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The independent committee investigating the causes of Hong Kong’s deadliest fire in decades will postpone submitting its report by a month to the end of October, attributing the delay to the complexity of issues and the large volume of documents it must review. The committee announced on Tuesday that it had sought approval from Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu to extend the deadline for submitting...
Southeast Asian exporters may soon face a heavier burden of proof to show they are not helping Chinese goods dodge US tariffs after the White House named nine countries in the region as part of what it called a global “Shadow Transshipment Network”. The warning came in a White House report titled “The Great Transshipment Scam”, which alleged that Chinese-origin goods were being routed through lowe...
China’s state media has called for English-language terms related to artificial intelligence (AI) to be dropped in favour of standardised Chinese equivalents in a push to boost the country’s “discourse power”. As AI technologies have rapidly spread in China, English terms have entered common speech in the country, such as “agent” and “LLM” for large language model, a commentary published by the Co...
Women working in US President Donald Trump’s White House were not surprised that press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced last week she was leaving her job – and they do not think it was just because she wants to spend time with her young children. In an interview with the Daily Mail, several anonymous White House employees spoke of the pressure that Leavitt, executive assistant Natalie Harper a...
An increasing number of hotels in Japan are offering “sleep tourism” experiences – stays designed to promote high-quality and restful sleep. The trend, which started gaining popularity overseas several years ago, provides hotels with an opportunity to attract new health-conscious guests. A sleep retreat plan called totono-ne, featuring the relaxing effects of tea, is proving a popular offering for...
Zhipu AI’s launch of China’s first answer to Project Glasswing signals a shift in how the country’s top artificial intelligence labs approach global cybersecurity, according to a researcher. The Beijing-based firm – now known internationally as Z.ai – announced its new GLM-5.3 model on Friday alongside the launch of its “Shield of Open Source” initiative. The programme offers free security audits ...
A high school student carrying two pistols shot to death a fellow student before killing himself on Tuesday in an attack in a southern Philippine high school campus that he live streamed using a body-worn camera, police and other officials said. It was the second fatal school shooting in the country in just two months. Hundreds of students were evacuated after shots rang out in the high school bui...
Two people have died and another two are injured after a school shooting in a southern part of the Philippines. The shooter, a student carrying a high-powered firearm, took aim at fellow students inside a classroom at the Ateneo de Zamboanga University High School on Tuesday morning, Zamboanga City Mayor Khymer Adan Olaso told local radio station DZMM. One student and the shooter died, while two s...
At least two people were hit in a shooting in a high school on Tuesday in the southern Philippine city of Zamboanga, police said. Regional police spokeswoman Major Shellamie Chang said police forces were trying to secure the school campus but she could not immediately provide other details. Witnesses said the campus was Ateneo de Zamboanga University. The university’ president said there were no m...
At least two people were hit in a shooting in a high school on Tuesday in the southern Philippine city of Zamboanga, police said. Regional police spokesperson Major Shellamie Chang said police forces were trying to secure the school campus but she could not immediately provide other details. Witnesses said the campus was Ateneo de Zamboanga University. Journalists at the scene said the suspect was...
Loaves of sourdough bread now fill the display window of Suchart and Friends Gun, a firearms shop-turned-bakery in Bangkok’s old quarter where pistols and rifles once lined the glass case. Like all the gun shops in Thailand, it has been banned from importing firearms since a 2023 shooting at a Bangkok mall – one of several mass shootings, including at a school and a childcare centre, that have pe...
China cut its holdings of US Treasuries to a nearly 18-year low in June, as Beijing continued to diversify its foreign exchange reserves amid heightened geopolitical tensions and growing uncertainty over the policy outlook in the United States. Holdings fell to US$633.4 billion in June from US$659.3 billion in May, data released by the Treasury Department of the United States showed on Monday. The...
As the United States, Russia and China race to turn a melting Arctic into the world’s next major economic gateway, their strategic ambitions face a hidden threat: thawing permafrost. Since returning to office last year, US President Donald Trump has pushed to expand America’s Arctic footprint. This includes investing in icebreakers to counter Russian and Chinese shipping ambitions, unlocking natur...
Hong Kong’s self-financing postal administration will stop offering permanent civil service contracts to new employees as part of cost-saving measures amid a worsening financial outlook. Postmaster General Leonia Tai Shuk-yiu said on Monday that new Hongkong Post employees who pass probation in or after September would be offered two-year contracts on civil service terms, as the organisation faces...
President Donald Trump’s decision to scale back joint military exercises with South Korea does not just slight a long-time ally but raises broader concerns about the security interests of the United States in Asia and elsewhere. Trump explained his decision by citing South Korea’s refusal to join his war against Iran and pointing to what he said was his good relationship with North Korea’s reclusi...
The much-anticipated revamped Huanggang Port, expected to open later this year, should be seen as more than a story about faster clearance. Its deeper significance lies in a question that deserves wider discussion: if border functions can be redesigned, where should border control actually operate? Living in the Greater Bay Area, where people and businesses move across administrative boundaries ev...
Colombia’s new housing minister has come under fire after it emerged that he took his family on a Caribbean holiday while the country was reeling from a devastating earthquake that left thousands homeless. The August 10 earthquake, which killed nearly 300 people in western Colombia, struck just three days after right-wing President Abelardo de la Espriella took office. The 7.4-magnitude tremor was...
AI desktop pets are gaining popularity in China, offering young workers an outlet for workplace frustration and providing bereaved owners with a digital means to preserve memories of their deceased pets. Virtual pets first emerged on messaging platforms in the early 2000s, roaming across screens and interacting with users as they browsed the web, chatted, or watched videos. Advancements in AI are ...
Hong Kong infrastructure and artificial intelligence (AI) firms are well placed to capitalise on a surge of expansion opportunities in Malaysia, but unlocking this potential will require cultural sensitivity and adapting to local market dynamics, industry insiders have said. The remarks follow the recent opening of Hong Kong’s new Economic and Trade Office in Kuala Lumpur to bolster bilateral ties...
Indonesia’s next electric-vehicle push will test whether President Prabowo Subianto can turn rising demand, nickel wealth and consumer subsidies into an integrated domestic industry that captures more value at home, or merely make imported and locally assembled EVs cheaper to buy. Analysts warn that without stricter local-content rules and stronger links between nickel processing, battery producti...
The US diesel crack, a key measure of refining profitability, hit an all-time high of US$102.20 a barrel on Monday as global supply disruptions from the wars in Iran and Ukraine run into peak agricultural consumption season. Measured as the premium of US diesel futures over US West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures, the US diesel crack was trading at US$99.82 a barrel, up 2.4 per cent from Fri...
The Hong Kong property market’s recovery is forecast to moderate in both prices and rents in the coming months as disruptions brought about by artificial intelligence, slower population inflows and other factors are likely to impact the upturn, according to UBS. The Swiss investment bank said that in addition to AI and slower population growth, the city’s residential market could also be affected ...
US President Donald Trump said on Monday that he would not seek to extend the memorandum of understanding with Iran, claiming that while Iran wants to make a deal, “they’re not going to make the kind of a deal that I feel is necessary”. The agreement aimed to end the war and restore commercial navigation through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital global energy chokepoint, but negotiations stalled as bo...
Moscow said on Monday it had summoned the Japanese ambassador after Tokyo condemned President Vladimir Putin’s recent visit to Russia’s far-eastern Kuril Islands, which are also claimed by Japan. Russian-Japanese relations have long been dogged by the contested islands, known in Japan as the Northern Territories and seized by the Soviet Union in 1945. Putin, 73, travelled to the islands after visi...
Speculation is growing that Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth is at increasing risk of losing his job, raising questions about the possible implications for US-China relations, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter. The sources, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to discuss the matter publicly, said Hegseth was “on the verge of losing his job”. They cite...
There is something about the speed of consensus on China’s rocket failures that should give us pause. Within hours of Long March-7A rocket’s disintegration over the South China Sea on August 10, trade reports were pointing to an engine as the likely culprit. The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) had said nothing of the kind. An official Xinhua report about three hours after...
Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa arrived in Beijing on Sunday for his first state visit to China, an eight-day trip during which he will seek to lift suspensions on 14 Ecuadorian shrimp processors and secure fresh investment in energy and mining. Noboa will hold talks with President Xi Jinping and meet separately with Premier Li Qiang and Zhao Leji, China’s top legislator, according to Beijing’s ...
Thousands of people gathered in central London late on Monday to hold a vigil for black academic Jason Arday, blaming racism and relentless media pressure for his death last week. The vigil in central Trafalgar Square came as the head of Cambridge University on Monday condemned a “racist feeding frenzy” prompted by plagiarism claims against Arday. Arday, who became Cambridge’s youngest black profe...
US President Donald Trump’s approval rating fell to the lowest level of his presidency with an overwhelming majority of Americans concerned the US war with Iran will last a long time, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll that concluded on Monday. Just 33 per cent of respondents in the four-day survey said they approved of Trump’s performance in the White House, while 64 per cent disapproved. Trump’s...
Rapper Tupac Shakur was shot dead in an act of gang revenge ordered by a mobster who later boasted of it, jurors heard on Monday, as one of America’s most anticipated trials got under way, 30 years after the murder. Duane “Keffe D” Davis, a one-time leader of the South Side Compton Crips, one of a patchwork of gangs that ran parts of Los Angeles in the 1990s, ordered the killing after his nephew h...
