Tech war: Shenzhen recruits Japanese semiconductor heavyweight as China moves to challenge US, Korean dominance in memory chips
A Shenzhen memory chip start-up has named Japanese industry veteran Yukio Sakamoto as its chief strategy officer, the latest sign of China’s ambitious efforts to challenge US, Korean dominance in DRAMs. ⌘ Read more

Myanmar minister joins Asean defence meeting as junta shifts Suu Kyi trial to prison
More than 600 civic groups appealed against inviting General Mya Tun Oo, accusing him of complicity in violence by Myanmar’s military as it seeks to crush opposition to its seizure of power last year from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. ⌘ Read more

China’s electricity demand soars as heatwaves bake northern, central provinces
Millions reach for the air conditioner as temperatures approach 40 degrees Celsius, while floods continue to swallow southern region. ⌘ Read more

China inflation: Li Keqiang says ‘prudent’ economic policy, bumper wheat harvest leaves room to tackle risks
Premier Li Keqiang says China has refrained from ‘excessive’ money printing in recent years to prevent inflation and create room to counter new challenges. ⌘ Read more

‘Glocalised’ school-based curriculum at Caritas Wu Cheng-chung Secondary School empowers innovation and inspires students from nearly 20 countries and regions
Caritas Wu Cheng-chung Secondary School (CWCC) embraces ‘glocalisation’ to optimise its students’ learning experience as well as their personal growth and character building. ⌘ Read more

Hong Kong police arrest 7 for allegedly conspiring with 3 retail outlets to cash in HK$220,000 worth of e-vouchers
Six men and one woman arrested over alleged conspiracy to defraud or commit theft involving second iteration of consumption voucher scheme. ⌘ Read more

Hong Kong to include Korean in DSE university entrance exam from 2025 amid K-Culture boom
Hong Kong’s testing authority will allow students to submit scores from the Test of Proficiency in Korean in the foreign language category of the city’s university entrance exam starting from 2025. ⌘ Read more

US$3 billion tax bill for Philippines’ Marcos family will be collected vows new chief – 30 years after dictator’s death
Lilia Guillermo says there is no doubt the controversial tax liability will be collected, but needs documents ascertaining amount. Marcos family have owed the tax for more than 30 years since the death of dictator Ferdinand Senior. ⌘ Read more

Russia pounds eastern Ukraine as it marks date of Hitler’s invasion
Russia is seeking to seize a vast swathe of eastern Ukraine, the scene of some of the bloodiest fighting in Europe since World War II. ⌘ Read more

Hong Kong child abuse scandal: first of 27 defendants to plead guilty in care home case gets 4 months’ jail
Former senior child carer Barbara Heung, 46, admitted before Kowloon City Court that she had twice assaulted a two-year-old boy last year. ⌘ Read more

US bans use of anti-personnel landmines everywhere – except the Korean peninsula
The announcement comes after years of criticism by human rights groups that the US had refused to adopt an international treaty banning the deadly devices. Russia is among the countries that haven’t agreed to the ban on landmines. ⌘ Read more

US business group calls for ‘urgent’ talks on Taiwan free-trade deal
Aim should be to present completed text for passage in 2024, American Chamber of Commerce in Taiwan says in annual policy paper. ⌘ Read more

Veteran Hong Kong lawmaker Regina Ip appointed convenor of incoming leader John Lee’s de facto cabinet
Ip, 71, is the first woman convenor of Executive Council, and first with political affiliation, since Hong Kong returned to Chinese rule. ⌘ Read more

Reef shark rescued from Singapore oil refinery
Shell plc said it would be taking action ‘to enhance preventive measures’ at its seawater intake areas. A sea turtle got stuck in the same intake bay in 2017. ⌘ Read more

Filipino lawyer shot dead in US was ‘a case of mistaken identity’, official says
Philadelphia’s mayor expressed shock and sorrow over the killing of John Albert Laylo at the weekend and is offering a US$20,000 reward for information that will lead to the arrest of the shooter. ⌘ Read more

Earthquake hits Afghanistan, at least 255 dead
Local officials say the death toll could rise further if the government fails to dispatch emergency help to the affected areas quickly. ⌘ Read more

Power supply ‘fully restored’ in Hong Kong districts hit by worst outage in decade but some estates still waiting for electricity
Housewife who lives in Tin Shui Estate described Tuesday night’s blackout as ‘total chaos’ and ‘terrifying’. ⌘ Read more

Coronavirus: Hong Kong tour group heads to Japan for the first time in more than 2 years after Tokyo eases Covid rules
Ten travellers join seven-day trip organised by EGL Tours, which had previously pushed back the departure date from June 11 to June 15 and then to Wednesday. ⌘ Read more

Fate of ancient Afghan Buddhist city in hands of Taliban, Chinese copper mine consortium
An ancient Buddhist city carved out of immense peaks near Kabul is in danger of disappearing forever, swallowed up by a Chinese consortium exploiting one of the world’s largest copper deposits. ⌘ Read more

When will China’s Fujian aircraft carrier be ready for active duty?
Observers say the ship’s cutting-edge electromagnetic catapults and other systems will need months of tests. ⌘ Read more

Why Asia wants more nuclear weapons – thanks to Russia’s war in Ukraine
Security experts say the daily example of Russia tearing apart non-nuclear Ukraine is pushing Asia’s non-nuclear states to consider getting their own weapons – or hosting US ones. ⌘ Read more

Most significant US gun legislation in decades clears hurdle in Senate
The US Senate took an initial step towards passing the country’s first major gun-control legislation in decades, galvanised by two recent mass shootings. ⌘ Read more

Hong Kong’s housing and economic development must be linked to the environment to create a liveable city
The incoming chief executive should include the environment in his key performance indicators for measuring Hong Kong’s progress. Preserving natural habitats will boost people’s physical and mental well-being and make Hong Kong an example for the rest of the Greater Bay Area. ⌘ Read more

Chinese child-trafficking victim, sold for US$150, posts wedding dress video in bid to find birth parents before her nuptials
A bride-to-be who was abducted and sold as a child poses in her wedding dress to make heartfelt plea for help in finding her birth parents. ⌘ Read more

Unpacking Hong Kong’s laws, 25 years after handover: 5 rulings on Basic Law where Beijing, not the city’s courts, had final say in key cases
NPC Standing Committee’s interpretations ‘averted migrant crisis, improved Hongkongers’ understanding of Basic Law’. ⌘ Read more

Inside Ukraine’s bombarded Luhansk region: ‘Everything is on fire’
Russia controls 95 per cent of the area, but pockets of resistance have stopped its forces from overrunning it completely. ⌘ Read more

Japan’s Kishida says talks with China key to regional peace amid rising maritime tensions
He emphasised the need to ‘maintain stable and constructive relations’ between Tokyo and Beijing as the latter steps up military activity in the East China Sea. ⌘ Read more

From Indonesia to Pacific, women less likely to have 2 Covid-19 vaccine shots than men
Women have borne the brunt of hardship two years after the pandemic, a new UN report shows. ⌘ Read more

Singapore and South Korea report first monkeypox cases
The patient in Singapore is a British man who works as a flight attendant and had flown in and out of the country this month; South Korea is seeking to confirm two suspected infections. ⌘ Read more

China supercomputer achieves global first with ‘brain-scale’ AI model
Research team says latest Sunway machine is on a par with the US Frontier, named as the world’s most powerful just weeks earlier. ⌘ Read more

Donald Trump supporters threatened officials for not overturning election, victims tell Capitol riot hearing
At the fourth public Capitol riot hearing, investigators sought to tie the ex-US president directly to a pressure campaign on electors after his defeat by Joe Biden. ⌘ Read more

China-US relations: Joe Biden’s Asia-Pacific trade framework to be handled with ‘caution’, Beijing advisers say
Former Chinese officials say Beijing must ‘consider’ neighbouring nations who have signed onto Washington’s Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, despite growing rivalry with the United States. ⌘ Read more

Thousands flock to Stonehenge for summer solstice, the longest day of the year
Druids, pagans and other revellers greeted the 4.49am sunrise at the ancient stone circle in southern England, for the first time since the pandemic began. ⌘ Read more

Ukraine says it hit Black Sea oil platform used by Russia’s troops
The attack was the first such strike against offshore energy infrastructure in Crimea since the start of Moscow’s invasion in February. ⌘ Read more

Top French court rules against burkinis in city pool
The judges blocked Grenoble’s bid to allow all types of swimwear; a change to allow women to bathe topless was not challenged. ⌘ Read more

Beijing sends 29 warplanes into Taiwan’s air defence zone in one of largest fly-bys of 2022
Sorties comprising 17 fighter jets, six bombers and supporting aircraft entered the air defence identification zone from the southwest, island’s defence ministry says. ⌘ Read more

China plans to review every single social media comment, sparking more censorship fears
China’s internet watchdog wants all social platforms to review all user comments before they are published, fanning concerns that freedom of speech will be further restricted. ⌘ Read more

China, US urged to ‘start small’ as Biden ponders Trump-era trade tariff rollback amid record inflation
Former acting deputy US trade representative Wendy Cutler believes Washington will soon unveil its plan for how to handle the US$350 billion of Trump-era trade tariffs that have been imposed on Chinese goods for almost four years. ⌘ Read more

Ukraine war: Putin’s security chief vows to inflict pain on Lithuania over Kaliningrad goods blockade
Nikolai Patrushev, secretary of Russia’s Security Council, threatened retaliation after Lithuania banned the transit of sanctioned goods to the Baltic exclave. ⌘ Read more

Syed Saddiq faced ‘pressure’ by Malaysia’s PPBM, his parents say during corruption trial
Parents of the former youth minister, who was sacked from PPBM for objecting to the party’s defection in 2020, say he is a ‘political victim’. ⌘ Read more

Uygur Forced Labour Prevention Act takes effect in US, banning imports from Xinjiang
Cotton products, tomatoes and polysilicon, a material used in the solar panel industry, are among the ‘high priority’ sectors that will face scrutiny by US customs agents. ⌘ Read more

Police officer fired and 5 placed under investigation over attack in women in Chinese city of Tangshan
A deputy district commander was dismissed from his post with the others being investigated by the local disciplinary watchdog ⌘ Read more

Chinese warships appear to be sailing around Japan amid tensions
Three ships passed to the southeast of Chiba prefecture on Monday, defence ministry says. It comes days after seven Russian vessels went past the Izu Islands south of Tokyo. ⌘ Read more

Electric cable in Yuen Long catches fire, triggering power outages and rail service suspension in 2 Hong Kong districts
Cable and bridge on fire on Tuesday evening, no injuries reported so far. ⌘ Read more

76 per cent of young people polled identify as ‘Honkongers’, while only 2 percent thought of themselves as ‘Chinese’
Analysts say findings were impacted by immigration wave as those who were not in favour of the Communist Party may have left. ⌘ Read more

North Korean imports of Chinese soybeans surge as coronavirus outbreak ramps up food shortage fears
North Korea is facing a potentially dire food situation this year, which has been exacerbated by disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic. In May, its monthly imports of Chinese soybeans surged. ⌘ Read more

Chinese province offers more maternity leave to help avert population crisis
Hunan authorities say women can negotiate with their employers to take up to a year off work after they give birth. ⌘ Read more

Ukraine war: Russia says captured US fighters may face death penalty
The Kremlin said Andy Huynh and Alexander Drueke were mercenaries not covered by the Geneva Conventions and could face the death penalty for their actions. ⌘ Read more

Häagen-Dazs Hong Kong apologises after banned pesticide found in 2 types of vanilla ice cream products
Centre for Food Safety halts sale of Häagen-Dazs’ pint-sized and bulk-sized vanilla ice cream after Taiwan’s food authorities found ethylene oxide in them. ⌘ Read more

Does China’s demotion of its deputy foreign minister signal a rethink over Russia ties?
Le Yucheng, the deputy foreign minister and Russia expert, has been shunted aside as Beijing’s relationship with Moscow faces increasing scrutiny. ⌘ Read more