55 h. ago US lawmakers propose US$2.5 billion agency to boost production of rare earths

A bipartisan group of lawmakers has proposed creating a new agency with US$2.5 billion to spur production of rare earths and the other critical minerals, while the Trump administration has already taken aggressive actions to break China’s grip on the market for these materials that are crucial to hi-tech products, including mobile phones, electric vehicles, jet fighters and missiles. It is too early to tell how the bill, if passed, could align with the White House’s policy but whatever the...

Economics

4 d. ago Iranians use Musk’s Starlink to pierce internet blackout during protests

Some Iranians were still using Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite internet service despite a nationwide communications blackout, three people inside the country have said, the latest example of Starlink being used to counter internet shutdowns in geopolitical flashpoints. Iranian authorities have in recent days launched a deadly crackdown on nationwide protests, including the near-complete shutdown of internet service, which is provided through fibre-optic cables and mobile phone towers. The...

Events

1 week ago Thailand says Cambodia ‘violated’ border ceasefire after strike wounds soldier

Thailand’s army said on Tuesday its Cambodian counterpart claimed fresh cross-border fire was an accident, after Bangkok accused Cambodian forces of violating a 10-day-old truce with a strike that wounded a soldier. The decades-old dispute between the Southeast Asian neighbours erupted into military clashes several times last year, with fighting in December killing dozens of people and displacing around 1 million on both sides. The two countries agreed a truce on December 27, ending three weeks...

Events

1 week ago Powers to seize mobile phones over Channel migrant crossings come into force

Mobile phones and SIM cards will be seized from migrants without needing to arrest them from Monday as part of UK efforts to tackle Channel crossings and people smugglers. Officers will begin taking electronic devices from people at Manston processing centre in Kent in the southeast of England, with technology on site to download data from them in a bid to gather intelligence on people smugglers. The new powers for police agencies are hoped to speed up investigations and come after the Border...

Events

1 week ago Mobile seizure powers launch in UK crackdown on people smugglers

Mobile phones and SIM cards will be seized from migrants without needing to arrest them from Monday as part of UK efforts to tackle Channel crossings and people smugglers. Officers will begin taking electronic devices from people at Manston processing centre in Kent in the southeast of England, with technology on site to download data from them in a bid to gather intelligence on people smugglers. The new powers for police agencies are hoped to speed up investigations and come after the Border...

Politics

2 w. ago Fire caused by short circuit of phone charger in Hong Kong flat injures 4, kills cat

A fire triggered by a mobile phone charger that short-circuited in a Hong Kong residential building has killed a cat, injured four residents and led to the evacuation of about 150 others. Police received a report at 11.15pm on Friday that a fire erupted in Lai Yiu Estate’s Fu Yiu House in Kwai Chung. Firefighters arrived at the scene and put out the fire at 11.30pm. Two men and two women, aged between 42 and 75, were injured. They were taken to Princess Margaret Hospital in Kwai Chung for...

Events

2 w. ago China pupils, inspired by suspense novels, use chalk dust to crack code of classroom phone safe

A group of suspense-novel-loving Chinese school pupils smeared chalk dust on the combination lock of a safe in their classroom to unlock it and retrieve their mobile phones. Despite being disciplined by the school, many netizens were left amused and praised their creativity. A disciplinary notice issued by the secondary school in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, southern China, on December 10, has gone viral online. It said that on November 14, a pupil surnamed Tian from Class 13, Grade 10, had...

Politics

3 w. ago Brazil’s Bolsonaro backs son’s residential bid, undergoes hernia surgery

Brazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro endorsed his son Flavio’s 2026 presidential bid on Thursday in a statement from a hospital where he underwent a scheduled hernia operation that doctors said went smoothly. Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes authorised Bolsonaro to leave prison, where he is serving a 27-year sentence for plotting a coup, for the surgery. Police were ordered to stay outside his room where computers and mobile phones were prohibited. Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, 44,...

Politics

3 w. ago Brazil’s Bolsonaro backs son’s presidential bid, undergoes hernia surgery

Brazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro endorsed his son Flavio’s 2026 presidential bid on Thursday in a statement from a hospital where he underwent a scheduled hernia operation that doctors said went smoothly. Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes authorised Bolsonaro to leave prison, where he is serving a 27-year sentence for plotting a coup, for the surgery. Police were ordered to stay outside his room where computers and mobile phones were prohibited. Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, 44,...

Politics

3 w. ago Indian doctor suspended, charged after viral video shows him assaulting patient

A senior resident doctor at a government hospital in Shimla, the capital of India’s northern state of Himachal Pradesh, has been suspended and charged by police after a viral video appeared to show him repeatedly striking a patient inside a ward, triggering an investigation and widespread public backlash. The mobile phone footage, filmed by an attendant at the Indira Gandhi Medical College and Hospital on Monday and widely shared on social media, shows a masked doctor punching a man lying on a...

Events