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Joyous reunion of Iranian boy with China classmates after family visit to Iran moves many
Business

Joyous reunion of Iranian boy with China classmates after family visit to Iran moves many

Business trip to conflict-ridden homeland lasts longer than expected as boy and parents lose contact with worried school friends An eight-year-old Iranian boy who left his primary school in China for his mother country in January and later lost contact with his teachers for 42 days has returned to the campus, thrilling his classmates. On April 27, when the boy named Radin, dressed in the school’s uniform, appeared in a classroom at Shaoxing Boya International School, his excited classmates all came to hug him closely, the Yueniu News reported. “I asked my teacher not to tell them the news so this could be a surprise,” Radin told the media. “When I was in Iran, I hoped to return to China every day. I love all of you. I missed everyone here,” added the boy. Radin’s parents have been running a trading business in Shaoxing, eastern Zhejiang province, for three years.

May 6, 2026
Why Japanese politician’s goal to reset ties with Russia is ‘a long shot’
Business

Why Japanese politician’s goal to reset ties with Russia is ‘a long shot’

A proposed meeting of foreign ministers from Tokyo and Moscow is unlikely for now due to objections from the Japanese public and allies Suzuki, who represents a constituency in Hokkaido and returned to the ruling Liberal Democratic Party in 2025 after 23 years as an independent member of the Diet, met senior Russian government officials in Moscow on Monday. “Takaichi said that she is very well aware of the importance of Japan-Russia ties,” he added. “I have consistently taken a negative view of the fact that Japan, at the request of Biden, has adopted cold ties with Russia.”

May 6, 2026
Will Hong Kong’s lending clampdown wean helpers off debt – and save their dreams?
Business

Will Hong Kong’s lending clampdown wean helpers off debt – and save their dreams?

NGOs say regulations should not be so strict that they deny domestic helpers access to loans since they may have legitimate needs such as family emergencies Anna, a domestic helper from the Philippines, had managed her finances well until she took out two loans over the past few months for a friend she described as being “like a mother to me”. The 37-year-old, who asked to be identified only by her first name, now has to pay creditors about HK$9,000 (US$1,149) a month – almost twice her salary – leaving her extremely stressed about her debt. “My friend said she needed the money and asked if I could borrow from banks under my name, saying she would pay back the loans, but I was wrong to believe her,” she said. “I am really hurt about this … I told her, you really put me in trouble, you put my job at risk. But she just says ‘I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean it’.” Anna said the debt had taken a toll on her mental health, but she was prioritising her children’s needs over repayments, even as banks continued to chase her. “The school told me my son has borderline depression because they kept asking him for payments, which I failed to give. That really breaks me,” she said. “My situation really gives me depression.

May 6, 2026 · 2 dk okuma
The domestic dynamics driving Japan’s remilitarisation
Business

The domestic dynamics driving Japan’s remilitarisation

Sanctions, diplomatic warnings and aggressive rhetoric create a perilous loop, reinforcing the very domestic tendencies China seeks to deter On the surface, a contradiction exists. Pacifist and liberal opposition remains. Article 9 of the constitution retains deep emotional resonance. Protest voices persist. Yet Takaichi’s approval ratings are strong. This is the result of a long, deliberate project. This contrasts sharply with the Japan I knew decades ago. I remember elderly men, former soldiers, bowing to apologise for their actions in China. Their passing marks not just a demographic shift, but the closing of a chapter where the war was a lived experience, not a historical debate.

May 6, 2026
A year since Singapore election, how has Lawrence Wong’s team fared?
Business

A year since Singapore election, how has Lawrence Wong’s team fared?

Wong and his team have to prove they are ‘more than equal’ to the task of helping Singapore navigate coming headwinds, analysts say Under the scorching midday sun at a lunchtime speech in the heart of the city, Singapore’s leader last April urged voters to re-elect his tested People’s Action Party (PAP), arguing that voting for the opposition would weaken his team’s ability to navigate coming headwinds. On top of surging oil and gas prices wrought by the ongoing Iran war, fears of an artificial intelligence revolution replacing jobs continue to weigh heavily on citizens and policymakers. “Wong has his work cut out for him given that he has to unequivocally demonstrate that he and his team are more than equal to the task of navigating Singapore through treacherous geopolitical waters,” said Eugene Tan, a political observer and associate professor of law at Singapore Management University. “For sure, the current polycrisis is a double-edged sword for the PAP government.” Singapore imports 95 per cent of its energy, with its status as a transport and business hub dependent on ensuring reliable and resilient energy supply.

May 6, 2026
Aung San Suu Kyi’s son asks France to help him locate mother in Myanmar
Business

Aung San Suu Kyi’s son asks France to help him locate mother in Myanmar

The son of Myanmar’s deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi demanded France’s help in seeking independently verified proof of his mother’s life after she was transferred to house arrest, her lawyers said. The country’s junta chief-turned-president Min Aung Hlaing on Thursday ordered the 80-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner to be moved, five years after putting her into detention in a coup. But her son, Kim Aris, says he has still not heard from his mother, who remains massively popular inside...

May 6, 2026
Boy, 13, shoots 2 dead at Brazil school
Business

Boy, 13, shoots 2 dead at Brazil school

Students tried to escape over a wall, but it was too tall and many were trapped on the school roof A teenage boy shot dead two staff members and injured two other people, including a student, at a school in northeast Brazil on Tuesday, prompting panicked students to try to escape over a wall, authorities and a witness said. A 13-year-old boy was arrested over the attack at Sao Jose Institute in Rio Branco, the capital of Acre state, the local government said in a statement. Eduardo Rodrigues Cavalcante, who works as a receptionist at a hotel next to the school, said that when the shooting began, some students tried to jump over a wall separating the school from the hotel. “The wall is six meters high, and only one person managed to jump over and take refuge here in the hotel. The other people were left on the school roof trying to escape,” the 19-year-old receptionist said, adding that he heard “gunshots and a lot of screaming”. Images released by a local media outlet showed a woman being evacuated on a stretcher and people crying and hugging each other outside the school. It was not yet clear whether the attacker was a current or former pupil at the school.

May 6, 2026 · 2 dk okuma
Trump admin sued over dumping of White House debris, tests show toxic metals
Business

Trump admin sued over dumping of White House debris, tests show toxic metals

The debris is coming from the East Wing, which is being demolished to build the US president’s ballroom Debris from the demolition of the White House East Wing that was dumped at a nearby public golf course has tested positive for lead, chromium and other toxic metals, the National Park Service said. An interim report by a Virginia engineering firm says the toxic metals, along with PCBs, pesticides, petroleum by-products and other chemicals were detected at levels above laboratory reporting limits in soil at the East Potomac Golf Links, a historic golf course that US President Donald Trump plans to renovate. The park service began dumping debris from the East Wing onto the golf course in October, and more than 30,000 cubic yards (810,000 cubic feet) of excavated soil had been transported to the site as of last month, the report by Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. said. The report was requested by the park service. The non-profit DC Preservation League has sued the Trump administration, arguing that the dumping was unlawful and possibly hazardous. The group also is challenging the Republican administration’s takeover of the golf course, about 3km (two miles) southeast of the White House, and others in the city.

May 6, 2026 · 2 dk okuma
Residents passed from pillar to post as warnings before fatal Hong Kong fire went unheeded
Business

Residents passed from pillar to post as warnings before fatal Hong Kong fire went unheeded

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May 6, 2026
China urges US to drop trade probe as key Trump-Xi summit approaches
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China urges US to drop trade probe as key Trump-Xi summit approaches

The White House’s Section 301 investigations were launched to identify structural excess capacity among 16 trading partners, including China “[It] lacks sufficient statutory basis and supporting evidence” and “circumvents several established multilateral mechanisms”, Michelle Zang, speaking on behalf of the China Chamber of International Commerce (CCOIC), a state-backed trade body, told the hearing. Tuesday’s hearing comes less than two weeks before Trump’s planned visit to China, where trade disputes are expected to feature prominently in talks with Xi. If the investigation finds unfair trade practices, defined as “unreasonable acts”, it could give the White House a legal basis to impose new tariffs on China and other major trading partners. ‘We have a deal’: Trump claims breakthrough after ‘12 out of 10’ talks with Xi Jinping “Excess capacity is an economic condition, not a government conduct,” Zang said. “We urge the investigation to accurately identify government conduct with specificity, not merely point to aggregate economic outcomes.”

May 6, 2026
How China-Gulf ties can turn energy vulnerability into sustainability
Business

How China-Gulf ties can turn energy vulnerability into sustainability

Hormuz tensions are a reminder to start building a better, more sustainable energy order before the next crisis hits; Hong Kong can help For China and the Gulf states, there should be a more ambitious energy deal: one that maintains a stable oil trade but eventually brings the cooperation focus back to renewables, storage, electric vehicles, industrial localisation and green finance. China and the Arab world are ready for such a transition. In 2024, China-Arab trade reached US$407.4 billion, making China the Arab world’s largest trading partner. Last year, China’s trade with Arab League nations hit a record high of US$241.6 billion in the first seven months. No longer based solely on oil, China-Arab relations now include infrastructure, information technology, ports and logistics, manufacturing and even green energy. Gulf states have incentive to speed up this shift. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and others are looking to diversify their economies from oil, attract hi-tech manufacturing and position themselves for a future where oil and gas no longer underpin national development. Can the Middle East war turbocharge China’s global EV ambitions?

May 6, 2026
ICC fugitive? Duterte ally’s paid Philippine Senate vanishing act draws fire
Business

ICC fugitive? Duterte ally’s paid Philippine Senate vanishing act draws fire

Ronald Dela Rosa has not reported for work since reports of him being targeted by the ICC as a co-perpetrator in Duterte’s deadly drug war Dela Rosa has, however, continued to receive his salary, prompting civil society groups and other critics to ask why an elected lawmaker can stay away from work and still be paid with public funds. As chairman of the Senate Committee on National Defence and Security, Peace, Unification and Reconciliation, he was supposed to sponsor the 2026 budget of the Department of National Defence and the Armed Forces of the Philippines. The plenary process was delayed due to his absence. Dela Rosa, who was re-elected last year, has not appeared in the chamber since November 11, after reports circulated that he could be arrested as a “co-conspirator” in the ICC case against Duterte. Last year, shortly after Duterte was arrested and flown to detention in The Hague, Dela Rosa said he was thinking of going into hiding.

May 6, 2026