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India's Modi visits Poland for security and trade talks en route to war-torn Ukraine
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South China Morning PostByteDance's Douyin emerges as fast-rising rival to e-commerce giants Alibaba, JD and PDD
ByteDance's Douyin, the domestic sibling of TikTok, has emerged as a rising contender in the Chinese e-commerce market once dominated by Alibaba Group Holding and JD.com, despite slowing growth. The Beijing-based short-video platform, which has been aggressively expanding into the online shopping business, increased gross merchandise volume (GMV) by 46 per cent year on year between August 2023 and July 2024, said Wei Wenwen, the president of Douyin's e-commerce unit, at a company event in Shangh
- Reuters
Salesforce expands local cloud platform to Israel
Cloud software firm Salesforce said on Tuesday its Hyperforce cloud platform was now available in Israel, which will allow sensitive government and companies' data to stay local. The platform, two years in the making, will initially run on Amazon Web Services (AWS) infrastructure and possibly later on Google Cloud Platform, company officials said. Itai Margalit, head of sales at Salesforce in Israel, said having a cloud platform would benefit government entities and those firms "that are regulated and need to comply with privacy laws ... and cannot go out of the boundaries of Israel."
- LA Times
Sex tourism in Indonesia sells itself as Islamic temporary marriage
Saudi sex tourists are buying weeklong marriages to young women in Indonesia. It's an economic lifeline for villages. For the women, it's 'torture.'
- The Telegraph
‘Trump debated three people and won’: Telegraph readers on the presidential debate
Kamala Harris and Donald Trump went head-to-head in their first and possibly only debate on Tuesday night.
- WWD
Blackpink’s Lisa Makes a Dramatic Arrival to MTV VMAs 2024 Red Carpet in Theatrical Mugler Dress With Veil Detail
The Louis Vuitton brand ambassador favored a dramatic look for the awards show on Wednesday.
- Evening Standard
Kylian Mbappe 'agreed to join Liverpool' after huge transfer betrayal
France superstar joined Real Madrid this summer
- BuzzFeed
18 Awkward, Yikes, Or Otherwise Ridiculous Presidential Debate Moments
Trump telling Harris to stop laughing at him was a real thing that happened multiple times.
- HuffPost
'Holy S**t': Jon Stewart Nails Exact Moment Kamala Harris 'Crushed' Trump At Debate
The "Daily Show" host hit the former president for an "insanely false" claim at the debate.
- Associated Press
Pope marvels at Singapore's skyscrapers and asks that the lowest migrant workers not be forgotten
Pope Francis on Thursday praised Singapore’s economic strength as a testament to human ingenuity but urged the city-state to look after the weakest, too, especially foreign workers, as he opened the final leg of his tour through some of Asia’s poorest countries in one of the world’s richest. Singapore celebrated his arrival by unveiling a new hybrid orchid named for him, the "Dendrobium His Holiness Pope Francis." Presented during an official welcome ceremony, the orchid “exudes a serene and pure beauty” of ivory white petals with a pink tinge at the center, according to the National Parks Board.
- Sky News
Jon Bon Jovi helps 'distraught' woman to step away from ledge of Nashville bridge
Rock legend Jon Bon Jovi has been captured on camera helping to persuade a "distraught" woman to step away from the ledge of a bridge in Nashville. The US singer was reportedly filming a video for his band's track "The People's House" on the John Seigenthaler Pedestrian Bridge when the woman was spotted on the other side of the railings. CCTV footage, shared by local police, shows the Bon Jovi frontman and woman walking down the middle of the bridge on Tuesday evening.
- The Guardian
Woman started crying and said ‘it was hurting’ when high-profile Sydney man allegedly raped her, court told
The man, who cannot be named, has pleaded not guilty to 12 charges including six counts of rape
- Evening Standard
Horror as boy, 12, plunges to his death from balcony after 'playing with new friends' on luxury cruise ship
The boy tumbled from a 13th floor balcony as the ship headed to port after week-long Caribbean cruise
- The Independent
Republican Karl Rove says Trump got ‘crushed by a woman he called dumb as a rock’ during ‘train wreck’ debate
Veteran Republican strategist says Trump’s ‘furious’ performance ‘catastrophic’ whereas Harris was ‘calm, confident, strong and focused on the future’
- The Independent
Stephen Miller rages at journalist in Harris-Trump debate spin room: ‘Do you have any remorse?’
Ex-White House official yelled at reporter, who seemed increasingly confused by Miller’s reaction
- The Guardian
Republicans dismayed by Trump’s ‘bad’ and ‘unprepared’ debate performance
GOP lawmakers and analysts virtually unanimous that Trump was second best to Harris in first presidential debate
- Reuters
Russia says it could "combine" with China if they faced a threat
Russia said on Wednesday that its partnership with China was not aimed against third countries but the two powers could "combine potential" if faced with a threat from the United States. "I would like to remind you that Moscow and Beijing will respond to 'double containment' by the United States with 'double counteraction'," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said when asked about a possible deployment of U.S. missiles in Japan.
- Engadget
It's a good year to buy the vanilla iPhone 16 (and avoid the SE at all costs)
After sitting with Apple's announcements for a day, one thing has become clear: The plain $799 iPhone 16 is a pretty solid deal, at least compared to basic iPhones from the last few years.
- Sky News
Aggression, disrespect and insult - a confrontation that Trump has rarely faced
Donald Trump rolled out the long-debunked rumour that Haitian immigrants were eating pet dogs and cats in Springfield, Ohio. The debate moderator, in serious tone, duly interjected that they'd contacted the "city manager" who had played it down. Kamala Harris will be content that she asserted an authority and stage presence that rattled Donald Trump - calling him weak, saying that Vladimir Putin would have him for lunch and saying that people left his rallies out of exhaustion and boredom.
- The Independent
Pic of Biden wearing Trump hat sends MAGA fans into meltdown – but White House says he was promoting ‘unity’
The president briefly donned a ‘Trump 2024’ hat during a visit to Shanksville, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday following a 9/11 memorial service
- Hello!
Sydney Sweeney's plunge neck jumpsuit is a lesson in 'less is more' chic
The Euphoria actress stunned in Balmain to receive a prestigious award at the Toronto International Film Festival - see photos