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Ex-US Olympian indicted in what Trump called Reflecting Pool vandalism

2026-07-02T06:00:01+00:00

A former Olympian was indicted on Thursday on a felony charge in what US President Donald Trump has called vandalism of the Reflecting Pool.

David Hearn, a former Olympic canoe racer, was indicted on a single count of property destruction in a Washington court.

District of Columbia US Attorney Jeanine Pirro said Hearn ripped up recently installed sealant on pool in “a deliberate act” that caused more than US$1,000 in damage.

She accused him of “forcefully and violently” pulling up bottom liner “with both hands” and acting belligerent towards an employee who told him to stop.

“This is a case with tremendous evidence,” she said, adding that authorities have made about six other misdemeanour arrests.

Hearn did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment.

US Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro speaks during a press conference in Washington on Thursday. Photo: AFP.css-mkkf9p{-webkit-flex:1 1 auto;-ms-flex:1 1 auto;flex:1 1 auto;}

UK teen rapists get detention after outrage at lenient sentences

2026-07-02T05:30:01+00:00

By Agence France-Presse

Two British teenagers convicted of rape must serve time in custody, an appeal judge ruled on Thursday, after a public outcry over a judge’s decision to spare them detention.

Lower court judge Nicholas Rowland in May sentenced the two 15-year-old boys to three-year youth rehabilitation orders, saying he wanted to “avoid criminalising these children unnecessarily”.

However, the sentences provoked a severe backlash, prompting Attorney General Richard Hermer – the government’s chief legal adviser – to refer them to the Court of Appeal in London as potentially “unduly lenient”.

The teenagers raped two girls, aged 14 and 15, in separate incidents in November 2024 and January 2025 in Hampshire in southern England. Video footage of the attacks were shared online.

Quashing the sentences, Judge Sue Carr told the pair, who cannot be named due to their age, they both needed “to go into detention” and sentenced them to four years’ youth detention.

“What you did was so bad that we have no other choice,” she said, addressing them by video link.

China signals openness to reducing gaping EU trade surplus as Brussels toughens stance

2026-07-02T05:30:06+00:00

By Finbarr Bermingham

China told the European Union that it is open to exploring ways to cut its massive trade surplus with the bloc during talks in Brussels on Monday, according to multiple people briefed on the discussion.

Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao signalled to EU trade chief Maros Sefcovic that China was willing to consider purchase agreements covering European goods. The discussions touched on lowering tariffs on EU-made goods, in a rare sign that China recognises that its billion-euro a day trade surplus has become a political problem.

Related to that, Beijing is also, and perhaps surprisingly, open to slowing its massive surge in exports to the 27-member union, which has led to fears of European manufacturers being wiped out by cut-price and increasingly high-quality Chinese goods. But Wang expressed more enthusiasm for increasing imports from Europe, some of the people said.

Publicly, Beijing has played down the significance of the trade gap, insisting it is simply the result of market demand in Europe for Chinese goods. In previous meetings, Chinese officials have said Dutch export controls on expensive semiconductor-making machines prevent it from rebalancing trade.

The apparent shift on Monday could be due to an emerging EU appetite to gird its China policy with new weapons following a debate on the topic between the member states last month.

The EU is interested in using tariff-rate quotas to stem to stem the deluge of Chinese products arriving at EU ports in key sectors. This two-tiered system – known as safeguards – would allow a specific quantity of a product to enter a country at a reduced tariff rate. Once this limit is reached, any additional imports are subject to a significantly higher tariff.

Shipping containers at a European port, as Brussels weighs new measures to address its trade imbalance with China. Photo: Handout.css-mkkf9p{-webkit-flex:1 1 auto;-ms-flex:1 1 auto;flex:1 1 auto;}

Bomb blast at Damascus cafe kills 6, Syria authorities say

2026-07-02T04:30:01+00:00

By Agence France-Presse

A bomb blast at a cafe in Damascus on Thursday killed six people and wounded 22, authorities said, in the latest challenge for Syria’s Islamist leaders as they seek to stabilise the country after more than a decade of war.

The bombing – the deadliest since a suicide attack on a church last year – was not immediately claimed.

It took place near the capital’s Palace of Justice, a key government building, sparking scenes of panic in the busy area.

Ambulances wove through traffic with their sirens blaring as they headed to the site, and security forces cordoned off the area of the blast.

“The explosion that occurred in a cafe near the Palace of Justice in Damascus resulted from an explosive device planted in the location,” state television said.

Nour Khayyat, 40, who owns a shop selling batteries for solar panels near the site, said that “at about 3pm, I heard a powerful blast and the storefront shook”.

Police have cordoned off the area around a cafe in Damascus where an explosion was reported on Thursday. Photo: Reuters.css-mkkf9p{-webkit-flex:1 1 auto;-ms-flex:1 1 auto;flex:1 1 auto;}

WHO declares cruise ship-linked hantavirus outbreak over

2026-07-02T04:00:01+00:00

By Agence France-Presse

The World Health Organization on Thursday declared an end to the deadly hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship which sparked international alarm, after the last person left quarantine.

There were 12 confirmed and one probable case stemming from the MV Hondius, including three deaths.

But while the outbreak is now over, for scientists and experts, the work is only in its early stages, as they try to learn lessons from the episode that triggered a global health alert.

“Today, the final contact of a person exposed to hantavirus on the cruise ship MV Hondius completed their quarantine period, tested negative and returned home,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a press conference.

“No further cases have been reported since May 25. We are therefore very pleased to say that WHO considers the outbreak of hantavirus over.”

The Dutch-flagged ship set off on April 1 from Ushuaia, Argentina, taking in remote islands in the South Atlantic Ocean, including Tristan da Cunha, before heading north to Tenerife in Spain’s Canary Islands, where remaining passengers were evacuated.

Venezuelan man rescued from rubble 8 days after deadly quakes: ‘truly a miracle’

2026-07-02T03:30:01+00:00

By Agence France-Presse

Hundreds of rescuers in Venezuela cheered and embraced on Thursday after pulling a 43-year-old man alive from the ruins of a collapsed building eight days after deadly twin earthquakes.

With the official death toll nearing 2,300 and huge numbers of people still missing, the rescue of security guard Hernan Gil after so long under the rubble was greeted as a miracle.

Gil was brought out on a stretcher after a painstaking operation to extract him from the collapsed seven-storey building where he worked in Catia La Mar, a coastal area almost entirely razed to the ground in the June 24 catastrophe.

“This is truly a miracle,” Gil’s wife Gusbimar Gonzalez said.

Teams from seven countries – Venezuela, Chile, the United States, Portugal, Costa Rica, El Salvador, and Mexico – worked around the clock over three days to reach Gil.

They provided him with more than 10 litres (21 US pints) of water to keep him hydrated via a hose and installed a tube to provide him with oxygen.

Hernan Gil’s wife, Gusbimar Gonzalez, is seen among rescuers before he was pulled out from the rubble in Catia La Mar on Thursday. Photo: AFP.css-mkkf9p{-webkit-flex:1 1 auto;-ms-flex:1 1 auto;flex:1 1 auto;}

Cyberattack on Hong Kong’s Shun Hing Group affects data of 1 million people

2026-07-02T02:30:01+00:00

By Jeffie Lam

A cyberattack on leading Hong Kong appliance distributor Shun Hing Group has compromised the personal information of more than 1 million people, according to the city’s privacy watchdog.

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data said on Thursday that it had launched an investigation into the incident after receiving a data breach report from Shun Hing Group on March 23.

The latest information provided by the company suggested that the personal data of as many as 1.05 million people, mostly its customers, had been maliciously encrypted, the watchdog said.

Personal information of more than 920,000 customers – including their names, addresses and email addresses – was involved. Some 1,000 employees were also affected, with additional data such as their identity card numbers, bank account details and salary information jeopardised.

In a statement issued in April, Shun Hing Group said it had detected unauthorised access and damage to its computer systems caused by a cyberattack, adding it had since filed a police report and engaged an independent team of cybersecurity experts to investigate the incident.

The company, founded in 1953, is the exclusive agent and sole distributor for Japanese electronics giant Panasonic in Hong Kong and Macau.

Lam Wing-kee, Hong Kong bookseller detained in mainland China, dies

2026-07-02T02:00:01+00:00

By Wynna Wong

Hong Kong bookseller Lam Wing-kee, who publicly recounted being abducted and detained by mainland Chinese authorities in 2015, has died at the age of 70 after a years-long battle with lung cancer, according to Taiwanese media.

Local media reported that Lam, who moved to Taiwan in 2019, was admitted to Mackay Memorial Hospital in Taipei on Tuesday, but his condition worsened and he fell into a coma.

He was pronounced dead on Thursday evening.

Last year, he disclosed that his lung adenocarcinoma had returned and advanced to stage four despite initial treatment.

Lam, the former manager of Causeway Bay Books, which sold titles critical of Chinese leaders, was among five Hong Kong booksellers who disappeared in late 2015 and resurfaced across the border.

After being allowed to return to Hong Kong in June 2016 to retrieve customer records, he approached then-lawmaker Albert Ho Chun-yan of the now-defunct Democratic Party, who helped him hold a press conference detailing his detention.

Lam said he had been kidnapped and blindfolded at the border and subsequently held in solitary confinement, repeatedly interrogated, told to make televised confessions and denied access to his family and a lawyer.

The controversy prompted Hong Kong’s justice and security ministers to make a whirlwind visit to Beijing to learn details about the case and open talks with mainland officials on how to fix their cross-border system of mutual notification, as the city government had been kept in the dark for months over the booksellers’ disappearance.

Lam Wing-kee at his Casueway Bay Books in Taipei in April 2020. Photo: EPA-EFE.css-mkkf9p{-webkit-flex:1 1 auto;-ms-flex:1 1 auto;flex:1 1 auto;}

US job growth falters, testing Trump’s Republicans ahead of midterm election

2026-07-02T01:30:01+00:00

By Agence France-Presse

The United States posted weaker-than-expected job growth in June as new data showed the labour market is facing headwinds ahead of the testing midterm election for President Donald Trump’s Republicans.

Total nonfarm payroll employment grew by 57,000 and the unemployment rate fell slightly to 4.2 per cent, the US Bureau of Labour Statistics (BLS) said in a statement on Thursday.

After months of seesawing growth and contraction, the US job market posted strong gains in the last three months, but Thursday’s data revised some of those numbers down.

Employment in April and May was revised down by 74,000 jobs, the BLS said.

June’s data badly missed market expectations, with economists polled by Dow Jones Newswires and the Wall Street Journal expecting growth of 115,000 jobs.

Nevertheless, job growth remained in positive territory, with the US Federal Reserve not expected to intervene on the labour side of its mandate.

Could China’s containerised aircraft launcher reshape rules of modern warfare?

2026-07-02T01:30:06+00:00

By Liu Zhen

Fresh footage has offered the first look at China’s truck-mounted electromagnetic catapult launching a drone, with its developer unveiling details of this large family of containerised weapon systems.

The footage shows three eight-wheeled flat-top trucks driving on to what appears to be an airfield runway. Once aligned and connected via mechanical hinges, they form a continuous platform, along which a fixed-wing propeller drone accelerates and takes off.

The Beijing Institute of Technology’s (BIT) school of mechanical engineering posted the video to social media on Tuesday – about six months after the system was first seen aboard the cargo vessel Zhong Da 79 at a Shanghai shipyard.

The post appears to have been deleted.

The late-December sighting attracted much attention, with photographs showing a range of military equipment, including vertical missile launchers, radar sensors and self-defence systems, all integrated into modified freight containers.

The new video also features a scene of the latest containerised modules revealed in Tuesday’s post – including the segmented electromagnetic aircraft launch system (EMALS) – being loaded onto the Zhong Da 79.

A screenshot of the video showing the Zhong Da 79 being loaded with containerised systems. Photo: BIT/WeChat.css-mkkf9p{-webkit-flex:1 1 auto;-ms-flex:1 1 auto;flex:1 1 auto;}

Papua rebels shoot American pilot dead, torch plane to send ‘message’ to US

2026-07-02T01:00:01+00:00

By Reuters

Rebels in Indonesia’s restive easternmost region of Papua on Thursday shot ⁠dead an American pilot and ⁠set a civilian plane on fire in ⁠what a spokesperson for a local separatist group described as a “message” to the US and Indonesian governments.

A low-level battle for independence from Indonesia has long raged in the resource-rich western half of Papua, where attacks by independence fighters have grown deadlier and more ‌frequent as they have procured better weaponry.

Sebby Sambom, a spokesman for the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB), an armed separatist group, said that their troops shot dead American pilot Nicholas F. Gosselin and set his plane on fire after it landed in the Yahukimo region of Highland Papua province.

He said the aircraft had been “frequently dropping Indonesian military personnel and violating the TPNPB’s ultimatum”.

Yusuf Sutejo, spokesman ⁠for Indonesia’s joint police-military operations in Papua, confirmed that a plane with an American pilot carrying seven passengers ‌was found burned at a local airport in Yahukimo, but he could not confirm whether it had been attacked by rebels, or whether the pilot was killed. ‌All the passengers were Papuans, he said.

The attack in the Balinggama district of Yahukimo was ⁠a message to the ⁠Indonesian and US governments for “failing to address the root causes of the conflict in Papua between the Indonesian military and the West ‌Papua National Liberation Army”, Sebby said.

US ban on Chinese inverters would harm local power industry, firms warn

2026-07-02T01:00:06+00:00

By Xiaofei Xu

The United States’ reported plan to ban foreign-made inverters – a move likely aimed at curbing reliance on China – would be difficult to implement and harmful to local industry, Chinese industry insiders have warned.

Washington is working on a plan to ban foreign inverters – a vital component used in renewable power systems – over national security concerns, Reuters reported on Tuesday, with a draft potentially set to be published by the end of the year.

China dominates the global market for inverters, and US officials are reportedly concerned about the potential for Beijing to disrupt American power supplies. The European Union banned the use of inverters from “high-risk” suppliers in all EU-funded projects earlier this year.

But phasing out Chinese inverters will not be easy, according to the Chinese inverter giant Sungrow. It took China 20 years to develop its industrial chain for the product, and it could take the United States five years to build out its own local supply chain, the firm warned in a statement released on Thursday.

“US domestic brands hold around 10 per cent market share. Building a complete industrial chain cannot be achieved overnight,” it added.

Sungrow and its Chinese peer Huawei Technologies are the world’s top two suppliers of inverters, according to a report by the natural resources consultancy Wood Mackenzie released earlier this year. Chinese firms make up six of the top 10 global suppliers in the ranking.

During an investor relations event on Wednesday, details of which were released on Thursday, Sungrow vowed to strictly abide by local laws and respond to trade barriers through “product competitiveness and customer trust”.

Aftermath of Venezuela’s earthquake, China-Colombia ties: 7 Latin America relations reads

2026-07-02T01:00:11+00:00

By SCMP

We have selected seven of the most interesting and important news stories covering Latin American relations from the past few weeks. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva thanked China for clearing the country’s beef of foot-and-mouth disease and fired a barb at US President Donald Trump, saying “I will sell to someone else”, after Washington announced new tariffs on Brazilian goods.

Read the full story here.

For generations, Chinese migrants have built businesses in Venezuela. After the country’s deadliest earthquake in decades – which occurred in late June and killed nearly 1,500 people, injured more than 3,100 and displaced over 12,700 – they responded not as outsiders but as Venezuelans.

Read the full story here.

The EU offered Brazil a “more beneficial” partnership on critical minerals than the United States or China, promising investment in domestic refining and technology as Brussels worked to cut its dependence on Chinese supply chains.

Photo: Reuters.css-mkkf9p{-webkit-flex:1 1 auto;-ms-flex:1 1 auto;flex:1 1 auto;}

Photo: Handout

Photo: EPA

Philippine senator links fatal school shooting to 764 online extremist network

2026-07-01T23:30:02+00:00

By Sam Beltran

A deadly school shooting in the central Philippines has prompted warnings from lawmakers and cybersecurity experts that violent online extremist networks may be approaching Filipino children through gaming platforms and chat groups.

At a Senate hearing on Wednesday, Philippine Senator Risa Hontiveros said there were signs that the perpetrators behind a deadly school shooting in Tacloban City might have been influenced by 764, a nihilistic violent extremist network accused of targeting vulnerable children online.

“These are not yet final conclusions. These are leads,” Hontiveros said, adding that the information had been sent to the National Bureau of Investigation for verification.

“They need to be caught before they lure their next victim,” she added at the hearing.

The attack at the public school on June 22 killed three students and injured 20 others, prompting the hearing into online platforms and gaming spaces as possible avenues for the radicalisation of Filipino children.

Two Grade 9 students, aged 14 and 15, were arrested over the shooting at the San Jose National High School.

Is expansion of Philippine bases for US use on track? Chinese think tank weighs in

2026-07-01T23:30:07+00:00

By Amber Wang

Satellite imagery shows that Philippine military bases open to US troops have expanded more slowly than expected, according to a Chinese think tank.

In a report published on Thursday, the Beijing-based South China Sea Strategic Situation Probing Initiative (SCSPI) zoomed in on the nine sites covered by the Enhanced Defence Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) between the two treaty allies.

It said the sites reflected Washington’s efforts to transform the Philippines from a “strategic rear” into a “forward hub” for operations aimed at countering China.

The nine EDCA sites comprise five facilities originally designated under the agreement and four additional locations announced in 2023, including three in northern Luzon near Taiwan and one on Palawan facing the South China Sea, where tensions between Manila and Beijing have risen in recent years.

According to the report, the network of bases forms a strategic posture that “locks the Taiwan Strait from the north and controls the South China Sea from the south”.

When and how will China ease capital controls?

2026-07-01T23:00:01+00:00

By Lawrence J. Lau

The China Securities Regulatory Commission recently fined three Hong Kong brokerages – Tiger Brokers, Futu Securities International and Longbridge Securities – over US$330 million for offering mainland investors access to overseas stocks without authorisation. This should not be misconstrued as a move to discourage overseas investment.

It is merely an attempt to discourage mainland investors from illegal channels that violate China’s capital controls. This is evidenced by the fact that the investors were not penalised and instead given two years to unwind their positions.

In principle, legal channels to buy overseas securities consist of the Hong Kong Stock Connect scheme, Qualified Domestic Institutional Investor (QDII) funds and the Cross-boundary Wealth Management Connect scheme for Greater Bay Area residents. Long-term capital inflows and outflows, including direct investment, long-term loans and portfolio investments, have also been encouraged and, subject to prior approval, permitted in recent years.

While the offshore yuan is essentially fully convertible into all other major currencies in Hong Kong, control remains on certain capital flow items.

In the 1980s and 1990s, foreign exchange was a scarce resource, and capital flight was a real concern. After generous annual trade surpluses for the past decade or so, however, foreign exchange is no longer scarce. Today, China has the world’s largest official foreign exchange reserves, at US$3.4 trillion, and the yuan’s share in international clearing and settlement has risen steadily.

Moreover, over time, the yuan has been holding steady against the US dollar, and is widely expected to appreciate in the long run. What then is the purpose of this form of capital control?

China aims to ‘infiltrate’ US-Mexico-Canada trade deal, says American manufacturing group

2026-07-01T22:30:01+00:00

By Mia Nurmamat

China is trying to “infiltrate” the US-Mexico-Canada trade agreement via Mexican automotive investments, a US manufacturing trade group said, as Washington indicated it would not renew the agreement that comes up for review this month.

However, analysts cautioned that full decoupling from China’s automotive industry remains difficult, given North America’s continued dependence on Chinese-sourced motor vehicle components and Mexico’s legacy of export manufacturing plus quick access to the US border.

The Washington-based research and advocacy group Alliance for American Manufacturing has urged the Trump administration not to renew the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), as the three countries launched the pact’s first mandatory six-year review on Wednesday.

“The United States has a critical opportunity to renegotiate the agreement and defend America’s workers,” the alliance said, backed by domestic manufacturers and the United Steelworkers trade union.

“Though China is not a partner in this trade deal, its automakers are working hard to leverage it to infiltrate the US market. A strong USMCA with robust rules of origin would establish a necessary roadblock to Beijing’s US auto market access.”

The group urged the White House to broaden USMCA rules of origin to cover all stages of production, including key upstream inputs critical to component manufacturing and final assembly.

Can Malaysia’s unity government survive a major BN win in state polls?

2026-07-01T22:00:01+00:00

By Ushar Daniele

Knife-edge state polls in Johor and Negeri Sembilan may reconfigure Malaysian politics, as a regrouped Malay nationalist right seeks big wins to pressure Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim into calling an early election.

Barisan Nasional (BN), the Malay-led bloc, is going head-to-head against Anwar’s Pakatan Harapan (PH) in the ballots to be held this month and next, in a move by a key government coalition member that could destabilise the prime minister’s fragile administration from within.

Analysts say an immediate collapse of Anwar’s parliamentary majority is unlikely. But they are watching for the fallout from a strong BN performance that could push its core Malay party, Umno, to demand Anwar call early national polls. The next general election is not due until 2028.

“If BN reaps a big victory [in Johor], this could be replicated in other state polls … with a push for the party to exit from the unity government if the general election is not called soon,” said Wong Chin Huat, a political scientist at Sunway University.

BN, which dominated Malaysian politics for nearly six decades until a shock 2018 election loss, is led by the United Malays National Organisation (Umno) the country’s main Malay nationalist party.

Its downfall followed the 1MDB corruption scandal that engulfed its figurehead Najib Razak, who remains in jail for graft convictions.

Thailand says photo of Macron kneeling before King Vajiralongkorn is AI-generated

2026-07-01T22:00:06+00:00

By Agence France-Presse

Thailand’s foreign ministry denied on Thursday that French President Emmanuel Macron knelt before the country’s king during his state visit to Paris this week, after an AI-generated picture circulated online.

King Maha Vajiralongkorn and Queen Suthida’s trip was the first official visit by a Thai monarch to France since 1960, marking the 170th anniversary of formal diplomatic relations between the two nations.

During a state dinner at the presidential palace, Macron presented the 73-year-old king with the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour – France’s highest award – and Queen Suthida with the Grand Cross of the National Order of Merit, according to Thai media.

An image widely circulated online in Thailand purported to show Macron kneeling as he presented the awards.

One Thai-language social media post showing the image on Wednesday garnered more than 40,000 likes and more than 2,000 shares by the following day.

The post was also shared by a page with more than 2 million followers that frequently publishes pro-military and nationalist commentary.

Hong Kong enters summer flu season as Covid infections also climb

2026-07-01T22:00:11+00:00

By Edith Lin

Hong Kong health authorities have called on the public to stay vigilant as the city has entered the summer flu season, with Covid-19 cases also on the rise.

Dr Albert Au Ka-wing, head of the communicable disease branch of the Centre for Health Protection, said on Thursday that surveillance data suggested flu cases rose significantly last week, signalling the beginning of the seasonal infection period.

He noted that it was difficult to predict how long the season would last, even though the most common strain in the city was the H3 subtype of influenza A, similar to last year.

“So far, around 60 per cent of the infection cases are caused by influenza A subtype H3, similar to last September and December. The vaccines are effective. However, we also observe cases from subtype H1 and influenza B,” he said.

“We will closely monitor the situation. Generally, the summer influenza season lasts for eight to 12 weeks. We expect that influenza activity remains at a relatively active level in August and September.”

Among the respiratory specimens collected by public laboratories last week, 6.69 per cent tested positive for influenza, which was above the baseline of 4.94 per cent.