NewsLite

BEIJING — Shanghai airports cancelled hundreds of flights on Monday (Aug 10) as Tropical Storm Dolphin dumped heavy rain in eastern China, causing flooding in places after making landfall as a typhoon the previous day.

Shanghai's Hongqiao and Pudong airports cancelled more than 900 flights, or about 40 per cent of those expected, after about 1,300 were cancelled the day before, according to Shanghai Airport Group.

Shanghai also suspended some of its metro lines on Monday, and China Railway Chengdu Group suspended 115 trains, state news agency Xinhua reported.

Authorities warned of risks of severe flooding and landslides in some areas. State broadcaster CCTV reported that authorities in Yueqing, a city in Zhejiang province, searched for people trapped in flooded homes.

Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) officers cut open the floorboard of a Malaysia-registered car during an enhanced check at Woodlands Checkpoint on Aug 4.

In photographs posted on its Facebook on Tuesday (Aug 11), the multi-purpose vehicle's (MPV) floorboard was seen cut open from its underneath, revealing cartons of cigarettes.

Several cartons of duty-unpaid cigarettes were similarly found under the MPV's bonnet.

ICA said its officers had directed the vehicle for enhanced checks, acting on information received from its Integrated Targeting Centre.

BEIJING — China said a Long March 7A rocket carrying the ChinaSat-4B satellite failed after an in-flight anomaly following liftoff from the Wenchang space launch site in the southern island province of Hainan on Monday (Aug 10).

The rocket blasted off at 8.02pm Beijing time state news agency Xinhua said, adding that the mission was unsuccessful and the cause was under analysis and investigation.

China's National Space Administration did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk, commenting on a post about the failed launch on X, wrote "rockets are insanely hard".

BEIJING/SHANGHAI — Chinese robot maker Unitree said on Monday (Aug 10) its US$900 million (S$1.2 billion) Shanghai initial public offering was more than 8,000 times oversubscribed by retail investors, reflecting investor fever.

Unitree, which competes with Tesla and Boston Dynamics, said in a filing that the lot-winning rate for retail investors was roughly 0.018 per cent after clawing back some shares from the institutional tranche of the offering.

The chance of securing the newly issued shares is lower than in most China IPOs this year.

"Unitree is strategically important to China. Its humanoid robots would challenge Elon Musk's Optimus," said Wen Hao, a veteran investor in China's eastern city of Hangzhou, where Unitree is based.

A 72-year-old male Singaporean rescued by the Royal Malaysia Police (RMP) in Kedah on Aug 7 is believed to have been kidnapped by a syndicate that is linked to two other reported cases.

In a briefing to the Malaysia media on Monday (Aug 10) regarding the Aug 7 police operation, Bukit Aman Criminal Investigation Department director M. Kumar said the syndicate is believed to be involved in two other cases in Kuala Lumpur.

According to Kumar, the cases happened in July and only came to light after one of the female victims escaped on her own and filed a police report. No reports were lodged by anyone prior.

Based on the female victim's report, the RMP mounted an operation to rescue the other victim, who was kept at the same location as the woman who managed to escape.

WOBURN, Massachusetts — At a Massachusetts lab, pebble-sized pellets are transformed into forks and films that won't leave persistent microplastics in the environment.

These are bioplastic pellets. CJ Biomaterials ferments sugar to make plant-based polymers that microbes will consume.

These alternatives to traditional plastics made of fossil fuels are seen by some as one of many solutions needed to confront global plastic pollution.

At the company's Woburn research facility, lab technicians recently poured pellets into a moulding machine to make forks. The test forks were thin enough for home composting, though too bendy for stabbing a steak.

WASHINGTON — The Federal Communications Commission, once better known for spectrum auctions and licensing television stations, has emerged as the unlikely leader of some of the Trump administration's most aggressive actions against China.

Under Trump ally Brendan Carr, the FCC has made a series of moves over the past nine months to crack down on what the US sees as risks to American supply chains.

The agency has barred imports of new models of Chinese drones, routers, inverters and robots and begun the process of blocking all Chinese labs from testing electronic ‌devices such as smartphones, cameras and computers for use in the US It is now drafting a ban on US imports of new models of Chinese data centre components, seeking to protect American infrastructure that undergirds the AI boom, Reuters reported.

Those actions, which aim to push Chinese gear out of technology supply chains and spur domestic manufacturing, have the blessing of President Donald Trump's White House, according to US officials, who say the agency has tried to do so without angering Beijing, in part by targeting Chinese technologies without explicitly naming China.

Ukraine attacked the petroleum hub of Nizhnekamsk in central Russia's Tatarstan region on Monday (Aug 10), killing 13 people and injuring 78 others, local authorities said, in one of the deadliest attacks in the country in the four-year-old war.

The Ukrainian military said it hit an oil refinery in Nizhnekamsk, which is about 1,200 kilometres east of the Ukrainian border and has a population of about 240,000.

Russian officials didn't say what the drones targeted, but the city is home to two refineries and a petrochemical plant. Ukraine has targeted Russian oil facilities with long-range drones almost daily in recent months.

The campaign has caused fuel shortages in Russia, eaten into its refining capacity and unsettled the population.

Patrick Tse's final resting place has been revealed.

TVB ENews reported yesterday (Aug 10) that the ashes of the veteran Hong Kong actor-filmmaker, who died aged 89 on July 16, are interred at Po Fook Hill, a columbarium in Hong Kong.

The location is also the final resting place for many Hong Kong celebrities including Leslie Cheung, Lydia Shum and Roman Tam.

Patrick's memorial tablet is engraved with his real name Tse Ka Yuk, his birth and death years, as well as his ancestral home in Guangdong, China.

FRANKFURT — Deutsche Bank said on Monday (Aug 10) it had been named by China as a clearing bank for its currency, the renminbi, in a first for a European lender.

"Deutsche Bank will facilitate direct end-to-end processing, clearing and settlement services for cross-border RMB transactions for European financial institutions and businesses, acting as a local bridge to China's payment systems," Deutsche Bank said.

The move gives European businesses and financial institutions direct access to China's onshore financial system, including capital markets and liquidity infrastructure, streamlining cross-border trade and investment flows.

"It strengthens China-Europe financial connectivity," said Deutsche Bank board member Alexander von zur Muehlen.