Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says the US is getting ready to squeeze Iran with unprecedented economic pressure, a claim critics greeted with scepticism given the country is already subject to a naval blockade and thousands of sanctions. While the Trump administration has not said what it is planning to do, there are still pressure points that Bessent’s Treasury Department could hit. The main challenge is that targeting the remaining options risks blowback on the US economy. “Unless the...

Africa is emerging as fertile ground for Beijing’s drive to make the yuan a major international currency and reduce reliance on the US dollar, as an increasing number of financial institutions deepen their integration with China’s payment network. Following talks in Beijing between Central Bank of Libya Governor Naji Issa and People’s Bank of China Governor Pan Gongsheng last month, the country’s banks are set to join China’s Cross-Border Interbank Payment System (CIPS), an alternative to the...

Hong Kong’s immigration chief has rejected claims that world‑class snooker players are using a local talent scheme primarily to cut their tax bills, saying zero‑tax Middle Eastern destinations would be more logical if avoidance were the only goal. Director of Immigration Benson Kwok Joon‑fung stressed on Sunday that the city’s public safety, convenient transport and education system appealed to global talent, pushing back against criticism in a televised interview after snooker icon Jimmy White...

Changes in US trade policy and interest rate trends will significantly affect Hong Kong’s economy but the impact will be “primarily psychological”, the finance chief has said, while expressing optimism for growth momentum to continue into the second half of the year. Two days after the Hong Kong government raised its full-year economic growth forecast for 2026 to a range of 3.5 to 4.5 per cent, Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po, who appeared on a radio show on Sunday, addressed questions about...

Melania Nius was at her husband’s hospital bedside on Indonesia’s Flores Island when a powerful quake shook their town to its core, sending patients fleeing into the chaos outside. Melania, 56, recounted how she prayed as she fought to get her family to safety. “The four of us – my husband, our two children, and I – were on the bed,” when the 7.7-magnitude rattler struck just north of Flores island at around 5.30am on Saturday. At least 48 people were killed in the quake and dozens injured. “The...

Scorching weather will persist across Hong Kong on Sunday and Monday, with maximum temperatures climbing to 35 degrees Celsius (95 Fahrenheit) before a low-pressure system brings squally thunderstorms and unsettled weather by midweek. The very hot weather warning has been in force since 6.45am on Sunday, with temperatures across the city ranging from 28 to 33 degrees, according to the Hong Kong Observatory. Mercury in Tai Po soared to 34.8 degrees at noon. “Winds will be weak and the weather...

In a cramped handicraft shop in Hong Kong’s Sham Shui Po neighbourhood, 70-year-old Jen Kwong was sifting through reels of embroidered and sequinned ribbons while other shoppers around her were hunched over containers of tiny beads and trinkets. Kwong, who had worked for four decades during the golden age of Hong Kong’s textile manufacturing industry, still tailors and alters clothing for her grandchildren with her sewing machine at home. But she feared Yu Chau Street, also known as “Bead...