Clear filters Clear Filters
Trump turns to China in renewed birthright citizenship push
SCMP

Trump turns to China in renewed birthright citizenship push

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...

Chess champion Polgar turns down offer to be Hungary’s president
SCMP

Chess champion Polgar turns down offer to be Hungary’s president

Chess legend Judit Polgar on Monday turned down Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Magyar’s offer to join his push to break with the Viktor Orban era as the country’s president. The pro-European conservative had nominated Polgar, widely considered the greatest woman to have taken to the chequered board, as a figure from outside politics to help carry out his promise of “regime change” from Orban’s har...

Chess champion Judit Polgar rejects offer to become Hungary’s president
SCMP

Chess champion Judit Polgar rejects offer to become Hungary’s president

Chess legend Judit Polgar on Monday turned down Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Magyar’s offer to join his push to break with the Viktor Orban era as the country’s president. The pro-European conservative had nominated Polgar, widely considered the greatest woman to have taken to the chequered board, as a figure from outside politics to help carry out his promise of “regime change” from Orban’s har...

China’s Li congratulates Andy Burnham on becoming Britain’s new prime minister
SCMP

China’s Li congratulates Andy Burnham on becoming Britain’s new prime minister

Chinese ⁠Premier ⁠Li Qiang on Monday extended congratulations to Andy Burnham on ‌becoming Britain’s new prime minister. Strengthening dialogue and cooperation between ⁠China and Britain will benefit ‌the two countries and “inject stability into global ‌peace”, Li said in ⁠his ⁠message, Reuters reported. “I am willing to ‌work with the prime minister ‌to strengthen exchanges, ‌enhance mutual ‌trus...

Man charged with murder of former British minister Ann Widdecombe

Man charged with murder of former British minister Ann Widdecombe

SCMP

British prosecutors said ⁠on Monday a 28-year-old man ⁠had been charged with murdering ⁠former government minister Ann Widdecombe, and police said they were still investigating why she was attacked. Widdecombe, 78, who was a prominent member of Nigel Farage’s populist Reform UK, was found at her home in rural southwest England on July 9, ‌after sustaining what police described as serious injuries....

Man charged with murdering former British MP Ann Widdecombe

Man charged with murdering former British MP Ann Widdecombe

SCMP

British prosecutors ⁠said on Monday ⁠that a 28-year-old ⁠man had been charged with murdering former government minister Ann Widdecombe, who was found dead at her home earlier this month. Widdecombe, 78, who was ‌a prominent member of Nigel Farage’s populist Reform UK, was found at her home in rural southwest England on July 9 after sustaining what police described as serious injuries. She stood do...

Hungary investigates deal with China’s BYD after ex-foreign minister takes job there

Hungary investigates deal with China’s BYD after ex-foreign minister takes job there

SCMP

Hungary’s government announced an investigation on Monday into a large foreign investment by Chinese carmaker BYD negotiated by a former foreign minister who last week resigned from parliament to take an executive position at the company. Peter Szijjarto’s announcement last Wednesday that he would take the job at the world’s top electric carmaker prompted accusations of a conflict of interest and ...

US jails Mexican drug kingpin ‘El Mayo’ for life

US jails Mexican drug kingpin ‘El Mayo’ for life

SCMP

Mexican drug kingpin Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada was sentenced on Monday to life in prison in the US, after a plea ‌deal last year in which he admitted to shipping millions of kilograms of cocaine over decades as leader of the violent Sinaloa Cartel. US District Judge Brian Cogan handed down the sentence at a hearing in Brooklyn federal court. Zambada is one of the most high-profile Mexican drug traf...

Can Europe win a trade war with China? It may depend on how victory is defined

Can Europe win a trade war with China? It may depend on how victory is defined

SCMP

As trade tensions with China reach boiling point, EU officials are ramping up engagement with Beijing in search of an off-ramp. Quietly behind the scenes, though, Europe is preparing for a trade war. In Brussels, a steely determination has set in to ensure the bloc’s manufacturing heartlands are not deindustrialised by the “China Shock 2.0”. With some industries already haemorrhaging jobs, the EU’...

Why China’s open-weight AI model Kimi K3 is sparking anxiety in Silicon Valley

Why China’s open-weight AI model Kimi K3 is sparking anxiety in Silicon Valley

SCMP

Chinese start-up Moonshot AI’s Kimi K3 has narrowed the country’s artificial intelligence gap with the US to “a matter of weeks”, fuelling jitters in Silicon Valley over its lead in frontier AI as China doubles down on its open-source strategy. The Beijing-based unicorn released the Kimi K3, a massive 2.8 trillion-parameter large language model, late last week. According to the company, the model ...

Chinese and Philippine maritime forces clash at Second Thomas Shoal

Chinese and Philippine maritime forces clash at Second Thomas Shoal

SCMP

Beijing and Manila have exchanged fresh accusations over a clash in the South China Sea, just as China’s top diplomat is due to attend the Asean foreign ministers’ meeting in the Philippines. On social media late on Monday, the China Coast Guard said that at around 9am that morning as a small Chinese coastguard vessel was patrolling near Second Thomas Shoal, two rubber dinghies were launched “ille...

Is China building a bigger support ship for its future Type 004 carrier battle group?

Is China building a bigger support ship for its future Type 004 carrier battle group?

SCMP

China appears to be developing one of its largest fast combat-support ships for the future long-range operations of its Type 004 aircraft carrier, which is still under construction. Commercial satellite imagery captured on July 2, provided by Planet Labs and published by defence news outlet TWZ, shows construction progress at the Comec Longxue shipyard near Guangzhou and reveals fresh details of t...

UK’s new PM Andy Burnham vows to end years of instability

UK’s new PM Andy Burnham vows to end years of instability

SCMP

Andy Burnham became Britain’s seventh prime minister in a decade on Monday, pledging to break with the politics of the past to deliver a new economic model to benefit a nation “fed up” with a revolving door of leaders. In front of dozens of supporters outside his new office and residence at 10 Downing Street, Burnham said politicians had failed to bring the stability needed to raise living standar...

Teen dies during Spain World Cup celebrations

Teen dies during Spain World Cup celebrations

SCMP

A teenager died and several people were injured during celebrations of Spain’s victory in the World Cup after a fountain collapsed in western Spain, local authorities and media said on Monday. “The city hall of Ciudad Rodrigo expresses its sadness and presents its condolences for the death of a boy of 13,” the municipality said in a Facebook post. “What should have been a celebration of Spain’s te...

Why Singapore PM Wong moved swiftly on Faishal Ibrahim’s resignation

Why Singapore PM Wong moved swiftly on Faishal Ibrahim’s resignation

SCMP

Singapore’s acting minister-in-charge of Muslim affairs Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim resigned within a month of the prime minister learning about his improper interactions with a woman, a move observers say shows Lawrence Wong’s swift handling of the first scandal under his watch to contain any political fallout. They told This Week in Asia that while there was no affair in Faishal’s case, it made sen...

Hamas’ lead negotiator in ceasefire talks elected as group’s new chief

Hamas’ lead negotiator in ceasefire talks elected as group’s new chief

SCMP

Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas announced on Monday that it had elected Khalil al-Hayya, the group’s lead negotiator in indirect ceasefire talks with Israel, as the new head of its political bureau. “The Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) announces the election of brother mujahid Khalil al-Hayya as head of the movement’s political bureau, succeeding the martyred leader Yahya al-Sinwar,” Hamas...

Czech legislators ‘testing the waters’ with China visit after years of tension

Czech legislators ‘testing the waters’ with China visit after years of tension

SCMP

A group of Czech lawmakers are visiting China in the first high-level engagement between the two countries since 2019, a move Chinese analysts described as “testing the waters” rather than representing a more substantive thaw. Tomio Okamura, speaker of the Chamber of Deputies and head of the delegation, has told local media he was hoping to secure agreements on more direct flights, an increase in ...

Taiwan reviews Papua New Guinea LNG imports after economic office’s forced closure

Taiwan reviews Papua New Guinea LNG imports after economic office’s forced closure

SCMP

Taiwan is reviewing liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports from Papua New Guinea after the Pacific nation said it would close Taipei’s unofficial representative office. PNG announced last week that it would immediately shut down the office, with Foreign Minister Justin Tkatchenko saying the move reflected the government’s “unwavering commitment to the one-China policy” ahead of the 50th anniversary o...

As EU’s China trade deficit widens, Germany changes tack to join France’s Beijing pushback

As EU’s China trade deficit widens, Germany changes tack to join France’s Beijing pushback

SCMP

Facing Europe’s ever-widening trade deficit with Beijing, Berlin is increasingly singing the same tune as Paris. The two nations displayed a united front at this year’s Franco-German Ministerial Council, which will soon be put on paper in a joint road map due by September at the request of Germany. “Our work between Germany and France is indispensable at a time when Russia threatens our security, ...

EU fines AliExpress US$630 million over illegal products

EU fines AliExpress US$630 million over illegal products

SCMP

The EU on Monday slapped a €550 million (US$630 million) fine on online retailer AliExpress for allowing the sale of illegal products, including unsafe toys and cosmetics. The European Union said AliExpress also did not do enough to stop the sale of counterfeit products and that when the platform detected illegal goods were on sale, many remained online for several weeks. The EU found some of the ...

‘Systemic leap’: China’s drug innovation push yields bumper crop

‘Systemic leap’: China’s drug innovation push yields bumper crop

SCMP

Domestically produced novel drugs accounted for more than 80 per cent of market approvals in China in the first half of the year, reflecting a “leap” in the quality of the country’s pharmaceutical innovation, according to a government spokesman. A total of 38 innovative drugs were cleared for sale in the six-month period, of which 31 were home-grown medicines, said Ministry of Industry and Informa...

Mentally disabled Hong Kong waiter gets 28 months for inciting subversion

Mentally disabled Hong Kong waiter gets 28 months for inciting subversion

SCMP

A Hong Kong court has sentenced a man with an intellectual disability to two years and four months in prison for inciting subversion, promoting a pro-Taiwan party and disseminating anti-Communist Party messages, with the judge noting his condition had affected his moral judgment. District Court Judge Stanley Chan Kwong-chi on Monday handed the sentence to Chan Ho-hin, a 23-year-old waiter, who had...

Hong Kong Palace Museum partners with Uzbek cultural centre for future projects

Hong Kong Palace Museum partners with Uzbek cultural centre for future projects

SCMP

The Hong Kong Palace Museum signed a deal with Uzbekistan’s Islamic Civilisation Centre on Monday to collaborate on future exhibitions, academic research and other projects. The signing ceremony on Monday also marked the first official reciprocal visit by a Central Asian cultural institution since Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu led a delegation to the region last month. Dr Louis Ng Chi-wa, direc...

Hong Kong court tells jury to acquit 14 in alleged triad gangster murder case

Hong Kong court tells jury to acquit 14 in alleged triad gangster murder case

SCMP

A Hong Kong court has ordered the release of 14 defendants charged over the alleged murder of a former triad gangster five years ago, finding that prosecutors had failed to prove the deceased sustained fatal head injuries as a result of deliberate assaults rather than from boxing bouts at his gym. The High Court on Monday directed a jury to acquit the defendants of all charges after ruling the evi...

China’s military mouthpiece issues full-page warning on Japan’s growing drone power

China’s military mouthpiece issues full-page warning on Japan’s growing drone power

SCMP

China’s military mouthpiece on Monday dedicated a full page to warning about Japan’s expanding offensive drone capabilities, which it said threatened regional peace and security. PLA Daily said Japan’s right-wing political forces had long sought to bypass Tokyo’s constitutional ban, adopted after World War II, on offensive combat capabilities. Unmanned platforms have allowed Japan to circumvent th...

China’s EV industry rose with the aid of tax breaks. What happens when they end?

China’s EV industry rose with the aid of tax breaks. What happens when they end?

SCMP

As China is ending tax exemptions that helped fuel the rise of its electric-vehicle (EV) and solar industries, analysts said it could add to the cost of producing an EV and put pressure on manufacturers, as Beijing steps up efforts to curb overcapacity and price wars. The levy could add about 1,000 yuan (US$147) to the cost of producing an EV, analysts estimated – a modest increase per car, but a ...

Hong Kong bourse operator weighs longer trading hours to sharpen hub edge, sources say

Hong Kong bourse operator weighs longer trading hours to sharpen hub edge, sources say

SCMP

Bourse operator Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX) is considering extending trading hours to align with moves by global peers and sharpen the city’s competitiveness as an international financial centre. HKEX and the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) confirmed that they were discussing the matter, but did not give details. The discussion was in an early stage and options included extendi...

Chinese student accepted into top university without tutoring, sparks widespread debate

Chinese student accepted into top university without tutoring, sparks widespread debate

SCMP

A girl in China, who was recently admitted to the prestigious Tsinghua University with an extremely high score on the national university entrance exam, has gone viral on social media after it emerged that her parents had never sent her to after-school tutoring classes, choosing instead to provide a relaxed home environment. Xu Yifang graduated from Xuchang High School in central China’s Henan pro...

YCIS Celebrates Exceptional IB Results with Two Perfect Scorers and Offers from Leading Global Universities

YCIS Celebrates Exceptional IB Results with Two Perfect Scorers and Offers from Leading Global Universities

SCMP

[The content of this article has been produced by our advertising partner.] Yew Chung International School of Hong Kong (YCIS Hong Kong) celebrates the remarkable achievement of 2026 cohort in the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP). This year, 2 students obtained a perfect score of 45 points; 2 students and 4 students achieved 44 points and 43 points respectively. Apart from the ...