China and the US should manage their differences and expand cooperation through “equal dialogue and consultation”, senior Chinese trade negotiator Li Chenggang said during a visit to the United States amid a trade war truce between the two powers. Li wrapped up his three-day visit on Friday after meeting with officials from the US Department of the Treasury, the Department of Commerce and the Office of the US Trade Representative, according to a statement from the Chinese commerce ministry on...

Hong Kong authorities are considering whether to scale back facilities at some new public estates to speed up construction while encouraging property management firms to partner with welfare groups to boost services, the housing minister has said. Secretary for Housing Winnie Ho Wing-yin floated the ideas on Saturday as she expressed confidence that the average waiting time for a temporary or permanent public rental flat could be cut from the current 5.1 years to 4½ years in 2026-27. Ho said the...

Ukrainian former parliamentary speaker Andriy Parubiy was shot dead in the western city of Lviv on Saturday, and a search was under way for the killer. The Prosecutor General’s office said a gunman had fired several shots at Parubiy, killing him on the spot. The attacker fled and a manhunt was launched, it said. Parubiy, 54, was a member of parliament, had been parliamentary speaker from April 2016 to August 2019, and was one of the leaders of protests in 2013-14 calling for closer ties with the...

Russian President Vladimir Putin has condemned “attempts to distort” World War II history while pledging to deepen strategic collaboration with China on the eve of a state visit to the country. During his four-day trip, described by the Kremlin as “absolutely unprecedented”, Putin is expected to join regional leaders for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Tianjin on Sunday, before holding bilateral talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing on Tuesday. On Wednesday,...

E-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding has won “consumer mindshare” amid its instant commerce push, according to company executives and analysts, to regain growth momentum in the highly competitive domestic market. The Chinese tech conglomerate’s New York-listed shares jumped 13 per cent to close at US$135 on Friday, after reporting robust earnings growth in the June quarter on the back of confidence on the mainland’s instant commerce sector. On Friday’s earnings call, Alibaba CEO Eddie Wu...

Israel will soon slow or halt humanitarian aid into parts of northern Gaza as it expands its offensive attempting to cripple Hamas, an official said on Saturday. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the media, said that Israel would stop airdrops over Gaza City in the coming days and reduce the arrival of aid trucks into the northern part of the strip as it prepared to evacuate hundreds of thousands of residents south. Israel on Friday...

Hong Kong has recorded a new imported case of Chikungunya fever involving a woman who travelled to Foshan in Guangdong province, bringing the total to 13. Centre for Health Protection controller Edwin Tsui Lok-kin on Saturday urged schools to follow the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department’s anti-mosquito guidelines to prevent the spread of mosquito-borne diseases on campus, with full-time teaching resuming next week. “Although the number of new Chikungunya fever cases in Foshan has...