The resignation of Prime Minister Keir Starmer has once again plunged British politics into uncertainty. Britain is now poised to welcome its seventh prime minister in a decade: after David Cameron, Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss, Rishi Sunak and now Starmer, yet another successor is waiting in the wings.
For a country that often presents itself as a model of political stability and democratic governance, such an extraordinary turnover of leadership raises questions about the...

Source: © SCMP News

The international nuclear watchdog responsible for verifying Iran’s stockpile of near-bomb-grade uranium dismissed the conflicting signals from Tehran and Washington overnight and said it expects to resume full monitoring at some stage.
“There’s a war of words here,” said International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi, referring to White House statements about monitoring that were disputed by Iran.
In Washington on Tuesday, President Donald Trump threatened to halt...

Source: © SCMP News

Ukrainian drones knocked out power in Sevastopol, the biggest city in Russian-held Crimea, on Wednesday and targeted facilities in central and southern Russia, local officials said, underscoring the reach of Kyiv’s attacks on energy infrastructure.
Ukraine has intensified strikes on Russian oil refineries, depots and supply routes this year, pushing up petrol prices in Russia, where ‌authorities have limited sales in some regions.
Fuel shortages have been particularly acute on the Crimean...

Source: © SCMP News

As European leaders convened at the European Council meeting in Brussels this month, the spectre of a full-blown trade war with China cast a long shadow over the proceedings. Amid ongoing anti-subsidy probes into Chinese green technology and the looming threat of retaliatory tariffs, the economic bedrock of the China-EU relationship appears increasingly fragile.
Yet, beneath the hawkish political rhetoric, recent high-level meetings between European officials and their Chinese counterparts...

Source: © SCMP News

Keiko Fujimori is poised to become Peru’s next president after running her fourth consecutive campaign, according to figures published late Tuesday by the elections regulator after weeks of adjudicating disputed ballots.
With 43,386 votes between Fujimori and leftist rival Roberto Sanchez, and no more than 39,300 votes in dispute, the conservative had enough of a margin to secure her lead. Fujimori had 50.1 per cent of the vote while Sanchez had 49.9 per cent with 99.8 per cent of ballots...

Source: © SCMP News

A Pentagon decision to strip “Indo” from the name of its largest unified military command eight years after it was initially added has raised questions about the United States’ continuing commitment to India.
In a statement announcing the Indo-Pacific Command’s name change on June 16, US officials portrayed the move as a matter of “honour”, “pride” and respecting “historical roots”.
But analysts told This Week in Asia that New Delhi would likely read the reversion to Pacific Command (PACOM) as...

Source: © SCMP News

Three candidates endorsed by Zohran Mamdani swept to victory in Democratic congressional primaries on Tuesday, showing that the coalition which powered the New York City mayor to a surprising victory last year is gaining strength.
Some of the city’s most established political figures were toppled in races that highlighted divisions within the party over ideology, Israel and immigration.
Former New York City comptroller Brad Lander defeated two-term Congressman Dan Goldman in New York’s 10th...

Source: © SCMP News

Large parts of western Europe were baking on Wednesday as a so-called heat dome brought extreme conditions that many forecasters warned could present a risk to life.
A day after France recorded its hottest-ever day, Britain was on Wednesday set to see its highest ever June temperature, prompting the national weather forecaster to issue a “red heat health” alert for much of central and southern England, as well as Wales.
It was only the second such warning ever issued by UK authorities following...

Source: © SCMP News

The US Senate backed legislation on Tuesday directing US President Donald Trump to halt US military action against Iran, the latest rebuke of the Republican president from an increasingly restive Congress.
The Senate voted 50–48 in favour of the war powers resolution, which passed the House of Representatives early this month, reflecting growing concern even among some of Trump’s Republicans about the unpopular conflict that began on February 28 when the US and Israel launched an attack on...

Source: © SCMP News

Airbus on Tuesday said it would inspect 16 A380 planes, five of them immediately, after cracks were found in a key wing component on aircraft used by the Emirates and Qantas airlines.
The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has ordered urgent inspections requiring airlines to examine the wing-spar structure on the affected jets after inspectors found cracks during routine maintenance checks.
The cracks appeared in a structural beam that runs along the wing and carries much of the...

Source: © SCMP News

A problem with a communications system forced Germany’s railway network to halt all trains late Tuesday, leaving passengers stranded across the country.
Trains were held at stations and would-be travellers stood in long queues at information desks as they tried to figure out how to get to their destinations.
The main national railway operator, Deutsche Bahn, said shortly before 1am – nearly 2½ hours after it first reported the outage – that the problem had been resolved and service was resuming...

Source: © SCMP News

Bankers working for JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs in Hong Kong must have been miffed when they were shut off from using artificial intelligence (AI) models from Anthropic, a pioneering American firm in the field.
Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase pulled the plug in April and last week respectively, based on a strict interpretation of Anthropic’s terms of use, which reflect Washington’s stringent restrictions on China’s access to frontier American AI models.
The banks’ decisions are seen as a...

Source: © SCMP News

Wall Street got a reality check as a bruising sell-off in several technology giants fuelled concern the artificial intelligence frenzy that has powered the equity bull market might be overblown.
The tech rout engulfed global stocks as worries about frothy valuations ignited a fresh bout of volatility after a nearly three-month surge in riskier assets.
The S&P fell 1.4 per cent. The benchmark index is coming off 11 weekly gains out of the last 12, led largely by technology stocks.
The Dow Jones...

Source: © SCMP News

The US Supreme Court refused on Tuesday to let a Rastafarian man sue state prison officials in Louisiana after guards held him down and shaved him bald in violation of his religious beliefs in a case brought under a federal law protecting incarcerated people from religious discrimination.
The Supreme Court, in a 6-3 ruling powered by its conservative majority, upheld a lower court’s decision to dismiss Damon Landor’s lawsuit, agreeing that he could not sue the individual prison officials and...

Source: © SCMP News

Today show host Savannah Guthrie made an emotional appeal to viewers on Tuesday to come forward with any information about her missing mother, a day after news organisations said a ransom note received months ago had indicated that she was dead.
“We are in agony, and we cannot be at peace … We love our mum. We’ll never stop looking for her,” Guthrie said at the Today desk in New York, holding a tissue in her left hand.
Nancy Guthrie, 84, who lived alone, was reported missing from her Tucson-area...

Source: © SCMP News

Russia has accused the ⁠US of failing to deliver on “understandings” reached between presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump at a summit in Alaska last August, a shift that suggests growing frustration in Moscow.
In the space of three days, three senior Russian officials have said, without providing specifics, that Washington has not followed through.
Their comments follow an intensification of Ukraine’s drone strikes deep inside Russia – including two attacks last week on a Moscow oil...

Source: © SCMP News

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday insisted that Iran has agreed to “highest level” nuclear inspections even as Iranian officials disputed his claim, exposing how much remains contested even with a tentative agreement in place.
“Despite their protestations and false statements to the contrary … Iran has fully and completely agreed to highest level Nuclear inspections long into the future (Infinity!!!),” Trump wrote on social media on Tuesday morning.
“This will insure ‘Nuclear Honesty.’ If...

Source: © SCMP News

Russia is considering fuel imports ‌and corresponding subsidies to cap prices as ways to mitigate supply disruptions of petrol and diesel caused by Ukrainian strikes on oil refineries, Vedomosti daily reported on Tuesday, citing two unnamed sources.
Numerous regions across Russia, the world’s third-largest crude oil producer, have reported restrictions on fuel sales, rising prices of oil products ⁠and long queues at filling stations due to supply shortages.
Apart from supplying crude oil...

Source: © SCMP News

At the recent Brussels summit, the leaders of all 27 European Union states called on the European Commission to expand the bloc’s trade defence toolbox against “global macroeconomic imbalances”, widely understood to refer to China’s so-called overcapacity.
Measures under discussion include mechanisms for sector-wide tariffs and other restrictions in industries such as chemicals and green technology. Europe, long a critic of Washington’s Section 301 tariffs, is now considering instruments that...

Source: © SCMP News

Former Scottish National Party chief executive Peter Murrell was jailed for just over five years on Tuesday after admitting embezzling more than £400,000 (US$540,000) of party funds to buy items such as ‌cars, a motorhome and luxury goods.
Murrell, 61, is the estranged husband of ex-SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon, who suddenly resigned in 2023, shortly before she was arrested as part of the probe into the party’s finances.
She was cleared of wrongdoing in March last year.
He pleaded guilty last...

Source: © SCMP News

Israeli authorities and security forces deliberately targeted Palestinian children, resulting in genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza, and war crimes in the occupied West Bank, an independent UN inquiry said on Tuesday.
The report by the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel examined violations against Palestinian children since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas on October ‌7,...

Source: © SCMP News

On Monday morning, ⁠Keir Starmer emerged into the sunshine in Downing Street flanked by his staff and ⁠wife, his voice thick with emotion as he said he was no longer the right person to lead Britain.
Starmer, who won one of the biggest landslides in British political history, is out after less than two years. The sixth leader to quit in 10 years.
The highest rate of political turnover in almost two centuries.
Like his predecessors, Starmer failed to stem popular anger over living standards,...

Source: © SCMP News

The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool on Washington’s National Mall is set to be drained again for repairs after algae and peeling paint appeared just weeks after a US$14.7 million renovation, while President Donald Trump threatened prison time for anyone caught ‌damaging the pool.
The DC Water authority issued a permit to drain the 609-metre rectangular pool, it said on Monday, while the repair company said it would fix the pool as part of its warranty.
Peeling paint and algae growth have been...

Source: © SCMP News

The advent of artificial intelligence (AI) appears sudden and revolutionary, yet its origins stretch deep into history, revealing a profound and forgotten intellectual exchange between China and the West.
Long before Alan Turing, Claude Shannon, or even Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace, there was Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz – the German polymath born exactly 380 years ago next week. Among his monumental contributions to science is the binary numeral system, which serves as the bedrock of modern...

Source: © SCMP News

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer conceded on Monday that he had lost the support of his rank-and-file Labour Party members in Parliament and that he will step down once his successor as party leader is chosen, possibly as soon as the middle of July.
Andy Burnham, the former mayor of Greater Manchester whose resounding victory in a special UK election last week set in motion Starmer’s resignation, has confirmed he will put himself forward to be his successor.
Burnham is seen as the...

Source: © SCMP News

A notorious mob hitman who once testified against John “Junior” Gotti before cleaning up his life and becoming a councilman in New Jersey has been arrested on extortion and loan sharking charges that, if proven, reflect a return to the lifestyle of his youth.
John Alite, 63, was arrested on Friday in New Jersey, where he was sworn in early last year as a councillor in the borough of Englishtown. Released after a court appearance on Saturday, Alite is scheduled to return to court for a detention...

Source: © SCMP News

US President Donald Trump criticised outgoing British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Monday after the Labour leader announced he would resign, saying he had “really hurt himself” over energy, immigration and his handling of relations with Washington.
“I think he’s a lovely man,” Trump told reporters at an Oval Office event, before accusing Starmer of mishandling Britain’s energy policy by failing to exploit North Sea oil and allowing “windmills all over the place”.
“The UK buys much of its...

Source: © SCMP News

US President Donald Trump said on Monday “I will do what I have to do” if Iran does not stick to its agreement with ‌Washington.
“If Iran doesn’t live up to their agreement, or if they’re not behaving, I will do what I have to do,” Trump told reporters.
Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian signed an interim US-Iran deal last week, more than three months after the US and ⁠Israel attacked Iran and Iran responded with its own attacks on Israel and ‌Gulf states with US bases.
Trump said on...

Source: © SCMP News

A suspect armed with a long gun opened fire on Monday at a Montreal hotel, killing a police officer before officers returned fire, killing him, police said. A civilian also died but it was not immediately clear who fired that shot.
Police Chief Fady Dagher said a second officer was seriously injured in the shooting in the city’s Cote-des-Neiges neighbourhood but was in stable condition.
The chief said it was the first time in 24 years that a Montreal police officer had been killed in the line of...

Source: © SCMP News

China, which now conducts more clinical drug trials than the US, still lags in the quality and commercial reach of its biomedical science, according to a recent survey of senior US leaders in industry and academia.
The ‌poll, conducted by Cure Innovation Index, found that China is seen as the clear leader in two out of six sectors: clinical development and supply chain.
It found that the US leads in moving experimental products through to large-scale production, capital, and commercialisation...

Source: © SCMP News

Forty people have drowned in France over the past few days as they sought to cool down to escape record heat, the government said on Tuesday, as a heatwave swept across much of Europe.
Britain, Italy and Spain were also sweltering in extreme heat, with record temperatures in some regions disrupting schools and transport networks.
Europe is warming at more than twice the global average, according to the World Meteorological Organization, making such prolonged heat episodes increasingly...

Source: © SCMP News

Beijing congratulated Colombia on its presidential run-off and said it would work with the incoming government of Abelardo de la Espriella, the far-right lawyer who has promised to pull the country back towards the United States.
Foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun made the remarks on Monday, a day after a preliminary count put de la Espriella narrowly ahead of his leftist rival, Senator Ivan Cepeda.
“China … congratulates Colombia on the smooth second round of presidential elections,” he...

Source: © SCMP News

European Central ⁠Bank President Christine Lagarde ⁠on Monday urged global leaders to discuss undervaluation of the Chinese currency as a facet of the imbalances endangering the global economy.
China has ‌consistently denied that it manipulates its currency for trade advantage but its surging trade surpluses are one of several macroeconomic mismatches worrying leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) nations who met last week in ⁠France, along with chronic US deficits and Europe’s...

Source: © SCMP News

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Monday that her country seeks to restart oil shipments to Cuba soon, a move that could provide much-needed relief as the island’s crises deepen given a lack of petroleum.
Sheinbaum said her administration would seek to send the oil via commercial and privately owned firms instead of state-owned companies as it has done in the past.
Mexico became a key fuel supplier to Cuba after the US attacked Venezuela in early January and halted critical oil...

Source: © SCMP News

Clive Davis, a former corporate lawyer who became one of the most influential figures in American rock and pop music as he fostered the careers of Bob Dylan, Whitney Houston, Janis Joplin, Aretha Franklin, Bruce Springsteen and other stars, died ⁠on Monday at the age of 94.
Davis, who was known as “the man with the golden ear” for his ability to identify potential hit ⁠songs, died at his home in Manhattan, The New York Times reported, having recently been hospitalised with respiratory...

Source: © SCMP News

Russian-held Crimea, a popular tourism destination, suspended children’s summer camps and tourist activities until September 1, its governor said on Monday, as the peninsula reels from a fuel crisis due to Ukrainian attacks on its supply routes.
Supplies ‌of fuel and other products to Crimea have become strained as Ukraine has targeted both sea routes and supply roads from the north.
The availability of petrol and diesel in Russia, the world’s third-largest oil producer, has also been undermined...

Source: © SCMP News

Tehran has agreed to invite International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors back into the country, US Vice-President J.D. Vance said on Monday, after a first round of US-Iran talks towards ending the Middle East war.
“The Iranians have agreed to invite IAEA inspectors back into their country,” Vance told reporters at Switzerland’s isolated Burgenstock resort, where his talks with Iran’s chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf opened on Sunday.
“That is a major milestone for the American people...

Source: © SCMP News

China’s exports of green-energy and battery products to the United States have accelerated amid demand in America’s fast-expanding AI sector, as cooling trade tensions and energy-security fears linked to the Iran war boost global appetite for renewable-energy equipment.
Energy-related products posted some of the strongest gains among Chinese exports to the US last month, according to the latest customs data. Exports of unassembled photovoltaic cells surged 346 per cent year on year to US$39.96...

Source: © SCMP News

Alan Greenspan, hailed as the greatest Federal Reserve chairman when he retired in 2006 but derided for a severe financial crisis that followed barely two years later, died on Monday aged ⁠100, NBC News reported.
Greenspan, who exerted a powerful influence on the US economy ⁠during his tenure at the helm of the Fed from August 1987 to January 2006, died at his home ⁠from complications of Parkinson’s disease, NBC reported, citing his wife Andrea Mitchell, who is the outlet’s chief Washington...

Source: © SCMP News

Keir Starmer announced his intention to step down as Britain’s prime minister on Monday, succumbing to intense party pressure as his popularity plummeted and rivals manoeuvred to challenge him.
“Every decision I have taken has been about putting the country I love first. That is why I will resign as leader of the Labour Party,” an emotional Starmer said in a short speech outside 10 Downing Street in London.
Starmer, who up until Monday had resisted calls to stand aside, said he would remain...

Source: © SCMP News

China’s proactive role in stabilising global energy and fertiliser markets amid the Strait of Hormuz crisis shows the country is a defender of global supply chains, rather than a disruptive force as “hyped” by the West, Vice-Premier Ding Xuexiang said on Monday.
“The fact that Chinese manufacturing never falters or fails at critical moments fully proves that China is a participant, a builder and a defender of the global supply chain,” Ding said during the opening ceremony of the fourth China...

Source: © SCMP News

We have put together stories from our coverage last weekend to help you stay informed about news across Asia and beyond. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing.
1. How ‘lying flat’ went from a niche subculture to mainstream phenomenon
2. The hidden cost of China’s electric car boom: a spiralling roadworks bill
3. Sin to salvation: how Singapore’s most notorious mall found God
4. Hong Kong TV host Lillian Sze loses battle with ovarian cancer
5. 100kg dad...

Source: © SCMP News

A huge blast at a Qatar gas hub killed 13 people and injured 66 others, the Gulf state’s energy minister said on Monday, one of the deadliest accidents at a Gulf energy facility.
Authorities are investigating the cause of the incident, which energy minister Saad al-Kaabi said was “an accident and not sabotage or hostile in nature”, after Iranian attacks targeted energy facilities in the Gulf during the war in the Middle East.
He announced “the tragic loss of 13 lives of our people who hold...

Source: © SCMP News

Canada is deploying two frigates and a submarine to the world’s largest multinational naval exercise this week, in what analysts describe as both a display of Indo-Pacific seriousness and a pointed rebuttal to Washington’s “freeriding” charge.
HMCS Ottawa, HMCS Regina and submarine HMCS Corner Brook are slated to join the biennial Rim of the Pacific Exercise (Rimpac) from Wednesday to July 31, which is expected to draw more than 25,000 military personnel from 31 countries, including Australia,...

Source: © SCMP News

A flamboyant US-backed lawyer who has never held public office narrowly won Colombia’s polarising presidential run-off on Sunday, swinging the country hard right and sparking violent protests.
With almost all the votes counted, Abelardo de la Espriella held 49.66 per cent of the vote versus left-wing Senator Ivan Cepeda’s 48.70 per cent.
The 47-year-old’s slender win triggered demonstrations, but will ease ties with Washington and extend a regional right-wing wave centred on “iron fist” security...

Source: © SCMP News

People ⁠caught vandalising the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting ⁠Pool on Washington’s National Mall will be fully prosecuted, US Attorney Jeanine Pirro said on Sunday.
President Donald Trump has blamed vandalism for recent problems with the newly renovated pool, including its new ‌blue paint peeling off. Citations for vandalism have been issued, Pirro said on Sunday, adding that even minor crimes must be prosecuted to keep the US capital safe.
The peeling paint was visible in the 610-metre-long...

Source: © SCMP News

US claims that an individual with ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) tried to join the Iran team’s flight to the United States on Saturday are “fabricated and entirely baseless allegations”, the country’s football federation (FFIRI) has said.
Markwayne Mullin, the US Homeland Security Secretary, told Fox News on Sunday that someone under the guise of being the Iranian federation (FFIRI) president tried to board the team’s flight to Los Angeles from Mexico for Sunday’s World Cup...

Source: © SCMP News

Ramiro Valdes, one of Fidel Castro’s earliest collaborators who was lauded at ⁠home as a hero of ⁠the Cuban revolution, has died at the age of ⁠94, President Miguel Diaz-Canel said on social media on Sunday.
The president did not provide a cause of death.
A top government official for decades after Castro’s rebels came to power in 1959, Valdes held the honorary titles “Hero of the Republic” and “Commander of the Revolution” and formed part of the powerful Political Bureau of the ruling Cuban...

Source: © SCMP News

Thousands of Czechs rallied in the capital on Sunday to condemn a plan by the government led by populist Prime Minister Andrej Babis to overhaul funding for public broadcasters that is considered dangerous for their independence.
The protesters gathered in front of the Czech public television offices in Prague, Czech Republic, to voice their support for the media a day before their staff plan to go on a warning strike, and after recent protest marches in the regional capitals and...

Source: © SCMP News

The United States expects talks with Iran to continue through the night in Switzerland, a US diplomat told reporters early Monday, as they work to permanently end the Middle East war.
The current round of negotiations got off to a rocky start, with the Islamic Republic’s delegation walking out in response to US President Donald Trump’s threats to strike Iran over its support for Hezbollah Sunday.
A US diplomat at the Swiss venue told reporters the Iranian delegation was involved in “robust...

Source: © SCMP News