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Indonesian police in the market for hi-tech Chinese equipment

2026-06-05T08:30:01+00:00

Indonesia is considering buying hi-tech policing equipment from China, setting out a shopping list for technology ranging from drones to tactical armoured vehicles at a police equipment trade show in Beijing.

The Indonesian National Police is particularly interested in counterterrorism equipment, including intelligence technology, tactical weapons, bomb disposal gear and special purpose vehicles, according to a list of requirements released at a forum held at the expo on Thursday.

Most of this equipment would be used to support high-intensity operations by the force’s Anti Terror Special Detachment 88 and the Mobile Brigade Corps, which combats separatists and insurgents.

The police are also looking to buy intelligence and surveillance equipment, such as intercept and tracking systems, thermal imaging reconnaissance drones and bomb disposal robots.

The force is also looking to buy tactical armoured vehicles, assault rifles and protective gear such as helmets and bulletproof vests, but the list stressed that Indonesia prioritised domestic procurement.

The two countries have stepped up their cooperation on law enforcement and security since Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto visited China in late 2024.

The police wish list was announced during a forum at the event. Photo: Albee Zhang.css-mkkf9p{-webkit-flex:1 1 auto;-ms-flex:1 1 auto;flex:1 1 auto;}

Energy now a focus of US-China contest of the century

2026-06-05T08:00:01+00:00

By Andrew Sheng

Given that control over energy reinforces superpower status, the contest of the century has morphed into an intense rivalry between China, a rising “electrostate”, and the United States, the world’s hydrocarbon hegemon safeguarding its position.

China recognises that electricity drives its economy. Despite being a major producer of coal, crude oil and natural gas, China remains an importer of these hydrocarbons. However, with strategic patience, through its five-year plans, the country has been diversifying into alternative energies, including solar, wind, hydro and nuclear energy.

Last year, China’s non-fossil-fuel power capacity surpassed that of fossil fuels for the first time – grid-connected wind and solar capacity alone now exceeds its coal capacity. Moreover, electricity generation using renewable sources has become cheaper than power generated by burning fossil fuels.

By making energy security a priority, rapidly decarbonising and cutting pollution through the transition to renewable energy, China has become the global leader in solar panel, wind turbine, battery, electric vehicle and grid technology.

The US, on the other hand, became the world’s top oil producer in the 19th century after the first oil wells were drilled in Pennsylvania. Today, it can produce 13.6 million barrels of oil daily and over 30 trillion cubic feet of natural gas per year. It is not only energy secure but also a net exporter, especially after shale oil production came on stream in the 21st century. As a result, the American system relies on fossil fuels to generate nearly 80 per cent of its energy.

The US’ status as hydrocarbon hegemon is thus secured by its strong position in the global hydrocarbon trade and provision of the required maritime security.

KMT leader says Taiwan can preserve peace by avoiding ‘de jure independence’

2026-06-05T07:00:01+00:00

By Yuanyue Dang

Taiwan’s main opposition leader said cross-strait peace can be maintained as long as Taipei did not move towards “de jure independence”, during her trip in the United States.

Cheng Li-wun, chairwoman of the Kuomintang (KMT), attended a closed-door seminar at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government on Thursday, according to a KMT statement on Friday.

Cheng told the seminar that peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, which she described as the greatest common denominator with US and regional interests, could be sustained “as long as Taiwan does not cross the red line of ‘de jure independence’”, a KMT statement said.

A “credible military deterrent” and “a smooth and sincere framework for dialogue” were both important to preventing conflict, Cheng added, according to the statement.

Beijing views Taiwan as part of China to be reunited with the mainland, by force if necessary. Most countries, including the US, do not recognise Taiwan as an independent state, but Washington opposes any attempt to change the status quo by force and is committed to supplying the island with defensive weapons.

“De jure independence” usually refers to using legal means to assert, explicitly or implicitly, that Taiwan and mainland China are two separate countries.

Trump urges new spy chief Pulte to gut US intelligence community

2026-06-05T05:30:01+00:00

By Agence France-Presse

US President Donald Trump said Friday he wants his incoming acting spy chief to start firing employees, deepening the controversy over the appointment of a man with no previous intelligence experience.

Bill Pulte, a Trump loyalist who heads the Federal Housing Finance Agency, was named by the Republican president on Tuesday as acting Director of National Intelligence.

“If he cut, I wouldn’t mind that,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One, adding that the number of employees in Pulte’s office had been “way too high for way too long”.

Trump had earlier said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal that he wanted Pulte – who will oversee the 18 sprawling US intelligence agencies – to slash employee numbers.

“I’d like to see it smaller. I think there are a lot of people in there that shouldn’t be there,” Trump told the newspaper, citing holdouts from the Biden and Obama administrations.

Democrats have condemned Pulte’s appointment to replace Tulsi Gabbard as intelligence chief, pointing to the loyalist’s history of weaponising government records against Trump’s opponents.

Bill Pulte (left) testifies on Capitol Hill in February 2025. Photo: Reuters.css-mkkf9p{-webkit-flex:1 1 auto;-ms-flex:1 1 auto;flex:1 1 auto;}

Death of girl, 11, in France sparks storm over cracks in judicial system

2026-06-05T05:30:06+00:00

By Associated Press

A firestorm of recrimination raged in France on Friday over failures in the justice system that kept a man now suspected in the disappearance and death of an 11-year-old girl out of custody despite allegations that he preyed on young adolescents.

The disappearance of the girl identified by police as Lyhanna and days of searches that ended with the discovery of her body in a disused grain silo have gripped national and, increasingly, political attention since she went missing in the southwestern Gers region on May 29.

Police notices said she had been wearing a black-and-white striped top, black shorts and yellow socks with branding from the Japanese manga series One Piece.

After six days of searching by police and volunteers, authorities announced Thursday that a child’s body dressed in “similar clothes” had been found.

Police were led to the grain silo by a tip-off that the suspect in custody had previously worked there, Gers-region prosecutor Olivier Naboulet said in a statement on Friday evening.

DNA matching confirmed the body was Lyhanna’s but more autopsy work is needed to determine the cause of death, Naboulet said.

First AI-designed ‘universal vaccine’ tested in humans

2026-06-05T04:30:01+00:00

By Agence France-Presse

A vaccine targeting a broad range of viruses that was designed using artificial intelligence had a “modest” effect on immune systems in a small, early trial, according to a new study.

The trial marks the first time a vaccine whose active ingredient was entirely designed by AI has been tested in humans, researchers at the University of Cambridge in the UK said on Friday.

The experimental jab is intended to be a “universal vaccine” which protects people against a range of viruses that have previously sparked deadly outbreaks including severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars), Middle East respiratory syndrome (Mers) and Covid-19.

The researchers expressed hopes that this type of vaccine could one day help fend off future pandemics.

“We’ve converted vaccine development from being reactive to being future proof,” Cambridge researcher and study co-author Jonathan Heeney said in a statement.

Currently, vaccines for viruses such as the flu and Covid have to be regularly updated to target the latest strains.

US judge strikes down Trump policies targeting immigrants from 39 countries

2026-06-05T03:30:01+00:00

By Reuters

President Donald ⁠Trump’s administration unlawfully barred applicants from ⁠39 travel-ban countries from receiving decisions on asylum, work permits, green cards and citizenship, a US federal judge ruled on Friday.

Chief US District Judge John McConnell in Providence, Rhode Island, ruled that the US Citizenship and ‌Immigration Services had adopted a series of unlawful policies targeting people from 39 African, Asian, Latin American and Middle Eastern countries.

His ruling came in a lawsuit filed in March by a coalition of immigrant service organisations and labour unions challenging a suite of policies adopted starting in November by USCIS, which is part ⁠of the US Department of Homeland Security.

Those measures placed a hold on processing ‌immigration benefit applications from people in the 39 countries subject to Trump’s full or partial travel bans, which he has justified on vetting ‌and security grounds. Green cards grant foreign nationals permanent resident status.

DHS did ⁠not immediately respond ⁠to a request for comment.

McConnell, who was appointed by Democratic US President Barack Obama, said those policies “threw ‌the lives of countless immigrants living in the United States into indeterminate legal limbo”.

The US Citizenship and Immigration Services office is seen in downtown San Francisco in November 2019. Photo: TNS.css-mkkf9p{-webkit-flex:1 1 auto;-ms-flex:1 1 auto;flex:1 1 auto;}

Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Ted Lasso actor Anthony Head dies aged 72

2026-06-05T03:30:06+00:00

By Agence France-Presse

Actor Anthony Head, best known for his roles in Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Ted Lasso, has died at the age of 72, his family announced on Friday.

The British actor, the brother of singer Murray Head, was best known as librarian Rupert Giles in the cult US supernatural television series starring Sarah Michelle Gellar, which ran from 1997 to 2003.

“It is with heavy hearts that we announce the death of our extraordinary father, Anthony Head,” his daughters Emily and Daisy Head, said in a statement released to the PA news agency.

“He passed away peacefully of complications due to pneumonia, surrounded by his family. It has been, and forever will be, an honour and a privilege to be his daughters, and to have witnessed first-hand the impact both he and his work have had on so many,” they added.

Head rose to fame in the UK in the 1980s in a series of television adverts for coffee.

Anthony Head poses at the 51st Monaco Television Festival in Monte Carlo, Monaco, in June 2010. Photo: AP.css-mkkf9p{-webkit-flex:1 1 auto;-ms-flex:1 1 auto;flex:1 1 auto;}

Astronauts take shelter as air leaks worsen on International Space Station

2026-06-05T03:00:01+00:00

By Reuters

A worsening air leak aboard the International Space Station prompted five astronauts to take shelter and prepare for evacuation for roughly two hours on Friday as Russia attempted to ‌fix a crack on its portion of the orbital laboratory, Nasa said.

The four astronauts of Nasa’s Crew-12 mission aboard the station – two Americans, a French astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut – along with another US astronaut were ordered by Nasa mission control at 9.04am on Friday to enter their SpaceX-built Crew Dragon spacecraft docked to the station, Nasa spokeswoman Bethany Stevens said.

Nasa reversed that order roughly two hours later and told the astronauts they could return to the station as the agency and its ⁠Russian counterparts examined the rate of leaking air.

Nasa and Russia’s space agency Roscosmos, the station’s two primary operators, have debated for months ‌over the cause and potential fixes of small air leaks aboard Russia’s Zvezda service module, a key structure of the ISS, a football field-size orbital laboratory where astronauts live and work in space.

Roscosmos said on Friday that ‌its experts had detected two leaks aboard the ISS but that there was no immediate threat to the crew. The ⁠first leak was quickly sealed, ⁠and preparations were under way to seal the second one, Roscosmos said, adding that there was no threat to the spacecraft’s systems.

The air leaks have been relatively minor in ‌recent months but escalated on Friday from a pound of air (about 450 grams) per day to two pounds, according to a senior Nasa official who asked not to be named.

A view of Earth from the International Space Station is seen in June 2013. Photo: Nasa via Reuters.css-mkkf9p{-webkit-flex:1 1 auto;-ms-flex:1 1 auto;flex:1 1 auto;}

How Chinese drink chains are testing the limits of soft power

2026-06-05T02:30:02+00:00

By Lucy Quaggin

Makeda George steps out of a Mixue store in downtown Brooklyn, New York, clutching a bubble tea as she weaves through a crowd of teenagers. The local resident says she had been eager to try the brand after noticing a surge of new outlets opening in recent months.

“I decided to try the bubble tea. It was good,” she said, adding that she did not know it was a Chinese drink chain but figured it was Asian given the branding.

“Everywhere you go, every nook, every cranny, you just see them popping up.”

Across New York City and beyond, a new wave of beverage chains is expanding rapidly, bringing tea-based offerings, unique flavours and a design aesthetic distinct from American legacy brands such as Starbucks.

The new entrants share a different origin story: they are all Chinese-founded brands expanding their cultural footprint.

A few miles away in Sunset Park, Brooklyn’s largest Chinatown, HeyTea has adopted a sleeker Chinese-modern aesthetic with digital ordering screens, minimalist branding and carefully styled drinks, including jasmine-based teas.

And across town at a Mixue location in Manhattan’s Chinatown, thirsty customers wait for drinks like spring oolong milk tea, ordering from grab-and-go screens beneath the gaze of the chain’s mascot: an ice-cream-holding snowman whose face is plastered across the shop. Mixue’s chirpy theme song plays on a loop.

Hong Kong man arrested for allegedly groping schoolgirl on bus

2026-06-05T02:00:01+00:00

By Ng Kang-chung

Hong Kong police have arrested a 65-year-old man in connection with a suspected indecent assault case in Mong Kok hours after footage appeared online showing a passenger harassing a schoolgirl sitting in front of him on a bus.

Police said officers intercepted the suspect at the boundary checkpoint of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge.

The victim, 17, is understood to be a Form Three student.

The incident took place at around noon on Friday as the KMB bus was stopping near an intersection of Mong Kok Road and Sai Yeung Choi Street South.

The 37-second video filmed from what appeared to be the opposite side of the road shows a man in a white tank top reaching his left arm forward to touch the side of the chest of a girl in a school uniform sitting directly in the row in front of him on the upper deck of the bus.

The victim is looking at her phone and seems to lean forward slightly as if trying to avoid the touch. But she remains in her seat.

UK’s Keir Starmer says Russia could attack Nato within 4 years

2026-06-05T01:30:01+00:00

By Agence France-Presse

Russia could attack a Nato country within four years according to western intelligence assessments, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer warned on Friday.

He made the comments as he pledged his government would publish a long-delayed defence investment plan before next month’s Nato summit.

“It is our intelligence assessment and the assessment of other countries in Nato that there could be an attack by Russia on Nato as soon as 2030,” Starmer said.

“So you can see the urgency and the priority that we’re putting behind this now,” he added during a visit to a drone manufacturer in southwest England.

It echoes similar time frames expressed by other European leaders and Nato chief Mark Rutte who warned in December that Russia “could be ready to use military force against Nato within five years”.

Starmer has pledged to raise defence spending to 2.5 per cent of gross domestic product from next year, increasing to three per cent in the next parliament.

Hong Kong ideal platform for Uzbek firms to spread wings globally, John Lee says

2026-06-05T01:00:01+00:00

By Jeffie Lam

Hong Kong serves as an ideal platform to help Uzbek enterprises expand through its world-class professional services and international business environment, the city’s leader has told the Central Asian country’s prime minister as he wrapped up a five-day regional tour.

Sources said Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu on Friday also invited Prime Minister Abdulla Aripov to be a keynote speaker at the coming Belt and Road Summit to be held in Hong Kong in September.

It was understood that during a meeting with the 70-strong delegation led by Lee, Aripov outlined dozens of collaborative projects with Hong Kong and assigned his ministers to follow up on them.

Several mainland Chinese and Hong Kong business representatives in the delegation expressed strong enthusiasm for the initiatives.

Among them was Peter Lee Ka-kit, co-chairman and managing director of Henderson Land Development, who noted that Hong Kong and China Gas Company, or Towngas, which he co-chairs, was highly interested in expanding its commercial operations in Uzbekistan.

During the meeting, John Lee acknowledged Uzbekistan’s active economic reforms in recent years.

He stressed that Hong Kong could help play a pivotal role as an international financial centre backed by a robust rule-of-law environment, a transparent regulatory regime, and an open market.

Most Asia-Pacific firms use AI for tasks without cutting jobs: survey

2026-06-05T00:30:01+00:00

By Kolette Lim

While a wave of job cuts across Asia’s finance and other industries due to wider use of artificial intelligence has spurred concerns, a new study shows that the technology’s net impact on employment is not as clear-cut.

Recruiters and industry observers say many companies are adding AI-related roles without having to lay off workers.

A study by professional services firm Aon released on Wednesday shows that 74 per cent of 504 companies surveyed across industries in the Asia-Pacific region have deployed or piloted AI programmes. Firms surveyed include those in Singapore, Hong Kong, mainland China, Malaysia, the Philippines and India.

A quarter of the companies expected AI adoption to lead to job displacement, but 84 per cent said they were using the technology to perform certain tasks without completely replacing jobs.

In May, Meta announced 8,000 layoffs around the world as it stepped up restructuring and investments in AI, with some of its Singapore-based staff among those who were let go.

A Standard Chartered bank in Singapore. The lender has said it will cut more than 15 per cent of its corporate function roles by 2030 due to its increasing use of AI. Photo: Reuters.css-mkkf9p{-webkit-flex:1 1 auto;-ms-flex:1 1 auto;flex:1 1 auto;}

Xi Jinping’s ‘chief of staff’ Cai Qi takes Central Party School helm

2026-06-05T00:30:06+00:00

By Josephine Ma

Cai Qi, the fifth-ranked member in the Communist Party’s hierarchy, has been picked to head the Central Party School, the top training ground for cadres.

Cai, 70, sits on the elite Politburo Standing Committee and is secretary of the party’s secretariat as well as director of the party’s general office.

Responsible for daily operations of the party’s nerve centre, Cai is often referred to as President Xi Jinping’s chief of staff.

His new post at the party school means that he will also oversee the training and selection of the party’s top officials.

The appointment became public on Friday when state broadcaster CCTV reported on a school graduation ceremony.

Cai has worked with Xi for decades and long been seen as one of his closest aides.

The two men first crossed paths in the eastern province of Fujian in the 1980s and again in neighbouring Zhejiang province in the 2000s, when Xi was promoted to various leadership positions.

Summer most likely window for US attack on Cuba, Chinese defence tech firm says

2026-06-05T00:30:11+00:00

By Amber Wang

Any US military attack on Cuba would most likely take place this summer, according to a Chinese defence technology company closely tracking US military movements around the island.

The assessment by Jingan Technology, a civilian start-up founded in 2021 in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, said that if the US were to use force against Cuba, it would most likely take the form of a rapid “decapitation and paralysis” operation aimed at regime change, rather than a large-scale invasion.

The company uses artificial intelligence and data analytics to analyse national security and defence challenges. It based its assessment on the “rhythm” of US military deployments around Cuba – which it said intensified in recent months – and on political cycles.

“As the US-Iran gambit slides towards a defining conclusion, the US urgently needs to achieve a low-cost, high-yield symbolic strategic victory in its ‘geopolitical backyard’ of the western hemisphere to restore its global dominance and deterrence posture,” it said in an article published on its social media account on Thursday.

The timing of the US midterm elections in November was also cited as a potential driver, with the company suggesting that US President Donald Trump might seek a quick win to boost political support.

However, it also added that the potential summer window was constrained by high uncertainty in the US-Iran war, which could divert US military resources to the Middle East and ultimately determine whether any operation against Cuba was feasible.

China launches space computing hub as SpaceX gears up for historic IPO

2026-06-05T00:30:16+00:00

By Ben Jiang

China is ramping up its bets on space-based artificial intelligence computing with the launch of a state-backed research institute in Beijing, accelerating a frontier tech race with the US just as Elon Musk’s SpaceX eyes a record-shattering US$75 billion market debut to fund its own orbital AI ambitions.

The establishment of the Beijing Space Intelligent Computing Research Institute marks a major step in the superpowers’ AI rivalry, which is increasingly extending beyond Earth as terrestrial AI data centres face energy bottlenecks.

The facility was established in late May in the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area, a hi-tech hub known as E-Town that hosts many Chinese robotics and AI firms.

It was launched by a consortium of backers led by the National Information Technology Application Innovation Park – a joint initiative established in 2019 by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the Beijing municipal government.

The institute would focus on cutting-edge research across space-computing chips, inter-satellite laser communication, space energy and space safety standards, according to a notice published on Friday by the Beijing Association for Science and Technology (BAST).

It aims to develop and launch a pilot satellite by the end of 2028.

A banner from China’s private rocket company LandSpace, which is one of the backers of the Beijing Space Intelligent Computing Research Institute. Photo: Reuters.css-mkkf9p{-webkit-flex:1 1 auto;-ms-flex:1 1 auto;flex:1 1 auto;}

Norway crown princess awaits lung transplant

2026-06-05T00:00:01+00:00

By Reuters

Norway’s Crown Princess Mette-Marit has been placed on a waiting list for a lung transplant after a significant deterioration in her health that likely gave her only a year left to live without the surgery, her doctors said on Friday.

The 52-year-old wife of Crown Prince Haakon, the ‌heir to the Norwegian throne, was diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis in 2018, a chronic disease that causes scarring in the lungs and leads to a reduced oxygen uptake.

Oslo’s University Hospital in December said the time was approaching when a transplant must be performed, and that the crown princess had not yet been placed on Norway’s list of possible recipients.

But in recent months there had been a “dramatic deterioration” in Mette-Marit’s condition, giving her only around a year left to ⁠live, Oslo University Hospital Professor Are Holm told a press conference on Friday.

“It is a major and demanding operation, and you ‌have to be sick enough to need it, while at the same time healthy enough to withstand the surgery and the difficult course of treatment,” Holm told reporters.

The royal palace in a statement said Mette-Marit’s ‌condition was “life-threatening”.

Chief physician and lung specialist Are Holm speaks about the health condition of Norway’s Crown Princess Mette-Marit at Rikshospitalet hospital in Oslo on Friday. Photo: EPA.css-mkkf9p{-webkit-flex:1 1 auto;-ms-flex:1 1 auto;flex:1 1 auto;}

Do China-Russia trade payment frictions show limits of de-dollarisation?

2026-06-04T23:30:01+00:00

By Sylvia Ma

China and Russia have largely moved away from the US dollar in bilateral trade settlement, with most transactions now settled in their own currencies. Yet cross-border payment bottlenecks persist as Chinese banks carefully manage their exposure to Washington’s sanctions regime, according to a senior Russian banker.

At the heart of the friction is a stark balancing act facing Chinese lenders: how to ease trade with Russia while safeguarding access to the US dollar-based global financial system – a tension that some analysts believe highlights the practical limits of de-dollarisation.

“In practice, we are seeing constantly occurring gaps within the payment infrastructure,” said Alexander Vedyakhin, first deputy chairman of the management board at Sberbank, Russia’s largest bank.

“Payment routes are becoming many times more complex, requiring the inclusion of additional intermediary banks, which often reject payments without providing a detailed explanation of the reasons.”

Speaking at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum 2026 on Wednesday, Vedyakhin noted that Chinese banks had been forced to balance risks to avoid falling victim to secondary sanctions, limiting Russian lenders’ access to direct banking channels.

Unlike primary sanctions, which directly target Russian individuals and entities, secondary sanctions allow Washington to penalise foreign financial institutions for easing certain transactions involving targeted Russian parties. The risk has increased significantly since late 2023, when the US expanded those measures to curb Russia’s war economy in Ukraine.

EU needs a ‘dedicated instrument’ to unwind China dependencies, trade chief says

2026-06-04T23:30:06+00:00

By Finbarr Bermingham

The EU’s trade chief has confirmed publicly for the first time that the bloc is considering a specific rule to compel companies to diversify their suppliers, as Europe looks to unwind its dependencies on China.

“Diversification now requires a dedicated instrument,” Trade and Economic Security Commissioner Maros Sefcovic said on Friday, adding that he would model it on the manner in which the EU reduced its reliance on Russian energy following its invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

“Recent industrial cases, in particular supplies of chips and rare earths, have reinforced my conviction that a step change is necessary. We understand the urgency for critical minerals, but every high-risk sector must be weaned off single-supplier dependence,” Sefcovic said, in a speech at the Brussels Economic Security Forum.

The remarks appeared to allude to Beijing’s export controls on critical minerals and semiconductors amid a China-US trade war and a dispute with Netherlands-based chipmaker Nexperia last year. Each round of controls brought parts of European industry to the brink of pausing production.

Sefcovic said he would bring his recommendations to the European Council meeting of EU national leaders on June 18 and 19.

“What you can expect from us is that we kind of mapped out the situation, and I would say the assessment of the overall relationship with China will be presented to the 27 heads of state and government, and I believe that after that we will get political guidance on what concrete tools we should focus on,” Sefcovic said.

The separate legal instrument to compel companies to diversify their suppliers has not yet been confirmed, Maros Sefcovic says. Photo: EPA.css-mkkf9p{-webkit-flex:1 1 auto;-ms-flex:1 1 auto;flex:1 1 auto;}