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Trump says Ukraine’s Zelensky ‘doesn’t have anything...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/27

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he expects to meet US President Donald Trump in Florida on Sunday in pursuit of a deal to end Russia’s nearly four-year invasion, though the latest comments from Moscow raise doubts about how close a final agreement really is. Zelensky told reporters on Friday that he would discuss sensitive issues with Trump including the future of the Donbas region in Ukraine’s east and the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. The Ukrainian leader said he plans to...

China warns of foreign forces using AI deepfakes to...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/27

Foreign forces have used deepfakes and other artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to create public panic and obtain sensitive information, posing a threat to China’s national security, the country’s top intelligence agency has warned. Deepfake technology, which uses AI’s deep learning algorithms to simulate and forge images, audio and video, could be abused or used maliciously to endanger individual legal rights, social stability and national security, the Ministry of State Security

Genomic sequencing puts Hong Kong at forefront of...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/27

Genomic sequencing has helped Hong Kong identify the right treatments for cancer patients more quickly, according to an expert who also suggested that the city could be a “super-linker” between mainland China and the rest of the world in drug development. Aya El Helali, a clinician-scientist in medical oncology at the University of Hong Kong, praised how collaboration within the Greater Bay Area had opened up opportunities to run clinical trials faster and at lower costs – factors that

China teacher suspended for cursing at noisy pupils,...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/27

A primary teacher in China has been suspended from her job for cursing at “naughty” pupils and saying that she hoped they would all get the flu. The outburst appeared in a chat group and has gone viral online. The teacher, surnamed Li, is a music tutor at Gaoxin District Experimental School in Tongchuan, Shaanxi province, northwestern China, Jiupai News reported. Her comments in a matchmaking chat group with 100 members caused outrage. “The students are so naughty and so noisy. I feel sorry

Greater ambition: how Hong Kong and bay area...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/27

Wheels were turning in more ways than one at a packed Hong Kong Velodrome last month when cyclist Ceci Lee Sze-wing rode to her third gold medal of the 15th National Games. Roared on by home spectators, it symbolised the successful realisation of the decision for the city to co-host the Games alongside Guangdong and Macau, its partners under the Greater Bay Area development plan. It created a scene officials hope to see replicated on an even bigger scale: historic achievements in front of...

‘Lost my future’: Myanmar’s ‘charade’ election dims...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/27

Taya says her life was looking up as Myanmar crept out from decades of isolation.She had a job in marketing, enough money to shop in Yangon’s new malls and fuel her quiet dreams of opening a small bakery, as her generation enjoyed unprecedented economic and personal freedoms. But that was before Myanmar’s short-lived experiment with greater democracy ended in a coup in 2021. With the military once more in charge, the economy is in free fall, and inflation has surged to well over 20 per cent....

Trump says he ordered Nigeria strike delayed by a day...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/26

US President ‌Donald Trump said on Friday that a US military strike targeting Islamic State militants in Nigeria was originally supposed to take place on Wednesday but he ordered it delayed by a day. “They were going to ‍do it earlier,” Trump told Politico in an ‌interview. “And I ⁠said, ‘nope, let’s give a Christmas present’. … They didn’t think that was coming but we hit them hard. ‌Every camp got decimated.” Thursday’s strikes marked a major escalation in an offensive that the West African...

Chinese chipmaker CXMT in crosshairs of South Korean...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/26

Prosecutors in South Korea have indicted 10 people, including former Samsung Electronics executives, for allegedly leaking the company’s technology to Chinese chipmaker ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT). The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office on Tuesday said five people had been arrested, including a former Samsung executive who allegedly recruited key personnel and leaked the company’s proprietary technology to CXMT, according to a report by Yonhap News Agency. They face charges

The Cure guitarist and keyboard player Perry Bamonte...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/26

The Cure guitarist and keyboard player Perry Bamonte has died aged 65, the legendary British dark rock band announced on Friday. Bamonte, who became a full member of The Cure in 1990, “passed away after a short illness at home over Christmas”, according to a statement published on the band’s website. “It is with enormous sadness that we confirm the death of our great friend and bandmate Perry Bamonte,” it said. “Quiet, intensive, intuitive, constant and hugely creative, ‘Teddy’ was a warm...

Wild goose chase? France works to rouse China’s...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/26

From luxury handbags to vintage Bordeaux, China’s consumers have long associated French products with fine living. Now, France aims to hook the country’s expanding middle class on another local speciality: foie gras. China placed tight restrictions on imports of the iconic French goose liver pate amid Europe’s bird flu epidemic, but there are signs that things could change, with Beijing recently vowing to get more produce “from French farms to Chinese tables”. Paris and Beijing also signed a...

Police arrest suspect after man stabs 3 women in...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/26

French police on Friday arrested a man suspected of stabbing three women in the Paris Metro as the capital’s end-of-year festivities were in full swing, prosecutors said. The three victims were attacked at three different locations along the Line 3 Metro track that runs across central Paris, the RATP authority that runs the transit service said. An Agence France-Presse journalist at the Republique station saw a security team treating a woman who had been wounded in the leg and appeared to be

Hong Kong should offer an international DSE to boost...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/26

Interest in Hong Kong’s Diploma of Secondary Education has increased steadily in recent years. The government is committed to strengthening the city’s role as an international education hub, not just in tertiary education but also in basic education. Following this directive, the Education Bureau recently invited all Direct Subsidy Scheme schools to apply to increase their intake of non-local students. Hong Kong’s education sector offers biliteracy and trilingualism, and provides a broader

US airlines cancel more than 1,000 flights due to...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/26

Airlines in the United States have cancelled or ‌delayed thousands of flights on Friday, according to flight tracking website ‍FlightAware, due to winter storm Devin during peak holiday travel. A total of 1,382 flights were cancelled and 4,685 delayed on Friday afternoon, the website said. The National Weather Service (NWS) predicted snowfall across the upper Great Lakes region through the day, with the storm’s focus moving towards the northeast. “Road conditions will be treacherous for those...

Harvey Weinstein accuser Kaja Sokola is being sued...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/26

Two sisters testified at Harvey Weinstein’s most recent criminal trial. Kaja Sokola accused the disgraced movie mogul of sexual assault. Ewa Sokola was called as a witness to boost her claims but ultimately ended up helping the defence. Now, Ewa Sokola is suing Kaja for defamation, alleging in a lawsuit filed on Tuesday in Manhattan federal court that the psychotherapist and ex-model’s public remarks amount to libel and are damaging Ewa’s reputation and business as a cardiologist in

Venezuela frees 99 prisoners detained after 2024...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/26

Venezuela released 99 prisoners on Christmas Day, officials said, with the government calling it a goodwill gesture as it assesses arrests made after President Nicolas Maduro’s re-election. “The national government and the justice system have decided to evaluate each case individually and, in accordance with the law”, released 99 citizens “as a concrete expression of the State’s commitment to peace, dialogue and justice”, the Ministry of Penitentiary Services said. “They were deprived of

Record Taiwan arms deal casts shadow over Trump’s...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/26

As 2025 draws to a close amid heightened tensions between Washington and Beijing over new arms sales to Taiwan, analysts warn that the worsening atmosphere could weigh on the substance – if not the scheduling – of US President Donald Trump’s visit to China next year to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Washington’s announcement last week of a US$11.1 billion arms package for Taiwan, the largest to date, has sharpened frictions at a sensitive moment, making it less likely that Beijing

Israel becomes first country to formally recognise...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/26

Israel became the first country to formally recognise the self-declared Republic of Somaliland as an independent and ‌sovereign state on Friday – a decision that could reshape regional dynamics and test ‍Somalia’s long-standing opposition to its secession.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would seek immediate cooperation with Somaliland in agriculture, health, technology and the economy. In a statement he congratulated Somaliland’s president, Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi, praised...

Zelensky to meet Trump in Florida to discuss ‘90%...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/26

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday he will meet US President Donald Trump in Florida over the weekend. Zelensky told journalists the two leaders will discuss security guarantees for Ukraine during Sunday’s talks, and that the 20-point plan under discussion “is about 90 per cent ready”. An “economic agreement” also will be discussed, Zelensky said, but he was unable to confirm “whether anything will be finalised by the end”. The Ukrainian side will also raise “territorial...

Trump’s military restraint on Venezuela: power play...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/26

President Donald Trump’s reluctance to authorise direct military intervention in Venezuela underscored the US dilemma of how to reassert dominance in its traditional sphere while managing escalation risks in multipolar rivalry with China and Russia, observers said. But they cautioned against seeing US hesitation as weakness, noting intensified sanctions, naval blockades and diplomatic pressure from Washington, alongside a recalibrated strategy to sustain influence without overcommitment

China’s Zhipu AI ramps up push towards human-level...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/26

Chinese AI start-up Zhipu AI said it would step up efforts next year in the pursuit of artificial general intelligence (AGI) while continuing to open source its AI models after its initial public offering. In 2026 “we’re going to contribute more substantially to the AGI journey,” Zheng Qinkai, a researcher at the company, which markets itself internationally as Z.ai, said in an Ask Me Anything (AMA) session hosted on US social media site Reddit. AGI, referring to technology that matches human...

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