Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said 2026 could be a “landmark year” in relations with the United States, allaying concerns that the war in Iran might derail ties and an expected visit by US President Donald Trump. “I believe that when the two...

A Hong Kong lawmaker has been fined HK$2,000 (US$256) for driving on the wrong side of a road in Wan Chai earlier this year. Eastern Court on Monday also suspended Judy Chan Kapui, 45, from driving for one month after she pleaded guilty to a count of...

Hong Kong police have recovered a credit card suspected of misuse from a sealed flat damaged in the deadly blaze in Tai Po, as residents voiced growing concerns about the safety of their properties following a recent burglary. The latest development ...

Southeast Asia is set to see a warmer-than-usual early summer, potentially raising power demand for fuel and straining grids at a time when the Middle East conflict has tightened energy supplies in the region. Across most of maritime and mainland Sou...

New video from Iranian state media shows a missile slamming into a compound in southern Iran, as evidence mounted that the US military was most likely responsible for the February 28 attack on a girls’ school that left more than 160 dead, mostly ch...

China has included two pipelines transporting natural gas from Russia in the draft of its new five-year plan, raising market debate on whether the Power of Siberia 2 – a closely watched project viewed as symbolic of bilateral relations – could be...

Hong Kong is not just China’s economic sandbox but also a driver of the country’s development, the finance chief has said, calling the city the nation’s international financial centre. Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po said on Monday that Hon...

Escalating tensions in the Taiwan Strait remain Beijing’s foremost external security concern for 2026, fuelled by uncertainties surrounding the US midterm elections and the growing involvement of Japan, according to a prominent Chinese think tank. ...

Adrian Cheng Chi-kong, former heir apparent to Hong Kong property giant New World Development (NWD), plans to spend more time in mainland China and increase his tech investments this year, with a focus on a range of sectors from artificial intelligen...

The mountains of the Philippines are quieter now. The jungle bases that once sustained Asia’s longest-running communist insurgency are mostly emptied out. Its tens of thousands of guerrilla fighters have been reduced, by the military’s account, t...

The northern Chinese city of Tianjin is the only place in the country that has road signs warning drivers not to make jokes while driving for their safety. The sign features a cartoon of a driver and a passenger cracking jokes, with a slogan that say...

The former executive editor-in-chief of Hong Kong’s defunct Apple Daily newspaper, founded by Jimmy Lai Chee-ying, has lodged an appeal against his 10-year sentence imposed under the national security law. Lam Man-chung’s lawyer filed the applica...

Hong Kong’s transport sector is considering a temporary fuel surcharge for deliveries as pump prices are expected to climb further this week amid rising Middle East tensions, industry representatives have said. Ringo Lee Yiu-pui, governor and honor...

Iran has named a son of its late supreme leader as his successor. US President Donald Trump already had expressed disdain for Mojtaba Khamenei, calling him “unacceptable”. The Islamic Republic’s war strategy now has a new commander, and the pow...

Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said on Monday that his government would do whatever it took to keep RON95 petrol at 1.99 ringgit (50 US cents) per litre – even as the US-Israel war on Iran pushed global crude prices past US$100 a barrel....

To see every province-level region’s growth target, view this Quick Digest.

A man has been arrested in Hong Kong for allegedly indecently assaulting a woman in a stairwell before fighting with her husband. Police said the incident occurred at about 12.54am on Monday in a stairwell outside a building on Apliu Street in Sham S...

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. As Iran war closes Middle East skies, how high ca...

For mathematical genius Wan Daqing, life is no longer a competition between China and the United States. Instead, he has encountered the rivalry of universities from different provinces seeking to appoint him. Wan, winner of China’s highest mathema...

China’s consumer prices rose during the first two months of the year as a longer-than-usual Chinese New Year holiday drove a surge in spending, though analysts cautioned that Beijing might need to implement stronger measures to boost demand to sust...

The United States began a large military exercise with South Korea involving thousands of troops Monday while also waging an escalating war in the Middle East. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff has said about 18,000 Korean troops would take part ...

Malaysia has slashed operating licence fees for gyms in Kuala Lumpur by 80 per cent, offering a regulatory “carrot” as the government tries to push residents in one of Southeast Asia’s heaviest nations to exercise more. The move comes as Malays...

American companies are grappling with a shortage of critical minerals used in daily operations despite China easing some of its export controls, according to industry insiders. After Beijing and Washington agreed to a so-called trade truce last Novem...

Developers in Hong Kong are testing the housing market’s recovery by nudging prices up or paring discounts as improving sentiment and a rebound in transactions boost confidence in the city’s property sector. But analysts said the moves remained u...

The annual “two sessions” in Beijing are under way, and this year the annual ritual of reading tea leaves in this city has been made easier for politics watchers. That is because Beijing has been blunt about the problems it thinks our city faces....

China has vowed to firmly safeguard its overseas interests – a core objective reaffirmed in its latest five-year plan – at a time when global volatility is testing supply chains and regional influence. Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Sunday that...

Escalating geopolitical tensions will not derail Hong Kong’s goal set out in the country’s 15th five-year plan and its efforts to implement the blueprint, former leader Leung Chun-ying has said, describing agility and adaptability as in the city�...

A little girl from central China has touched millions of hearts online with a handwritten farewell message and money for her parents as they left for work. Xinyu, a 10-year-old from Shangqiu, Henan province, is raised by her grandmother with her youn...

Hong Kong has adequate safeguards to prevent any misuse of the Exchange Fund, according to the economist known as the “father of the city’s dollar peg”, who called concerns over the government’s decision to draw from the de facto sovereign we...

Japan’s most treasured historic sites still lack upgraded fire protection, raising concerns that irreplaceable cultural landmarks remain vulnerable to another catastrophic blaze. Government data shows work has yet to begin at about 30 per cent of t...

Beijing’s arms imports have nose-dived by nearly three-quarters over the past five years, as it has replaced overseas weapons purchases with domestic technology, according to a Swedish think tank report. However, other countries in the region have ...

Ukrainian ministers launched a protest at plans to reopen the Russian pavilion at the Venice Biennale, in a statement published in Kyiv on Sunday. Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha and Culture Minister Tetyana Berezhna called the admission of Russian ar...

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s son Mojtaba was chosen ⁠by Iran’s Assembly of Experts to succeed his late father as supreme leader, in a sign that hardliners were still firmly in charge. The clerical body named the 56-year-old mid-ranking cleric, who ...

Professor Pan Guang has spent decades focused on Jewish studies, the Middle East and its ties with China. Among his many roles, Pan is founding director of a research centre on the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. For other interviews in the Open Q...

A home-made explosive thrown near anti-Islam protesters outside the New York mayor’s home was a viable device “that could have caused serious injury or death”, police said on Sunday. Two suspicious devices were thrown by a man identified by pol...

The European Union has been urged to weaponise its giant market to draw concessions from China, whose economic fragility is making it increasingly reliant on rich export markets. A new report from the European Union Institute for Security Studies (EU...

Authorities in Peru on Sunday said they have arrested three people following the bombing of a nightclub as the number of those injured rose to 44. The explosion happened early on Saturday at the Dali nightclub in the city of Trujillo in La Libertad r...

Iran on Monday named Mojtaba Khamenei to succeed his father Ali Khamenei as supreme leader, signalling that hardliners remain firmly in charge, as the week-old US-Israeli war with Iran pushed oil above US$100 a barrel. Mojtaba, a cleric with influenc...

Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer and US President Donald Trump held a call on Sunday about the Middle East war, the UK government said, after fierce criticism of the British premier by the US leader. Trump had insulted Starmer over the latter�...

President Emmanuel Macron will visit Cyprus on Monday, his office said, as France deploys warships to the Mediterranean following a drone attack on the island EU member days ago. Macron will meet his Cypriot counterpart Nikos Christodoulides and Gree...

Sixty-one years after state troopers attacked Civil Rights marchers on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, thousands are gathering in the Alabama city this weekend, amid new concerns about the future of the Voting Rights Act. The March 7, 1965, violen...

The United States and China could still have a “big year” in bilateral ties despite Washington’s ongoing strikes against Iran, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Sunday, suggesting a planned visit to China by US President Donald Trump rem...

Bangladesh began fuel rationing on Sunday as the war in the Middle East deepened an energy crunch, creating long queues at petrol stations and boiling over into anger. The country of 170 million people imports 95 per cent of its oil and gas needs. Fo...

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has urged European leaders to abandon bloc politics and instead “join the gym” of the China market to build muscle and competitiveness. Speaking to the press in Beijing on Sunday, Wang characterised China-Europe e...

Hongkonger Shirley Sung finally returned home on Sunday after being stranded in Dubai for a week and making eight failed attempts to secure a flight, ultimately paying HK$11,000 (US$1,406) to escape the Middle East conflict via Kuala Lumpur. The 30-y...

As missiles and drones curtail energy production across the Persian Gulf, analysts warn that water, not oil, may be the resource most at risk in the energy-rich but arid region. On Sunday, Bahrain accused Iran of damaging one of its desalination plan...

China’s top diplomat has cast his country as “an irreplaceable mainstay” amid global upheaval, rejecting any suggestion of a US-China G2 duopoly for global co-leadership as a replay of disastrous great-power rivalries. Instead, against the back...

Hong Kong police will impose a HK$500 (US$63) cash limit on construction workers and conduct searches using metal detectors under new security measures at Wang Fuk Court, after three labourers were arrested on suspicion of stealing jewellery while ca...

Hong Kong police have arrested two more suspects in connection with a HK$10 million (US$1.28 million) knifepoint robbery in Sheung Wan last week. Following further investigation, officers on Saturday arrested a 23-year-old man in northern Lantau and ...

The North Korea that leaves the ninth Workers’ Party Congress is a different country from the one that left the eighth congress in 2021. Five years ago, the centrepiece of the eighth party congress was an ambitious weapons development programme unv...