France’s parliament on Tuesday approved a bill banning social media access for children under 15, making France the first European country to bar children from apps such as TikTok. President Emmanuel Macron has championed the ban as a flagship reform of his final term in office and pledged to enforce it by September. “France is leading the way in Europe when it comes to protecting our children and teenagers,” Macron said in a video posted on social media, hailing “a major step forward”. He...

For years, Washington has fixated on the gap between US and Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) models as AI has increasingly taken centre stage in the strategic competition between the world’s two leading powers. The release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in late 2022 established a clear early lead for the US, with the first batch of export controls on advanced semiconductor chips introduced in October that year, putting American tech ahead by three years or more, some experts estimated at the time. But...

US President Donald Trump’s administration is using another tariff threat to put fresh pressure on Canadian provinces to end their boycotts of American alcohol. But provincial leaders are not backing off. Ontario Premier Doug Ford said he would not lift his province’s ban on the sale of American wine and spirits in government-run stores unless the US removes sectoral tariffs on cars and steel. “We have to negotiate through strength, not weakness. And we need to throw everything on the table,” he...

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will meet Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Manila on Wednesday, as President Donald Trump signalled that Washington would confront Beijing over its alleged interference in the 2020 election but played down the prospect of retaliation. “We’re going to talk to them about it,” Trump told reporters on Tuesday, adding that the alleged interference “took place a long time ago” and that China might be “a little bit different today than it was then”. “They do things...

[The content of this article has been produced by our advertising partner.] When Professor Fiona Devine returned to Hong Kong this year, it was her first visit since 2019. Since then, both the city and the global higher education landscape have changed significantly. Now Vice-President and Dean of the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Manchester, and formerly head of Alliance Manchester Business School for a decade, Professor Devine arrived in a region shaped by post-pandemic recovery,...

A Hong Kong kindergarten clerk who was seriously injured by a taxi during the 2019 anti-government protests has told the High Court she has been unable to resume a normal life, citing ongoing mobility limitations, extensive leg scarring and the likelihood of future knee replacement surgery. Park Hoi-lam’s lawyers on Tuesday urged the court to find taxi driver Henry Cheng Kwok-chuen liable for at least HK$8.4 million (US$1.07 million) in damages after his vehicle mounted a pavement and struck her...

Hong Kong police arrested 991 people and discovered betting records amounting to HK$365 million (US$46.5 million) during a crackdown on illegal gambling during the World Cup. The force said on Tuesday that it raided 249 premises suspected of being linked to illegal gambling during its enforcement campaign in June and July that targeted activities surrounding the global sporting event. Officers arrested 645 men and 346 women, aged between 16 and 93, on suspicion of offences including engaging in...