Malaysians hoping for a boost from next month’s budget should brace themselves for disappointment, economists warn, as Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s room to hand out cash and subsidies shrinks with US tariffs starting to bite. Anwar, who is also...

Mainland China’s conventional weapons are “sufficient” to “resolve the Taiwan issue”, but peaceful reunification is still the preferred option, according to a retired general. On Wednesday, Lieutenant General He Lei, the former vice-preside...

This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing. Hong Kong readers now get 50 per cent off their first year of subscription until September 21, 2025. Hong Kon...

Hollywood blasted the White House for targeting free speech after ABC pulled Jimmy Kimmel’s show on Wednesday under regulatory threats from President Donald Trump’s administration, rallying behind the late-night comic after his comments about the...

A week after Israel bombed Qatar, Saudi Arabia has signed a mutual defence pact with Pakistan in what analysts say will be an extension of Islamabad’s nuclear umbrella over the Gulf kingdom and is a clear signal to the United States for failing to ...

Thai police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at Cambodian civilians in a disputed border area on Wednesday, authorities in both countries said, the most significant escalation since they declared a ceasefire to end a deadly five-day conflict in July...

A proposal by the Hong Kong government to require teachers to obtain a practising certificate has sparked concern in the education sector, with some questioning whether the measure will place additional pressure on frontline educators and drive talen...

China has urged South Korea to join it in defending free trade against “rampant” unilateral bullying amid the bitter trade war with the United States. “Both China and South Korea are beneficiaries of economic globalisation,” Chinese Foreign M...

A special folk tradition known as “screaming at the moon” is celebrated as a distinctive way to honour the Mid-Autumn Festival in China. The Mid-Autumn Festival is a traditional Chinese holiday steeped in profound cultural symbolism. Common custo...

China’s urban youth unemployment rate rose last month to the highest level since the data set was adjusted in 2023, as career prospects for young people have weakened amid an economic slowdown. The jobless rate for those aged 16 to 24, excluding st...

The development of fintech and the strong desire of mainland Chinese companies to go global are conducive to Chinese and international banks setting set up operations in Hong Kong, according to the head of the city’s de facto central bank. “While...

The special set of laws designed for a Hong Kong mega development near the border will not dodge scrutiny by the legislature, the city’s leader has said, defending his plan and reassuring the public that lawmakers will effectively supervise the pro...

The first official meeting between the European Parliament and China’s National People’s Congress for seven years is slated for October 16, confirming a continued thaw in relations between the two chambers. The meeting has been in the works for m...

Hong Kong’s three note-issuing banks - HSBC, Standard Chartered and Bank of China (Hong Kong) - will trim their prime lending rates for the first time since December, reducing funding costs and providing some relief to businesses and mortgage borro...

China has showcased and marketed a range of new public security equipment, including AI-assisted facial recognition surveillance devices, in an exhibition for police forces in developing countries. The equipment was displayed at the three-day Global ...

A massive immigration raid on a battery plant in the US state of Georgia earlier this month continues to reverberate across the region with workers staying home and delays mounting. Ken Shim, president of Woowon Technology, said he had to provide pai...

Data analytics giant Palantir Technologies is strengthening its UK ties, pledging to invest £1.5 billion (US$2 billion) in the country while winning a deal with the UK Ministry of Defence to expand the use of its AI software, sources said. Palantir ...

Huawei Technologies unveiled hardware that it said could deliver world-class computing power without using Nvidia’s advanced chips, in a breakthrough that could potentially free the supply chokehold that constrains China’s aspirations in artifici...

A short video featuring Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto promoting his flagship social programmes has sparked debate after it was aired in cinemas across the country, with some viewers comparing the screening to past propaganda campaigns and oth...

After the US Federal Reserve delivered its first interest rate cut of the year, analysts said China’s central bank would be most likely engage in moderate easing this year even as the cut creates more room for looser monetary policy. On Thursday mo...

Israeli fighter jets over the Red Sea launched ballistic missiles to target Hamas leaders in Qatar last week, a US defence official said, in what was a novel method likely designed to overcome the energy-rich country’s air defences and avoid enteri...

As China hosts its annual defence conference, the Beijing Xiangshan Forum, Defence Minister Dong Jun outlined the country’s priorities and aims. During his 30-minute keynote speech Dong addressed key issues, including Taiwan, the South China Sea an...

South Korea is investigating reports that Russia has supplied North Korea with nuclear submarine reactor modules, a move analysts see as highly plausible and one that could mark a breakthrough in Pyongyang’s decades-long push for a nuclear-powered ...

When Gong Sheng was in high school, he made a bold decision. Despite scoring well and getting into a prestigious middle school in Sichuan, the student suddenly decided to transfer to a vocational school and learn to cook. He could have followed a sta...

From cooking barbecued pork with Yakult to trying Superman posture tricks, young people in China are embracing a lifestyle of xie xiu or “evil cultivation” to create bizarre life hacks to cope with stress. The idea stems from Taoist culture, whic...

More than 20 dogs and cats have been killed in a fire in a Hong Kong village suspected to have been caused by a malfunctioning air conditioner. The blaze broke out at about 3.50pm on Wednesday at a tin-sheet structure in Sheung Yau Tin Tsuen in Yuen ...

The decision by Hong Kong’s leader to personally oversee the fast-tracked development of the massive Northern Metropolis project while also undertaking smaller initiatives such as building a “pet economy” underscores an aim-high, spread-wide po...

Walt Disney-owned ABC said on Wednesday it was pulling Jimmy Kimmel Live off the air, after remarks by the show’s late-night host about Charlie Kirk’s assassination sparked harsh criticism by the head of the Federal Communications Commission. The...

This live blog has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing. The Chinese capital is this week hosting the country’s most important annual defence conference, the Be...

Japan’s police are turning to artificial intelligence (AI) to identify individuals who appear likely to commit “terrorist attacks” based on their social media posts, but observers say the move could backfire by sweeping up innocent citizens eng...

Three police officers were fatally shot and two wounded on Wednesday in southern Pennsylvania, and the shooter was killed by police, authorities said. The group of officers were at the scene to follow up on a domestic-related investigation that began...

Hong Kong’s de facto central bank cut the city’s base rate for the first time this year, bringing down the cost of funding to help reboot businesses and reduce the burden on mortgage borrowers. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) reduced the ...

Vice-President Han Zheng urged China and Southeast Asia to deepen their strategic alignment on Wednesday, as Beijing pushes to upgrade its free trade area agreement with the region amid the US trade war. The world’s second-largest economy aims to �...

It is sometimes argued that democracy suffers when autocrats manipulate legal frameworks or when institutions are weakened. Yet in liberal democracies such as Australia, a quieter but similarly corrosive danger is emerging: the normalisation of stree...

Israel’s defence ministry said on Wednesday that it had completed the development of a powerful laser weapon that will become operational by the end of the year to bolster the country’s multilevel air defences. The 100-kilowatt Iron Beam laser, d...

Saudi Arabia and nuclear-armed Pakistan signed a formal mutual defence pact on Wednesday, in a move that significantly strengthens a decades-long security partnership amid heightened regional tensions. The enhanced defence ties come as Gulf Arab stat...

The head of the world’s trade watchdog has delivered an upbeat take on US President Donald Trump’s unilateral tariffs – one of the biggest shocks to the global trading system since its emergence after the Second World War – casting the disrup...

The US Federal Reserve has announced that it will cut interest rates by a quarter of 1 percentage point in a widely anticipated move. The US central bank also expects two more quarter-point cuts this year. The cut puts the target range for its main l...

Brazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro, convicted last week of leading an attempted coup, has been diagnosed with skin cancer, his doctor said on Wednesday. The announcement came as the beleaguered far-right leader, 70, was discharged from a hosp...

The Israeli military said it was opening an additional route for 48 hours that Palestinians could use to leave Gaza City as it stepped up efforts on Wednesday to empty the city of civilians and confront thousands of Hamas combatants. Hundreds of thou...

Former Ecuadorian president Lenin Moreno on Tuesday denounced as “a farce” the bribery charges that prosecutors say link him and his family to US$76 million in payments from a Chinese state builder that managed part of one of the biggest South Am...

Catch up on some of SCMP’s biggest China stories of the day. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. China warns terrorists could use AI to create and fire their own weapons China has warned that artificial i...

Hong Kong’s leader has delivered a comprehensive policy blueprint pushing for further economic reforms by expediting key infrastructure projects and doubling down on the city’s competitive strengths, while also improving livelihoods, notably char...

Hong Kong authorities will strengthen protection for local workers by tightening restrictions on employers importing waiters and junior cooks, while enacting legislation to better protect delivery workers. Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu announced i...

Engineers behind the viral Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) reasoning model DeepSeek-R1 have unveiled the deep science behind its training. Upon its release in January, the open-source model developed by Hangzhou-based AI start-up DeepSeek sent s...

Hong Kong authorities are set to reshape how they deliver public services, rolling out a sweeping plan to embed AI in at least 200 administrative procedures by the end of 2027 in a bid to boost efficiency and create a more responsive, tech-driven bur...

Hong Kong leader John Lee Ka-chiu has mapped out plans to break the city’s economic bottleneck on several fronts, from the food and pet sectors to the low-altitude and new energy industries and beyond. In his policy address on Wednesday, the chief ...

China will work with Singapore to maintain regional stability and maritime order, Beijing’s top-ranked military officer told Singapore’s defence minister on Wednesday. General Zhang Youxia, a vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC)...

Hong Kong will launch a trial scheme allowing semi-private schools to apply for expanded enrolment of overseas students in a bid to open the city’s primary and secondary education market. The government will also increase the enrolment ceiling for ...

The sudden closure of Poland’s border with Belarus has already caused logistical disruptions for users of the China-Europe Railway Express, analysts and industry players said, adding that Warsaw would be risking its position as a major transit hub ...