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US ceasefire with Iran sets diplomatic clock for...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/08

The two-week ceasefire the United States agreed to with Iran on Tuesday not only sets a deadline to seal a deal with Tehran, but leaves just days before the expiration of the 60-day legal limit for waging war without congressional authorisation that is set out under America’s War Powers Resolution. This has left open the question of how the conflict will proceed if diplomacy fails and the legal clock runs out. “Almost all the various points of past contention have been agreed to between the...

Strait of Hormuz: is a Trump‑Iran joint venture...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/08

Control of the Strait of Hormuz has emerged as the central fault line in US-Iran negotiations, with US President Donald Trump appearing to recast an earlier off-the-cuff idea into a more formal proposal that seeks to bridge Tehran’s push for dominance and Washington’s insistence on open passage. Following his Tuesday announcement of a two-week ceasefire, Trump on Wednesday told the American Broadcasting Company that his administration may seek a “joint venture” with Iran to safeguard the

Canada’s Carney on verge of majority after another...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/08

A Canadian opposition legislator defected to the ruling Liberal Party on Wednesday, leaving Prime Minister Mark Carney on the verge of a parliamentary majority that would make it easier to push through his agenda. The centrist Liberals, ‌governing with a minority after the April 2025 election, need opposition support to pass key legislation. Carney says he needs a majority to deal with US President Donald Trump’s trade measures. The prime minister welcomed the defection by Marilyn Gladu – a...

Uganda man says he killed 4 children as human...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/08

A man has admitted stabbing four children to death at a kindergarten in Uganda, saying he believed killing them as human sacrifices would make him wealthy, prosecutors said on Wednesday. The defendant, Christopher Okello Onyum, 39, who holds both Ugandan and American citizenship, appeared in court to have the charges formally put to him. He is thought to have gained access to the kindergarten by posing as a parent, before attacking children with a knife, killing four of them – ranging in age...

‘Ketamine Queen’ gets 15 years in jail for selling...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/08

A US federal judge on Wednesday handed down a sentence of 15 years in prison to a woman who pleaded guilty to selling actor Matthew Perry the ketamine that killed him in 2023. “You’re going to have to show some epic resilience,” Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett said to Jasveen Sangha, echoing the defendant’s words earlier in the hearing about her self-improvement. Citing the unique role Sangha admitted to playing in Perry’s death and her broader drug-dealing business, the judge gave the

US man pleads guilty to murdering 7 women and admits...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/08

A Long Island architect who led a secret life as a serial killer pleaded guilty on Wednesday to murdering seven women and admitted he killed an eighth in a string of long-unsolved crimes known as the Gilgo Beach killings. Rex Heuermann, 62, entered the pleas in a courtroom packed with reporters, police and victims’ relatives, some of whom wept as he detailed his crimes for the court. He will be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole at a later date. Heuermann’s guilty...

Why the US-Iran ceasefire is seen as a failure for...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/08

The United States boasts military superiority over Iran but has emerged as the strategic loser in the five-week conflict, with gains limited to a fragile two-week ceasefire and conditional passage through the Strait of Hormuz, according to analysts. Shortly before US President Donald Trump’s deadline for Iran to meet his demands or face destruction of its civilian infrastructure, the US and Iran entered a two-week ceasefire agreement mediated by Pakistan. Beijing reportedly intervened at the...

Xi Jinping backs services sector to power China’s...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/08

President Xi Jinping has signalled a renewed focus on China’s services sector, calling for a demand- and tech-led strategy to reshape growth and create jobs, as policymakers met to chart the path forward. “The focus must be on demand-driven development and reforms as well as empowerment by technologies,” Xi said in a message to a two-day conference on the sector that concluded on Wednesday, according to state-run news agency Xinhua. Highlighting the role of services in tackling some of

Who is Asim Munir and why are Trump and Iran praising...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/08

As the United States and Iran agree to a two-week ceasefire, Pakistan’s strongman military chief is emerging as a major diplomatic player on the international stage. When announcing the truce, both US President Donald Trump and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi expressed appreciation for the diplomatic efforts of Asim Munir. Munir, who last year became Pakistan’s first ever chief of defence forces, is widely seen as the most powerful man in the country. According to one prominent

Tai Po blaze: no fire safety system checks before...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/08

A fire services company did not conduct any on-site inspections and merely acted as a “rubber stamp” in submitting 85 notices to shut down the hose reel system of a housing estate hit by Hong Kong’s deadliest blaze in decades, an inquiry has heard. Separate testimony from a Fire Services Department official also noted that another contractor failed to notify authorities after discovering that Wang Fuk Court’s fire water tanks were drained and the main power switches for the fire hose reels

China’s Zhipu AI open-sources flagship model, raises...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/08

Chinese artificial intelligence company Zhipu AI open-sourced its latest flagship model, GLM-5.1, on Wednesday while raising application programming interface prices by 10 per cent, signalling a shift towards monetising advanced AI capabilities as competition with US rivals intensifies. The move marked Zhipu’s second price increase this year, following a broader overhaul in February that lifted rates for its coding subscription plans by more than 30 per cent. While the latest adjustment was

Ray Dalio says US-China ties are critical as world...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/08

Billionaire investor and philanthropist Ray Dalio has called the US-China relationship the single most critical factor for global well-being, as the war on Iran shakes the world order and leaders of the two superpowers prepare to meet next month. Strong ties between Beijing and Washington could unlock immense progress for humanity, while bad relations could cause catastrophic damage, Dalio warned at an event for his non-profit ocean exploration initiative OceanX in Shanghai on Wednesday. “We

Trump lauds Beijing’s role in Iran truce, but clouds...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/08

Even as the White House lauded China’s role in securing a long-awaited ceasefire that lifted global markets, US President Donald Trump reignited trade tensions by threatening a new 50 per cent tariff on countries supplying weapons to Iran, while Tehran kept the Strait of Hormuz closed and warned it could abandon the deal if Israeli attacks on Lebanon continue. “There were conversations that took place between top levels of our government and China’s government,” Trump’s spokeswoman Karoline...

Washington pushes allies to match tougher China chip...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/08

The latest bill proposed by US lawmakers to further restrict China’s access to advanced chipmaking equipment marks a fresh escalation in Washington’s efforts to throttle the country’s semiconductor ambitions, as it seeks to bring allies such as the Netherlands and Japan into closer alignment on export controls, analysts said. Introduced last week by Republican Representative Michael Baumgartner, the Multilateral Alignment of Technology Controls in Hardware (Match) Act aims to close “critical...

As France pulls gold from the US, how can China...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/08

As the French central bank repatriates gold reserves from the United States, analysts say China should seize this “strategic window” to develop itself into the next global gold hub. They added that Beijing can leverage policy stability, alongside Hong Kong’s strengths in fintech such as blockchain, to build a modern gold trading centre, particularly as policy volatility under US President Donald Trump’s second term heightens global concerns and deepens the de-dollarisation trend. “I think

In Germany, a woman bites a railway worker to get...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/08

A woman trying to board a train in Germany at the last minute resorted to extraordinary means and bit a station worker in the arm when he tried to intervene. The 36-year-old woman was looking to board a local train at Munich’s Pasing station as the doors were closing, police said on Wednesday. The 29-year-old employee tried to stop her, and the woman bit his arm, resulting in a visible wound. However, the man did not sustain any serious injury and was able to continue working, it said. The

Macron greets French detainees back in Paris after...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/08

President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday welcomed two French nationals who returned to Paris after spending almost four years detained in Iran on espionage charges, with the French leader hailing “the end of a terrible ordeal”. Cecile Kohler, 41, and Jacques Paris, 72, arrived on a commercial flight, landing at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris shortly before 9am. They were met on the tarmac by foreign ministry officials. Macron greeted the pair in the gardens of the Elysee Palace. They

Israel says battle in Lebanon continues despite Iran...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/08

Israel renewed its strikes in southern Lebanon and urged residents in parts of Beirut to evacuate on Wednesday, after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted the US-Iran truce does not extend to the war against Hezbollah. Israel hit several dense commercial and residential areas in central Beirut on Wednesday afternoon. Israel’s military called it the largest coordinated strike in the current war, striking more than 100 Hezbollah targets within 10 minutes in Beirut, southern

Easter box office takings twice that of 2025 break...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/08

Cinema box office takings in Hong Kong over the first four days of the Easter break more than doubled year on year, reaching HK$25.93 million (US$3.31 million) compared with HK$12.75 million over the same period in 2025, despite a holiday exodus. According to the Immigration Department, residents made around 2.13 million outbound and 1.81 million inbound trips between Good Friday and Monday, resulting in a net outflow of 319,173. For the five-day break to Tuesday, Hongkongers made 2.56

PLA troops facing Taiwan Strait and Japan simulate...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/08

The People’s Liberation Army division responsible for the East China Sea and the Taiwan Strait carried out a decontamination exercise amid targeting of Iranian nuclear facilities by the United States and Israel. A recent training exercise at an Eastern Theatre Command naval base included an emergency response to a simulated nuclear attack, according to a report on Tuesday by state broadcaster CCTV, which did not specify the time or location of the drill. The exercise focused on rapid

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