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Some women who entered Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta on July 30 as part of a mass migrant crossing say the hardships of sleeping rough as they wait to be registered are compounded by the threat and fear of sexual harassment. More than a dozen women have set up camp on a wooded roadside running up to the barbed wire fencing that surrounds the government-run migrant reception centre, near...
The Israeli military is touted as the most powerful in the Middle East, striking targets deep into enemy territory. But for more than a week, Israeli troops have somehow failed to evict a small group of settlers sitting on rocks in the occupied West Bank. Experts says the military has long shown inertia when its task is stopping surging violence against Palestinians, due to government backing for ...
As the Iran war spills over into the Red Sea – a crucial chokepoint for Asia-Europe trade – China has marked a milestone by launching its first regular service through the Arctic’s Northern Sea Route (NSR), a development welcomed by Russia. The route, which runs along Russia’s northern Arctic coast, slashes travel time compared with alternative paths. A journey from Ningbo city on China’s southeas...
As the Iran war spills over into the Red Sea – a crucial chokepoint for Asia-Europe trade – China has marked a milestone by launching its first regular service through the Arctic’s Northern Sea Route (NSR), a development welcomed by Russia. The route, which runs along Russia’s northern Arctic coast, slashes travel time compared with alternative paths. A journey from Ningbo city on China’s southeas...
Tony Wu Yuhuai, the China-born co-founder of Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence lab, sparked discussions across Chinese social media after reportedly spending US$70 million on a six-bedroom Californian mega-mansion. The property deal, the largest so far this year in the Bay Area, pushed the thirty-something AI star under the spotlight, alongside other Silicon Valley-based Chinese talent that has ...
Hong Kong customs has raided a corporate secretarial office in Sheung Wan as part of an investigation into a local beauty chain linked to UK brand Opatra London, following six complaints alleging high-pressure sales tactics involving up to HK$100,000. Officers from the Customs and Excise Department seized documents from a unit in the Wing On Centre on Connaught Road Central on Tuesday. While liste...
Global infertility cases among women aged 35 to 49 are projected to almost double to 79.64 million by 2036, posing a major public health challenge for Hong Kong as delayed childbearing becomes increasingly common, a large-scale study has found. The study, co-led by the University of Hong Kong (HKU) and shared on Tuesday, said the city’s average maternal age was among the world’s highest and called...
Global infertility cases among women aged 35 to 49 are projected to rise by almost half to 79.64 million by 2036, posing a major public health challenge for Hong Kong as delayed childbearing becomes increasingly common, a large-scale study has found. The study, co-led by the University of Hong Kong, said on Tuesday that the city’s average maternal age was among the world’s highest and called for s...
The safe handling of dogs has become the subject of intense social media debate in Hong Kong after two small pets were fatally mauled by a large canine on the loose on Monday. The 60kg dog, which was not on a leash, killed a miniature poodle near Yoho Mall in Yuen Long and a bichon frise at nearby Lolli Park within 20 minutes of each other. The licensed animal has been captured and an investigatio...
China firmly supports Latin American nations in upholding their autonomy and pursuing international cooperation based on their own interests, Chinese President Xi Jinping told his Ecuadorian counterpart Daniel Noboa on Tuesday. “Latin American and Caribbean nations should have freedom to choose their international partners without outside interference,” Xi said, in a veiled criticism of US interve...
Chinese surgeons have enabled a man to walk again after an accident severed both his legs at the thigh, marking a rare success for advanced reconstructive procedures. After nearly 20 months of intensive post-operative recovery, the patient is reportedly able to walk indoors with a frame and manage most daily tasks unassisted. Crucially, sensation has returned to his lower legs down to his ankles. ...
More than 80 per cent of surveyed mainland Chinese companies plan to grow their overseas presence, with Hong Kong listed as their top choice for a professional services platform to support expansion, the Trade Development Council (TDC) has found. The council’s survey, published on Tuesday, also showed that about 94 per cent of respondents were eyeing countries in the Belt and Road Initiative for e...
A German court on Tuesday handed a jail sentence of one year and three months to a Ukrainian man for spying for Russia and helping prepare possible acts of sabotage. The court in Stuttgart acquitted two other Ukrainian men aged 22 and 25 who were on trial for the same plot, which involved posting test packages containing GPS trackers in March last year to Ukraine. The plan was aimed at scoping out...
A Hong Kong court has ordered the defunct Apple Daily newspaper to pay HK$1.5 million (US$191,200) in damages to a listed company and two senior executives over 10 defamatory articles that accused them of spying on the city’s pro-democracy activists at Beijing’s behest. In a written judgment delivered on Tuesday, the High Court ruled against former media boss Jimmy Lai Chee-ying’s flagship publica...
A Hong Kong court has ordered the defunct Apple Daily newspaper to pay HK$1.5 million in damages to a listed company and two senior executives over 10 defamatory articles that accused them of spying on the city’s pro-democracy activists at Beijing’s behest. In a written judgment delivered on Tuesday, the High Court ruled against former media boss Jimmy Lai Chee-ying’s flagship publication after th...
A proposed partnership between Indian industrial giant Reliance Industries and British aerospace engine maker Rolls-Royce could mark a breakthrough in India’s decades-long quest to develop a fighter jet engine, analysts have said. But they caution that money and manufacturing capabilities alone would not be enough to overcome the technical challenges of manufacturing such an engine. On Friday, the...
China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi is set to visit Seoul days after Donald Trump called for the US to scale back military exercises with South Korea, sending ripples of unease through US allies in Asia. On Sunday, the United States president posted his decision to social media, raising questions about the durability of Washington’s security commitments in a region increasingly defined by competition...
Alibaba Group Holding’s new lightweight AI model Qwen3.8-27B has matched much larger near-frontier rivals while being able to run on everyday hardware, impressing developers as local AI gains momentum. The Qwen3.8-27B, a small model with 27 billion parameters, performed on par with OpenAI’s GPT-5.6 Luna, which was billed as the most cost-efficient model in the US lab’s latest flagship series, benc...
A Syrian court on Tuesday handed a death sentence to Wassim al-Assad who appeared in the dock, a cousin of long-time ruler Bashar al-Assad who was himself sentenced to death in absentia last week. The 46-year-old relative of Assad was convicted over atrocities committed under the autocrat’s rule during the country’s nearly 14-year civil war. Judge Fakhr al-Din al-Aryan said Assad’s cousin was conv...
Hong Kong authorities have arrested the owner of a large, unleashed dog that fatally attacked two smaller pets in Yuen Long, as the incident sparks calls for heavier penalties for irresponsible pet owners. The owner of the 60kg dog was arrested in Yuen Long on Tuesday afternoon in an operation by the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD), according to a spokesman. Officers reco...
A man from eastern China has spent a decade travelling with his partially paralysed wife, claiming that life on the road has made her “100 times” more spirited. Liu Peijin, 69, a former serviceman from Weifang in Shandong province, dedicated 18 years to the military, much of that time away from his wife, who was his primary school classmate, as reported by Hongxing News. As newlyweds, they dreamed...
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr has put his anti-corruption drive at the centre of his presidency, but questions over his late father’s estate taxes and the family’s past ill-gotten wealth have prompted critics to question his commitment. Last month, Marcos pledged in his address to Congress to continue fighting alleged irregularities in flood-control projects, stressing that the campaig...
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr has put his anti-corruption drive at the centre of his presidency, but questions over his late father’s estate taxes and the family’s past ill-gotten wealth have prompted critics to question his commitment. Last month, Marcos pledged in his address to Congress to continue fighting alleged irregularities in flood-control projects, stressing that the campaig...
Taiwan’s army has for the first time used first-person view (FPV) drones against armoured vehicles in a live-fire exercise, adopting tactics pioneered during the Ukraine war to strengthen its asymmetric capabilities against the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). The exercise on Monday highlighted efforts to broaden strike options beyond traditional firepower such as rocket systems and heavy artillery...
Hong Kong should establish a full-time training pathway for top law graduates to become judges, helping to expand the local judicial talent pool and ease courtroom delays, a think tank founded by Executive Council member Ronny Tong Ka-wah has proposed. POD Research Institute founder Tong also said on Tuesday that reducing waiting times for a court date would ensure the rule of law was upheld and s...
Pakistan’s Supreme Court ordered on Tuesday that jailed former prime minister Imran Khan be moved to hospital for medical checks, after a petition by his lawyers over claims of poor health. Justice Shahid Waheed said 73-year-old Khan, who had been in jail since 2023 on corruption charges, would be shifted in the next two days to Shifa International Hospital in the capital Islamabad. Khan and his w...
China’s most senior general Zhang Shengmin has invoked the late former president Jiang Zemin’s response to the collapse of the Soviet Union and first Gulf war in an article emphasising the importance of party unity and military reform in the face of external threats. This month has seen a series of commemorative events to mark the centenary of Jiang’s birth, including a grand ceremony in Beijing o...
The Milky Way, a large and spiral-shaped galaxy that is home to hundreds of billions of stars including our sun, has taken a long and complicated path to achieve its current dimensions, as illustrated by new research documenting a milestone event early in its history. Scientists observing clusters of stars congregated near the Milky Way’s centre have discovered evidence that our galaxy swallowed ...
The Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants (HKICPA) has urged the government to introduce tax incentives to help develop the Northern Metropolis and to improve the stock exchange’s listing regime to further cement the city’s role in international finance. The organisation’s submission for Hong Kong’s first five-year plan asked the government to consider tax incentives for investors wh...
The People’s Liberation Army used a drone to deliver cases of cash and gold bars in a field during a “wartime financial support” drill apparently simulating a Taiwan operation, according to a state media report. A multi-rotor drone was used to drop the camouflage cases at designated locations during the exercise conducted by the PLA Eastern Theatre Command, national newspaper Defence Times said la...
