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Fatal crocodile attacks in Indonesia put spotlight on...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/06/05

The recent deaths of two men from crocodile attacks in North Sumatra have put a spotlight on Indonesia’s record as the country with the world’s highest number of such killings annually, raising questions over whether habitat destruction is pushing people and wildlife into increasingly dangerous contact. Environmental groups said the deaths reflected a wider pattern across the archipelago, where logging, plantations and other land-use changes had destabilised ecosystems. The first incident was

US citizen and journalist charged with acting as...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/06/04

A US citizen who lived and worked for state media in China for several years pleaded guilty on Thursday to acting as a foreign agent for Beijing after allegedly collecting US$100,000 in return for collecting intelligence in the US on “American targets” and American politicians. According to court documents, Thomas Weir Pauken II worked at the “direction and control” of Chinese officials linked to China’s Ministry of State Security from at least 2019 until February 2026, with someone using the...

Trump says he won’t nominate Pulte as permanent US...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/06/04

US President ⁠Donald Trump on Thursday indicated ⁠that he would not nominate mortgage regulator ⁠Bill Pulte to be the nation’s intelligence chief once his temporary appointment expires early next year. His comments follow a backlash against Pulte’s appointment as acting director of national intelligence from Democrats and some key senators of his Republican Party over the ‌Trump loyalist’s lack of national security experience. Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump indicated he would...

Trump unveils plan to add ‘Trump promenade’ to...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/06/04

President Donald Trump on Thursday announced plans to add a potential “Trump promenade” to the iconic Lincoln Memorial, in his latest grandiose bid to leave his mark on the US capital. Trump said the walkway would link the huge marble monument, built to commemorate Civil War-era president Abraham Lincoln, to the nearby Potomac River. “They want to call it the Trump Promenade,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office as he unveiled the project for the first time. “I don’t know if I want to do...

Chinese satellite company releases images of Nvidia,...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/06/04

After it was sanctioned by the US government for allegedly helping Iran, a Chinese satellite company has released high-definition images of the Nvidia and Apple headquarters in California’s Silicon Valley. They were among photos posted on social media on Monday by Changguang Satellite based in Changchun, in northeast China. The satellite images – captured by the company’s Jilin-1 constellation – offer a detailed bird’s-eye view of the region. They include the futuristic Endeavour and Voyager...

China says US ‘invented’ terrorism charges to justify...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/06/04

China accused the United States of using “invented allegations” to justify its terrorism case against Cuba, after Secretary of State Marco Rubio told senators he needed no new evidence to tie the island to violent leftist groups across the western hemisphere. Foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said on Thursday that Washington could not justify its blockade and sanctions against the island, adding that the decades-old embargo had wrecked Cuba’s economy. “China firmly supports Cuba in...

Trump Jnr tells investors he would avoid investing in...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/06/04

US President Donald Trump’s eldest son warned against investing in China during an event for investors on Thursday in Zurich, even as his father’s administration has pushed forward on plans to improve commercial ties between the two countries. “I wouldn’t,” Donald Trump Jnr said when asked at the invitation-only event if he would invest in China. “I don’t think we can pretend they’re an ally. That would be, I think, foolish.” Trump Jnr, who shares the position of executive vice-president of

A UK in decline needs to rediscover supply-side...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/06/04

I just spent two weeks in a broken Britain, which is an unfortunately apt description for a country that has fallen from its former glory. Its people are funny, witty, creative, intelligent, sports-mad and educated, part of a society that has constantly evolved over the last millennium, its imperial heritage bringing in cultures from around the globe. It is a green and pleasant land, beautiful in spring and summer, and not too bad in the autumn. Yet the once great nation is now dealing with a...

US farm chief says reliance on China threatens...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/06/04

US Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins told lawmakers on Thursday that American dependence on China for food, fertiliser and other agricultural inputs poses an “existential” threat, framing food security as a national security issue while defending the White House’s reduced fiscal 2027 budget request. “If we need to rely on China for our food and our fertiliser and all the things that come with that, we will lose what we understand to be liberty and freedom in this country. That’s how

Putin says Trump ideas could bring peace in Ukraine,...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/06/04

President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that US President Donald Trump’s proposals for peace in Ukraine could end the fighting, but said Kyiv needed to compromise – and that he saw no signs of that, so was ready to fight on to victory. Speaking to foreign media editors on the sidelines of Russia’s annual economic forum in what is the fifth ‌year of Europe’s deadliest land war since World War II, Putin said Russia would defeat Ukraine on the battlefield if necessary. But he said it was also...

Canada PM unveils AI strategy, warns of foreign...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/06/04

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney launched his AI strategy on Thursday, warning that his country’s slow adoption of the frontier technology had created risks and that domestic capacity needed a boost to avoid it being “weaponised against us”. Reducing Canada’s reliance on the US is a central part of Carney’s agenda, and his AI strategy nodded to concern about the influence of US tech giants. “We are highly dependent on foreign suppliers for the infrastructure that powers AI,” he said. “That...

‘Persepolis’ author Marjane Satrapi dies ‘of sadness’...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/06/04

Franco-Iranian author and film director Marjane Satrapi, renowned for her graphic novel and film Persepolis, has died aged 56, a year after the passing of “the love of her life”, a member of her close circle said on Thursday. “Marjane Satrapi died of sadness a little over a year after the death of Mattias Ripa, her husband and the love of her life,” they said in a statement. Born in 1969 in Rasht in northern Iran, Satrapi arrived in France in 1994 and gained French nationality in 2006. An...

7 taken away as police ramp up patrols around former...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/06/04

Hong Kong police took away seven people who appeared in Causeway Bay on Thursday evening carrying flowers, dressed in black or holding prayer beads to mark the 37th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown.They included Chan Po-ying, former chairwoman of the now-defunct League of Social Democrats opposition group, and activist Virginia Fung King-man. Police said they stopped and searched five men and two women, aged between 17 and 79, for allegedly disrupting order in the area around

Trump foe John Bolton to plead guilty in classified...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/06/04

Former Trump administration national security adviser John Bolton has agreed to plead guilty to a single count of retaining classified information under a deal with the US Justice Department that could allow him to avoid prison time, a person familiar with the matter said on Thursday. The deal would resolve a criminal case filed in October that charged Bolton with 18 counts of either retaining or disseminating classified information, including diary-like notes from his time in government that...

EU trade chief swipes at China’s overcapacity, but...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/06/04

EU trade chief Maros Sefcovic has called for practical approaches and “meaningful discussion” to tackle the growing trade concerns between Brussels and Beijing, following his meeting with China’s chief international trade negotiator, Li Chenggang, on the sideline of a ministerial meeting at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris. Sefcovic opened his press conference on Thursday by stressing the urgency of crafting policy responses to the non-market practices...

Public Management Programme Puts Humans at the Centre...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/06/04

[The content of this article has been produced by our advertising partner.] As artificial intelligence (AI) reshapes economies, labour markets and public services, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) is making a clear bet: the defining skill for tomorrow’s public leaders will not be coding, but judgment. At the helm of its Master of Public Management (MPM) programme is Programme Director Prof. Donald Low, who argues that leadership in the AI age demands more than

‘All reasonable steps’ for site smoking ban include...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/06/04

Contractors should take “all reasonable steps”, such as installing CCTV cameras and setting up temporary cigarette storage points, to comply with a coming smoking ban on construction sites, Hong Kong labour authorities have said. They should also ask individuals to stop using e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products, even though they do not require lighting, the Labour Department said on Thursday, six months after the deadly Tai Po fire that was suspected to have been caused by workers

Hong Kong signs 96 agreements with Kazakhstan and...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/06/04

Hong Kong has signed 96 agreements with Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan worth US$1.65 billion during city leader John Lee Ka-chiu’s visit to Central Asia, which he hailed as a “successful” mission setting the stage for closer government and business ties with the region. Lee on Thursday also said Hong Kong had initiated an agreement with Uzbekistan that paved the way for airlines on both sides to launch a new direct route, days after the city’s flag carrier Cathay Pacific Airways announced it would...

Hong Kong’s MTR Corporation raises €3 billion in its...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/06/04

Hong Kong rail giant the MTR Corporation has raised €3 billion (U$3.5 billion) by selling its first euro-denominated public green bonds, in its largest bond deal to date. The semi-privatised corporation said on Thursday that the sale also marked the largest Asia ex-Japan non-sovereign euro green bond offering. Amid a string of new rail projects in Hong Kong, the MTR Corp is raising fresh capital to fund them. The latest deal is the third round of bond sales so far this year, bringing the

Are Japan-Philippines talks a maritime red line for...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/06/04

Beijing’s strong opposition to maritime boundary talks between Manila and Tokyo reflects growing wariness over a shifting balance of power in the western Pacific. And, experts warn, these talks – part of a highly calculated geopolitical effort by US allies – could reinforce the so-called first island chain and restrict Beijing’s naval access in an area vital to any potential conflict over Taiwan: its clear red line. Tensions have sharpened since Japan and the Philippines announced last week

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