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Russia and Ukraine exchange overnight strikes that leave 7 dead, many injured

Ukrainian drones killed 5 people in Russia’s border region of Belgorod while Russian missiles killed 2 in Kharkiv Russia and Ukraine exchanged strikes overnight that killed civilians and injured many others on both sides, local authorities reported. Large-scale Russian missile strikes on Ukrainian cities have become almost routine in recent weeks, with Moscow exploiting Ukraine’s critical shortage of interceptors for the US-made Patriot systems – the sole air defence weapon in its arsenal able to shoot down ballistic missiles. In the latest attacks, Ukrainian drones killed five people and injured two dozen others, including a four-year-old boy, in Russia’s border region of Belgorod, according to the regional administration. In Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, Russian missiles struck a block of flats block in the Saltivskyi district, killing two people and injuring 13, according to regional head Oleh Syniehubov. Eight more people were injured in Ukraine’s Black Sea port of Odesa after “dozens of missiles and drones” struck the city and surrounding region, according to local administration head Oleh Kiper.

August 9, 2026

Business

Trump says US ‘low-keying it’ with Iran, playing down urgency over Hormuz

US president calls dealings with Tehran a ‘chess game’ as a diplomatic breakthrough fails to materialise US President Donald Trump signalled on Sunday he is prepared to let economic pressure mount against Iran, apparently backing away from ordering more military strikes even as Tehran issues tough demands. “We are low-keying it,” Trump said, according to the news outlet Axios, which said it spoke to him in a brief phone call. Only a week ago Trump made the latest of his series of threats to hit Iran hard, only to back off, as he presses for a deal to end the war he started along with Israel on February 28. Axios said Trump did not express any frustration on Sunday with Iran’s delaying an agreement to open up the Strait of Hormuz. Iran has demanded that the US first end its blockade of Iranian ports and lift oil sanctions, as per the memorandum of understanding the two countries signed in June. The strait’s blockage by Iran since the war started has sent fuel prices soaring and rattled the world economy, putting pressure on the Trump administration as midterm elections in November grow nearer. “We are only semi-negotiating with them.

August 9, 2026

Business

Alleged Irish crime boss charged in Dublin after extradition from Dubai

Daniel Kinahan remanded in custody over charges of directing an international crime group following handover by UAE authorities Alleged Irish crime gang boss Daniel Kinahan was charged with directing a criminal organisation by prosecutors in Dublin on Sunday amid tight security at a special court sitting following his extradition from the United Arab Emirates. Kinahan, who was ‌arrested in Dubai in April, was named by the United States in 2022 as one of three leaders of the Kinahan Organised Crime Group. US authorities offered a US$5 million reward for their arrests. He was handed over to Irish authorities in Dubai earlier on Sunday and flown by Irish government jet to a military base on the outskirts of Dublin. He was then taken directly to the court for a highly unusual Sunday night sitting ⁠and was remanded in custody afterwards. Kinahan, who was dressed in a black hoodie, black trousers and was wearing flip-flops, said he ‌understood the charges and was told by one of the three judges that a bail application could only be made through the High Court. “I think we know I won’t be getting ‌bail, but thank you so much for explaining,” he replied.

August 9, 2026

Business

Iran says Oman deal is in ‘final stages’ but US must act to open Hormuz

Iran and the US are not engaged in talks and Tehran will not start them as long as Washington breaches an interim deal signed in June Iran said on Sunday that a deal ⁠with Oman defining new shipping lanes in the Strait of Hormuz was in its final stages but reiterated that the waterway would only reopen once the United States met other conditions. A US official said on Friday that an agreement between Iran and Oman was close and could soon reopen the waterway, which carried a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas shipments before Iran blocked it in response to US and Israeli attacks. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Sunday an agreement on the strait that lies between the two countries was in the “final stages” ‌but repeated comments made on Saturday that it would not reopen it unless other conditions were met. The agreement would set out the new shipping lanes to be used once the US fulfils those conditions and the strait is reopened, Iran’s Mehr news agency quoted him as saying. Iran and the US are not engaged in talks and Tehran will not start them as long as Washington breaches an interim deal signed in June, Araqchi said, adding that messages are being exchanged via intermediaries.

August 9, 2026

Business

MTR passenger’s hand caught in door while trying to retrieve item from tracks

Video shows passenger kneeling at train door with left hand trapped while knocking on the glass with his right hand and saying, ‘Please open the door’ Hong Kong’s rail operator confirmed on Sunday that a passenger’s hand was caught in a train door after he tried to retrieve something that had fallen onto the tracks, warning travellers not to attempt to pick up dropped items themselves. In a response to inquiries from the South China Morning Post about a video circulating on social media, the MTR Corporation said the incident occurred at 10pm on Friday, on a train that had just left Tiu Keng Leng for Po Lam. In the footage, the passenger is seen kneeling at the train door with his left hand trapped while knocking on the glass with his right hand and repeatedly saying, “Please open the door.” Other passengers nearby try to calm him down. According to the rail operator, another passenger activated the emergency intercom to alert the train captain that a passenger’s hand was caught in the train door. The captain then arranged for the train to return to Tiu Keng Leng station, where staff went to the platform to assist and call an ambulance.

August 9, 2026

Business

Can Europe stay united in China trade battle? Ceuta migrant crisis offers a warning

The recent row over migration and Spain’s border policy suggests it may be hard for the bloc to stand together under pressure from Beijing “We had a real-time test of what happens when one member state was under coercion,” said Alberto Rizzi, a Rome-based policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, specialising in geoeconomics. “Everybody was very quick to jump on that.” The crisis was sparked on July 30, when an estimated 72,000 mainly Moroccan migrants surged into Ceuta, a Spanish enclave in North Africa, after Moroccan border controls appeared to collapse. At least 75 people died, mostly at sea, with the Spanish authorities estimating more than 100 died. The surge raised suspicions that the Moroccan authorities had weaponised migrant flows in response to Spanish efforts to improve ties with its neighbour and rival Algeria.

August 9, 2026

Business

China-Australia relations reach ‘good enough’ baseline, ex-envoy says

Canberra is described as quietly confident in its resilience yet wary of Beijing’s overtures to go further and into new areas of activity The relationship had taken a significant downturn since 2017, but was now on “a more realistic footing”, Graham Fletcher, a non-resident fellow at the Lowy Institute, a Sydney-based think tank, wrote in a report released on Sunday. Fletcher served as Australia’s ambassador to China from 2019 to 2023. The countries are currently reviewing their decade-long free-trade agreement, and Australia served as the guest country of honour at China’s International Supply Chain Promotion Expo held in Beijing in June.

August 9, 2026

Business

With Japan, China faces a corrosive security dilemma

Japan’s 610-page 2026 defence white paper cements a strategic shift: Tokyo has labelled China an “unprecedented and the greatest strategic challenge” for the fourth straight year, a framing dating back to 2014, when a Japanese white paper first flagged Beijing’s East China Sea Air Defence Identification Zone as risking unintended incidents. Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has not altered this trajectory, only accelerated it. This strategic timing aligns with Beijing’s calculus. Even as US...

August 9, 2026

Business

Myanmar rebuffs Asean call to free Aung San Suu Kyi, questions need for envoy

Myanmar will continue to work with Asean’s special envoy but does not see the need to continue when Singapore takes over on January 1 Asean came up with a peace plan for the Southeast Asian country in April 2021 to end hostilities and initiate dialogue among contending parties, to be facilitated by the special envoy. Min Aung Hlaing has since been barred from attending top-level meetings for failing to comply with the plan. In an apparent effort to placate critics, the government allowed a representative of the International Committee of the Red Cross to visit 81-year-old Suu Kyi last week, the first known contact with an outside international independent humanitarian organisation since her detention five years ago. Suu Kyi is serving her sentence under house arrest at an undisclosed location in the capital Naypyidaw, on charges that her supporters and rights groups have said are politically motivated.

August 9, 2026

Business

Chinese boy, 9, missing after being swept away by wave as Typhoon Dolphin approached coast

Rescuers still searching for child, who was taken across a causeway by two adults in Zhejiang when a typhoon warning was already in place Rescuers continued searching on Sunday for a nine-year-old boy who has been missing since he was swept away by a giant wave in the eastern Chinese province of Zhejiang. Local officials warned that high tides, rapid currents and dangerous whirlpools had made the search efforts very difficult, according to media reports. Video footage of the moment the boy was washed out to sea has been widely circulating on Chinese social media platforms. It showed two adults and two children frantically sprinting across a stone and cement causeway connecting the mainland to a rocky island. As the group reached the middle of the exposed walkway, a colossal wave several metres tall smashed over the path, knocking all four to the ground. When the surge receded, only three managed to scramble to their feet while the boy could not hold on to anything and disappeared with the waves.

August 9, 2026

Business

Moore Threads plans Hong Kong listing after posting 147% jump in first-half revenue

The Chinese AI chip developer plans a listing in Hong Kong to deepen its ‘international strategic footprint’ Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) chip developer Moore Threads plans to seek a listing in Hong Kong after reporting a 147 per cent jump in first-half revenue, as the Nvidia challenger seeks fresh capital amid booming demand for home-grown computing power. The Shanghai-listed company said on Sunday that its board had approved a plan to issue H shares and list on the main board of the Hong Kong stock exchange, a move designed to deepen the firm’s “international strategic footprint”, attract and retain talent, and “further enhance corporate governance and core competitiveness”. Separately, the company said its revenue had reached 1.7 billion yuan (US$252 million) in the six months ended June. Its net loss narrowed to 11.6 million yuan from 271 million yuan a year earlier. Moore Threads added that it was actively discussing listing plans with relevant parties, with further details yet to be finalised. The listing plan adds to a bumper year for the Hong Kong stock market, which has seen a string of debuts by high-profile Chinese tech companies in recent months.

August 9, 2026

Business

Chinese vloggers are taking to YouTube to ‘set the record straight’

Videos documenting daily life in big cities, small towns and villages are aimed at overseas viewers and emphasise authentic perspectives At a night market in Shenzhen, Sasa Xu finishes her day with passion fruit tea. It costs US$2.40, bringing her total spend for the day to US$9.40 – details that close out her video “What low-income life in China really looks like”. The video has drawn more than 470,000 views since it was posted to YouTube in April. It includes footage of Xu at a traditional wet market and walking through a densely populated “urban village” where many of the city’s low-income workers live. “Through these simple, everyday records, I hope to show overseas audiences the vibrant and multi-dimensional lives of ordinary Chinese people,” Xu said in an interview. Xu, 30, is an overseas influencer partnerships manager based in the southern tech hub. She is also one of thousands of ordinary Chinese documenting their lives on YouTube for an overseas audience in a powerful shift in digital storytelling. From vast cities like Shanghai and Shenzhen to small towns and rural villages, these unfiltered vlogs offer insights not seen in mainstream media.

August 9, 2026