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Britain’s former prime minister Keir Starmer, who stepped down as leader this summer after a tumultuous two years in power, announced on Tuesday he would quit parliament to focus on “international affairs”. In a statement on social media, Starmer said it was the “right time” to resign as the MP for the Holborn and St Pancras seat in London after 11 years, triggering a by-election. “It is now time ...
Norway’s King Haakon VIII took an oath before parliament on Tuesday, the first major institutional step of his reign, though his wife, still convalescing after a lung transplant, was unable to attend. Dressed in a ceremonial uniform, the 53-year-old Haakon, who became king when his father King Harald V died on Friday morning aged 89, swore to abide by the Scandinavian country’s constitution, under...
An OpenAI executive and former White House adviser is calling for AI safety cooperation between Washington and Beijing ahead of a summit between US President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping, even as Chinese state media launch a scathing attack on American frontier governance in artificial intelligence. “I have always believed US/China AI safety collaboration would be desirable but thoug...
In a rare display of interoperability, a Chinese YY-20 aerial tanker has been pictured refuelling a French-built Egyptian Rafale fighter – showing a versatility analysts say could enable closer multinational air operations and improve the tanker’s potential for export. The photo, released by the Egyptian military on Monday, showed mid-air refuelling during the Eagles of Civilisation 2026 joint exe...
US Senator Steve Daines, a close ally of President Donald Trump, has wrapped up a days-long trip to China, just weeks ahead of Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s planned visit to Washington. According to accounts online from a Chinese local government and various companies, the Montana Republican travelled from Wednesday to Saturday to China’s tech hub Hangzhou and the southern city of Guangzhou. The vis...
US Senator Steve Daines, a close ally of President Donald Trump, has wrapped up a days-long trip to China, weeks ahead of Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s planned visit to Washington. According to a Chinese local government and multiple corporate accounts, the Montana Republican travelled from Wednesday to Saturday to China’s tech hub Hangzhou and the southern city of Guangzhou. The visit is consistent...
Residents and rescuers in the Tibet autonomous region paused for three minutes on Tuesday morning to remember the victims of last week’s mudslide disaster. Sirens sounded for three minutes from 9.55am at the Gyirong Port police station, with similar memorials at rescue and road-reopening sites throughout the region, according to state broadcaster CCTV. More than 1,000 people died and thousands rem...
Malaysia is looking to China’s rice-prawn farms as a model to extract more from its shrinking paddy land as a slide in rice self-sufficiency has left it increasingly reliant on imports from its Southeast Asian neighbours. The experiment is also part of an attempt to confront other issues such as ageing farmers and more erratic weather, which have dented Malaysia’s rice output. Agriculture and Food...
Philippine fast food giant Jollibee Foods Corp said on Tuesday it was planning to spin off and list its international operations on the Hong Kong stock exchange, abandoning earlier plans of a US listing. Jollibee Foods said it was progressing in separating its international business, Jollibee Foods Corporation International, ahead of its planned spin-off and listing. The fast food restaurant oper...
Award-winning Swedish chip expert Henry Homayoun Radamson has died in Shanghai at the age of 63. Radamson, who moved to China in 2016, was working as the chief scientist at the Guangdong Greater Bay Area Institute of Integrated Circuit and System. The institute said on Tuesday that he died from a “sudden illness” on August 12. In 2023, Radamson was awarded the Chinese Government Friendship Award, ...
Award-winning Swedish chip expert Henry Homayoun Radamson has died in Shanghai at the age of 63. Radamson, who moved to China in 2016, was working as the chief scientist at the Guangdong Greater Bay Area Institute of Integrated Circuit and System. The institute said on Tuesday that he died from a “sudden illness” on August 12. Radamson was best known for his research into nanotechnology and its us...
The Chinese-founded artificial intelligence start-up Manus announced on Tuesday that it had formally resumed independent operations, more than four months after Beijing blocked its US$2 billion acquisition by Meta Platforms. The company’s founding team would continue to lead Manus as an “independent agent lab”, the firm said in a blog post on its website, as it sought to move on from a months-long...
China has made the first amendment in 16 years to its national defence mobilisation law to include a fresh focus on new technologies – a move experts said would cover AI and drones. Analysts said the inclusion would make it possible to rapidly convert emerging infrastructure, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and unmanned systems, into defence capabilities. The revised law, passed by the top le...
A mahjong parlour owner in central China paid compensation of 19,000 yuan (US$2,800) following a failed first aid attempt on an elderly customer but received a refund after government intervention. On August 17, a man in his 60s, surnamed Luo, visited the mahjong parlour in Hunan province and passed out while resting in a chair. The shop’s owner, Xiao Aihua, sensed something was wrong with Luo and...
Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing and his business empire, along with Henderson Land Development and the Lee Shau Kee Foundation, have pledged 15 million yuan (US$2.2 million) each to support relief efforts for victims of the deadly flash flooding along the Nepal-Tibet border. Nina Wang Charity Management also pledged HK$10 million (US$1.27 million) to support relief efforts. CK Asset Holdings, CK Hutc...
Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing and his business empire, along with Henderson Land Development and the Lee Shau Kee Foundation, have pledged 15 million yuan (US$2.2 million) each to support relief efforts for victims of the deadly flash flooding along the Nepal-Tibet border. Nina Wang Charitable Management also pledged HK$10 million (US$1.27 million) to support relief efforts. CK Asset Holdings, CK H...
Tycoon Li Ka-shing and his family-backed conglomerate, along with Henderson Land Development and the Lee Shau Kee Foundation, have pledged 15 million yuan (US$2.2 million) each to support relief efforts for victims of the deadly flash floods along the Nepal-Tibet border. Li family-owned CK Asset Holdings, CK Hutchison Holdings and the Li Ka Shing Foundation, as well as Henderson Land and the Lee S...
A proposed troop access pact between the Philippines and Britain is the latest sign of Manila’s aim to draw in more European and other powers sharing similar concerns about security in the South China Sea and the continuous flow of goods along the vital waterways. The visiting forces agreement would allow troops from both countries to train and operate temporarily on each other’s soil, a move anal...
Property-ownership complications and low public awareness have slowed landlords’ registration of Hong Kong subdivided flats under new housing regulations, industry observers have said, after the government received only 42.5 per cent of the applications expected in the first phase. Monday marked the deadline for the initial six-month “early bird” registration phase under the Basic Housing Unit Ord...
Chinese chipmakers are setting increasingly aggressive targets to source production equipment locally, adding pressure on domestic toolmakers to come up with machines that are reliable in the exacting environment of high-volume wafer production. Several new wafer fabrication plants, or fabs, in the country were setting explicit localisation targets, according to Jie Chen, chairman of Britech Semic...
A Hong Kong secondary school has begun the new academic year without a principal while authorities vet a replacement for the former head, who was fired for swearing at security guards during a Singapore study trip. Former lawmaker Edmund Wong Chun-sek, who is also a manager of San Wui Commercial Society Secondary School, said on Tuesday that the Education Bureau was currently conducting background...
Shenzhen, the southern Chinese city home to US-sanctioned telecoms giant Huawei Technologies and drone maker DJI, has seen an influx of investors and business leaders amid rising global interest in Chinese artificial intelligence and robotics. On Tuesday, the tech hub hosted investor conferences led by three international financial institutions – HSBC, UBS and Nomura – with AI, robotics and other ...
The US threat of sanctions on China because of Beijing’s relationship with Iran isn’t credible. The artificial intelligence bubble and its own precarious bond market make the US more vulnerable to a shock than China. Even if the US risks massive self-harm and kicks major Chinese institutions off SWIFT, the global messaging system enabling dollar-based cross-border payments, it will merely accelera...
A Thai court has sentenced a 25-year-old activist to two years in prison for violating the country’s strict royal insult law, a rights group said, with her lawyer on Tuesday vowing to appeal. A criminal court convicted Tantawan Tuatulanon on Monday over a live streaming she aired near a royal motorcade in March 2022, legal advocacy group Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR) said in a statement. Th...
We have selected seven stories from the SCMP’s coverage of Asia over the past week that resonated with our readers and shed light on topical issues. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. Why US visa pause could have ‘real consequences’ for Asian applicants Asian workers and families already facing years-long waits for US visas could be pushed deeper into u...
Malaysian police have crippled a cross-border drug syndicate with the seizure of 86.2kg of methamphetamine worth 4.31 million ringgit (US$1 million) in Penang and Selangor. The bust resulted from intelligence sharing between Malaysian and Thai police after Thai authorities seized 166kg (370lbs) of suspected methamphetamine from a Malaysian man in Hua Hin on August 8. Penang police chief Dennis Lim...
The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation should take on a bigger global role in technology and security, Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Tuesday, describing the Eurasian bloc as having vast potential. At the SCO’s summit in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, Xi said the group had shown “strong vitality” since its founding 25 years ago amid the “sobering lessons of the Cold War”. In a veiled reference to Washi...
The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation should take on a bigger global role in technology and security, Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Tuesday, describing the Eurasian bloc as having vast potential. At the SCO’s summit in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, Xi said the group had shown “strong vitality” since emerging a quarter of a century ago amid the “sobering lessons of the Cold War”. In a veiled referenc...
Chinese President Xi Jinping has called on world leaders to create an environment of “universal security”, and firmly prevent external forces from interfering in the internal affairs of other countries. At the 10-member Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, on Tuesday, Xi said the grouping should safeguard regional stability. He called the Eurasian security bloc a ...
Foreign investors are expected to keep adding to their China A-share holdings, though the pace of buying is likely to slow from the surge in the first half of the year, according to a UBS analyst. “We still expect net inflows in the second half, but the pace will be somewhat slower than in the first half,” said Meng Lei, China equity strategist at UBS Securities, at UBS’s annual China A-share stra...
