China is poised to launch a new air route between Shanghai and Argentina that will traverse 20,000km (12,000 miles) and span 25 hours, as the country’s trade and political ties with far-flung Latin America call for faster, more direct flights that skip stopovers in the United States or Europe.

China Eastern Airlines has announced that an inaugural flight from Shanghai to Buenos Aires will take off on December 4, to cut travel time between China’s largest city and the Argentine capital by as much...

Panamanian authorities on Tuesday announced an US$8.5 billion plan to modernise and expand the Panama Canal over the next decade, while sidestepping questions on whether Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison or others seen as having links to China could join future projects amid US concerns about Beijing’s influence over the waterway.

Hutchison Ports, a unit of CK Hutchison, has managed terminals in Balboa and Colon – on opposite ends of the trade channel – since the 1990s.

Its role has drawn sharp...

China and the United States are in the “final stage” of negotiations for a state visit to Beijing by US President Donald Trump, with bulk purchases of American goods a critical part of the deliverables, the South China Morning Post has learned.

The development comes on the heels of the fourth round of trade talks between the two sides in Spain and ahead of a phone call between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday.

Trump described the talks in Madrid as a success, with both sides...

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi received warm congratulations from US President Donald Trump on his birthday on Tuesday and praise for his efforts to end Russia’s war in Ukraine, as tense trade talks continued between the two countries.

“Thank you for your support on ending the War between Russia and Ukraine!” Trump said in a social media post, describing his call with Modi as “wonderful” and praising India’s leader for doing a “tremendous job”.

Modi, also on social media, thanked Trump for...

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday extended the deadline for TikTok’s US shutdown for the fourth time in his second term ahead of a call with Chinese President Xi Jinping about the fate of the Chinese-owned short video app.

In an executive order issued on Tuesday, Trump set the new deadline for December 16.

The decision comes a day after the US and China concluded talks in Madrid, where the two sides reached a “framework” for resolving issues related to the app, according to senior Chinese...

Tyler Robinson, the 22-year-old Utah man charged with murder on Tuesday in the shooting of Charlie Kirk, sent a text message confessing to his partner and hid a note beforehand saying he had the chance to kill one of the nation’s leading conservative voices “and I’m going to take it”, a prosecutor said.

DNA on the trigger of the rifle that killed Kirk also matched that of Robinson, Utah County Attorney Jeff Gray said while outlining the evidence and announcing charges that could result in the...

Kash Patel defended his tenure as FBI director before a US Senate panel on Tuesday, angrily pushing back on questions about his handling of the investigation into the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk and the firings of veteran officials.

Patel’s appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee came as critics, including some allies of US President Donald Trump, have questioned his leadership of the most prominent US law enforcement agency.

Patel offered a broad defence of his...

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said his country had “knocked off” three boats in total from Venezuela, a day after he confirmed a second deadly US strike on alleged drug traffickers in the Caribbean.

“We knocked off actually three boats not two, but you saw two,” he told reporters at the White House before heading to the United Kingdom for a state visit.

He did not elaborate on what had happened with the third boat, or if any more people had been killed.

On Monday evening, he announced...

A New York state judge dismissed on Tuesday two terrorism-related counts against Luigi Mangione over the December 2024 killing of health insurance executive Brian Thompson, though the 27-year-old remains charged with second-degree murder and eight other criminal counts in the case.

Justice Gregory Carro ruled that prosecutors had not presented enough evidence to the grand jury that Mangione acted with the intent to intimidate health insurance workers or influence government policy, which would...

A Kenyan high court has ordered the arrest of a British national on charges of murdering a local woman near a British army training ground in central Kenya 13 years ago, court officials said Tuesday.

The body of 21-year-old Agnes Wanjiru was found in a septic tank in April 2012 in Nanyuki, north of Mt. Kenya, weeks after witnesses said she was seen leaving a bar with British soldiers.

The court in Nairobi on Monday ordered the arrest of the suspect, who is in Britain, but said that the suspect’s...