Latin American countries should resist pressure to choose between the United States and China and use their vast reserves of lithium, copper and other strategic resources to strengthen their negotiating power, according to a high-level commission co-chaired by former Chilean president Michelle Bachelet and former Colombian president Ivan Duque. But the ...

Ukraine on Tuesday accused Russia of committing a war crime after a video was released showing a drone chasing down and wounding a vegetable seller in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson. Footage released by Ukrainian police shows the drone pursuing a man around a van being used as a street stand before exploding as he dives for cover behind the vehicle. ...

It started with Instagram posts that suggested Spains border with Morocco was opening up. Then came Facebook users tracking coastguard patrols and TikTok videos showing where to swim. After many shares and comments, thousands of Moroccans became convinced that Europe was suddenly within reach. Within hours, young people began heading towards the border with ...

An 89-year-old patient at the Hong Kong Sanatorium and Hospital is highly likely to have contracted legionnaires disease after drinking water from a contaminated dispenser, health authorities have said. The Centre for Health Protection confirmed on Tuesday that samples from cooled boiled water dispensers at the private hospital in Happy Valley tested ...

More American titans of artificial intelligence are describing Chinese open-weight models as better for AI safety and security than closed-source models, challenging the long-standing claim by US closed-source AI model developers such as Anthropic that open-source models present a threat to society. From what Im seeing, I think open-weight models seem safer ...

The World Bank on Tuesday called on developing countries to embrace artificial intelligence technology tools to deliver better governance outcomes, warning that they risked being left behind if they failed to do so. AI has thrown developing economies a lifeline, and they should seize it, Indermit Gill, chief economist of the World Bank Group, said as the ...

A Chinese speaker today might describe their day at work as first making a PPT (a PowerPoint presentation) and then having to PS tu (Photoshop an image). After clocking off, they might chang K (sing karaoke) with friends before taking the C wei (centre spot) in a group photo. These novel phrases spring from the widespread habit of adopting English ...

When Liao Heng joined Huawei Technologies chip-design unit in 2016, he was sceptical about whether China could ever build world-class semiconductors. A former child prodigy who entered Beijings prestigious Tsinghua University in 1987 at age 14 before moving to Princeton University for postdoctoral research, Liao had spent over a decade in the United States ...

A seven-year-old boy escaped with minor injuries on Tuesday after a rear wheel came off a double-decker bus travelling on a busy road in Hong Kongs Kowloon district. Police received a report at 3.25pm that the KMB route 86 bus was travelling along Cheung Sha Wan Road towards Kwai Chung when the rear-left wheel came loose, just outside Cheung Sha Wan Plaza. ...

We have selected seven of the most interesting and important news stories covering global relations from the past few weeks. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. Nato launches defence projects to counter Russia and China Nato member states unveiled a series of defence initiatives in June aimed at strengthening ...

Taiwan will begin its annual war games on Wednesday, testing for the first time its ability to counter a Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) maritime blockade in the western Pacific during the 10-day exercise. The 42nd edition of the Han Kuang exercise, the islands largest annual military drill, will incorporate US military planning practices to improve ...

Hong Kong police are searching for a woman who allegedly splashed a cream-like liquid on the sixyearold son of actress and beauty queen Grace Chan Hoilam at a cinema in Admiralty, following a dispute over the childs behaviour during a movie screening. A police source said on Tuesday that Chan, winner of the Miss Hong Kong 2013 pageant and wife of TVB actor ...

French and British vessels saved 157 migrants after their boat caught fire while trying to cross the Channel on Tuesday, authorities in both countries said. It is one of the largest such rescue operations reported since records began in 2018. A small boat caught fire on the boundary between French and British waters, forcing its occupants to jump overboard ...

Hong Kong recorded the first fatal paediatric case of influenza this year after a seven-year-old boy died on Tuesday, nine days after displaying symptoms. The Centre for Health Protection (CHP) said that the boy, who had been in good health, developed a cough and runny nose on July 27 and a fever on Saturday, before his condition deteriorated on Monday when ...

Clashes between the United States and European Union are becoming the new normal with competition over tech regulations at the core, according to an analysis published by a leading Chinese think tank. Guo Mingxu, head of the European Economy Programme at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, cited a recent row about hefty fines ...

The global AI race is becoming a contest over the international order. In June, the US convened the second summit under the 24-economy Pax Silica around secure supply chains, AI infrastructure and trusted technology partnerships. In July, all 193 UN member states met in Geneva for the inaugural Global Dialogue on AI Governance. Days later, 29 countries ...

Chinese artificial intelligence company MiniMax has open-sourced its new H3 video model but imposed licensing conditions on users in major overseas markets including the US and European Union, underscoring the copyright challenges in generative video AI. After the Shanghai-based company released the models weights to developers on Monday, users found that ...

Japans latest defence white paper warns of Chinas growing ability to sustain military operations farther into the western Pacific Ocean, while pledging to bolster its own monitoring systems, strike capabilities and ammunition production. Released on Tuesday, the 610-page document cautions that Beijing is strengthening its aircraft carrier force as it ...

Hong Kong and Macau police have arrested eight people in a crackdown on an investment scam syndicate that cheated more than 200 people out of nearly HK$100 million (US$12.75 million) by promoting itself as a pioneer of kinetic coffee philosophy. Operating under the name Fun Coffee, the syndicate established a presence in Hong Kong last year. It says on its ...

Hong Kong authorities have set up fences and surveillance cameras at a reservoir and warned they could take legal action against trespassers, after a group was filmed entering a spillway to take photos while the facility was discharging water. A South China Morning Post reporter observed on Tuesday that two barriers and a surveillance camera had been set up ...

More than 1,000 applicants have registered for a new combined test for taxi and ride-hailing services in Hong Kong, as lawmakers expect more people to sign up to meet demand for ride-hailing drivers once the citys regulatory regime takes effect next year. The initial response came after the Transport Department replaced the stand-alone taxi driver ...

The US Army has used up much of its stockpile of highly accurate long-range missiles during its five-month war with Iran, according to three people familiar with the data, raising concerns about the militarys readiness for future conflicts. The missiles are principally the Armys surface-to-surface weapons, known as Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) and ...

The detention of a Chinese national accused of posing as a Filipino for more than two decades has sharpened concerns in the Philippines that identity fraud could be used to gain access to sectors vital to national security. Immigration authorities arrested Lawrence Ke Sy, president, largest incorporator and majority shareholder of Maxipro Development Corp., ...

Hong Kong-based conglomerate Jardine Matheson has said it ended a 44-year-old undergraduate scholarship programme for Oxford and Cambridge universities to maximise impact for more students, while a former recipient has called the scheme a life-changing opportunity. Students starting their studies later this year will be the final cohort of Oxbridge ...

A Chinese physical AI start-ups brief claim to global dominance in robotics has run into controversy, underscoring the intense US-China competition to develop next-generation artificial intelligence and the challenges of evaluating autonomous systems. In June, Spirit AI, a Hangzhou, Zhejiang province-based firm founded in 2024, briefly overtook United ...