Taiwan has quietly acknowledged donating a coastguard vessel to the Philippines, potentially adding to Manila’s maritime patrol capacity amid its long-running stand-off with Beijing in the South China Sea. Taiwan’s Coast Guard Administration said...

A diagnosed paedophile who sexually abused 11 girls over 33 years, with the acts ranging from molestation to rape, was sentenced by a Singapore court on Thursday to 21 years’ jail. The victims were as young as five, and included his daughter, grand...

US President Donald Trump has urged Beijing to take “more aggressive action” to curb the export of drug precursor chemicals, days ahead of his planned summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping. It also comes a week after security agencies from the...

Authorities in Malaysia have seized several more Israel-bound shipments at one of the country’s biggest ports, according to people familiar with the matter, an apparently new level of scrutiny in a nation where anti-Israeli sentiment runs high. Thr...

Philippine Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jnr has won a burst of online support among Filipinos who see him as one of Manila’s most outspoken senior officials against China, with some already asking whether it could give him enough political mo...

Hong Kong is broadening its equity markets, deepening its offshore yuan business and expanding further into gold trading under its first five-year plan for economic and social development, as the city seeks to defend its standing as Asia’s top fina...

A former Hong Kong police constable who was left paralysed and bedridden for 21 years following a knife attack during a stop-and-search has died, the South China Morning Post has learned. A source said Jacky Chu Chun-kwok who was in his fifties, died...

A Hong Kong man has been sentenced to 22 months behind bars for driving dangerously and causing a 19-year-old student’s death at a pedestrian crossing two years ago. The District Court on Thursday also disqualified Ernest Au Yeung Shiu-hong from dr...

Russia is increasingly mobilising North Korean workers to build military drones for use against Ukraine in defiance of international sanctions, giving Pyongyang a key source of revenue to fund its unlawful weapons programmes, according to a report by...

Hong Kong International Airport recorded a roughly 10 per cent increase in passenger traffic in the first eight months of the year, compared with the same period in 2025, while cargo volume declined for a second consecutive month in August amid weak ...

Hong Kong’s new “AI city brain” will not involve personal data and poses no privacy concerns, the city leader has said, adding that the system will also help improve visitor management during “golden week” holidays. Chief Executive John Lee...

Two German state elections Sunday could deal a double blow to embattled Chancellor Friedrich Merz, two weeks after his party suffered a stunning defeat at the hands of the far-right AfD. Tight races for power – each with their own unique electoral ...

Figures from some of China’s most prominent firms – including electric vehicle maker BYD and smart manufacturing giant Xiaomi – are likely to accompany President Xi Jinping on his trip to the US next week, according to two sources with knowledg...

Intense public discussions surrounding the downsides of technology have been sparked by a Chinese man accusing a phone company’s lock screen feature of obstructing his father from calling an ambulance, which he claims contributed to his mother’s ...

A man believed to be more than HK$1 million (US$ 127,470) in debt is suspected of murdering his wife in their flat after previous financial disputes, according to preliminary investigations by Hong Kong police. Superintendent Kwan Chun-ting, assistan...

Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto has called for stricter regulations and sanctions against those who use slash and burn methods to clear land, as the country struggles to contain wildfires that have been raging for weeks. Indonesia is battling i...

Hong Kong’s leader has vowed to examine whether the government can better support women aged over 40 seeking assisted reproductive treatment, while acknowledging that financial incentives alone would not reverse the city’s falling birth rate. Chi...

Hong Kong aims to adjust listing rules to grab a share of initial public offerings by mainland China’s space companies, in line with Beijing’s priorities and heightened activity in the sector following the blockbuster June listing by Elon Musk’...

We have put together stories from our coverage of John Lee’s 2026 policy address. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. 14 key takeaways from John Lee’s policy address, Hong Kong’s first 5-year plan Ho...

Electronic payment providers need to be more diligent in vetting companies that use their platforms to protect people from fraud, the Philippine central bank said. The requirement came after Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas found thousands of illegal busi...

The US House of Representatives held billionaire investor Leon Black in contempt of Congress on Wednesday for defying subpoenas issued in its investigation into notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The resolution was adopted by unanimous consent, ...

When transgender woman Kali Sidharth Medepalli began hormone replacement therapy in India, she expected to complete her medical transition and undergo surgery within a year. But just months after she began treatment earlier this year, India’s parli...

Among the world’s most connected airports, Guangzhou’s hub has posted the fastest rise through the latest rankings, according to an annual list compiled by aviation data firm OAG. And overall, Chinese hubs stood out as carriers expanded their int...

Okinawa has handed a landslide victory to a conservative who accepts Tokyo’s plans for relocating a controversial US airbase – delivering a blow to 12 years of anti-base politics in Japan’s southernmost prefecture. Genta Koja’s victory on Sun...

Severe weather disruptions will amplify food security risks in Asia, potentially triggering civil unrest and political instability in vulnerable countries such as India, Indonesia and the Philippines, according to consultancy Verisk Maplecroft. The w...

North Korea’s decision to send a record delegation to the 2026 Asian Games in Japan could serve as a calculated opening for limited diplomacy with Washington and Tokyo, even as major obstacles to formal talks remain. State media reported on Wednesd...

In response to the August 27 case of a young man lifting up and carrying a young woman at a party, City University authorities have established a student discipline panel. The man was reportedly half-naked while the woman was clad in only shorts and ...

A romantic marriage proposal at a concert in northern China attracted significant backlash after the couple blocked the view of other spectators, leading to numerous complaints. On September 12, Chinese folk singer Zhao Lei performed at Beijing’s N...

New Delhi and Islamabad summoned each other’s top diplomats to lodge strong protests after an Indian and a Pakistani naval vessel collided in international waters. India’s foreign ministry said that it had called in Pakistan’s senior envoy to f...

Japan’s proposed port upgrades in Indonesia’s Natuna Islands reflect Tokyo’s push to bolster South China Sea security without building an overt military footprint. However, analysts stress that the move does not mean Jakarta is siding with Japa...

The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said on Thursday that the country’s nuclear-armed status was “absolute”, calling those hoping for its denuclearisation “idiots”. North Korea has legally enshrined its status as a nuclea...

Longer-term vision and policies with continuity mapped out in Hong Kong’s inaugural five-year plan, along with the latest policy blueprint, offer investment opportunities and greater stability for investors, according to experts and commentators. H...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s invitation for Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi to visit Kyiv has created a diplomatic dilemma for the Japanese leader, who is under pressure to show firmer support for Ukraine without further antagonising Russ...

US President Donald Trump threatened on Wednesday to cut trade with the European Union after the bloc proposed to make Canada its first-ever associate member. EU chief Ursula von der Leyen raised the prospect a day before Canadian leader Mark Carney ...

Struggling to breathe through the acrid haze emanating from wildfires on Indonesia’s Borneo Island, residents said on Wednesday they feared for their health but had little to do but wait out the foul-smelling hazard. Indonesia, which shares Borneo ...

The US Congress on Wednesday passed a bill to strengthen sanctions on Russia by targeting Moscow’s leading energy buyers – China and India – just days before Chinese President Xi Jinping is due to arrive in Washington for a bilateral summit wit...

Britain’s King Charles took the unusual step ⁠on Wednesday of ⁠responding to criticism by ⁠the brother of his late first wife Diana, saying via a spokesman that grief could impact reason, judgment and memory. The assertions, made in a soon-to...

The criminal trial of Huawei Technologies on racketeering charges shifted this week into a slower, more laborious pace in what is expected to be a weeks-long trial as the US Government sought to establish on Wednesday that Huawei was intent on learni...

As technological developments augur an era of renewed space exploration, China is aiming to become a major player. In the first part of this two-part series, Wency Chen and Mia Nurmamat examine how the southern island province of Hainan is betting on...

American troops need to prepare for combat not only in Earth’s orbit but around the moon, President Donald Trump’s top military adviser said on Wednesday, looking ahead to a new frontier in warfare after the US revealed for the first time that it...

One stormy night last month, a driver surnamed He saw two tall men get out of a car in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen and pull a young woman off the street and into the vehicle. During the struggle, her umbrella fell to the ground. She did not...

Saudi Arabia is running low on missile interceptors and has turned to regional and Western allies for help as its stand-off with Houthi rebels in Yemen drags on, two regional officials said on Wednesday. The officials said the Saudis have asked Franc...

Using fossilised teeth, scientists have finally taken the T. rex’s temperature – and it wasn’t too different from our own. Researchers once thought that dinosaurs were sluggish, cold-blooded creatures. Later findings challenged that, suggesting...

The US Federal Reserve on Wednesday raised interest rates for the first time since 2023, defying President Donald Trump’s demand for cuts, as central bank chief Kevin Warsh stressed the need to combat inflation that has been “too high” for “t...

Andy Burnham was for years a staunch opponent of Brexit and a vocal supporter of rejoining the European Union. When he became Britain’s new prime minister in July, this seemed to augur well for UK-EU relations – but instead, Brussels is looking p...

Hong Kong will expand the use of the yuan in areas including gold trading and cross-border payments, as policy blueprints call for the city’s biggest push yet to internationalise the Chinese currency. Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu on Wednesday d...

Hong Kong will strive to raise its expenditure on innovation activities to a level equivalent to 3 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) by around 2030, nearly double the current rate, according to the city’s first five-year plan. Chief Executiv...

Hong Kong police have arrested a man on suspicion of murder after his wife was found dead in a flat at a private residential estate. The force said the woman, 53, was discovered with knife wounds to her neck in a flat in block 2 of Heng Fa Chuen in C...

Hong Kong’s leader has unveiled the city’s first five-year blueprint, aligned with China’s national development strategy, setting targets to nearly double innovation spending and raise the share of manufacturing and new industries to 5.5 per ce...

China said it can now predict weather 10 days in advance at a cutting-edge resolution of 5km (3.1 miles), finer than most major systems in routine use around the world. The advance was achieved by a Chinese-developed weather forecasting model running...