China and Russia’s foreign ministers have discussed their relations with the United States, paving the ground for a possible meeting between their respective leaders at next month’s Apec summit in Shenzhen. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and hi...

Indian authorities have asked Bollywood actor ⁠Imran Khan to ⁠leave the country by ⁠the end of the month, saying he breached immigration laws after joining a protest against the election commission chief, local media reported on Thursday. Khan,...

Hong Kong has emerged as the third best city in the world for wealthy individuals seeking to make philanthropic contributions over the medium term, trailing New York and Seoul, according to a study by Altrata. The inaugural Giving Opportunity Index b...

Authorities in the central Chinese province of Hunan have warned of the potential risks of cross-border arranged marriages, saying some relationships lack genuine emotional foundations and can lead to financial ruin or legal trouble. Marriages can be...

Every time Kristaen Albert returns home, he reaches for one of the dozen cans of oxygen on a table by the entrance of his house in Central Kalimantan. The air in his neighbourhood has turned dusty amber, with air quality far exceeding hazardous level...

Twenty-seven pupils and a teacher were killed on Thursday after a roof collapsed at a school in the northwest Pakistani city of Peshawar, a hospital official said. Asim Khan from Peshawar’s Lady Reading Hospital confirmed the toll, adding that over...

Ukraine has resumed its attacks on Russian refineries with a strike at an installation in the Ryazan region, the regional governor said on Thursday, after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky voiced his anger at a “dangerous” withdrawal of US i...

Nepal has weathered three disasters in six weeks, including the deadly August flash flood, making this year one of the deadliest in a country where monsoon rains already frequently wreak havoc. Experts warn that climate change is only making matters ...

Slain Hong Kong socialite Abby Choi Tin-fung’s partner has acknowledged that her former father-in-law helped resolve a dispute over his HK$5 million (US$641,025) gambling debt but maintained he was not obliged to repay it because he believed the co...

More than 1,000 residents are expected to ride in autonomous vehicles (AVs) after Chinese technology giant Baidu launches Hong Kong’s first large-scale public trial next week. Baidu’s robotaxi platform, Apollo, will run the trial in Tung Chung fr...

A South Korean manufacturing company owner accused of severely injuring a migrant worker by firing high-pressure air from an industrial air gun into his body has been sentenced to three years in prison. Judge Koo Na-young of the Suwon district court ...

Three weeks into his tenure as the Communist Party secretary of Anhui province, Li Lecheng carried out an on-site inspection at China’s home-grown memory chip giant ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) on Wednesday, pledging to grow integrated circu...

Inconvenience is one of the biggest obstacles to recycling, a challenge that prompted a Hongkonger to establish a one-stop recycling service. Jorch Wong Ching-hei left advertising in 2019 and started The Loops Hong Kong after finding that recycling d...

A grassland fire in Mongolia has raised fresh concerns in China, underscoring the recurring risk of cross-border environmental hazards. This is not the first time an environmental disaster originating in Mongolia has threatened to cross the 4,700km (...

A mild displacement of jobs across the Asia-Pacific region as companies expand their use of AI would trim five percentage points off growth in office space demand in the next few years, according to property consultancy CBRE. In a report released on ...

Two rush-hour disruptions at Hong Kong’s Lam Tin MTR station within 15 hours could be connected if they involved the same power supply circuit or exposed procedural shortcomings, an engineering expert has said, with a lawmaker urging the rail opera...

One message told him to “go to hell”. Others said he deserved to be imprisoned. Death threats poured in. Asians who share a name with one of the men accused of raping a US university student have faced a torrent of online abuse. The alleged 2024 ...

The EU’s surprise deal with China on hybrid cars last week was supposed to ease the pressure on Beijing. Instead, Brussels is preparing to intensify its crackdown on Chinese trade practices, emboldened by the discovery that its threats are finally ...

Veteran Cantonese opera teacher Leung Sum-yee does not expect every child who enters her classroom to become a performer. If they leave knowing what good Cantonese opera sounds and looks like, she considers that worthwhile too. “My purpose was not ...

Lorelai Jacinto had worked as a domestic helper in Riyadh for two and a half years before she flew home to the Philippines on September 19, increasingly worried that the conflict in the Middle East was making it unsafe to stay. “When the conflict w...

Costa Rica, considered for decades a peaceful enclave in turbulent Central America, has now made fighting drug trafficking one of its main goals. And it is turning to one of its Central American neighbours for inspiration in its hardline crackdown. O...

Five Guangdong-registered yachts will sail into Hong Kong waters on Friday when the Southbound Yacht Travel Scheme launches, the city’s marine chief has said, adding that officers will step up patrols. A ceremony marking the scheme’s maiden voyag...

Pyongyang test-fired two types of cruise missile from a submarine, its state news agency said on Thursday, after weeks of friction with Seoul over a landmine explosion along their border. The missiles were fired into the East Sea, also known as the S...

Faced with a fuel crisis beyond its control, Bangladesh’s government is spending the equivalent of hundreds of millions of US dollars each month to insulate its people from surging prices. But as growth slows and inflation rises, the new government...

Issues affecting ageing populations worldwide will form the core of discussions for policymakers and health industry leaders gathered at the Abu Dhabi Future Health Summit, with a particular emphasis on how practising prediction and prevention can he...

Like people elsewhere in the world, Chinese people often have nicknames in addition to their official names. Some of these may surprise people from other cultures because they sound humble or even unflattering. Chinese parents have traditionally give...

Malaysian property tycoon Lee Yeow Seng is making waves as one of the most aggressive buyers of commercial real estate in Singapore, and he is not done yet. His IOI Properties Group is in exclusive talks and due diligence to purchase two property ass...

At 17, Hong Kong secondary school student Agastya Rekhi has been teaching finance and economics to younger children for nearly three years. Meeting families struggling to understand how prices, investments and economic news impacted their daily lives...

A stabbing rampage by a repeat violent offender wearing an electronic ankle monitor has raised questions about whether South Korea’s criminal justice system can adequately supervise those deemed high-risk and prevent attacks before they happen. The...

As the Chinese saying goes, “Even an upright judge finds it hard to settle family matters.” Whenever Chinese TV channels air reality shows that centre on couples or parent-child relationships, controversy is guaranteed. Heated debates ensue over ...

Singapore will “keep its options open” on taking legal action against errant companies as air quality in the city state significantly deteriorated this week due to choking haze stemming from Indonesian wildfires. The government is collecting data...

The United States and China are in regular talks to iron out details of a framework announced last month for handling AI-related incidents and institutionalising bilateral dialogue, multiple sources told the South China Morning Post. The technical te...

Chinese military scientists claim they have developed an algorithm that could help identify electronic warfare units using civil aviation flight data. The researchers said they had located two sources of interference that were spoofing their location...

Hong Kong postal workers denied permanent contracts have criticised a special government transfer scheme as too narrow, calling for more pathways into roles that match their experience, such as workman and artisan positions. Several affected workers ...

Japanese companies have faced a growing wave of cyberattacks in recent weeks, exposing millions of customers’ records as analysts warn that artificial intelligence is helping hackers exploit long-standing security weaknesses and overcome language b...

Australia’s navy said on Thursday it would audit bathrooms across its fleet after a video recording device was found in the cabin of one of its ships. Navy chief Matt Buckley has vowed a full investigation into the incident aboard the HMAS Leeuwin,...

Amid Hong Kong’s commercial property downturn, British conglomerate Jardine Matheson has sold a street shop in Causeway Bay for HK$80 million (US$10.2 million) after holding it for more than 50 years, accepting a price HK$10 million below its earli...

The world is on the cusp of a “China shock 3.0” driven by exports of artificial intelligence (AI), biotechnology and robots, which could hit harder than the current wave, a leading economist on China has said. “We are already at the starting po...

Susan Thornton is a former American diplomat who for decades worked on US policy in Eurasia in the State Department before becoming acting assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs during the first Trump presidency. She is the d...

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has called a nearly US$1.5 trillion defence budget request “absolutely critical”, warning that whoever falls behind in autonomy, robotics and AI will fall “even further behind” as Washington eyes China’s ra...

Be warned. The global economy is likely to experience a recession next year. War across the Middle East is set to escalate, wrecking energy supplies for many years, even as the artificial intelligence (AI) bubble is ripe to burst. This, however, woul...

Tech billionaire Elon Musk called on Wednesday for Volodymyr Zelensky to “go” as Ukraine’s leader, after insisting any disruption to the war-torn country’s use of his satellite communications system was the fault of the US government, not his...

US stocks dropped to their worst day since July on Wednesday, following the latest signal that inflation is getting worse. The S&P 500 sank 1.1 per cent for a fifth loss in the six days since setting its all-time high. The Dow Jones Industrial Averag...

Bank of America, the second-largest US bank, failed to promptly report hundreds of millions of dollars in suspicious transactions bearing signs of Chinese money-laundering networks, US regulators said on Tuesday, announcing more than US$1.21 billion ...

The Yemeni government has spoken with Beijing about the Houthis’ alleged attempts to utilise Chinese-made technology for weapons, a Yemeni minister said on Wednesday, as the two sides’ long-running civil war escalates. “The Chinese are partners...

Irish author Sally Rooney can no longer sell her books in the UK because of her support for the activist group Palestine Action, her publisher Faber said on Wednesday. Rooney has previously expressed her support for the group, which was banned as a �...

Leaders of the EU’s 27 member states will instruct Brussels to “urgently” come up with new weapons to counter the imbalances they believe are caused by China’s economic policies, at a meeting in the Belgian capital on Thursday. The instructio...

Hong Kong’s Fire Services Department has extended a scheme allowing property owners to install smart fire alarm systems rather than traditional safety equipment to another 6,000 old buildings, but conceded that no installations had been completed a...

Dutch semiconductor equipment giant ASML expects China to account for about 20 per cent of its total sales this year, after seeing shipments to the market more than double during the previous quarter despite mounting US pressure for tighter export re...

The United States Army has launched a new task force aimed at countering Chinese efforts to block American and allied warships and aircraft in a potential conflict. The 4th Multi-Domain Task Force (MDTF) – established at Fort Carson, Colorado on Oc...