60 h. ago Miss Finland scandal: Finnish PM apologises to East Asia for MPs’ ‘racist’ gestures

Finland’s prime minister apologised on Wednesday to citizens of Japan, China and South Korea after MPs sparked outrage by posting pictures of themselves making derogatory squinting gestures. The parliamentarians from the populist Finns Party, which is part of the right-wing coalition government, posted images on social media where they pulled back the corners of their eyes – widely seen as a racist gesture targeting East Asian people. They claimed to have shared the pictures in support of the...

Politics

62 h. ago Are these the first pictures of China’s new military transport plane taking to the skies?

China’s newest transport aircraft has conducted its maiden flight, images circulating on social media suggested, as the People’s Liberation Army moves to update its tactical transport fleet. Photographs and videos circulating online on Tuesday showed a four-engine turboprop aircraft. The most detailed images showed it had six-blade propellers, a T-tail, a blended winglet configuration and possibly an aerial refuelling probe positioned above the cockpit – a structure found on the Airbus A400M. A...

Events

62 h. ago Are these the first images of China’s new military transport plane in flight?

Are these the first images of China’s new military transport plane in flight?  South China Morning Post

Events

3 d. ago ‘Don’t be misled,’ Beijing tells foreign media in Hong Kong after Jimmy Lai verdict

The Chinese foreign ministry’s arm in Hong Kong has issued a rare open letter explaining the “facts and truths” behind former media boss Jimmy Lai Chee-ying’s guilty verdict, urging international media outlets to uphold objectivity and present an accurate picture to the world. The Commissioner’s Office of China’s Foreign Ministry in Hong Kong on Tuesday also sent letters to The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal, condemning their editorials on the verdict as “wilful distortion” and...

Politics

1 week ago Russian military plane crashes during test flight near Moscow

A Russian military plane crashed on Tuesday during a test flight after repair work, the defence ministry said. TASS state news agency reported seven people were on board at the time of the crash and it was unknown whether they survived. “Today in the Ivanovo region, during a test flight following repairs, an An-22 military transport aircraft crashed,” state media quoted the defence ministry as saying in a statement. “The plane went down in an uninhabited area,” it added. Search crews had been...

Events

1 week ago In pictures: France’s Macron visits China amid rising tensions

In pictures: France’s Macron visits China amid rising tensions  South China Morning Post

Politics