Japan is increasingly tapping into Ukraine’s war experience against Russia as a valuable source of intelligence on military technologies that could strengthen its defensive and offensive capabilities. A visit to Kyiv this week by senior ruling Libe...

The abrupt closure of a Hong Kong yoga chain has dealt losses to hundreds of members, with some customers claiming the company lured them into buying discount packages as recently as the past few days. A resident who identified herself as Chan told t...

Hong Kong can attract more global biotech investments if the city builds up a new healthcare financial model, according to AstraZeneca, a Cambridge-based multinational pharmaceutical giant. While global drug makers have been doubling down on investme...

Hongkongers have come out in droves to take advantage of widespread restaurant and transport perks on National Day, while visitors have said the offers are a happy surprise. Businesses rolled out bargains and freebies to celebrate the 77th anniversar...

More than 400 hikers visited one of Hong Kong’s best-known geological attractions on Thursday morning as some tourists chose outdoor activities on the first day of the National Day “golden week”. Some visitors arrived at Po Pin Chau, where the ...

Just under a third of Singaporeans, or 31.4 per cent, believe that nuclear energy promises a clean power source with the greatest potential in the city state, representing the highest acceptance rate in Southeast Asia, a new study has found. The appr...

Russia’s new class of jet-powered drones rip across the night sky in Kyiv at hundreds of kilometres per hour, leaving Ukrainian air-defence units only moments to intercept them. It’s rarely enough time. With many of the drones getting through to ...

For Ajay Kumar Chutani, whose family has run a sari shop in the north Indian market town of Karnal since the 1970s, the months after the monsoon are always his busiest. During these cool weeks, he sells enough lengths of silk and embroidered cotton t...

A new embodied AI model known as Maxwell – developed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Artificial Intelligence for Industries – has shot to first place on the Meta-World benchmark for robot physical tasks. Maxwell scored 91.9 –...

Hong Kong’s health minister has warned that the city will need to “bear the consequences” of exaggerating concerns over the employment prospects of nurses, as such remarks could deter new blood from joining the profession. “I do not want rece...

Chinese automotive groups have cause to celebrate their go-global strategy amid breakneck export growth in recent years, with deliveries in 2026 expected to beat expectations already buoyed by an international energy shock caused by conflict in the M...

The Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) has expressed concern over reports of high “no-show” rates among medical officers assigned to permanent postings in Sabah and Sarawak. The medical body urged the government to take action by reverting to a ...

An Indian pilot’s extraordinary bravery during an apparent mid-air hijack attempt has ignited a wave of national pride, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailing the pilot as a hero for saving 174 lives on a flydubai plane – adding a dramatic cha...

China’s ruling Communist Party is marking 90 years since the end of the Long March with exhibitions, tours, film and television productions as it tries to mobilise the nation to contribute to its vision for the future. Ahead of the October 22 anniv...

Hong Kong police have arrested a foreign man at a bar in Yau Ma Tei on suspicion of possessing an imitation firearm. The 36-year-old Australian was arrested a second time on Wednesday night for criminal damage after he allegedly vandalised the detent...

Danish jewellery maker Pandora opened a US$150 million factory in Ho Chi Minh City on Thursday, its largest manufacturing facility and its first production site outside Thailand as it bids to diversify its manufacturing footprint and bolster supply-c...

Two power outages hit Hong Kong’s Ho Man Tin, the first lasting more than four hours overnight into Thursday, disrupting hotel operations and about 1,000 households. CLP Power, which supplies electricity to Kowloon and the New Territories, said equ...

Tennessee officials were unable to put Christa Pike to death on Wednesday for a 1995 murder after administering two doses of a lethal drug. A death penalty expert said it was an unprecedented failure, and Tennessee’s governor halted the remaining e...

Hong Kong’s inaugural five-year plan highlighted its DNA as an international city while emphasising the market economy, the chief executive has said. Speaking at a National Day reception on Thursday, Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu said the city n...

A Chinese civilian research vessel has spent more than a week conducting operations in waters off the Philippines’ Batanes Islands, an area that has become a new geopolitical battleground as Beijing ramps up pressure against Manila-Tokyo delimitati...

Huawei Technologies is making rapid progress in rolling out a new breed of advanced chip based on its self-developed Tau Scaling Law, with the Chinese company set to adopt the processors across the newly released Mate 90 smartphone series. The roll-o...

Ross Surace is preparing to raise the price of a coffee by 50 Australian cents and a panini by A$1 (US$0.70) when the country bans credit card surcharge fees starting on Thursday. The co-owner of Lennox Street Deli in Melbourne’s Moonee Ponds neigh...

Switzerland’s glaciers, which are disproportionately impacted by climate change, have lost nearly 20 per cent of their mass in five years, experts said on Thursday, with 2026 registering the second biggest melt on record. Swiss glaciers saw 5.5 per...

Researchers have identified a potential source of uranium in a long-explored mining district in the southern Philippines, as Manila moves to establish nuclear power and expand its critical minerals industry. The discovery, which could provide uranium...

A growing number of young Chinese women are paying for romantic photo shoots with male models, seeking a brief taste of love through a novel form of emotional companionship. This trend has gained significant traction on mainland social media, with cu...

The Chinese ambassador to the United States, Xie Feng, has described the personal rapport and “mutual respect” between Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump as the “most valuable strategic asset in our bilateral relations�...

US President Donald Trump has announced US$200 billion in energy investments from South Korea, including US$54 billion towards a long-discussed liquefied natural gas project in Alaska and more than US$100 billion in planned longer-term nuclear power ...

Perhaps no story illustrates the secret of China’s industrial success better than its rise as the world’s gold superpower. China has revered the metal for millennia, yet it has never had a gold-based economy. Its own deposits were simply too scar...

Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee and senior government officials are attending a ceremony and a National Day reception as the city celebrates the 77th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.

Some Hong Kong retailers are forecasting double-digit sales growth over the National Day “golden week” holiday, but industry leaders have warned that the expected influx of mainland Chinese visitors may deliver far smaller gains across the sector...

The two Koreas urgently need to restore military communication to prevent a landmine dispute in the demilitarised zone (DMZ) from escalating into an armed clash, according to observers. The danger is growing as North Korea presses ahead with leader K...

A woman who filed a lawsuit saying she was sexually assaulted by seven men at a Cornell University fraternity house told police weeks after the incident that she could “say with 100 per cent confidence I was raped”, according to a report by CBS N...

US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that he discussed the release of political prisoners in China with his counterpart, Xi Jinping, in Washington last week. “We talked, and I think we had some very, very important discussions. Hopefully fru...

At a hearing reviewing China’s compliance with its World Trade Organization (WTO) commitments, a senior US trade official said Beijing was targeting entire industrial sectors for global dominance while retaining a non-market economic system. Terry ...

The fields in Xinjiang’s Awati county – a cotton hub hit by US sanctions – were nearly ready for the October harvest. Yusup Molamaiti, a 36-year-old technician, recalled what it was like manually planting and harvesting 37 mu (about 2.5 hectare...

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth announced on Wednesday that the United States has slashed the number of its generals and admirals by 20 per cent, in a move he said is aimed at “accountability”. Hegseth suggested the cuts targeted officers who f...

US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer on Wednesday proposed a new global framework to tackle excess steel production capacity on the sidelines of the ongoing Group of 20 Trade Ministers’ meeting, just days after Chinese President Xi Jinping’s st...

When I first heard about the Hong Kong government’s plans to allow the importation of specially qualified carers to look after the elderly, my mind turned to some colloquial English expressions. The first was “set the cat among the pigeons”, wh...

Israel’s leader credited the Indian pilot of a Dubai-Tel Aviv flight, as well as the aircraft’s passengers, with averting catastrophe on Wednesday after the man was attacked by his co-pilot, sparking a fight for control of the aircraft and forcin...

Britain’s MI5 spy agency issued an unprecedented alert on Wednesday to warn that a Chinese organisation was involved in funding academic research into topics such as AI on behalf of Beijing’s state security service. In its “Espionage Alert”, ...

China will charge an extra 55 per cent tariff on Brazilian beef from Thursday after Brazil filled its import quota for the year and has not agreed to let Brazilian exporters use the unfilled quota of neighbouring Uruguay, industry sources said. The C...

A pilot programme between the UK and France that aimed to curb the number of migrants crossing the English Channel in small boats has been scrapped, Britain’s government said on Wednesday. In a statement, the Home Office said the so-called “one i...

British Prime Minister Andy Burnham on Wednesday said there were “strong indications” Iran was involved in suspicious activity at a UK airbase that triggered a major security incident this weekend. “There are strong indications that Iran played...

A US appeal court on Wednesday halted the ⁠execution of death row inmate Christa Pike in Tennessee, less than two hours before she was scheduled to become the first woman that state has put to death in more than 200 years. The 6th US Circuit Court ...

Four taxi passengers escaped injury after their driver lost consciousness at the wheel on a Hong Kong highway, leaving them struggling to control the vehicle before it hit a road divider. Dashcam footage circulating online on Monday captured the inci...

The European Union would embrace the UK if it ever decided to rejoin the bloc, the leaders of Spain and France said shortly after new UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham floated the possibility. “Welcome back,” French President Emmanuel Macron quipped...

A decades-long effort by Beijing and Washington to recover the remains of US servicemen missing in China since World War II has resurfaced in the wake of the summit between the nations’ leaders. The commitment was included in an eight-point list of...

Russia has warned Nato it would be ready to resort to nuclear weapons if the Western alliance attempted to cut off Kaliningrad, a Russian exclave that borders the Baltic Sea. In a document sent to Nato and seen by Reuters, Moscow accused the alliance...

For years, Chinese manufacturers have viewed Southeast Asia as a way to reduce exposure to higher US duties on goods made in China. But a new round of tariff cuts proposed by Washington and Beijing could weaken that incentive for some products, poten...

Chinese President Xi Jinping projected a message of confidence about the country’s ability to overcome challenges during his annual National Day address, issuing a rallying call for robust economic growth and more certainty amid geopolitical compli...