Despite recent back-to-back visits to Beijing by US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, no new trilateral framework or major diplomatic breakthrough has emerged. Yet, according to observers, the summits highlight Beijing’s growing ability to manage its two most important relationships on separate tracks: sustaining a deep strategic partnership with Moscow, while pursuing a more transactional, stability-focused engagement with Washington. Several analy

Beijing’s top official on Hong Kong and Macau affairs has visited the Hengqin cooperation zone in Zhuhai as part of a drive to help the two special administrative regions align with the nation’s 15th five-year plan. The four-day visit by Xia Baolong, director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office (HKMAO), was his third trip to the Greater Bay Area this year. During his trip from Monday to Thursday, Xia visited a university town, research institutes, and innovation and tec

Ukrainian drones hit energy and military sites in St Petersburg early Wednesday morning as officials gathered for a flagship economic forum in the city, Russian and Ukrainian authorities said. Some 20,000 guests from 130 countries are set to attend the three-day annual St Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) – an event once dubbed “Russia’s Davos” – which starts Wednesday. The strikes come a day after a barrage of Russian missiles and drones killed 23 people across

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent claimed on Wednesday that China is “very interested” in additional Boeing plane purchases, an issue the Trump administration plans to press when President Xi Jinping visits the United States in September. “They agreed to 200 aeroplanes during the visit. We will see if they commit to a larger number when Xi Jinping arrives in Washington,” Bessent said in his budget request testimony to the Senate Finance Committee. China’s commitment to buy

Indonesian officials arrested the former head of the country’s free school meals programme on Wednesday, a day after he was fired by President Prabowo Subianto. Dadan Hindayana, an entomologist who had led the National Nutrition Agency since its inception in late 2024, stands accused of “crimes in the management” of Prabowo’s flagship scheme, Syarief Sulaeman Nahdi of the attorney general’s office told reporters in Jakarta.

A massive coastal development project linked to Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of US President Donald Trump, is facing growing resistance from protesters in Albania. The government says the development on the Adriatic coast would be transformational for the former communist nation as it seeks to enter the high-end tourism market and pushes for European Union membership. But the venture, spanning an abandoned island and a nearby stretch of seafront on Albania’s southern coast,

Israel and Lebanon agreed Wednesday to implement a ceasefire but said it would require a “complete cessation” of fire by Iran-backed Hezbollah, according to a joint statement after US-led talks in Washington. The two sides, which do not have formal diplomatic relations, also agreed to create “pilot zones” in which the Lebanese armed forces “will take exclusive control of the territory to the exclusion of all non-state actors”. The development came despite continued cross-bord

ByteDance's Doubao Introduces Paid Pro Tier as User Base Dips by 6 Million ByteDance's AI assistant Doubao has officially launched a paid subscription tier, the Doubao Pro version, with monthly pricing ranging from 68 to 500 RMB ($9 to $70). The move marks a significant shift for China's most popular AI chatbot by user count, but comes at a delicate moment as third-party data reveals the platform lost 6.07 million monthly active users in May — a 1.81% decline that brings its

Hong Kong authorities have confirmed that an unmarried couple arrested on suspicion of child neglect are the biological parents of undocumented infant Danny. A police source told the South China Morning Post on Thursday that Tsang Wai-bong and Kwan Pui-sin were the parents of the two-month-old, citing DNA test results. Danny was born to the unmarried couple at home in Hong Kong and was not registered with the Immigration Department, as his parents declined to submit a DNA tes

Soon after Donald Trump concluded a visit to China that he hailed as a great success, America’s top diplomat joined his Indian, Japanese and Australian counterparts in New Delhi for a meeting of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue. At the meeting on May 26, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the foreign ministers launched the Quad Critical Minerals Initiative Framework, a strategic push to curb global reliance on Beijing for rare earth elements. Member states are pooling u

President Donald Trump said he would ⁠move to ⁠nominate acting US Attorney ⁠General Todd Blanche on Thursday to permanently lead the Justice Department, which would make his former personal lawyer the nation’s top law enforcement officer. “He’s acting attorney general. Tomorrow. ‌I’m instructing Dan (Scavino) and everybody else that’s involved in that very complicated process – which is going to go, I think, very quickly – that we are going to make him permanent attorney gene

For a sign of how the fierce demand for memory chips triggered by the boom in artificial intelligence (AI) is benefiting technology-driven economies, look no further than South Korea. Last month, exports from Asia’s fourth-largest economy grew at a blistering rate of 53 per cent in annualised terms, the fastest pace since 1984. Shipments of semiconductors, which are used to store and funnel the huge amounts of data for AI services, increased nearly 170 per cent to a record mo

In the Grand Hall of London’s Central Criminal Court, ubiquitously known as the Old Bailey, lies a plaque commemorating the courage of the jury in the 1670 trial of William Penn. Penn – who would later found the US state of Pennsylvania – and his co-accused were Quakers, charged with contravening the Conventicle Act 1664, which banned religious gatherings other than those of the Church of England. The Recorder of London, presiding at Penn’s trial, directed the jury to convict

Hong Kong police will launch a two-week citywide crackdown on distracted driving and jaywalking after the number of people killed in traffic accidents jumped by more than 40 per cent year on year in the first five months of 2026. The force said on Thursday that 51 people died in traffic accidents between January and May 31, up by 42 per cent from the same period last year. Pedestrians accounted for about half of the fatalities. According to police, jaywalking and inattentive

The group leading the charge in the search for extraterrestrial life has given the all-clear: an interstellar comet looks to be completely natural and free of any alien tech. The SETI Institute said Wednesday that extensive radio scans by its telescope in Northern California found no signs of otherworldly technology from our solar system’s latest interstellar visitor. The object labelled 3I/ATLAS was discovered last summer sweeping through our neck of the cosmic woods. Scient

The Soviet “sea monster” is back – and this time it’s for sale. A Chinese company has completed the maiden flight of a passenger craft that skims just above the water’s surface using ground-effect technology, reviving a concept once associated with the Soviet Union’s giant Cold War-era experimental vehicles. Chinese mobility company Navee on Thursday showcased its WaveFly 5X on Lake Taihu in Suzhou, eastern Jiangsu province, as it raced to commercialise what it said was the w

Unassisted home births and vaccine refusal put mothers and newborns at life-threatening risks, a Hong Kong doctor and a children’s rights group have said, stressing that parental choice must not come at the expense of an infant’s well-being. Their warnings followed the arrest of a Hong Kong couple on suspicion of child neglect. The pair claimed to have given birth to their third child, Danny, at home and had not registered his birth, citing privacy concerns in refusing to sub

Direct flights between Hong Kong and Kazakhstan could save business travellers up to 10 hours and open the city’s shorelines to tourists from landlocked Central Asia, lawmakers have said after the flag carrier announced plans to launch an Almaty route next year. Lawmaker Jonathan Stuart Lamport, who represents the business sector, on Thursday said the announcement had received widespread support from the industry, as direct flights between Hong Kong and Almaty would significa

Indonesia’s free meals programme has long been beset with governance problems, quality issues and mass food poisoning cases. Now, allegations of corruption and the arrests of top former officials overseeing Prabowo Subianto’s flagship scheme risk turning it into a political hot potato for the president. Prabowo sacked former National Nutrition Agency chief Dadan Hindayana and his two ex-deputies, Sonny Sonjaya and Lodewyk Pusung, on Tuesday. The trio were charged with corrupt

Authorities are considering a pilot booking system for one of Hong Kong’s most popular hiking routes and creating a new marine park at Sharp Island in Sai Kung, following bigger-than-expected crowds during mainland Chinese holidays. The proposals were outlined in a paper submitted to a Legislative Council ecology and tourism subcommittee ahead of a meeting on Monday. The Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department said visitor numbers at the Po Pin Chau section of Sai