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News - South China Morning Post

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Trump appeals latest court loss on tariffs as chaos...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/05/08

US President Donald Trump filed an appeal on Friday after the latest legal setback to his signature tariff policy, piling on more chaos and global uncertainty and setting up a new tussle over billions of US dollars in refunds. The appeal follows a decision on Thursday by the US Court of International Trade that invalidated his use of a Section 122 trade provision that saw him slap 10 per cent import taxes on nearly every country on earth. In its ruling, the court found that he failed to meet

Latest US-China rivalry combines undersea dominance...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/05/08

US President Donald Trump’s landmark visit to China comes as the Iran war disrupts global energy supplies, fuels economic uncertainty and adds fresh strain to Washington-Beijing ties. In the latest part of a series examining how rivalry, interdependence and geopolitical crises are reshaping the relationship between the two powers, we look at their make-or-break contest unfolding beneath the ocean surface. Last year’s military blockbuster Operation Hadal was China’s first high-budget film to...

‘Almost zero’ chance Dutch man got hantavirus in...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/05/08

There is an “almost zero” chance that the Dutch man linked to the hantavirus outbreak on the MV Hondius cruise ship contracted the disease in the Argentine port of Ushuaia, a provincial health official said on Friday. Juan Petrina, director of epidemiology for Tierra del Fuego province, where Ushuaia is located, told reporters that his assessment was based on the virus’s incubation period, among other factors. The Dutch man and his wife, both of whom died of the virus, boarded the Hondius in...

US nears US$400 million settlement with TikTok on...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/05/08

US President ⁠Donald Trump’s administration is nearing a US$400 million settlement with TikTok to resolve an ongoing lawsuit over alleged child-privacy violations, ABC News reported on Friday, citing sources familiar with the matter. The White House declined to comment, referring questions to the Justice Department, ‌which did not immediately comment. TikTok did not respond to a request for comment. ABC said the settlement monies would be used to fund Trump’s “beautification” projects in...

Trump announces 3-day ceasefire between Russia and...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/05/08

US President Donald Trump announced on Friday that Russia and Ukraine had agreed to a three-day ceasefire and a prisoner exchange following US-mediated talks, saying negotiations to end the war were continuing and “we are getting closer and closer every day”. “I am pleased to announce that there will be a THREE DAY CEASEFIRE (May 9th, 10th, and 11th) in the War between Russia and Ukraine,” Trump posted on social media. “The Celebration in Russia is for Victory Day, but likewise in Ukraine,...

Trump trade chief says US wants balanced trade, not...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/05/08

US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer called for stability with Beijing days before US President Donald Trump’s closely watched trip to China, saying the US was not out to reshape the Chinese economy but to rebalance trade. The trade chief told Fox News on Friday that while the world’s two largest economies “always had a really robust trading relationship … it’s been wildly unbalanced with China exporting just vast amounts of goods to the United States and largely blocking a lot of US

US to host new Israel-Lebanon talks as Trump team...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/05/08

The United States will host two days of intensive talks between Israel and Lebanon next week in a renewed push for a broader peace and security arrangement, according to a US State Department statement released on Friday. The talks, scheduled for May 14 and 15, will build on a previous round held on April 23 that Washington said was led personally by US President Donald Trump. In the statement, the US said Israeli and Lebanese delegations would engage in “detailed discussions” aimed at

New suspected hantavirus cases found in Spain and...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/05/08

Two new suspected cases of hantavirus were ⁠reported on Friday, one in Spain and the other on the remote South Atlantic island of Tristan da Cunha, as experts race to contain an outbreak that began on a luxury cruise ship. The announcements in locations thousands of kilometres apart will fuel concern about a cluster of cases so far associated with three deaths – though the World Health Organization has repeatedly said the risk to the wider public is low and the virus does not transmit

Trust is key if China’s international arbitration...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/05/08

China’s international arbitration efforts have made significant progress, but more work is needed to attract foreign parties to arbitrate in China amid US-China rivalry, according to arbitrators and law scholars. China’s newly revised Arbitration Law took effect in March, marking the most significant overhaul of the country’s commercial dispute framework since 1994, in a move to promote cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen to develop into international arbitration centres, competing...

Hong Kong secures US$3.5 billion to fund Northern...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/05/08

Hong Kong has raised HK$27.6 billion (US$3.5 billion) through a green and infrastructure bond sale to finance the Northern Metropolis and low-carbon transformation projects. The offering drew investors from more than 30 markets across Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the Americas, signalling global institutional investors’ confidence in Hong Kong’s development, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority said in a statement on Friday. Orders totalled about HK$239 billion, 8.6 times the offer size. The...

SCMP takes home 3 honours from Global Media Awards,...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/05/08

The South China Morning Post has taken home three honours at the International News Media Association’s 2026 Global Media Awards, with its infographic on Hong Kong’s deadly Tai Po fire winning first place for the best use of visual journalism.The awards were announced and presented in Berlin on Thursday, with the SCMP being the only Hong Kong media outlet recognised at the prestigious annual competition. This year’s awards event, which had 20 categories, drew a record 960 entries from 274

Asean to step up push for South China Sea code,...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/05/08

Deeper economic cooperation between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations will hinge on whether a code can be laid down to govern maritime territory and activity in the South China Sea, Philippine leader Ferdinand Marcos Jnr has said. “We cannot institutionalise any of those things until the code of conduct is finalised,” he told a press conference on Friday at the close of the 48th Asean summit in Cebu, when asked about aspects that held the most potential in relations between...

US adds 115,000 jobs in April, but experts warn of...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/05/08

US employment rose more than expected in April, while the unemployment rate remained steady, government data showed, with the world’s largest economy firming recent labour market gains but analysts warning of underlying weakness. “Total nonfarm payroll employment edged up by 115,000 in April, and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 4.3 per cent,” the US Bureau of Labour Statistics (BLS) said. The gains mainly came in the healthcare, transport and warehousing and retail trade sectors. US

China and US in AI revolution race as tech rivals...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/05/08

At a New York City ballroom late last month, a crowd of hi-tech luminaries gathered at an honours ceremony. The biggest draw for the assembled tech geniuses was Nvidia founder Jensen Huang, the superstar head of one of the world’s most valuable companies, set to receive the night’s top award. In some ways, engineers have been at the centre of every industrial revolution, Huang told the crowd, from steam to electricity to information technology. But this one, artificial intelligence (AI), will

Ke Tao, China’s remote sensing expert who was...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/05/08

China’s top remote sensing expert Ke Tao died from an illness on Wednesday at the age of 48, according to an obituary from Wuhan University. “Comrade Ke Tao made outstanding achievements in national defence science and technology and remote sensing mapping,” the obituary released on Thursday by the university’s School of Remote Sensing and Information Engineering said. Ke, a professor at the school, completed his undergraduate through doctoral degrees there before joining the faculty in

3 convicted in Hong Kong’s largest football...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/05/08

A Hong Kong court has convicted two footballers and a betting agent of bribing fellow players to rig game outcomes in the city’s largest match-fixing case in recent years. Former Hong Kong Under-23 player Brian Fok was convicted on Friday of five charges, including three counts of offering an advantage to an agent in violation of the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance. The 32-year-old Nigerian-born defender, together with fellow player Luciano Silva da Silva, 38, and betting agent Waheed

Chinese EV maker Leapmotor taps Stellantis’ Spanish...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/05/08

Leapmotor, one of China’s strongest-performing electric vehicle (EV) makers this year, has taken a major step towards building cars locally for European customers after agreeing with shareholder Stellantis to add a line at a Spanish plant previously earmarked for Opel. The Hangzhou-based company and Stellantis, owner of Peugeot, Fiat and Jeep, would jointly build Opel’s new fully electric C-sport utility vehicles (SUVs) and B10 models at the Figueruelas plant in Zaragoza, according to a...

China’s shipping firms brace for a new ‘era of chaos’...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/05/08

China’s shipping giants are bracing for a harsh new reality of persistent global volatility, as the closure of the Strait of Hormuz shifts from being a problem of transit delays to a hard volume shock. With the crucial energy corridor still paralysed as the US-Israel war on Iran drags on with no clear end in sight, China’s state-backed shipping majors are doubling down on long-term contracts and creating new multimodal routes in an attempt to hedge against future shocks. Cosco Shipping

Pentagon releases new files on UFOs, praises Trump’s...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/05/08

The Pentagon has begun releasing new files on UFOs, saying members of the public can draw their own conclusions on “unidentified anomalous phenomena” (UAP). Besides the Pentagon, the effort is led by the White House, the director of national intelligence, the Energy Department, Nasa and the FBI. The Pentagon said on Friday in a social media post that while past administrations sought to discredit or dissuade the American people, President Donald Trump “is focused on providing maximum...

DeepSeek to soon close first external fundraising in...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/05/08

Chinese artificial intelligence high-flier DeepSeek is expected to close its first external financing round soon, boosting its valuation to up to US$50 billion, according to three people familiar with the matter, as the country’s marquee state-backed investment vehicle joins in bankrolling what is seen as a national technology champion. The round was being backed by a group of state-linked investors, including AI-focused affiliates under the third phase of the China Integrated Circuit

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