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The United States imposed late on Thursday a fresh wave of tariffs against 60 economies, including China, Japan, South Korea, India and European Union member states, hours before a temporary 10 per cent blanket levy was due to expire. The tariffs, ranging from 10 to 12.5 per cent, are the outcome of a Section 301 investigation into forced labour, with Washington arguing that existing measures have...
The United States imposed late on Thursday a fresh wave of tariffs against 60 countries, including China, Japan, South Korea, India and European Union member states, hours before a temporary 10 per cent blanket levy was due to expire. The tariffs, ranging from 10 to 12.5 per cent, are the outcome of a Section 301 investigation into forced labour, with Washington arguing that existing measures have...
Mid-July should have been a moment of quiet satisfaction in Beijing. Fresh data showed China’s favourability surpassing that of the United States in 25 of 37 nations surveyed by Pew Research Centre, including key European countries. Domestically, the second-quarter gross domestic product growth of 4.3 per cent, while softer than the first financial quarter, kept the annual target within reach. The...
Donald Trump’s Justice Department will withdraw subpoenas issued to New York Times journalists who reported on security concerns about the president flying on a Qatari-donated Air Force One, a prosecutor said at a court hearing on Thursday. The subpoenas issued by Manhattan US Attorney Jay Clayton on July 10 are the latest instance of the Trump administration seeking to force journalists to divul...
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told Brazil that Beijing would continue to support its sovereignty, security, and development interests, hours after a 25 per cent US tariff on Brazilian goods took effect. Wang met Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira on Wednesday in Manila, on the sidelines of the 59th meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) foreign ministers, where Vieir...
The Pentagon has added Fudan University and Shanghai Jiao Tong University to a list of foreign institutions deemed a threat to US national security, extending Washington’s research-security crackdown to two of China’s most prestigious civilian universities. The updated list identifies 88 institutions in mainland China and bars US Department of Defence-funded researchers from collaborating with the...
The Houthi militia in Yemen appears to be allowing some ships to pass through the Bab al-Mandab strait at the mouth of the Red Sea, despite its blockade of shipping to Saudi Arabia, experts said on Thursday. A Chinese oil tanker, Cosco Shipping’s VLCC Xin Long Yang, has been granted permission to pass through the waterway, according to the trade publication Lloyd’s List. It said Chinese tankers re...
US President Donald Trump promised “major military punishment” for Iran and its Houthi allies after the Yemeni fighters struck two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea, extending the Middle East war to a second major shipping chokepoint. Fears that disruption could widen to block another sea route sent global oil prices surging in one of the steepest rises of the war. Brent crude rose more than 6 per...
US President Donald Trump promised “major military punishment” for Iran and its Houthi allies on Thursday after the Yemeni fighters struck two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea, extending the Middle East war to a second major shipping chokepoint. Fears that disruption could widen further to block another sea route sent global oil prices surging in one of the steepest rises of the war. Brent crude ...
US President Donald Trump promised on Thursday “major military punishment” for Iran and its Houthi allies, after the Yemeni fighters struck two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea, extending the Middle East war to a second major shipping chokepoint. Fears that disruption could widen further to block another sea route sent global oil prices surging in one of the steepest rises of the war. Brent crude ...
Greece on Thursday approved the multibillion-dollar purchase of Israeli anti-missile, anti-aircraft and anti-drone weaponry to set up an “Achilles Shield” protective dome, a defence ministry source said. Around €3 billion of a broader €4.2 billion (US$4.8 billion) spending spree will go towards Israeli-made systems for the new shield, the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “Greece ha...
The EU has watered down its latest round of sanctions on Moscow after concluding that banning Greek companies from transporting Russian gas to third countries could hand strategically important shipping assets to China. To remove a Greek veto against the 21st package of measures aimed at hobbling Russia’s war machine, the bloc’s member states agreed to allow EU operators to continue transporting R...
German police on Thursday detained a 20-year-old man after he fatally stabbed another man inside a bank branch in the southern city of Regensburg, in an incident that initially raised fears of a hostage-taking. Special forces officers detained the German national inside the building about three hours after the incident was reported, a police statement said. Paramedics had earlier managed to admini...
A man died following a knife attack at a bank in the German city of Regensburg, a police spokeswoman told dpa on Thursday, adding that the suspected attacker remains inside the building with other people. Special forces have arrived at the scene and the area around the branch has been cordoned off. Initial reports suggested the perpetrator was holding people hostage inside the bank branch, but thi...
A man died following a knife attack at a bank in the German city of Regensburg, a police spokeswoman told dpa on Thursday, adding that the suspected attacker remains inside the building with other people. Special forces have arrived at the scene and the area around the branch has been cordoned off. Initial reports suggested the perpetrator was holding people hostage inside the bank branch, but thi...
A friend of a man who went on a deadly stabbing spree at a Manchester synagogue was jailed for life by a UK court on Thursday for planning a separate terror attack with him. Jihad Al-Shamie went on a knife rampage targeting a mosque in the northwestern city last October that killed two people. Al-Shamie was later shot dead by police. His friend Mohammad Bashir, 31, last month pleaded guilty to the...
At Zion Foodtrucks in the US state of Colorado, American-made steel and aluminium are combined with globally sourced stoves, refrigerators, vents and titanium piping to transform everyday vehicles into mobile restaurants. But instead of benefiting from Donald Trump’s push to revive US manufacturing, the company says it has been squeezed by higher costs and tougher competition. Since taking office,...
One soldier died and four were injured on Thursday when a military helicopter crashed in the Czech Republic, the army said. “A Venom helicopter has crashed at the 22nd helicopter base in Namest nad Oslavou. Five soldiers were on board. Emergency services are currently deployed at the scene,” the army wrote on social media. In a later post, it added that one soldier was killed and four injured in t...
Hong Kong police have arrested a 72-year-old local man for practising dentistry illegally at a shop used by a mainland Chinese dental clinic to promote its business in the city, following calls from the local industry for tighter regulatory oversight of such activities. The arrests were made during a joint operation conducted by police and the Department of Health on Thursday at a shop on 37 King’...
Hong Kong police have arrested a 72-year-old local man for practising dentistry illegally at a shop used by a mainland Chinese dental clinic to promote its business in the city, following calls from the local industry for tighter regulatory oversight of such activities. The arrests were made during a joint operation conducted by police and the Department of Health on Thursday at a shop on 37 King’...
A Hong Kong woman has paid tribute to the late screen legend Patrick Tse Yin, revealing that he saved her brother from drowning decades ago on a boat trip. Veteran actor, director and producer Tse, nicknamed “Brother Four”, died on July 16 at the age of 89, marking the loss of one of the last remaining icons from the golden era of local cinema, when the city’s film industry held sway across Southe...
Scientific ties can be a stabilising force in relations between China and the US but as the two countries jostle for a hi-tech edge, maintaining these links will mean going beyond simple competition versus cooperation. To get there, Beijing and Washington will need to keep in continuous contact and have clearly defined boundaries, with narrower areas of collaboration. That was the finding Zhao Min...
For the first time, China has produced Fields Medal winners educated on its own soil – and two at once. Chinese mathematicians Wang Hong and Deng Yu took the honour, alongside John Pardon and Jacob Tsimerman. The Fields Medal is the top honour for young mathematicians under 40 years of age. The medals, along with a modest cash prize, were given out on Thursday at the International Congress of Math...
Hong Kong’s cross-border high-speed rail link carried more than 16 million passengers in the first six months of the year – the highest since its debut in 2018 – prompting the introduction of new facilities to meet demand. The MTR Corporation, which operates the 26km Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link, said on Wednesday that patronage rose by more than 10 per cent year on year to over ...
Shanghai is exploring dedicated funds to tackle “choke point” technologies and new channels for offshore yuan capital to invest in China’s tech board, while allowing pre-profit tech firms in AI and nuclear fusion to go public. The municipal government will encourage the launch of dedicated funds focused on addressing “supply-chain gaps and breaking through ‘choke point’ technologies”. The funds wo...
Hong Kong’s competition watchdog has revised its tender clauses to require bidders make a statutory declaration they have not engaged in collusion on a project, as part of a wider move to criminalise bid-rigging following the city’s deadliest fire in decades. Senior Counsel Jat Sew-tong, chairman of the Competition Commission, also said on Thursday the body was considering proposing to raise the m...
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said that there will be no change to the remaining sanctions on 39 Hong Kong and mainland Chinese officials in the “near future”, while acknowledging the issue came up in a meeting with Foreign Minister Wang Yi. Rubio, Washington’s top diplomat, also said on Thursday that US President Donald Trump had allowed a national emergency declaration on Hong Kong to ex...
The global AI community has pushed back against the Trump administration’s claims that Moonshot AI’s groundbreaking Kimi K3 distilled US models, citing a lack of justification and arguing that the practice does not constitute intellectual property theft. In separate posts on X on Thursday, a number of AI experts called the accusations “political” and “reckless”, pointing out that an AI model’s out...
Anthropomorphising artificial intelligence – that is, treating AI systems as though they possess human emotions, intentions, consciousness or moral judgment – is both an ethical and a practical problem. While attributing human qualities to AI systems may make interactions more approachable, it also risks clouding users’ perceptions of the technology’s true nature and limitations. Call a spade a sp...
Beijing and Washington are actively soliciting industry feedback on potential bilateral tariff reductions under the newly established board of trade, according to China’s commerce ministry. “The Chinese side is widely soliciting views from stakeholders – including domestic firms, business associations, local governments as well as American firms and business associations – on relevant tariff reduc...
