Month: June 2025

With the July 9 deadline for “Liberation Day” tariffs nearing, US President Donald Trump said on Friday that Washington would inform countries “what they have to pay” to do business with America “over the next week and a half or so”. Advertisement His remarks came hours after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent suggested trade talks could continue to September. Trump also directed a new salvo at Canada, announcing an immediate halt to trade talks in retaliation for Ottawa’s plan to introduce a digital trade tax that could largely target American tech…

Advertisement The pre-emptive strikes also risked setting a precedent for US adversaries to justify similar action against any serious efforts by the US’ Asia-Pacific partners to gain their own nuclear weapons, they said. After a series of Israeli assaults on Iran’s nuclear sites, the US on Sunday deployed more than 125 aircraft and a submarine in an operation to attack three Iranian nuclear sites. The targeted action against Iran – which Israel sees as an existential threat – was one of the largest efforts to set back Iranian enrichment efforts.…

Catch up on some of SCMP’s biggest China stories of the day. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. China, US finalise trade deal as Beijing confirms breakthrough in talks China said on Friday that it would review and approve export applications for controlled items while the US would also remove some limits – confirming a breakthrough in trade talks centred on export controls. 2. China should be alert to risk of US being drawn into war by allies, analyst says There is…

Chinese scientists say they have restored the damaged outer ear in mice, a mammal that lacks natural regenerative abilities. Advertisement The researchers said the pathway they identified could be applied to different tissue types and play a significant role in advancing regeneration in vertebrates. The team found that a mouse’s failure to regenerate stemmed from an inability to produce sufficient retinoic acid, a derivative of vitamin A that regulates what cell type emerges during a cell’s development and tissue repair. 10:16 Rise in Hong Kong infant eczema cases linked to…

Chinese coastguard and military forces took part in a large land-air-sea emergency rescue exercise near the disputed Woody Island on Thursday, as Beijing continues to assert its claims in the South China Sea. Advertisement More than 200 personnel, 15 vessels and two rescue helicopters carried out what was described by the government and state media as “the largest rescue drill in recent years”. Woody Island, called Yongxing Island by China, is part of the Paracel Islands, a contested archipelago known as the Xisha Islands in Chinese. Thursday’s drills were co-hosted…

Former Taiwanese leader Ma Ying-jeou has proposed that unification between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait should be achieved peacefully and democratically – rejecting the use or threat of force. Advertisement In a rare unscripted moment during a speech on the mainland on Thursday, Ma explicitly expressed his views on unification for the first time in his four visits to mainland China. “My position is that the two sides of the strait should pursue peaceful and democratic unification,” said Ma, who was Taiwan’s leader from 2008 to 2016 and…