for factionalism and disloyalty

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The Communist Party accused former military leaders Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli of factionalism and disloyalty, expelling them from the party and the armed forces following a Politburo meeting on Monday, state media reported. Zhang was once a vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC) and the highest-ranking uniformed member of the Chinese military, second only to Chinese leader Xi Jin...

Foreign chambers back Hong Kong 5-year plan, urge progress on Northern Metropolis

Foreign chambers back Hong Kong 5-year plan, urge progress on Northern Metropolis

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Representatives of foreign business chambers who met Hong Kong’s leader have said the five-year plan provided clear policy priorities for businesses’ strategic planning, but called for more concrete timelines and visible progress on the Northern Metropolis project to attract investment. Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu held a briefing on Monday for consuls general and heads of foreign chambers of ...

Subsidised physiotherapy places slashed by third amid graduate job crunch

Subsidised physiotherapy places slashed by third amid graduate job crunch

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Hong Kong education authorities have cut the number of subsidised places for physiotherapy and occupational therapy programmes at three self-financing institutions by about a third for the 2027-28 school year amid a graduate job crunch. A physiotherapy association backed the reduction to avoid worsening unemployment in the sector, saying any future increase would depend on the government budget. T...

As AI safety fears mount, can a US-China hotline prevent a global crisis?

As AI safety fears mount, can a US-China hotline prevent a global crisis?

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The United States and China’s agreement to establish an official AI dialogue, including a proposed threat-notification system, marks a pragmatic step towards crisis prevention in their tech war, even as deep-seated divisions over chip access, model distillation and market dominance threaten to limit its impact, analysts said. Announced following high-level talks in New York on Sunday between US Tr...

South Korea gets a new internet star as Busan shark sighting goes viral

South Korea gets a new internet star as Busan shark sighting goes viral

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A 3.5-metre-long shark that wandered into a Busan waterfront channel has become an unlikely internet celebrity in South Korea, drawing nearly 20,000 spectators over the weekend as authorities opted to leave the animal alone rather than risk provoking it. The shark was first spotted on Friday in the waterway at North Port Waterfront Park, where it has remained for at least four consecutive days des...

In a China first, low-altitude sector hits turbulence as subsidies face reality check

In a China first, low-altitude sector hits turbulence as subsidies face reality check

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A major Chinese tech hub is moving to pull the plug on dedicated funding for its low-altitude economy, making it the first city in the country to propose repealing a full financial support package for the sector. The proposal in Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang province, comes after the deadly crash of a small aircraft into Beijing’s tallest skyscraper in June. Still, some analysts contend that t...

Success of Xi-Trump summit lies in what happens afterwards

Success of Xi-Trump summit lies in what happens afterwards

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Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to meet US President Donald Trump in Washington this week, after the May talks in Beijing and before the November Apec summit in Shenzhen. This sequence of diplomacy will test if the commitment to building a “constructive China-US relationship of strategic stability” translates into practical arrangements. The Washington meeting faces clear limits. Differen...

Success of Trump-Xi summit lies in what happens afterwards

Success of Trump-Xi summit lies in what happens afterwards

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Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to meet US President Donald Trump in Washington this week, after the May talks in Beijing and before the November Apec summit in Shenzhen. This sequence of diplomacy will test if the commitment to building a “constructive China-US relationship of strategic stability” translates into practical arrangements. The Washington meeting faces clear limits. Differen...

Hong Kong developer New World gets nod to spin off K11 Shanghai assets

Hong Kong developer New World gets nod to spin off K11 Shanghai assets

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New World Development (NWD) received the green light from the Shanghai Stock Exchange to spin off and list a Reit (real estate investment trust) on the bourse, according to the distressed developer controlled by one of Hong Kong’s wealthiest families. The expected offering size for the NWD C-Reit was about 3.82 billion yuan (US$570 million), from which the group’s estimated net proceeds would be 3...

Nearly half of Taiwanese lack confidence in US defence commitments, survey finds

Nearly half of Taiwanese lack confidence in US defence commitments, survey finds

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Nearly half of Taiwanese lack confidence that Washington will continue military aid and arms sales to the island, according to a new survey released on Monday ahead of this week’s Trump–Xi summit. The poll by Taiwan-based United Daily News found 47 per cent were not confident the United States would continue providing military assistance and selling weapons to Taiwan, slightly exceeding the 44 per...

Southeast Asia supports multilateralism, wary of US or China leadership: survey

Southeast Asia supports multilateralism, wary of US or China leadership: survey

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Southeast Asia remains comparatively confident in international cooperation even as scepticism grows over whether the United States or China should take a leading global role, a new survey has found. Analysts said the findings reflected a long-standing regional preference for keeping strategic options open, particularly among smaller and middle powers wary of an international order dominated by ei...

Moonshot’s Kimi K3 lands on Amazon in key test for Chinese open-source AI revenue

Moonshot’s Kimi K3 lands on Amazon in key test for Chinese open-source AI revenue

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Chinese artificial intelligence start-up Moonshot AI has begun supplying its flagship Kimi K3 model to Amazon Web Services (AWS), one of the world’s largest cloud services providers, in a major test case for how open-weight AI models can generate higher revenue from third-party platforms. The model is now available on Amazon Bedrock, AWS’s tool for building generative AI applications, offering “a ...

China allows foreign visitors to skip police stations, register stay online

China allows foreign visitors to skip police stations, register stay online

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Foreign visitors to China who choose to stay somewhere other than a hotel can now register their accommodation with the authorities online, which analysts say will make travelling to the country more convenient. China’s Exit and Entry Administration Law mandates that foreigners register their accommodation with the police within 24 hours of arrival. Those who fail to do so could be issued a warnin...

Flights axed, over 1 million urged to evacuate as Typhoon Dujuan hits Japan

Flights axed, over 1 million urged to evacuate as Typhoon Dujuan hits Japan

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More than 1 million people were under evacuation advisories in Japan early on Tuesday and hundreds of flights have been cancelled as Typhoon Dujuan brushed past Tokyo, bringing torrential rain, flooding and landslides to the region. Two people have been confirmed dead as heavy rainfall triggered landslides in Chiba and Kanagawa prefectures near Tokyo, local governments reported according to Japane...

2 dead in Japan, over 1.6 million urged to evacuate as Typhoon Dujuan nears Tokyo

2 dead in Japan, over 1.6 million urged to evacuate as Typhoon Dujuan nears Tokyo

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A large typhoon was moving closer to eastern Japan’s Pacific coast on Monday, bringing heavy rain to the Tokyo area and triggering landslides in Chiba and Kanagawa prefectures, with two people confirmed dead, according to local governments. In Sodegaura, Chiba, a 51-year-old man working to restore a damaged road died in hospital after a landslide engulfed him and the hydraulic excavator he was ope...

Over 1.6 million in Japan urged to evacuate as Typhoon Dujuan nears Tokyo

Over 1.6 million in Japan urged to evacuate as Typhoon Dujuan nears Tokyo

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Hundreds of flights were cancelled and more than one million people were under evacuation advisories in Japan on Monday as Typhoon Dujuan approached the capital Tokyo, potentially bringing record rainfall. In Sodegaura, Chiba, a woman in her 40s sustained minor injuries after driving into debris from a landslide. In Yokosuka, Kanagawa, rescue operations were underway for a female resident of a hou...

Former Shenzhen mayor Qin Weizhong under corruption probe by China’s discipline watchdog

Former Shenzhen mayor Qin Weizhong under corruption probe by China’s discipline watchdog

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Qin Weizhong, former mayor of the southern technology hub of Shenzhen, is under investigation for corruption, the country’s top watchdog has confirmed. According to a statement by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection on Monday, Qin is “suspected of grave disciplinary and law violations and is currently undergoing review”, which usually means a corruption probe. Qin was appointed deputy...

Former Shenzhen mayor Qin Weizhong under graft probe by China’s discipline body

Former Shenzhen mayor Qin Weizhong under graft probe by China’s discipline body

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Qin Weizhong, former mayor of the southern technology hub of Shenzhen, is under investigation for corruption, the country’s top watchdog has confirmed. According to a statement by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection on Monday, Qin is “suspected of grave disciplinary and law violations and is currently undergoing review”, which usually means a corruption probe. Qin was appointed deputy...

Hong Kong woman, 80, loses HK$6 million to fake online investment expert

Hong Kong woman, 80, loses HK$6 million to fake online investment expert

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An 80‑year‑old woman has lost HK$6 million (US$764,772) to a fake investment expert she met online, Hong Kong police have disclosed. The case was among more than 50 investment scams reported over the past week, with total losses approaching HK$30 million, according to a post on the force’s CyberDefender social media page. The victim, a retiree, first met the fraudster posing as an investment exper...

South Korea beats foreign student target, but struggles to keep them

South Korea beats foreign student target, but struggles to keep them

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South Korea has surpassed its 2027 target of attracting 300,000 international students a year ahead of schedule, and universities must now find ways to retain and develop them, a new rankings assessment has shown. First launched last year and described as the country’s most internationalisation-focused assessment to date, The Korea Times University Rankings assess institutions on seven indicators,...

Chinese woman, 65, plays dual roles of beautiful doctor and mum to con man out of US$25,000

Chinese woman, 65, plays dual roles of beautiful doctor and mum to con man out of US$25,000

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A 65-year-old Chinese woman used artificial intelligence (AI) to impersonate both a young doctor and her mother, successfully scamming 170,000 yuan (US$25,000) from a man. Liu Hui, a resident of Shanghai, connected with a woman named Yu Xiuzhen on a social media platform in 2021. Yu asserted that she was a 29-year-old doctor at a prestigious Grade 3A hospital in Shanghai, claiming influence over h...

Expect ‘high tide’ of Chinese biotech deals as threat of US curbs fades: analysts

Expect ‘high tide’ of Chinese biotech deals as threat of US curbs fades: analysts

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US-China biotech deals are expected to thrive because Washington is reportedly leaning away from sweeping restrictions, according to analysts, giving Chinese healthcare firms a major boost following Beijing’s ambitious five-year plan for the sector. Out-licensing deals between China and the US would “ride on a high tide” in the favourable environment, said Nomura’s head of China healthcare researc...