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Record Chinese biotech out-licensing meets rising US scrutiny
China’s emergence as a global biotechnology innovation hub has become a source of strategic concern in the United States, prompting policymakers in Washington to re-evaluate how to respond to its growing influence, according to a recent report by a leading analytics firm. “The country’s latest biotechnology success is strategically important, with implications extending beyond healthcare innovatio...
Telling Hong Kong judge to retire early is sufficient penalty for plagiarism: experts
Telling a Hong Kong judge found to have plagiarised submissions in his judgments to retire early is a sufficient penalty, as he has already suffered reputational damage and is losing tens of millions of dollars in forgone salary, allowances and pension payouts, legal experts have said. A spokesman for the judiciary confirmed on Tuesday that Justice Wilson Chan Ka-shun would be eligible for early r...
Singapore growth to hold firm but AI boom a ‘major uncertainty’: central bank
Singapore’s economic growth should remain firm in the second half of 2026 although a major uncertainty is the sustainability of the AI investment boom, the head of its central bank said on Tuesday. Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) Managing Director Chia Der Jiun, speaking at the release of the central bank’s annual report, said the Middle East conflict also posed risks, but for now global AI...
Footprints in Kenya shed light on prehistoric human cousin Paranthropus
Footprints left on a muddy lakeshore in northern Kenya around 1.43 million years ago are providing new insight into the size and behaviour of a species in the human evolutionary lineage that was the last of its kind, known for extensive anatomical adaptations for eating tough vegetation. The species, Paranthropus boisei, is known mostly from skull and tooth fossils. Now researchers working along ...
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The Philippines, sovereignty and the Pax Silica Industrial Hub – how US’ Helberg sees it
The struggle between the US and China over who will lead in artificial intelligence is one of the defining competitions of our time. In the third part of our exclusive interview with a key player defining Washington’s policy on AI, Jacob Helberg, US undersecretary of state for economic affairs, gives a commitment to the Philippines on the Pax Silica Initiative. Philippine President Ferdinand Marco...
The Philippines, sovereignty and the Pax Silica Industrial Hub – how Helberg sees it
The struggle between the US and China over who will lead in artificial intelligence is one of the defining competitions of our time. In the third part of our exclusive interview with a key player defining Washington’s policy on AI, Jacob Helberg, US undersecretary of state for economic affairs, gives a commitment to the Philippines on the Pax Silica Initiative. Philippine President Ferdinand Marco...
HKU says next leader must have ‘fresh ideas’ for coming ‘transformation’
The University of Hong Kong (HKU) will launch a global hunt for its next leader to guide the institution to “fresh ideas” and through a coming “transformation”, the head of its governing council has said. HKU council chairman Peter Wong Tung-shun announced details of the recruitment on Tuesday, a day after president and vice-chancellor Xiang Zhang announced he would leave the post in 2028. “Univer...
Oman offers Iran Gulf-backed plan for voluntary fees to use Hormuz
Oman presented Iran with a plan backed by Gulf states to manage the Strait of Hormuz, including collecting voluntary fees for using it, a Gulf source and a Western diplomat told Reuters on Tuesday. The plan could serve as a basis to end the disruption to trade through the strait caused by the US-Israeli war on Iran. President Donald Trump, who abruptly called off a two-week US bombing campaign ov...
Malaysian police raid online scam centres in Johor, arrest 335 people
Malaysian police have raided 32 premises hosting online scam activities in Forest City in the state of Johor, arresting 335 people and seizing assets worth about 1 million ringgit (US$245,000), according to the state police chief. The operation was carried out on July 15, targeting two areas that had been identified as hubs for call centres running online fraud activities, Johor police chief Ab...
A new peak in US-China tech rivalry? Tibet drone hub launches on Mount Everest
Beijing has launched a drone research hub in Tibet near Mount Everest in an effort to exploit its high-altitude advantage in the ongoing competition for technological dominance between the US and China. The Plateau Drone R&D Application Centre was recently unveiled by Xizang University, state news agency Xinhua reported earlier this month. Xizang is the official Chinese pinyin name for the Tibet a...
China cracks down on sales of decommissioned military equipment ‘to protect PLA’s image’
Beijing has tightened its rules on the sale of military equipment to ban its sale through unauthorised channels. “In recent years, some business operators have openly sold, online and offline, goods … such as decommissioned and scrapped military equipment, causing an adverse impact and creating security risks,” an administrative notice issued by multiple state bodies said. The notice – made public...
India’s ‘cockroach’ protests reveal a deeper social mobility crisis
India’s latest youth protests began after examination papers were leaked. They could ultimately be seen as a referendum on the country’s development model. The immediate trigger was the controversy around the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET), India’s highly competitive medical entrance exam. Evidence surfaced that examination papers had been leaked and sold. This scandal affected mill...
America declares international law for thee but not for me
In Orwellian totalitarianism, two plus two can equal five. But with American hegemony, things can be A and not A at the same time. Earlier this month, Washington declared war on the International Criminal Court (ICC), whose very existence, it claims, poses an “intolerable” challenge to America’s sovereignty. But, citing an international maritime law, it also led a coalition of 14 mainly Western co...
Ebola cases in DR Congo top 3,200, nearing record of country’s worst outbreak
Confirmed cases in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s ongoing Ebola outbreak reached 3,262, its ministry of health said in an overnight update, nearly the same as the 2018-2020 outbreak that is the largest ever recorded in the country. Data from the Congolese health ministry showed that 1,437 patients have died out of the 3,262 cases, in what officials have said is the fastest Ebola outbreak on re...
‘Micro-discrimination’ against Indonesians? Bali run club controversy revives concerns
A running club in Bali’s expatriate hub of Canggu has become the latest flashpoint in an enduring debate over whether Indonesians are being sidelined in parts of their own country. Indonesian immigration authorities have blacklisted two Dutch nationals linked to Entourage running club after an online outcry over the alleged exclusion of locals from the popular group. The incident echoes long-stand...
Moonshot’s Kimi K3 triggers Silicon Valley debate over bans on Chinese open source models
China’s Moonshot AI has made its latest artificial intelligence model Kimi K3 available for public download, as its open-source strategy and more support for non-Nvidia ecosystems trigger heated debates across Silicon Valley. On Monday, the Chinese AI start-up not only released the model’s “weights” – the underlying parameters that encode its intelligence – but also made available key infrastructu...
What does deeper tech integration during US-led Rimpac mean for China?
This year’s US-led Rim of the Pacific (Rimpac) military exercises around Hawaii displayed a higher level of integration of new technology in allied operations, with deterring Beijing in mind, experts said. From Japanese land-based anti-ship missiles to US attack submarines and exploding drone boats, allied forces linked troops on shore with aircraft, surface and undersea vessels to form a single n...
Hong Kong parents rush babies for check-ups over infant formula lead scare
Worried Hong Kong parents who bought Friso, a popular powdered infant formula brand, are taking their children for medical check-ups and are seeking replacements after a batch of the product was found to contain excessive levels of lead. One mother told the South China Morning Post on Tuesday that her five-month-old baby was staying in hospital for observation after the child consumed the same bat...
Hong Kong drives trials for breast cancer, eye treatments across Greater Bay Area
Two US-developed treatments for breast cancer and a degenerative eye disease will undergo large-scale clinical trials in the Greater Bay Area in a collaboration involving Hong Kong, Shenzhen and a pharmaceutical start-up founded by a former lawmaker. The agreement was formalised on Tuesday when Health Hope Pharma founder Dr Dennis Lam Shun-chiu signed a memorandum of understanding with the Greater...
Indonesian central banker’s exit signals dilemma over rate policy, growth target
The sudden resignation of Bank Indonesia’s governor highlights a dilemma that he and his central bank peers in the region have faced in calibrating interest rates – either tighten policy to defend weakening currencies and contain inflation, or loosen it to support pro-growth mandates – according to analysts. Perry Warjiyo’s exit has fuelled speculation that he was under pressure to do more to supp...
China woos Slovakia with AI, robotics pitch as EU trade friction mounts
Chinese President Xi Jinping said that China and Slovakia should explore cooperation in clean energy, robotics and artificial intelligence, as the European nation navigates growing trade tensions between Beijing and the EU. Xi told his counterpart Peter Pellegrini that mutual trust has continued to deepen between the nations. The Slovak president is on a three-day visit to China, the first by the ...
What’s behind China’s recent spike in Covid-19 cases? And is it anything to worry about?
China has seen a spike in Covid-19 in recent weeks, overtaking influenza as the top respiratory pathogen for the first time this year, but most patients experienced mild symptoms, while the medical authorities said data suggested the infection rate was significantly lower than last year’s peak. The spread of the Omicron NB.1.8.1 variant has reached a “moderate transmission level”, according to the...
Hong Kong Shopping Festival eyes Asean expansion, with Singapore, Malaysia first
An annual e-commerce shopping festival supporting Hong Kong’s small and medium-sized enterprises will expand into the Asean region for the first time via Singapore and Malaysia, with plans to include other countries in future. The Trade Development Council, the organiser, said on Tuesday that the third edition of the annual Hong Kong Shopping Festival, launching next month, had attracted a record ...
Hong Kong’s Exchange Fund first-half earnings fall 37% on equity slump, softer bond income
The Exchange Fund, the war chest used to defend the local currency, reported a 37 per cent decline in first-half earnings as losses in Hong Kong equities and weaker bond returns weighed on performance, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) said on Tuesday. Earnings stood at HK$134.7 billion (US$17.17 billion), down from the record half-year return of HK$214 billion in 2025. The Hong Kong stock p...
China teenager wins praise for developing app to remind grandpa to take daily medication
An 18-year-old boy in Shanghai, who created a simple app using artificial intelligence (AI) to remind his grandfather to take his medication on time, has gained significant attention on social media and received widespread acclaim online. Ma Kai, a recent secondary school graduate, took the national university entrance exam, known as the gaokao, in June. His story came to light when he was intervi...
Top Los Angeles diabetes doctor Shen Yang joins China’s Westlake University
Even top American doctors are now relocating to China. On July 21, Westlake University in Hangzhou announced that Shen Yang, a top endocrinologist in Los Angeles, had joined its medical school. Shen’s move is striking because of her credentials, which include over 16 years of clinical experience in the United States, board certifications in internal medicine and endocrinology, and a thriving pract...
Israel expands ‘yellow line’ military zone, pushing Gazans away from home
On a road in Gaza City’s Zeitoun district, Palestinian resident Assem Dawla loaded mattresses and bags onto a truck as concrete yellow blocks marking the edge of Israel’s expanding military zone stood amid the rubble nearby. He said it was the seventh or eighth time since the war began that he and his family had been forced to leave a shelter because of Israeli evacuation orders and the advance ...
Malaysia crypto event drops Ms Pui Yi as DJ after backlash over adult-content past
A major Malaysian blockchain conference has dropped Siew Pui Yi, an influencer previously known for adult content, as the headline DJ for its official after-party after the country’s digital economy agency withdrew support. The uproar tapped into a familiar cultural fault line in Muslim-majority Malaysia, putting the country’s push to promote itself as a regional technology and crypto hub in tensi...
Philippines seeks coders, hackers for military – will it be ‘a career killer’?
The Philippines is targeting to recruit more coders, engineers and cybersecurity specialists into the military, as Manila confronts a battlefield increasingly shaped by software, networks and artificial intelligence. Philippine Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jnr on Saturday ordered the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to expand a programme that allows civilian professionals with specialis...