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How US defence chief Hegseth softened his tone...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/05/30

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth softened his tone towards China in his speech on Saturday to the Shangri-La defence forum compared with the previous year.Speaking two weeks after the meeting between Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping in Beijing, Hegseth also adopted a cautious stance on US arms sales to Taiwan when questioned about the highly sensitive issue and did not mention the island at all in his speech. Although he still criticised China’s military build-up, unlike last year he

Unicorn born in record time amid ‘arms race’ among...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/05/30

Venture capitalists and industrial giants in China are aggressively backing developers of dexterous robotic hands – the toughest bottleneck in the global humanoid hardware arms race – in a funding blitz that is rapidly driving up start-up valuations. The latest capital injection was announced on Friday by Xynova. The Hangzhou-based start-up said it had completed a series A round from investors including the venture arms of smartphone maker Xiaomi and electric vehicle giant Li Auto, bringing...

Trump’s ICE blitz cost 668,000 jobs, creating...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/05/30

The Trump administration’s immigration surge into US cities last year resulted in 668,000 job losses, creating a “chilling effect” that pervaded local economies, hurt businesses and affected American-born workers, according to a report from the Brookings Institution. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement campaign adopted “shock and awe” tactics that were broader and far more visible than previous enforcement efforts, including one started under former president George W. Bush in 2008 and...

Beijing allows Hong Kong yachts to berth more easily...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/05/30

Hong Kong-registered yachts can berth more easily in designated mainland Chinese ports in the Greater Bay Area, as Beijing has waived customs guarantees and simplified administrative procedures, paving the way for more seamless leisure vessel travel within the region. In a directive published on Saturday night that confirmed earlier reporting by the South China Morning Post, China’s State Council revamped its maritime policies, allowing Hong Kong and Macau leisure yachts to enter designated...

Hearing results a key factor in insurance claims for...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/05/30

The success of Wang Fuk Court residents’ attempt to seek compensation for losses arising from Hong Kong’s deadliest fire in decades will hinge significantly on the findings of the independent committee investigating the disaster as claimants must prove negligence was involved, experts have said. The experts’ comments came after some residents of the Tai Po estate said that recently released documents on the government’s buy-back plan were ambiguous about their rights to pursue insurance

Chinese scientists create ‘kill-them-all’ algorithm...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/05/30

A research team from northwestern China has released a new algorithm that could fundamentally change how drone swarms hunt and destroy enemy targets. The algorithm, known as HG-STR (Heterogeneous Graph Spatio-Temporal Reasoning), promises to allow a fleet of fixed-wing drones to autonomously search a vast battlefield and eliminate every single enemy, even when their communications are being jammed and their vision is blocked. It is the first known algorithm capable of achieving a 100 per cent...

Is Huawei’s new chip scaling law a true breakthrough,...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/05/30

Microchip development has always been a race to build smaller and smaller transistors – the fundamental components of chip circuits. Now China’s Huawei Technologies wants to change the game entirely. Faced with US tech export restrictions that block its access to the world’s most advanced chipmaking machinery, Huawei is proposing a fundamental shift in semiconductor progress: stop obsessing over how small the transistors are and start focusing on how fast data moves through the system. It is

‘Clear-eyed’ on China: the takeaways from Pete...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/05/30

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth addressed the annual Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore on Saturday morning, just two weeks after a summit between the presidents of China and the United States. The speech was expected to be a barometer of the summit’s outcomes between President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart Donald Trump. Here are some of the main points from Hegseth’s address. Tough on China, but less confrontational Hegseth referred to China’s “historic military build-up” and reaffirmed...

Chip boom powers Hong Kong stock exchange at 40....

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/05/30

Stepping into the former trading hall in Exchange Square on Thursday was like walking through a doorway into the 1980s. Brokers, wearing the iconic red jackets of the period, stood alongside Cathay Pacific Airways flight attendants in retro uniforms, evoking memories of the hall before its closure. The special gong-striking ceremony in Central marked the 40th anniversary of the merger of Hong Kong’s four stock exchanges into the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong (SEHK). Cathay was the first company

Taxi trade fears 10% could lose cabs as drivers gear...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/05/30

Hong Kong’s taxi trade has warned that 10 per cent of the cab owners in the city could soon default on vehicle mortgages as licence values plunge, with many drivers switching to the new ride-hailing regime where 10,000 permits will be issued. The market value of a taxi licence has plunged over the past two decades, from a historic high of HK$7.66 million (US$970,163) in 2009 to HK$2.62 million for urban or red cabs and HK$1.45 million for green or New Territories taxis as of May this year,...

Recent analysis shows Neanderthals may have been...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/05/30

One of the most dreaded terms in dentistry is “root canal,” but at least we get to enjoy the perks of modern medicine. Now, imagine enduring that painful process nearly 60,000 years ago. An international team of scientists believes they have found evidence that Neanderthals, the closest relatives of modern humans, deliberately drilled a hole in a lower molar tooth to remove infected tissue. The discovery represents the oldest known example of invasive dental treatment, and it occurred tens of...

Shangri-La Dialogue: Hegseth on China challenges,...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/05/30

This live article is freely available to our registered users. Please log in or create an account below. Get real-time updates and exclusive reporting. Subscribe now with great savings to stay ahead. Defence ministers, military chiefs, diplomats and analysts have gathered in Singapore this weekend for the annual Shangri-La Dialogue, where regional security challenges will be discussed and a flurry of bilateral meetings held. It is expected to provide the first indication of US policy

Trump ordered to address fraud claims in IRS case...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/05/29

A federal judge ordered US President Donald Trump to respond to “grievous allegations” that his deal with the government to create a US$1.8 billion fund to resolve his lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service was the result of a “fraud” on the court. In an order on Friday, US District Judge Kathleen Williams gave the president’s personal lawyers until June 12 to respond to a request by a group of former federal judges that she reopen the proceedings to investigate conduct by the president...

Why the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation isn’t Nato...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/05/29

Central Asia is tilting more decisively towards China as geopolitical uncertainty deepens, with Beijing’s expanding influence recasting the former Soviet states’ strategic orientation. In the final instalment of a three-part series, Cao Jiaxuan examines how Central Asian members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation have shaped the bloc’s response to the US-Iran conflict. Read the first part here and the second part here. As Kyrgyzstan gears up to host the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation...

Ex-California mayor Eileen Wang pleads guilty to...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/05/29

A former Southern California mayor pleaded guilty on Friday to acting as an illegal agent of the Chinese government. Eileen Wang, who stepped down as the mayor of Arcadia earlier this month, was charged in April with one count of acting in the US as an illegal agent of a foreign government. She pleaded guilty to doing the bidding of Chinese officials by sharing articles favourable to Beijing, without prior notification to the US government as required by law. The 56-year-old was elected in...

US judge orders Trump’s name removed from Kennedy Centre

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/05/29

⁠A judge on Friday ordered the removal of US President Donald Trump’s name from the Kennedy Centre for the ‌Performing Arts, ruling that the iconic Washington venue cannot be renamed without an act of Congress. US District Judge Christopher Cooper in Washington directed the ⁠Trump administration to take down all physical signage ‌bearing Trump’s name and to eliminate any references to a “Trump Kennedy ‌Centre” from official materials within 14 ⁠days. “The ⁠Kennedy Centre’s organic statute

Canada might double exports to China, Chinese FM Wang...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/05/29

China’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi said ‌on Friday that Canada could surpass its goal of increasing exports to China by 50 per cent by 2030 during a meeting with Canada’s Foreign Minister Anita Anand. Wang said he thought Canada’s exports to China could increase by 100 per cent, building on momentum between the countries. “Canada is focused on growing our economy and diversifying our trading relationships,” Anand said during the meeting. “The Canada-China economic relationship is...

Bondi refused to answer questions about Trump and...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/05/29

Former US attorney general Pam Bondi rebuffed questions about President Donald Trump’s involvement in handling records of the Justice Department’s investigation of accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, Democratic lawmakers said. “She refused to answer any questions about President Trump,” congressman Robert Garcia, the top-ranking Democrat on the House panel investigating Epstein, told reporters during a break in the committee’s closed-door questioning of Bondi. Bondi also pushed any blame

Canadian poison seller Kenneth Law pleads guilty to...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/05/29

The Canadian man who helped scores of people worldwide kill themselves by selling them poison pleaded guilty on Friday to 14 counts of aiding suicide, as prosecutors said they will withdraw murder charges. Since Kenneth Law’s arrest in 2023, details of the online forums where he advised distressed people on how to end their lives have caused public outrage and triggered investigations in several countries. In Canada, Law faced 14 murder charges and an additional 14 charges for aiding

Brussels fires starting gun on tougher China trade...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/05/29

The European Commission agreed on a tough new approach to trade relations with China, at a rare Beijing-focused debate among Brussels’ leadership on Friday. In a presentation, trade chief Maros Sefcovic laid out why the bloc needed to take stronger steps to defend itself from what is described as a new “China shock” to its industries, according to people briefed on the event. This may require developing a new instrument to compel companies in critical sectors to expand both the number and the...

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