A domestic helper has been arrested in Hong Kong on suspicion of child neglect after a one-year-old girl in her care suffered second-degree burns to her hands, according to the child’s mother. A police source on Thursday confirmed that the Indonesi...

Chinese commercial banks have begun pricing corporate loans against a short-term interbank repo rate rather than the benchmark loan prime rate (LPR), a shift drawing sharp scrutiny from investors worried about the sector’s already thin profitabilit...

Hong Kong drivers will be able to renew their vehicle licences within one day by year-end, down from the current processing time of up to 10 working days, under new artificial intelligence (AI) initiatives aimed at streamlining transport services and...

More than 153,000 students and staff from four tertiary institutions in Hong Kong have been affected by a data breach on the online learning management platform Canvas, an investigation by the city’s privacy watchdog has found. Nearly four months a...

A deadly school attack in the southern Philippines is drawing scrutiny as part of an apparent regional pattern of youth violence that echoes the staging, symbolism and online spectacle of mass shootings overseas. Authorities are investigating whether...

Mainland Chinese tourist arrivals in Japan fell for an eighth consecutive month in July, as group tours slumped and visa costs rose amid deteriorating ties between Beijing and Tokyo. Mainland China has traditionally been a major source of visitors fo...

Chinese carmakers’ reinforced push to produce more smart vehicles could sustain growth for hi-tech component suppliers, even as the broader automotive market remains lacklustre, according to Hesai Group chief financial officer Andrew Fan. “Orders...

In a record funding round for China’s satellite internet sector, domestic start-up SpaceSail has raised around 7 billion yuan (US$1 billion) to accelerate the buildout of a low-Earth-orbit (LEO) network designed to compete with Elon Musk’s Starli...

Cathay Pacific Airways will launch direct passenger flights between Hong Kong and Almaty, Kazakhstan’s largest city, in January, making it the airline’s first Central Asian destination and establishing the only non-stop service between the two. T...

A man has been barred from leaving Hong Kong pending trial over allegations that he failed to properly control his dog, which mauled two smaller pets to death and injured a third. Yuen Long resident Ng Shui-ting, 52, appeared at Tuen Mun Court on Thu...

Six months into its war with the United States, Iran’s military has begun signalling a shift from retaliation to offence, which analysts say could reflect Tehran’s belief it holds leverage to advance its demands and break the stalemate. Since US-...

Malaysians have launched a humorous appeal to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani to fix their potholes, sparking a meme fest praising his responsiveness and highlighting local government inaction. The campaign began after a social media user posted a...

West Africa has embraced Chinese green tea – from government offices in Mauritania to roadside stalls in Senegal, Mali and Niger, it is at the heart of a tradition that brings people together. The ritual – known as ataya, or attaya in some countr...

Hong Kong is at an opportune time to move forward with a so-called IPO connect scheme, according to Pamela Chung Kong-hung, Vistra’s managing director and head of its IPO and share registry services, as the scheme would allow mainland investors acc...

A crudely made animated film has emerged as an unexpected cultural flashpoint in China, sparking debate over how memes and online virality are reshaping audience perceptions of what is worth watching. Niu Lai, or The Arrival of the Ox, premiered in C...

After more than two years of taking on Israel’s enemies across the Middle East, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, facing a tough re-election fight, is zeroing in on another perceived villain – Turkey. On Tuesday, warplanes bombed a base in north...

“True friends stab you in the front?” This is a quote most likely to be misattributed to Oscar Wilde. What he wrote instead in The Devoted Friend was: “But what is the good of friendship if one cannot say exactly what one means? Anybody can say...

China’s Mech-Mind Robotics Technologies plans to start taking investor orders for its Hong Kong initial public offering (IPO) as soon as next week amid a boom in artificial intelligence-driven robotics that has lifted investor enthusiasm, according...

This past week, another unlikely film went viral in Chinese cinemas. On its August 5 debut, the animated film Niu Lai, or The Arrival of the Ox, only earned 3,420 yuan (US$507) at the box office. About 10 days later, it suddenly saw a spike in viewer...

Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison has launched international arbitration against Panama, seeking more than HK$11.7 billion (US$1.5 billion) in damages over the government’s takeover of two strategic ports at the entrances to the Panama Canal. Announcing...

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Beijing welcomed South and North Korea moving towards peaceful coexistence and called on Washington to change its “hostile policy” on Pyongyang. In talks with his counterpart Cho Hyun in Seoul on Wednesday, W...

On a recent weekday morning, the Repulse Bay post office, in one of Hong Kong’s most affluent coastal neighbourhoods, stood almost empty. In an hour, only five customers walked through the door, with two staff members serving them. One of them was ...

China is stepping up efforts to source local components for its passenger aircraft, particularly the C919 narrowbody airliner, with the focus expanding from home-grown engines to progressively replacing imported sealants, paints, bolts and other mate...

A new study from China has warned Beijing of the danger of defence contractors having too much influence over defence policy, pointing to the profit-driven expansion of the US military-industrial complex as a salutary example. In the study published ...

South Korea’s push to regain wartime control of its military has been thrown into doubt after the United States abruptly cut short a major joint exercise, scrapping plans for a simulated counteroffensive into North Korean territory and encirclement...

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Thursday dismissed US President Donald Trump’s economic punishment plan for Tehran as a continuation of “failed policies”, which he said would bring Washington “further defeat”. “The so-called E...

A Chinese national was charged in the United States on Wednesday with committing voter fraud during the 2024 presidential election for allegedly impersonating a fellow countryman and later submitting anonymous tips about him to immigration authoritie...

South Korea will flag off ⁠on Saturday a container ship bound for Europe via the Arctic, testing whether a route opened by melting sea ice can be commercially viable, but risking friction with Western allies, as the voyage requires Russian cooperat...

A mission to ⁠rescue Nasa’s ageing Swift observatory in space was cancelled on Wednesday after the spacecraft that was launched to tug the satellite to a higher orbit suffered irredeemable technical issues in space, the rescue craft’s owner, Ka...

Six years after stepping down as working royals, Prince Harry and his wife Meghan are moving back to the UK, British press reported late on Wednesday. In a surprise move, the youngest son of King Charles, and his wife, “plan to leave the United Sta...

Nearly two-thirds of Hong Kong students who requested a reconsideration of their university placement due to reviewed entrance exam results will receive a better outcome than previously allotted. The office for the Joint University Programmes Admissi...

Just weeks before Chinese leader Xi Jinping is due to visit the White House, tensions have flared between Washington and its allies after one of the administration’s sharpest rebukes yet. Speaking in Manila on August 10, Elbridge Colby, undersecret...

US President Donald Trump’s ambitious plan to build a national missile defence system, dubbed the “Golden Dome”, may not be able to fully protect America but could accelerate the global arms race involving China, Russia and North Korea, accordi...

Almost five years after the pandemic-era surge in anti-Asian hate in the US, new Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) data shows a downward trend nationally. But advocates say concerns persist amid immigration crackdowns and heightened US-China geop...

South Korea’s security strategy has rested for more than seven decades on a single pillar: its alliance with the United States. That pillar has absorbed one blow after another during Donald Trump’s second term as US president. This week brought a...

Total US public debt surpassed US$40 trillion for the first time, and has now surged by a third in less than five years, as US lawmakers continue to shrug off calls to contend with historically wide financial deficits. Public debt outstanding stood a...

US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that he planned to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un later this year, despite Pyongyang denying that the two leaders were in direct communication. “Yeah, I will be,” Trump told reporters when asked w...

New UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham unveiled plans on Wednesday to offer those sleeping rough a way off the streets by Christmas and vowed to donate part of his wages to help curb homelessness. “No one should have to bed down in a doorway or outside...

France saw more than 7,300 excess deaths during heatwaves so far this year, health authorities said on Wednesday, as the country also endured a record number of hot days since mid-June, according to an Agence France-Presse analysis. France has been h...

North ⁠Korea’s Kim Yo-jong, sister of leader Kim Jong-un, on Wednesday denied Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s claim that Pyongyang planned to send up to 50,000 more troops to Russia to fight for ‌its ally. Kim Yo-jong, a top official...

US pharmaceutical firms Merck and Moderna announced on Wednesday encouraging results from a trial of their experimental vaccine against melanoma, potentially clearing the way for approval. The vaccine, called intismeran autogene, showed “statistica...

An obstetrician to the stars has been cleared of professional misconduct by Hong Kong’s medical watchdog over allegations she failed to properly record why she administered a labour-inducing drug to a patient who said the procedure left her traumat...

Ecuador’s intelligence chief and five US citizens died when a helicopter carrying tourists crashed in central Kenya on Wednesday, killing all seven people on board, officials said. The accident happened at 9.13am local time, in Samburu county, nort...

Bangladesh’s request for additional diesel from India has turned a growing power crisis into a potential opening for the two neighbours to repair ties strained in part by the continuous self-exile of ex-prime minister Sheikh Hasina in New Delhi and...

Patriot Critical Minerals of the US plans to dig into a long-abandoned mining site in the sparsely populated state of Nevada to extract tungsten, an important raw material with industrial uses ranging from aerospace gear to common cutting tools. The ...

Large language models are expert in intelligence work, able to quickly mine key data and analyse weapons performance – tasks that once took analysts huge amounts of time and effort. But engineers at China’s AVIC Chengdu Aircraft Research and Desi...

Beijing has banned Chinese entities from assisting with a European Union investigation into e-commerce giant JD.com under the bloc’s foreign subsidies regulation (FSR). A statement from China’s Ministry of Justice on Wednesday condemned the probe...

Singapore will introduce tax exemptions on profits earned by fund managers and make it easier for investment professionals to obtain visas as it seeks to head off growing competition in the asset management sector, the central bank has said. The ‌M...

Hong Kong’s main psychiatric hospital has unveiled the city’s first facility exclusively dedicated to child and adolescent patients, as part of a wider redevelopment that offers upgraded wards designed to enhance service quality and foster recove...

Israel’s military acknowledged on Wednesday that its troops had opened fire on a car carrying five-year-old Palestinian girl Hind Rajab and her family members in Gaza in 2024 and said it had opened a criminal investigation, though rights groups say...