Former US president George W. Bush on Wednesday criticised the withdrawal of Nato troops from Afghanistan and said civilians were being left to be “slaughtered” by the Taliban.“Afghan women and girls are going to suffer unspeakable harm. This i...

A hotpot dinner attended by three Hong Kong officials fined for violating social-distancing rules was indeed expensive, but also an example of how civil servants are frequently required to sacrifice time with their families, the city’s security sec...

China’s cabinet has released a white paper claiming ethnic minorities in Xinjiang enjoy political representation and rising living standards, as the US warns companies about doing business in the region over allegations of forced labour and genocid...

A man seen directing a white-clad mob to beat protesters and commuters at a Hong Kong railway station two years ago has said he was only retaliating for what he maintained was aggression on the part of his targets.Merchant Tang Wai-sum’s lawyer tol...

Australia’s military is monitoring a Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy ship that is sailing towards the Australian coast, a development the country’s prime minister admitted being “wary” of despite its legality under international...

Hong Kong confirmed three imported Covid-19 cases carrying mutations on Wednesday, including two people who were fully vaccinated.The three infections involved a 53-year-old man arriving from Namibia, a 42-year-old woman from Cyprus, and a 37-year-ol...

China harvested more wheat this summer due to increased acreage planted and grain yield, the country’s statistics bureau said on Wednesday.Output of summer wheat, which accounts for most of the country’s wheat production, rose by 2 per cent in 20...

The United States has “deep concerns” about the military coup in Myanmar and calls on Southeast Asian nations to take action to end violence and restore democracy in the country, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday.The Association...

More expensive make-up removers do not necessarily work better than others, while water-based products were largely “mediocre”, Hong Kong’s consumer watchdog said on Wednesday.In a study of 40 make-up removers, the Consumer Council found those ...

The French government defended a decision to impose Covid tests for unvaccinated people who want to eat in restaurants or take long-distance trips, as the country looks to avoid a surge in more contagious Delta cases.President Emmanuel Macron announc...

Extreme weather events have been a dominant theme across the Pacific this summer, prompting Greenpeace experts in China to appeal for greater awareness of climate risk and response.In cities in America’s Pacific northwest, including Portland and Se...

China on Wednesday called for the swift arrest of the attackers behind a bus blast in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province which killed 13 people including nine Chinese nationals.Condemning the attack, Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian urged...

Nine more people have been confirmed dead in the collapse of a budget hotel in eastern China, bringing the final toll to 17, as state media announced on Wednesday the end of search and recovery efforts.Six others were earlier rescued from the rubble ...

The men Ed Buck lured to his flat for “party and play” found themselves in a situation of life and death, prosecutors said.Two men enticed by the promise of drugs for sex died. Those who survived overdoses reported harrowing encounters with a man...

Singapore’s tourism board on Wednesday said a cruise ship operated by Genting Cruise Lines on a so-called cruise to nowhere had returned to the city state after a 40-year-old passenger was suspected to have contracted Covid-19.“The passenger was ...

Chinese video-streaming platform Bilibili had a brief outage on Tuesday night, which it blamed on server issues, driving millions of Generation Z users to bemoan the service disruption on microblogging site Weibo, where it became a top trending topic...

China is using its Covid-19 vaccine diplomacy for political purposes, according to Germany’s foreign minister.Heiko Maas said on Tuesday that both Russia and China had been good at publicly promoting the delivery of their vaccines to other countrie...

Two more Hongkongers charged under the national security law over an alleged terrorist plot to bomb the city’s streets, courts and transport networks have been denied bail.Chief Magistrate Victor So Wai-tak on Wednesday remanded driver Chan Hoi-leu...

A Hong Kong district councillor was on Wednesday arrested over an online message posted 16 months ago containing a picture of a knife.According to a police source, Yuen Long District Council member Ho Wai-pan had claimed he would have raided and remo...

University of Hong Kong student union members who approved a resolution “appreciating the sacrifice” of a man who stabbed a police officer before killing himself could face legal action for spreading terrorism, Executive Councillor Ronny Tong Ka-...

Washington is sending a senior diplomat to China next week in a visit seen as an essential first step towards a potential leadership summit between the two powers.Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman will meet China’s foreign vice-minister Xie F...

This story is published in a content partnership with POLITICO. It was originally reported by Caitlin Emma and Jennifer Scholtes on politico.com on July 13, 2021.Senate Democrats announced a top line budget number late Tuesday that will propel their ...

Fifty-three years after Tommie Smith and John Carlos’s medal podium protest in Mexico City, a new generation of activist athletes is poised to take centre stage at the Tokyo Olympics.US sprinters Smith and Carlos faced the ultimate sanction for the...

President Joe Biden on Tuesday nominated Alan Estevez, a former Pentagon official, to be the US Commerce Department’s undersecretary for industry and security, a key post in the US-China tech battle.The post in the Commerce Department’s once-obsc...

A video obtained by CNN of the Taliban executing 22 Afghan commandos as they surrendered has exacerbated criticism of the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan ordered by President Joe Biden.The massacre, which human rights groups have described a...

One person died and more than 100 others, including independent journalists and dissidents, have been arrested after unprecedented anti-government protests in Cuba, with some remaining in custody on Tuesday, observers and activists said.A 36-year-old...

Once again, despite his extreme averageness, the Doraemon character Nobita is surprising the world and is making a footprint, this time of the prehistoric nature.Scientists in China announced last week that a new species of dinosaur discovered last y...

In less than two weeks, Olympic swimmers will dive into Tokyo Bay to compete in the triathlon. For residents who live near the shore, that’s an unappealing thought because, despite months of efforts to clean up the water, the bay stinks.Known for i...

Dozens of counties and cities across China have begun restricting access to public venues for adults who have not been vaccinated against Covid-19.The new rules mean registration and proof of vaccination will be required to enter places like supermar...

Hong Kong’s low tax rate has been a major incentive for American businessman Nicholas Appel to live and work in the city for the past 25 years.But along with challenges like the city’s high cost of living, the prospect of higher taxes under a min...

The Russia-linked ransomware gang REvil has seemingly vanished from the dark web, where it maintains several pages documenting its activities including one called the “happy blog”.It’s not yet known if the sites were down temporarily or if the ...

Texas Democrats have become outlaws, fleeing the state as Governor Greg Abbott threatens to arrest and confine them in the latest battle over voting rights.More than 50 Texas Democrats flew to Washington DC this week, breaking quorum during a 30-day ...

The Hong Kong Book Fair returned on Wednesday morning after a one-year delay because of the coronavirus pandemic, but self-censorship concerns cast a shadow over the event, with publishers fearing the impact of the national security law.It is the fir...

For the past five years, Wipa, a doctor in her 20s, has had to adjust to a gruelling shift pattern of 36 hours on, eight hours off, for three to five days a week.The long hours are necessary as she oversees the inpatient wards, outpatient services an...

US investment bank JPMorgan said emigration has had little effect on Hong Kong’s property market, and that home prices were on course to set a record in a month or two’s time.“The chances of breaking the record are very high, because [home pric...

The Department of Justice has organised a series of “Why Hong Kong” webinars recently. The series began in February with a session called “Why Hong Kong is Irreplaceable”, and in the following three months discussions covered opportunities in...

The Communist Party will learn from its response to the Covid-19 pandemic to strengthen control and governance at the community level, according to a directive made public on Sunday.“[We] must conscientiously review and summarise our experience in ...

France’s competition watchdog on Tuesday slapped Google with a €500 million (US$593 million) fine for failing to negotiate “in good faith” with media companies over the use of their content under European Union copyright rules.It is “the bi...

Hong Kong’s leader has proposed a new quota system for quarantine-free business travel with mainland China for those who are vaccinated as part of efforts to lobby Beijing to reopen the border, according to sources.Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng ...

When Grace Tahir’s daughter turned 14, they sat down to talk careers. As a family linked to two Indonesian billionaire patriarchs, a life of leisure has always been an option for the women in the family – but the teenager said she wanted to work,...

The remains of a French general killed during Napoleon’s disastrous Russia campaign returned to France on Monday more than 200 years after his death, the result of a lengthy hunt for his grave by archaeologists.Charles Etienne Gudin de la Sablonnie...

China should increase fiscal spending to further support its post-coronavirus recovery and help reach its economic growth target for the year, particularly after the central bank sent a signal that it expects slowing conditions ahead when it signalle...

Riot police fired tear gas and scuffled with protesters – mostly family members of victims of the Beirut Port blast – outside the home of Lebanon’s caretaker interior minister on Tuesday. The demonstrators demanded an end to what they call the ...

The Covid-19 curve in the United States is rising again after months of decline, with the number of new cases per day doubling over the past three weeks, driven by the fast-spreading Delta variant, lagging vaccination rates and Fourth of July gatheri...

China’s southern Guangdong province has tasked its tech hub Shenzhen with building a big data centre for the Greater Bay Area, which includes Hong Kong and Macau, to help the “orderly circulation” of data in the region, according to a data plan...

At just 57 pounds (26kg) in weight, 27 inches (69cm) tall and 20 inches (51cm) wide, Rani – who lives on a small farm in Bangladesh’s Manikganj District – may well be the world’s smallest cow.If confirmed by Guinness World Records, the 23-mon...

Russia’s army sent firefighting planes on Tuesday to battle huge wildfires that have blanketed Siberian towns in thick smoke as residents complain of being suffocated in a region known for its frozen tundra that is now sweltering under a heatwave.W...

China is developing a hypersonic aircraft larger than a Boeing 737, according to a study by scientists involved in the nation’s Mars and moon missions.At 45 metres (148 feet), the plane would be nearly a third longer than a 737-700, with two air-br...

The death toll from rioting in South Africa rose to 72 on Tuesday, including 10 people trampled to death during looting at a mall, South African Police Service (SAPS) said on Tuesday, as police and the military fired stun grenades and rubber bullets ...

The Crown tied with The Mandalorian for the most Emmy nominations on Tuesday with 24 apiece, but the Marvel universe was also in the running with runner-up WandaVision.The nominations reinforced the rapid rise of streaming, with most of the top-nomin...