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News - South China Morning Post

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Ras Al Khaimah seeks Hong Kong, mainland Chinese...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/29

A trade delegation from Ras Al Khaimah (RAK), one of the seven emirates of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), is seeking Hong Kong and mainland Chinese investors for its first integrated resort, describing the city as a key gateway to Asia and China.The high-level, three-day mission in Hong Kong this week aimed to raise RAK’s profile and attract regional investment. During the visit, the delegation met local officials and business representatives to promote the emirate and its landmark resort...

Tale of 2 megacities: how did Beijing and Shanghai’s...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/29

As China’s two largest cities by economic output, Beijing and Shanghai are widely seen as barometers for the country’s broader economic performance. In 2025, Beijing’s gross domestic product reached 5.2 trillion yuan (US$748 billion), making it the second Chinese city to cross the 5-trillion-yuan mark after Shanghai, which breached the threshold in 2024 and did so again in 2025 with a GDP of 5.67 trillion yuan. Based on last year’s figures, each city’s economic size is comparable to that of a...

Chinese national Guan Heng, who filmed Xinjiang...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/28

An immigration judge on Wednesday granted asylum to a Chinese national who he said had a “well-founded fear” of persecution if sent back to China after exposing human rights abuses there. Guan Heng, 38, applied for asylum after arriving in the US illegally in 2021. He has been in custody since being swept up in an immigration enforcement operation in August as part of a mass deportation campaign by the Trump administration. The Department of Homeland Security initially sought to deport Guan

Will North Korea compensate Japanese citizens lured...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/28

Just days after a court in Tokyo ordered the North Korean government to compensate Japanese citizens who it had lured with the promise of “paradise on Earth”, the victorious plaintiffs are drawing up a strategy to force Pyongyang to pay up. The Tokyo District Court ruled on Monday that three plaintiffs and the family of another claimant who died before the case was concluded should each receive 22 million yen (US$144,000) in compensation for the suffering they endured before escaping from the...

Plane crash in Colombia kills 15, including politician

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/28

A plane crash in ‍northeast Colombia on Wednesday killed all 15 people on board, including a local lawmaker, state-run airline Satena said. The Beechcraft 1900 twin-engined turboprop ⁠plane took off before noon from Cucuta, on the border with Venezuela, for a short flight to the town of Ocana, Satena said. Air traffic control lost contact ‍with the plane 12 minutes into the flight, the carrier ‍added. Satena did not say what caused the crash and said the plane’s emergency beacon had ‌not been...

HKMA follows the Federal Reserve to keep interest...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/28

Hong Kong’s de facto central bank left its base rate unchanged after a similar move overnight by the US Federal Reserve, leaving borrowers in the city with a longer wait for funding costs to fall. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) announced its decision on Thursday morning to keep the city’s base rate at 4 per cent. Hours earlier, the Fed also kept its target rate in the range of 3.5 per cent to 3.75 per cent, after the first meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) this...

Rise in Republicans wary of China as bipartisan...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/28

Republicans in the United States increasingly oppose friendly cooperation with China, according to a new survey released on Wednesday, marking a major break with past decades. The report titled “The Growing Partisan Divide on US Foreign Policy”, published by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and drawing on 50 years of comparative data, found that respondents in the increasingly partisan US are sharply split on how Washington should deal with Beijing. Bipartisan agreement on the topic has...

Trump warns Iran to make nuclear deal or next attack...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/28

US President Donald Trump urged Iran on Wednesday to come to the table ‍and make a deal on nuclear weapons or the next US attack would be far worse. Tehran responded with a threat to strike back against the United States, Israel and those who support them. “Hopefully Iran will quickly ‘Come to the Table’ and negotiate a fair and equitable deal – NO NUCLEAR WEAPONS – one that is good ⁠for all parties. Time is running out, it is truly of the essence!” Trump wrote on social media. Amid a

Francisco Urdinez on how Venezuela tests China’s...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/28

One of the leading scholars of China-Latin America relations, Francisco Urdinez is known for coining the concept of “economic displacement”, a theory that also gives its name to his Cambridge University Press book title published in November. The idea holds that China’s rise has reduced US relevance in the region by making partnerships with Beijing more consequential and ties with Washington less essential for many governments. Now, in the wake of US attacks on Caracas and the abduction of...

ICE fatal shootings raise fear over Trump’s use of...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/28

America has endured intense political polarisation before. What it has not faced is a presidency that has transformed a federal law-enforcement agency into a potential instrument of political power. During Donald Trump’s second term as president, the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) risks becoming just that. Created after 9/11 as a specialised arm of the Department of Homeland Security, ICE was meant to enforce immigration laws and combat transnational criminal networks. Its

Ilhan Omar attack suspect Anthony Kazmierczak: a...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/28

The man accused of squirting an unknown substance on Democratic US congresswoman Ilhan Omar at a town hall in Minneapolis has a criminal history and has made online posts supportive of US President Donald Trump. Anthony Kazmierczak, 55, was convicted of felony vehicle theft in 1989, has been arrested multiple times for driving under the influence and has had numerous traffic citations, Minnesota court records show. There are also indications he has had significant financial problems,

US’ Rubio says China profited from Venezuela’s...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/28

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio accused China of profiting from Venezuela’s long-running economic collapse by securing discounted oil, telling senators that removing Nicolas Maduro was necessary to end energy arrangements that he said “favoured Beijing at the expense of the Venezuelan people”. During a hearing of the US Senate Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday, Rubio portrayed China as a central beneficiary of the Maduro government, arguing that Beijing had taken advantage of sanctions...

US agents who shot Minneapolis man Alex Pretti placed...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/28

Two immigration agents involved in the fatal shooting of a protester in Minneapolis have been placed on leave, a US Customs and Border Protection spokesman said on Wednesday, as President Donald Trump battles backlash over the incident. “The two officers involved are on administrative leave. This is standard protocol,” the spokesman said in a statement. Intensive care unit nurse Alex Pretti was shot multiple times on Saturday after being forced to the ground by camouflaged officers in a

US Federal Reserve holds interest rates steady,...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/28

The US Federal Reserve held interest rates steady on Wednesday at its first policy gathering this year, citing robust economic growth, as the central bank resists President US Donald Trump’s mounting pressure for cuts.The Fed’s 10-2 vote maintains rates at a range between 3.50 per cent and 3.75 per cent, an outcome that was widely expected as officials await more data on the world’s biggest economy. In a statement on its decision, policymakers flagged that economic activity has been

US Treasury chief Bessent cautions Canada, says he’s...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/28

US Treasury Secretary ‍Scott Bessent said on Wednesday that the United States and ‍Canada were likely ‍to end up in a “good ‌place” on trade but warned ‍Ottawa not to start a ‌political ⁠fight ahead of coming talks on the US-Mexico-Canada ‌free trade deal. Speaking in a CNBC ⁠interview on Wednesday, Bessent also said he ‍was disappointed by Europe’s major trade with India and defended US President Donald Trump’s decision to raise tariffs on South Korean goods. The European ⁠Union on Tuesday...

How AI model predicts heavy rainstorms 4 hours in...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/28

Hong Kong and mainland Chinese scholars have developed a pioneering AI model that uses satellite data to forecast heavy rainstorms up to four hours before they strike, much earlier than current predictions allow. The model represented a “major advancement in atmospheric monitoring and severe weather early warnings, enabling faster and more accurate forecasts and strengthening regional disaster preparedness and response”, Dr Dai Kuai, a postdoctoral fellow in the University of Science and...

S&P 500 hits 7,000 for first time as Nvidia,...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/28

The S&P 500 breached the 7,000-point mark for the first time on Wednesday, driven by unrelenting optimism over artificial ‌intelligence and expectations of strong Big Tech earnings as well as monetary ‍policy easing. The benchmark index’s ascent between successive 1,000-point additions has quickened in recent years, reflecting mounting investor confidence in the US economy and corporate America. It took about three years for the S&P 500 ⁠to rise to 5,000 points from 4,000, but only about nine...

Why Greenland’s rare earth riches cannot end US...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/28

Despite the United States pushing to acquire Greenland, geological and technical constraints have so far prevented any country – including China – from successfully extracting and processing one of the Danish territory’s main critical minerals, a New York-based mining investor said. “In the Arctic, one of the popular – the sort of commonly occurring mineral – is called eudialyte,” said Tomasz Nadrowski, portfolio manager at Amvest Terraden, an investment and corporate finance firm

Caribbean island wins climate case against...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/28

A court on Wednesday ordered the Dutch government to draw up a plan to protect residents on the tiny Caribbean island of Bonaire from the devastating effects of climate change – a sweeping victory for the islanders. The Hague District Court, in a stunning rebuke of Dutch authorities, also ruled that the government discriminated against the island’s 20,000 inhabitants by not taking “timely and appropriate measures” to protect them from climate change before it is too late. “The island already...

Hong Kong eyes lowering age bar for health checks on...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/28

Hong Kong plans to lower the age threshold for mandatory medical certification for commercial vehicle drivers from 70 to 65 under legislative proposals to be submitted in the first quarter of this year, with the new rules supported by a transport advisory body. The government on Wednesday briefed the Transport Advisory Committee on the proposals to tighten medical fitness requirements for commercial vehicle drivers in a bid to further safeguard road safety amid an ageing workforce in the...

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