Malaysia is facing renewed pressure to expand palm-based biodiesel as the Iran war drives up fuel costs, but industry and academic observers say high infrastructure costs and slow roll-out make it an unlikely source of quick relief. That tension has ...

A doctor who posted a photo of a resuscitation procedure in a Hong Kong public hospital is no longer employed by the Hospital Authority, following an outcry over patient privacy and professional ethics. The Kowloon West Cluster of the Hospital Author...

Israel and the United States carried out a wave of attacks on Iran on Monday, killing more than 25 people, and Iran responded with missile fire on Israel and its Gulf Arab neighbours. US President Donald Trump’s deadline for Tehran to reopen the St...

South Korea’s jailed former president Yoon Suk-yeol has drawn sharp criticism for an Easter message from prison that opponents said amounted to comparing his downfall to the suffering of Jesus and showing his lack of remorse for his criminal acts. ...

A number of underperforming international car brands are likely to either exit the mainland Chinese market or scale down operations, as losses mount due to falling sales and shrinking market share. Carmakers delivering fewer than 1,000 units a month ...

Chinese tech companies are engaged in a public war of words as they compete to capitalise on US start-up Anthropic’s decision to pull its industry-leading Claude models from open-source AI agent tool OpenClaw. The development comes as AI agents hav...

Southeast Asia’s largest low-cost carrier AirAsia X said on Monday it was raising ticket prices by as much as 40 per cent and cutting routes to cushion the impact of the war on Iran, but stressed demand for flights remained high. The Malaysia-based...

Surging oil prices are driving up costs for Hong Kong’s laundry sector, with the tripling of fuel prices forcing some operators to turn down new orders and freeze hiring. An industry representative said on Monday the price of industrial diesel, com...

For marketing manager Wang Yuan, who sells electric heavy-duty cargo trucks in the rugged landscapes of Xinjiang in western China, business is riding a new and powerful wave. The commercial vehicle company he works for is a major player in the domest...

North Korea appears to be distancing itself from long-time partner Iran and carefully managing its public messaging to preserve the possibility of a new relationship with the US after the Iran war, South Korean lawmakers have said, citing the spy age...

The search for an 81-year-old mainland Chinese man who went missing while hiking on Hong Kong’s MacLehose Trail entered its third day on Monday, with a veteran mountaineer calling for better promotion to raise visitors’ safety awareness. A team c...

In ancient China, women’s sumo was a popular form of entertainment in which participants wore minimal clothing that exposed their arms, backs, navels and lower abdomens, drawing significant attention. Sumo is widely known as Japan’s national spor...

Israel has assessed that Iran still has more than 1,000 missiles capable of reaching it, while Hezbollah’s arsenal in Lebanon includes as many as 10,000 shorter-range rockets, according to military briefings cited by Israeli media on the weekend. I...

The Japanese government is arranging summit talks with Iran, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said on Monday, with tensions mounting in the Middle East as US President Donald Trump’s deadline for Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz approaches. “We are...

Traffic at the Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge reached peak levels during the first two days of the Easter and Ching Ming holidays, with checkpoint queues sometimes exceeding an hour, raising concerns about whether current clearance arrangements ca...

Hong Kong’s Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF) is poised to report a loss of over HK$100 billion (US$12.8 billion) for March this week, its worst monthly loss in dollar terms since its inception 25 years ago. The sharp fall in global stock markets last...

Singapore police have confirmed that a body recovered from the sea off the Indonesian island of Karimun is that of a 37-year-old man who has been missing since March 27 after a collision between two boats. The police said on Sunday that Indonesian au...

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. Iran points finger at Saudis and UAE after Chines...

English-speaking con artists have targeted university students seeking summer internships, using a bogus 40-minute orientation session for one victim to make their dubious job offers appear genuine, Hong Kong police have warned. The force issued the ...

Major powers are closely watching Hungary’s election next week – a vote seen as a referendum on Europe’s right and crucial for Chinese interests in the EU. Recent polls show self-styled “illiberal democrat” Viktor Orban’s Fidesz trailing ...

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung expressed regret to Pyongyang on Monday over drones sent into North Korea earlier this year, actions he called “irresponsible”. South Korea initially denied any official role in the January drone incursion –...

Hong Kong’s housing authorities will expand the use of smart technologies, such as door sensors, in-home fall detectors and stair climbers, to enhance safety and convenience for elderly residents at public estates as the city’s population ages. M...

The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) has launched an academy to nurture the next generation of female medical scientists, aiming to bridge a sex gap in which women make up just one-third of researchers globally. The Women in Science and Medicin...

Samira Muhammadi hopes an international investigation can “extinguish” her pain after a Pakistani bombing killed her son and hundreds of other Afghans in the capital Kabul last month. The March 16 attack hit a drug treatment centre and killed 411...

Repeat short-haul visits by Chinese travellers to South Korea are expected to rise after Seoul eased multiple-entry visa rules, but analysts say the immediate impact may be limited because of growing competition from Southeast Asia and higher airfare...

A terminally ill Chinese man left 300 million yuan (US$43 million) to his wife who is 28 years younger than him, causing a dispute with his ex-wife’s family. The 61-year-old from the southern Chinese island of Hainan, surnamed Hou, reportedly left ...

A US clampdown on visas for mainland Chinese and Hong Kong students last May led to year-on-year declines of 42 per cent and 35 per cent in the number of permits granted, but a consultant has said the impact has been short-lived. One PhD student from...

The day that Taiki Hirokawa stabbed his former girlfriend to death in a Pokemon store in Tokyo had started like any other, his mother told police. She and her son had breakfast together and nothing appeared out of the ordinary. Hours later, security ...

The Democratic Republic of Congo will receive some migrants as part of a new deal under the Trump administration’s third-country programme, its government said on Sunday, the latest such African nation to receive migrants being deported from the Un...

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...

A US$656 million judgment against Palestinian authorities has been reinstated by appeal judges, following a US Supreme Court ruling in favour of Americans killed or wounded in attacks in Israel. The decision from the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals c...

The US-Israeli strikes on Iran and ensuing conflagration offer a window into how the US-led order works. For all its contributions, it functions like an air conditioner – cooling the American centre by pumping hot air into the periphery. Aggressive...

Ukraine and Syria pledged greater security cooperation in talks on Sunday, President Volodymyr Zelensky said as Kyiv seeks to promote its military expertise across the region following the outbreak of the US-Israel war on Iran. Zelensky, continuing h...

A cargo ⁠ship carrying wheat sank in the Sea of Azov after coming under attack from Ukrainian drones, a Russia-installed official said on Sunday, leaving one person dead and two ‌missing. Vladimir Saldo, Moscow-installed leader of the Russian-con...

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Sunday appeared to suggest Ukraine was involved in planning an act of sabotage after Serbia reported finding explosives on a gas pipeline used to transport Russian natural gas to the two countries. Earlier on ...

US President Donald Trump did not take a break from his polarising rhetoric on Easter Sunday, delivering an expletive-laden attack on Iran that sparked criticism on Capitol Hill and beyond. “Open the F****n Strait, you crazy b******s, or you’ll b...

Drinks giants Pepsi and Diageo on Sunday pulled out of sponsoring a music festival in London headlined by US rapper Kanye West, who has a history of antisemitic outbursts. The disgraced 48-year-old hip-hop star - now known as Ye - is due to play thre...

Three people, including a 10-month-old girl, were killed on Sunday when high winds toppled a tree in northern Germany during an Easter egg hunt, police said. Around 50 people from a nearby residential facility for new mothers, pregnant women and chil...

An Israeli air strike on Kfarhata, a village in south Lebanon, killed seven people on Sunday, including a four-year-old child, Lebanon’s health ministry said in a statement. Another Israeli attack on the Jnah neighbourhood in Beirut killed four peo...

A senior Chinese scientist has outlined the potential military applications of space-based solar power technology, offering a rare glimpse into how energy beamed from orbit could also support surveillance and electronic warfare. Duan Baoyan, a leadin...

Afghanistan aims to increase trade with Central Asian countries to US$10 billion within the next three or four years, Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi said on Sunday. Trade with Central Asian countries to Afghanistan’s north came to about US$2.7 ...

A Chinese cargo plane powered by a hydrogen-fuelled engine has successfully completed its maiden flight, marking a milestone in China’s push for green aviation. The 7.5-tonne uncrewed aircraft is powered by the world’s most powerful hydrogen turb...

Hongkongers are more willing to discuss death including their own funeral wishes in the wake of the Covid pandemic, mass emigration and the deadly Tai Po fire, amid a rapidly ageing population, a death education advocate says. Pasu Ng Kwai-lun, found...

The HK$2 (US$0.26) transport fare scheme for the elderly is one of Hong Kong’s most socially significant success stories. But some of the recent changes, and further ones contemplated, seem to be rowing in a different direction. We need to pause an...

Hong Kong’s MTR Corporation extended the time needed for its in-town check-in service to 120 minutes from 90 minutes on Sunday evening, after a signalling equipment malfunction disrupted travel on the Airport Express and Tung Chung lines The rail o...

China has miniaturised the technology used to make electromagnetic cannons to develop a handheld coil gun, according to state media. The weapon was designed for stealth, non-lethal operations and law enforcement, state broadcaster CCTV reported on Sa...

Pope Leo celebrated his first Easter Mass as pontiff with a call on Sunday to lay down arms and seek peace to global conflicts through dialogue, but he departed from a tradition of listing the world’s woes by name in the Urbi et Orbi blessing from ...

TV drama regulators in China have taken aim at beauty-obsessed and traffic-driven programming in the industry, with a call for more “quality” storytelling. The National Radio and Television Administration’s drama department sent out the call on...

Traditional corporate culture and hierarchies are slowing down artificial intelligence adoption in Chinese enterprises, leaving them trailing their US peers, even as China’s savvy consumers embrace AI agents at a breakneck pace, says Zack Kass, for...

Hong Kong has swapped the Easter bunny for a festive feline, with giant cat installations and murals delighting visitors and residents citywide. A gigantic ginger cat has been greeting travellers at Hong Kong International Airport while three inflata...