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US presses Iran as talks gear up in Pakistan under...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/10

US President Donald Trump on Friday pressed Iran to meet US demands, as Vice-President J.D. Vance travelled to Pakistan to lead high-stakes negotiations seen as a key effort to end the more than month-long Middle East conflict. The talks between the US and Iran, taking place during the agreed two-week ceasefire brokered by Pakistan, are expected to begin on Saturday morning in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif confirmed that leaders of both countries

Trump unveils plan for triumphal arch in Washington:...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/10

US President Donald Trump’s plans for a new triumphal arch in the capital, unveiled on Friday, include a towering winged figure with a Lady Liberty-like torch and crown, flanked by two eagles and guarded by four lions – all gilded. The 12-page plan released by the US Commission on Fine Arts shows the arch will stand 250 feet tall (76.2 metres) from its base to the tip of the winged figure’s torch, with “One Nation Under God” and “Liberty and Justice for All” inscribed in gold atop either side

High fertiliser prices mean more soybeans for farmers...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/10

Jeff Winton, a dairy farmer in upstate New York who grows much of the feed for his own cattle, stopped planting corn in 2022 when fertiliser prices spiked. “We just couldn’t afford the input costs,” he recalled. The surge began after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine disrupted exports of nitrogen, urea and other key fertiliser nutrients, with Russia, alongside its ally Belarus, among the world’s leading suppliers. As the war in Ukraine entered its fourth year, a separate conflict involving the US,...

Prince Harry sued by African charity he set up to...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/10

A charity co-founded by Prince Harry in Africa to honour his late mother, Princess Diana, has sued him for defamation after he stepped down as a patron last year. Sentebale, which supports young people living with HIV in Botswana and Lesotho, filed suit last month in London’s High Court, according to court records reviewed Friday. Online filings show Harry and his friend, Mark Dyer, a trustee at the charity, are being sued for either libel or slander. No documents were

Ukrainians sceptical as Russia’s Putin orders Easter...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/10

Ukrainians on Friday were wary of Russia’s pledge to pause fighting for an Orthodox Easter ceasefire – first proposed by Kyiv – this weekend. The Kremlin said it had ordered a temporary truce to be in effect from Saturday afternoon until the end of Sunday, a 32-hour period during which Russia would stop fighting “in all directions”. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky – who has repeatedly called for a ceasefire in the four-year war – said Kyiv was willing to reciprocate. But in Kyiv there

Girl, 9, in a critical condition with meningococcal...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/10

A nine-year-old Hong Kong girl has contracted a rare bacterial infection and is fighting for her life in hospital after visiting Japan during the Easter holiday, with health authorities contacting the other tour group members as a precaution. The Centre for Health Protection (CHP) said on Friday that the girl, who was in a critical condition in the paediatric intensive care unit of Princess Margaret Hospital in Kwai Chung, began showing symptoms of invasive meningococcal infection including...

China’s Li Qiang urges faster industrial AI adoption...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/10

Yang Zhilin, founder of fast-rising start-up Moonshot AI, has become the latest artificial intelligence entrepreneur to meet Chinese Premier Li Qiang, as Beijing steps up its push to accelerate the digital transformation of manufacturing. The 32-year-old was among a select group of business leaders and experts invited to a high-level symposium on Friday, where participants offered views on China’s economic resilience and future growth drivers. Li acknowledged that the external environment had...

China banks buffer against AI contagions as US sweats...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/10

With US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell reported to have held urgent talks over Anthropic’s latest artificial intelligence model, experts are warning that immediate cybersecurity assessments are needed to avert potential economic damage running into the hundreds of billions of US dollars. Across the Pacific, however, analysts said China’s banks were taking a more cautious approach, as Beijing prioritises financial stability and intensifies monitoring

China telecoms face US exit risk as FCC deepens...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/10

The latest US restrictions on Chinese telecoms operators could ultimately force them out of the American market, analysts said, marking an escalation in Washington’s multi-year crackdown on Chinese technology. The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) said on Thursday that it was considering broader measures to bar Chinese telecom carriers from operating data centres in its territory, further restricting Chinese telecoms carriers’ access to US networks and infrastructure. China Mobile,...

‘Ruthlessly’ abusive man jailed after wife died...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/10

Kimberley Milne jumped to her death in Scotland in July 2023, but prosecutors in a landmark case said on Friday that she was driven to do it by her husband’s physical abuse. Lee Milne, 40, was sentenced to eight years in prison following his conviction in Glasgow’s High Court for culpable homicide and engaging in abusive behaviour. It was the first case in which Scottish prosecutors asked jurors to find an abusive spouse responsible for the death of a victim who takes their own life. “Lee

Tai Po blaze: no fire risk checks done for HK$336...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/10

Hong Kong authorities did not conduct a fire risk assessment of a HK$336 million (US$42.9 million) renovation project at Wang Fuk Court before the city’s deadliest blaze in decades engulfed the housing estate, a public inquiry has heard. Sam Keung Sai-ming, an assistant director of the Fire Services Department’s licensing and certification branch, said on Friday that authorities did not pay special attention to fire hazards at residential estates undergoing large-scale maintenance before the...

Taxi passengers won’t benefit from Hong Kong’s 50%...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/10

Hong Kong taxi passengers will still have to pay full tunnel tolls despite government relief measures that cut the fee for commercial vehicles by half, transport authorities have said. The Transport and Logistics Bureau said on Friday that the relief measure, contained in a package to support the transport sector as oil prices rise, was aimed at helping commercial vehicle drivers and operators. For two months, the government will reduce tunnel tolls by 50 per cent for all commercial vehicles,...

Tencent moves to rein in AI content flood on WeChat...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/10

Tencent Holdings’ super app WeChat has updated its content governance rules to ban non-human automated publishing, including the use of artificial intelligence and scripts, amid a surge in technologies that can replace human creators. “Official accounts and service accounts must not use AI, scripts, APIs or other automated methods to replace human involvement in content production and distribution,” WeChat said on Thursday via its official platform. The super app, marketed as Weixin on the...

China-North Korea thaw gathers pace as Kim Jong-un...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/10

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said on Friday that relations with Beijing had been elevated to new heights. He was speaking at a meeting in Pyongyang with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, where both sides pledged to deepen strategic coordination and “practical cooperation”. Wang’s two-day visit to North Korea is his first since 2019. At the meeting he conveyed greetings from President Xi Jinping, according to China’s state news agency Xinhua. Wang also said the meeting at the Workers’ Party

Bubble tea and YouTube topics please Hong Kong DSE...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/10

Hong Kong students taking the English paper in university entrance exams on Friday were pleasantly surprised by relatable topics such as bubble tea and starting a YouTube channel. But many candidates sitting the Diploma of Secondary Education (DSE) exam were caught off guard by the inclusion of two poems in the reading section for the first time. About 53,000 students sat the reading and writing papers, while the listening test will be held on Saturday. More than 58,000 candidates are taking...

Will Cheng Li-wun’s meeting with Xi Jinping temper...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/10

The high-profile talks between leaders of the Communist Party and the Kuomintang are a step towards cross-strait stability despite the KMT’s opposition status in Taiwan, according to observers. Communist Party chief Xi Jinping and KMT chairwoman Cheng Li-wun met in Beijing on Friday in the first such talks between the sitting leaders of the two parties in nearly a decade. Analysts in mainland China and Taiwan broadly agreed that the encounter signalled a revival of cross-strait engagement...

Singapore, Australia vow uninterrupted fuel supply...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/10

Singapore and Australia pledged on Friday to keep fuel and gas flowing between them as the Middle East conflict rattled global energy markets, with both sides also working towards a legally binding agreement on essential supplies. At a joint press conference in Singapore, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Canberra stood ready to supply more liquefied natural gas (LNG) if the city state needed it, while Albanese’s Singaporean counterpart Lawrence Wong said his government would...

Macron woos Trump to G7 summit with Versailles palace...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/10

French President Emmanuel Macron has invited US President ⁠Donald Trump to a ⁠sumptuous dinner at the ornate Palace of ⁠Versailles the day after a G7 summit in mid-June, although it remains unclear if Trump will attend either event, sources said. France is the host of this year’s G7, with a leaders’ summit in the lakeside resort of Evian-les-Bains at the foot ‌of the French Alps scheduled for June 15-17 – dates that Macron has already moved to accommodate a mixed martial arts event Trump is...

New Kai Tak Hospital to open in 2 phases starting in...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/10

Hong Kong’s largest public hospital will open to patients in phases from October, with the new 2,400-bed facility in Kai Tak set to take over the services of Queen Elizabeth Hospital and become a healthcare hub for Kowloon. The Hospital Authority said on Friday that the first phase of services at Kai Tak Hospital, located on Shing Cheong Road in Kowloon Bay, would start in October. The new facility has a total gross floor area of 500,000 square metres, the largest among the city’s public...

Alibaba’s HappyHorse tops Seedance, offering glimpse...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/10

A new video generation model quietly unveiled by Chinese tech giant Alibaba Group Holding has overtaken Seedance 2.0, ByteDance’s most advanced model, as the world’s top-ranked artificial intelligence video tool based on an evaluation by a benchmark site, offering a glimpse into the AI talent race as the market heats up. The HappyHorse 1.0 model, which was still under internal beta testing, was developed by the Innovation Business Unit under the e-commerce giant’s newly formed Alibaba Token

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