Live headlines from trusted global sources. Click any story to open it on the original website.
Four women have accused Jared Leto of sexual misconduct when they were teenagers, to which the actor and musician responded Wednesday that he has “never sexually assaulted anyone”. “I have never sexually assaulted anyone in my entire life. These claims are absolutely and categorically false,” Leto, 54, said in a statement. The BBC documentary Jared Leto: Hollywood’s Dark Secret, released on Wednes...
The Federal Reserve held interest rates steady on Wednesday, a choice that may intensify questions about how US central bank chief Kevin Warsh will deliver on his commitment to bring inflation back down to the 2 per cent target. The widely expected decision to leave the benchmark interest rate in the 3.50 per cent to 3.75 per cent range drew dissents from three of the 12 members of the policy-set...
Two directors of a contractor linked to the deadly inferno at Hong Kong’s Wang Fuk Court have denied all allegations of bid-rigging, corruption and collusion with consultants, with one saying he was never told the housing estate’s fire safety system had any problems. A district councillor, Peggy Wong Pik-kiu, who has been criticised for her links to the former owners’ committee of the Tai Po compl...
The United States on Wednesday sanctioned a group of mainland Chinese and Hong Kong shipping companies accused of operating vessels that transported Iranian oil to China, extending Washington’s economic campaign against Tehran alongside its naval blockade. The US State Department said eight companies were designated for operating vessels that moved Iranian crude oil and petrochemical products to C...
The United States on Wednesday sanctioned a group of mainland Chinese and Hong Kong shipping companies accused of operating vessels that transported Iranian oil to China, extending Washington’s economic campaign against Tehran alongside its naval blockade. The US State Department said eight companies were designated for operating vessels that moved Iranian crude oil and petrochemical products to C...
Anthony Fauci repeatedly invoked his constitutional right against self-incrimination at a contentious US Senate hearing on Wednesday, refusing to answer questions about American funding for coronavirus research in China and allegations that he misled Congress about the origins of Covid-19. The extraordinary appearance reopened one of Washington’s most politically divisive disputes: whether the pan...
Anthony Fauci repeatedly invoked his constitutional right against self-incrimination at a contentious US Senate hearing on Wednesday, refusing to answer questions about American funding for coronavirus research in China and allegations that he misled Congress about the origins of Covid-19. The extraordinary appearance reopened one of Washington’s most politically divisive disputes: whether the pan...
Hong Kong’s main public research funding body for universities has approved a record 12 projects worth about HK$478 million in its latest financing round, with artificial intelligence featuring in more than a third of successful proposals, including one aimed at cutting AI data centre power use by up to 20 per cent. The higher education institutions receiving the most funding are City University, ...
British Prime Minister Andy Burnham pledged on Wednesday to take difficult decisions to overhaul England’s adult social care system, saying he wanted to work with other parties to end unfair high costs for users that he likened to US healthcare. Successive governments have failed to reform adult social care, for which families can pay hundreds of thousands of pounds, after previous proposals were ...
Hong Kong is gearing up for a September launch of its revamped Huanggang Port border crossing, with drills set to begin next month under the new “joint inspection” model, the South China Morning Post has learned. Sources said Secretary for Security Chris Tang Ping-keung and other officials were set to inspect the checkpoint on Friday, when Hong Kong will begin exercising jurisdiction over its desi...
The death of a six-year-old girl after receiving an experimental gene-editing therapy has been described by scientists as a tragedy that highlights the need to improve trial safeguards. But some in the biotechnology industry fear Chinese policymakers may curtail the regulatory flexibility that scientists have long enjoyed in initiating clinical trials – a key mechanism behind China’s competitive e...
India is planning a new law to combat AI deepfakes and impersonation scams amid a surge in cyber fraud and fake videos targeting top military officers. The cases have deepened concerns over the potential for misinformation to sow discord in India during a geopolitical crisis, such as in the war against Pakistan last year. The proposal aims to close a gap in India’s laws by clearly defining punishm...
Hong Kong police have recorded 150 WhatsApp account hijacking cases in the past two weeks, with total losses exceeding HK$26 million (US$3.31 million), including one in which a victim was scammed out of HK$10 million by fraudsters impersonating his father. In a social media post on Wednesday, the force’s Cyberdefender platform warned residents against “blindly” trusting voice messages as fraudster...
Copies of the official paper of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Committee of the Communist Party of China are not usually a hot commodity. But the Saturday edition of Guangxi Daily became an overnight collector’s item after its front-page story on Wang Hong – who last week received the prestigious Fields Medal alongside her compatriot Deng Yu – went viral online. Wang, who hails from the sout...
French DJ and musician Kavinsky, known for his electronic classic “Nightcall”, has been found dead at his home in Paris, prosecutors said on Wednesday. The self-taught pianist, whose real name is Vincent Belorgey, would have turned 51 on Friday. It was not immediately clear how he died, but emergency crews late on Tuesday noted nothing suspicious, the Paris prosecutor’s office said. “Nightcall” be...
At least 15 elephants have died from exposure to a suspected poison in the Amboseli National Park in southern Kenya over a four-week period, the country’s nature conservation authorities reported on Wednesday. The Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) said the animals had died in the park, which lies along the border with Tanzania, between June 24 and July 24. The nearby Kimana Conservancy and the Kuku Ran...
As the Chinese military expands its autonomous underwater capabilities, the US Coast Guard is seeking new ways to counter undersea drones, highlighting what analysts describe as a gap in America’s defence. The law enforcement agency said it was requesting information on commercially available systems capable of detecting, tracking and disabling unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs). While the July 2...
A Norwegian teenager was convicted on Wednesday of conspiracy to commit murder in Britain after being recruited by a Swedish organised crime group that prosecutors said was being used by the Iranian government. Johannes Natland, now 19, was arrested in a hotel room in Huddersfield, northern England, in March last year with two firearms and ammunition in his possession. Prosecutors said Natland...
Firefighters in southwest France battled an uncontained wildfire four times the size of Paris on Wednesday as temperatures were forecast to reach 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit), threatening to turn a calm night into only a brief reprieve. Authorities in the Gironde region said the blaze had not spread overnight, but rising heat and afternoon winds could revive smouldering hotspots, ca...
Philippine Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jnr urged heightened vigilance over academic exchange programmes with China following reports that language teachers in Manila had been trained by a Chinese university at the centre of a recent controversy over the Batanes Islands. Speaking on Wednesday in Manila, Teodoro cautioned that foreign-linked educational initiatives risked being exploited as c...
China’s robotics firms have run into a fresh obstacle in their global expansion, after the United States banned imports of new foreign-made models, which analysts say could benefit Tesla and other American developers. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) added foreign-produced “advanced robotic devices” to its Covered List on Tuesday, blocking new models from obtaining the authorisation req...
China’s robotics firms have run into a fresh obstacle in their global expansion, after the United States banned imports of new foreign-made models. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) added foreign-produced “advanced robotic devices” to its Covered List on Tuesday, blocking new models from obtaining the authorisation required to be imported and sold in the US. The ban will cover all new hu...
Over the past few decades, people in many countries have witnessed extraordinary technological progress. Transport is becoming smarter, robots and drones are entering everyday life, infrastructure is growing more complex, buildings are reaching ever higher into the sky and expanding cities are drawing in millions of new residents. The number of megacities – urban areas with populations of at least...
Chinese scientists have used detailed satellite imagery analysis to examine damage to US military bases in the Middle East, uncovering discrepancies in both Washington and Tehran’s claims over the scale of the conflict. Using advanced remote sensing and image-processing techniques, researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) also identified damage patterns that exposed vulnerabilities i...
Google on Wednesday launched its artificial intelligence agent Gemini Spark in the Hong Kong market, giving local users direct access to a smart assistant to manage complex digital workflows. The launch came months after the American tech giant’s decision in March to lift regional geofences for generative AI services, starting with the Gemini chatbot. Hong Kong users can now access Gemini without ...
Malaysia is tightening controls on high-risk hiking routes after officials linked a growing rescue burden to poor preparation, unauthorised trails and social media-driven summit attempts. The push is aimed partly at curbing gruelling “compressed hikes”, in which climbers try to complete long or technically demanding routes within a single day, often combining an ascent and descent that would usual...
More than 90 per cent of mainland Chinese enterprises plan to expand overseas within the next two years, with over 80 per cent aiming to use Hong Kong as their launch pad into Southeast Asia, a survey has found. The research findings, published by the Trade Development Council on Wednesday, indicate that mainland firms are actively pursuing diversified footprints across Asean markets. The survey, ...
The United States is pitching billions of dollars in investment to become Southeast Asia’s energy partner of choice, offering gas, grid technology and nuclear expertise as ongoing turmoil from the Iran war sharpens fears of future supply shocks. Analysts say the push serves American strategic and commercial interests – from opening markets for US liquefied natural gas to countering China’s dominan...
China’s increasing clout in the global semiconductor supply chain is accelerating the unravelling of the artificial-intelligence trade, as expectations grow that the Asian nation will challenge foreign tech juggernauts by supplying the world with cheaper alternative products. The US$9.8 billion stock offering of ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) in Shanghai provided the Chinese maker of dynamic ...
To offset an ageing agricultural workforce and boost sustainable yields, China is aggressively accelerating the adoption of farm drones – a trend that analysts say could spread to more emerging markets despite trade restrictions imposed by the United States. Industry leader DJI said its global sales of agricultural drones had exceeded 700,000 units across China and more than 100 other countries an...
