Iran fired on three ships in the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday, underscoring the ongoing threat to global energy supplies and complicating efforts to bring the United States and Iran together for talks to end the war. The attacks, which Iranian media said were carried out by Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, came after US President Donald Trump said the US would indefinitely extend the ceasefire with Iran, due to expire on Wednesday. But Trump said the US would continue to blockade...

The Hollywood film The Devil Wears Prada 2 is facing accusations of racism in China after it released a clip that shows a nerdy Asian character with a name that allegedly sounds similar to the derogatory “Ching Chong”. In the clip posted by a Chinese influencer, an Asian assistant character introduces herself as “Jin Chao”, which many online observers believed to sound like “Ching Chong”, a derogatory racist slur used to mock the Chinese language and people. The character’s name, Jin Chao, was...

A public inquiry into Hong Kong’s deadliest fire in decades has shed light on government departments’ confusion over their roles in supervising large-scale renovation projects, with a fire service official insisting his department was not responsible for handling complaints about flammable building materials because it lacked expertise in construction. Michael Yung Kam-hung, an assistant director of the Fire Services Department, said on Wednesday it would not take legal action against breaches...

A French campaign group said on Wednesday it has sued companies selling nitrous oxide – also known as laughing gas – using what the activists alleged was “deceptive” marketing targeting young people, despite the health impacts. The Antoine Alleno Association – a road safety group headed by Michelin-starred chef Yannick Alleno, whose son was killed in 2022 by a speeding driver – said it had filed the legal action against the companies behind Cream Deluxe, which markets colourful canisters of the...

China has launched what it calls the world’s first “panoramic” carbon accounting system, a model that revises down the country’s emissions compared to other estimates and raises them for the United States. Unlike other models that assign responsibility for emissions based on total carbon output from facilities such as power plants and factories, the new model gives greater weight to the consumers of products. Developed by the Shanghai Advanced Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of...

US President Donald Trump announced a last-minute indefinite extension of a ceasefire with Iran and downplayed reports about an intercepted ship carrying a “gift from China” to Tehran. The US would avoid military action against Iran “until such time as their leaders and representatives can come up with a unified proposal”, Trump said on social media on Tuesday. He cited a request from Pakistan as a reason for reversing earlier threats to resume bombing if no deal was reached. Prospects for new...

Asia is entering a dangerous summer for food production as scientists warn of a “super El Nino” suppressing rainfall while the war on Iran drives up energy and fertiliser costs for farmers. India’s Meteorological Department has forecast a below-average monsoon, after two successive years of above-normal rains, while in Australia – a major wheat producer and exporter – a shortage of farm inputs and persistent dryness has reportedly pushed planting acreage to a seven-year low. Farmers across South...