China has overtaken the United States in terms of positive perceptions among young Africans, though Washington is still seen as more influential than Beijing, according to a survey published on Wednesday. The African Youth Survey polled 4,901 respond...

If South Korea wants to unlock access to South American trade, it will need to prove it is not a competitor interested only in extracting natural resources but a trustworthy partner committed to revitalising manufacturing industries, according to obs...

China’s emerging advantage in artificial intelligence (AI) is not that it already has the world’s best chips or strongest frontier models. It is that Chinese companies are increasingly providing capable intelligence at a price the global market c...

Advanced technologies now account for around one in every six valid invention patents in China, according to official data. By the end of last month, valid invention patents in fields such as artificial intelligence, cloud computing and big data made...

The venture capital arm of Lenovo Group is doubling down on artificial intelligence for the next industrial cycle, expanding its focus beyond foundational models into robotics, computing infrastructure and AI agents, according to a senior executive. ...

Beijing has launched a drone research hub in Tibet near Mount Everest in an effort to exploit its high-altitude advantage in the ongoing competition for technological dominance between the US and China. The Plateau Drone R&D Application Centre was re...

An American nuclear-powered aircraft carrier is set to dock in Da Nang this week, in a visit analysts say shows the durability of US-Vietnam relations despite trade tensions and global upheaval. The USS George Washington, a Nimitz-class carrier curre...

We have put together stories from our coverage on science from the past two weeks to help you stay informed. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. Chinese scientists have bad news on having babies in space If...

Russia’s main domestic security agency said Wednesday that Pavel Durov, founder and owner of the messaging app Telegram, has been charged with aiding terrorism and put on an international wanted list. The charges against Durov, who was born and beg...

A Hong Kong coach has been accused of assaulting and abusing an eight-year-old boy, slapping his face and forcing him to stand outside in the blazing sun at a training camp for children. Eastern Court on Wednesday heard that Zhao Yiqun allegedly ill-...

Singapore has signalled stability in the public housing market by scrapping a 15-month waiting period that barred private property owners from buying resale HDB flats – even as other curbs remain in place. National Development Minister Chee Hong Ta...

Bangladesh’s fugitive ex-prime minister Sheikh Hasina said she was determined to return to her country by December despite fearing for her life. “I may be killed. I may be arrested. I may be sent to prison,” Hasina, 78, said in an email. “I a...

Hongkongers travelling in the quake-hit Japanese city of Kumamoto are offering rides to fellow visitors stranded in the area. A travel operator also said on Wednesday that one of its tour groups from Hong Kong had initially thought their coach had cr...

International students once saw US colleges as a gateway to a world-class education and career head start but shifting United States immigration policies, tightening visa conditions and high-profile ICE raids are causing them to reconsider. Dulue Mba...

A former customer services officer with Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific has been jailed for one year and eight months for accepting at least HK$18,000 (US$2,295) in bribes to help smuggle mainland Chinese travellers overseas 17 years ago. Tsui Ying-kit,...

In an affluent neighbourhood in New Delhi, electric vehicle charging stations near a popular shopping area were busy with drivers powering up their scooters, trucks and cars. India’s capital city is in dire need of more charging facilities, EV driv...

This article was first published on July 30, 1996. Our golden girl by Nazvi Careem and Scott McKenzie Cheers and tears swept Hong Kong yesterday (July 29, 1996) on the back of the golden victory for Olympic windsurfer Lee Lai-shan. The 25-year-old fr...

When a ride-hailing driver suddenly experienced severe stomach pain and requested his passenger to take over the wheel to exit the highway, she instead drove him directly to the hospital. On July 14, He Shimin, a blogger, arranged a ride-sharing serv...

Chinese toymaker Pop Mart International ramped up its global expansion on Wednesday by opening a new store on Singapore’s Sentosa Island – alongside its first overseas Pop Bakery dessert store in the same venue – with observers predicting that ...

Malaysia is finding it increasingly difficult to stay neutral in the US-China rivalry as the superpowers lock horns over trade, investment and the security of advanced technology, according to a top government adviser. “They don’t make us take si...

A Hong Kong ophthalmologist has been cleared of professional misconduct after the city’s medical watchdog decided to offer no evidence against him, 15 years after a complaint was lodged over his handling of laser eye surgery procedures. The three d...

A senior Pentagon official on Tuesday said US-China military communication was “stronger than it has been in years”, marking a rare bright spot in the broader strategic rivalry between the world’s two most powerful countries. “Under the leade...

The UN’s migration agency is warning that criminal networks have been trafficking hundreds of thousands of people – many of them educated English speakers – to work in online scam centres, and the caseload is growing. The International Organisa...

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said 13 people have been found dead after a powerful quake shook part of southwestern Japan and rescue work was continuing Wednesday morning for the missing. A magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck the Kumamoto area o...

A 50-year-old independent bookshop has announced it will close when its lease ends, following a raid by Hong Kong national security police earlier this month. Customers at Greenfield Book Store said on Wednesday they headed to the shop on Sai Yeung C...

The US Senate confirmed Jay Clayton as Donald Trump’s top intelligence official on Tuesday, putting a permanent chief in charge of the country’s spy agencies as the president revives unsupported election fraud claims ahead of the midterms. Senato...

The European Union’s upgraded partnership with the Philippines signals the bloc’s intent to diversify its Indo-Pacific strategy beyond trade and into the security arena. It shows Brussels is seeking a larger role in a region where maritime disput...

China is widening its lead over the United States in the race to develop humanoid robots, with Chinese firms accounting for six of the world’s 10 most innovative start-ups in the sector, according to a new report tracking global patent data, as Was...

A man was killed and nearly 80 people were forced to evacuate after a fire broke out at a village house in Hong Kong on Wednesday. Authorities said they were alerted at around 4.30am to a blaze at a house made of metal sheets in Ling Shan Tsuen in Fa...

HSBC Holdings will relocate its group chief people and governance officer, Aileen Taylor, from London to Hong Kong later this year, as the lender doubles down on expanding its Hong Kong and Asia operations, according to sources at the bank. A source ...

The United States has released a rare photo of the American and Taiwanese coastguards operating together at sea, as Beijing expands maritime law enforcement in waters east of the island. The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) – the de facto US emba...

Washington’s new AI Spark initiative to promote American artificial intelligence systems in Southeast Asia’s public services and digital infrastructure is seen as a move to counter the region’s deepening partnerships with Chinese firms in the d...

During the opening ceremony of Ride to Shine Hong Kong this month, Secretary for Culture, Sports and Tourism Rosanna Law Shuk-pui challenged Hongkongers to cycle more than 1.2 million km – a distance equivalent to circling the Earth 30 times – to...

An 18-year-old Chinese girl recently lost her last living relative as she embarks on her university journey, yet she has declined donations, asking that they be given to others in need. Zeng Zixuan scored 564 out of 750 on this year’s gaokao, the n...

Beijing should step in to fill the global “vacuum” in rules on artificial intelligence as a Chinese AI model opens up a policy divide in the United States, according to various institutions within China. The calls came after Beijing-based start-u...

Hong Kong’s export surge will extend into the coming months, driven by the global AI boom, economists have told the South China Morning Post, adding that gross domestic product (GDP) growth could surpass official forecasts. Billy Mak Sui-choi, an a...

Researchers in South Korea say they have finally worked out how the brain flushes away waste – offering a clearer picture of the processes involved in dementia and other brain disorders that could one day be harnessed to treat them. The breakthroug...

China is pushing a new model to boost international sales of its domestic bonds, with the Shanghai Clearing House (SHCH) leveraging global financial networks to expand the offshore yuan pool. Writing in a recent article, SHCH chief Ma Jianyang noted ...

Elon Musk’s social media company X, formerly known as Twitter, launched its own bank account-like product where users can send money to one another. The service, known as X Money, is not a new bank. X Money is using technology and banking services ...

A US teenager who shot dead four people at a high school with a gun his father gave him as a Christmas present was sentenced to life in prison on Tuesday. Colt Gray, 16, pleaded guilty to carrying out the September 2024 attack at Apalachee High Schoo...

Jordan’s air defences intercepted five missiles launched from Iran early on Wednesday, the country’s military said, hours after the US military said it had knocked down an Iranian missile barrage launched against American forces in the Middle Eas...

The Trump administration on Tuesday announced bans on imports of new Chinese robots and power inverters, citing threats to US national security and supply chain vulnerabilities. Without naming China, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) expand...

Back in 2009, when China’s economy was expanding at about twice today’s pace, a little-known private firm made a quiet bet on uncharted territory: Indonesia. The company was on a quest: to secure nickel, a vital industrial metal used in stainless...

Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang is meeting US officials and lawmakers in Washington this week amid reports that its export-controlled processors have been used to train advanced Chinese artificial intelligence models. Huang met with US Commerce S...

Cate Blanchett, Angelina Jolie and Archbishop of Canterbury Sarah Mullally were among public figures who on Tuesday called for refugee protections to be upheld as the United Nations decried mounting pressure ‌on asylum systems. Legal safeguards for...

The man on trial in the stabbing of Salman Rushdie chose on Tuesday not to testify or call any witnesses in the federal terrorism case, which is expected to head to the jury as soon as Wednesday. Hadi Matar’s lawyer told the court that the 28-year-...

Keiko Fujimori was sworn in as Peru’s president on Tuesday after winning the June presidential run-off by a margin of fewer than 50,000 votes, a victory that confirmed a regional shift in South America towards the conservative wing. With the ceremo...

US President Donald Trump voiced ⁠irritation with Benjamin Netanyahu ahead of their White House meeting on Tuesday, complaining that details of the Israeli prime minister’s planned talking points on Iran had surfaced publicly, in a fresh sign of ...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky sought licences to produce Patriot air-defence interceptors during a “good meeting” with US counterpart Donald Trump on Tuesday, as he underscored Russia’s Vladimir Putin’s loss of initiative on the war ...

Firefighters raced on Tuesday to subdue huge wildfires that have forced unprecedented evacuations of tens of thousands of people across France and Spain, as western Europe braced for another heatwave. The fires have torn through a region already batt...