Singapore on Friday said the country was entering a “critical period” amid a soaring increase in Covid-19 infections, with the city state registering 457 new cases on Thursday – up from just 76 new daily cases two weeks ago.Officials said they ...

China’s regulators will expand the cross-border investment channel with Hong Kong and Macau to encompass wealth management products, in a long-awaited move that will enhance Hong Kong’s standing as the offshore financial centre of the world’s s...

Japan’s popular vaccination minister Taro Kono on Friday formally announced his bid to succeed Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga by joining the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s leadership race.Kono, 58, is the third candidate to throw his hat in the...

A US federal judge has acquitted former University of Tennessee (UT) professor Hu Anming of fraud charges in the first case to go to trial under the controversial “China Initiative” started by the Trump administration to expose Chinese spies work...

Almost a month after Singapore welcomed its first giant panda cub, members of the public will be invited to suggest a name for the baby, who was announced on Friday to be a boy. This was revealed by Wildlife Reserves Singapore (WRS), which said that...

China needs to impose an absolute cap on carbon emissions during the 2021-2025 period to help meet its climate goals, an influential government advisory body said in a new report.China currently has no set cap on greenhouse gas emissions, now the hig...

Malaysia’s Top Glove Corp on Friday said it had been allowed to resume sales to the United States, after customs authorities lifted a year-long ban imposed for alleged forced labour found at the world’s largest medical glove maker.The US Customs ...

Australia’s daily coronavirus cases topped 1,900 for the first time on Friday, as the Delta outbreak continued to gain ground in locked-down Sydney and Melbourne.The country is in the grip of a third wave of infections, with the Delta variant forci...

Beards aren’t just cool and trendy – they might also be an evolutionary development to help protect a man’s delicate facial bones from a punch to the face.That’s the conclusion of a trio of US scientists from the University of Utah who are am...

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, facing potential defeat in a September 20 election, on Thursday used a key leaders’ debate to take aim at his main rival, portraying him as weak and ineffective.Polls show Erin O’Toole’s Conservative Part...

Concerns are growing among Indonesian migrant workers that their Covid-19 vaccine certificates will not be accepted by some destinations due to a lack of trust in the country’s immunisation programme.With Hong Kong, South Korea and Japan now allowi...

Three leaders of the group behind Hong Kong’s annual Tiananmen Square vigil have been remanded in custody, after being charged with inciting subversion against state power under the national security law on Friday.Chow Hang-tung, a barrister and vi...

District councillor Peter Choi Chi-keung has been unseated with immediate effect after he decided not to join his 14 opposition allies in taking the oath of office on Friday, the city’s home affairs chief has said.Secretary for Home Affairs Caspar ...

This story is published in a content partnership with POLITICO. It was originally reported by Alex Thompson on politico.com on September 9, 2021.Former presidential and New York mayoral candidate Andrew Yang is set to launch a third party next month,...

China is lobbying the Australian government for its support to join a multilateral regional trade pact – despite the two nations being in a worsening geopolitical dispute that’s spilled over into economic reprisals.“China’s accession to the C...

While China has so far supplied 190 million doses of its home-grown Covid-19 inoculations to Southeast Asia, making it a primary region for Beijing’s vaccine diplomacy, public perception towards the likes of Sinovac and Sinopharm are largely negati...

Two Hong Kong lovers were arrested on Friday after their early morning row resulted in a fire ripping through a public housing estate flat, leaving one man dead and one woman in a coma.The 12th-floor apartment’s female tenant, 48, and her boyfriend...

US President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping spoke by phone on Friday to manage the increasing rivalry between Beijing and Washington, with Xi calling for courage to set ties back on the right track, as their confrontational path wou...

A man has been arrested in eastern China after a cab driver reported him to the police when he tried to board the cab with bloodstained luggage which was later found to contain the body of a woman.Police in Taihe county in Jiangxi southeast China ann...

From Southeast Asian super-app Grab to multinational gaming firm Razer, Singapore’s one-north business hub has attracted an array of big tech names since the zone was launched two decades ago.Among the buildings in the precinct is Fusionopolis, a s...

Police in Madrid on Thursday arrested a former Venezuelan spymaster wanted on US narcoterrorism charges, capturing him in a hideout apartment nearly two years after he defied a Spanish extradition order and disappeared.General Hugo Carvajal, who for ...

District councillors will on Friday morning be required to swear their allegiance to Hong Kong in the first oath-taking ceremony for the directly elected municipal leaders.A total of 25 members, including at least 13 from the opposition camp serving ...

This story is published in a content partnership with POLITICO. It was originally reported by Adam Cancryn and David Lim on politico.com on September 9, 2021.US President Joe Biden on Thursday announced plans to require staff vaccinations at all heal...

The US Coast Guard is carrying out its biggest shipbuilding effort since World War II, modernising its fleet and establishing a presence in the Pacific that the force has not attempted in decades.Admiral Linda Fagan, the vice-commandant of the US Coa...

A former senior Chinese diplomat has accused the European Union’s ambassador of not understanding “the basics”, lashing out at his criticism of China’s “changing” diplomacy and warning of a grave impact on relations with the EU.This came...

A wildfire has forced the evacuation of more than 900 people from around the southern Spanish resort of Estepona, local authorities said on Thursday.A 44-year-old firefighter died while working on the wildfire, regional environment chief Carmen Cresp...

The cost of China’s ban on a series of Australian goods has been almost negligible for some of the country’s exporters, indicating Australia’s dependence on the world’s second largest economy for trade has not been as devastating as some had ...

Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Thursday, in a renewed bid for support amid sanctions imposed by the West in the aftermath of disputed elections a year ago.Lukashenko announced a “breakthrough...

R. Kelly sexually assaulted a woman at his Chicago studio nearly two decades ago, where he locked her up without food and water, the woman testified at the R&B singer’s sex abuse trial on Thursday.The woman, who identified herself as Sonia, told ju...

US President Joe Biden‘s administration on Thursday sued Texas, seeking to block enforcement of a new law almost entirely banning abortion in the state, as Democrats fear the right to abortion established almost 50 years ago may be at risk.The US S...

Around 100 passengers including Americans arrived in Doha after flying from Kabul airport on Thursday, the first flight ferrying out foreigners since a US-led evacuation ended.Doha, a major transit point for Afghan refugees, has said it worked with T...

China will donate 100 million Covid-19 vaccine doses to developing countries by the end of 2021, state news agency Xinhua reported on Thursday.Chinese President Xi Jinping made the pledge in a virtual summit with the leaders of Brazil, Russia, India ...

This story is published in a content partnership with POLITICO. It was originally reported by Jennifer Scholtes and Caitlin Emma on politico.com on September 8, 2021.US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned congressional leaders on Wednesday that sh...

Chengxin Youxuan, the community group buying business of ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing, has closed operations in a number of cities, resulting in lay-offs, as the whole industry faces a reality check amid fierce competition and tighter regulation.T...

The deadly terrorist attacks against the United States on September 11, 2001, prompted an outcry from around the world: “We are all Americans.” Washington’s policies realigned around fighting terrorism and bilateral relationships strengthened o...

Drew Weissman’s decades of research helped pave the way for mRNA Covid-19 vaccines, but the scientist isn’t resting on his laurels.The University of Pennsylvania immunologist, who on Thursday shared the US$3 million 2022 Breakthrough Prize in Lif...

China’s top anti-corruption agency has detained a senior banker from a leading policy bank for investigation, it said.The Communist Party’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) said on Thursday that He Xingxiang, vice-president of ...

Swedish telecommunications giant Ericsson will shut down one of its five research centres in China, with plans to transfer 630 redundant employees to a partner, according to two people familiar with the matter, as the company rapidly loses share to d...

The Chinese military is ramping up its presence in the South China Sea and enhancing its ability to seize an island, despite military friction with the United States in the region.An area in the west of the Leizhou Peninsula will be cordoned off to t...

Britain has approved plans to turn away boats illegally carrying migrants to its shores, deepening a rift with France over how to deal with a surge of people risking their lives by trying to cross the English Channel in small dinghies.Hundreds of sma...

Officers from an elite Hong Kong police team known as the “Flying Tigers” stormed the base of a loan scam syndicate and arrested seven people on Thursday.Four men and three women, including the 36-year-old female mastermind, were taken into custo...

Shanghai has revealed the pilot version of its teenage mode setting for tech companies, outlining the local government’s approach to protecting minors from gaming addiction amid a broader state crackdown on the country’s booming digital economy.T...

A Catholic priest has finally been appointed as the bishop for the Chinese city of Wuhan – after leading the diocese unofficially for nine years.Father Francesco Cui Qingqi was consecrated at the Cathedral of St Joseph in Hankou district in Wuhan o...

A notorious female serial killer who has been on the run for 20 years after killing seven people with her former boyfriend was sentenced to death in southeast China on Thursday.Lao Rongzhi, aged 47, received the death penalty for her involvement in f...

Italian police warned on Thursday that anti-vaccine campaigners had called for armed attacks during planned anti-government protests this weekend, and that eight people were being investigated for incitement to crime.A police statement said searches ...

This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing.The Hong Kong Observatory said the chances of the city seeing a typhoon warning signal on Thursday were slim, ...

When they turn 18, almost all South Korean men receive a letter informing them to prepare for a stint in the military. A year later, they undergo a physical test to prove they are capable of serving, and at 20, they are able to enlist in the army, ai...

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga extended the virus emergency for Tokyo and large parts of the country to September 30 as high levels of Delta variant-infections strain the medical system.Suga prolonged the state of emergency in 19 areas includ...

The Chinese Ministry of Education issued a decree on Wednesday that said it would close loopholes used by some companies to circumvent the recent crackdown on the private tutoring industry.The edicts were posted on the ministry’s website and said t...