When a South Korean cargo ship exploded and caught fire in the Strait of Hormuz late on Monday, Donald Trump wasted no time declaring what he thought it meant. “Perhaps it’s time for South Korea to come and join the mission!” the US president wrote on his social media platform Truth Social, invoking the incident as fresh justification for Seoul to send naval forces to the embattled waterway. Seoul’s answer, for now, has been a polite but firm no – or at least, not yet. The explosion occurred...

SEOUL, May 5 (Yonhap) -- President Lee Jae Myung on Tuesday vowed to build a soc...

In April, Hong Kong-based Justin Sun sued ​World Liberty Financial, saying the company had illegally frozen the tokens he had bought.

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CHARSADDA: Renowned cleric Maulana Muhammad Idrees was killed on Tuesday after unidentified assailants opened fire on him, police said.

Police Personal Relations Officer Safiullah told Dawn that Idrees left for Darul Uloom Noumania from his home in Tarangzai. He said that shortly before he arrived at his destination, armed assailants fired at the vehicle in the Tariqabad Utmanzai area.

He said that two officials were also injured in the incident, adding that police had obtained CCTV footage of the incident.

The cleric’s body was subsequently shifted to the District Headquarter Hospital.

Meanwhile, KP Inspector General Zulfiqar Hameed took notice of the incident. According to a post on X by KP police, the IG sought a report from the Mardan regional police officer. He also told the official to take the necessary steps to arrest those responsible for the incident.

IG Hameed also expressed his condolences to the bereaved family and expressed his resolve to arrest those responsible soon.

KP Chief Minister Sohail Afridi also took notice of the incident and strongly condemned it. According to an official statement, he also sought a report from the police.

“The martyrdom of Maulana Muhammad Idrees is regrettable. We stand with the family members in this hour of difficulty,” he said. He also directed to provide the best possible medical treatment to the police officials injured in the incident.

KP Governor Faisal Faisal Karim Kundi also expressed sorrow at the incident and sought a report from the authorities concerned. According to a statement issued by his office, he termed the Maulana’s death an “irreparable loss” for the country.

Former senator Mushtaq Ahmed Khan said that he was deeply saddened by the news of the cleric’s killing.

“Can the provincial and federal governments, security agencies, and intelligence agencies tell us when terrorism will end in KP? No one is safe from terrorists,” he said.

The deceased’s father-in-law, Maulana Hassan Jan, who had defeated Awami National Party leader Abdul Wali Khan in his native Charsadda constituency, leading to his retirement from politics, was also gunned down by the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) for opposing armed struggle.

Idrees hailed from Charsadda’s Tarangzai area. He was also the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) district ameer and was considered one of Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s important advisers.

The Inland Revenue Department (IRD) has announced that tax revenue jumped by 22 per cent in the 2025-26 fiscal year, hitting a record high of HK$458.3 billion.

Unveiling the provisional tax figures at a press conference on Monday, Benjamin Chan, commissioner of Inland Revenue, attributed the rise partly to rallies in the property and stock markets.

Revenue from stamp duty – a tax imposed on the transfer of property or assets – reached HK$102.6 billion in 2025-26, a 61 per cent rise from the previous period.

Chan said the IRD also noticed a rise in the income of Hong Kong taxpayers and a higher number of companies paying profits tax.

In 2025-26, the tax office collected HK$212.6 billion in profits tax – a 20 per cent increase from 2024-25 – and HK$97.7 billion in salaries tax – a 10 per cent rise.

“The department’s revenue collection in 2025-26 was HK$458.3 billion, which is a record high,” Chan said.

The government previously logged HK$341.4 billion in tax revenue in 2018-19, a record high at the time, according to an IRD annual report.

The tax revenue declined afterwards – until the 2024-25 fiscal year, which recorded HK$374.5 billion, a 9.5 per cent increase from the previous period.

2.77 million tax returns issued

Chan also said on Monday that the IRD had issued about 2.77 million tax returns for individuals for the 2025-26, an increase of 115,000 from the previous year.

The commissioner also encouraged taxpayers to file their tax returns through eTAX, which is more environmentally friendly and helps ensure they reach the IRD in time. 

An extension of one month will be granted for returns filed electronically, according to the IRD.

Sudan’s armed forces blamed a drone attack ⁠on Monday that targeted Khartoum airport on the United Arab Emirates and Ethiopia, the latest in a barrage of assaults in recent days that has shattered months of relative calm in Sudan’s capital, three years into its civil war. Reuters could not independently verify the claims. Neither country immediately commented on the allegations made late on Monday. Sudan has often accused the UAE of supporting Rapid Support ‌Forces (RSF) paramilitaries, a charge...

About 150 people remain stuck ⁠on the ship marooned off the Cape Verde islands in the Atlantic Ocean after the deaths of three passengers.

© REUTERS

Already reeling from the effects of conflict in the Middle East, Asia is now facing the prospect of strong El Nino conditions that could spike energy demand, sap hydropower, and damage crops.

El Nino is a naturally occurring climate phenomenon that brings worldwide changes in winds, air pressure, and rainfall patterns.

Last week, the United Nations’ weather and climate agency said El Nino conditions could develop as soon as May to July.

The World Meteorological Organization, meanwhile, said early signs indicated the event could be particularly strong, with some dubbing the impending event a “super El Nino”, although the term is not used by scientists.

That is not good news for Asia, parts of which are traditionally heavily affected by the heatwaves, drought and heavy rains that El Nino can bring.

The phenomenon essentially shifts traditional weather patterns around, for example moving rain that normally falls over Indonesia out to sea, leaving the country vulnerable to drought and wildfires.

El Nino occurs around every two to seven years and is forecast based on sea temperatures.

“The subsurface anomaly that we’re seeing so far is pretty strong,” said Peter van Rensch, a climate scientist at Australia’s Monash University.

“It does look a little bit like what we saw in the 1997/98 event, and that was probably the strongest El Nino,” he told AFP.

There are still plenty of uncertainties, and van Rensch cautioned it was possible an El Nino might not develop at all.

Catastrophic impacts

But the 1997 El Nino brought catastrophic impacts, including extreme drought and devastating wildfires in Indonesia that burned through millions of hectares and created regional air pollution.

Authorities there have already identified peatlands at risk, and warned the country could see its lowest rainfall in 30 years.

The warnings come with Asia buckling under the strain of an energy supply crunch and fears over shortages of fertiliser and other industrial and agricultural components which pass through the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran has effectively closed the strategic waterway since the United States and Israel launched attacks on the country on February 28, disrupting global fuel supplies.

Hotter weather will strain energy grids already experiencing fuel shortages, as populations seek to cool homes and workplaces, warned Haneea Isaad, energy finance specialist at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.

“For countries that are highly dependent on the Strait of Hormuz for oil and gas deliveries and other trade, strained supply will lead to further fuel rationing, demand-side management and a reduction in economic activities … impacting overall GDP growth,” she told AFP.

The droughts that El Nino can bring to parts of the region also pose a threat to countries that are highly dependent on hydropower, said Dinita Setyawati, senior energy analyst for Asia at the Ember thinktank.

“Most ASEAN countries use a lot of hydropower,” she warned, highlighting Mekong countries, Nepal, and parts of Malaysia as particularly vulnerable because of their dependence on the sector.

The risks were laid bare in 2022, when a heatwave in China saw hydropower generation in Sichuan fall over 50 percent, creating shortages that impacted households and industry alike.

Agriculture risks

Hotter, drier conditions will also create fresh risks for agriculture, already under pressure as the ongoing conflict raises the costs of fertiliser and fuel needed for farming equipment.

“If crop prices do not rise enough to offset these higher input and shipping costs, producer margins will be squeezed, raising the likelihood of lower fertiliser application and weaker yields,” warned BMI, a unit of the Fitch Solutions research company.

“This would intensify food price inflation and worsen food insecurity, especially in import-dependent and climate-vulnerable markets.”

For some parts of Asia, an El Nino can bring bouts of intense rain and provoke flooding, which could impact sectors like southern China’s late-season rice harvest, added Isaad.

How climate change affects the emergence and strength of El Ninos is still not well understood.

But research shows climate change itself will bring more frequent intense heatwaves, as well as sudden heavy rainfall that can cause flooding.

So experts said countries across the region should further insulate energy systems against more frequent disruptive weather events by diversifying and greening their grids.

“Solar and wind, coupled with batteries, provide a more resilient infrastructure than a centralised fossil infrastructure,” said Setyawati.

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