US Attorney General Todd Blanche said ⁠on Sunday that ⁠he backs top Washington prosecutor ⁠Jeanine Pirro, who was criticised by US President Donald Trump for the way she handled a case of alleged vandalism at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. “I absolutely support US Attorney Pirro, as does President Trump,” Blanche said ‌on NBC’s Meet the Press programme. The Trump administration fast-tracked a renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool ahead of the nation’s Fourth of July...

Five teenagers have died and four others have been seriously injured in a crash involving a car driving in the wrong direction on a highway in Ireland, police said. Commissioner Justin Kelly described the head-on collision between two cars on the M9 as “horrific” and warned that “in some cases” cars are being driven on the wrong side of highways for social media likes. Police said they are investigating the circumstances of the crash at junction 3 at about 3am on Sunday. One of those seriously...

Thieves stole four works attributed to Renaissance painter Antonello da Messina worth millions of euros from the regional museum in the city of Messina in Sicily while crowds gathered across town for the traditional Assumption holiday celebrations, cultural officials and Italian media said on Sunday. The thieves bypassed alarm and security systems on Saturday evening at the MuMe museum, making off with three of the five surviving panels of the San Gregorio Polyptych, dated to 1473, as well as...

US negotiator and President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner held a rare meeting with the Hamas chief on Sunday in a new diplomatic effort to make progress in the stalled Gaza ceasefire. Kushner will meet Israel’s prime minister on Monday. The talks aim to salvage the new 15-point, US-backed road map for Hamas to disarm in Gaza and Israel to withdraw from the Palestinian territory shattered by war. At stake are the lives of some 2 million people in Gaza and the reconstruction of the...

A passenger bus travelling on a highway in Hungary early on Sunday went off the road and into a ditch where it overturned, killing 12 and injuring others, police said. The bus, which was carrying a group of Polish tourists, was travelling on eastbound lanes near the town of Mezokeresztes when it overturned on the M3 motorway around 140km (87 miles) east of Hungary’s capital, Budapest, at around 1am on Sunday. In a statement, police said it was likely that the driver fell asleep, causing the...

Iran’s military announced on Sunday that it was offering a bounty equivalent to US$30,000 for killing or capturing US soldiers, with the reward doubled if carried out by a woman. Army chief Amir Hatami said the plan had been drawn up following a “large number of requests” to take part, according to the IRNA state news agency. There has been no known deployment of US ground forces in Iran during the Middle East war, with the exception of a rescue mission in April for a downed American...

Britain’s BBC asked a US court for help in getting documents and testimony from members of US President Donald Trump’s family in connection with his US$10-billion defamation lawsuit against the British broadcaster, a court document showed. Lawyers for the BBC argued that Ivanka Trump, her husband Jared Kushner and Donald Trump Jnr have “personal knowledge” and are likely to have records relevant to elements of Trump’s claims against the broadcaster, according to a filing on Friday in federal...

Hong Kong customs has said it is actively following up on a case involving a London‑based beauty chain after a woman complained that she was cheated into paying more than HK$60,000 (US$7,700) for products and raised concerns about the company’s sales practices. Opatra London’s outlet at Sha Tin New Town Plaza shopping centre posted a notice over the weekend saying that it had “temporarily suspended” operations, without elaborating. The company, a hi‑tech skincare brand founded in 2010 and...

A silver Montblanc fountain pen owned by Singapore’s first prime minister Lee Kuan Yew has sold for S$461,500 (US$360,000), nearly 10 times its highest estimate, after drawing 111 bids at an auction. Singapore auction house Hotlotz said the sterling silver Montblanc Meisterstuck No 146 fountain pen, engraved with “SM Lee Kuan Yew”, sold on Sunday at its “Interiors & Collectibles – August, Fine Art Focus” online auction. The pen had a presale valuation of S$30,000 to S$50,000, with bidding...

A raw, handcrafted Chinese animation has become an unlikely box-office sensation despite being widely panned by critics and social media users. Niu Lai, or The Arrival of the Ox, has been criticised for its “rough” and “broken” style and a plot that many viewers found hard to follow. But the film has generated some of the loudest online discussion in recent days, despite the competition from two Hollywood blockbusters: Christopher Nolan’s epic version of The Odyssey and Spider-Man: Brand New...

Russia carried out a wave of air strikes on Ukraine overnight, killing two people at a steel plant, and Kyiv launched a heavy drone attack on the Moscow region that killed one person and set ablaze a warehouse ‌used by Russia’s leading e-commerce retailer. Romania, which borders Ukraine, said an F-18 fighter on a Nato air policing mission had shot down a drone that breached its airspace during the latest attacks. It did not specify the origin of the drone, which entered from Moldova, but a...

A leading Communist Party research group has invoked the legacy of China’s former leader Jiang Zemin in a call to rally round President Xi Jinping. The article by the Institute of Party History and Literature, published on Sunday in the party’s mouthpiece People’s Daily, formed part of the commemorations of the centenary of Jiang’s birth and highlighted the importance of supporting the leadership in the face of economic or geopolitical difficulties. “Under the party’s third-generation leadership...

Hong Kong police have arrested 16 people as part of efforts to clamp down on juvenile crime, with those apprehended including a 13‑year‑old boy linked to a shoplifting case involving stolen goods worth about HK$4,000 (US$510). Officers from the force’s New Territories South regional headquarters said on Sunday that the arrestees, aged 13 to 39, included 11 teenagers. They were apprehended on suspicion of various offences, including disorderly conduct, possession of offensive weapons and...

Australia’s foreign minister attacked the policies of the far-right One Nation party, arguing that its call for a monoculture would damage social cohesion at home and relations with friends and allies abroad. “The call for a monoculture is a call for Australia to curtail our choices and cut off our connections,” Foreign Minister Penny Wong said in a speech on Friday in Sydney. “At a time where external and internal forces are seeking to divide us, turning Australians against each other makes us...

A crucial ally of Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s ruling alliance voted on Sunday to stay in government, giving him breathing room after months of uncertainty over whether the biggest party in the coalition would remain in cabinet. But the Democratic Action Party’s (DAP) decision also raises the stakes for its own political survival. Analysts warn that the party risks further erosion of its credibility unless it can unless it makes sure to push through concrete reforms before the next...

The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is reportedly considering a ban on Chinese optical transceivers, signalling that the US-China tech war is expanding beyond the focus on semiconductor chips to shadow even the smallest link in the chain of essential artificial intelligence (AI) hardware. Optical transceivers are small devices that use fibre optic technology to send and receive data as light. The key application of these optical modules is the quick transmission of large amounts of...

Two Hong Kong universities have secured places in the top 100 of an academic ranking that assesses 1,000 institutions worldwide. The University of Hong Kong (HKU) rose five places from 67th last year to 62nd, while City University (CityU) climbed four places from 99th to 95th in the Academic Ranking of World Universities, released by ShanghaiRanking Consultancy on Saturday. Launched in 2003, the annual ranking was initially published by Shanghai Jiao Tong University before ShanghaiRanking...

More than 700 trucks carrying international humanitarian aid arrived in Afghanistan via Pakistan despite a near-total closure of the land border between the two countries following clashes in October, the United Nations said on Sunday. The convoy was carrying “food and other critical humanitarian items,” Olga Cherevko, spokeswoman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Afghanistan, told reporters. United Nations Resident & Humanitarian Coordinator for Pakistan...

China should speed up plans to commandeer civilian ships for wartime operations, drawing lessons from Britain’s use of commercial vessels during the 1982 Falklands conflict, according to a defence researcher at Beijing’s top economic planning agency. As maritime security threats and great-power competition grow, Beijing should make greater use of civilian ships to support military operations, according to an article published last month in Defence Industry Conversion in China. “As China’s...

Wilson Hui Chau-yuen, a 22-year-old final-year student at Hong Kong Metropolitan University, recalls that the scorching heat was the biggest enemy during an annual two-week summer camp organised by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) garrison. “Even on the city’s hottest day, our training continued without pause including martial arts, bayonet practice and marching drills,” Hui said on Sunday, adding that he hoped to join Hong Kong’s disciplined services in the future. The Hong Kong Observatory...

Hong Kong Disneyland is collaborating with Pixar Animation Studios to offer an exclusive theatrical experience centred around a home-grown character, with the resort dropping clues in its concept art that suggest she could be a pangolin. The theme park announced on Sunday that a massive theatre space would be unveiled at Toy Story Land in the first half of 2027, with the theatrical experience to be exclusive to the city. “Through beloved Pixar characters, guests will experience an emotional...

Hong Kong’s corruption watchdog has charged a former manager at a financial regulator with unauthorised access to its internal computer system to view confidential case files and licensee data. Tong Ka-lei, 39, who previously worked in the enforcement division of the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC), faces 12 counts of obtaining access to a computer with a view to dishonest gain for herself or another, in breach of the Crimes Ordinance. She is scheduled to appear at Eastern Court on...

In the first instalment of a five-part Health Matters wellness series on Hong Kong’s growing wellness trends, Lo Hoi-ying examines why younger residents are turning to supplements to boost energy, immunity and performance, as experts warn that excessive use should not replace a balanced diet. Tata Tse Yi-kwan spends around HK$2,000 (US$255) a month on supplements tailored to her different needs, including immunity, energy, digestion, performance and recovery. The sound-wellness practitioner, who...

A 14-year-old Hong Kong boy has been arrested on suspicion of animal cruelty after bringing a badly injured cat that later died to a clinic for treatment. Police said on Sunday that they received a report from an employee of a veterinary clinic in Cheung Sha Wan at 6.25pm on August 10, suspecting that a cat had been ill-treated. “The informant said a 14-year-old boy had brought a cat for treatment, and found that the cat had injuries, suspecting that it had been treated inappropriately, which...

Bangladesh said on Sunday that Prime Minister Tarique Rahman would not visit India until New Delhi extradited Sheikh Hasina, the Bangladeshi former premier who fled during a 2024 uprising. The countries have had a strained relationship since deadly anti-government protests brought down Hasina’s government and prompted her to escape to neighbouring India, where she remains. She faces the death penalty in Bangladesh after being convicted of crimes against humanity, and Dhaka has repeatedly...

Former Chinese premier Zhu Rongji will be cremated in Beijing on Tuesday, with flags across the country – including in Hong Kong and Macau – flown at half-mast, state media reported on Sunday. Zhu, who served as premier from 1998 to 2003 and played a pivotal role in transitioning China towards a market-based economy, died of an illness in Beijing on Wednesday at age 97. According to state news agency Xinhua, national flags will fly at half-mast on Tuesday at sites in Beijing, including Tiananmen...

Firefighters battling Belgium’s largest modern-day wildfire were counting on crucial air support on Sunday to help tame the blaze in a hard-to-access nature reserve, after it doubled in size over the previous 24 hours. More than 250 firefighters and emergency personnel were mobilised through the night, according to a Sunday morning update from the regional government which warned conditions in the High Fens park near the German border “remain challenging”. From 80 hectares burned on Friday, the...

Hong Kong police have arrested 17 people and seized HK$3.67 million (US$470,500) in a crackdown on a fraud syndicate that recruited foreign “runners” from Malaysia to collect crime proceeds from victims. The police force’s Kowloon West crime squad said on Sunday that the arrests were made in connection with “guess who I am” phone scams that duped 22 victims out of about HK$2.5 million between June and August. The single largest loss was HK$700,000. Such cons typically involve scammers calling...

Chinese scientists have developed an AI model they say could be used to predict the risk of depression up to four years in advance. Major Depressive Disorder affects over 332 million people worldwide, according to the researchers at Shenzhen University, and is notoriously difficult to treat. The ability to predict the risk of depression and take preventive measures could prove a significant public health benefit. The model was built using data from two clinical trials on adolescent depression...

US entrepreneur Elon Musk has long been highly respected in China. His business ideas – from electric cars to rockets, humanoid robots and brain implants – have spawned Chinese followers, many of which now pose growing threats to Musk’s business empire. These Chinese competitors tend to follow a similar strategy: capitalise on the large domestic market to grow their business while taking advantage of the country’s integrated supply chains and expertise in fast-response manufacturing to hone...

Hong Kong will fly the national and regional flags at half-staff at various government sites on Tuesday to mourn the late former Chinese premier Zhu Rongji. The government said on Sunday it would lower the flags at government headquarters in Admiralty, Government House, all control points and checkpoints at border crossings and Hong Kong International Airport. The tribute will be paid on the day of Zhu’s cremation, in accordance with a notice issued by state news agency Xinhua. It said that...

Hong Kong’s examination authority has defended an invigilator who refused to let a candidate with anxiety use a school lift after he started feeling unwell before his second assessment, arguing the man had not requested the facility in advance. Speaking to the South China Morning Post, private candidate Ray Lau* alleged that the incident occurred on April 13 at Caritas St Joseph Secondary School during the break between the first and second mathematics papers for the Diploma of Secondary...

Indoor heat levels in Hong Kong’s subdivided flats and rooftop huts felt like a blistering 52.21 degrees Celsius (126 Fahrenheit) this summer, with 80 per cent of homemakers living in those homes reporting dizziness and headaches, according to a survey released on Sunday. The study, conducted by CarbonCare InnoLab and the Concerning Subdivided Units Alliance, surveyed 86 households across nine districts from June 22 to July 12, with 78 living in subdivided flats or rooftop huts, among other...

I’m a little perplexed and bemused by the brouhaha surrounding Hong Kong’s decision to draft its first five-year plan, as if the sky is falling in around the city’s famed laissez-faire economy. Predictably, Yale University’s Stephen Roach (he of “Hong Kong is over” fame) warned in a commentary last month that “Chinese-style central planning” could “over-promise and under-deliver”. In a 2024 commentary, he said Hong Kong had been “shackled by the deadweight of autocracy”. But from my vantage...

Tensions between Beijing and Manila appear to have spilled over from the South China Sea to immigration, just as Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr indicated he wanted to “reset” ties. Manila on Sunday dismissed Beijing’s criticism of Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jnr over his role in the arrests of Chinese workers at a steel plant in Misamis Oriental in May. A Chinese embassy official in Manila late on Saturday accused Teodoro of carrying out “anti-China activities” to “disrupt”...

Tencent Holdings’ WeChat is already the undisputed super-app for over a billion people in China, handling everything from splitting dinner bills to hailing taxis. Now, Tencent is embedding an artificial intelligence agent named Xiaowei into the platform, adding a hands-free, automated assistant to its vast digital ecosystem. In its latest earnings results announced on Wednesday, Tencent highlighted Xiaowei for the first time, touting its focus on user privacy and inference efficiency. After...

Whether he is pulling a pint, tossing a builder’s helmet in the air or running with Olympic medallist Mo Farah, the UK’s new Prime Minister Andy Burnham has embraced social media with a deft touch. As well as putting out videos on his own accounts on X and TikTok, he has sought to broaden his audience by appearing on entertainment channels run by creators with large followings. Compared with predecessor Keir Starmer, “Burnham has a far more astute communications team around him” with a “better...

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says the US is getting ready to squeeze Iran with unprecedented economic pressure, a claim critics greeted with scepticism given the country is already subject to a naval blockade and thousands of sanctions. While the Trump administration has not said what it is planning to do, there are still pressure points that Bessent’s Treasury Department could hit. The main challenge is that targeting the remaining options risks blowback on the US economy. “Unless the...

Africa is emerging as fertile ground for Beijing’s drive to make the yuan a major international currency and reduce reliance on the US dollar, as an increasing number of financial institutions deepen their integration with China’s payment network. Following talks in Beijing between Central Bank of Libya Governor Naji Issa and People’s Bank of China Governor Pan Gongsheng last month, the country’s banks are set to join China’s Cross-Border Interbank Payment System (CIPS), an alternative to the...

Hong Kong’s immigration chief has rejected claims that world‑class snooker players are using a local talent scheme primarily to cut their tax bills, saying zero‑tax Middle Eastern destinations would be more logical if avoidance were the only goal. Director of Immigration Benson Kwok Joon‑fung stressed on Sunday that the city’s public safety, convenient transport and education system appealed to global talent, pushing back against criticism in a televised interview after English snooker star...

Changes in US trade policy and interest rate trends will significantly affect Hong Kong’s economy but the impact will be “primarily psychological”, the finance chief has said, while expressing optimism that growth momentum will continue in the second half of the year. Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po also revealed on Sunday that Hong Kong welcomed 31 million visitors in the first seven months of 2026, a 12 per cent year-on-year increase. Passenger traffic at Hong Kong International Airport...

Melania Nius was at her husband’s hospital bedside on Indonesia’s Flores Island when a powerful quake shook their town to its core, sending patients fleeing into the chaos outside. Melania, 56, recounted how she prayed as she fought to get her family to safety. “The four of us – my husband, our two children, and I – were on the bed,” when the 7.7-magnitude rattler struck just north of Flores island at around 5.30am on Saturday. At least 48 people were killed in the quake and dozens injured. “The...

Scorching weather will persist across Hong Kong on Sunday and Monday, with maximum temperatures climbing to 35 degrees Celsius (95 Fahrenheit) before a low-pressure system brings squally thunderstorms and unsettled weather by midweek. The very hot weather warning has been in force since 6.45am on Sunday, with temperatures across the city ranging from 28 to 33 degrees, according to the Hong Kong Observatory. Mercury in Tai Po soared to 34.8 degrees at noon. “Winds will be weak and the weather...

In a cramped handicraft shop in Hong Kong’s Sham Shui Po neighbourhood, 70-year-old Jen Kwong was sifting through reels of embroidered and sequinned ribbons while other shoppers around her were hunched over containers of tiny beads and trinkets. Kwong, who had worked for four decades during the golden age of Hong Kong’s textile manufacturing industry, still tailors and alters clothing for her grandchildren with her sewing machine at home. But she feared Yu Chau Street, also known as “Bead...

After last year’s border conflict with Cambodia, hundreds of thousands of migrant workers left Thailand, exposing how dependent parts of its economy had become on cross-border labour. Thailand has tried to ease the squeeze by holding on to workers already in the country, especially Myanmar nationals. But figures from the International Labour Organization (ILO) and warnings from employer groups point to a deeper problem: a workforce built around proximity, familiarity and low travel costs cannot...

Electric eels hunt in pitch-black, murky waters by generating electric fields around their bodies. Now, Chinese scientists have mimicked this natural radar, giving robots the ability to “feel” objects without making physical contact. “We want the machine to sense an approaching target – distinguish its material and surface condition – before any physical contact,” said Zhang Weiqiang, a professor at Xidian University, in a video interview last week. The team’s work was published last month in...

China’s southern manufacturing powerhouse of Guangdong province welcomed nearly 40 computer science students from Tsinghua University this week, part of a targeted push by local authorities to bridge a widening gap in China’s artificial intelligence race by attracting top-tier talent from Beijing. Despite raising two of China’s brightest minds in artificial intelligence – Moonshot AI founder Yang Zhilin and DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng – Guangdong failed to retain either. After graduating from...

A man in central China has completed more than 200 trips to remote mountain villages in a year, visiting elderly parents on behalf of their children who work and live far from home or overseas. Tian Rui, 39, from Yichang in Hubei province, is a former rural courier who now operates a small convenience store, according to Jiupai News. Years spent delivering parcels through scattered mountain communities provided Tian with a deep understanding of the winding roads. They also unveiled a quiet...

During a crackdown on organised crime, Zeng Jianbin, a real estate developer in Mianyang, in the southwestern Chinese province of Sichuan, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for being a “gang leader”. In 2023, the Mianyang Intermediate People’s Court convicted Zeng of nine offences, including provoking trouble, illegal lending at high interest and intentional destruction of property. His sentence was particularly harsh because of the organised crime accusations. But two years later, during his...

For Asian musicians, the Grammy Awards represent the ultimate dream and recognition of success in the global music industry long dominated by their Western counterparts. When BTS, widely regarded as the world’s most famous Asian pop act, decided not to submit their music for consideration at next year’s Grammys in an apparent protest against the creation of a new best Asian pop music performance category, it created a dilemma for their K-pop and regional peers. Should K-pop and Asian pop artists...

An ageing society and a widening income gap threaten Hong Kong’s social fabric. In the last of a five-part series on the city’s five-year plan, we look at what can be done to address these key issues. Read part one here, part two here, part three here and part four here. At 71, Man Chi-ying is the sole carer for her husband, Fung Yu-hoi, a Parkinson’s disease patient. Fung, who is also 71, has stiff limbs and, on some days, needs his wife’s help getting dressed. She has to hold his hand to keep...

Sales of luxury homes in mainland China’s top cities are picking up as high-net-worth individuals, benefiting from the country’s tech boom, splash out billions of yuan to improve their housing. The buying binge has sparked expectations of a broad market recovery after a six-year property slump across the country, according to brokers. But analysts said such homes represented just a small portion of the mainland’s property industry, with increasing sales and higher prices not enough to turn the...

The cables that link Australia with the rest of the world lie mostly unseen, stretched across the seabed and threaded through some of the Indo-Pacific’s busiest and most contested waters. This vulnerability could also become a strategic advantage, a new report says, urging Australia to position itself as an “Indo-Pacific preferred cable hub” as threats to submarine cables raise economic and national security risks across the region. That view is echoed by regional analysts, who say Canberra...

Colombia’s new President Abelardo de la Espriella on Saturday called on his US counterpart Donald Trump to suspend tariffs currently targeting the South American nation, which is reeling after a deadly earthquake. US tariffs on Colombian products rose from 10 per cent to 12.5 per cent in late July, with a few exceptions including coffee and oil. “I asked him to consider to temporarily suspend the high tariffs that are affecting Colombian products, in order to give some relief to our business...

A China-led team has cleared the last major hurdle in the race to commercialise the most promising alternative to conventional silicon solar technology, paving the way for the next generation of low-cost, high-efficiency panels to be made on an industrial scale. Researchers from China and Canada, led by Nanjing University, have developed a super-stable coating for perovskite – an ultra-thin, lightweight material that can be printed onto large surfaces – suitable for patching the tiny defects...

Hong Kong’s Northern Metropolis University Town is no longer just a planning concept. After site visits by a university town task force, the government has reportedly absorbed lessons from overseas models, expanded the university town area to more than 1,000 hectares, received 19 proposals from local institutions and moved towards phased site tendering and development. The project has become something more significant: a test of what Hong Kong wants its higher education system to do in a...