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China’s electric vehicle (EV) giant BYD saw its earnings jump 30 per cent in the three months from April to June, ending a five-quarter losing streak as buoyant overseas sales and premium models enhanced its net margin and profitability. The Shenzhen-based carmaker, also the world’s largest EV builder, posted a net income of 8.2 billion yuan (US$1.2 billion) in the second quarter, up 30 per cent y...
“Asia’s water tower” is heading towards a more unpredictable and unstable future, according to a new study measuring the Tibetan Plateau’s stability. The study, published on August 21 in Nature Communications, examined the entropy of the region to gauge how much chaos or disorder was building up in a complex system. The results were released just days before a catastrophic flash flood struck the N...
Hong Kong authorities will take enforcement action against dog owners who fail to keep their pets under control during special operations taking place on Sunday and the following weekend in response to a spate of canine attacks. The Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) also said on Friday that it seized a fighting dog at a restaurant in Stanley two days earlier after conductin...
Beijing has unveiled a package of measures to shift home sales in China’s vast property market away from a presales model, in a stronger-than-expected push to stabilise a property downturn that has weighed on consumer demand for years. A notice released on Friday laid out reforms to China’s home sales system, telling local governments to prioritise completed-home sales. It was jointly issued by th...
An unmanned electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft made its maiden demonstration flight in Hong Kong on Friday, as the city pushes to develop a low-altitude economy, with the government aiming to complete drafting relevant legislation by 2027. The flight marked a collaboration between mainland Chinese autonomous aerial vehicle firm EHang, local transport operator Kwoon Chung Bus H...
Beijing has formally removed former senior officers Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli as members of China’s supreme military command. The two generals have been under investigation for alleged discipline violations since January and were officially stripped of their positions on the Central Military Commission (CMC) at a meeting of the National People’s Congress’ Standing Committee on Friday. As the CMC...
The Central Asian country of Uzbekistan has approached the United States about joining Pax Silica, Washington’s flagship initiative on artificial intelligence (AI) supply chains, a month after signing up for China’s own global grouping, the World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization (Waico). Uzbekistan’s ambassador to the US, Furqat Sidikov, said Tashkent had formally notified the US S...
Within hours of a devastating glacier collapse on the China-Nepal border, a Beijing-based satellite company had already redirected six of its satellites to survey the disaster zone. The high-resolution radar images they captured revealed a massive collapse site near a remote mountain pass. Unlike optical sensors, radar signals can pierce through haze and cloud, mapping terrain changes with high pr...
One of the two people killed in an attack at a school near Berlin was a 30-year-old nursery worker, police said on Friday. It had previously been reported that the man who was killed in Thursday’s attack was the caretaker. A woman and a man were killed in the violent incident at a school in the small community of Gosen-Neu Zittau on the southeastern edge of the German capital. The school site hous...
With the end of the 60-day US-Iran memorandum of understanding, tensions in the Strait of Hormuz have flared again. The crisis in the strait highlights how the security and stability of key international waterways are becoming an increasingly urgent global concern. Over the past decade, major maritime routes have been affected by regional armed conflicts, geopolitical tensions and growing security...
An 81-year-old man has been sentenced to life imprisonment in Germany for the murder of an American tourist more than 30 years ago, the presiding judge at Koblenz Regional Court, Rupert Stehlin, announced on Friday. The court also found that the offence was of a particularly serious nature. In doing so, the bench concurred with the unanimous assessments of the prosecution, the representatives of t...
Malaysia sees an opening in the Gulf travel disruption caused by the Iran war, pitching itself as a Muslim-friendly destination for travellers seeking halal food, prayer facilities and family-focused holidays. But such gains could be limited because the conflict has not only weakened tourism within the Middle East, but also affected long-haul flight routes that Malaysia depends on to draw Muslim t...
Gong Zizheng, a pioneer of space debris research and a key figure in China’s planned asteroid defence mission, has died at 61. A top government adviser and prominent leader in international space debris organisations, Gong died on Saturday after a battle with illness, according to Chinese media reports. No further details were given. On social media, one of Gong’s colleagues at the China Academy o...
To scientists, the cause of this week’s deadly flash flood on the border between China and Nepal is clear: a glacier high on the Nepal side of the Himalayan range collapsed, sending catastrophic amounts of water and debris downstream. Initial uncertainty over the cause of the event fuelled a wave of misinformation on social media, some of which pinned the blame for the event on Chinese-built infra...
Restart schedules for the Jianxiawo lithium mine in Yichun, Jiangxi Province operated by CATL – the world’s largest lithium-ion-battery producer – are now facing fresh uncertainty. Analysts said the development could fuel volatility in lithium prices in the fourth quarter since the mine – the world’s largest single‑deposit lepidolite mine according to Yichun city – represented roughly 4 to 5 per c...
Hong Kong’s rail operator will use a skidding method – the first worldwide for a heavy-rail project – to build Hung Shui Kiu station, helping to overcome time constraints and ensure completion by 2030. The MTR Corporation said on Friday that the station structures, each weighing about 10,000 tonnes, would be assembled from prefabricated components at worksites on either side of an operational viad...
Chinese chipmaker ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) reported a sharp surge in first-half revenue on Friday, as the firm released its first financial results since becoming China’s most valuable publicly traded company in a blockbuster Shanghai listing last month. The Hefei-based firm – China’s leading maker of dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) products – posted revenue of 150.31 billion yuan (...
Hong Kong has launched the first regional mediation and arbitration platform dedicated to medical and healthcare services as part of the city’s efforts to resolve local and cross-border disputes and strengthen its bid to become an international legal services hub. The Healthcare Dispute Resolution Centre, a non-profit organisation set up in 2024, announced its new online platform on Friday, provid...
A Dutch court on Friday handed a life sentence to a 66-year-old man for his role in the massacre of 3,000 Tutsis during the 1994 Rwanda genocide. During the violence that took place in April 1994, terrified victims sought refuge in a football stadium in Mbazi, southern Rwanda, only to be systematically slaughtered. The judge said that the man, identified as Eugene N., prevented Tutsis from escapin...
Bank of China (Hong Kong), one of the city’s three note-issuing banks, reported a 7.1 per cent year-on-year increase in first-half net profit, as lower impairment charges and a wider net interest margin helped offset continued pressure on lending margins from falling Hong Kong interbank rates. Profit attributable to shareholders came to HK$23.74 billion (US$3 billion) for the six months to June 30...
A Chinese cryptocurrency tycoon is suing an actress and her parents to recover a bride price of 30 million yuan (US$4.5 million), then revealed details of their relationship online while the actress urged that the dispute be left to the courts. Justin Sun, 36, founder of the blockchain platform Tron, has an estimated net worth of US$8.5 billion, according to Forbes. On August 27, Sun published a p...
This week’s devastating floods on the China-Nepal border could be a catalyst for joint early-warning systems, particularly in relation to a proposed rail link between the countries. Rescuers were still struggling on Thursday to reach Gyirong Port in the Tibet autonomous region where a mudslide struck a day earlier, following flash floods from Nepal. The port is the region’s main foreign trade gate...
For more than a month, Aaron* thought he and his wife were learning how to trade stocks. Only later would they realise the lessons were part of the trap. The Singaporean business owner had found a group of self-styled investment experts on Facebook, claiming to offer foolproof tips and guaranteed returns. Soon, he and his wife, who were dabbling in stocks for the first time, were spending about tw...
A lawyer has warned internet users in Hong Kong against exposing personal information of others on social media or risk committing the criminal offence of doxxing, after an insurance firm suspended an employee allegedly involved in a brawl at a Kwun Tong shopping centre. Insurance service provider AIA on Thursday reportedly suspended an employee who was linked to a viral dispute among three women ...
A lawyer has warned internet users in Hong Kong against exposing personal information of others on social media or risk committing the criminal offence of doxxing, after an insurance firm suspended an employee who was revealed to be involved in a brawl at a Kwun Tong shopping centre. Insurance service provider AIA on Thursday reportedly suspended an employee who was linked to a viral dispute among...
A Chinese robotics firm is accelerating its overseas strategy, with a fleet of AI-powered industrial quadrupeds being primed for Saudi Aramco facilities, while revving up its bid for a listing in Hong Kong next year. Heavy-duty, explosion-proof robots from Micbot are tipped to join similar products from other suppliers at oilfields, petrochemical bases and mines operated by Aramco, according to Mi...
Chinese President Xi Jinping may take a business delegation to Washington next month, when he is also likely to sign a trade-war truce extension with US President Donald Trump. The potential business delegation is under negotiation ahead of the September 24 summit, the South China Morning Post reported, citing four people with knowledge of the matter. US executives, including Apple’s Tim Cook and ...
Bangladesh has for the first time confirmed a long-expected deal to purchase China’s 4.5-generation J-10CE fighters, pointing to the jet’s combat performance against Rafale fighters in last year’s India-Pakistan conflict. One military expert said it was a sign that the global perception of Chinese weapons was shifting and the market would gradually open. Zahed Ur Rahman, information and broadcasti...
Roblox has become a flashpoint in Southeast Asia’s debate over child safety online, as officials scrutinise whether young users are being exposed to harmful subcultures on the gaming platform. But analysts warn that it might just be a convenient scapegoat for wider failures in how children are protected online and offline. Most recently, Roblox has been linked to the August 18 school shooting in t...
A 48-year-old Malaysian man is believed to have killed his wife and their two young children before taking his life at a Kuala Lumpur flat, in a case police said might have been linked to losses from an alleged online love scam purportedly involving the woman. Initial police investigations found a note left by the man, blaming his actions on the scam, which had left the family with US$61,000 in lo...
