China’s foreign minister called on Nato member states to focus on Europe and North America rather than form a new military alliance in the Asia-Pacific, in a rare phone conversation between the two sides on Monday.In his first phone call with Nato ...

Hong Kong’s financial chief “has the qualifications” to be a contender for the city’s next leader, pro-establishment veteran Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee has said, a category she believes includes “many others”.But the Executive Council member, ...

Australia’s antitrust watchdog has called for powers to curb Google’s use of internet data to sell targeted ads, joining other regulators in saying the firm dominates the market to the point of hurting publishers, advertisers and consumers.The co...

Central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) can slash the time needed for cross border payments to seconds from days and cut costs, the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) said, citing a pilot scheme to test the digital forms of fiat currencies.The t...

Olaf Scholz, the favourite to succeed Angela Merkel as German chancellor, is often described as boring.Nicknamed “Scholzomat” for his robotic speeches, Scholz is one of Germany’s most influential politicians, with a reputation for being meticul...

A company backed by former Hong Kong leader Leung Chun-ying has lost its legal bid to force authorities to name teachers found guilty of professional misconduct over the civil unrest in 2019.The High Court on Tuesday threw out a judicial review appli...

Japan has protested a South Korean court order that assets seized from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries be sold to pay compensation to two women subjected to forced labour for the company during Japan’s occupation of the Korean peninsula.A support group...

Two US citizens returned home at the weekend after three years of being barred from leaving China, coinciding with a deal to resolve Chinese tech executive Meng Wanzhou’s US fraud case.The American siblings, Victor and Cynthia Liu, landed back in t...

The United States on Monday elevated its coronavirus risk level for Hong Kong from low to moderate, urging unvaccinated travellers at greater risk of severe illness to avoid non-essential trips to the city, which has not recorded a local infection in...

On September 24, the Chinese foreign ministry published a long list of US actions that sought to interfere in Hong Kong affairs. This fact sheet provides irrefutable proof of how Washington has played the Hong Kong card to try and contain China since...

China remained on course to be more than 30 per cent short of its 2021 commitments under the phase-one trade deal with the United States with four months left, according to the latest analysis of trade data between the world’s two largest economies...

A prominent American cryptocurrency promoter and former hacker has pleaded guilty to advising North Korea on using virtual money to avoid international controls, a New York court said on Monday.Virgil Griffith, who is based in Singapore, launched pro...

Joe Biden faces the most important test of his presidency this week as Democrats in the US Congress launch a high wire bid to implement his sweeping economic agenda while keeping the government’s lights on.The House and Senate are moving toward vot...

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has declined to return calls from the beleaguered head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Kristalina Georgieva, since a scandal broke, indicating that the Biden administration’s withholding of support for h...

One can buy them on street corners, legally, for the price of a toy – so-called non-lethal guns that nevertheless maim, and which proliferate in Colombia’s crime-plagued cities.Imitation guns are sought after by criminals and citizens alike, for ...

Daisy Liang started to apply for postgraduate programmes at American universities five weeks ago.As the United States eased quarantine measures for Chinese students last month , Liang, who works for a foreign company in Beijing, decided it was time t...

Ten people have been arrested in India for planning to cheat in fiercely competitive teaching exams using Bluetooth devices concealed in their slippers, police said.Exam-cheating has long been a problem in India and, for Sunday’s government exams i...

Countries including Japan and the United States are on the brink of losing their military technological edge over China and should deepen bilateral defence cooperation to shore up their supremacy, a senior Japanese defence official said on Monday.The...

The FBI reported a nearly 30 per cent increase in murders in 2020, the largest single-year jump since the bureau began recording crime statistics six decades ago.The surge in killings drove an overall 5 per cent increase in violent crime last year, a...

Profits at China’s industrial firms grew at a weaker pace in August from a year earlier, slowing for a sixth consecutive month, as manufacturers struggled with high commodity prices, the coronavirus and shortages in some key components.Profits rose...

Pakistan has discussed Taliban-led Afghanistan joining the multibillion-dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) infrastructure project, the Pakistani ambassador to the country said on Monday.“Regional connectivity is an important element of ...

High levels of illegal drugs have been found in a river running through Britain’s Glastonbury music festival site, endangering a rare species of fish and other wildlife, scientists said on Tuesday.The levels of cocaine and MDMA – more commonly kn...

Malaysian authorities are considering reopening the country’s borders amid expectations a ban on interstate travel will ease next month, The Star reported, citing National Recovery Council chairman Muhyiddin Yassin.Ministers this week will discuss ...

A special inspector appointed by Hong Kong’s government today raided Next Digital Limited’s office to seize the company’s financial records as he ratcheted up his investigation of possible fraud at the parent of the now-defunct Apple Daily news...

A US judge said he would grant “unconditional release” to John Hinckley, who wounded former US president Ronald Reagan and three other people in a 1981 assassination attempt.“I am going to, after all these years, grant unconditional release to ...

China lambasted a World Trade Organization (WTO) ruling in a row with the United States over Washington’s measures to limit the import of solar panel cells, calling it “erroneous and dangerous” on Monday.A WTO panel handed a victory to the US e...

This story is published in a content partnership with POLITICO. It was originally reported by Emma Anderson on politico.eu on September 27, 2021.Gott im Himmel! The man aiming to be Germany’s next chancellor is already speaking English in public.Ol...

Nuclear-armed North Korea fired a presumed short-range missile into the sea on Tuesday, the South’s military said, as Pyongyang’s UN ambassador insisted it had an undeniable right to test its weapons.The projectile was fired from the northern pro...

An online celebrity famous for her work with children in rural schools in central China has been exposed for collecting donations from the public without a charity licence.Gina Long Jingjing, who has a master’s degree in social work from New York�...

Non-negotiable carbon reduction targets have forced many local provincial governments in China to impose rushed measures such as widespread power cuts, although an urgent shortage of coal has also emerged as a likely reason for the power supply crunc...

Differences over the Taiwan Strait will only worsen as long as Washington treats Beijing as its rival for global dominance, according to a former senior mainland Chinese official.At a seminar in Beijing on Monday, Sun Yafu, former deputy director of ...

Hong Kong could find it difficult to secure extra doses of Covid-19 vaccines for a booster shot for residents because of its existing surplus of jabs and slow procurement procedures, experts have warned.Medical advisers earlier this month recommended...

More than half of citizens in the Philippines believe that President Rodrigo Duterte would be violating the constitution if he runs for vice-president in elections next year, according to a survey published on Monday.Only 39 per cent agree that Duter...

A sharply divided US Senate failed on Monday to advance a measure to suspend the federal debt ceiling and avoid a partial government shutdown, as Republican lawmakers denied the bill the votes necessary to move forward.President Joe Biden’s Democra...

Japanese technology companies may no longer manufacture the lion’s share of the mass-market semiconductors that go into every conceivable electronic device used around the world, but they are increasingly consolidating their control of the developm...

Britain on Monday put the army on standby to help with the ongoing fuel crisis as fears over tanker driver shortages led to panic buying, leaving many of the country’s pumps dry.“Limited number of military tanker drivers to be put on a state of r...

The White House on Monday sought to play down its role in the Department of Justice’s decision to allow Meng Wanzhou, a Chinese executive detained in Canada on fraud charges, to return home last week, and said its policy to hold China accountable f...

Rural telecommunications carriers in the US were given instructions on Monday on how to apply for part of US$1.9 billion the federal government has allocated to replace any equipment their networks use from the Chinese telecoms suppliers Huawei Techn...

The Taliban on Monday banned barbershops in a southern Afghanistan province from shaving or trimming beards, claiming their edict is in line with sharia, or Islamic, law.The order in Helmand province was issued by the provincial Taliban government’...

R. Kelly was convicted by a federal jury on Monday in his sex trafficking trial, where prosecutors accused the R&B singer of exploiting his stardom over a quarter-century to lure women and underage girls into his orbit for sex.Jurors in Brooklyn fede...

The US government said on Monday that it may resolve a dispute with the European Union over punitive tariffs on industrial metals soon as part of efforts to clear outstanding issues that might hamper work at a trade and technology forum that starts t...

Dear Reader,Today marks the fourth annual World News Day, a global campaign to support journalists and highlight the value of fact-based journalism in making the world a better place.This year, World News Day focuses on journalism’s critical role i...

President Joe Biden received a booster shot on Monday of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine in front of cameras at the White House and said he will press for more vaccination mandates to improve the US inoculation rate.Biden, 78, meets guidelines i...

Facebook is putting a hold on the development of a kids’ version of Instagram, geared toward children under 13, to address concerns that have been raised about the vulnerability of younger users.“I still firmly believe that it’s a good thing to...

France’s President Emmanuel Macron was on Monday hit on the shoulder by an egg thrown at him by a man during a visit to an international food trade fair in the city of Lyon to promote French gastronomy.A video of the incident, widely shared on soci...

In late January, soon after Joe Biden entered the White House, Chinese Vice-President Wang Qishan had a long conversation with an American guest in Beijing.John Thornton, a Wall Street veteran who had previously headed Goldman Sachs, is an old friend...

Indian farmers blocked roads and railway tracks across the country on Monday, resuming a nationwide protest to mark one year since the legislature passed contentious farm laws that the farmers say threaten their livelihoods.Tens of thousands of farme...

Hong Kong must strengthen coronavirus controls in areas such as testing and quarantine before the border with mainland China can reopen, the city’s deputy leader has said after meeting Beijing officials.Chief Secretary John Lee Ka-chiu said on Mond...

Beijing is trying to make itself, and particularly the Zhongguancun area, a global magnet for “technology talent” and a leading destination for technology entrepreneurs to start their businesses, the city’s Communist Party secretary Cai Qi told...

The party that narrowly beat outgoing German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s bloc pushed on Monday for a quick agreement on a coalition government amid concerns that Europe’s biggest economy could be in for weeks of uncertainty after an election that ...