Despite land reclamation efforts in the fiercely contested South China Sea, an unusual silence has fallen between Beijing and Hanoi over their rival claims. Observers said this suggested both sides were prioritising pragmatism to keep tensions in che...

US President Donald Trump tried to sell the war on Iran to sceptical Americans in a televised address, saying that the conflict was “nearing completion” and that there was no need to worry about the closure of the Strait of Hormuz to shipping. Th...

Violence by extremist Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank has reached unprecedented levels since the start of the war with Iran, with NGOs and opposition figures denouncing an environment of impunity. While so-called “Je...

A Discovery Bay resident has lodged a complaint with the city’s ombudsman over authorities’ handling of a proposal to allow unrestricted taxi access to the resort-style seaside community in Hong Kong. A petition bearing 1,700 signatures from conc...

A Malaysian minister visited and provided financial aid to the widow of a motorcyclist who was killed in a drink-driving accident that threatened to inflame racial tensions in the country. Transport Minister Anthony Loke visited the family of the lat...

A leading Chinese state media outlet has run back-to-back front-page editorials over the past two days pushing back against claims that China’s economy is losing steam and that the global economy is experiencing a “China shock 2.0”. “Looking ...

Students across Russia are being offered large financial incentives ⁠to join drone units fighting in Ukraine as operators and engineers, while companies in Russia’s central Ryazan region have been given quotas to sign up workers for the army, doc...

Andrew Tilton, chief Asia-Pacific economist at Goldman Sachs, speaks to the South China Morning Post about the long-term future of China’s economy after the “two sessions” in Beijing and ahead of an expected Xi-Trump summit – all during an oi...

We have selected five Lifestyle stories from the past seven days that resonated with our readers. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. 10 of the best new K-dramas to watch in April 2026 Spring is here and wi...

A therapy using pig semen-derived exosomes, engineered into eye drops capable of penetrating deep into retinal tissue, may hold the key to breaching the brain’s defences against diseases like Alzheimer’s. This advance, led by Professor Zhang Yu a...

The head of Hong Kong’s Catholic diocese has urged the government to offer young offenders a “second chance to start anew” and to introduce legal provisions to help those with minor criminal records pursue their careers. In his Easter message o...

More than 200 years after being sunk by Admiral Horatio Nelson and the British fleet, a Danish warship has been discovered on the seabed of Copenhagen Harbour by marine archaeologists. Working in thick sediment and almost zero visibility 15 metres (4...

As global supply volatility intensifies, Premier Li Qiang has called for faster development of a “new-type power system” to accelerate the green transition and expand the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the sector. During a three-day visit...

“Pet spirit money” in various currencies has emerged as a burgeoning trend, with many promoting “luxury dog funerals” that include paper servants and companion pets, as well as unique paper offerings such as salmon, tuna, steak, Wagyu beef an...

Hong Kong’s CLP Power is distributing HK$100 (US$13) consumption coupons to about 600,000 eligible customers, including elderly people receiving concessionary tariffs, using HK$60 million from the company’s Community Energy Saving Fund. The initi...

Asean’s neutrality in the Iran conflict is key to granting access to the coveted Strait of Hormuz, with Tehran likely seeking to win global opinion amid its war with the United States and Israel. Amid boiling tensions in the Gulf, Iran has wielded ...

An 89-year-old Hong Kong man has been rescued after he was discovered clinging to the exterior wall of a care home in To Kwa Wan following a fall from a second-floor window. Care home staff filed a report with police at around 8am on Thursday, statin...

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the US-Israeli war on Iran appears to have achieved its key initial aims of curbing Tehran’s nuclear and missile capabilities – and questioned what further goals remain. “We did express support fo...

A parking dispute in Kuala Lumpur has expanded into a wider debate over entitlement, public humiliation and online bullying in Malaysia, after a woman who damaged a car blocking her own issued a public apology that many said looked coerced. The row b...

For Zhang Kai, a pioneering scientist who is building an ultra-large-scale cellular structure group data bank with unprecedented precision, returning home to China was the natural choice to fulfil his ambition. “In the United States, it is almost i...

A former teacher was charged in Singapore court on Thursday with multiple charges over sexual acts with an underage student. The 34-year-old Singaporean was handed nine charges in total – six of committing indecent acts with a young person and thre...

This article was first published on April 3, 1986. By Jerry Norton Debut-day is full of contradictions Considering the historic nature of yesterday’s share market trading, a strong rally might have seemed appropriate. Instead, the first session in ...

Hong Kong’s property transactions crossed 7,000 for the sixth consecutive month in March – the first time in four years that monthly volumes stayed above this level – amid rising demand, according to estimates compiled by leading real estate ag...

This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing. An independent committee investigating the cause of Hong Kong’s deadliest inferno in decades concluded its ...

Perched on top of a shoe shelf at the entrance of Veriff’s headquarters in Tallinn, Estonia, is a sign of a cartoon unicorn that reads “Welcome to Unicorn Land!”, serving as a reminder of the identity verification company’s rise from a local ...

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim called on enforcement agencies to step up action against what his government sees as false claims about fuel and electricity prices as it seeks to shore up public confidence amid a global energy crunch. The comm...

The United States on Wednesday lifted sanctions on Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodriguez, according to an Office of Foreign Assets Control entry on the Treasury Department website. The newly announced sanctions relief is the latest US recogn...

John Hau, a 66-year-old Hongkonger, was frustrated by the government’s decision to revamp the HK$2 (26 US cents) transport subsidy scheme. The discount allowed him to pay just HK$4 to make the round-trip rail commute from his home in Sham Shui Po i...

A major feature of Hong Kong’s legal profession is the division between barristers and solicitors. Barristers specialise in court work and legal advice relating to litigation, and can generally only be engaged through a solicitor. Solicitors provid...

Hong Kong is preparing its own medium-term development blueprint alongside China’s coming 15th five-year plan, which officials have described as a “golden strategic period” for the city. This is more than a procedural shift. For the first time,...

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday declared the US‑Israel war against Iran had delivered “decisive, overwhelming victories”, even as he signalled that key military objectives were still “nearing completion” and that further strikes coul...

A woman in China who suspected her husband of infidelity clung to the back of his truck to follow him until being found by the police. A traffic police officer in Bachu county in Xinjiang, northwestern China, stopped a small-sized truck one evening a...

An earthquake of magnitude 7.6 struck in Indonesia’s Northern Maluku Sea on Thursday, killing one person, damaging buildings and triggering tsunami waves, authorities and witnesses said. Indonesia’s meteorology agency BMKG said tsunami waves were...

Shortly before the evening rush hour recently, chaos erupted at Hong Kong’s Wu Kai Sha MTR station when a wild boar stormed through the concourse. The animal, about 1.2 metres long and weighing around 40kg, knocked down an elderly man. The charging...

Japan could get a boost in its push for a next-generation fighter jet if Canada joins a multinational consortium backing the aircraft’s development, as Tokyo aims to narrow the gap with China’s fast-modernising air force. The Canadian government ...

A striking phenomenon is emerging from China as the Middle East conflict presses on: technically skilled civilians are volunteering their expertise online to help Iran counter US military might, without seeking payment or official backing. The trend ...

Four astronauts blasted off from ⁠Florida on Wednesday on Nasa’s Artemis II mission, a high-stakes voyage around the moon that marks the United States’ boldest step yet toward returning humans to the lunar surface later this decade in a race wi...

Utah officials announced on Wednesday that they were ⁠closing a five-decade-old ⁠case after finding “definitive proof” that American ⁠serial killer Ted Bundy killed a 17-year-old Utah girl. The girl, Laura Ann Aime, went missing on the nigh...

Chinese airlines are mulling the introduction of higher fuel surcharges, as authorities strive to balance the impact of surging oil prices with the need to preserve airline margins and at the same time avoid dampening consumer demand. Although a form...

For years, China’s embattled real estate sector has been framed as a terminal drag on the economy – a deflating bubble that policymakers are unwilling to rescue but unable to ignore. That framing misses what is happening. The absence of a large b...

China has emerged as a focal point in the debate over US birthright citizenship, as the nation’s Supreme Court appeared sceptical of oral arguments on Wednesday in a landmark case driven by President Donald Trump’s push to restrict the practice. ...

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian criticised the US war against his country in an open letter to the people of the United States on Wednesday, calling it an absurd operation that is costly for their nation. “Today, the world stands at a crossroad...

⁠The Russian defence ministry said on Wednesday that its ⁠forces had taken full control of the Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine, suggesting they had wrested control of a small sliver of land which had remained beyond their reach since 2022. Reut...

With one of the world’s highest benchmark interest rates among major economies, Brazilian importers who buy from China are turning to a state-owned Chinese credit insurer to sustain trade flows that reached US$158 billion in 2024. Facing working ca...

A housewife in Hong Kong has lost nearly HK$2.5 million (US$320,500) in an online shopping scam after she tried to buy collagen drinks for HK$530, according to police. The victim saw a Facebook post advertising collagen drinks and transferred HK$530 ...

Staff at the property management company at Hong Kong’s inferno-ravaged Wang Fuk Court housing estate acted with disregard for legal requirements, taking such actions as deactivating the fire safety system despite knowing they needed a registered c...

Four of 15 Hong Kong public primary schools at risk of closure due to insufficient enrolment plan to shut down, while nine are seeking to merge with other institutions, the Education Bureau has said. One intended to run Primary One classes privately ...

With Washington’s objectives in the Iran war shifting, the evolving goals could allow US President Donald Trump to justify success and finish the conflict sooner than expected, Chinese analysts said. However, the observers cautioned that a wide gap...

We have selected seven of the most interesting and important news stories covering Latin American relations from the past few weeks. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. As Trump ramps up pressure on Cuba, C...

France suspects a pro-Iranian group known as HAYI to be behind a foiled attack on Bank of America’s Paris offices, its anti-terrorism prosecutor said on Wednesday, while stressing the link has not yet been formally established. HAYI, which stands f...