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Trump says US is ‘low-keying it’ with Iran, stresses economic pain
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Trump says US is ‘low-keying it’ with Iran, stresses economic pain

US President Donald Trump signalled on Sunday he is prepared to let economic pressure mount against Iran, apparently backing away from ordering more military strikes even as Tehran issues tough demands. “We are low-keying it,” Trump said, according to the news outlet Axios, which said it spoke to him in a brief phone call. Only a week ago Trump made the latest of his series of threats to hit Iran ...

Alleged Irish crime boss charged in Dublin after extradition from Dubai
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Alleged Irish crime boss charged in Dublin after extradition from Dubai

Alleged Irish crime gang boss Daniel Kinahan was charged with directing a criminal organisation by prosecutors in Dublin on Sunday amid tight security at a special court sitting following his extradition from the United Arab Emirates. Kinahan, who was ‌arrested in Dubai in April, was named by the United States in 2022 as one of three leaders of the Kinahan Organised Crime Group. US authorities off...

Alleged Irish crime boss charged in Dublin with directing criminal organisation
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Alleged Irish crime boss charged in Dublin with directing criminal organisation

⁠Irish prosecutors charged alleged Irish ‌crime gang boss Daniel Kinahan with ⁠directing a criminal organisation ‌at a special ‌court sitting ⁠late ⁠on ‌Sunday following his extradition ‌from ‌the ‌United Arab ⁠Emirates. Kinahan, 49, faces charges that he ran an international drug smuggling and money-laundering empire with tentacles that stretched to Britain, Spain and the United States. Air Track...

Suspected Irish crime boss lands in Dublin after being extradited from Dubai
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Suspected Irish crime boss lands in Dublin after being extradited from Dubai

The alleged leader of an Irish organised crime gang has been extradited to Ireland from Dubai to face charges that he ran an international drug smuggling and money-laundering empire with tentacles that stretched to Britain, Spain and the United States. Air Tracker data showed an Irish Air Corps plane from Dubai landing on Sunday evening at a military airport on the outskirts of Dublin after courts...

Yemen’s Houthis attack Saudi refinery, testing new defence pact

Yemen’s Houthis attack Saudi refinery, testing new defence pact

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Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis have attacked Saudi Aramco’s Jazan refinery, ⁠they said on Sunday, two days after the kingdom signed a defence pact with Turkey and Pakistan in response to growing regional instability from the US-Israeli war on Iran. The alliance with Sunni Muslim US allies, Turkey and Pakistan, is intended to strengthen collective deterrence against any act of aggression and stipulat...

Yemen’s Houthis attack Saudi refinery after kingdom signs defence pact

Yemen’s Houthis attack Saudi refinery after kingdom signs defence pact

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Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis have ⁠attacked Saudi Aramco’s Jazan refinery, they said on Sunday, two days after the kingdom signed a defence pact with Turkey and Pakistan in response to growing regional instability from the US-Israeli war on Iran. The alliance with Sunni Muslim US allies, Turkey and Pakistan, is intended to strengthen collective deterrence against any act of aggression and stipulat...

Firefighters battle raging wildfires in parts of France and Spain

Firefighters battle raging wildfires in parts of France and Spain

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A fast-moving wildfire was raging in southern France on Sunday, forcing evacuations as more than 200 firefighters raced to contain the blaze. The fire broke out around 12.45pm in the Lozere region, about 140km (85 miles) northwest of Montpellier, and was likely sparked by a vehicle catching fire on a local road. By late afternoon, the uncontained blaze had burned some 90 hectares (220 acres). Back...

Over 200 firefighters battle blaze in southern France

Over 200 firefighters battle blaze in southern France

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A fast-moving wildfire was raging in southern France on Sunday, forcing evacuations as more than 200 firefighters raced to contain the blaze. The fire broke out at around 12.45pm in the Lozere region, about 140km (85 miles) northwest of Montpellier. Officials said it might have been sparked by a car catching fire on a local road. By late afternoon, the fire had burned some 90 hectares (220 acres) ...

Cologne marches for queer community after Berlin Pride attack

Cologne marches for queer community after Berlin Pride attack

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Around 10,000 people gathered in Cologne on Sunday for a demonstration in support of the queer community following the Islamist attack at Berlin Pride. The organisers of Cologne’s own Pride celebrations called for the rally two weeks after the shocking attack in the German capital. Participants gathered in the Deutz district on the eastern side of the Rhine River and marched across to the city cen...

Woman and baby die after boat capsizes in New York harbour

Woman and baby die after boat capsizes in New York harbour

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The operator of a boat that capsized in New York Harbor, killing a mother and her infant daughter, is facing criminal charges and authorities are investigating whether the vessel was an illegal charter, the US Coast Guard said on Sunday. The 22-foot Bayliner speedboat overturned around 10.25pm on Saturday near Liberty Island, home to the Statue of Liberty, the US Coast Guard said. Twelve people we...

China waits in wings as Mecca pact signals Gulf shift away from US security umbrella

China waits in wings as Mecca pact signals Gulf shift away from US security umbrella

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The grand security bargain between the United States and Gulf countries is widely perceived to be fraying, creating what analysts see as an opening for Beijing to expand its presence in the region. For decades, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states relied on Washington’s defensive shield, while it in turn relied on them for access, energy and influence. Riyadh’s decision to sign a mutual defence agre...

Calls for system review after lowest alert in force during record-breaking heat

Calls for system review after lowest alert in force during record-breaking heat

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Hong Kong authorities are under pressure to review the warning system for heat stress at work after it remained at the lowest risk level on Sunday, despite the city sweltering through its hottest day on record. Labour unionists, joined by a leading meteorologist, also proposed relaxing the law to recognise heatstroke as a work-related injury, thus entitling workers to compensation. A scorching 36....

Thai school shooter had watched violent content online: police

Thai school shooter had watched violent content online: police

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The Thai teen behind a deadly school shooting outside Bangkok had an air gun confiscated by a teacher last year and had watched violent content online, police said on Sunday, as the government ‌promised new safety protocols for schools. As investigations continued into Friday’s rampage, where a 14-year-old boy allegedly shot dead his grandparents at home before killing another six people at his sc...

Air India pilot undergoes ‘confirmatory’ drug test after flight plunge

Air India pilot undergoes ‘confirmatory’ drug test after flight plunge

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India’s aviation ministry said Sunday that an Air India pilot whose flight plunged dramatically in turbulence, injuring 17 passengers and crew is undergoing a “confirmatory” psychoactive drug test. The Airbus A320, carrying 137 passengers and eight crew, lost around 300 feet (91 metres) on August 4 while flying from Phuket in Thailand to New Delhi, before stabilising and landing safely, the civil ...

Israel’s Netanyahu rejects Trump’s Gaza plan endorsed by Hamas

Israel’s Netanyahu rejects Trump’s Gaza plan endorsed by Hamas

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday rejected a US-led Gaza plan endorsed by Hamas, putting distance between himself and President Donald Trump as he tries to shore up his base ahead of close elections. After more than a week of gradually escalating criticism of the plan, and despite receiving assurances that Israel would not need to start withdrawing in Gaza immediately, Netanyahu ...

Netanyahu rejects Gaza plan in new break from Trump

Netanyahu rejects Gaza plan in new break from Trump

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday rejected a US-led Gaza plan endorsed by Hamas, putting distance between himself and President Donald Trump as he tries to shore up his base ahead of close elections. After more than a week of gradually escalating criticism of the plan, and despite receiving assurances that Israel would not need to start withdrawing in Gaza immediately, Netanyahu ...

Iran says Oman deal is in ‘final stages’ but US must act to open Hormuz

Iran says Oman deal is in ‘final stages’ but US must act to open Hormuz

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Iran said on Sunday that a deal ⁠with Oman defining new shipping lanes in the Strait of Hormuz was in its final stages but reiterated that the waterway would only reopen once the United States met other conditions. A US official said on Friday that an agreement between Iran and Oman was close and could soon reopen the waterway, which carried a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas shipment...

MTR passenger’s hand caught in door while trying to retrieve item from tracks

MTR passenger’s hand caught in door while trying to retrieve item from tracks

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Hong Kong’s rail operator confirmed on Sunday that a passenger’s hand was caught in a train door after he tried to retrieve something that had fallen onto the tracks, warning travellers not to attempt to pick up dropped items themselves. In a response to inquiries from the South China Morning Post about a video circulating on social media, the MTR Corporation said the incident occurred at 10pm on ...

Can Europe stay united in China trade battle? Ceuta migrant crisis offers a warning

Can Europe stay united in China trade battle? Ceuta migrant crisis offers a warning

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The European Union’s traditional August break was supposed to provide officials with some respite ahead of a potentially bruising autumn when it will try to set its fiery trade relationship with China on a new course. Instead, a border crisis on its southern flank has created turmoil and division among its 27 members, raising questions over how prepared the bloc is for a dust-up with one of the wo...

China-Australia relations reach ‘good enough’ baseline, ex-envoy says

China-Australia relations reach ‘good enough’ baseline, ex-envoy says

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After years of strain, China-Australia ties have reached a “good enough” baseline for Canberra, though still short of Beijing’s broader ambitions, according to a former top Australian diplomat. The relationship had taken a significant downturn since 2017, but was now on “a more realistic footing”, Graham Fletcher, a non-resident fellow at the Lowy Institute, a Sydney-based think tank, wrote in a r...

With Japan, China faces a corrosive security dilemma

With Japan, China faces a corrosive security dilemma

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Japan’s 610-page 2026 defence white paper cements a strategic shift: Tokyo has labelled China an “unprecedented and the greatest strategic challenge” for the fourth straight year, a framing dating back to 2014, when a Japanese white paper first flagged Beijing’s East China Sea Air Defence Identification Zone as risking unintended incidents. Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has not altered th...

Myanmar rebuffs Asean call to free Aung San Suu Kyi, questions need for envoy

Myanmar rebuffs Asean call to free Aung San Suu Kyi, questions need for envoy

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Myanmar’s military-backed government has rejected the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ renewed call for the unconditional release of detained former leader Aung San Suu Kyi and dismissed the need for the organisation’s special envoy on Myanmar, according to the foreign affairs ministry. President Min Aung Hlaing, the former army chief who had originally seized power in 2021 from Suu Kyi’s c...

Chinese boy, 9, missing after being swept away by wave as Typhoon Dolphin approached coast

Chinese boy, 9, missing after being swept away by wave as Typhoon Dolphin approached coast

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Rescuers continued searching on Sunday for a nine-year-old boy who has been missing since he was swept away by a giant wave in the eastern Chinese province of Zhejiang. The incident, in the coastal town of Shitang, happened on Friday afternoon – a time when a typhoon warning was already in place as Typhoon Dolphin headed towards the province. Local officials warned that high tides, rapid currents ...

Moore Threads plans Hong Kong listing after posting 147% jump in first-half revenue

Moore Threads plans Hong Kong listing after posting 147% jump in first-half revenue

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Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) chip developer Moore Threads plans to seek a listing in Hong Kong after reporting a 147 per cent jump in first-half revenue, as the Nvidia challenger seeks fresh capital amid booming demand for home-grown computing power. The Shanghai-listed company said on Sunday that its board had approved a plan to issue H shares and list on the main board of the Hong Kong s...

Chinese vloggers are taking to YouTube to ‘set the record straight’

Chinese vloggers are taking to YouTube to ‘set the record straight’

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At a night market in Shenzhen, Sasa Xu finishes her day with passion fruit tea. It costs US$2.40, bringing her total spend for the day to US$9.40 – details that close out her video “What low-income life in China really looks like”. The video has drawn more than 470,000 views since it was posted to YouTube in April. It includes footage of Xu at a traditional wet market and walking through a densely...

Inside a paper coffin: how Hongkongers can prepare for the end of life

Inside a paper coffin: how Hongkongers can prepare for the end of life

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In the final instalment of a five-part Health Matters wellness series on ageing in Hong Kong, Emily Hung looks at how living funerals, advance directives and family mediation are helping older residents plan for death, as experts warn low death literacy can leave families facing conflict and emotional debt. When Hongkonger Regina Luk Sau-ying was 65, she invited 20 friends to watch her climb into ...

Hiker dies on Hong Kong trail as city swelters in record-breaking heat

Hiker dies on Hong Kong trail as city swelters in record-breaking heat

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A hiker died on a country trail in Tai Po on Sunday afternoon as Hong Kong endured its hottest temperatures since records began 142 years ago. Police said they received a report at 2.17pm that a man, 64, had been discovered unconscious on the Plover Cove Reservoir Country Trail by other hikers. Firefighters and rescue teams assembled at the reservoir dam before heading up the mountain, with the Go...

Hiker collapses, dies on Hong Kong trail as city swelters in record-breaking heat

Hiker collapses, dies on Hong Kong trail as city swelters in record-breaking heat

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A hiker collapsed and died in the Tai Po countryside on Sunday afternoon as Hong Kong endured its hottest temperatures since records began 142 years ago. Police said they received a report at 2.17pm that a man in his sixties had been discovered unconscious on the Plover Cove Reservoir Country Trail. Firefighters and rescue teams assembled at the reservoir dam before heading up the mountain, with t...

8% of owners at fire-hit Hong Kong estate yet to accept buy-back as deadline nears

8% of owners at fire-hit Hong Kong estate yet to accept buy-back as deadline nears

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About eight per cent of homeowners at the fire-ravaged Wang Fuk Court in Hong Kong have yet to accept the government’s buy-back offer, which is set to expire at the end of this month. Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu said on Sunday that 91.9 per cent of owners had submitted acceptance letters, while 65.7 per cent of owners had already signed sale and purchase agreements with the government. Speaki...