Le Journal
Insolite & Divers
Bangladesh’s student leaders ‘sidelined’ by Islamist allies in poll pact
Bangladesh’s student leaders, one of the main driving forces behind the mass protests that brought down former prime minister Sheikh Hasina in 2024, now face an uncertain political future. Despite their central role in the uprising, the youth movement has been granted only a small share of parliamentary seats under a new electoral alliance led by Jamaat-e-Islami – an Islamist party that was long politically…
Insolite & Divers
China snack firm Busy Ming to test investor appetite for consumer plays with Hong Kong IPO
Busy Ming Group, China’s largest snack and drink retailer, is seeking to raise up to HK$3.34 billion (US$428 million) in a Hong Kong initial public offering (IPO), testing investors’ appetite for consumer-oriented stocks. The firm, which focuses on a value model, planned to sell 14.1 million shares at HK$229.60 to HK$236.60, according to its prospectus filed with the Hong Kong stock exchange on Tuesday. The stock is…
Insolite & Divers
DeepSeek technique to improve AI’s ability to ‘read’ long texts questioned by new research
A group of researchers from China and Japan has challenged a method unveiled several months ago by Chinese artificial intelligence start-up DeepSeek that was designed to improve AI’s ability to handle long blocks of text, marking a rare case of the company’s research being publicly questioned. The DeepSeek-OCR (optical character recognition) method, designed to compress text by using visual representations,…
Insolite & Divers
Prioritise scam victims’ well-being in fighting transnational cybercrime
Feel strongly about these letters, or any other aspects of the news? Share your views by emailing us your Letter to the Editor at letters@scmp.com or filling in this Google form. Submissions should not exceed 400 words I refer to your editorial, “Scam victims need mental health support” (January 15). You rightly highlight the severe financial toll of internet fraud – nearly HK$14 million (US$1.8 million) lost in the…
Ciao UFO wins best picture in 2025 Hong Kong Film Critics Society awards
Insolite & Divers
Ciao UFO wins best picture in 2025 Hong Kong Film Critics Society awards
Ciao UFO, a nostalgic drama that waited over six years to reappear on the big screen after its film festival premiere, has been voted the best Hong Kong film of 2025 by the Hong Kong Film Critics Society (HKFCS), the organisation announced on January 19. The win is a vindication for the film, directed by Patrick Leung Pak-kin (Born Wild), that premiered at the 2019 Hong Kong Asian Film Festival but faced a prolonged delay in release, reportedly due to an investor’s reluctance to greenlight a...
Insolite & Divers
Record snow in Russia’s far east blocks building entrances, buries cars
The biggest snowfall in 60 years on Russia’s Far Eastern Kamchatka Peninsula created vast drifts several metres tall that blocked building entrances and buried cars, according to Reuters visuals and weather monitoring stations. In some areas more than 2 metres (6.5 feet) of snow has fallen in the first half of January after 3.7 metres in December, according to weather monitoring stations. Heavy snow is not…
Insolite & Divers
Singapore’s retail ownership data sparks debate about foreign chains’ influence
When Singapore’s trade minister Gan Kim Yong revealed that locals owned nearly 90 per cent of registered retail businesses in the city state while Chinese nationals came in second at a distant 3 per cent, the figures drew mixed reactions from the public and analysts. The discourse online centred on what the statistics implied – critics felt that though the proportion of foreign-owned entities, especially from China,…
China’s nuclear fusion start-ups power up with record funding round
Insolite & Divers
China’s nuclear fusion start-ups power up with record funding round
China’s pursuit of commercial nuclear fusion technology has intensified this year, fuelled by a fresh round of financing for start-ups and state-backed initiatives. Startorus Fusion last week raised 1 billion yuan (US$143 million) from its series A round, a record for a single financing round by a private nuclear fusion company on the mainland, according to a report by the Securities Times. The deal, announced on January 12, was led by state-owned funds in Shanghai, which contributed around 400...
Insolite & Divers
Hong Kong stocks set for longest slide in 2 months on China slowdown, tariff fears
Jitters over China’s slowdown and uncertainty from geopolitical developments rattled Hong Kong stocks on Tuesday, sending the benchmark towards its longest decline in two months. The Hang Seng Index fell less than 0.1 per cent to 26,552.57 at the noon break, heading for a fourth day of declines for the longest such stretch since November 19. The Hang Seng Tech Index dropped 0.7 per cent. On the mainland, the CSI 300…
Insolite & Divers
2 Chinese nationals in Malaysia face US$392,000 tax bills after employer fraud
Two Chinese nationals working in Malaysia are facing income tax bills amounting to 748,073.84 ringgit (US$184,595) and 842,118.84 ringgit, respectively, after their employer allegedly used their identities to submit false salary information to the Inland Revenue Board (LHDN). Li Juan, 42, discovered the issue when she tried to extend her work permit, while the other victim, Chen Bi Ling, 40, who was married to a…
Espace publicitaire · 728×90
Insolite & Divers
Brooklyn Peltz Beckham says ‘I do not want to reconcile with my family’ in explosive post
Brooklyn Peltz Beckham, son of the British celebrity couple David and Victoria Beckham, said he did not want to reconcile with his parents after a family rift he described in a lengthy post on social media on Monday. The 26-year-old said that his parents have been controlling narratives in the press about his family and tried to “ruin” his relationship with his wife Nicola Peltz Beckham. “I do not want to reconcile…
Insolite & Divers
China wedding goes viral as twin brothers marry twin sisters and both sides have twin uncles
A highly unlikely set of nuptials has taken place in China with a pair of twin brothers marrying twin sisters. Not only that, both sides have a pair of twin uncles. A wedding photo featuring four sets of twins went viral online recently, racking up more than 10 million views. According to the mainland media outlet Jiupai News, the two couples only discovered on the wedding day that their uncles were also twins. The…