南华早报

South Park creators ‘rename’ show to ‘South America’ in jab at Trump The creators of the long-running and enthusiastically insolent television show South Park aren’t known to be huge fans o f US President Donald Trump. However, they’ve decided to adopt one of his ideas – in a way. They’re changing – at least for the moment – the name of the popular series, which just won the Emmy for out... via South China Morning Post

Brazil scraps tax on small parcels as Chinese platforms lose US and EU access Brazil on Wednesday eliminated its federal import tax on small overseas parcels, moving in the opposite direction from U S and European Union efforts to close a loophole that saw such Chinese retail giants as Shein and Temu expand rapidly. The elimination will hurt the country’s tax base, but the levy on lower value shi... via South China Morning Post

Ukraine leader Zelensky’s plane almost hit by drone on way to Oslo, Norway PM says The plane carrying ⁠Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to ⁠Oslo for the funeral of the king of Norway was nearly str uck by a drone when taking off from Moldova on Tuesday, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere told public broadcaster NRK on ‌Wednesday. “His plane was almost hit by a drone as it was about to ta... via South China Morning Post

Trump says Iran war will end right after US midterm elections President ⁠Donald Trump on Wednesday ⁠predicted that the war with Iran will end “immediately after” the US midterm elect ions in November because Tehran was trying to influence the vote but would not ‌be able to hold out more in the face of US economic pressure. “I think war is going to end immediately after the electio... via South China Morning Post

UN nuclear watchdog board reports Iran to Security Council for first time in 20 years The UN atomic watchdog’s board on Wednesday reported Iran to the UN Security Council for the first time in 20 years, cit ing it for failure to cooperate in a long-running investigation into uranium traces detected by inspectors at undeclared sites. Western officials suspect that the traces could provide evidence that Ir... via South China Morning Post

Trump gave US$45,000 cash to close aide Natalie Harp and others US President Donald Trump gave tens of thousands of dollars in cash gifts last year to executive assistant Natalie Harp and three other close aides working in the West Wing, according to financial disclosures released by the White House. The payments raised ethics concerns because federal employees are ‌generally barre... via South China Morning Post

AI researcher quits Anthropic over superintelligence fears: ‘gambling with our lives’ An artificial intelligence researcher who left OpenAI to join Anthropic has decided to leave the industry, accusing both US companies of “gambling with our lives” in the race to develop AI models capable of self-improvement. Jacob Coxon, 27, spent the past three years pretraining AI models, first at OpenAI and then, th... via South China Morning Post

Tributes flow in as Hong Kong mourns Tung Chee-hwa, pioneering first leader Hong Kong is mourning the death of Tung Chee-hwa, the city’s first leader after its return to Chinese sovereignty and a respected elder statesman, who died on Tuesday at the age of 89. Tung was surrounded by his family when he “passed away peacefully” at 9.57pm, according to state news agency Xinhua. Tributes and messa... via South China Morning Post

Police widen criminal probe into Reform UK over foreign funding claims British police said on Wednesday a criminal investigation into the populist Reform UK party would be widened to include allegations made in a documentary that officials planned to break electoral law on foreign funding. Reform, led by veteran Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage, denied any wrongdoing ‌and a spokesman for th... via South China Morning Post

Indonesia’s wildfire emissions surge to world’s highest, data shows Indonesia is facing ⁠a surge in emissions from wildfires burning through parched stretches of forest and peatland on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra, with carbon dioxide readings currently the highest in the world, data has shown. Fire emissions from Indonesia from September 1 to September 7 reached 19.7 million metr... via South China Morning Post

Tung Chee-hwa hailed as visionary leader who helped build US-China relations Hong Kong’s first chief executive, Tung Chee-hwa, who died on Tuesday, has been lauded as “one of the greatest movers in China-US relations”, with a foundation established by a former American president’s family praising his “profound contributions” to deepening ties between the two nations. The US consulate and former... via South China Morning Post

Japan’s China-facing military build-up confronts labour, budget and political limits The risk of a conflict over Taiwan is shaping Japanese defence planning, with Tokyo shoring up security at home and abro ad for a potentially prolonged fight. But there are economic, demographic and political constraints on how far its military transformation can go. In the third of a three-part series, Gabriel Domingue... via South China Morning Post

14 killed as explosion rocks Syria arms depot: authorities An explosion at an arms depot in Syria’s northwestern Idlib province killed 14 people on Wednesday, the local health dep artment said, without specifying the cause of the blast. “The toll from the explosion in a temporary storage for collecting weapons and war remnants near the city of Sarmada ... registered 14 killed a... via South China Morning Post

Singapore’s DBS sued for US$1 billion in alleged 1MDB-linked claim Singapore’s DBS Bank is being sued for an estimated S$1.298 billion (US$1.03 billion) in damages linked to the multibill ion-dollar 1MDB scandal, Southeast Asia’s largest lender DBS Group has said. The claimants include the liquidators of four companies: Blackrock Commodities (Global), Platinum ⁠Global Luxury Services, ... via South China Morning Post

US scrambles to match China’s air-breathing hypersonic missiles with Darpa programme A year after China unveiled the world’s first operational air-breathing hypersonic missiles, the United States is launch ing a programme to double down on developing similar weapons. The US Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) will bring contractors together later this month to lay out what it wants from th... via South China Morning Post

EU plan aims to help cities crack down on Airbnb, holiday rentals European cities will gain more leeway to curb short-term rentals such as Airbnb under new EU plans that aim to bring dow n housing costs in tourism hotspots. The European Commission laid out conditions on Wednesday under which local authorities can limit short lets, under a proposal seeking to address Europe’s “housing ... via South China Morning Post

More than 1,000 children dead in Bangladesh measles crisis The death toll from measles in Bangladesh topped 1,000 children since March, health officials said on Wednesday, admitti ng that failures in a vaccination drive could have fuelled the outbreak. The South Asian nation of 170 million has recorded 1,002 deaths and 187,484 infections among children, making this year’s outbr... via South China Morning Post

Buildings Department files 259 charges over work at fire-ravaged Hong Kong estate Hong Kong’s Buildings Department has filed 259 charges against two companies and four individuals over major renovation works at the inferno-ravaged Wang Fuk Court, after investigations found non-fire-retardant materials were used and safety obligations were not met. The department said on Wednesday that the charges in... via South China Morning Post

Beijing boosts Taiwan-facing firepower with brigade-level 155mm howitzer deployment Beijing has reinforced its military firepower facing the Taiwan Strait by deploying more 155mm PLZ-05 self-propelled how itzers, according to state media reports. Replacing its older 122mm artillery, a heavy combined-arms brigade under the People’s Liberation Army’s 71st Group Army has been equipped with a batch of the ... via South China Morning Post

Norwegians bid final farewell to King Harald V, ‘grandfather of the nation’ Norway observed a nationwide minute of silence on Wednesday at the funeral of King Harald V, a modern and unifying figur e whose end of reign was tarnished by scandals. His son and heir King Haakon VIII, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Britain’s Prince William and other foreign dignitaries stood in silence in th... via South China Morning Post