34 h. ago Hong Kong court orders Foodpanda to pay HK$1.3 million to rider injured in storm

A Hong Kong court has ordered on-demand food delivery platform Foodpanda to pay more than HK$1.3 million (US$167,000) in compensation to a worker who injured himself during a tropical storm five years ago, ruling that the company failed to ensure the employee’s safety in extreme weather. The High Court on Wednesday ruled in favour of Farooq Ahmed Khan after finding his former employer had exposed him to an unnecessary risk of injury due to the absence of a safe working protocol. Khan, 53, was...

Events

39 h. ago Afghan commandos airdrop to quake zones where helicopters can’t land

Afghanistan airdropped commandos on Wednesday to pull survivors from the rubble of homes in mountainous eastern areas ravaged by earthquakes this week that have killed 1,400, as it ramped up efforts to deliver food, shelter and medical supplies. The first earthquake of magnitude 6, one of Afghanistan’s worst in recent years, unleashed widespread damage and destruction when it struck the provinces of Kunar and Nangarhar around midnight on Sunday at a shallow depth of 10km (6 miles). A second...

Politics

41 h. ago Hungry for justice: Southeast Asia sends Indonesia’s protesters food, solidarity

It began with a few Malaysians buying meals on Grab for strangers across the Java Sea. Within days, thousands were taking part, from Manila to Bangkok, sending food to Indonesian delivery riders caught in the turmoil of mass protest. Struggling food delivery riders, emblematic of Indonesia’s urban underclass, have become the focus of sympathy, solidarity and support from across Southeast Asia. Starting last week, thousands of social media users from around the region began ordering meals via the...

Society

53 h. ago China Mandates AI Education for Kids from Age 6 in Beijing Push

China Mandates AI Education for Kids from Age 6 in Beijing Push  WebProNews

Politics

59 h. ago Chinese delivery giant Meituan releases AI model to take on Alibaba, DeepSeek

On-demand local services giant Meituan has become the latest Chinese Big Tech company to release an open-source large language model (LLM) to market, more than two years after it acquired mainland AI start-up Light Year for US$281 million. Beijing-based Meituan, the long-standing leader of China’s food delivery market, on Monday released and open-sourced its own LLM, called LongCat-Flash-Chat, via artificial intelligence developer platforms Hugging Face and GitHub, as well as the model’s...

Politics

3 d. ago China nurse leaves kids in dash to save life of epileptic man at railway station

A nurse in China who bit off her fake nails and dashed hundreds of metres in a railway station to save a man who collapsed has received huge plaudits on social media for being a Good Samaritan. Li Mengyi, a nurse at the Yuebei People’s Hospital in Shaoguan, southern Guangdong province, was on holiday and taking her 15-year-old daughter and 12-year-old son to catch a train at Nanjing South Railway Station on August 12, the Southern Metropolis News reported. She responded instantly on hearing a...

Politics

3 d. ago Forget the food delivery war — Alibaba makes clear the real play in China is AI

Forget the food delivery war — Alibaba makes clear the real play in China is AI  Business Insider

Society

4 d. ago Flotilla leaves Barcelona in biggest attempt yet to break Israel’s Gaza blockade

A flotilla of ships departed from Barcelona to Gaza on Sunday with humanitarian aid and activists on board in the largest attempt yet to break the long Israeli blockade of the Palestinian territory by sea. This comes as Israel has stepped up its offensive on Gaza City, limiting the deliveries of food and basic supplies in the north of the Palestinian territory. Food experts warned earlier this month that the city was in famine and that half a million people across the strip were facing...

Politics

4 d. ago Flotilla leaves Barcelona in biggest attempt yet to break blockade of Gaza

A flotilla of ships departed from Barcelona to Gaza on Sunday with humanitarian aid and activists on board in the largest attempt yet to break the long Israeli blockade of the Palestinian territory by sea. This comes as Israel has stepped up its offensive on Gaza City, limiting the deliveries of food and basic supplies in the north of the Palestinian territory. Food experts warned earlier this month that the city was in famine and that half a million people across the strip were facing...

Politics

7 d. ago Trump holds meeting on Gaza with Tony Blair and Jared Kushner

US President Donald Trump presided over a policy meeting on Israel’s war in Gaza and post-war plans for the Palestinian territory on Wednesday with input from former British prime minister Tony Blair and former Trump Middle East envoy Jared Kushner, a senior White House official said. Trump, top White House officials, Blair and Kushner discussed the hostage crisis, plans to escalate food aid deliveries, post-war plans and more, the official told Reuters. The official described the session as...

Politics

8 d. ago Chinese food delivery company Meituan's profit slides as competition intensifies

Chinese food delivery company Meituan's profit slides as competition intensifies  Reuters

Society

8 d. ago Meituan’s Profit Crumbles During Food Delivery War With Alibaba

Meituan’s Profit Crumbles During Food Delivery War With Alibaba  Bloomberg

Society

1 week ago China delivery man saves trapped woman after seeing pillow with ‘110’ written on it

A driver in China who spotted a white pillow scrawled with the emergency number 110 in blood during a food delivery has helped rescue a woman who was trapped in her bedroom for 30 hours without food or water. The incident unfolded on August 12, in Leshan, Sichuan province, southwestern China. The delivery driver surnamed Zhang, a university student working a summer job, spotted a white pillow stained with dark red liquid and marked with the numbers 110 625, lying on the roadside near a...

Politics

2 w. ago China restricts AI across the country to prevent kids cheating — America could learn from it

China restricts AI across the country to prevent kids cheating — America could learn from it  New York Post

Politics

2 w. ago Chinese woman keeps getting pregnant, has 3 kids in 4 years to avoid jail

A Chinese woman who kept becoming pregnant to avoid jail has finally been brought to justice. The woman, who is known by the pseudonym Chen Hong, was sentenced to five years' imprisonment for fraud in December 2020 in central China’s Shanxi province, the Shanxi Evening News reported. However, she was never properly incarcerated. Instead, Chen kept being pregnant, having three children with one man in four years. In China, convicts who suffer serious illnesses, are pregnant and nursing their...

Events

3 w. ago JD.com quarterly sales beat expectations but food delivery foray slices profit

JD.com’s revenue grew a faster-than-anticipated 22 per cent in the June quarter, benefiting from government-directed consumer subsidies as well as an aggressive drive into new arenas such as food delivery. The Nasdaq-listed shares of China’s top online retailer by revenue rose about 1 per cent in pre-market US trading. The Beijing-based company reported sales of 356.7 billion yuan (US$49.7 billion) for the quarter ended June 30, about 6 per cent above projections. Net income halved to 6.2...

Society

3 w. ago China kids deliver food, help courier riders with orders, spark safety concerns

A new trend of children helping food couriers deliver orders that had emerged in a well-known electronics market in southern China has been nipped in the bud by the authorities. Huaqiangbei market in the city of Shenzhen is one of the world’s biggest electronics markets. It is full of children during the summer holidays. The children operated as gig workers who helped delivery riders carry orders and locate customers. They wore a payment QR code around their necks and fought for orders whenever...

Society

3 w. ago China urged to curb excessive cash burn, not competition, to fight ‘neijuan’

With e-commerce platforms locked in fierce competition for China’s instant retail market, a prominent Chinese economist has called for government guidance that balances regulatory oversight with innovation and a push for new growth drivers. Wang Yiming, a central bank adviser, said “quick commerce” – involving the rapid delivery of food and essential goods, often within 30 minutes – creates new opportunities for consumption, which could be vital for long-term growth. He urged officials to guide...

Sport

3 w. ago South China Sea film Beijing condemned set to open in Philippine cinemas

A documentary film that Beijing sought to have banned chronicling the hazardous everyday lives of Filipino fishermen and soldiers in the South China Sea is set to open in cinemas in the Philippines this Wednesday. Food Delivery by director Baby Ruth Villarama was denounced last month for being “rife with disinformation and false propaganda” by the Chinese consulate-general in Auckland, which called for a New Zealand festival not to screen the film, calling it a “political tool” for the...

Culture

3 w. ago Hong Kong police arrest 42 riders in crackdown on illegal use of e

Hong Kong police arrested 42 riders, including 11 food delivery couriers, for using electric bicycles on the road in a crackdown in western Kowloon earlier this week. The force said on Saturday that the group comprised 39 men and three women, aged between 18 and 66, of whom 10 were non-locals. Their vehicles were also seized. Among those arrested were also 11 food delivery riders, including an asylum seeker, who allegedly drove electric bicycles to transport takeaway orders, according to...

Events