The mother of a 16-year-old girl who died from emaciation following lengthy detention and menacing interrogations by Japanese authorities is seeking compensation, in the latest “hostage justice” case. The lawsuit, filed with western Japan’s Kob...

Hong Kong will measure the size of its poor using a new 21-indicator framework, abandoning the previous income-based metric said to have overestimated the number of underprivileged people by ignoring billions of dollars spent on public housing and he...

Taiwanese value showing goodwill to the mainland more than deepening cooperation with the United States, according to a survey conducted soon after US President Donald Trump visited Beijing last month. The survey, published by the government-funded I...

A Hong Kong court has jailed a man for 14 years for his role in an “evil” bomb plot against the authorities during and after the 2019 anti-government protests. The High Court on Thursday convicted Cheung Lai-ming of four charges after he pleaded ...

As Chinese technology giant ByteDance accelerates its shift towards domestic chips for artificial intelligence workloads, a few smaller domestic suppliers stand to benefit – if they can deliver at scale amid a void left by Nvidia due to regulatory ...

Following is an edited transcript of a conversation between John Mearsheimer, R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago, and South China Morning Post Executive Editor Zuraidah Ibrahim at the...

Malaysian police have deported two nationals from India wanted over an explosion on a railway line in Punjab, in a case Indian media have linked to an alleged militant plot tied to the Khalistan separatist movement seeking an independent Sikh homelan...

Hong Kong has ranked as the second-most globally competitive economy – its best performance in seven years – climbing one spot from last year to place behind Singapore. The ranking, released by the Switzerland-based International Institute for Ma...

Japanese football fans have gone viral once again for tidying up the stadium after their team’s World Cup match against the Netherlands this week, only to prompt a meme criticising the country’s men for not applying the same standards of behaviou...

Homeowners in a Hong Kong subsidised housing estate will need to amend a legal land-use document to permit a cafe on the premises to allow dogs, after the venue was disqualified from a pet-friendly licence scheme despite winning an application ballot...

Chinese artificial intelligence start-up DeepSeek closed its first-ever external fundraising in an unusual and high-stakes deal that could not only reshape the country’s AI landscape but also offer a rare glimpse into how one of China’s most valu...

Keir Starmer is not on the ballot, but the UK prime minister’s future is on the line in a special election on Thursday. Voters in the Makerfield district of northwest England were electing a new lawmaker, and the leading contender is Andy Burnham o...

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim visited Russia’s Kazan with a message about Asean centrality and a more urgent national problem behind it – keeping fuel supply secure as global energy uncertainties linger. The two-day Asean-Russia Commemor...

A Singaporean man is facing jail time for sending an edited photo of Marina Bay Sands (MBS) on fire to Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s Facebook page while mentioning a “bomb”. Andie Tan Kok Yong, a 35-year-old Singaporean, pleaded guilty on T...

The Middle East conflict has shaken up the global energy supply chain and Beijing needs to do more to protect shipments – such as finding alternative routes and boosting escort capabilities, according to industry analysts. Lu Ruquan, president of t...

Young people from China are visiting South Korea for cheaper and better beauty services that last for only one day, reflecting a change in overseas tourism desires. On China’s social media, many are sharing the three must-do things while travelling...

Ukrainian drones hit Moscow’s oil refinery for the second time this week while Russia fired missiles into Kyiv, as President Volodymyr Zelensky sought support from the US and Europe to reach a peace deal. Moscow downed over five dozen drones on Thu...

The deaths in quick succession of three rugby players in Malaysia have put renewed focus on the risks of competing in extreme heat and humidity, as climate change pushes temperatures higher across Southeast Asia. On May 23, prop Azlan Azhari, playing...

A massive ancient oak tree linked to the legend of Robin Hood may have been loved to death. The 1,200-year-old Major Oak in Sherwood Forest is believed to have died after it did not sprout leaves this spring, the Royal Society for the Protection of B...

Chinese ambassador to the United States Xie Feng on Wednesday proposed to increase the limit of tariff-free goods under the newly created US-China Board of Trade from the existing US$30 billion to US$300 billion – a 10-fold rise in non-sensitive tr...

The Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) has clarified rules for unprofitable artificial intelligence model developers wanting to go public, as China’s large language model (LLM) firms scramble for fresh capital in an intense race with US labs. LLM develo...

When Yuriko Koike was Japan’s environment minister in 2005, she was hailed by legions of salarymen as they shed ties and jackets in summer during the “Cool Biz” national energy-saving campaign that she helped to launch. Now, as Tokyo governor, ...

Scientists have found the oldest known evidence of the plague, which sparked deadly outbreaks dating back about 5,500 years ago – some 200 years earlier than previously thought. The disease has sickened humans for thousands of years and wiped out a...

This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing. Hong Kong downgraded its rainstorm warning to amber after issuing its second black alert of the year, which d...

A teenager thrown to the ground Wednesday when a Central Park carriage horse bolted away from its driver has died, according to police. The 18-year-old was riding in the horse-drawn carriage with three other passengers when the accident happened just...

A leading green group has urged Hong Kong to align with coming national standards on excessive packaging, warning that the city generated at least 2.7 million kg (5.9 million lbs) of waste from e-commerce parcels last year. The call coincided with an...

I seldom, if ever, assume people in general do a particular thing, unless, of course, I do it too. But if it is a criminal act, then I assume in general that nobody would do it. There is a peculiarity, it seems, with taking office supplies home, like...

The Hong Kong government has launched a public consultation on the city’s first five-year development plan, a blueprint aimed at aligning with China’s newly approved 15th five-year plan. Officials have promised a “macroscopic, strategic and for...

US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he thinks Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is his “biggest fan” among world leaders. “Japan’s doing very well,” Trump said at a press conference after a Group of Seven summit concluded in th...

A male midwife in eastern China has won praise for his professionalism and striking looks while defying relatives who dismissed his career choice as embarrassing. Zhang Jintao, 25, from Yiwu in Zhejiang province, became a midwife at a leading provinc...

On a summer evening in 2011, two high-speed trains hurtling through the Chinese countryside met in a fireball of twisted metal and shattered glass. The Wenzhou disaster, as it came to be known, killed 40 people and injured nearly 200. The official in...

China poses a threat to America’s senior citizens through drug supply chains, financial scams and data privacy, a congressional hearing highlighted on Wednesday, with lawmakers and witnesses framing it as a national security issue. “Fifty years a...

Hong Kong graduates believe the city’s finance industry is its most attractive and stable sector, making them more optimistic about career opportunities than their global peers, according to a study by the CFA Institute, which trains investment man...

Iran and the US have signed a peace deal that will take immediate effect, with Iran reopening the Strait of Hormuz and the US lifting its naval blockade, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif announced. Sharif, a chief mediator since the US and ...

Hong Kong and Macau can complement rather than compete with each other in tourism development, officials and industry leaders in the gaming hub have said, as it continues its decades-long push for economic diversification. Maria Helena de Senna Ferna...

Japan’s push to build its own civil aviation sector and stay competitive in the technology race against China could receive a boost from a potential partnership with American aircraft giant Boeing. The country is already a key Boeing partner, posse...

The University of Hong Kong (HKU) and the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) have been ranked among the top 20 in a global league table – the first time two of the city’s universities have achieved this simultaneously – with CUHK making sig...

As US President Donald Trump moves to reopen the Strait of Hormuz through a peace deal with Iran, major shipping companies such as Maersk are likely to stop short of resuming normal operations in the near term amid lingering concerns about the waterw...

A senior US official on Wednesday released the text of an agreement reached between Washington and Tehran to end the Iran war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, after months of conflict had battered the global economy and sent oil prices soaring. The o...

As national EU leaders meet in Brussels to thrash out a possible new China policy, speculation is high as to where they all stand amid fluid member-state dynamics. In the last part of this three-part series, we look at whether the conventional wisdom...

US President Donald Trump is happy with Canada’s arrangement to allow a capped number of Chinese electric vehicles to be imported at a low-tariff rate, Prime Minister Mark Carney said. When asked about Carney’s comment, Trump did not express expl...

Nobody knew how the tree grew popular online, but for about two months, villagers near Xian, the capital of Shaanxi province, found drones flying over their wheat fields. One video captured a tree in the middle of a farmer’s field, just as the fog ...

A top Huawei Technologies executive’s admission that the Chinese telecoms company illegally conducted business in Iran can be used in the coming US trial against Huawei, according to a judge’s ruling filed in Brooklyn federal court on Tuesday. Ch...

The US Federal ⁠Reserve held interest rates steady on Wednesday, but policymakers expect a hike in borrowing costs later this year amid growing concerns about inflation lodged above the US central bank’s 2 per cent target. New quarterly projectio...

⁠Luigi Mangione, the man accused of ⁠gunning down a health insurance executive in Manhattan, plans to argue at his murder trial that he was undergoing an extreme mental health crisis at the time of the alleged killing, a judge revealed at a heari...

US President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday attempted to defuse escalating tensions over the recent killing of three Indian sailors by American naval forces off the coast of Oman. Speaking to the media after their f...

US President Donald Trump sought on Wednesday to frame his vague arrangement aimed at ending a questionable war as a major win that would bring the conflict to a close, reopen the strategic Strait of Hormuz and prevent Iran from “ever” obtaining ...

After decades waiting for justice, relatives of women murdered by New York’s Gilgo Beach serial killer laid into him on Wednesday before he was sentenced to life in prison. He told them: “I am responsible” for the crimes. “The words I would s...

From free marketeers to long-term interventionists, EU countries of all stripes are converging on the need for urgent action to prevent a Chinese-driven European deindustrialisation ahead of a key summit in Brussels, multiple sources said on Wednesda...

When Iran’s ⁠Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi announced the interim deal this week to end the ⁠war with the United States, he declared his country the victor. To many Iranians, it does not feel that way. More than three months of US and Israeli a...