2 h. ago ‘Even if I was shot, I was fine with that’: a North Korean’s journey to freedom

A man whose early life in North Korea was so bleak that he was prepared to be shot in the back while making a break for freedom across the Chinese border has told his story after defecting to Japan in 2017. The man is one of many to have become involved with an Osaka-based charity that addresses North Korean human rights issues. The organisation provides speaking opportunities for North Korean defectors on podcasts and other platforms, allowing them to share information about the realities of...

Politics

20 h. ago LGBTQ Catholics celebrate acceptance in Holy Year pilgrimage to Rome

Hundreds of LGBTQ Catholics and their families took part in a Holy Year pilgrimage to Rome on Saturday, celebrating a new level of acceptance in the Catholic Church after long feeling shunned and crediting Pope Francis with the change. The vice-president of the Italian bishops conference, Bishop Francesco Savino, celebrated Mass for the pilgrims in a packed Chiesa del Gesu, the main Jesuit church in Rome. He received a sustained standing ovation in the middle of his homily when he recalled that...

Politics

25 h. ago Shanghai spirit for new world order needs to be matched by the West

This time, it was not America’s Franklin D. Roosevelt, Britain’s Winston Churchill and the Soviet Union’s Joseph Stalin meeting in the Crimean city of Yalta to carve up a defeated Germany and reshape the post-war European order. Instead, it was China’s Xi Jinping, Russia’s Vladimir Putin and India’s Narendra Modi at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in the Chinese city of Tianjin to consider the implications of a new and non-US-dominated global order. It was a historic occasion...

Politics

33 h. ago Reflections | After Fan Bingbing’s Malaysia award, a history of Chinese official honours

Reflections | After Fan Bingbing’s Malaysia award, a history of Chinese official honours  South China Morning Post

Politics

36 h. ago China’s biotech industry is gaining on the US. Can tariffs hold them back?

In the summer of 2015, a time when China’s pharmaceutical market was in a phase of rapid expansion, a sudden regulatory change sent tremors through the industry: drug companies would need to audit the clinical trial data for all pending applications. If withdrawn within a month of the announcement, firms could avoid penalties for submitting flawed applications, but hiding or falsifying data would court severe punishments, including multi-year filing bans. The response from the industry indicated...

Economics

42 h. ago Europe should stand with China in upholding correct historical perspective on WWII: Global Times editorial

Europe should stand with China in upholding correct historical perspective on WWII: Global Times editorial  Global Times

Events

44 h. ago Hiring stalls as US firms hold back expansion amid economic uncertainty

US employers added just 22,000 jobs last month as the labour market continued to cool under uncertainty over President Donald Trump’s economic policies. The Labor Department said on Friday that hiring decelerated from 79,000 in July and came in below the roughly 80,000 economists had expected for August. The unemployment rate ticked up to 4.3 per cent, also worse than expected and the highest level since 2021, the Labor Department reported on Friday. When the department put out a disappointing...

Economics

45 h. ago Ukraine war must be resolved within UN halls, not on the battlefield

This year marks the 80th anniversary of Japan’s surrender in World War II and the founding of the United Nations. Humanity learned with great pain that peace and security must coexist for all nations, and the vicious circle of war must not be repeated. In 1941, the United States imposed an oil embargo on Japan in response to its expansion in Asia and invasion of French Indochina. For the US and its allies, Japan’s militant aggression was a blatant violation of peace; for Japan, the embargo was...

Events

45 h. ago Solution to Ukraine war must be found in the UN, not the killing fields

This year marks the 80th anniversary of Japan’s surrender in World War II and the founding of the United Nations. Humanity learned with great pain that peace and security must coexist for all nations, and the vicious circle of war must not be repeated. In 1941, the United States imposed an oil embargo on Japan in response to its expansion in Asia and invasion of French Indochina. For the US and its allies, Japan’s militant aggression was a blatant violation of peace; for Japan, the embargo was...

Events

46 h. ago Tesla to award Musk an unparalleled $1 trillion depending on performance

Tesla’s board has proposed a US$1 trillion compensation plan for CEO Elon Musk in what would be the largest corporate pay package in history, underscoring the hold Musk has over the carmaker as it attempts to transform into an AI and robotics powerhouse. The world’s richest person has consistently said he needs more of a stake in the company, even as a legal battle over his 2018 pay package – then valued at a mere US$56 billion – continues. The regulatory filing puts Musk on a different plane...

Events

46 h. ago Tesla to award Musk an unparalleled US$1 trillion depending on performance

Tesla’s board has proposed a US$1 trillion compensation plan for CEO Elon Musk in what would be the largest corporate pay package in history, underscoring the hold Musk has over the carmaker as it attempts to transform into an AI and robotics powerhouse. The world’s richest person has consistently said he needs more of a stake in the company, even as a legal battle over his 2018 pay package – then valued at a mere US$56 billion – continues. The regulatory filing puts Musk on a different plane...

Events

65 h. ago Alarm as ‘dangerous’ Madeleine McCann suspect set to be freed in Germany

German law enforcement authorities have voiced alarm that the “dangerous” chief suspect in the 2007 disappearance of British three-year-old Madeleine McCann will soon leave prison and could flee the country. Prosecutors believe Christian Brueckner, 48, killed the girl in a Portuguese resort in a missing persons case that has captivated the world and remains unsolved. But lacking sufficient evidence to lay charges, they are helpless as Brueckner – who has a history of violent sex crimes – is due...

Events

3 d. ago Son of British POW urges Japan to be less ‘touchy’ about WWII criticisms

The son of a British soldier who endured three years as a prisoner of war has expressed deep disappointment that senior Japanese politicians ignored invitations to a commemorative event on Tuesday to mark 80 years since Tokyo’s formal surrender in the second world war and the liberation of thousands of Allied prisoners of war. Terry Smyth, a fellow in the history department at the University of Essex, said it would have been particularly appropriate if Yoshimasa Hayashi, the chief cabinet...

Events

3 d. ago Famed streetcar in Portugal’s capital Lisbon derails and crashes, killing 15

A picturesque electric streetcar that is one of Lisbon’s big tourist attractions derailed and crashed on Wednesday, killing 15 people and injuring 18 others, emergency services said. Five of the injured were in serious condition and a child was among the injured, Portugal’s National Institute for Medical Emergencies said in a statement, adding that an unknown number of foreigners were among the injured. Authorities called it an accident, the worst in the city’s recent history, and it cast a pall...

Events

3 d. ago Trump offers more US troops to Poland’s new nationalist president

US President Donald Trump offered Wednesday to send more troops to Poland as he welcomed the country’s new nationalist president Karol Nawrocki to the White House with a military flyover. Trump also hinted at taking stronger action against Russia if it fails to end its war with Ukraine, which has put Nato ally Poland on edge since Moscow’s invasion in 2022. Nawrocki, a conservative historian and fervent Trump supporter, visited the White House during Poland’s election campaign and is now making...

Politics

3 d. ago Photos show wildfire burning through historic California Gold Rush town settled by Chinese miners

Photos show wildfire burning through historic California Gold Rush town settled by Chinese miners  CBS News

Events

4 d. ago Xi, Putin and Kim stand united at Beijing military parade in historic show of authoritarian strength

Xi, Putin and Kim stand united at Beijing military parade in historic show of authoritarian strength  CNN

Events

5 d. ago China scholars urge ‘truthful’ World War II accounts amid Western ‘historical nihilism’

In the run-up to Wednesday’s grand military parade in Beijing to commemorate the end of World War II, China has stepped up calls to confront what mainland academics have described as Western “historical nihilism” in the predominant account of the war. Through books, archives, reports and commentary, scholars are urging the establishment of a “truthful, fair and pluralistic” shared memory that acknowledges not only the pivotal role of China but also the wider contributions of others, including...

Events

5 d. ago Chinese scholars slam Western ‘historical nihilism’ on World War II

In the run-up to Wednesday’s grand military parade in Beijing to commemorate the end of World War II, China has stepped up calls to confront what mainland academics have described as Western “historical nihilism” in the predominant account of the war. Through books, archives, reports and commentary, scholars are urging the creation of a “truthful, fair and pluralistic” shared memory that acknowledges not only the pivotal role of China but also the wider contributions of others, including India,...

Events

5 d. ago After The War | Chinese scholars slam Western ‘historical nihilism’ on World War II

After The War | Chinese scholars slam Western ‘historical nihilism’ on World War II  South China Morning Post

Events