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 | Hegseth ousts army’s top uniformed officer, even as US wages war on Iran Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has asked the US Army’s top uniformed officer, General Randy George, to step down, the Pentagon said Thursday, as the United States wages a war against Iran. A Pentagon official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter, confirmed that George has been asked to take early retirement from the post of Army chief of staff, which he has held since August 2023. The ousting of George is just the latest of more than a dozen firings of top... Source: © SCMP News |
 | Iran war: music and barbecues in Tehran despite Trump’s ‘Stone Age’ threats In a leafy Tehran park on Thursday, Iranians gathered for picnics on the final day of the Persian new year holidays, shrugging off US President Donald Trump’s threats to bomb Iran “back to the Stone Ages”. The country has been at war for more than a month and Trump – who launched the conflict alongside Israel on February 28 – has vowed to strike Iran hard for another “two or three weeks”. Powerful blasts shook the Iranian capital on Thursday. Still, hundreds of families sat out under mild,... Source: © SCMP News |
 | Trump fires Pam Bondi as US attorney general, amid Epstein files furore US President Donald Trump removed Attorney General Pam Bondi from her post on Thursday, a White House official said, following mounting frustration with her performance, including her handling of investigative files related to the late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Trump had also reportedly grown frustrated that Bondi was not moving quickly enough to prosecute critics and adversaries who he wanted to face criminal charges. In a social media post, Trump praised Bondi as a “Great... Source: © SCMP News |
 | Man stabs 4 children to death at Uganda kindergarten Four children were stabbed to death on Thursday at a kindergarten in Uganda’s capital, Kampala, police said. The male suspect, in his thirties, gained access by posing as a parent before attacking children aged around two and three with a knife, police said. “We confirm a tragic incident at the Ggaba Early Childhood Development Program school in Makindye Division, Kampala City, where a male suspect brutally stabbed and killed four juveniles,” police spokeswoman Racheal Kawala said. The suspect... Source: © SCMP News |
 | Immediate reopening of Strait of Hormuz demanded at 40-nation talks A UK-led meeting of some 40 countries on the Strait of Hormuz crisis wrapped up on Thursday with a demand for the “immediate and unconditional” reopening of the vital shipping route but no immediate breakthrough. “Iran is trying to hold the global economy hostage in the Strait of Hormuz. They must not prevail,” British foreign minister Yvette Cooper said in a statement. “To that effect, partners today called for the immediate and unconditional reopening of the Strait and respect for the... Source: © SCMP News |
 | China’s Iran war strategy, Trump’s Hormuz ask: 7 global relations reads We have selected seven of the most interesting and important news stories covering global relations from the past few weeks. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. Iran’s exiled prince Reza Pahlavi plans to flip the script on Beijing Allies of exiled Iranian royal Reza Pahlavi signalled a potential reset in Tehran’s ties with China and Russia, as the 65-year-old increasingly positioned himself as a central figure in Iran’s political future – a claim that... Source: © SCMP News |
 | US crude tops US$110, Wall Street falls after Trump vows more Iran attacks Stocks slumped and oil prices soared on Thursday after President Donald Trump vowed the US will continue to attack Iran and failed to offer a clear timetable for ending the conflict in the Middle East. The S&P 500 fell 1.1 per cent, with three out of every four stocks in the benchmark index losing ground. The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 545 points, or 1.2 per cent, as of 9.52am Eastern. The Nasdaq composite fell 1.6 per cent. Major indexes throughout Europe and Asia also fell. The broad... Source: © SCMP News |
 | Italy arrests German-Indian ‘guru’ on child abuse allegations The suspected leader of an isolated forest community on the Mediterranean island of Sicily has been arrested on suspicion of aiding and abetting child abuse, Italian news agencies ANSA and Adnkronos reported on Thursday. The suspect is a man of German-Indian origin. He is said to have led a community of 15 people, including two children, who lived in a forest near Cefalu on Sicily’s northern coast. The two children, aged 7 and 11, were reportedly not vaccinated, did not attend school and had to... Source: © SCMP News |
 | France’s Macron says military operation to ‘liberate’ Strait of Hormuz ‘unrealistic’ French President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday that a military operation to liberate the Strait of Hormuz is “unrealistic”, while lamenting Donald Trump’s differing daily statements on the Iran war and Nato. “There are those who advocate for the liberation of the Strait of Hormuz by force through a military operation, a position sometimes expressed by the United States,” Macron said during a visit to South Korea. “I say sometimes because it has varied, it is never the option we have chosen... Source: © SCMP News |
 | How East Asia is being quietly reordered by the US war on Iran A month into the Iran war, Washington still says it expects to achieve its objectives in weeks, not months. That may prove optimistic. The terms on offer from the United States and Iran barely overlap, and markets remain unconvinced a durable settlement is close. But one fact is clear: the war’s most consequential effects may be felt not only in the Middle East but across East Asia. It would be a mistake to see this as only an oil story. It is also about hierarchy. In East Asia, the war is... Source: © SCMP News |
 | Trump sends crude surging as Iran speech fails to allay war concerns US President Donald Trump tried to sell the war on Iran to sceptical Americans in a televised address, saying that the conflict was “nearing completion” and that there was no need to worry about the closure of the Strait of Hormuz to shipping. The US would hit Iran “extremely hard over the next two to three weeks”, Trump said on Wednesday from the White House. “We’re going to bring them back to the Stone Ages,” he said. He didn’t give a specific deadline for the end of operations during the... Source: © SCMP News |
 | Surging ‘Jewish terrorism’ in West Bank condemned but goes unpunished Violence by extremist Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank has reached unprecedented levels since the start of the war with Iran, with NGOs and opposition figures denouncing an environment of impunity. While so-called “Jewish terrorism” has drawn widespread condemnation both in Israel and abroad, little has been done to curb it. Assaults by violent settlers against Palestinians have been carried out for years, often to the indifference of mainstream Israeli... Source: © SCMP News |
 | Russia is luring students with large financial packages to join drone units Students across Russia are being offered large financial incentives to join drone units fighting in Ukraine as operators and engineers, while companies in Russia’s central Ryazan region have been given quotas to sign up workers for the army, documents show. The recruitment effort, which comes as Russian forces continue to grind forwards on the battlefield in Ukraine and as US-brokered peace talks are on ice due to the Iran war, suggests Moscow is diversifying its push to replenish its army’s... Source: © SCMP News |
 | Goldman Sachs economist sees Iran war testing China’s self-reliance Andrew Tilton, chief Asia-Pacific economist at Goldman Sachs, speaks to the South China Morning Post about the long-term future of China’s economy after the “two sessions” in Beijing and ahead of an expected Xi-Trump summit – all during an oil crisis sparked by the US-Israel war against Iran. SCMP Plus readers get early access to articles in the Open Questions series. What impact will the oil shock arising from the Iran war have on the growth of Asian economies this year? Asia is greatly... Source: © SCMP News |
 | Wreck of Danish flagship sunk by famed British admiral discovered after 225 years More than 200 years after being sunk by Admiral Horatio Nelson and the British fleet, a Danish warship has been discovered on the seabed of Copenhagen Harbour by marine archaeologists. Working in thick sediment and almost zero visibility 15 metres (49 feet) beneath the waves, divers have been working against the clock to unearth the 19th century wreck of the Dannebroge before it becomes a construction site in a new housing district being built off the Danish coast. Denmark’s Viking Ship Museum,... Source: © SCMP News |
 | US lifts sanctions on Venezuela’s acting President Rodriguez, who praises Trump The United States on Wednesday lifted sanctions on Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodriguez, according to an Office of Foreign Assets Control entry on the Treasury Department website. The newly announced sanctions relief is the latest US recognition of Rodriguez as a legitimate authority in Venezuela ever since the US military captured her predecessor, Nicolas Maduro, and his wife on January 3 in Venezuela’s capital, Caracas. The pair have since been taken to New York to face drug... Source: © SCMP News |
 | Controlled escalation? Trump hails ‘victories’ in Iran but vows more strikes in next few weeks US President Donald Trump on Wednesday declared the US‑Israel war against Iran had delivered “decisive, overwhelming victories”, even as he signalled that key military objectives were still “nearing completion” and that further strikes could inflict heavy damage on targets in the country. “We are going to hit them extremely hard. Over the next two to three weeks, we are going to bring them back to the Stone Ages, where they belong. In the meantime, discussions are ongoing,” he said in a... Source: © SCMP News |
 | Nasa embarks on world’s first crewed moon mission in decades amid race with China Four astronauts blasted off from Florida on Wednesday on Nasa’s Artemis II mission, a high-stakes voyage around the moon that marks the United States’ boldest step yet toward returning humans to the lunar surface later this decade in a race with China. Nasa’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, topped with its Orion crew capsule, roared to life just before sunset at the agency’s Kennedy Space Centre in Cape Canaveral, Florida, carrying its debut crew - three US astronauts and a Canadian astronaut... Source: © SCMP News |
 | DNA links serial killer Ted Bundy to unsolved murder of teen girl Utah officials announced on Wednesday that they were closing a five-decade-old case after finding “definitive proof” that American serial killer Ted Bundy killed a 17-year-old Utah girl. The girl, Laura Ann Aime, went missing on the night of October 31, 1974, after leaving a party alone to make a purchase from a convenience store, the Utah County Sheriff’s Office said. Her body was found by two college students on Thanksgiving Day that year, according to authorities, who added that her body... Source: © SCMP News |
 | Iran’s president sends message to Americans in open letter Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian criticised the US war against his country in an open letter to the people of the United States on Wednesday, calling it an absurd operation that is costly for their nation. “Today, the world stands at a crossroads,” the president wrote in his message. “Continuing along the path of confrontation is more costly and futile than ever before.” While Iran had seen many aggressors throughout its history, “All that remains of them are tarnished names in history, while... Source: © SCMP News |
 | Russia says it has taken full control of Ukraine’s Luhansk region The Russian defence ministry said on Wednesday that its forces had taken full control of the Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine, suggesting they had wrested control of a small sliver of land which had remained beyond their reach since 2022. Reuters could not independently verify the battlefield report and a Ukrainian military spokesman said there had been no battlefield changes in the area in the last six months. More than 99 per cent of Luhansk, one of four Ukrainian regions Russia claimed as... Source: © SCMP News |
 | How China’s state insurer is turning Brazil’s credit crisis into an export advantage With one of the world’s highest benchmark interest rates among major economies, Brazilian importers who buy from China are turning to a state-owned Chinese credit insurer to sustain trade flows that reached US$158 billion in 2024. Facing working capital lines that cost upwards of two per cent a month, equivalent to roughly 27 per cent a year according to market calculations, mid-sized importers are securing deferred payment terms directly from Chinese suppliers through credit limits backed by... Source: © SCMP News |
 | US threats for new Chile leader, China tariff on Mexico: 7 Latin America relations reads We have selected seven of the most interesting and important news stories covering Latin American relations from the past few weeks. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. As Trump ramps up pressure on Cuba, China has ‘very limited options’ As Washington stepped up rhetoric and pressure on Cuba after the start of its campaign in Iran, Beijing found itself torn between geopolitical reality and ideological affinity. Read the full story here. 2. US threats... Source: © SCMP News |
 | France suspects link to pro-Iranian group HAYI in foiled Paris bomb plot France suspects a pro-Iranian group known as HAYI to be behind a foiled attack on Bank of America’s Paris offices, its anti-terrorism prosecutor said on Wednesday, while stressing the link has not yet been formally established. HAYI, which stands for Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiyya, or Movement of the Companions of the Right Hand of Islam, had posted a video on social media on March 23 targeting Jewish interests and communities in France and Europe, the prosecutor’s office said in a... Source: © SCMP News |
 | BBC defends action in new sex abuse scandal involving DJ Scott Mills The BBC defended on Wednesday its handling of a DJ sacked years after he was the subject of a police investigation into allegations of sexual offences against a teenage boy. The controversy surrounding former radio host Scott Mills, 53, is the latest involving a high-profile presenter to roil the publicly funded broadcaster. London’s Metropolitan Police said this week that it questioned Mills in 2018 over allegations of “serious sexual offences” against a boy under the age of 16. The case was... Source: © SCMP News |
 | Trump claims Iran wants ceasefire, Tehran calls remarks ‘false and baseless’ US President Donald Trump on Wednesday claimed that Iran’s leader wanted a ceasefire, in a social media post that Tehran called “false and baseless”. Trump claimed that “Iran’s New Regime President” was seeking a ceasefire, which he said would happen only once the Strait of Hormuz was “open, free, clear”. It was not immediately clear who Trump was referring to in Iran, which still has the same president. The US president, who is scheduled to address the nation later in the day, had earlier said... Source: © SCMP News |
 | What the Iran war reveals about Nato’s appetite for conflict over Taiwan The United States attacked Iran without consulting its European allies. President Donald Trump assumed the operation would be a quick win, over before anyone had to take a position. Instead, Washington answered a question Western governments had long avoided. After years of pushing Nato towards confrontation with China, would the transatlantic alliance fight a war it had not chosen together? The answer was no. Iran and Taiwan are different cases. One sits on Europe’s wider periphery and carries... Source: © SCMP News |
 | Japan, France to draw road map for supply of critical minerals Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and French President Emmanuel Macron agreed on Wednesday to design a road map for critical minerals supply as they seek to deepen cooperation in the sector amid China’s dominance of global rare earths. The two leaders also affirmed that Japan and France will maintain close communication in support of efforts to de-escalate tensions in the Middle East and establish a high-level dialogue on artificial intelligence, Takaichi said at a joint press appearance... Source: © SCMP News |
 | Is the Strait of Hormuz a ticking environmental time bomb? The risks of environmental calamity in the Strait of Hormuz are mounting with each passing week of the Iran conflict, conservationists have warned, as giant tankers filled with fuel are trapped in a small area and Iran continues to fire missiles and drones at Gulf oil assets. The potential for catastrophe in the waterway was sharpened on Monday when a Kuwaiti crude tanker was set ablaze at Dubai Port in an Iranian attack that damaged its hull, sparking warnings of a possible oil spill. The... Source: © SCMP News |
 | US House committee calls for major crackdown on China’s alleged sanctioned oil imports Lawmakers in the United States have urged the administration of US President Donald Trump to take action against China’s alleged sanctioned oil imports by blacklisting port operators and blocking complex settlement networks. Despite Washington’s temporary easing of sanctions on Russian and Iranian oil to relieve price pressures from the US-Israeli war in Iran, the “House Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party” has released a 41-page... Source: © SCMP News |
 | Trump eyes Iran exit before Hormuz shutdown ends US President Donald Trump said attacks on Iran could stop within two or three weeks even without an agreement, leaving a question mark over the reopening of the vital Strait of Hormuz. “We’ll be leaving very soon,” US President Donald Trump told reporters in the White House on Tuesday. “Iran doesn’t have to make a deal.” The president was scheduled to address the nation and “provide an important update on Iran” at 9pm New York time on Wednesday (9am on Thursday in Hong Kong). Brent crude held... Source: © SCMP News |
 | How US’ ‘stupid war’ with Iran torched fuel price stability in America At a petrol station in the Washington suburbs, drivers confronted the harsh domestic repercussions of the war on Iran, as spiking fuel prices hit household budgets hard. Jeanne Williams, 83, had just driven 160km from Richmond, Virginia, where she was visiting her elder sister. “That is horrible,” she said, stunned by the prices visible on the Liberty petrol station’s LED board. “I’m not angry. I’m just bewildered, confused, unhappy,” she said. “Because we didn’t ask for the war.” On Tuesday,... Source: © SCMP News |
 | How Israel dodged Hormuz energy crisis while others reel from the blow Iran’s chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz has thrown the global economic system into turmoil, yet Israel, which launched attacks on Tehran alongside the United States, has emerged as a rare exception. Since Israel and its US ally started the Middle East war on February 28, economies from Asia to Europe and the US have come under pressure from surging oil and natural gas prices that have driven up fuel and electricity costs. Israel, however, has remained largely insulated from the shock. Central... Source: © SCMP News |
 | Fidel Castro’s grandson backs capitalism and Trump deal, slams Cuba leader Amid ongoing talks between the Trump administration and Cuban leaders, Sandro Castro, the controversial grandson of Fidel Castro, told a major US television news network that most Cubans on the island want to embrace capitalism and that the country’s hand-picked president, Miguel Diaz-Canel, has done a poor job. His statements to CNN’s Havana correspondent, Patrick Oppmann, echoed earlier calls by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio for a change of leadership in Havana, and seem to suggest that... Source: © SCMP News |
 | Pakistan eyes Gulf investment, defence deals in return for playing peacemaker in Iran war Pakistan is hoping that its role in building a diplomatic off-ramp from the US-Israel war on Iran will enable it to become a key actor in the Middle East after the conflict ends, analysts say. If Islamabad can deliver without being sucked into the maelstrom, it can capitalise on its position as peacemaker by signing defence deals with Gulf monarchies and attracting investment from them to strengthen its weak economy. This will help finance Pakistan’s military expansion for its envisioned new... Source: © SCMP News |
 | China-Pakistan five-point plan to end Iran war China and Pakistan unveiled a joint five-point plan on Tuesday to restore peace in the Persian Gulf after five weeks of US-Israeli bombardment of Iran. China, Pakistan five-point initiative for restoring peace in the Middle East by scmp Source: © SCMP News |
 | Why China is always misunderstood and misrepresented Why didn’t China develop its own scientific and industrial revolutions when it made so many discoveries and advances over millennia? That is often called “Needham’s question”, named after the historian of Chinese science and tech Joseph Needham. Why didn’t China develop capitalism during the Song dynasty when it was so close to achieving a breakthrough with trade, commerce, currency and semi-industrialisation, and an emerging merchant class? The Hungarian-French sinologist Etienne Balazs, among... Source: © SCMP News |
 | Russian military plane crashes into Crimea cliff, killing 29 people A Russian An-26 military transport plane crashed into a cliff in Crimea, killing 29 people on board, due to a possible technical malfunction, Russia’s defence ministry said early on Wednesday, according to news agencies. Tass news agency, quoting the ministry, said communication with the aircraft was lost at about 6pm local time on Tuesday on a planned flight over Crimea. The peninsula, covered in sweeping mountains leading down to the coast of the Black Sea, was annexed by Russia from... Source: © SCMP News |
 | Trump says US may exit Iran war in 2 to 3 weeks, threatens to quit Nato Global oil supplies are expected to be hit twice as hard this month as in March, the International Energy Agency said on Wednesday, underlining the urgent need to resolve the conflict over Iran that US President Donald Trump said could end soon. While Trump signalled he could wind down the war within weeks even without a deal, he also scaled up threats to pull the United States out of the Nato defence alliance if European states did not help stop Iran blocking the Strait of Hormuz. “I was never... Source: © SCMP News |
 | New York Mayor Mamdani puts city’s government back on TikTok Almost three years ago, New York City joined governments across the country in banning TikTok from its phones over security concerns about the Chinese social media site. On Tuesday, Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a bona fide social media star, took to the app to announce a reversal: “TikTok, we’re back.” The city will now allow agencies to start posting again on the short-form social media site as long as departments follow a set of security precautions, according to a memo from city cybersecurity... Source: © SCMP News |
 | How selective outrage over Iran war exposes the limits of realpolitik As with any conflict, the war in Iran has driven people to choose sides and adopt partisan positions. This includes the view that, despite the acts of aggression by the US and Israel, the Islamic Republic somehow “deserves” the attacks due to years of regional instability caused by its Axis of Resistance. This is not to suggest that the Iranian regime has always been a victim. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ transgressions through the Quds Force have been well documented. But let’s be... Source: © SCMP News |
 | Trump fumes as judge halts his White House ballroom project unless Congress approves it A US judge blocked Donald Trump on Tuesday from proceeding with construction of a US$400 million ballroom on the site of the White House’s demolished East Wing, halting for now one of the Republican president’s most visible efforts to reshape the seat of American power. US District Judge Richard Leon granted a request for a preliminary injunction by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, a non-profit organisation that brought a lawsuit alleging Trump exceeded his authority when he razed... Source: © SCMP News |
 | Iran says it has ‘will’ to end war, as Trump zigzags on escalation Iran has the “necessary will” to end the war with the US and Israel, President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Tuesday, stressing that Tehran was seeking guarantees the conflict would not flare up again. The comment by the head of state – which boosted markets in the US – came after a day of heavy strikes on Iran and followed a tough warning from the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The Guards threatened to retaliate against leading US tech firms such as Google, Meta and Apple from... Source: © SCMP News |
 | Iran says will target Apple, Google and Meta if more of its leaders are killed Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Tuesday that they would target leading US technology firms like Apple, Google and Meta if more Iranian leaders were killed in “targeted assassinations”. “These companies, starting from 8pm Tehran time on Wednesday, April 1, should expect the destruction of their relevant units in exchange for every assassination in Iran,” the Guards said in a statement listing the names of 18 companies it alleged were complicit in the killing of officials. “We advise the... Source: © SCMP News |
 | US top court rules against state ban on ‘conversion therapy’ for LGBTQ+ youth The US Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled against a law banning “conversion therapy” for LGBTQ+ kids in Colorado, one of about two dozen states that ban the discredited practice. An 8-1 High Court majority sided with a Christian counsellor who argues the law banning talk therapy violates the First Amendment. The justices agreed that the law raises free speech concerns and sent it back to a lower court to decide if it meets a legal standard that few laws pass. Justice Neil Gorsuch, writing for the... Source: © SCMP News |
 | King Charles to visit US in late April amid Iran war concerns King Charles III will visit the United States in late April, Buckingham Palace said on Tuesday, despite some calls for the trip to be cancelled or delayed amid the Iran war. Confirmation of the monarch’s first state visit to the US comes at a rocky time for the so-called US-UK “special relationship”, with US President Donald Trump repeatedly criticising Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s reticence over the US-Israel war against Tehran. The trip by the king and Queen Camilla would “celebrate the... Source: © SCMP News |
 | Trump urges countries seeking oil to go to Strait of Hormuz and ‘just take it’ President Donald Trump on Tuesday urged countries that did not help in the US-Israeli strikes on Iran to buy American oil and go to the Strait of Hormuz and “just TAKE it”. Trump singled out Britain and France as unhelpful in the month-long war that has roiled global markets, driven up energy prices and seen Iran effectively close oil tanker traffic through the Strait. “All of those countries that can’t get jet fuel because of the Strait of Hormuz, like the United Kingdom, which refused... Source: © SCMP News |
 | 3 Chinese ships exit Strait of Hormuz as PetroChina stresses operations stable As global energy supplies are put under strain by Iranian disruption to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, state-owned Chinese oil giant PetroChina has said its overall operations remain stable because most of its imports do not pass through the strait. However, the company’s investment operations in the Middle East had been “impacted to varying degrees”, as crude oil and natural gas imported through the strait accounted for about 10 per cent of its total operating volume, PetroChina... Source: © SCMP News |
 | Wolf bites woman on the face at German shopping centre, in first such attack in decades A woman was bitten by a wolf in a shopping centre in the German city of Hamburg, the city’s deputy mayor said Tuesday, in the first such attack in modern times. The wolf entered the complex in the northern city’s Altona area on Monday evening after being repeatedly spotted in different parts of Hamburg over several days, Katharina Fegebank told journalists. The incident is the first of its kind since the species began returning to Germany almost 30 years ago, according to the Federal Agency for... Source: © SCMP News |
 | In age of US-China rivalry, supply chain statecraft counts Geopolitical competition has long been understood in territorial terms. Power was measured by control over land, resources and populations. Rivalry was expressed through military confrontation, alliance formation and the defence of borders. As economic interdependence deepened in the 20th century, globalisation was seen as an arena within which states competed, but not itself the object of competition. That assumption no longer holds. Increasingly, the infrastructure of globalisation is becoming... Source: © SCMP News |