US President Donald Trump’s drive to reassert US supremacy in Latin America has already squeezed China’s interests in Cuba, Panama and Venezuela. Now, Nicaragua could be shaping up as the next economic battleground between the two powers, a schol...

What is in effect Japan’s version of the Belt and Road Initiative is being rolled out at an accelerating pace. But unlike China’s global infrastructure initiative, which mainly takes the form of highways, railways and sea lanes, Japan’s project...

Three social media platforms have been ordered to block access to 14 posts which “target the Indian community and undermine Singapore’s model of multiculturalism”, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said on Saturday. The police have issued disa...

The People’s Liberation Army said on Friday that it had tracked and monitored a Dutch warship during its passage through the Taiwan Strait, days after using electronic interference during a confrontation with the same vessel in the South China Sea....

As China’s most important national examination, known as gaokao, looms, many students are flocking to hospitals to inhale oxygen in the belief that doing so will “recharge” their brains. Gaokao refers to the country’s national university entr...

Mainland customers can still open bank accounts in Hong Kong, but banks must adopt stringent new checks to ensure their processes are “compliant and orderly”, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) said in a statement on Saturday. “The banking...

Israeli troops killed a seven-month-old Palestinian baby boy after firing at his parents’ vehicle in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said. Sam Fahd Abu Haikal was killed on Friday evening, and his parents were wounded while ...

China’s Ministry of Commerce has lashed out at Washington’s latest guidance on advanced artificial intelligence chip exports, accusing the United States of abusing export controls and disrupting the global semiconductor supply chain. But trade la...

Russia said on Saturday it intercepted hundreds of Ukrainian drones including near St Petersburg, where Moscow is hosting a major economic forum, as Ukraine reported at least three people killed by Russian strikes. Moscow and Kyiv have intensified dr...

Hong Kong police have arrested a 69-year-old taxi driver after he allegedly knocked down and killed a 34-year-old woman in a shopping district in the early hours of Saturday. The incident happened at around 2.12am near Park Lane Shopper’s Boulevard...

Hundreds of supporters of the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP), an online joke that drew millions across India, gathered for the first time in the national capital on Saturday, taking the social media movement off screens and into its biggest real-world ...

Flu cases are rising in Hong Kong, particularly among children and the elderly, as waning vaccine protection weakens community immunity, a leading infectious disease expert has warned. Professor Ivan Hung Fan-ngai, chair professor of infectious disea...

This article was first published by The Korea Times in a partnership with the South China Morning Post. Two of China’s leading memory-chip makers are moving closer to public listings, posing a significant long-term challenge to South Korean giants ...

The Quad’s newly announced US$20 billion critical minerals framework aims to loosen China’s near-monopoly on the materials that power modern defence, technology and clean energy industries. But analysts say its success will depend on the ability ...

In front of L’industrie Pizzeria, as at many other New York restaurants and shops, customers queue up behind barriers – in this case, all to grab a prized pizza slice. Not everyone in America’s biggest city finds standing in line to be a chore....

China’s top internet watchdog has banned 11 specific online activities under strict new rules for multiplatform content creators taking effect later this year. Rolling out the new regulations last week, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) ...

FamilyMart in Malaysia has taken immediate disciplinary action by suspending an employee who allegedly threw hot soup at a delivery rider, as seen in a viral video. The popular Japanese convenience store chain has apologised for the employee’s acti...

Baby Danny’s future remains uncertain despite having almost completed his birth registration in Hong Kong, as welfare authorities still have to assess the capability of his parents, who were earlier arrested for suspected child neglect and have a t...

The Hong Kong Observatory has cancelled an amber rainstorm warning but cautioned that squally showers and thunderstorms will continue to affect the city in the coming days. The amber alert, the lowest in the three-tier rainstorm warning system, was l...

As South Koreans brace for another sweltering summer, a grim joke has taken hold in casual conversation: “This will be the coolest summer for the rest of our lives.” For many young people, that line is no longer dark humour but a blunt summary of...

A man was charged with murder in the stabbing of Jumanji and Top Gun: Maverick actor James Handy, who was in a relationship with the suspect’s mother. Michael Gledhill, 44, was charged on Friday after police say officers found the 81-year-old Handy...

North Korean ruler Kim Jong-un’s recent display of nuclear-processing capabilities appears timed with reports of an impending visit by China’s leader and fuelled by insecurities about Seoul’s nuclear submarine talks with Washington. Analysts al...

Listening to US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth at the recently concluded Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, I thought of the iconic Sichuan opera act of face-changing, where performers switch masks in an instant. Last year, Hegseth’s speech at the e...

Japanese homemaker Maki Watanabe carefully ⁠pours into a plastic bottle the oil she used to cook her ⁠deep-fried aubergines, doing her part in her Tokyo kitchen for a national effort to ramp up production of eco-friendly jet fuel. “It would tak...

Weeks before mainland Chinese student Carol Chen graduated from Baptist University in Hong Kong in July, the 22-year-old did the math and weighed the cost of living in the city against returning home. Renting a room in the city would consume around h...

A kindergarten teacher in China has been suspended from her job and placed under police investigation for using a glue gun to scald a little girl’s lip, causing serious blisters. The incident unfolded on the morning of May 27 in a nursery in Fengxi...

US forces struck Iranian coastal radar sites on Saturday after shooting down drones launched by Iran towards the Strait of Hormuz, the US military said, in the latest escalation complicating efforts to end the war between the two countries. The US mi...

The unmarried parents of two‑month‑old Danny have obtained his birth certificate four days after their arrest on suspicion of child neglect, but they must still undergo home visits and other assessments before regaining custody of the infant. Tsa...

For Beijing-based METiS TechBio CEO Lai Tsai-ta, ageing is comparable to bugs building up in a complex software system – it happens once errors begin to accumulate in the genetic code of human cells, such as their DNA sequences. “Those errors can...

Waves break along Cenang Beach as the sun drops over the Andaman Sea, washing Langkawi’s white sand in gold. Tourists sip fresh coconuts beneath rows of bright umbrellas, gazing out at the “Jewel of Kedah”: a duty-free archipelago long sold as ...

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday he currently saw no reason to meet Volodymyr Zelensky after the Ukrainian president published an open letter proposing they hold face-to-face talks to agree an end to a war now in its fifth year. In his...

Indonesia is considering buying hi-tech policing equipment from China, setting out a shopping list for technology ranging from drones to tactical armoured vehicles at a police equipment trade show in Beijing. The Indonesian National Police is particu...

Given that control over energy reinforces superpower status, the contest of the century has morphed into an intense rivalry between China, a rising “electrostate”, and the United States, the world’s hydrocarbon hegemon safeguarding its position...

Taiwan’s main opposition leader said cross-strait peace can be maintained as long as Taipei did not move towards “de jure independence”, during her trip in the United States. Cheng Li-wun, chairwoman of the Kuomintang (KMT), attended a closed-d...

US President Donald Trump said Friday he wants his incoming acting spy chief to start firing employees, deepening the controversy over the appointment of a man with no previous intelligence experience. Bill Pulte, a Trump loyalist who heads the Feder...

A firestorm of recrimination raged in France on Friday over failures in the justice system that kept a man now suspected in the disappearance and death of an 11-year-old girl out of custody despite allegations that he preyed on young adolescents. The...

A vaccine targeting a broad range of viruses that was designed using artificial intelligence had a “modest” effect on immune systems in a small, early trial, according to a new study. The trial marks the first time a vaccine whose active ingredie...

President Donald ⁠Trump’s administration unlawfully barred applicants from ⁠39 travel-ban countries from receiving decisions on asylum, work permits, green cards and citizenship, a US federal judge ruled on Friday. Chief US District Judge John ...

Actor Anthony Head, best known for his roles in Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Ted Lasso, has died at the age of 72, his family announced on Friday. The British actor, the brother of singer Murray Head, was best known as librarian Rupert Giles in the c...

A worsening air leak aboard the International Space Station prompted five astronauts to take shelter and prepare for evacuation for roughly two hours on Friday as Russia attempted to ‌fix a crack on its portion of the orbital laboratory, Nasa said....

Makeda George steps out of a Mixue store in downtown Brooklyn, New York, clutching a bubble tea as she weaves through a crowd of teenagers. The local resident says she had been eager to try the brand after noticing a surge of new outlets opening in r...

Hong Kong police have arrested a 65-year-old man in connection with a suspected indecent assault case in Mong Kok hours after footage appeared online showing a passenger harassing a schoolgirl sitting in front of him on a bus. Police said officers in...

Russia could attack a Nato country within four years according to western intelligence assessments, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer warned on Friday. He made the comments as he pledged his government would publish a long-delayed defence investment pla...

Hong Kong serves as an ideal platform to help Uzbek enterprises expand through its world-class professional services and international business environment, the city’s leader has told the Central Asian country’s prime minister as he wrapped up a ...

While a wave of job cuts across Asia’s finance and other industries due to wider use of artificial intelligence has spurred concerns, a new study shows that the technology’s net impact on employment is not as clear-cut. Recruiters and industry ob...

Cai Qi, the fifth-ranked member in the Communist Party’s hierarchy, has been picked to head the Central Party School, the top training ground for cadres. Cai, 70, sits on the elite Politburo Standing Committee and is secretary of the party’s secr...

Any US military attack on Cuba would most likely take place this summer, according to a Chinese defence technology company closely tracking US military movements around the island. The assessment by Jingan Technology, a civilian start-up founded in 2...

China is ramping up its bets on space-based artificial intelligence computing with the launch of a state-backed research institute in Beijing, accelerating a frontier tech race with the US just as Elon Musk’s SpaceX eyes a record-shattering US$75 b...

Norway’s Crown Princess Mette-Marit has been placed on a waiting list for a lung transplant after a significant deterioration in her health that likely gave her only a year left to live without the surgery, her doctors said on Friday. The 52-year-o...

China and Russia have largely moved away from the US dollar in bilateral trade settlement, with most transactions now settled in their own currencies. Yet cross-border payment bottlenecks persist as Chinese banks carefully manage their exposure to Wa...