US must release 5-year-old ‘bunny hat boy’ detained by ICE, judge orders

A five-year-old boy and his father must be released by Tuesday from the Texas centre where they have been held after being detained by immigration officers in Minnesota, a federal judge ordered Saturday in a ruling that harshly criticised US President Donald Trump’s administration’s approach to enforcement.
Images of Liam Conejo Ramos, with a bunny hat and Spider-Man backpack being surrounded by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in the Minneapolis suburb of Columbia Heights on January…

Will new China’s YJ-18C missile be a logistics killer for US Navy?

A new PLA missile could provide a cheap and widely deployable option to knock out fragile US sea-lifting capabilities in an attrition war, a Chinese military magazine has suggested.
The YJ-18C, a subsonic land-attack cruise missile first revealed in Beijing’s September 3 Victory Day military parade, has the potential to be repurposed for anti-ship use, according to an analysis in Shipborne Weapons Defence Review.
This was because it bore similarities to the US AGM-158C LRASM (long-range…

How the India-EU trade agreement undermines US economic coercion

The India–EU trade agreement marks a significant moment in the development of the global political economy. Described by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen as the “mother of all deals”, the agreement links one of the world’s fastest-growing major economies with the world’s biggest single market.
Yet, within hours of Brussels and New Delhi announcing their “strategic partnership”, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent accused the EU of putting trade ahead of the Ukrainian people….

Who else is in the Epstein files? Billionaires and Norway’s crown princess

A fresh cache of files released on Friday related to the investigation into the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein contains documents that refer to numerous high-profile figures.
US President Donald Trump, tech billionaire Elon Musk and Britain’s former prince Andrew are among those making headlines after being named in the documents.
Here are key details about some of the others mentioned, none of whom has been accused of wrongdoing:

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates
In a draft email…

Was this fresco redone to look like Meloni? Italy PM says she’s no angel

Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni joked on Saturday that she does not look like an angel, after a row blew up in the media over a restored fresco in a Rome church.
Some of Italy’s press have been asking whether the premier served as inspiration for a cherub painted in a chapel in the Basilica of San Lorenzo in Lucina, located a few metres (yards) from the main building of the Italian government. The basilica is one of the oldest Christian churches in the city.
The newspaper La Repubblica…

UK’s ex-prince Andrew dogged again by Epstein scandal as new photos surface

Britain’s former prince Andrew was again engulfed by the Epstein scandal on Saturday, after newly released files included photographs of him kneeling on all fours over a woman lying on the floor.
The images were among millions of new documents disclosed Friday by the US Justice Department from the Jeffrey Epstein files, which also featured the late sex offender proposing in 2010 that the then prince meet a Russian woman.
That was two years after the disgraced US financier had pleaded guilty in…

Failures on 2 fronts led to Hong Kong’s seat belt U-turn, experts say

Hong Kong authorities’ swift U-turn on a law requiring bus passengers to wear seat belts came about because of a lack of public consultation during policymaking and a less than thorough crafting process for the regulatory fine print, political observers have said.
Failures on both fronts should serve as a wake-up call for officials and lawmakers to do much better and put themselves in the public’s shoes when formulating policies, they said.
In an embarrassing about-face, authorities announced on…

Hongkongers should brace for chilly Sunday as temperatures dip to 13 degrees

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Hongkongers should brace for cooler weather on Sunday as temperatures are expected to drop to as low as 13 degrees Celsius (55.4 Fahrenheit).
The Hong Kong Observatory said on Saturday that the mercury would plunge to about 13 degrees in urban areas the next day and a couple of degrees lower in the New Territories.
The maximum temperature is forecast to be 18…

The future of AI in music? US and China strike different chords

Dressed like 1970s rock stars evoking bands like Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Velvet Sundown look the part of a real band – with one key difference: despite millions of listeners, they do not exist. The group is generated by artificial intelligence.
AI-generated music is exploding, with the rapid expansion of platforms like the United States’ Suno and Udio, as well as China’s Mureka. From creation to copyright, the technology is making waves globally. But the US and China are approaching it…

Gas leak behind deadly Iran blast that stoked fears of US or Israeli attack

An explosion that hit a building in the southern Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas on Saturday was caused by a gas leak, according to a preliminary assessment, the local head of the fire department said.
Earlier, Iranian state media reported that at least one person had been killed and ⁠14 injured in the blast, which comes amid heightened tensions between Tehran and Washington over Iran’s crackdown earlier this month on nationwide protests and over the country’s nuclear programme.
“This [gas…

Pakistan multiple attacks kill 21, including children, with dozens of insurgents also dead

Separatists from Pakistan’s Balochistan province claimed responsibility for nearly a dozen coordinated attacks across southern Pakistan early on Saturday that targeted civilians, a high-security prison, police stations and paramilitary installations.
Eleven civilians, 10 security personnel and 67 insurgents were killed, authorities said.
Though Baloch separatists and the Pakistani Taliban frequently target security forces in Balochistan and elsewhere in the country, coordinated attacks on this…

CK Hutchison tipped to sell remaining ports despite Panama court ruling: experts

Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison Holdings is expected to move forward with selling its remaining port assets, despite Panama’s Supreme Court nullifying its contract for two terminals at either end of the country’s geostrategically vital canal, according to experts.
But the effort by billionaire Li Ka-shing’s conglomerate to offload the rest of its ports would still face scrutiny from Beijing and local authorities, and the overall deal might need to be re-evaluated, experts told the South China…

China’s military redoubles corruption fight in wake of Zhang Youxia’s downfall

China’s unrelenting anti-corruption drive will improve – not compromise – the military’s fighting strength, two signed commentaries published in the PLA Daily have argued.
The articles – one on Friday and the other on Saturday – in the People’s Liberation Army mouthpiece called corruption the “number one killer” of battle effectiveness and cautioned against both “unrealistic optimism” and “harmful pessimism” about the anti-graft campaign – suggesting the crackdown on corruption will not end any…

Film on Scotland community resisting immigration raid wins Sundance award

A documentary about a community resisting an immigration raid in Scotland has won an award at a major film festival.
Everybody To Kenmure Street was recognised with the World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Civil Resistance at the Sundance Film Festival in the US.
The film documents events on May 13, 2021, when hundreds of people gathered in Kenmure Street in the Pollokshields area of Glasgow to prevent two of their neighbours being detained.
The two men were released after protesters…

Hong Kong steps up scrutiny of private schools

Hong Kong’s private schools could be ordered to cease operating or have their registration revoked if their management is deemed unsatisfactory under new guidelines issued by education authorities.
The Education Bureau released a code of practice on Friday for private primary and secondary schools, following reports of poor management – including some allegedly offering unauthorised courses and collecting fees from parents without approval.
The document said the bureau might issue an advisory or…

Electricity lines between Ukraine, Moldova, Romania fail, causing mass outages

Ukraine’s power grid experienced mass outages on Saturday after a “technical malfunction” caused electrical lines between Moldova, Romania and Ukraine to fail, Ukraine’s energy minister said.
The outages knocked out water supplies to Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and prompted a complete shutdown of the city’s metro network, paralysing transport for thousands.
“Today at 10.42am a technical malfunction occurred, causing a simultaneous shutdown of the 400-kilovolt line between the power grids of Romania…

China’s military tightens fuel supply rules as US investigates cause of twin air crashes

The People’s Liberation Army has moved to tighten control over fuel supplies as part of its latest efforts to improve logistics – a cornerstone of combat readiness.
New regulations issued “recently” aimed to standardise the process of military fuel management in areas such as procurement, transport, storage and disposal, the official PLA Daily said on Tuesday.
The rules were also designed to introduce strict controls and joint military-civilian oversight to prevent misuse and to ensure…

‘Outcomes, not output’: Exco held 25% fewer meetings over John Lee’s tenure so far

Hong Kong’s top decision-making body has held 25 per cent fewer meetings in the first 3½ years of the current administration compared with the previous two governments, the South China Morning Post has found, with the group’s secretariat urging the public to focus on “outcomes of the work” rather than on the number of gatherings.
The Executive Council Secretariat stopped short of commenting on the trend directly due to the principle of confidentiality, but said the government had been…

Chinese military patrols Scarborough Shoal, 5 days after US-Philippine drills in area

China carried out naval and air patrols around Scarborough Shoal on Saturday – just days after joint US-Philippine drills nearby – underscoring tensions in the disputed South China Sea waters.
The PLA Southern Theatre Command issued a statement on the “combat readiness patrols” near the shoal, which China calls Huangyan Island.
They were aimed at countering “infringement and provocative actions by individual countries”, it said, in a thinly veiled reference to the United States and rival…

Labubu toymaker Pop Mart picks London as European headquarters, rolls out new stores

Labubu toymaker Pop Mart plans to establish its European headquarters in London, as UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer met the company’s founder during a high-profile China visit aimed at rebuilding Britain’s economic ties with the world’s second largest economy.
That plan was revealed at a closed-door CEO round table on Friday during the UK-China Business Forum, where Starmer met a group of Chinese business leaders that included Pop Mart founder and CEO Wang Ning.
“London stands at the heart of the…