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US hails Panama high court ruling against CK...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/30

Washington on Friday welcomed a Panamanian court ruling cancelling a contract held by a subsidiary of Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison Holdings to operate two ports along the Panama Canal, a decision seen as a boost to the United States’ efforts to counter Chinese influence in the western hemisphere. The reaction came as Panama’s government sought to reassure workers and investors on the ground that trade and jobs would not be affected. “The United States is encouraged by the recent Panamanian...

Schitt’s Creek, Home Alone star Catherine O’Hara dies...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/30

Catherine O’Hara, a gifted Canadian-born comic actress and SCTV alum who starred as Macaulay Culkin’s harried mother in two Home Alone films and won an Emmy as the dramatically ditsy wealthy matriarch Moira Rose in Schitt’s Creek died on Friday. She was 71. O’Hara died at her home in Los Angeles “following a brief illness”, according to a statement from her agency, Creative Artists Agency. Further details were not immediately available. O’Hara’s career was launched at the Second City in

US Justice Department opens probe into killing of...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/30

The US Justice Department has opened a federal civil rights investigation into the shooting of Alex Pretti, the Minneapolis resident killed by Border Patrol officers on January 24, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said on Friday. “We’re looking at everything that would shed light on what happened that day and in the days and weeks leading up to what happened,” Blanche said during a news conference. Blanche did not explain why the DOJ decided to open an investigation into Pretti’s killing,...

WTO faults US in dispute brought by China over clean...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/30

The World Trade Organization has faulted the United States in a dispute brought by China over US green energy subsidies introduced under former US president Joe Biden, according to a ruling issued on Friday. The global trade body’s dispute panel said that large tax credits granted under Biden’s landmark climate law, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), were “inconsistent” with several WTO agreements and should be withdrawn. That law, which was signed by Biden in 2022, was the largest climate...

China lifted sanctions on British lawmakers after...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/30

Beijing has lifted sanctions on British peers and lawmakers, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has said, following his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping. “This has been a cause of concern in parliament and for parliamentarians for some time and that is why I raised it on this visit,” Starmer told ITV News in Shanghai. “And the response from the Chinese is that the restrictions no longer apply and President Xi has told me that that means that all parliamentarians are welcome to visit,”

Luigi Mangione won’t face death penalty after US...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/30

Federal prosecutors cannot seek the death penalty against Luigi Mangione in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, a judge ruled on Friday, foiling the Trump administration’s bid to see him executed for what it called a “premeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America”. US District Judge Margaret Garnett dismissed a federal murder charge that had enabled prosecutors to seek capital punishment, finding that it was technically flawed. She wrote that she did so to...

Final set of Epstein files released, with mentions of...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/30

The US Justice Department on Friday published millions of ‌new files related to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, including emails that show Howard Lutnick, President Donald Trump’s commerce secretary, apparently visited Epstein’s private island for lunch years after he claimed to have cut off ties. Todd ‍Blanche, the US deputy attorney general, said Friday’s massive batch of documents marked the end of the Trump administration’s planned releases under a law passed in November that...

Spain arrests Chinese hair salon owner for funding...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/30

Spanish police have detained a 38-year-old Chinese national who owned a ‌hair salon near Barcelona on suspicion of financing ‍the militant group Hamas through about €600,000 (US$715,000) in cryptocurrency transfers, regional police said on Friday.Investigators traced at least 31 crypto transactions ⁠from virtual wallets controlled by the suspect to addresses that are suspected of being linked to an entity used by the Islamist group, whose attack on Israel on October 7, ‍2023, triggered a...

Islamic State claims bold attack on Niger’s strategic...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/30

The Islamic State extremist group on Friday claimed responsibility for an attack in Niger on an air force base in the capital that wounded four soldiers and damaged an aircraft. The claim of responsibility was contained in a statement on Amaq News Agency, the group’s propaganda wing, that said it was “a surprise and coordinated attack” that inflicted heavy losses. State television reported that Niger’s forces responded quickly to the assault early on Thursday, killing 20 of the attackers and...

Trump DOJ arrests ex-CNN anchor Don Lemon after judge...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/30

Former CNN anchor Don Lemon has been arrested after he entered a Minnesota church and recorded anti-immigration enforcement protesters who disrupted a service in an incident that increased tensions between residents and the Trump administration, his lawyer said on Friday. Lemon was taken into custody by federal agents in Los Angeles, where he had been covering the Grammy Awards, Abbe Lowell said. It is unclear what charge or charges Lemon is facing in the January 18 protest. The arrest came...

Hong Kong shelves cross-border levy plan, marks...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/30

Hong Kong’s treasury minister has said authorities will shelve a proposed levy on private cars crossing the border into mainland China, citing feedback from lawmakers and members of the public. Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury Christopher Hui Ching-yu told the Legislative Council on Friday that the government had decided not to go ahead with implementing the boundary facility fee for the time being after “careful consideration”, marking the second policy U-turn of the

Has China’s PL-17 missile, likely Pacific...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/30

The first close-up image of the Chinese PL-17 long-range missile – one of the most mysterious weapons in the PLA Air Force’s arsenal – appears to have surfaced online. Analysts say the PL-17 may be the world’s longest-range air-to-air missile, posing a threat to US air superiority in the western Pacific. A photo believed to show the PL-17 has recently been making the rounds on Chinese social media. The date and location of the photo are unclear, although the angle of view is extremely close

Israel offers ‘limited’ Rafah reopening on Sunday...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/30

Israel said Friday that it will reopen the pedestrian border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt in both directions over the weekend, marking an important step forward for US President Donald Trump’s Gaza ceasefire plan. COGAT, the Israeli military body in charge of coordinating aid to Gaza, said in a statement that starting on Sunday a “limited movement of people only” would be allowed through the Rafah crossing, Gaza’s main gateway to the outside world. The announcement followed...

33 arrested over HK$150 million fraud involving Hong...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/30

Hong Kong’s anti-corruption agency has arrested 33 people on suspicion of defrauding two government technology funding schemes of more than HK$150 million (US$19.2 million). The Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) said on Friday that it had dismantled two syndicates this month and arrested 24 men and nine women aged between 27 and 66, including a former Cyberport Management Company employee. The two funding schemes were the Digital Transformation Support Pilot Programme (DTSPP)

China says Philippines is stoking tensions with...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/30

China has accused the Philippines of “deliberately stoking maritime tensions” following reports Manila had warned it would stage military exercises across a large area of the disputed South China Sea for more than two months. The move represents the first external military challenge facing China after two senior generals were placed under investigation on suspicion of corruption, and could serve as a test of Beijing’s ability to handle such tests at a highly sensitive time. The Philippine

Ant Group’s open-source push aims to move robots from...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/30

Chinese fintech giant Ant Group has open-sourced its first artificial intelligence models for robotics, as it steps up efforts to build machine intelligence capable of handling complex real-world tasks. The move signals a deeper push by the Hangzhou-based Ant into embodied intelligence – AI systems designed to perceive, reason and act in physical environments rather than purely digital settings. The company is the fintech affiliate of Alibaba Group Holding, owner of the South China Morning...

Japan and South Korea upgrade defence pact to counter...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/30

Japanese Defence Minister Shinjiro Koizumi and his South Korean counterpart Ahn Gyu Back decided on Friday to step up personnel exchanges between their forces amid mounting regional security challenges. At the Maritime Self-Defense Force’s (MSDF) base in Koizumi’s hometown of Yokosuka, near Tokyo, the two agreed to hold annual reciprocal visits, as ties between the Asian neighbours have continued to improve in recent years. “We opened the door for a new level of defence exchanges between

Tianxia 2.0: how China can help shape the next world...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/30

Several signals from this year’s World Economic Forum in Davos revealed a fundamental transformation in international politics. The forum laid bare the conclusion of a long era, yet provided little clarity about the coming one. The first signal is the collapse of the post-World War II order shaped by the West – and the West’s own unravelling with it. The West has used its dominance over global discourse to construct and impose concepts it favours on the non-Western world. Yet the West itself

Why India should tackle pollution more urgently than...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/30

Remarks by a prominent economist about India’s air quality have raised a debate on whether New Delhi should prioritise tackling pollution over tariff talks, as the country continues to transition towards a green economy. Former International Monetary Fund chief economist Gita Gopinath made the comments at the recent World Economic Forum in Davos, arguing that investors considering India would have to factor its environment because it “is going to be consequential for health”. India has been...

Trump picks former Federal Reserve official Kevin...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/30

US President Donald Trump on Friday named former Federal Reserve official Kevin Warsh to be the next head of the US central bank, after teasing his choice for weeks, with Jerome Powell due to step down from the top job in May. The 55-year-old Warsh, who served as a governor of the Federal Reserve Board from 2006 to 2011, appeared to align with Trump’s bid to control the monetary policymaking institution as economic issues – from tariffs to affordability – dominate the policy agenda ahead of

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