DeepSeek announced on Thursday a significant price hike, amid surging global demand for a new ultra-cheap model, which sparked debate over how the Chinese AI start-up has delivered powerful performance at rock-bottom prices. DeepSeek would raise overall pricing for its application programming interface (API) services in the near future, with specific plans ...

Hong Kong police have arrested 25 people, some as young as 13, in a crackdown on a loan shark syndicate that charged victims annual interest rates of up to 282 per cent. Police said on Thursday that the crime ring had extended a total of HK$200 million (US$25.5 million) in loans to about 2,000 residents over the past year, with at least HK$8 million in ...

Ozempic face could spawn the next K-beauty craze. South Korean biotech L&C Bio plans to launch an injectable skin booster made from donated human fat to restore lost facial volume, betting demand for cosmetic fixes tied to blockbuster weight-loss drugs will drive its next phase of growth. L&C which pioneered the use of donated human tissue in K-beauty skin ...

The director of a factory supplying drones to the Russian military was badly wounded and his driver was killed when the car they were in exploded, news reports said on Wednesday. The state Tass and RIA Novosti agencies said that Vladimir Tkachuk was hospitalised in grave condition following the explosion late Tuesday in Bolshoy Istok just outside ...

Following in the footprints of its ambitious Great Green Wall, China is leaning into a solar-powered pivot as part of its decades-long effort to tackle desertification in the arid north. The expanding Great Solar Wall initiative, centred in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, could help to power Chinas economic hubs as the country accelerates its ...

Hong Kongs securities regulator has put a spotlight on highly concentrated shareholding this year, a move interpreted by market analysts as a warning about sharp price swings on small-cap stocks. As of August, the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) had mentioned 13 cases of high shareholding concentration on the Hong Kong stock exchange, compared with ...

A near-miss on Tuesday involving an All Nippon Airways (ANA) plane coming dangerously close to another jet while approaching Tokyos Haneda Airport from Shanghai has thrown aviation safety back into focus particularly, anti-collision technology and protocols according to industry professionals based in China. While the intervention of one jets traffic ...

Legendary Hong Kong lyricist Peter Lai Bei-dak, who wrote the lyrics to a string of hits for the citys Cantopop stars in the 1980s, has died at the age of 76, triggering an outpouring of condolences from fans of The Lyrical Maverick. Sports commentator Eric Chung Chi-kwong, a close friend of Lai, announced his death on Wednesday. He told the media that Lai ...

Hong Kongs redevelopment policy is approaching an institutional turning point. Recent government proposals pilot schemes for additional plot ratios and cross-district plot ratio transfers are presented as new instruments to stimulate redevelopment in ageing districts. Yet they extend the same paradigm that shaped policy for decades: incentivising ...

My 18-year-old summer intern is very scared of me. She spent the entire week watching me sit in front of my computer, in complete silence, motionless except for the occasional click of the mouse to move to the next electronic document, and barely breathing. She told me this could not be further from what she imagined a barristers life to be. And there was ...

A couple from central China saw their business empire, valued at 100 million yuan (US$15 million), collapse and were plunged into debt after being wrongly accused of fraud. Wang Fei and his wife, Liu Sumin, from Zhumadian in Henan province, began their journey as small-scale farmers before gradually establishing two pig farms. They later expanded into a ...

Claims that the recent magnitude 7.1 earthquake that struck southwestern Japan was man-made have been spreading online, with experts dismissing the theory as unrealistic in technological, financial and practical terms. On July 28, the day the deadly earthquake hit Kumamoto prefecture, a user on social media who has previously shared false claims about ...

The career of Kuan Jimmy Hsia, a prominent researcher in interdisciplinary mechanics, has long spanned two worlds he is a laser-focused scientist and a skilled administrator who unites fields and stakeholders. A fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), Hsia has published more than 100 papers and made substantial ...

While global markets watched closely for a joint move by Washington and Tokyo to prop up the Japanese yen this week, Australian dollar traders have been laser-focused on the actions of another power: China. Some analysts view the Australian currency as particularly sensitive to policy moves in Beijing. If China intervenes to boost domestic growth, that ...

Hong Kong homeowners could adopt technology-led preventive maintenance of older buildings to avoid costly large-scale renovation, with the upmarket Residence Bel-Air serving as a viable example that saved residents more than HK$1 billion (US$127.5 million). Allen Ha Wing-on, convenor of the Residence Bel-Air owners committee, said while the Wang Fuk Court ...

Indonesian President Prabowo Subiantos once-commanding approval rating has continued to slide in a new survey, as voters weigh his ambitious welfare and village-economy agenda against concerns over household finances and the governments ability to deliver. The poll by Saiful Mujani Research and Consulting (SMRC) put Prabowos approval rating at 51.1 per ...

Chinas latest export controls and sanctions against American companies in response to recent US measures underscore Beijings expanding economic toolkit and its growing willingness to deploy it, according to analysts. The multiple actions that China undertook underscore the breadth and depth of Chinas retaliatory toolbox, said Wendy Cutler, the senior ...

The Peoples Liberation Army is just a year away from its centenary goals in its evolution into a world-class fighting force. In this part of a series, Amber Wang looks at the growing influence of artificial intelligence in combat and the private firms stepping into the area. Roughly two months before the United States launched air strikes on Iran, a ...

Chinas national childcare subsidy is an encouraging acknowledgement of a simple truth: raising children is expensive. This year, the central government allocated 99.9 billion yuan (US$14.8 billion) to the programme, which provides families with 3,600 yuan annually for each child under three. According to state media, the families of more than 25 million ...

The Democratic Partys progressive wing scored a high-profile victory on Wednesday when Abdul El-Sayed won the partys US Senate nomination in Michigan, giving its anti-establishment message a boost ahead of Novembers midterm elections. El-Sayed, a doctor whose campaign focused on healthcare, the economy and an end to unconditional military aid to Israel, was ...

Even as Congress remains divided over the latest US defence bill, lawmakers in both parties remain united on one issue: China. The National Defence Authorisation Act (NDAA), which sets US defence policy and authorises military spending each year, reflects a broad bipartisan consensus on expanding Washingtons military, technological and economic rivalry with ...

Brazil intends to sell yuan bonds in China every year rather than once, a senior Brazilian treasury official said on Wednesday, in a plan that would make the Chinese currency a permanent fixture of its external debt. The debut is expected before the end of the year and is small enough that the government is not relying on the proceeds, with external debt at ...

Iran and Oman have agreed a route for ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz and are putting the final touches on arrangements for jointly managing the passage, Tehrans foreign ministry said on Wednesday. Iran has seized de facto control of the strait, a strategic waterway for the global energy trade, since the United States and Israel launched their war ...

Scientists have captured images of the suns surface in the finest detail yet, revealing a strange and dynamic facade. It is dangerous to look directly at the sun without proper eye protection. But researchers were able to peek at its scorching surface with the help of the National Science Foundations Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope, located on the island ...

A woman has been arrested after four men were stabbed in Covent Garden in central London on Wednesday afternoon. The Metropolitan Police said the four men, aged 34, 39, 42 and 52, were found with stab wounds. No further update has been given on the extent of their injuries. The 47-year-old woman was arrested on suspicion of possession of an offensive weapon ...