Secular News

I’m a little perplexed and bemused by the brouhaha surrounding Hong Kong’s decision to draft its first five-year plan, as if the sky is falling in around the city’s famed laissez-faire economy. Predictably, Yale University’s Stephen Roach (he of “Hong Kong is over” fame) warned in a commentary last month that “Chinese-style central planning” could “over-promise and under-deliver”. In a 2024 commentary, he said Hong Kong had been “shackled by the deadweight of autocracy”. But from my vantage...

Islam Makhachev cements his status as the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world with a commanding victory over Ian Machado Garry.

Islam Makhachev cements his status as the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world with a commanding victory over Ian Machado Garry.

Islam Makhachev cements his status as the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world with a commanding victory over Ian Machado Garry.

Islam Makhachev cements his status as the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world with a commanding victory over Ian Machado Garry.

Islam Makhachev cements his status as the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world with a commanding victory over Ian Machado Garry.

Islam Makhachev cements his status as the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world with a commanding victory over Ian Machado Garry.

Firefighters are tackling a fire at a market in Kyiv, while Moscow reports that a warehouse was hit.

Tensions between Beijing and Manila appear to have spilled over from the South China Sea to immigration, just as Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr indicated he wanted to “reset” ties. Manila on Sunday dismissed Beijing’s criticism of Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jnr over his role in the arrests of Chinese workers at a steel plant in Misamis Oriental in May. A Chinese embassy official in Manila late on Saturday accused Teodoro of carrying out “anti-China activities” to “disrupt”...

Tencent Holdings’ WeChat is already the undisputed super-app for over a billion people in China, handling everything from splitting dinner bills to hailing taxis. Now, Tencent is embedding an artificial intelligence agent named Xiaowei into the platform, adding a hands-free, automated assistant to its vast digital ecosystem. In its latest earnings results announced on Wednesday, Tencent highlighted Xiaowei for the first time, touting its focus on user privacy and inference efficiency. After...

Throughout all the news cycles over the years, you can count on a continuity in U.S. government/media propaganda and strategy. Make a time capsule, fill it with today’s news, hide it away, and pull it out in five, ten, or fifteen years, and while many details (tactics) will have changed, the underlying themes will remain. …

A series of drone attacks targeted the Moscow and Rostov regions overnight into August 16, causing fires at several warehouses and resulting in casualties.