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A “widening” AI gap between advanced economies and developing countries has sparked calls to use the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation framework to develop an open, fairer and culturally sensitive governance system. Although the technology is often hailed as a great leveller in an era of sluggish economic growth, a conference held in southern China last weekend heard that many Global South countri...
Ooshies were not just fun to collect – the tiny plastic Disney figurines were powerful enough to move sales between Australia’s supermarket giants. Woolworths Group said on Wednesday that Australian food sales jumped 7.6 per cent in the first eight weeks of the 2027 financial year, with its Ooshies promotion contributing an estimated 1.5 to 2 percentage points of growth. That accelerated from 4.6 ...
Mainland Chinese enterprises will play a key role in developing Hong Kong’s Northern Metropolis by sharing financial risks and helping align the megaproject with national strategy, according to real estate and political advisers. Their analysis followed the award of the blueprint’s first pilot area in Hung Shui Kiu to HSK New Development, a consortium led by five mainland giants and local develope...
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi remains in a strong position despite a poll showing falling support for her administration, ahead of an expected cabinet reshuffle to bolster her coalition government. A new cabinet could help the government win over voters, reward ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) lawmakers and win the support of junior coalition partner Ishin no Kai, analysts have said....
US President Donald Trump’s administration is starting to send staff back to some diplomatic missions in the Middle East that were evacuated or downsized amid tensions with Iran, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters. The posts in Lebanon, Israel, Saudi Arabia and Baghdad, Iraq, are among those where staff will return, the sources said. Family members will also be allowed to return to ...
US President Donald Trump’s administration is starting to send staff back to some diplomatic missions in the Middle East that were evacuated or downsized amid tensions with Iran, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters. The posts in Lebanon, Israel, Saudi Arabia and Baghdad, Iraq, are among those where staff will return, the sources said. Family members will also be allowed to return to ...
China’s deliberation on its sweeping cross-border anti-corruption law may ripple through Hong Kong’s financial and property markets, as Beijing seeks harsher punishments for corrupt officials and broadens its scrutiny of the massive pool of wealth transferred overseas. Hong Kong remains in focus after the draft law was submitted on Tuesday to the standing committee of the national legislature for ...
A man killed eight of his relatives, including four children, as they gathered for Sunday dinner at a home outside Billings, Montana, weeks after his parents asked him to move out, a family member told Associated Press. Brad Ireland, whose former wife and two children were among the dead, identified the shooter as 44-year-old Alan Smith. Smith’s parents, who were also killed, had asked him to move...
A man killed eight of his relatives, including four children, at a Sunday dinner at a home in Billings, Montana, before taking his own life, a spokesperson for the family told Associated Press. Jennifer Mercer, who set up an online fundraiser to help cover funeral costs and other expenses and was authorised to release details, identified the victims as representing four generations of the blended ...
A prominent Sikh separatist said Tuesday that the FBI and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police have warned him that he faces a new credible threat to his life even as a man from India faces sentencing later this year for a 2023 death plot against him. Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, general counsel for Sikhs For Justice, said he was warned by FBI agents who visited him August 12 that he should not travel un...
A prominent Sikh separatist said on Tuesday that the FBI and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police have warned him that he faces a new credible threat to his life even as a man from India faces sentencing later this year for a 2023 death plot against him. Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, general counsel for Sikhs For Justice, said he was warned by FBI agents who visited him last Thursday that he should not tr...
The South China Morning Post has launched a major data project diving into President Xi Jinping’s signature anti-graft campaign. In the second part of an accompanying series, William Zheng examines how the campaign has targeted corrupt officials outside the Chinese capital and long after retirement. It used to be an easy choice for senior Chinese officials deciding between a local government posit...
A taboo-breaking book about Vladimir Putin’s rise to power and private life, written by two exiled Russian journalists, won a newly established French literary prize on Tuesday. The book, titled The Tsar in Propria Persona: How Vladimir Putin Deceived Us All, draws on more than two decades of investigative reporting by journalists Roman Badanin and Mikhail Rubin. The work won a newly established l...
A taboo-breaking book about Vladimir Putin’s rise to power and private life, written by two exiled Russian journalists, won a newly established French literary prize on Tuesday. The book, The Tsar in Propria Persona: How Vladimir Putin Deceived Us All, draws on more than two decades of investigative reporting by journalists Roman Badanin and Mikhail Rubin. The work won a newly established literary...
The gaffe at last month’s Aids 2026 conference in Rio de Janeiro, where a US State Department presentation displayed a map of Africa with every country mislabelled, serves as more than a source of embarrassment. It was a potent symbol of the distance between Washington’s rhetoric and its real stance regarding the African continent. Earlier this year, Nick Checker, a senior US State Department offi...
On the tree-lined streets of Sterling, northern Virginia, Lindsay Shaw’s home sits across from an industrial neighbour that has consumed the past several years of her life: a data centre. When Shaw sits outside, she can hear its constant hum. At night, the security lights blaze through her window, making it harder to sleep. Gas turbines, diesel fumes, and 24/7 industrial noise have choked Shaw’s n...
On the tree-lined streets of Sterling, northern Virginia, Lindsay Shaw’s home sits across from an industrial neighbour that has consumed the past several years of her life: a data centre. When Shaw sits outside, she can hear its constant hum. At night, the security lights blaze through her window, making it harder to sleep. Gas turbines, diesel fumes, and 24/7 industrial noise have choked Shaw’s n...
On the tree-lined streets of Sterling, northern Virginia, Lindsay Shaw’s home sits across from an industrial neighbour that has consumed the past several years of her life: a data centre. When Shaw sits outside, she can hear its constant hum. At night, the security lights blaze through her window, making it harder to sleep. Gas turbines, diesel fumes, and 24/7 industrial noise have choked Shaw’s n...
The US Secret Service is aware of a video broadcast by Iranian state television discussing a potential plot to assassinate US President Donald Trump’s youngest son, a spokesman said on Tuesday. “The US Secret Service is aware of the video and investigates anything that can be perceived as a threat toward our protectees. “Out of concern for operational security, we do not discuss matters of pr...
The US Secret Service is aware of a video broadcast by Iranian state television discussing a potential plot to assassinate US President Donald Trump’s youngest son, a spokesman said on Tuesday. “The US Secret Service is aware of the video and investigates anything that can be perceived as a threat toward our protectees. “Out of concern for operational security, we do not discuss matters of pr...
Six Chinese nationals were killed and nine more are missing after a fire broke out at a gas chemical complex in Russia’s far eastern Amur region, the plant said on Wednesday. A total of seven people died and 152 people were treated for injuries, including 36 who were rushed to hospitals, the plant said on the Telegram messaging app on Wednesday. The fire, which broke out on Tuesday, was extingu...
Six Chinese nationals were killed and nine more are missing after a fire broke out at a gas chemical complex in Russia’s far eastern Amur region, the plant said on Wednesday. A total of seven people died and 152 people were treated for injuries, including 36 who were rushed to hospitals, the plant said on the Telegram messaging app on Wednesday. The fire, which broke out on Tuesday, was extingu...
Three people, including two Chinese citizens, died in a fire on Tuesday at a petrochemical site in Russia’s far eastern Amur region, the company announced. More than 100 others were wounded as a result of the blaze at the remote Amur Gas Chemical Complex, a joint venture between Russia’s Sibur and the China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (Sinopec). “The deaths of three people … two citizens of t...
Three people, including two Chinese citizens, died in a fire on Tuesday at a petrochemical site in Russia’s far eastern Amur region, the company announced. More than 100 others were wounded as a result of the blaze at the remote Amur Gas Chemical Complex, a joint venture between Russia’s Sibur and the China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (Sinopec). “The deaths of three people … two citizens of t...
A shipper needing to transit the Panama Canal bid a record US$5.3 million to secure its spot, according to people familiar with the matter. South Korea-based SK Gas Ltd agreed to pay the sum to travel the canal on September 1, said the people, who could not be identified as the information was confidential. The fee, determined through an auction run by the canal authority this week, breaks the pre...
Dolly Parton, the country music star who rose from grinding poverty in Tennessee to become a rhinestone-studded cultural icon with hits like “Jolene” and “9 to 5”, has died at 80, her family said on Tuesday. Parton was more than a singer – she wrote 3,000 songs, acted in major Hollywood films and donated millions of dollars to charities in her home state and beyond. She was also an accomplished bu...
Dolly Parton, the country music icon whose soaring vibrato vocals, poignant songwriting and sparkling costumes defined her rise from a log cabin in the Tennessee mountains to the height of stardom and acclaim, has died, her nephew Brian Seaver said in a video shared on her Instagram page. She was 80 years old. Known for her curvy physique, massive blonde wigs and skin-tight outfits that served her...
Canada announced retaliatory tariffs of up to 50 per cent on US$19.94 billion (C$27.6 billion) of American goods on Tuesday, escalating its trade confrontation with Washington days after negotiations collapsed and the Trump administration imposed sweeping new duties on Canadian products. The tariffs, which take effect on September 8, will apply to more than 700 categories of US goods at rates of 1...
Canada announced retaliatory tariffs of up to 50 per cent on US$19.94 billion (C$27.6 billion) of American goods on Tuesday, escalating its trade confrontation with Washington days after negotiations collapsed and the Trump administration imposed sweeping new duties on Canadian products. The tariffs, which take effect on September 8, will apply to more than 700 categories of US goods at rates of 1...
Ghislaine Maxwell’s bid to overturn her sex trafficking conviction and be freed from prison was rejected by a federal judge Tuesday who said the claims by Jeffrey Epstein’s former girlfriend and long-time associate that new evidence had emerged were “demonstrably meritless”. Maxwell filed a habeas petition last December seeking to set aside her conviction and free her from a 20-year prison sentenc...
