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Poland urges Brussels probe TikTok over AI-generated...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/30

Poland ‍has asked the European Commission to investigate TikTok after the social media platform hosted artificial intelligence-generated content including calls for Poland to withdraw from the EU, it said on Tuesday, adding that the content was almost certainly Russian disinformation. A TikTok profile showing videos of young women dressed in Polish national colours ⁠and calling for Poland to leave the EU has gained popularity in recent weeks. The profile has now disappeared from the...

‘Ocean’s Eleven’ gang steals millions in cash, gold...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/30

Robbers used a large drill to break into a German bank’s vault room during the extended Christmas break and steal cash, gold and jewellery worth €30 million (US$35 million), police and the bank said on Tuesday. The spectacular heist in the western city of Gelsenkirchen, North Rhine-Westphalia state, saw thieves smash open more than 3,000 safe deposit boxes and make off with the loot. While the criminals remained at large, hundreds of distressed bank customers massed outside the branch on

France pushes back plastic cup ban by four years,...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/30

The French government on Tuesday postponed a ban on plastic throwaway cups by four years to 2030 because of difficulties finding alternatives. The ban was meant to start on January 1, but the ministry for ecological transition said that results from a recent review into the “technical feasibility of eliminating plastic from cups” justified pushing back the deadline. It said in an official decree that a new review would be carried out in 2028 of “progress made in replacing single-use plastic...

UAE to withdraw forces from Yemen after Saudi strike...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/30

The United Arab Emirates said on Tuesday it ‌was pulling its remaining forces out of Yemen after Saudi Arabia backed a call for UAE forces to leave within 24 hours, deepening a crisis between the two Gulf powers and oil producers. Hours earlier, Saudi-led ‍coalition forces had attacked the southern Yemeni port of Mukalla. The air strike on what Riyadh said was a UAE-linked weapons shipment was the most significant escalation to date in a widening rift between the two Gulf monarchies. In...

Trump and Netanyahu to discuss next phase of Gaza...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/28

US President Donald Trump is expected to ‌push for progress in the stalled ceasefire in Gaza when he meets Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday for talks ‍that will include Israel’s concerns over Hezbollah in Lebanon and Iran.Netanyahu said this month that Trump had invited him for talks, as Washington pushes to establish transitional governance and an international security force for the Palestinian enclave. Trump has said he could meet the Israeli leader soon but the White...

Hong Kong primary home sales poised for decade high...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/28

Hong Kong’s primary residential home sales in 2026 are forecast to again reach decade-high numbers, as developers continue to clear inventory and homebuyers focus more on small, low-cost flats. Transactions next year were projected to reach about 21,000, while total home sales were expected to climb to around 71,000, up 8 per cent from this year’s forecast, according to Midland Realty. A total of 26,479 new flats were expected to be rolled out next year, spread across Kai Tak, the North...

How a Chinese start-up is scaling 3D printing from...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/28

One of the biggest moments for China’s booming robotics industry this year was the catwalk performance by carmaker Xpeng’s new humanoid robot: it was so lifelike that founder He Xiaoping had to unzip its back to prove there was no person inside. The reveal exposed what was under the covers: bionic “muscles” that enable such uncanny lifelikeness, made possible by the 3D printing technology and high-performance materials from Chinese start-up PollyPolymer. Wang Wenbin, founder and chairman of...

Bulgarian political scientist Ivan Krastev on...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/28

Ivan Krastev is a Bulgarian political scientist best known for his work on Europe’s democratic crisis, the psychology of post-communist societies and the political legacy of 1989. He is chair of the Centre for Liberal Strategies in Sofia, a permanent fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna and the author of several influential books on European politics. In this Open Questions interview, Krastev reflects on Europe’s loss of bearings in a faster, harsher world, the fading of the...

Hong Kong must tackle long-term problem of building...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/28

There are matters we need to sort out quickly arising from the Tai Po fire tragedy but also systemic issues that need to be tackled if we are to avoid a repeat of the disaster. The fact is that Hong Kong faces two sorts of ageing problems: old buildings and the old people who live in them. Sometimes they overlap. Hong Kong is inevitably a high-rise city, because so many people are crammed into a relatively limited land area. If you can’t build out, you build up. Since we have been developing...

Kosovo’s ruling party wins vote after year-long...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/28

Nationalist Prime Minister Albin Kurti’s party won more than half of the votes in Sunday’s election, opening the way to ‍create a new government after a year-long political deadlock that has paralysed parliament and delayed key international funding. The vote is the second this year in Kosovo after Kurti’s Vetevendosje party fell short of a majority in February. Months of failed coalition talks prompted President Vjosa Osmani to dissolve parliament in November and call an early

1 dead, another injured in mid-air helicopter crash...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/28

Two helicopters crashed in New Jersey in what federal authorities say was a mid-air collision that killed one person and critically injured another. Hammonton Police Chief Kevin Friel said rescuers responded to a report of an aviation crash at about 11:25am local time on Sunday, and police and fire crews subsequently extinguished flames that engulfed one of the helicopters. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) described the crash as a mid-air collision between an Enstrom F-28A helicopter...

Trump says it will be clear within ‘weeks’ if Ukraine...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/28

US President ‌Donald Trump said on ‍Sunday that he and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky ‌were “getting a lot closer, maybe very close” to an agreement to end the war in Ukraine, though both leaders acknowledged that some of the thorniest details remain unresolved. The two leaders spoke ‍at a joint press conference late on Sunday afternoon after meeting at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. Trump said it will be clear “in a few weeks” whether negotiations to end the war will

UK’s Starmer criticised for welcoming activist’s...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/28

The UK prime minister is facing criticism after he celebrated the return to Britain of a human-rights activist who was recently released from an Egyptian prison but whose past social media posts apparently contained violent and antisemitic language. Successive British governments have campaigned for the release of Alaa Abdel-Fattah, a dual national who had been imprisoned in Egypt for most of the past 14 years. He returned to the UK on Friday after Egyptian authorities lifted a travel ban

3 dead in Syria as thousands of Alawites protest...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/28

At least three people were killed on Sunday during Alawite protests in western Syria, health authorities said, as thousands took to the streets across the religious minority’s heartland following a deadly mosque bombing. Thousands in coastal provinces and central Syria took part in demonstrations called by a religious authority to protest against the mosque attack in Homs on Friday that killed eight people and reignited minorities’ fears under the new Islamist authorities. War monitor the

Iran launches 3 satellites into space from Russia,...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/28

Iran launched three domestically built observation satellites into space from Russia on Sunday, state television reported, marking a new step for Tehran’s space programme despite Western sanctions. The country maintains that its aerospace industry is peaceful and complies with UN Security Council resolutions imposed over its nuclear programme. “Three Iranian satellites, Zafar-2, Paya and Kowsar 1.5, were launched into space by a Soyuz rocket from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia,” Iranian...

New York’s subway joins London, Singapore and retires...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/28

When the MetroCard replaced the New York City subway token in 1994, the swipeable plastic card infused much-needed modernity into one of the world’s oldest and largest transit systems. Now, more than three decades later, the gold-hued fare card and its notoriously finicky magnetic strip are following the token into retirement. The last day to buy or refill a MetroCard is December 31, 2025, as the transit system fully transitions to OMNY, a contactless payment system that allows riders to tap...

A closer look at China’s ‘Flying Shark’ J-15 jet that...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/28

Of all the warplanes in China’s rapidly growing air arsenal, it was an older model that sent shock waves across the region earlier this month. A rare stand-off between Chinese and Japanese fighter jets took place near the Miyako Strait northeast of Taiwan. The incident brought the Shenyang J-15 carrier-based fighter jet, which has been in service for more than a decade, back into the spotlight. Japan said J-15 fighter jets, launched from the Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning, twice engaged

Incoming Hong Kong lawmaker Vivian Kong to transition...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/28

Former Hong Kong star fencer Vivian Kong Man-wai will transition to a consultant role at the Jockey Club after she is sworn in as a tourism lawmaker, her former boss has said. The retired Olympic fencing gold medallist joined the club in August 2024 as an assistant external affairs manager, but suspended her duties last month to run for the election in the tourism sector. The 31-year-old secured 131 votes, beating Kwun Tong district councillor Ma Yat-chiu, raising questions over her role at

Trump’s pivot puts Pacific Rim at heart of global...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/28

While US-China relations are likely to warm in 2026 and US President Donald Trump’s National Security Strategy strikes a comparatively softer tone, the long-term trajectory of the two nations’ rivalry remains irreversible. Strategic competition will only intensify, focusing ever more on economic and security issues in the Pacific Rim. Notably, the Pentagon’s call for a major US military overhaul centred on the Pacific Rim could raise the risk of security confrontation. This dynamic will

Hong Kong liaison office’s Qi Bin to take up new role...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/28

A senior cadre at Beijing’s liaison office in Hong Kong with a rich financial background is expected to be transferred back to the capital for a new role in a committee advising leadership on economic policies for the next five-year plan, the Post has learned. Qi Bin, who turned 57 last month, was appointed by the State Council in November last year to take up the post of deputy director of the central government’s liaison office in Hong Kong. It is understood that he will be made a deputy...

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