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News - South China Morning Post

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Son of James Handy’s girlfriend charged with murder...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/06/06

A man was charged with murder in the stabbing of Jumanji and Top Gun: Maverick actor James Handy, who was in a relationship with the suspect’s mother. Michael Gledhill, 44, was charged on Friday after police say officers found the 81-year-old Handy stabbed in the chest and lying unconscious outside a home in Los Angeles on Wednesday. Handy was taken to the hospital and later pronounced dead. Gledhill did not appear at an arraignment on Friday afternoon in Los Angeles Superior Court and no

Why North Korea’s Kim is doubling down on nuclear...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/06/06

North Korean ruler Kim Jong-un’s recent display of nuclear-processing capabilities appears timed with reports of an impending visit by China’s leader and fuelled by insecurities about Seoul’s nuclear submarine talks with Washington. Analysts also say that mounting trilateral talks involving the United States, Japan and South Korea have galvanised Kim into doubling down on Pyongyang’s status as a nuclear-armed state. The state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) announced on Friday that Xi...

Does Pete Hegseth’s volte-face on China reflect an...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/06/06

Listening to US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth at the recently concluded Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, I thought of the iconic Sichuan opera act of face-changing, where performers switch masks in an instant. Last year, Hegseth’s speech at the event was filled with blatant attacks on China. This year, he put on a completely different face, declaring that: “Under President Trump’s leadership, relations between the United States and China are better than they’ve been in many years.” Why this...

How everyday cooking oil is helping Japan fight an...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/06/06

Japanese homemaker Maki Watanabe carefully ⁠pours into a plastic bottle the oil she used to cook her ⁠deep-fried aubergines, doing her part in her Tokyo kitchen for a national effort to ramp up production of eco-friendly jet fuel. “It would take a tremendous amount to make an aircraft fly, so I hope we can collect more,” said Watanabe, whose penchant for cooking allows her to donate about 40 litres (10 gallons) a year. Her contribution is pooled at a nearby supermarket that is among roughly

Don’t dream it’s over: mainland students rethink Hong...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/06/06

Weeks before mainland Chinese student Carol Chen graduated from Baptist University in Hong Kong in July, the 22-year-old did the math and weighed the cost of living in the city against returning home. Renting a room in the city would consume around half of the HK$20,000 (US$2,552) starting salary she expected as a junior data analyst. “If I go back to Shanghai, I will only need to worry about daily expenses,” said Chen, a maths and statistics graduate. Language barriers compounded the

China teacher under probe after using glue gun to...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/06/06

A kindergarten teacher in China has been suspended from her job and placed under police investigation for using a glue gun to scald a little girl’s lip, causing serious blisters. The incident unfolded on the morning of May 27 in a nursery in Fengxian county, Jiangsu province, eastern China. According to surveillance footage from the classroom, the woman children’s teacher let some children queue up to receive punishment one by one because she was angry that they were talking during class, the...

US strikes Iranian radar sites after drone shootdown...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/06/06

US forces struck Iranian coastal radar sites on Saturday after shooting down drones launched by Iran towards the Strait of Hormuz, the US military said, in the latest escalation complicating efforts to end the war between the two countries. The US military believed the four Iranian drones were targeting regional maritime traffic, an official said. US Central Command said on social media that the US then struck Iran’s surveillance ‌sites in Goruk and Qeshm Island, which are both on the Strait

Hong Kong parents of baby Danny obtain birth...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/06/06

The unmarried parents of two‑month‑old Danny have obtained his birth certificate four days after their arrest on suspicion of child neglect, but must still undergo home visits and other assessments before regaining custody of the infant. Tsang Wai-bong and Kwan Pui-sin, arrived at the Immigration Department headquarters at 11.21am on Saturday after meeting government social workers regarding the guardianship of their son, who has been placed in a children’s shelter under a court order. They...

Targeting US$610 billion longevity market, biotech...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/06/06

For Beijing-based METiS TechBio CEO Lai Tsai-ta, ageing is comparable to bugs building up in a complex software system – it happens once errors begin to accumulate in the genetic code of human cells, such as their DNA sequences. “Those errors can be reprogrammed. It becomes possible to use AI to read, rewrite and reverse cells, or at least slow the ageing process,” Lai said in an interview with the South China Morning Post. The process could begin by fixing “immune cells, such as T cells, as...

How Malaysia’s Langkawi became a paradise for smugglers

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/06/06

Waves break along Cenang Beach as the sun drops over the Andaman Sea, washing Langkawi’s white sand in gold. Tourists sip fresh coconuts beneath rows of bright umbrellas, gazing out at the “Jewel of Kedah”: a duty-free archipelago long sold as one of Malaysia’s premier tropical escapes. Out on the water, meanwhile, small boats traverse the 8km (five miles) of open water that separates Langkawi from Thailand’s Koh Tarutao. On fast boats, the crossing takes a matter of minutes. No navigation...

Putin says no reason to meet Ukraine’s Zelensky,...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/06/05

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday he currently saw no reason to meet Volodymyr Zelensky after the Ukrainian president published an open letter proposing they hold face-to-face talks to agree an end to a war now in its fifth year.In his letter, which was sent to other countries, including the US, Zelensky said most Russians ‌had grown tired of Ukrainian missile and drone attacks, high inflation and fuel shortages, and were ready for peace. He also suggested that continuing the

Energy now a focus of US-China contest of the century

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/06/05

Given that control over energy reinforces superpower status, the contest of the century has morphed into an intense rivalry between China, a rising “electrostate”, and the United States, the world’s hydrocarbon hegemon safeguarding its position. China recognises that electricity drives its economy. Despite being a major producer of coal, crude oil and natural gas, China remains an importer of these hydrocarbons. However, with strategic patience, through its five-year plans, the country has

KMT leader says Taiwan can preserve peace by avoiding...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/06/05

Taiwan’s main opposition leader said cross-strait peace can be maintained as long as Taipei did not move towards “de jure independence”, during her trip in the United States. Cheng Li-wun, chairwoman of the Kuomintang (KMT), attended a closed-door seminar at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government on Thursday, according to a KMT statement on Friday. Cheng told the seminar that peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, which she described as the greatest common

Trump urges new spy chief Pulte to gut US...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/06/05

US President Donald Trump said Friday he wants his incoming acting spy chief to start firing employees, deepening the controversy over the appointment of a man with no previous intelligence experience. Bill Pulte, a Trump loyalist who heads the Federal Housing Finance Agency, was named by the Republican president on Tuesday as acting Director of National Intelligence. “If he cut, I wouldn’t mind that,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One, adding that the number of employees in Pulte’s...

Death of girl, 11, in France sparks storm over cracks...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/06/05

A firestorm of recrimination raged in France on Friday over failures in the justice system that kept a man now suspected in the disappearance and death of an 11-year-old girl out of custody despite allegations that he preyed on young adolescents. The disappearance of the girl identified by police as Lyhanna and days of searches that ended with the discovery of her body in a disused grain silo have gripped national and, increasingly, political attention since she went missing in the

First AI-designed ‘universal vaccine’ tested in humans

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/06/05

A vaccine targeting a broad range of viruses that was designed using artificial intelligence had a “modest” effect on immune systems in a small, early trial, according to a new study. The trial marks the first time a vaccine whose active ingredient was entirely designed by AI has been tested in humans, researchers at the University of Cambridge in the UK said on Friday. The experimental jab is intended to be a “universal vaccine” which protects people against a range of viruses that have...

US judge strikes down Trump policies targeting...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/06/05

President Donald ⁠Trump’s administration unlawfully barred applicants from ⁠39 travel-ban countries from receiving decisions on asylum, work permits, green cards and citizenship, a US federal judge ruled on Friday. Chief US District Judge John McConnell in Providence, Rhode Island, ruled that the US Citizenship and ‌Immigration Services had adopted a series of unlawful policies targeting people from 39 African, Asian, Latin American and Middle Eastern countries. His ruling came in a lawsuit...

Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Ted Lasso actor Anthony...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/06/05

Actor Anthony Head, best known for his roles in Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Ted Lasso, has died at the age of 72, his family announced on Friday. The British actor, the brother of singer Murray Head, was best known as librarian Rupert Giles in the cult US supernatural television series starring Sarah Michelle Gellar, which ran from 1997 to 2003. “It is with heavy hearts that we announce the death of our extraordinary father, Anthony Head,” his daughters Emily and Daisy Head, said in a

Astronauts take shelter as air leaks worsen on...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/06/05

A worsening air leak aboard the International Space Station prompted five astronauts to take shelter and prepare for evacuation for roughly two hours on Friday as Russia attempted to ‌fix a crack on its portion of the orbital laboratory, Nasa said. The four astronauts of Nasa’s Crew-12 mission aboard the station – two Americans, a French astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut – along with another US astronaut were ordered by Nasa mission control at 9.04am on Friday to enter their SpaceX-built Crew...

How Chinese drink chains are testing the limits of...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/06/05

Makeda George steps out of a Mixue store in downtown Brooklyn, New York, clutching a bubble tea as she weaves through a crowd of teenagers. The local resident says she had been eager to try the brand after noticing a surge of new outlets opening in recent months.“I decided to try the bubble tea. It was good,” she said, adding that she did not know it was a Chinese drink chain but figured it was Asian given the branding. “Everywhere you go, every nook, every cranny, you just see them popping...

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