After winning legislative backing for the Hong Kong Jockey Club to offer basketball betting – an initiative aimed at drawing punters away from illegal online bookmakers and capturing additional tax revenue – the government has now paused the roll-out. Officials say the rise of prediction markets has altered the landscape and warrants closer examination. So, what is it about prediction markets that unsettles officials? Prediction markets are online platforms where the menu stretches far beyond...

US President Donald Trump and the ⁠head of the Secret Service said on Thursday that the federal agent injured during the attack at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner had not been hit by friendly fire, as authorities released a video of the incident. Jeanine Pirro, the top federal prosecutor for Washington, posted the footage on social media, saying it showed the suspect shooting the US Secret Service officer as he ran through security towards the gala packed with journalists,...

US President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he was removing certain tariffs on Scotch whisky after this week’s White House visit by the UK’s King Charles and Queen Camilla. “The King and Queen got me to do something that nobody else was able to do, without hardly even asking!” Trump posted on social media. Trump said people had wanted this change, especially with regard to the wooden barrels in which the spirits of Scotch and bourbon can be aged. His post left it unclear if the tariffs were...

Brazil’s Congress on Thursday overturned President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s veto of a law dramatically reducing the prison sentence of his arch-rival Jair Bolsonaro, the second major defeat for Lula in as many days. Former president Bolsonaro, 71, was sentenced last year to 27 years behind bars for coup plotting over his attempt to cling to power after losing the 2022 elections to Lula. The left-wing Lula had attempted to block a subsequent push by the conservative-majority Congress to reduce...

With Congress again failing to curb US President Donald Trump’s authority over Cuba, the centre of gravity in US policy towards the island is shifting decisively back to the White House – and to a narrower, more consequential question: what comes next? Tuesday’s 51-47 Senate vote to block a Democratic-led war powers resolution on Cuba does not change policy on its own. It was widely expected, reflecting a long-standing pattern in which Congress has struggled to assert its war powers authority...

The US Congress on Thursday approved funding for most of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), ending a record-breaking partial government shutdown that has disrupted critical agencies for more than two months. The House approved the measure, already passed by the Senate, sending it to US President Donald Trump, who quickly signed it. It will fund key DHS agencies through the end of the financial year on September 30. It does not include new money for immigration and border enforcement,...

The Federal Communications ⁠Commission on Thursday voted unanimously to advance a proposal to bar all Chinese labs from testing electronic devices such as smartphones, cameras and computers for use in the United States. The agency says about 75 per cent of ‌all US electronics are tested in China and plans to adopt a streamlined approval process for devices tested in US labs or labs from countries not posing national security risks. In a separate 3-0 vote, the commission advanced a proposal to...

The man accused of attempting to assassinate President Donald Trump at a black-tie press gala in Washington agreed on Thursday to remain in custody while his case moves forward. The suspect, Cole Allen, 31, would ‌not immediately contest prosecutors’ arguments that he was a danger to the community and should remain in jail, his lawyer, Tezira Abe, said during a court hearing. Allen allegedly stormed a security checkpoint and fired a shotgun outside the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on...

The first direct commercial flight between the United States and Venezuela departed a bit early on Thursday on its way to the capital of the South American country, seven years after the US Homeland Security Department ordered an indefinite suspension, citing security concerns. The resumption of a commercial flight between the two countries comes months after the US capture of then-president Nicolas Maduro in a stunning night-time raid on his residence in Caracas in early January. It also comes...

A Ugandan-American man was sentenced to death on Thursday over the murders of four young children he stabbed to death at a kindergarten in Uganda’s capital. Christopher Okello Onyum was arrested on April 2 as he tried to flee the day care centre in Kampala where he murdered the children aged 15 months to two-and-a-half years. Prosecutors said Onyum, who holds Ugandan and US citizenship, confessed to the crime, believing the “human sacrifice” would help him become rich, though he eventually...

The Paris prosecutor’s office has opened an ⁠investigation into ⁠a 15-year-old, suspected of having ⁠hacked the country’s ID agency and trying to sell the data of millions of French people on the dark web this month, it said on Thursday. The teenager, whose identity ‌was not revealed, was detained on April 25 and held in police custody for questioning after he was suspected of hiding behind the nickname “breach3d”, a hacker who had put on sale on hacker forums between 12 million and 18 million...

The US economy accelerated at the start of 2026, expanding at a modest 2 per cent pace from January through March after recovering from last fall’s 43-day federal government shutdown. But the outlook is clouded by the Iran war. The Commerce Department reported on Thursday that gross domestic product – the nation’s output of goods and services – rebounded from a lacklustre 0.5 per cent expansion the last three months of 2025. The federal government’s spending and investment grew at a 9.3 per cent...