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Hong Kong police have arrested a man on suspicion of making unauthorised investments using assets from a securities brokerage, resulting in an estimated loss of HK$150 million (US$19.1 million), the South China Morning Post has learned. A source said on Tuesday that the suspect was a 26-year-old investment manager at Chief Securities and had worked as a trader for the firm for about six months. He...
Questions surrounding South Korean Defence Minister Ahn Gyu-back’s military service have resurfaced, with the government and his accuser offering conflicting accounts of what happened more than four decades ago. At the centre of the dispute is a gap in Ahn’s military record. His record shows he began mandatory service on November 5, 1983, and was discharged on August 31, 1985, amounting to roughly...
Two hours from the tourist beaches of Bali, slavery is alive and well on the Indonesian island of Sumba, where people are still born into bondage. They work from dawn to dusk without pay, are passed on in marriage, and are sometimes beaten and raped by their masters. Yet most are resigned to their fate because their status “cannot be wiped away”, as one young slave – or ata – Kanisius Kanyali Hamb...
Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX) would proceed with its listing reform to allow confidential filings and a lower market capitalisation requirement, as part of the exchange operator’s plan to increase its international competitiveness, two sources told the South China Morning Post. The move would be a result of the exchange’s months-long consultations with market participants that began in M...
Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX) would proceed with its listing reform to allow confidential filings and a lower market capitalisation requirement, as part of the exchange operator’s plan to increase its international competitiveness, two sources told the South China Morning Post. The move would be a result of the exchange’s months-long consultations with market participants that began in M...
At least 10 people have been injured when a bus crashed into a barrier on Tuen Mun Road, prompting an emergency response. Police said they received a report at 8.59am on Tuesday of the crash on the Kowloon-bound carriageway near the Bellagio private housing estate in Sham Tseng. Nine women and one man sustained minor injuries. Images widely circulating online show the vehicle involved is a Citybus...
At least 10 people have been injured when a bus crashed into a barrier on Tuen Mun Road, prompting an emergency response. Police said they received a report at 8.59am on Tuesday of the crash on the Kowloon-bound carriageway near the Bellagio housing estate in Sham Tseng. Nine women and one man sustained minor injuries. According to images widely circulating online, the vehicle was a Citybus 952P b...
Sri Lanka’s public health services and hospitals are battling the worst outbreak of mosquito-borne dengue in nearly a decade, and turning to the island nation’s armed forces to help curb the spread of the disease. The efforts range from air force drones tracking stagnating rooftop pools of water after monsoon rains to military and police officers helping to inspect homes, building sites and schoo...
Last month, 12.9 million students in China sat for the National Higher Education Entrance Examination, or gaokao, the number sliding for a second year, and down from 13.3 million last year. Given that births have fallen below 8 million annually to a record low, in 18 years, the country’s more than 3,100 universities will find themselves fighting over an even smaller cohort. This will coincide with...
Hong Kong’s weather forecaster has warned that downpours are approaching the city, saying they are expected to become more frequent throughout the day. A spokesman for the Hong Kong Observatory said at 8.20am on Tuesday that an area of thundery showers over western Guangdong was gradually moving eastwards. “Showers are expected to be heavier in some areas, with squally thunderstorms affecting part...
A top lawmaker from Australia’s far-right One Nation party has grabbed headlines after exploding at a misbehaving dog as he was grilled on live TV. Former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce was being interviewed on national broadcaster ABC on Monday night when he interrupted the one-on-one to shriek: “Sit down!” “Sorry, it’s the dog,” he told the journalist. The errant pooch then interrupted the ...
A teenager from eastern China told his parents he was going on holiday, but secretly travelled with a friend to a flood-stricken region to join relief efforts. Earlier this month, 18-year-old Shanghai student Wu Yulun had just completed the gaokao, China’s national college entrance examination, and was planning a graduation trip. But after seeing an online appeal from a volunteer group in the sout...
Hong Kong’s first-time lawmakers have raised fewer questions than their veteran counterparts but recorded a higher attendance rate, a South China Morning Post check has found. Alan Chan Chung-yee, who is also the chief operating officer of Miramar Group, and athlete turned legislator Vivian Kong Man-wai were among those who submitted the fewest questions to the government. Political observers attr...
Chinese tourists are being unfairly blamed for Kyoto’s overtourism crisis, according to a new report, even as data shows mainland visitor numbers have fallen sharply amid worsening ties between China and Japan. The report released earlier this month by the Kyoto City Tourism Association’s destination management organisation said many local residents assumed crowded public transport, congestion at ...
Chinese robotics companies lack both sufficient data and a good “brain” to improve the interaction of their products with the physical world, according to industry insiders at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC), which concluded on Monday in Shanghai. The most critical challenge for the embodied AI industry was to “link hardware, data, models and real-world scenarios into a closed-...
The US Department of Justice said on Monday it launched a probe reviewing whether some Harvard University financial aid programmes were discriminatory, marking the latest fight against the university by President Donald Trump’s administration. “The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division announced today it is opening a compliance review into Harvard University to determine whether its China-ba...
The US Justice Department said on Monday it launched an investigation reviewing whether some Harvard University financial aid programmes were discriminatory, marking the latest fight against the university by Donald Trump’s administration. “The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division announced today it is opening a compliance review into Harvard University to determine whether its China-based ...
China imported 12.08 million tonnes of Brazilian soybeans in June, up 13.7 per cent from a year earlier, while volumes from the United States fell 20.6 per cent to 1.27 million tonnes, far off the pace implied by the purchasing deal agreed by Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping, according to figures released on Monday by China’s General Administration of Customs. Total arrivals of the oilseed r...
US President Donald Trump signed orders on Monday to impose new 50 per cent tariffs on many Canadian goods, claiming “discriminatory treatment” by Ottawa against American alcohol, automobile and dairy products. The tariffs take effect in 30 days and cover various items including wine, hockey sticks and cement, said the White House. Trump, who saw many of his tariffs struck down by the Supreme Cour...
US President Donald Trump on Monday imposed 50 per cent tariffs on most Canadian goods, declaring that Canada has unfairly discriminated against American cars, alcohol and dairy products. The move could unleash a new wave of economic chaos, with risks of higher inflation and further fraying of relations between two nations that had been closely woven together before Trump’s return to the White Hou...
US President Donald Trump on Monday signed an executive order aimed at reducing dependence on China for defence-related critical minerals, directing military contractors to shift away from Beijing-linked supply chains. Without naming China, Trump’s executive order stresses the need to maintain US military dominance “in an era of renewed great power competition”. “The United States must secure its ...
Oil prices are set to rise once more as renewed US attacks on Iran leave the Strait of Hormuz, a major artery of oil trade, closed again. With US strategic petroleum reserves at their lowest in over 40 years, America will have trouble keeping oil prices below US$100 a barrel, as it has mostly done in the war so far. Analysts warn that sustained oil prices above US$100 risk accelerating inflation, ...
A federal judge in California on Monday ordered Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros Discovery to temporarily pause their merger while a case brought by multiple states challenging the deal moves forward. The companies are prohibited from closing their US$110 billion deal for 14 days until another hearing is held on August 3 regarding a preliminary injunction, which would prevent Paramount and Warne...
A federal judge in California on Monday ordered Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros Discovery to temporarily pause their merger while a case brought by multiple states challenging the deal moves forward. The companies are prohibited from closing their US$110 billion deal for 14 days until another hearing is held on August 3 regarding a preliminary injunction, which would prevent Paramount and Warne...
Social media influencers Andrew and Tristan Tate will fight extradition to the United Kingdom where the brothers are accused of rape and sex trafficking, their lawyer said Monday, suggesting their arrest in Miami was politically motivated without explaining why. The Tates appeared in federal court Monday for the first time since their arrest on Saturday and are being held in federal detention. In ...
Social media influencers Andrew and Tristan Tate will fight extradition to the United Kingdom where the brothers are accused of rape and sex trafficking, their lawyer said on Monday, suggesting their arrest in Miami was politically motivated without explaining why. The Tates appeared in federal court on Monday for the first time since their arrest on Saturday and are being held in federal detentio...
Social media influencers Andrew and Tristan Tate will fight extradition to the United Kingdom where the brothers are accused of rape and sex trafficking, their lawyer said on Monday, suggesting their arrest in Miami was politically motivated without explaining why. The Tates appeared in federal court on Monday for the first time since their arrest on Saturday and are being held in federal detentio...
Social media influencers Andrew and Tristan Tate will fight extradition to the United Kingdom where the brothers are accused of rape and sex trafficking, their lawyer said on Monday, suggesting their arrest in Miami was politically motivated without explaining why. The Tates appeared in federal court on Monday for the first time since their arrest on Saturday and are being held in federal detentio...
The United States has accused China of operating three intelligence-gathering facilities in Cuba and sharply expanding its personnel on the island, portraying Havana as a strategic platform for Beijing to monitor American military activity. A State Department report released on Monday said China maintained a “persistent intelligence-gathering presence” in Cuba, whose location gives Beijing potenti...
When the US Supreme Court rejected President Donald Trump’s attempt to restrict birthright citizenship, his attention soon turned from the justices to China, prompting a sarcastic social media post. “I would like to congratulate President Xi, and the Great Country of China, on their massive Birthright Citizenship WIN! President DONALD J. TRUMP,” Trump wrote on social media. In the hours that follo...
