Secular News

South Africa's most successful Olympian Tatjana Smith explains why she has reversed her decision to retire from competitive swimming.

A South Korean university has embedded graduation photos with anti-deepfake technology to prevent a repeat of a scandal two years ago, when portraits of female graduates were used to create sexually explicit manipulated images. Seoul National University’s (SNU) use of StealCut Protect, created by a start-up founded by SNU alumni, marked the first time it was used for a university graduation album in the country, The Korea Herald reported. StealCut provided the technology to SNU free of...

Olivia Dews and sister Charlotte Casey have a life limiting neurological condition.

A former acting chief editor of the now-defunct Stand News was fulfilling his duty to publish articles and had no intent to undermine national security in Hong Kong, his lawyer has said while appealing his conviction for sedition. A panel of High Court justices pointed out on Tuesday that the presiding trial judge had ruled Patrick Lam Shiu-tung’s decision to run material containing false information from interviewees had the seditious effect of inciting hatred against authorities. They noted...

Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur’s 1928 Chicago newsroom comedy The Front Page was so famous that when Harry J. Romanoff died in 1970, his New York Times obit referenced it. And in a 1986 review of a revival with John Lithgow as the conniving editor Walter Burns and Richard Thomas as the ruthless reporter Hildy... The post There’s nothing Jewish about this classic American comedy — except just about everything appeared first on The Forward.

Cutting-edge Chinese technology could gradually be becoming part of Serbia’s weapons systems with the appearance of robot dogs in a Serbian military drill on the weekend soon after the opening of a Chinese robotics factory in the Balkan country, according to observers. Robodogs equipped with machine guns, grenade launchers and rocket launchers were among the major weapons systems unveiled at Serbia’s Pobednik 2026 large-scale tactical live-fire exercise on Sunday. The event involved its army,...

Indonesia plans to press ahead with discounted Russian crude oil imports to secure domestic energy supplies and manage fiscal pressures, despite the risk of higher US tariffs as Washington moves to tighten economic pressure on Moscow. On Friday, US President Donald Trump signed into law an act that would give him authority to impose sanctions on Russia and slap tariffs of up to 100 per cent on the top five buyers of Russian crude oil, gas and military equipment, or countries that help Moscow...

A man in northern China created a poignant record of his mother’s final 14 days, documenting her rapid decline from a vibrant woman to her last moments. Gao, hailing from the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, shared that his mother travelled to his city for medical treatment after developing a fever and a persistent cough. On August 29, he captured her arrival at the railway station. Dressed in her favourite red coat, she appeared energetic and in good spirits, walking with confidence and a...

(JTA) — Pop star Ed Sheeran expressed sympathy for “centuries of Jewish pain” while calling what is happening in Gaza “catastrophic and unjustifiable” at a largely solo performance before about 50,000 people at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia. It was the tour’s first stop since Macklemore was dropped following pro-Palestinian remarks and the display of... The post Ed Sheeran expresses sympathy for both Jews and Palestinians at first tour stop since Macklemore was dropped appeared first on The Forward.

Foreign investors continue to pile into Hong Kong’s commercial real estate, with a unit of online retail giant Amazon and Singapore-headquartered Shorea Capital among the latest to snap up assets, according to agents. Shorea won the tender for The Pemberton, a mixed office and retail property in Sheung Wan, for an undisclosed amount, Colliers said, underscoring Southeast Asian investors’ continuing robust demand for real estate assets in Hong Kong. Colliers was the lead agent and broker for the...

About 10 students reportedly fell ill after drinking free beverages that were found with suspicious pinhole marks near a sports ground in Hong Kong, prompting a police investigation. Students reportedly posted messages on social media claiming that free bottles of a sports drink had been handed out during lunch near the school athletics meet at Hammer Hill Road Sports Ground in Wong Tai Sin. Some students later noticed what appeared to be pinhole marks on the bottles, and a parent called police...

UFC middleweight champion Sean Strickland says he is "OK" but "an idiot" after surviving a crash in an off-road vehicle while not wearing a helmet.