Live headlines from trusted global sources. Click any story to open it on the original website.
China and the United States may have agreed to establish a “constructive” relationship characterised by “strategic stability” but deep-seated differences have left the future shape of the relationship looking uncertain, a forum in Beijing heard on Saturday. Looking ahead to President Xi Jinping’s possible US visit later this year, Sun Yun, director of the China programme at US think tank the Stims...
More Hong Kong students are turning to mainland China for summer internships as government and university schemes expand cross-border placements. Students said they were drawn by greater opportunities in different sectors, hands-on experience in a larger market and lower living costs, with some viewing cross-border exposure as a career asset. The Home and Youth Affairs Bureau’s corporate summer in...
A young Chinese man is reviving China’s most famous poet Li Bai at a tourist site, and has become millions of visitors’ emotional outlet for burnout. Wang Haonan, 24, amasses more than a million followers online after he went viral playing the role of Li Bai at Hetou Old Street, a Tang dynasty-themed tourist district in Tangshan in northern China’s Hebei province. The Tang dynasty (618–907) is rec...
Asean military observers have now visited both sides of the Thai-Cambodian frontier, measuring damage and recording claims as Bangkok and Phnom Penh continue to trade allegations of ceasefire breaches following last year’s deadly clashes. In late June, a delegation from member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations fanned out across Thailand and Cambodia, escorted through contested g...
Asean military observers have now visited both sides of the Thai-Cambodian frontier, measuring damage and recording claims as Bangkok and Phnom Penh continue to trade allegations of ceasefire breaches following last year’s deadly clashes. In late June, a delegation from member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations fanned out across Thailand and Cambodia, escorted through contested g...
US President Donald Trump hailed America on its 250th birthday on Saturday as the “crowning achievement” of human history, even as he used the event to renew his attack on domestic opponents he called communists. In a speech delayed by several hours when storms forced the temporary evacuation of crowds in Washington, Trump claimed that under his presidency the United States was “prouder than ever ...
After a storm-related delay, US President Donald Trump took the stage on the National Mall on Saturday to deliver a campaign-style speech to mark the country’s 250th anniversary. Trump said he would have been willing to wait longer if necessary. “There’s no way we can be deterred,” he said. Authorities allowed the crowd to return to an open field near the Washington Monument where Trump was due to...
US President Donald Trump said on Saturday he would deliver a speech to mark the country’s 250th anniversary on the National Mall “no matter what”, as summer thunderstorms threatened to delay or disrupt the event. Authorities had ordered a crowd to evacuate the area near the Washington Monument where Trump was due to speak, but the group organising the event, Freedom 250, said they would be readm...
An evacuation was ordered on Saturday evening at the National Mall as storms gathered around Washington just hours before US President Donald Trump was scheduled to deliver a speech commemorating America’s 250th anniversary of independence. Those on the Mall were encouraged to go to federal buildings nearby or Smithsonian museums. “Freedom 250 will share updates on programming and doors reopening,...
Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump discussed Ukraine and the coming Nato summit in Turkey in a phone call Saturday. Putin congratulated Trump on the 250th anniversary of US independence in the call that lasted 85 minutes, Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov said in an audio message to reporters. “The presidents naturally touched on the topic of a Ukrainian settleme...
The groom wore a white tuxedo, the couple wrote their own vows and Stevie Nicks sang, according to guests at Friday’s star-studded wedding of megastars Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce in an intimate garden built for the occasion within New York City’s Madison Square Garden arena. Details trickled out on Saturday of the lavish nuptials that had been a closely guarded secret. Their union was confirme...
China plans to export powerful robots capable of locating marine cables buried under the seabed to regions including “Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Europe”, according to the Science and Technology Daily. China aimed to secure its position in the marine equipment sector by introducing this technology to potential clients in these regions, the official newspaper reported last Monday. “By deepe...
There is something odd about the debate on China’s “overcapacity”. Europe says the world needs cheaper and faster clean energy deployment, yet complains when China produces the solar panels, wind turbines, batteries and electric vehicles that make this possible. Bruegel, a Brussels-based think tank specialising in economic policy, recently published a working paper, “To what extent can green infra...
Venezuela’s devastating twin earthquakes have killed nearly 3,000, official figures showed on Saturday, as international rescue teams began winding down search operations for survivors in the rubble. Fatalities jumped by more than 300 from Friday to 2,954, following the June 24 disaster that left thousands homeless in the streets and shelter camps. Tens of thousands more are still missing. One of ...
Ukraine still controls the strategically important eastern city of Kostiantynivka, President Volodymyr Zelensky and the General Staff said on Saturday, rejecting Russian claims that it has been captured. Russia’s military ignored Zelensky’s assertions, said it was mopping up remaining pockets of resistance and offered to exchange the remains of dead servicemen. Russian military commanders told Pre...
President Donald Trump will headline US Independence Day celebrations on Saturday with a speech and a show that seek to place him at the centre of the nation’s 250th anniversary. Trump has made no secret of his joy at presiding over the July 4 festivities, portraying the timing as a side benefit of winning a second term starting in 2025 – even as the Republican falsely claims he also won the previ...
A Hong Kong taxi driver has died and two passengers have been injured after a head-on collision with a bus on Hiram’s Highway in Sai Kung. The crash occurred at about 6.47pm on Saturday near Pak Sha Terrace, when the taxi veered across the centre line and struck the front of a KMB route 92 bus heading in the opposite direction towards Clear Water Bay, police said. Rescuers freed the driver, 64, wh...
As the United States marks the 250th anniversary of its founding, it confronts a new world order dominated by its relationship with China. In this wide-ranging series, we examine the pressure points and possibilities in those ties, from hard tech to soft power. Here, Lucy Quaggin looks at how Gen Z Chinese-Americans are navigating identity amid shifting US-China tensions. As a high school student ...
Japan has partnered with the UN Development Programme (UNDP) to support Kazakhstan’s efforts to address the decline in the Caspian Sea’s water level driven by climate change, pledging a 465 million yen (US$3 million) grant towards its sustainable use. Under the initiative for the world’s largest inland water body, Japan hopes to promote cooperation among littoral states on water resource managemen...
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun on Saturday urged the United States to stand by his country, after reaching a US-backed framework deal with Israel aiming to permanently end hostilities after the latest Israel-Hezbollah war. The deal reached in Washington calls for the disarmament of Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah, a gradual Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon and the deployment of the Le...
Omar Yaghi, the winner of last year’s Nobel Prize for chemistry, has left the United States to lead a new AI-driven research centre at China’s Tsinghua University. The 61-year-old materials scientist will head a team working on ways artificial intelligence (AI) can transform the design and synthesis of new materials and shorten their development cycle “by orders of magnitude”, Tsinghua said on Fri...
Beijing on Saturday rotated a new coastguard task force into waters east of Taiwan. The second such deployment in about a month came days after China’s top diplomat urged Washington to exercise “utmost prudence” on the self-governed island. The move also comes close on the heels of high-level talks with the Philippines, where Beijing pressed Manila to match words with deeds and stabilise bilateral...
Police have arrested a man after he fled a stop and led officers on a high-speed chase across Hong Kong Island, ending in a five-vehicle crash that left one person injured. The force said officers attempted to stop a suspicious car on Wah Fu Road near Waterfall Bay in Aberdeen at 4.57pm on Saturday, but the driver sped off, heading through the Aberdeen Tunnel towards Causeway Bay. At about 5.35pm,...
Summer came too early to Europe’s most important rice-growing region, and weeds are taking over Sharon Angoli’s parched paddies in Italy’s Pavia province. “That one is done for, no matter what happens,” the 22-year-old said as she surveyed one desolate field that has been baked by what is among the most severe heatwaves to hit the continent in June. Even abundant rains for the rest of the summer w...
Celebrated neurobiologist Chih-Ying Su, who specialises in research on the sense of smell using fruit flies and mosquitoes, has left her position as faculty vice-chair at the University of California San Diego to join the Shenzhen Academy of Medical Sciences (SMART). The Taiwan-born American scholar’s appointment as a full-time senior investigator was confirmed by SMART on July 2. Professor Su’s l...
Celebrated neurobiologist Chih-Ying Su, who specialises in research on the sense of smell using fruit flies and mosquitoes, has left her position as faculty vice-chair at the University of California San Diego to join the Shenzhen Academy of Medical Sciences (SMART). The Taiwan-born American scholar’s appointment as a full-time senior investigator was confirmed by SMART on July 2. Professor Su’s l...
The president of Hong Kong’s legislature has urged fellow members to be “more rigorous in their conduct” to meet society’s expectations after a lawmaker resigned following his arrest for alleged drink-driving. Breaking her silence on Saturday, Legislative Council president Starry Lee Wai-king said William Wong Kam-fai’s resignation the previous day reflected his willingness to accept responsibilit...
Hong Kong’s third medical school has recruited about 300 teachers and expects its annual student intake to eventually rise from 50 to more than 200, its dean has revealed. Professor King Li King-chuen, founding dean of medicine at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, also said on Saturday that the medical school had identified a teaching hospital for internships and clinical trainin...
Chinese scientists say they have developed a tiny computer chip capable of modelling complex brain structures in real time. According to its developers, this chip could not only transform diagnostics and treatment for conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease, but also boost the performance of brain-machine interfaces and assist surgeons. Researchers from Peking University and the Chinese Academy of ...
A 27-year-old diver has suffered serious facial injuries after being struck by a boat propeller off a Hong Kong beach, while a windsurfing board hit a woman in a separate incident in the same area. Police said they received a call at around 3.05pm reporting injuries at Little Palm Beach near Hang Hau Wing Lung Road in Clear Water Bay. The two people hurt did not know each other. The male diver was...
