US Supreme Court again rejects cap on political campaign spending limits

The US Supreme Court has again struck down campaign spending limits, this ⁠time rejecting federal restrictions on coordinated spending between political parties and their candidates on free speech grounds.

The ruling on Tuesday comes as major Republican committees head towards the November midterm elections with a significant cash advantage over their Democratic counterparts.

Siding with Vice-President J.D. Vance and other Republican challengers, the court ruled 6-3 that a cap on the amount of money parties can spend on campaigns with input from candidates violates the US Constitution’

US Vice-President J.D. Vance, US President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. After Tuesday’s court ruling, Trump wrote: ‘A BIG WIN FOR REPUBLICANS and, more importantly, The First Amendment!’

Fallen firefighter Ho awarded Medal for Bravery in Hong Kong’s 2026 Honours List

Firefighter Ho Wai-ho, who was killed in Hong Kong’s deadliest blaze in decades, has been recognised for his bravery in this year’s Honours List, while eminent economist Lawrence Lau Juen-yee is among three recipients of the city’s highest award.

Fencer Ryan Choi Chun-yin and cyclist Ceci Lee Sze-wing were also among the 466 individuals named in the 2026 Honours List on Wednesday, with the pair recognised for their achievements at last year’s National Games

Fencer Ryan Choi. Photo: Dickson Lee

US Supreme Court upholds state bans on transgender student athletes

Women celebrate the US Supreme Court’s final rulings of its nine-month term, including a decision that cleared the way for states to impose restrictions on transgender athletes in schools. Photo: Reuters

The US Supreme Court cleared the way on Tuesday for ⁠states to impose restrictions on transgender student athletes, upholding laws in West Virginia and Idaho banning them from female sports teams.

It delivered a major victory to conservatives in one of the country’s most fiercely contested culture-war battles.

The justices overturned decisions by lower courts siding with transgender students who

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Energy expert Yang Tao returns from Norway to China University of Petroleum

An engineer who spent decades in Norway’s energy industry has returned as distinguished professor at the China University of Petroleum-Beijing, a post he says will build a bridge with Europe to help create sustainable energy solutions .

In a ceremony on June 13, university president Jin Yan handed a letter of appointment to Yang Tao, a member of both the Norwegian Academy of Technological Sciences and the Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters, for a position at the Chinese institution where he had first earned his chemical engineering degrees.


US Supreme Court strikes down Trump birthright citizenship order

In a historic ruling, the US Supreme Court on Tuesday struck down a Trump administration executive order targeting birthright citizenship, preserving a defining principle of what it means to be born an American.

The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in Trump v. Barbara, holding that children born in the United States to undocumented parents or parents on temporary visas are entitled to US citizenship.

“Citizenship, then and now, was the right to have rights – to freely participate in our political community. The Framers of the Fourteenth Amendment extended


Philippine religious group challenges Marcos, seeks to shield senator over probe

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr faced a stern challenge on Tuesday after the influential Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) religious movement staged a protest on Metro Manila’s busiest highway to demand that the presidential palace stop going after one of its members, Senator Rodante Marcoleta.

The rally at Edsa – the highway where a 1986 people power uprising helped topple Marcos’ father, who was the country’s long-time dictator – has raised the stakes of a looming criminal case involving Marcoleta, according to analysts.

Marcoleta


Nvidia to boost its China robotics team amid emergence of physical AI

Visitors tour the Nvidia booth displaying humanoid robots at the China International Supply Chain Expo in Beijing on June 25, 2026. Photo: AP

US chip giant Nvidia is ramping up a talent drive for its robotics team in China, a market whose vendors account for the lion’s share of global shipments.

The Silicon Valley firm is recruiting for more than a dozen roles across Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, according to a post on its official WeChat account on Monday. The positions span four key domains: embodied intelligence, simulation, implementation and solutions.

Nvidia said its robotics team planned


Venezuela survivors pulled from rubble days after quakes

Amid diminishing hope, a preliminary assessment via satellite data says the two earthquakes likely damaged or destroyed 58,870 buildings

US firefighters on Sunday pulled a survivor from the rubble of a building that collapsed in Wednesday’s earthquakes in La Guaira, Venezuela. Photo: AP

Almost a week after two devastating earthquakes struck Venezuela, survivors were still being found alive by rescuers that have come from abroad to help.

Salvadorean rescuers reached a 44-year-old man trapped under the rubble of a shopping centre

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US lawmaker Ro Khanna defends calling witness ‘racist’ in explosive China committee clash

US Congressman Ro Khanna says “if you’re born in the United States, you can’t be denaturalised” in response to comments by Michael Lucci. Photo: Getty Images/TNS

Ro Khanna, the ranking member of the US House Select Committee on China , has defended calling a witness “racist” during testimony last week over comments on Chinese-Americans who obtain US citizenship through birthright.
The heated exchange took place during a June 25 hearing on economic espionage and subnational influence , where Khanna confronted Michael Lucci, founder of the Texas-based

Does Gojek co-founder’s guilty verdict test Indonesia’s investor climate?

Nadiem Makarim, Indonesia’s former education minister and co-founder of ride-hailing firm Gojek, at the Central Jakarta Court on Tuesday. Photo: Reuters

Indonesia ’s former education minister Nadiem Makarim, one of the country’s best-known tech founders, has been sentenced to 10 years in prison after a Jakarta court found him guilty of abusing his authority in a corruption case linked to US$87 million in state losses.

The verdict against the Gojek co-founder could unsettle business sentiment and dampen foreign investment appetite in Southeast Asia’s biggest economy, adding to concerns about

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