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China confirms 2 deaths in Scarborough Shoal crash during Philippine ship chase

Beijing honours two coastguard personnel who died in a vessel collision in the South China Sea last year The People’s Armed Police (PAP) on Thursday announced the latest recipients of its “Loyal Guards of the Chinese People’s Armed Police” honour. Among the four posthumous awardees were Yi Xinyu and Cheng Long, two China Coast Guard officers. They died during a “maritime rights protection operation in the South China Sea on August 11, 2025”, according to state media and China’s official martyr registry. The collision left the bow of the Chinese coastguard vessel heavily damaged. Following the collision, there was speculation that personnel aboard the ship had died, but Beijing had not previously acknowledged any fatalities. According to public martyr registry records, Yi died at the age of 21 and Cheng was 25. They were both from Shandong province. The two were also posthumously given a first-class merit citation, one of China’s highest honours for exceptional military and paramilitary service. The China Coast Guard has been under the command of the PAP since 2018.

August 6, 2026

Business

Will latest trade ‘speed bump’ slow China-US ties, or even stop Xi-Trump summit?

As Beijing and Washington trade curbs, analysts say only major action or breach of the other’s core interests can prevent summit Beijing and Washington’s latest tit-for-tat measures could test ties, but observers say they are little more than a “speed bump” on the road to a potential summit between presidents Xi Jinping and Donald Trump. The ministry separately launched a national security investigation into imported printing and copying office equipment with foreign-made software. Dominic Chiu, a senior analyst at Eurasia Group risk advisory firm, said the latest Chinese move would heighten tensions but not derail Xi’s visit. He said Beijing’s measures were “calibrated to impose costs without breaking the truce”. Beijing’s response signalled its willingness to escalate in a targeted way to deter Washington from rolling out further measures but at the same time indicated its willingness to engage and de-escalate, he said.

August 6, 2026

Business

Will Jetstar’s plan to charge for overhead locker space work in Asia-Pacific?

Analysts say the move, an ‘extreme’ form of unbundling, risks backlash and added fare complexity Jetstar’s plan to charge passengers for overhead locker space is set to test how far budget airlines in the Asia-Pacific region can go in making travellers pay separately for what was once part of a basic fare. The Australian carrier’s move comes as rising costs and competition push airlines to find new revenue beyond the ticket price, potentially giving regional rivals cover to study similar fees. Aviation analysts described the plan by Qantas’ low-cost arm as an “extreme” form of unbundling – charging separately for services once included in the ticket price – but said similar fees might be harder to introduce in other Asia-Pacific markets. From February next year, Jetstar’s flight bookings will include one underseat bag at no extra cost but a larger one stored in the overhead compartment could cost from A$25 to A$52 (US$17.60 to US$36.60) per flight. “The move will see Jetstar shift from a strict weight limit to a simpler, size-based carry-on baggage model, similar to other leading low-fares carriers around the world,” the airline said in a statement on Wednesday.

August 6, 2026

Business

US Senate panel votes to hold Fauci in contempt of Congress

If the contempt referral proceeds, the US Attorney’s Office in Washington would review it and decide whether to seek a grand jury indictment A US Senate committee voted on Thursday to ⁠hold Dr. Anthony Fauci ⁠in contempt of Congress after the former ⁠top US infectious disease official refused to answer questions about his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee approved a referral pushed by its Republican Chair Rand Paul of Kentucky, a long-time Fauci antagonist, on a party-line vote of 8-7. The vote followed a hearing ‌last week where Fauci, who is 85 and retired in 2022, invoked the Fifth Amendment more than 100 times. The vote is the sharpest escalation yet in a broad Republican and Trump administration campaign to re-litigate the pandemic and hold accountable the officials who ran the US response. Paul has pursued a years-long investigation to try to prove his and other Republicans’ conviction that Fauci orchestrated a cover-up of the coronavirus’ origins. US Health Secretary Robert F.

August 6, 2026

Business

UK clears Paramount’s takeover of Warner Bros

The UK government and the antitrust watchdog both cleared the deal after initially raising concerns over media plurality and competition Britain on Thursday gave the green light to Paramount Skydance’s US$110 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery, as the entertainment and media mega-deal still faces a key hurdle in the United States. The UK government and the antitrust watchdog both cleared the deal after initially raising concerns over media plurality and competition, respectively. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) found that the takeover would not weaken competition in film distribution, children’s TV and streaming services. Britain’s culture minister Lisa Nandy, meanwhile, opted not to intervene in the merger, saying she had secured “assurances and further legally-binding commitments” to ensure a diverse range of broadcasting and on-demand services in the country. “These assurances included a range of commitments on future investment in the UK, maintaining the distinct editorial identities of key services and the editorial independence of news,” she said in a statement.

August 6, 2026

Business

Coded for glamour and glory, AI make-up arm steals the show in Hong Kong hackathon

Personalised make-up assistant handed top honours after lipstick demonstration, beating more than 160 global competitors in finals Imagine a woman sitting at her vanity as a robotic arm reaches across the table, picks up her lipstick, and applies it to her lips while running through her morning schedule. Meet Iron Bestie, a personalised make-up assistant that just snatched top honours at what organisers billed as Hong Kong’s first physical artificial intelligence hackathon, beating more than 160 global competitors in an intense 48-hour hardware-meets-software sprint this week. Powered by vision-language models and voice recognition, the AI arm can identify make-up on a table, select the right product based on a user’s calendar, and apply it directly to their face. To keep personal routines secure, local redaction middleware ensured sensitive user data remained private, the investors said. The winning team included an unexpected duo: Luo Yuqing, a business information systems graduate from the City University of Hong Kong who said she had no formal coding background, and Zeng Yitao, a senior algorithm developer from the Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen.

August 6, 2026

Business

Former Standard Chartered bank staff jailed over HK$28m Africa investment scam

Pair sentenced to three years at a Hong Kong court after ICAC probe finds they helped syndicate use fake bank documents to dupe 21 Japanese investors Two former relationship managers at Standard Chartered Bank in Hong Kong have been jailed for three years for swindling HK$28 million (US$3.6 million) from 21 Japanese investors who believed their money would fund development projects in Africa. The District Court on Thursday sentenced Woo Man-ho and Chan Tak-ching on a total of four counts of conspiracy to defraud arising from a transnational investment scam between January 2015 and September 2016. The defendants, both 39, had earlier pleaded guilty to making false representations about the financial capacity of a Hong Kong-based company at the behest of four foreign nationals who are still at large. Woo and Chan issued four bogus corporate refund promissory notes purporting that Standard Chartered Bank had agreed to guarantee a combined return of US$7.2 million for investors pouring their money into ADF, which stands for African Development Funding. As a result, 21 Japanese backers were deceived into making investments totalling 405.5 million yen, equivalent to about HK$28 million at the time.

August 6, 2026

Business

More checks for embryo biopsies, overhaul reproductive tech law, DAB urges

Call for action comes nearly a month after regulatory body suspended most operations at fertility clinic over specimen mix-ups Hong Kong should require a double-check mechanism for all embryo biopsy procedures and overhaul its reproductive technology law, the city’s largest political party has proposed following a rare mix-up of specimens at a fertility clinic. DAB lawmaker Nixie Lam Lam said the existing mandatory two-person verification process did not cover every stage of embryo biopsy handling, and warned that the current incident-reporting guidelines lacked statutory backing. “We suggest amending the code of practice so that every single step – from sample extraction, sealing, and transport, all the way to laboratory receiving – requires two-person verification and record-keeping,” she said. The Council on Human Reproductive Technology, a statutory body established in 2001, regulates the city’s reproductive technology procedures and embryo research. Healthcare institutions providing reproductive technology procedures must hold licences issued by the council. Currently, 13 public and 15 private organisations are licensed.

August 6, 2026

Business

Social services face hard questions over missed red flags in boy’s starvation death

Lawmaker Grace Chan says death of boy, 5, spotlights possible failure of assessment tools designed for evaluating high-risk cases The fate of a five-year-old boy starved to death by his mother, who had a history of drug abuse, could have been different had social workers noticed he was “just skin and bones”, a Hong Kong judge lamented in her ruling. Just three months before the boy died in September 2022, a worker from the Social Welfare Department handling the case visited the 37-year-old mother at home and reported observing “no visible injuries” on the boy’s face or any irregularities. After the department concluded that “the child abuse element had subsided”, the family was transferred to another social welfare organisation for follow-up. The new social worker soon discovered the boy had been absent from nursery for more than two-thirds of the school days across two academic years. Just as she began investigating – after failing to reach the mother – she learned of the boy’s death from the news on September 3.

August 6, 2026

Business

Hong Kong must be realistic and flexible in re-engaging with the US

A more stable US-Hong Kong relationship need not come at the expense of domestic security or ties with the Global South or the mainland Some have cautioned against reading too much into the move. The trend in Sino-American relations remains one of controlled decoupling with particular emphasis on insulating their respective sensitive technology spheres from the other. The foreign policy establishment in Washington appears convinced China poses a formidable and systemic threat to American interests. Many in Beijing have come to an equally ominous conclusion that a confrontation between the two powers is inevitable.

August 6, 2026

Business

Chinese satellite captures video of SpaceX rocket debris crashing into the moon

Gande-1 01 is China’s first space debris monitoring satellite and the lead unit in a planned 120-satellite monitoring constellation No visible plume can be seen in the images that appear to show the moment of impact, which is consistent with what other scientists and telescopes reported immediately after the rocket debris struck on Wednesday. The monitoring provided not only a record of the impact, but also a “proof of ability” for the technology, according to the satellite’s developer, Beijing-based aerospace company ATmoto Technology, also known as Aotian Technology. “The impact of the Falcon 9 upper-stage debris on the moon was an ‘unplanned’ space event, but it became an excellent window to test the operational capabilities of the space-based situational awareness system,” the company said in a social media post on Wednesday.

August 6, 2026

Business

Media backlash in China after US think tank hails 46% drop in Chinese student visas

Report stating US could benefit from fewer Chinese and Indian students draws criticism over claims of politicising education The report by the Washington-based Centre for Immigration Studies (CIS) has triggered a backlash in China, where Chinese media accused the organisation of recycling claims that Chinese students could pose security risks and of politicising normal academic exchanges. Published this week, the CIS report analysed US State Department data to show that F-1 student visas issued to Indian nationals fell 60 per cent and those to Chinese nationals declined 46 per cent compared with average levels from previous years. The report said the decline, if sustained, could “greatly benefit American students and national security”. It argued that having fewer Chinese students in the United States could cut risks linked to technology transfer and espionage. “Reductions in the number of PRC students coming to US colleges and universities will reduce the overall level of espionage and technology theft on campus and will be to the benefit of US national security,” it said, referring to the People’s Republic of China.

August 6, 2026