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US sanctions Chinese companies and tankers with...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/01

The Trump administration stepped up a pressure campaign against Venezuela’s oil exports by sanctioning companies based in Hong Kong and mainland China, along with related oil tankers it accused of evading restrictions. The US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control on Wednesday added four companies with links to Venezuela’s oil industry – Zhejiang-based Corniola and Hong Kong-based Aries Global Investment, Krape Myrtle Co and Winky International – to its specially designated...

Saudi Arabia sets executions record in 2025, putting...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/01

Saudi authorities executed 356 people in 2025, according to an Agence France-Presse tally, setting a record for the number of inmates put to death in the kingdom in a single year. Analysts have largely attributed the surge in executions to Riyadh’s ongoing “war on drugs” launched in recent years – with many of those first arrested only now being executed, following legal proceedings and convictions. Official data released by the government said 243 people were executed in drug-related cases

41 young men die in South Africa from circumcision...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/01

At least 41 young men died as a result of circumcision procedures as part of traditional initiation activities in South Africa in November and December, authorities said on Tuesday. Traditional initiation is a rite of passage into manhood for young men that is practised annually by various ethnic groups in Africa, including parts of South Africa. Among them are the Xhosa, Ndebele, Sotho and Venda communities. Traditionally, young men are isolated at initiation schools where they are taught...

Ukraine says it faked death of anti-Kremlin Russian...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/01

Ukraine staged the death of an anti-Kremlin Russian fighter to prevent his killing ordered by Moscow’s special forces, Ukrainian military intelligence announced on Thursday. Denis Kapustin, leader of the Russian Volunteer Corps that had carried out cross-border raids into Russia during Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, was killed on the front line, his group declared on Saturday. But on Thursday Kapustin – also known as Denis Nikitin – appeared via video link at a briefing with the head of

Trump blames bruised hand on aspirin, denies falling...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/01

US President Donald Trump blamed aspirin for large bruises on his hand and denied falling asleep while attending public meetings in an interview with The Wall Street Journal published on Thursday. In the interview defending his health, Trump also changed his previous statement about receiving an MRI scan in October, saying it was instead a quicker CAT scan. Trump, who at 79 is the oldest person to assume the US presidency, told the Journal “my health is perfect” and expressed frustration with...

Hong Kong girl, 13, arrested over fight with teen at...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/01

Hong Kong police have arrested a 13-year-old girl who allegedly assaulted and injured a 15-year-old student during a countdown celebration at a promenade dubbed the “Lan Kwai Fong of Gen Z”. Police said that the incident involving the two girls – who knew each other – took place at around 1am on New Year’s Day at Kwun Tong Promenade. “The victim had on multiple occasions spread false rumours about [the 13-year-old], making her upset,” acting chief inspector Leung Sze-nok of Kwun district

6 killed in Iran as cost-of-living protests turn violent

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/01

Protesters and security forces clashed in three Iranian cities on Thursday, with six people reported killed, the first deaths since the cost-of-living demonstrations broke out. The protests began on Sunday in Tehran, where shopkeepers went on strike over high prices and economic stagnation, and have since spread to other parts of the country. On Thursday, Iran’s Fars news agency reported two people killed in clashes between security forces and protesters in the city of Lordegan, in the

Taiwan arms, missing Chinese boy, Trump’s Jimmy Lai...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/01

We have selected seven of the most interesting and important news stories covering US-China relations from the past few weeks. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing.1. As Trump upends US foreign policy, analysts see fresh openings for China Trump was expected to continue applying a wrecking ball to long-standing US national security architecture, threatening global stability and jolting long-time allies, with China a major beneficiary, analysts and

Beijing’s Venezuela plans, Mexico-China tariffs: 7...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/01

We have selected seven of the most interesting and important news stories covering global relations from the past few weeks. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. Mexico stands by its decision for 50% tariffs on Chinese goods Economy Secretary Marcelo Ebrard in December defended Mexico’s decision to impose new tariffs on imports from China and other Asian countries, describing the move as a necessary step to protect hundreds of thousands of domestic...

China’s Ukraine war role, EU vs Shein and Temu,...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/01

We have selected seven of the most interesting and important news stories covering global relations from the past few weeks. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. EU fears China’s role in Russia’s war on Ukraine is deepening European officials were parsing evidence of an increase in battlefield weapons being shipped from China to Russia as Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine prepared to drag into its fifth year, adding to the well-documented flow of goods

Bolsonaro denied house arrest by Brazil's Supreme...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/01

Brazil’s Supreme Court has rejected former president Jair Bolsonaro’s request to convert his prison sentence for plotting a coup to house arrest, according to a ruling published on Thursday. Bolsonaro’s lawyers submitted the request on Wednesday, citing a “real risk of a sudden worsening” in health for the far-right ex-leader as the reason to serve his 27-year sentence at home. Bolsonaro, 70, has been hospitalised for more than a week after undergoing surgery for a groin hernia and then a...

Iran executions hit 35-year high with 1,500 killed in...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/01

Iran executed at least 1,500 people last year, the Norway-based Iran Human Rights group said on Thursday, in what it called an “unprecedented” hike in the use of capital punishment. “It is very alarming,” the group’s director, Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, said of the provisional toll. “It is unprecedented in the last 35 years. As long as Iran Human Rights has existed, we have never had such numbers.” In 2024, Iran executed at least 975 people, according to IHR and the French group Together

How the ‘world’s supermarket’ rode out Trump’s...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/01

Wang Nan, a hardware trader in China’s eastern city of Yiwu, expected her business to feel some pain when the US-China trade war escalated in April. “Last year, we still had many American clients, but the tariffs changed everything,” she said. Yet, Wang’s firm not only survived a rollercoaster year – which at one point saw US tariffs soar to triple-digit levels – it has emerged even stronger. An aggressive push to find new buyers in the Middle East, Central Asia and Africa paid off. In the

DeepSeek kicks off 2026 with paper signalling push to...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/01

Chinese artificial intelligence start-up DeepSeek has ushered in 2026 with a new technical paper, co-authored by founder Liang Wenfeng, that proposes a rethink of the fundamental architecture used to train foundational AI models. The method – dubbed Manifold-Constrained Hyper-Connections (mHC) – forms part of the Hangzhou firm’s push to make its models more cost-effective as it strives to keep pace with better-funded US rivals with deeper access to computing power. It also reflected the...

Russia claims 24 killed in Ukrainian drone strike on...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/01

Russian officials on Thursday said a Ukrainian drone strike killed 24 people and wounded at least 50 more as they celebrated the New Year in a Russian-occupied village in Ukraine’s Kherson region, as tensions between the two nations continue to spike despite diplomats hailing productive peace talks. Three drones struck a cafe and hotel in the resort town of Khorly on the Black Sea coast, the region’s Moscow-installed leader, Vladimir Saldo, said in a statement on Telegram. He said that one of...

As history makes clear, a powerful China is not...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/01

Beneath the “China threat” thesis, often heard in Western policy circles, is the assumption that China will become expansionist as it grows more powerful. But history gives us little reason to treat that as inevitable. At moments of peak strength, China has not consistently converted power into the kind of overseas colonialism, expansionism or conquest that marked the ascent of Western great powers. There are three often-cited reasons to suggest China’s rise might lead to expansionism. First,...

Can Beijing and Washington shield their planned state...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/01

Tensions over the Taiwan Strait are likely to persist in 2026, but analysts expect Washington and Beijing to manage risks to ensure that reciprocal state visits planned for the new year are not derailed. Beijing launched massive live-fire drills around Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday, less than a fortnight after Washington announced its largest-ever arms sale to the self-ruled island. The People’s Liberation Army said the drills served as a warning to “independence forces” and against external...

Thai fortune-teller predicts client’s bad luck, then...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/01

A Thai fortune-teller was arrested in Pattaya on Thursday after being accused of telling a client she would soon face bad luck and lose a valuable possession on New Year’s Day, then allegedly making good on the prophecy by stealing her phone. The suspect, identified by local media as Udomsap Mueangkaew, 38, allegedly denied the theft when confronted by the woman but told her the loss proved the accuracy of his fortune-telling. Local news outlet Khaosod reported that Udomsap, shabbily dressed,...

K-pop stars BTS to reunite with March album and world...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/01

K-pop megastars BTS will release a new album in March ahead of a world tour, the group announced on Thursday. South Korea’s biggest musical act has been on self-described hiatus since 2022 as its members undertook national military service required of all men under the age of 30. All seven members were discharged last year, and the group announced a comeback for the spring of 2026. They confirmed on Thursday that they would release an album on March 20, before heading on tour. The exact date...

Japanese business leaders shelve annual China trip as...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/01

A group of about 200 prominent Japanese business leaders has reportedly postponed their annual visit to mainland China, the first such deferral in more than a decade, amid tensions between Beijing and Tokyo over Taiwan. The postponement, first reported by Bloomberg and Kyodo, is widely seen by observers as a worrying sign of fraying corporate diplomacy – long regarded as a stabilising channel in the countries’ complicated relationship. It comes amid Beijing’s intensified efforts to rally a...

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