Water pipe smoking will contribute to about 1 million new lung cancer cases globally by 2050, with the Western Pacific region bearing the brunt, according to a study led by a World Health Organization (WHO) research agency that was recently presented...

When Hong Kong debates how to raise its birth rate, the conversation usually revolves around money: bigger baby bonuses, tax concessions, housing support, cheaper childcare and so on. These economic measures are necessary. Lowering the cost of raisin...

China’s artificial intelligence companies have spent years persuading consumers to pay for their technology. Now, Moonshot AI, the start-up behind Kimi, is taking a different approach: offering AI computing benefits through a credit card. The compa...

For patients with advanced, metastatic cancer that has progressed despite systemic therapy – options remain critically limited. Now, Chinese scientists are pointing to an unconventional therapeutic agent – the element iron. This idea originated i...

Many delegates to ⁠the International Monetary Fund’s steering ⁠committee walked out of a meeting on ⁠Saturday when Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov addressed the group in Russian, three sources familiar with the matter said. Russia’s...

Hong Kong police have received more than 100 reports of unauthorised credit card transactions related to pre-orders of Apple’s latest iPhone model, the South China Morning Post has learned. Apple began its online pre-orders for its foldable iPhone ...

Despite ⁠tens of thousands of security personnel deployed to stop them, youth protesters in India scaled barricades last ⁠week, chanted anti-government slogans and scuffled with police officers trying to drag them away. “Long live the revolutio...

Chinese-made cars filmed sensitive information during a Norwegian military exercise, including access codes at secure sites and officials’ comings and goings, raising concerns about the risks posed by connected vehicles. During a security exercise ...

Slain Hong Kong socialite Abby Choi Tin-fung’s partner told a court this week she initially misled him about her former in-laws’ wealth before describing them as horrible and ungrateful after a bitter family dispute. Chris Tam Fong-chun’s testi...

Seeing what looked like a brown blob in a tree while driving through Siberia’s Irkutsk region, 36-year-old Daria Tyurneva pulled over, curious to get a better look. She was not expecting to find a bear cub, perched on a branch, several metres up. �...

Hong Kong’s newly revamped Huanggang Port is expected to handle more than 100,000 passenger trips a day over the three-day Chung Yeung Festival holiday, although the departure hall was quiet on Saturday morning. Secretary for Security Chris Tang Pi...

Ongoing fires in Indonesia that have blanketed parts of Southeast Asia with toxic haze have triggered the highest-level alert by the regional bloc’s climate and fire monitor. “Activation of Alert Level 3 for the Southern Asean region,” the Sing...

Japan has long established itself as a pioneer of mediation in Southeast Asia. In 1990, for example, its officials helped broker talks between Cambodia’s warring factions, supplementing international efforts to end conflict in the country. Now, Tok...

Former Malaysian minister Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad has confirmed that he was one of two individuals detained by the Selangor Islamic Religious Department (Jais) over an alleged khalwat case. Nik Nazmi, who helms Parti Bersama Malaysia, said he was at a re...

Hong Kong’s next phase of development should make room for both butterflies and buildings, conservationist Dr Yau Wing-kwong has said, arguing that biodiversity can be incorporated into parks, schools and neighbourhoods without holding back the cit...

The owner of a Chinese kindergarten has been jailed for life after more than 200 children were poisoned by lead in the country’s worst food safety scandal for almost two decades. A total of six people were jailed on Friday for making or selling har...

Distinctive features will set Hong Kong apart from London, a major bullion hub, as the city accelerates efforts to develop an international gold and precious metals trading ecosystem covering the entire value chain, a minister has told the South Chin...

Taylor Swift and Lady Gaga each chose Singapore as their only Southeast Asian stop on recent world tours. Fellow American singer Olivia Rodrigo played Thailand and the Philippines, but likewise skipped Indonesia. Next weekend, however, Jakarta is fin...

A judge has sentenced three Mexican men to more than 158 years in prison each for the 2024 murders of two Australian brothers and their American friend, a case that tarnished Mexico’s image by exposing the risks foreigners face when visiting the to...

Coconut farmer Sombat Chuekrod travelled more than 200km (120 miles) to join hundreds on the streets of Bangkok on Friday demanding that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank change how they deal with the developing world. Finance mini...

US President Donald Trump on Friday signed an executive order that puts on hold a sweeping new sanctions package targeting the Russian economy, telling Congress the pause was in the national interest. Named after late South Carolina senator Lindsey G...

For cancer patients in Hong Kong, emotional distress can persist beyond the clinic, with a large combined analysis of multiple studies linking depression and anxiety to lower chances of survival. Claudia Chan Shu-ying, a medical student at the Chines...

A man in southwestern China has sparked widespread criticism after holding a wedding with one woman and a celebration for his baby with another at the same venue on the same day. According to The Beijing News, Wu Linfeng, from Liupanshui, Guizhou pro...

Airline employees in Japan are experiencing a surge in abuse incidents from customers linked to delays or cancellations of flights or from being refused boarding due to late check-in, according to a survey. Some 30 per cent of ground staff or cabin c...

Almost two decades after gaining permission to conduct yuan business for local clients, foreign-funded banks are still refining their strategy in China, where the financial sector is dominated by state-owned lenders. While Citi exited its China retai...

China and the Philippines recently traded accusations over the medical evacuation of a Philippine serviceman from a grounded naval vessel in the hotly disputed Second Thomas Shoal in the South China Sea. The incident has sparked renewed worries about...

A growing number of former senior government officials have joined the race for seats on Hong Kong’s Election Committee, a trend observers say will enhance the prestige and legitimacy of the body tasked with choosing the city’s next leader. As th...

Beijing’s decision to allow a bigger Japanese business delegation to go to China next month may be cause for some optimism but “hot economics and cold politics” will continue to dominate the strained relationship between the two countries, obse...

US ⁠President Donald Trump made a ⁠joke about the popularity of ⁠the name Mohammad in the Muslim world as he mocked Iran’s presidency during a campaign speech on Friday. “You know, if you’re in doubt about somebody’s name from the Middl...

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi on Saturday sent a ritual offering to Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, regarded by Japan’s neighbours as a symbol of the country’s past militarism, at the start of its three-day autumn festival. Takaichi, known as a conserv...

In hindsight, it was only a matter of time before Esha Yusof joined the growing ranks of Malaysian shoppers being drawn to Chinese e-commerce giant Pinduoduo. Esha is a relative newcomer. She signed up in July, more than half a year after the platfor...

⁠North Korea conducted an underwater ⁠test of a new torpedo weapon system on Thursday to verify technological upgrades, state news agency KCNA reported on Saturday, describing the test as a success and a significant step in ‌the country’s nav...

Beijing warned Brussels not to “fantasise” that taking a hard line will force it into concessions, as the bloc confirmed plans for a gung-ho new kill switch that will allow Brussels to “immediately” kick China out of the single market. Exactl...

A teacher threw her phone at the teenage gunman who killed four people at an Oregon junior school, then tackled and fought with him – probably saving lives before he was shot by a father who followed him into the building, police said Friday. Bend ...

A US congressional committee has released details of investigations into dozens of researchers, many of them Chinese-American, revealing the scale of government scrutiny sweeping academia over alleged links to China. The documents – running to hund...

Sean “Diddy” Combs has been moved to a federal prison in Pennsylvania after reports that the hip-hop mogul was living the high life and was injured in a fight at his New Jersey lock-up, a person familiar with the matter said on Friday. The federa...

Paraguay’s technology minister said on Thursday that sanctions imposed on him by Beijing over his country’s ties with Taiwan would only accelerate joint projects with the island. Gustavo Villate, who heads the Ministry of Information and Communic...

As the US prepares to host the G20 summit in Miami in December, Americans’ views of participating countries vary, with China viewed more favourably than Russia, although both rank near the bottom, according to the latest Pew Research Centre report....

A Republican lawmaker is requesting the Pentagon blacklist 58 Chinese universities and 62 technology labs as national security threats, a move Beijing calls Cold War-style overreach and critics warn could freeze US-China scientific collaboration and ...

Katie Zacharia was “let go” as White House press secretary on Friday, a White House official said, five days into a tenure dominated by questions over her claimed legal career in China, where she said she had passed a bar exam. Her exit came on t...

Pope Leo spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin by phone on Friday, calling for a ceasefire in a Russian-occupied city in southern Ukraine, as he recovers in hospital from a lung cancer operation. The Vatican said that Pope Leo “expressed his ...

Tesla CEO Elon Musk unveiled what he described as a “flying” car, equipped with thrusters, during a live-streamed event at his SpaceX rocket company’s facility on Thursday. Technical and regulatory challenges have so far prevented the much-hype...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday asked European Union leaders to provide Kyiv an extra 70 billion euros (US$79 billion) in funding next year to help it keep fighting Russia. “The war will cost 155 billion euros next year. And we nee...

China and America are talking again. There are leaders’ meetings, phone calls and a new channel for discussing artificial intelligence. Officials are cautiously trying to keep the relationship from veering into crisis. And yet some of the hardest q...

Hong Kong police have arrested two men over their alleged involvement in at least six break-ins across Kowloon over the past three months, with total losses amounting to HK$1.7 million (US$216,629). The pair – a 54-year-old mainland Chinese man and...

Japan is increasingly turning to foreign companies to accelerate its military modernisation, drawing on overseas technology, expertise and production capacity to plug defence gaps that could prove critical in a potential regional conflict involving C...

Hong Kong’s Fire Services Department will launch three new AI-assisted drone technologies to strengthen fire detection and its response to heightened risks during tomb-sweeping activities ahead of the Chung Yeung Festival on Sunday. Wong Tak-fai, a...

China’s R&D investment grew by 8.2 per cent last year – fuelled by double-digit growth in fundamental science and university funding – in sharp contrast with deep budget cuts across the US research sector. Total investment in research and exper...

While Washington’s efforts to block Chinese electric vehicles (EVs) were originally intended to protect its domestic automotive industry, they have sparked concerns the strategy is hurting America’s carmaking competitiveness. With a lack of a coh...

Dutch semiconductor equipment giant ASML is expanding into next-generation hybrid bonding, a technique that creates dense electrical connections by directly joining chips or silicon wafers, according to a new report. Major Chinese companies are also ...