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Greenland says ‘we choose Denmark’, as talks with...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/13

Greenland would choose to remain Danish over a US takeover, its leader said on Tuesday, ahead of crunch White House talks on the future of the Arctic island which President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened. Trump has been talking up the idea of buying or annexing the autonomous territory for years, and further stoked tensions this week by saying the United States would take it “one way or the other”. “We are now facing a geopolitical crisis, and if we have to choose between the United...

Clintons refuse to testify in Epstein probe, defying...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/13

Former US president Bill Clinton and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton said Tuesday that they will refuse to comply with a congressional subpoena to testify in a House committee’s investigation of Jeffrey Epstein. The Clintons, in a letter released on social media, slammed the House Oversight probe as “legally invalid” even as Republican lawmakers prepared contempt of Congress proceedings against them. The Clintons wrote that the chair of the House Oversight Committee, Republican...

Scott Adams, Dilbert cartoonist and Trump fan, dead...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/13

Dilbert comic strip creator Scott Adams, ‍a vocal Trump supporter whose career flagged after a racist rant, died on Tuesday, his former wife said. He was 68. Shelly Miles announced Adams’ passing in an online live stream in which she read a final message ⁠from the artist, whose strip lampooned life in the cubicle farms of corporate America, framed around its titular character, an engineer known for his glasses and perennially bent tie. Adams first announced he had metastatic prostate cancer

Most Hong Kong residents support more smoking control...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/13

Nearly 90 per cent of Hong Kong residents support stronger smoking control measures, a poll has found, while a separate study estimates that raising tobacco tax progressively could cut the city’s smoking rate significantly within a decade. The Hong Kong Council on Smoking and Health (COSH) and academics on Tuesday announced findings of both a survey and a study by two universities. The survey gauged public opinion on tobacco control policies while the study projected and analysed the effects

Trump urges on protesters in Iran as crackdown death...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/13

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday urged Iranians to keep protesting and remember the names of those abusing them, saying help is on the way, as Iran’s clerical establishment pressed its crackdown against ‍the biggest demonstrations in years. Iran in turn accused Trump of encouraging political destabilisation and inciting violence. “Iranian Patriots, KEEP PROTESTING - TAKE OVER YOUR INSTITUTIONS!!! … HELP IS ON ITS WAY,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social, without saying what that help

Why China may not act in Iran even though it has...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/13

China has “more to lose” compared with Venezuela if Iran’s rulers should fall, according to diplomatic observers, but it is expected to avoid direct intervention. The country is facing a wave of anti-government protests fuelled by economic hardship in which hundreds, if not thousands, of protesters are thought to have been killed. US President Donald Trump has said he was looking at “some very strong options” and this week announced a new set of tariffs targeting countries that maintained...

Singapore urged to expand Johor SEZ to Indonesia to...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/13

A special economic zone between Singapore and the Malaysian state of Johor (JS-SEZ) should include Indonesia’s Riau Islands to ramp up the region’s allure to global investors, an apex business chamber and leading accounting firm have said, ahead of the city state’s budget address next month. As part of its 18 top recommendations, the Singapore Business Federation (SBF), which has more than 32,000 members, and PwC Singapore on Monday said expanding the zone to include the Indonesian islands of...

China, Canada poised to reset trade ties after...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/13

Canada and China appear ready to kick-start trade talks after years of strained relations, with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s visit to Beijing this week coinciding with both countries questioning their once stronger ties with the United States, analysts said. Carney travelled to Beijing on Tuesday for his first official visit to the country, where he will discuss trade, agriculture and energy with officials from Canada’s second-largest single-country trading partner. Liang Yan, a...

Alibaba reaffirms open-source AI commitment as tech...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/13

Alibaba Group Holding’s artificial intelligence strategy is defined by a commitment to open-source models, the company said on Tuesday, following a year of soaring adoption for its suite of AI services. The statement came as Alibaba’s stock in New York rose more than 10 per cent on Monday, following news that its flagship Qwen family of AI models surpassed 700 million downloads on the developer platform Hugging Face, making it the world’s most widely adopted open-source AI system. “A defining...

South Korean prosecutors demand death penalty for...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/13

An independent counsel on Tuesday demanded the death sentence for former South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol on rebellion charges in connection with his short-lived imposition of martial law in December 2024. Yoon, who was removed from office last April and is in jail, faces eight trials over various criminal charges related to his martial law debacle and other scandals related to his time in office. Charges that he directed a rebellion are the most significant ones. Independent counsel Cho...

Hong Kong activist loses legal fight over prison...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/13

A jailed activist has lost a judicial review against a Hong Kong Correctional Services Department (CSD) rule that prohibits female inmates from wearing shorts in summer, with the court ruling that the women’s standard prison uniform was carefully designed and did not constitute discrimination. High Court judge Russell Coleman said on Tuesday that there was “little merit” in Chow Hang-tung’s argument that the department’s clothing policy violated her right to equality. Under the existing

Taiwan and the US launch joint production of 155mm...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/13

Taiwan has begun co-producing 155mm (6.1-inch) artillery shells with the US, as the island moves to strengthen wartime ammunition resilience amid Beijing’s escalating military pressure and concern over supply disruptions in a high-intensity conflict. Taiwan’s defence ministry on Monday said Taipei and Washington had launched early-stage joint production of a new type of 155mm howitzer ammunition. Lieutenant General Lin Wen-hsiang, head of Taiwan’s Armaments Bureau, testified during a

Hong Kong corporate governance activist David Webb...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/13

David Webb, the corporate governance activist renowned for his free public database and his explosive “Enigma Network” exposé that rocked the Hong Kong stock exchange, has died aged 60 of metastatic prostate cancer. A notice posted on one of his social media accounts confirmed his death on Tuesday. He is survived by his wife and two children. “It is with great sadness that we share that David M Webb MBE passed away peacefully in Hong Kong on Tuesday January 13, 2026 from metastatic prostate...

Germany to pitch Arctic Nato mission as Greenland, EU...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/11

Germany will propose setting up a joint Nato mission to monitor and protect security interests in the Arctic region in a bid to ease tensions with the US over its threats to annex Greenland, according to two people familiar with the government’s thinking.Nato’s “Baltic Sentry” mission – begun a year ago to shield critical infrastructure in the Baltic Sea – could serve as a blueprint for a new “Arctic Sentry” mission, which would include Greenland, said people who declined to be identified...

Malaysia suspends Grok access amid global backlash on...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/11

Malaysia suspended access to Elon Musk’s chatbot Grok over AI-generated pornographic content, the country’s tech regulator said on Sunday. The decision follows global backlash after it emerged that Grok’s image creation feature allowed users to sexualise pictures of women and children using simple text prompts. On Saturday, Indonesia became the first country to deny all access to the tool, which has been restricted to paying subscribers elsewhere. The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia...

China applies to put 200,000 satellites in space...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/11

Chinese firms have signalled plans to launch more than 200,000 internet satellites, filing submissions with a UN agency just as Beijing accused Elon Musk’s SpaceX of crowding shared orbital resources. A dozen or so submissions from various Chinese satellite players were filed with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) at the end of last month. The biggest projects – CTC-1 and CTC-2 – were for 96,714 satellites each and filed by the newly established Institute of Radio Spectrum...

How Trump’s raid on Caracas deepens US-China...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/11

We had barely entered the new year when Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were captured in a brazen raid on the orders of US President Donald Trump. In the early hours of January 3, the couple were taken from their residence in Caracas, Venezuela, and flown to the US in a military operation impeccably executed in the name of countering narcoterrorism. Beijing, for one, was “deeply shocked” by Washington’s “hegemonic behaviour” and strongly condemned it. At a UN...

Hong Kong plans to complete Kowloon waterfront...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/11

Hong Kong authorities plan to complete several promenade projects linking the Kowloon waterfront by the end of 2028, extending the total length of pedestrian pathways on both sides of Victoria Harbour to 34km (21 miles). The Development Bureau said on Sunday that 14km, or 70 per cent of the 21km developable waterfront on the Kowloon side, had already opened, nearly two weeks after the long-awaited 13km promenade on Hong Kong Island was fully connected. Some sections are set for completion

31% of scam victims calling Hong Kong helpline had...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/11

Nearly a third of scam victims who sought counselling through a Hong Kong welfare group’s crisis hotlines last year had possible suicidal tendencies, according to a study by the organisation. The Caritas Family Crisis Support Centre said on Sunday that its hotline service handled 3,983 debt-related cases in 2025, with more than 31 per cent involving individuals at risk of suicide and requiring crisis intervention. “Many who fall victim to scams feel shame and guilt,” the centre said in its...

Nepal’s ex-king voices concern after protests as...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/11

Nepal’s former king Gyanendra Shah has expressed concern over the state of the country four months after a youth-led uprising toppled the previous government. At least 76 people were killed during the demonstrations last September, which saw four-time prime minister KP Sharma Oli ousted and replaced by former chief justice Sushila Karki in an interim capacity until elections scheduled later this year. Shah, who was deposed in 2008 at the end of a decade-long civil war, has largely refrained

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