The Supreme Court on Monday rejected a push by President Donald Trump to throw out a jury’s finding that he sexually abused the writer E. Jean Carroll at a New York City department store in the mid-1990s and later defamed her. The High Court declined to take up the case in a brief, unexplained order, as is typical. There were no noted dissents. Trump’s lawyers had argued that allegations leading to the US$5 million verdict were propped up by “highly inflammatory” evidentiary rulings, including...

Hong Kong authorities have proposed a major overhaul of outdated sexual offences laws, including criminalising same-sex rape, introducing new offences and establishing a uniform age of consent at 16 while removing gender-specific provisions and increasing penalties. In a 59-page consultation paper submitted to the Legislative Council on Monday, the Security Bureau proposed a series of measures to strengthen protection for minors and mentally incapacitated people from sexual exploitation and...

China’s military apparently released the first official footage of its sixth-generation fighter over the weekend – a move that analysts said might suggest Beijing was ahead of its competitors, including the US, in developing the next generation of warplanes. China Military Bugle, the official press account of the People’s Liberation Army, published a four-minute video on Sunday marking the 10th anniversary of China’s first heavy transport aircraft, the Y-20, entering service. In the video’s...

Russian missiles and drones killed at least 11 civilians and injured 40 others in Ukraine on Monday in what President Volodymyr Zelensky described as “horrific attacks”, while the nation’s energy grid buckled under temperatures in excess of 36 degrees Celsius, hit by the deadly heatwave that has afflicted much of Europe. Russian drone and missile attacks have decimated Ukraine’s energy network since Moscow invaded in February 2022, causing tens of billions of dollars worth of damage and leading...

After rejecting a government spending package, Taiwan’s opposition Kuomintang (KMT) has submitted its own proposal worth several billion dollars more to boost the military’s unmanned vehicle capabilities and the island’s broader drone sector. The move reflects growing consensus across Taiwan’s political spectrum that unmanned systems will be central to the island’s defence in the future. Defending its decision to reject the government’s proposal for the sector, KMT officials on Monday said the...

A heatwave sweeping across Europe has triggered a massive surge in sales for Chinese home appliances, with e-commerce giant Alibaba recording triple-digit growth for air conditioners and fans on its overseas platforms. On AliExpress, Alibaba’s international retail site, the June debut of air conditioners in Germany saw warehouse inventory for a 2.35-kilowatt Midea model completely wiped out by Thursday, according to data from Alibaba. The trend was also stark in southern Europe. Fan sales in...

Six people were killed in a shooting on Monday at a youth welfare facility in the northern German town of Stade, police said. Five people – four women and a man – died at the scene of the shooting. A sixth, also an adult, died later in hospital. A main suspect was arrested, while another two people were subject to “police measures” on suspicion of involvement, police said in a statement without elaborating. They said several people were wounded, some of them seriously, German news agency dpa...