A United Airlines flight bound for Spain from Newark Liberty International Airport turned around mid-flight on Saturday due to a possible security threat in-flight. The flight departed at around 6pm local time for Palma de Mallorca, Spain, but landed back at Newark at 9.37pm, according to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. The airline said there were 190 passengers and 12 crew members on the Boeing 767 aircraft. According to air traffic control audio, security cam

Iran’s chief negotiator warned on Sunday the United States was not to be trusted, saying Tehran would not agree to any deal with Washington unless it fully secured Iranian rights. Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf’s remarks came as reports emerged that US President Donald Trump had sent a tougher peace proposal back to Iran, and underlined the rift that the parties still need to close. Any tweaks to the draft could further delay an agreement to formally end the Middle East war and reo

The two terms of US President Donald Trump have shaken the old style of US liberal internationalist leadership. Yet, as some doors close, others open. The summit between President Xi Jinping and Trump in Beijing last month suggests that the United States and China might now have an opportunity to move beyond ideological confrontation and towards a more realistic framework of coexistence, strategic stability and managed competition. For decades, Washington has held global prim

The administration of US President Donald Trump has proposed new tariffs of up to 12.5 per cent on imports from China and dozens of other trading partners, using a forced-labour investigation to advance what analysts see as a bid to rebuild its tariff regime after recent court setbacks. The Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) said on Tuesday that China and 59 other economies failed to prohibit or adequately restrict US imports made with forced labour, subjecting them

Reporters and the public will be allowed to attend a key coming hearing for the man accused of killing Charlie Kirk, after a Utah judge on Monday denied a defence request to restrict access. Tyler Robinson’s defence team had asked Judge Tony Graf to close portions of the preliminary hearing on July 6–10, when prosecutors must show they have enough evidence to warrant a trial. It will mark the most significant presentation of evidence to date in a case that has so far focused

French police detained 780 people involved in violent clashes in Paris and other French cities that erupted on Saturday night after Paris Saint-Germain won the Champions League title. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said 57 officers were wounded, with most suffering minor injuries, as football fans set off fires and vandalised shops. One small group even tried to storm a Paris police station. Nuñez said at a news conference on Sunday that “the situation has been largely broug

US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth told Asia’s biggest military conference that his country’s relations with China were “better than they’ve been in many years”, as he adopted a much less strident tone than at the same event 12 months ago. “President Trump and this administration seek a stable peace, fair trade and respectful relations with China,” Hegseth said on Saturday at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore. The two countries agreed to “build a constructive relationshi

The world can learn diplomatic lessons from Asean, East Timor President Jose Ramos-Horta has said in a strongly worded rebuke to existing global power structures. At the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore on Saturday, Ramos-Horta, who leads the newest and 11th member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, argued that the bloc epitomised how dialogue could prevent conflict and yield dividends. He acknowledged that Asean was “not heaven on earth”, achieving consensus was

Beijing could conduct military operations, bolster its electronic warfare strength and roll out trade sanctions in response to Tokyo and Manila’s deepening defence cooperation, according to Chinese experts. Last week, Manila and Tokyo announced they would launch negotiations on the maritime boundary of their exclusive economic zones and continental shelves around Taiwan, a move that Beijing called “completely illegal and invalid”. In a report on Wednesday, the Beijing Lande I

Malaysia’s southern state of Johor dissolved its legislature on Monday, setting up an election within 60 days that analysts said would test whether the once-dominant Umno-led Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition can turn its state stronghold into a launch pad for a wider political comeback. The vote will also put Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s Pakatan Harapan (PH) reformist alliance in an awkward contest against its federal partner BN, with both coalitions set to run against each

Implementation details of a policy to allow Hong Kong-registered yachts to berth more easily at designated mainland Chinese ports in the Greater Bay Area will be unveiled by Beijing in “mid-June” at the earliest, sources have said, with the anticipated move already drawing interest from local charter companies keen to tailor tours for affluent clients. The South China Morning Post also learned on Saturday that the Port of Nansha is among the designated ports – and the only on

Hong Kong Legislative Council president Starry Lee Wai-king has urged officials to respect lawmakers’ dissenting views amid a recent rise in government pushback, stressing that public policies “always have pros and cons”. Speaking at a media gathering on Tuesday, Lee said she had relayed lawmakers’ concerns to the government regarding officials’ recent rebuttals. She described the relationship between the executive and legislative branches as an ongoing process requiring mutu

US President ⁠Donald Trump said ⁠in a podcast interview aired on Wednesday that Vice-President J.D. Vance and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, teaming up for a 2028 presidential run, would be ‌unbeatable. Both men are seen as contenders for the 2028 Republican nomination, and Rubio’s recent turn at the White House podium drew praise from Republicans and even some Democrats who noted his smooth performance, which included quips and ⁠a 1990s hip-hop reference to describe Iran

Seventeen countries have agreed to collaborate on defence strategies for critical marine infrastructure such as undersea cables, an effort that analysts warn may be undermined by the absence of superpower involvement. At the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore on Saturday, defence ministers and representatives from these countries attended the launch of the Guiding Principles for Underwater Infrastructure Defence Exchanges (Guide), which aims to bring countries together to explo

Typhoon Jangmi on Wednesday ripped through the Pacific side of western and eastern Japan after making landfall in the morning, causing flooding and mudslides and leaving dozens of people injured. The typhoon made landfall around 4.30am in the southern part of Wakayama Prefecture in western Japan, after it passed near Okinawa and Kagoshima prefectures the past two days. At one point, the weather agency issued its highest level 5 flood warning for the Koza River in Wakayama Pre

For decades, Umno was the party that defined power in Malaysia. Now, after years of scandal, defeat and uneasy coalition politics, it is turning to its birthplace of Johor to prove it can still win on its own terms. The southern state’s snap election will test whether the United Malays National Organisation (Umno) can still attract Malay voters, defend its strongest remaining state government and hold off both Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s allies and the Malay-Muslim opposit

The US and its “Five Eyes” intelligence partners issued what they said was an unprecedented joint notice warning about attempts by Chinese spies to use websites such as LinkedIn to recruit assets. “China’s military intelligence services are using an increasingly wide array of professional networking sites and online job platforms to target Five Eyes government and military personnel – and anyone with access to classified or privileged information,” according to a joint statem

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth softened his tone towards China in his speech on Saturday to the Shangri-La defence forum compared with the previous year. Speaking two weeks after the meeting between presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping in Beijing, Hegseth also adopted a cautious stance on US arms sales to Taiwan when questioned about the highly sensitive issue, and did not mention the island at all in his speech. Although he still criticised China’s military build-up, un

Hong Kong’s education minister has apologised after parents received SMS notifications of their children’s primary school allocations a day before the official announcement, with authorities launching a review and stressing that the results to be released on Wednesday should be treated as final. Some parents were left confused on Tuesday following text messages that listed the correct school choices but the wrong calendar year. The Education Bureau’s hotline was inundated wit