Anxious Chinese parents are increasingly turning to “find a daughter-in-law” or “find a son-in-law” platforms online, turning partner seeking into direct negotiations between parents. During the Chinese New Year, as young people fend off prob...

Airspace closures across the Middle East have left tens of thousands of travellers stranded and forced airlines to divert routes, threatening to derail the fragile recovery in Asia’s tourism and aviation sectors, as the conflict involving the US an...

The fragile ceasefire between the Taliban and Pakistan has broken, and there is now open war in South Asia. This week has seen a dangerous escalation between the former allies, starting when Pakistan carried out a series of air strikes on what it say...

Following ⁠the killing of Iran’s Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday, many senior US ⁠officials remain sceptical that the US and Israeli military operation against the Islamic Republic would lead to a regime change in the near ter...

Oil prices rose by the most in four years amid the US-Israeli war on Iran and the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a key shipping lane for global crude supplies. Brent crude, the global benchmark, surged as much as 14 per cent to more than ...

More major US companies are set to join Beijing’s premier supply chain expo this summer, including its first artificial intelligence (AI) section, as business ties between the two superpowers enter a state of fragile stabilisation. A fresh wave of ...

For years, India has prided itself on a foreign policy doctrine of “dehyphenation”: maintaining productive, parallel relations with conflicting countries such as Israel, Iran and the Arab Gulf states without letting any one bilateral tie poison t...

Adverse impacts from the US-Israel strikes on Iran unfolded on Monday, disrupting supply chains, driving up oil prices and leaving many Middle East business leaders at a major trade fair in Hong Kong in an awkward position. As the strikes entered a t...

Myanmar’s military junta granted amnesty on Monday to more than 7,000 prisoners convicted of financing or sheltering a “terrorist group”, a designation it has used to outlaw pro-democracy factions opposing its rule. Thousands of dissenting civi...

The US and Israel’s air strikes against Iran, accompanied by electronic and cyber capabilities, were a “wake-up call” for China’s intelligence strategy and how its military will use advanced technologies in modern warfare, analysts say. Durin...

Hong Kong will expand its tax exemptions for operators of family offices and funds set up by international organisations, such as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), in line with efforts to promote the city as a wealth management hub, a ...

Some Palestinians say they fear the widening war sparked by US and Israeli attacks against Iran could overshadow the fragile situation in Gaza, just over a week after US President Donald Trump rallied billions of dollars in pledges for the territory�...

Ahead of China’s annual legislative meetings – typically a window into Beijing’s top-level policy agenda – this is the fifth entry in a series examining the complex economic recalibration driving China’s growth philosophy and its wide-rangi...

With memories still raw from the deaths of scores of its nationals during the Gaza war, Thailand has issued an alert to its estimated 110,000 citizens working across the Middle East as the US-Israeli conflict with Iran rages across the region. Around...

China’s rapid push into artificial intelligence and its simultaneous energy transition are central to overtaking the United States in technological supremacy, according to a former finance vice-minister. Competition in the field of AI has shifted f...

This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing. Hongkongers should brace for cooler and rainy weather on Tuesday as temperatures are expected to drop progres...

Hong Kong’s cash-for-residency scheme has attracted about HK$95 billion (US$12 billion) from more than 1,700 investors over the past two years, with around two-thirds of the approved capital channelled into authorised funds and equities, the latest...

None of Japan’s prefectural governors are willing to accept soil collected in decontamination work near the disaster-stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex without further safety information and support from the central government, according to...

Oil prices surged by the most in four years on Monday as the killing of Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei amid a widening conflict between the United States, Israel and Iran brought tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz to a near st...

China’s top research body has banned its scientists from using government funds to publish in some pricey Western journals, as the country rethinks how much it will pay for foreign prestige. A number of employees of the Chinese Academy of Sciences ...

Married couples in China are referring to each other as “teammate” and “roommate” to avoid being too schmaltzy, but single people are shunning the trend, branding it confusing and “pretentious”. The special titles married people invent fo...

Chinese companies are leading the way in personalised medicine, the development of healthcare treatments tailored for individual patients. MGI Tech last year unveiled the world’s fastest gene sequencing machine, while BGI Genomics has become the wo...

Six men have been injured in an explosion aboard a Marine Department vessel moored at Stonecutters Island in Hong Kong. According to police, the blast occurred at about 10.35am on Monday. The Marine Department said one of its vessels was undergoing a...

This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing. The US-Israel joint military campaign against Iran, now on day 3, has widened rapidly, with Iranian retaliato...

We have put together stories from our coverage last weekend to help you stay informed about news across Asia and beyond. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. Why China’s ties with Iran will endure despite ...

A man has been arrested in Johor after an 11-second viral clip showed him clinging to the front of his ex-wife’s moving car before tumbling onto the road in full view of onlookers. Police said the suspect had clung to the car for around 2km (1.2 mi...

Kim Jong-un will have seen the footage. A supreme leader of nearly 37 years, killed alongside members of his own family. Citizens celebrating in the streets. Rivals already angling for a role in the political transition. If the US-Israeli strike that...

The United States unleashed an array of weaponry against Iranian targets on Saturday, including Tomahawk cruise ⁠missiles, stealth fighters, and for the first time ⁠in combat, low-cost one-way attack drones modelled after Iranian designs. US Cent...

Images claiming to be from the wedding shoot of South Korean Girls’ Generation group member Tiffany Young and actor Byun Yo-han spread rapidly online – before being confirmed as artificial intelligence-generated fakes. Soon after Young, 36, and B...

Li Yanqing, executive vice-president and secretary general of the China Association of the National Shipbuilding Industry (Cansi), discusses the impact of US trade policies, global market cycles and China’s strategic pivot towards high-quality manu...

Ahead of China’s annual legislative meetings – typically a window into Beijing’s top-level policy agenda – this is the fourth entry in a series examining the complex economic recalibration driving China’s growth philosophy and its wide-rang...

US-Israeli strikes on Iran have grounded at least 37 flights between Hong Kong and the Middle East, with flag carrier Cathay Pacific Airways suspending its Dubai services until Thursday. Cathay also announced on Monday that it would suspend its Riyad...

Australia’s internet regulator said it might push search engines and app stores to block artificial intelligence services that failed to verify user ages after a review found more than half had not made public any steps to comply by a deadline next...

Hong Kong hit a record low in births last year despite a range of government incentives, including a HK$20,000 (US$2,560) baby cash bonus for new parents launched in 2023. Just 31,714 babies were born last year. This might have come as a surprise for...

At least 10 pro-Iranian protesters were killed in clashes with police as they tried to storm the gates of the US consulate in Pakistan’s main port city of Karachi on Sunday. Security forces opened fire at the consulate, resulting in the deaths of 1...

Fines worth HK$2.1 billion (US$268.39 million) flowed into Hong Kong’s coffers in 2025‑26, nearly 26 per cent more than initially forecast, following an increase in cigarette penalties and a surge in forfeitures. According to budget estimates ana...

A woman in southern China who was being pressured by her family to marry has been defended by her nephew, leaving relatives speechless. On February 19, the 26-year-old woman from Zhanjiang, Guangdong province, known online as “I Have a Nephew (Boas...

Minna Honkanen could not have anticipated the seismic events that would grip Hong Kong after she decided to try her luck there in early 2019. Two months after she arrived, unprecedented social unrest engulfed the city, followed immediately by the cor...

The United States and Israel’s military campaign against Iran entered a more volatile phase on Sunday, with Washington reporting its first casualties, Tehran widening retaliatory strikes across the region, and energy markets bracing for shock after...

For her New Year’s resolution, Cheryl Tan decided that she would drink less alcohol on nights out. The 26-year-old Singaporean finance professional said she was starting to find it increasingly difficult to shed the effects of hangovers, rendering ...

HSBC, the largest lender in Europe and Hong Kong by assets, has signalled for the first time its intent to engage with the city’s forthcoming stablecoin regime, citing Hong Kong’s sound regulatory environment and its potential to drive innovation...

Venezuelan opposition leader and winner of the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize Maria Corina Machado said on Sunday that she will return to Venezuela in the coming weeks and that elections will be held in the South American country. Machado did not set a date ...

Li Yanqing, executive vice-president and secretary general of the China Association of the National Shipbuilding Industry (Cansi), discusses the impact of US trade policies, global market cycles and China’s strategic pivot towards high-quality manu...

Thousands of supporters of Brazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro demonstrated in cities across the South American nation on Sunday, as organisers hoped to build momentum for a right-wing victory in the coming presidential elections. Protesters d...

As China’s leaders convene for the annual “two sessions” starting this week, the eyes of the world will be fixed on Beijing. This gathering is no ordinary policy meeting. Beyond setting the economic growth target for 2026, it will finalise the ...

Israeli and American authorities spent weeks tracking the movements of senior Iranian leaders, including Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, sharing information that allowed the strikes to be carried out in a surprise daylight attack, according to...

Iran’s football federation president Mehdi Taj has given a bleak outlook regarding the World Cup in summer in the United States, Mexico and Canada the day after the US and Israel started air attacks against his country. “What is certain is that a...

A gunman wearing clothes with an Iranian flag design and the words “Property of Allah” killed two people and wounded 14 early Sunday at a Texas bar, a law enforcement official told Associated Press. The FBI is investigating the shooting, which er...

US President Donald Trump vowed to press ahead with a sweeping military campaign against Iran until US objectives are fully achieved, warning that additional American casualties were likely even as Washington intensified what he described as one of t...

Hong Kong’s public airmail services to 24 countries across the Middle East, Africa and Central Asia have been affected after a joint US-Israeli attack on Iran forced flight cancellations to two Gulf states and disrupted transit journeys. A Hongkong...