The arrival of Yuan Gujie, the new deputy director of Beijing’s liaison office in Hong Kong, has sparked widespread speculation. Her legal background and experience in Guangdong province suggest that her posting carries a clear agenda: to promote d...

A Hong Kong couple whose baby was born at home and placed in court-ordered care has said they can visit their son for up to one hour a week while they work to prove their parenting capability, as they outlined three potential outcomes listed by socia...

While many Chinese people joke that they “work like a dog” because they are anxious about dropping out of the rat race, there is a tradition in some areas that people can legitimately “lie flat” once a year to ward off bad luck. The day is ca...

A Hong Kong school principal who was sacked after he swore at security guards during a student trip to Singapore has expressed “shock and regret” over his immediate dismissal, saying he will seek legal advice on his employment rights. Lee Cheuk-h...

The Hong Kong Observatory issued an amber rainstorm warning signal at 3pm on Sunday, warning of widespread heavy rain and intense gusts as the city continued to face a rainy weekend. The forecaster on Sunday afternoon said that heavy rain has fallen ...

In their bare-bones tent in southern Gaza, Mostafa Shaaban built his family’s makeshift toilet behind a curtain in a corner. He dug a shallow pit in the sandy soil, poured a concrete slab around it, fixed a bottomless bucket over the hole, then top...

Beijing has sent a flotilla that includes mainland China’s largest patrol vessel to waters east of Taiwan in response to Japanese-Philippine maritime boundary negotiations. The Ministry of Transport ships are expected to conduct joint patrols with ...

Indonesia has always been a favourite travel destination for Malaysians and visitor numbers are expected to increase with the neighbouring country’s currency hitting a record low. Melaka Tourism Association president Madelina Quah said the low rupi...

A Chinese team of medical experts has arrived in the Democratic Republic of Congo for a three-month frontline mission to contain an expanding Ebola outbreak across a mining region with extensive Beijing-backed mineral investments. The five-member tea...

Central Asia can become a logistics hub for Hong Kong as wars in the Middle East and Europe persist, the Airport Authority chairman has said, pointing to a nearly fivefold year on year increase in cargo shipments between the city and two countries in...

For nine days, Nurul Nisa was crammed onto one of four fishing boats with 130 others, fleeing her village in Myanmar in search of safety. She was a child then, but she still remembers the crying, the sleepless nights and the hunger. “We had to drin...

A recent series of child protection controversies, including a couple refusing a DNA test to register their home-born baby, has prompted calls for Hong Kong authorities to review guidelines for identifying neglect, and to expand the list of professio...

Tey Yong How remembers running along the shores of eastern Singapore as a child, the sea breeze mingling with the smell of sizzling seafood. Birthday dinners here meant three or four tables pushed together, with cousins chasing each other between the...

One of China’s most prominent nuclear scientists has publicly clarified his role in the country’s rapidly expanding waste-to-energy sector, following years of speculation linking nuclear weapon technologies to municipal waste incineration. In a J...

Once reserved for wealthy travellers, Dubai’s top-notch hotels have become almost exclusively reliant on residents, drawn in by dizzying staycation offers as war drives tourists away. On the Palm, an artificial island that has become synonymous wit...

A first-term lawmaker who was blacklisted by Beijing over his alleged support for Taiwanese independence will challenge Taipei’s popular incumbent mayor in the local elections later this year. The ruling Democratic Progressive Party’s decision to...

In Jakarta last month, many May Day demonstrations took place, but two stood out as reflections of the divisions among Indonesia’s trade unions. At the National Monument (Monas), tens of thousands of workers gathered at a rally with President Prabo...

Jaslinda Saludin, the Malaysian hiker who went missing after descending Gunung Batu Putih mountain in Perak state’s Tapah two weeks ago, has been found and is now undergoing treatment. “Thank you to everyone involved, especially the police, Fire ...

Six years after the Ladakh crisis erupted in May 2020, triggering the worst military confrontation between India and China in decades, the two countries are attempting something that once seemed improbable: a diplomatic reset. The latest indication c...

Visiting indoor ski resorts, enjoying water parks and eating at dim sum restaurants in Shenzhen and other nearby cities have become weekend draws for Hong Kong residents holding foreign passports, who praise a travel permit that has made crossing the...

A “girlish grandma” from eastern China is taking the internet by storm with her dazzling white hair, colourful outfits and fearless confidence. Yingzi, 74, from Shanghai, has more than two million online followers and often dances or poses on cit...

Malaysia has staked its economic future on becoming Southeast Asia’s data-centre capital. It has also promised to slash fossil fuel use by 2050. Right now, those two ambitions are pulling in opposite directions – and gas is winning. There were 54...

Gunfire erupted on Saturday near a busy street festival in Ohio, wounding at least 12 people and sending some eventgoers scrambling for cover while others rushed to help the victims. No suspects were in custody hours afterwards, Toledo deputy police ...

I grew up in a classroom where the name Norman Bethune was invoked with reverence. Like every schoolchild in China, I could recite from memory Chairman Mao’s 1939 essay “In Memory of Norman Bethune”, which characterised Bethune as a man who had...

An ⁠American student ⁠who disappeared while on ⁠a family holiday in Japan was found dead outside Kyoto, his mother wrote in a social media post on Saturday. The body of James ‌Higginbotham, 20, was discovered in a mountainous area by a volunt...

A top White House artificial intelligence policy adviser on Saturday said he will leave his position at the end of June, marking the exit of a leading ‌figure helping craft policies for frontier technologies. “This journey has been the privilege ...

Bernadette Chirac, the steel-willed former first lady of France who spent 12 years at the Elysee Palace from 1995 to 2007 beside President Jacques Chirac – weathering his notorious infidelities with dry humour while building her own political power...

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth on Saturday urged Europe to counter what he termed an “invasion” of its coastline by migration, as he marked the 82nd anniversary of the World War II D-Day landings in northern France. Hegseth also called on Euro...

Construction on the Tibetan plateau of some of the Earth’s most powerful optical telescopes is putting China on track to house the world’s biggest astronomy base by the mid-2030s, according to project scientists. Deng Licai, lead scientist for si...

Pope Leo on Saturday urged global leaders to avoid dividing their electorates with “sterile simplifications” to gain popularity and called on them to listen to the world’s cries for peace, in a forceful speech opening a week-long tour of Spain....

Some patrons of an exclusive Hong Kong sports club have escalated action against the Rosewood Hotel Group’s plan to change operations at its clubhouse in Central, but the hospitality firm says it has made some “refinements” to the arrangement. ...

Protesters outside a ballot-counting site in ⁠South Korea on ⁠Saturday rallied for a second ⁠day, demanding a re-run of local elections held earlier this week. Around 10,000 citizens were estimated to have gathered at the SK Olympic Handball St...

In Benin’s southern Atlantic coastal town of Ouidah, located about 40km (25 miles) west of the economic capital of Cotonou, China is turning a former slave trade hub into a busy tourist destination. The historic port once saw nearly 2 million ensla...

Mainland China has equipped frontline troops facing Taiwan with a new missile, according to mainland state media. The missile is believed to be an HQ-16F, which has comparable qualities to the US Patriot PAC2 and 3 systems. On Friday, Chinese state b...

Hong Kong leader John Lee Ka-chiu has wrapped up his visit to Central Asia after meeting high-level leaders and sealing nearly 100 partnership agreements aimed at opening the “big door” for local and mainland Chinese businesses. While reviving di...

A nearly 180-year-old temple nestled in the heart of Wan Chai and Hong Kong’s only mosque inside a prison are poised to receive the city’s highest level of heritage protection under a government proposal. In a paper submitted ahead of a board mee...

Nearly 500 Ebola cases have now been confirmed in the deadly outbreak raging in central Africa, a WHO overview showed on Saturday, amid mounting concern over the swelling scale of the epidemic. In its daily update on the situation, the World Health O...

Changes to a Hong Kong public transport subsidy scheme used by about 2.7 million people saved the government HK$69 million (US$8.8 million) in the first month, the welfare minister has said, with lawmakers calling for a future review to ensure its fi...

Residents in some parts of Beijing are on edge as rises in humidity and temperature lure snakes into the Chinese capital, where encounters with the reptiles are usually rare. Concerned residents have been sharing their sightings on social media. “W...

Dignitaries, relatives and members of the public gathered on Saturday to pay their final respects to the late Reverend Derek Li Shing-lam, whose son Mo Li Kai-yin – the Hong Kong dancer left paralysed after an accident at a 2022 Mirror concert – ...

Global airline chiefs open their annual summit in Rio de Janeiro on Saturday facing a sharper test of the industry’s post-pandemic recovery, as the Iran war drives up fuel costs and disrupts airspace while carriers try to cushion the blow with high...

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...

Residents of St Petersburg were told not to leave their homes after a large-scale Ukrainian drone attack targeted Russia’s second-largest city Saturday morning, underscoring Kyiv’s growing ability to hit deep inside Russia. The attack came a day ...