World

In the wake of Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu’s successful visits to Qatar and Kuwait, Hong Kong’s efforts to deepen connections with emerging markets are gaining strong momentum. The signing of 59 memorandums of understanding and agreements has laid the groundwork for advancing the city’s economic and cultural links with the Middle East.The visit underscores Hong Kong’s strategic role as a gateway connecting the Chinese mainland and the world and reflects the city’s strategy to diversify global economic partnerships amid a rapidly evolving landscape.In today’s interconnected world, a single disruption can trigger sweeping impacts and unprecedented volatility. With this volatility comes growing uncertainty. The dismantling of the post-Cold-War consensus on globalisation has given way to ...

Air India has been ranked the worst airline for flight delays in Britain.The carrier’s departures from UK airports were an average of 45 minutes and 48 seconds behind schedule in 2024, according to analysis of Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) data by the PA news agency.The route with the longest average delay was Gatwick to Bengaluru, with an average of one hour and 23 minutes across 50 departures.Rory Boland, editor of consumer magazine Which? Travel, described Air India’s performance as “completely unacceptable”.The airline said the disruption was “primarily due to factors beyond our control”.A passenger arrives after disembarking from a flight at Heathrow Airport in London. Photo: APAir India was acquired from the Indian government by Tata Group in January 2022 after racking up billions o...

Voting began on Sunday in Surinamese parliamentary elections that will determine who will harness new-found oil wealth to carry out a rags-to-riches transformation of the smallest country in South America.The tiny nation – which has growing ties to China – is battling high debt, rampant inflation and poverty affecting nearly one in five of its 600,000 inhabitants.On Sunday, Surinamese began electing a new parliament of 51 members, who within weeks must choose a new president and vice-president for a five-year term to manage that wealth.“It will be a huge amount of income for the country,” incumbent President Chan Santokhi told Agence France-Presse this week. “We are now able … to do more for our people so that everyone can be part of the growth of the nation.”Wearing a polo shirt in the or...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met visiting US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in Jerusalem on Sunday, his office said.US and Israeli media reported that US President Donald Trump sent Noem to Jerusalem following the killing of two Israeli embassy employees in Washington last week.Noem was accompanied at her meeting with Netanyahu by US ambassador Mike Huckabee, the prime minister’s office said in a brief statement on Sunday night.The office added that during the meeting Noem “expressed unwavering support for the prime minister and the state of Israel”, as well as appreciation “for his conduct of the war” in Gaza.The visit comes as Israel ramps up its campaign in the Palestinian territory in what it says is a renewed effort to destroy Hamas.Earlier, Noem and Huckabee had...

US President Donald Trump issued a rare rebuke to Russian leader Vladimir Putin on Sunday, saying he was “not happy” with him after Moscow launched a record number of drones against Ukraine, killing 13 people across the country.Trump has expressed admiration for Putin in the past, but has in recent weeks shown growing frustration with Moscow’s position in truce negotiations with Kyiv, which are deadlocked.“I’m not happy with what Putin is doing. He’s killing a lot of people, and I don’t know what the hell happened to Putin,” said Trump on the tarmac at Morristown airport in New Jersey before boarding Air Force One bound for Washington.“I’ve known him a long time, always gotten along with him, but he’s sending rockets into cities and killing people, and I don’t like it at all.”Russia’s atta...

EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said on Sunday she held a “good call” with US President Donald Trump following his threat of 50 per cent tariffs on the bloc, vowing to move “swiftly” to reach a trade deal with Washington.“The EU and US share the world’s most consequential and close trade relationship,” the president of the European Commission, which conducts trade policy for the 27-nation bloc, posted on social media.“Europe is ready to advance talks swiftly and decisively,” she wrote, adding: “To reach a good deal, we would need the time until July 9.”Brussels and the United States have been negotiating in a bid to avert an all-out transatlantic trade war, and had agreed to suspend tariff action on both sides until July.But Trump dramatically upped the stakes on Friday, complaining that tal...

A dual US and German citizen has been arrested on charges that he travelled to Israel and attempted to firebomb the branch office of the US embassy in Tel Aviv, officials said on Sunday.Federal prosecutors in New York said the man, Joseph Neumeyer, walked up to the embassy building on May 19 with a backpack containing Molotov cocktails but got into a confrontation with a guard and eventually ran away, dropping his backpack as the guard tried to grab him.Police then tracked Neumeyer down to a hotel near the embassy and arrested him, according to a criminal complaint filed in the Eastern District of New York.Neumeyer, 28, who is originally from Colorado, had travelled from the US to Canada in early February and then arrived in Israel in late April, according to court records. He had made a s...

Americans on Sunday marked five years since George Floyd was killed by a US police officer, as US President Donald Trump backtracks on reforms designed to tackle racism.Floyd’s deadly arrest on May 25, 2020 helped launch the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement into a powerful force that sought to resolve America’s deeply rooted racial issues, from police violence to systemic inequality.But since Trump’s return to power in January – he was serving his first term when Floyd died – his administration has axed civil rights investigations and cracked down on diversity hiring initiatives.Some Democratic politicians, as well as United Nations rights chief Volker Turk, commemorated the anniversary on Sunday.“As anti-racism, inclusion efforts & law enforcement reforms face serious setbacks, we mu...

The suspect in the recent knife attack at Hamburg’s central train station was released from a psychiatric hospital on the day before the stabbing, officials said on Sunday.The 39-year-old woman had been treated in a psychiatric institution in the northern German city of Cuxhaven for three weeks after she was found in a state of helplessness in early May, a spokesman for the Health Ministry in the state of Lower Saxony said.She has admitted to the act in front of a magistrate, a spokeswoman for prosecutors said on Sunday.The suspects, who comes from the northern state of Lower Saxony, has been known to police since 2021, a spokesman for the state Interior Ministry said.“She appeared at police stations several times, showing clear signs of mental illness,” the spokesman said.

Six people died in Switzerland over the weekend in accidents in the Alps, officials said Sunday.Near the luxury resort of Zermatt, rescuers found the bodies of five people, police said in a statement.A helicopter was sent to survey the area around the Rimpfischhorn mountain after climbers alerted authorities after spotting abandoned skis near the summit on Saturday.“The bodies of five people were quickly found,” Swiss police said in a statement.Authorities have opened an investigation into the incident and were working to identify the victims, it said.The Rimpfischhorn is a 4,199-metre (13,776-ft) mountain that lies east of Zermatt, near the Italian border, and is popular with backcountry skiers.