Live headlines from trusted global sources. Click any story to open it on the original website.
“The Emiratis – by far the most hawkish, by far the most pro-Israel country in the [Gulf Cooperation Council] – they’re having conversations with the Iranians that have never happened before,” US Vice-President J.D. Vance told British media outlet UnHerd following the Iran-US negotiations in Switzerland. The Iranians “are certainly talking differently than they have in the past”, he added in a not...
Berkshire Hathaway’s all-cash acquisition of home builder Taylor Morrison for US$6.8 billion is likely to trigger more investment in the US housing market, as institutional confidence in the segment encourages more home purchases in the world’s largest economy by local and overseas buyers, according to analysts. The US-based conglomerate made the investment in May, deepening its bet on the US resi...
While local bread-and-butter issues will dominate the November election in the US, former House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s endorsement of Connie Chan to succeed her in Congress could lead to opportunities at the margins of US-China relations, analysts said. Pelosi, the first female speaker, now honoured as speaker emerita, is one of Washington’s fiercest China hawks. Chan, 47, a San Francisco supervis...
Hundreds of firefighters battled forest infernos in France, Spain and Portugal on Sunday as temperatures rose again in heatwave-scarred Europe. The latest wildfires have already devastated more than 17,000 hectares (42,000 acres) of land – twice the size of Manhattan – across the three countries where temperatures in some places were predicted to touch 40°C on Sunday. Authorities registered thousa...
A union representing foreign domestic helpers in Hong Kong has urged authorities to more than double their monthly food allowance to HK$2,770 (US$350), saying the current stipend averaging HK$13.30 per meal is insufficient due to inflation. Representatives from the Federation of Asian Domestic Workers Unions (FADWU) met Labour Department officials on Sunday after staging a protest. Besides the foo...
A provincial propaganda department has accused some Chinese football fans of using the Japanese team’s success at the World Cup to denigrate China’s squad, suggesting their behaviour had come close to crossing a line. In an online post on Friday, “Zhejiang Propaganda”, a social media account affiliated with the Zhejiang provincial publicity department, said that while Chinese fans could appreciate...
In the final instalment of a six-part Health Matters wellness series on cancer in Hong Kong, Anthea Rowan explores how genetics, lifestyle and chance intersect in cancer risk and why early detection matters. Tom Hutchins did not find a lump. What he noticed instead – a tiny, almost imperceptible dot – was enough to change his life. The Hong Kong-based business director, who has lived in the city f...
Russian naval vessels arrived in the eastern Chinese port city of Qingdao on Sunday ahead of joint maritime drills. They include the Varyag, a Slava-class guided-missile “carrier-killer” cruiser, as well as the Ufa, a diesel-electric attack submarine, the naval arm of the People’s Liberation Army Northern Theatre Command wrote on social media on Sunday. A welcome ceremony was held at the dock to g...
Iran’s new supreme leader shares his late father’s “positive” view of relations with China, Tehran’s ambassador told a security forum in Beijing at the weekend. Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli also suggested that while Tehran would charge “service fees” for vessels using the Strait of Hormuz, China may receive “special” treatment because it was a “friendly” nation. “[Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei’s] vie...
Hit by the biggest energy supply shock in decades during the Middle East war, import-dependent India is expanding domestic crude exploration, its oil minister says. India, the world’s third-largest importer of oil and the second-largest buyer of liquefied petroleum gas, faced major disruptions due to restrictions on the Strait of Hormuz during the conflict between the United States and Iran. With ...
A motorcyclist died after losing control of his vehicle and colliding head‑on with a three-wheeled motorbike in Hong Kong on Sunday afternoon. Police said the crash happened at about 3.21pm on the Sha Tin Heights section of Tai Po Road near the Kowloon Reservoir, when the motorcycle heading north toppled and crossed into the opposite lane, colliding head‑on with the three-wheeler at a bend. Both r...
A motorcyclist died after losing control of his bike and colliding head‑on with a tricycle in Hong Kong on Sunday afternoon. Police said the crash happened at about 3.21pm on the Sha Tin Heights section of Tai Po Road near the Kowloon Reservoir, when the motorcycle heading north toppled and crossed into the opposite lane, colliding head‑on with the tricycle at a bend. Both riders were injured. The...
China’s dominance in rare earth mining, refining and exports has long been viewed as a strategic advantage. But a new study by Chinese researchers argues that the country’s rare earth industry has its own critical weakness. “China is not in a leading position in mastering key core technologies in certain fields,” the researchers wrote in the paper. Published in the latest issue of the Bulletin of ...
A Hong Kong tour group on an aurora-chasing boat ride near an island in Australia saved two fellow city residents who went missing while scuba diving, in a dramatic rescue the agency said “shone light on the brilliance of humanity”. WWPKG Tours detailed the rescue on Sunday in a Facebook post and commended tour group leader Foxman Hui and his members who were on a trip in Tasmania. They were out a...
Residents at the epicentre of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC’s) Ebola outbreak are pinning their hopes on experimental treatments after researchers began a highly anticipated study in early July of two possible Ebola treatments in hopes of fighting the still-growing outbreak. At the Ebola treatment centre inside Bunia’s Evangelical Medical Centre, in eastern Congo’s Ituri province, the la...
Nearly 60 per cent of Hong Kong parents mistakenly believe that invasive meningococcal disease is no different from a common cold, a survey has found, prompting doctors to urge greater public awareness of the potentially fatal infection ahead of the summer travel season. The warning follows a survey by the Hong Kong Early Childhood Educators Association of 300 parents and teachers. Parents scored ...
The world’s attention is fixed on frontier artificial intelligence (AI) models, but China’s robot-making factories deserve just as much attention. Chinese e-commerce company JD.com has predicted that robots would ultimately replace its 700,000 delivery workers, while workers at South Korean carmaker Hyundai are threatening strike action over issues including the roll-out of robots. These are early...
From the ancient Aztecs’ efforts to appease the sun god to Apollo’s demands in the Iliad, human history is permeated with traditions of sacrifice, and China was no exception. In Zhejiang province, eastern China, scientists recently announced the discovery of a horse’s head sealed inside pottery at an ancient ritual site, dating back to the Eastern Zhou dynasty (770–256 BC). The Eastern Zhou dynast...
Since he started work as Nato secretary general almost two years ago, Mark Rutte has spent much of his time trying to keep the United States anchored to the world’s biggest military alliance, employing outright flattery to dissuade US President Donald Trump from acting on threats to abandon it. But the goalposts keep shifting, raising the stakes ahead of this week’s summit in Turkey. Initially, it...
Hong Kong has to brace for the emerging risks of an artificial intelligence (AI) bubble bursting and quantum computers capable of hacking encrypted financial systems, the city’s de facto central banker has warned. Eddie Yue Wai-man, chief executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), also said on Sunday that the banking regulator would focus on expanding the internationalisation of the yua...
A Hong Kong paediatrician has been removed from the General Register for nine months after being found guilty of professional misconduct by the medical watchdog over an incident that left a boy permanently disabled more than 16 years ago. In a verdict on Sunday, Dr Sit Sou-chi was convicted of failing to carry out all necessary and immediate investigations on newborn Li Yuanjian, the son of a main...
A Hong Kong paediatrician has been removed from the General Register for nine months, without suspension, after being found guilty of professional misconduct by the medical watchdog over an incident that left a boy permanently disabled more than 16 years ago. In a verdict on Sunday, Dr Sit Sou-chi was convicted of failing to carry out all necessary and immediate investigations on newborn Li Yuanji...
US Vice-President J.D. Vance said Britain had been “failed by its leadership for a long time”, adding that he hoped the country’s next prime minister could deliver the structural change voters were seeking after years of political turmoil. In an interview with the Sunday Times newspaper, Vance said frequent changes of government pointed to deeper problems in British politics. Prime Minister Kei...
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has urged Sweden to help rebuild trust between the two countries and cultivate a “correct perception” of each other, despite their frictions in recent years. “Sweden was the first Western country that established diplomatic relations with China, which showed Sweden’s independence and strategic foresight while setting an example globally,” Wang told Prime Minister U...
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has urged Sweden to help rebuild trust between the two countries and cultivate a “correct perception” of each other despite their frictions in recent years. “Sweden was the first Western country that established diplomatic relations with China, which showed Sweden’s independence and strategic foresight while setting an example globally,” Wang told Prime Minister Ul...
The future of energy exports through the Strait of Hormuz hangs in the balance after negotiations between Iran and the United States in Doha this week ended without an agreement on releasing frozen funds to the Islamic Republic. With Tehran also failing to begin demining the strait, and still threatening to attack ships attempting to leave the Persian Gulf without its permission, neither side has ...
A performer at the funeral for Iran’s late supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called for the death of US President Donald Trump before a crowd of hundreds of thousands of people on Sunday in the capital, Tehran. The comment represents the first, direct call for Trump’s death by an emcee at the funeral, which has seen posters and graffiti calling for the killing of Trump and Israeli Prime Minist...
In a quieter part of western Bali, far from the crowds and chaos of the south, a 38-year-old housewife was bitten by a stray cat while hanging out laundry in May. Within weeks, she was dead: one of five people killed by rabies on the Indonesian resort island so far this year. The following month, a rabid dog kept as a family pet in the same region, Jembrana regency, attacked two children and an ad...
In a quieter part of western Bali, far from the crowds and chaos of the south, a 38-year-old housewife was bitten by a stray cat while hanging out laundry in May. Within weeks, she was dead: one of five people killed by rabies on the Indonesian resort island so far this year. The following month, a rabid dog kept as a family pet in the same region, Jembrana regency, attacked two children and an ad...
Pet strollers, partitions and pre-dining briefings for customers are among the measures Hong Kong restaurants are taking ahead of the launch of a scheme allowing dogs into eateries next week. Dim sum restaurant Old Fung Tea House, with six outlets across the city, is among 833 eateries that will allow dogs to enter starting on Thursday under a policy by the Food and Environmental Hygiene Departmen...
