Malaysia’s attempt to recast Forest City from a China-backed “ghost city” into a hub for global wealth and mobile talent is facing an early governance test after police last week uncovered two alleged online scam syndicates operating across 32 ...

A top theoretical journal of the Communist Party has acknowledged that a stark economic divide exists between China’s booming AI sector and its struggling traditional industries. And while arguing that this divergence was not unique to China, the Q...

On August 3, five-year Chinese treasury bond futures began trading on the Hong Kong stock exchange. Market attention has focused on the new product, but its real significance emerges when set against the deep shifts under way in the international mon...

Four former Hong Kong warehouse workers have been jailed for up to seven years for conspiring to steal more than 800 unsold Chanel handbags and wallets worth at least HK$8.7 million (US$1.1 million). The High Court on Monday sentenced the four defend...

Artificial intelligence (AI) has transformed healthcare for hundreds of millions of people in China. AI-powered apps help them manage their health and seek care, while others help doctors better diagnose and treat their patients. AI analysis of routi...

Chinese scientists have turned a dandelion-like weed into natural rubber, a step that could help cut China’s heavy reliance on imported rubber. Growing on the salty, alkaline shores at the foot of the Tianshan Mountains in the Xinjiang Uygur autono...

Most Indians are unhappy with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government over its handling of exam scandals that touched off student protests across the country, according to a nationwide survey by one of the country’s largest pollsters. Just over...

China’s first high-altitude variant of the C919 narrowbody jet has completed its maiden test flight at Shanghai Pudong International Airport, marking a step forward in the home-grown aircraft’s challenge to Boeing and Airbus. Derived from the sta...

Forty years ago, John Woo’s A Better Tomorrow was released. The action film is considered to be a turning point in Hong Kong cinema with directors like Quentin Tarantino citing it as an inspiration. In this On This Day article, we look at SCMP’s ...

Recent arrests in Singapore of young people who succumbed to extremist ideologies and planned attacks, including school stabbings, have sent a chill across the city state, with authorities noting that the speed of radicalisation has doubled. Over thr...

Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com has launched an smart helmet for food couriers with features enabled by artificial intelligence technology, following similar roll-outs by rivals Alibaba Group Holding and Meituan as they seek to improve rider safety a...

Myanmar’s detained democratic leader Aung San Suu Kyi met the nation’s Red Cross representative on Monday, the president’s office said, the first publicised meeting between her and a foreign official since she was ousted in a 2021 coup. The mil...

A former Hong Kong prison officer has been sentenced to three years in jail for severely wounding an inmate by repeatedly thrusting a stick into the victim’s rectum after the defendant was sprinkled with baby powder during a game of bingo. District...

In Thailand, the murders of five people – two young Russians and a Thai family of three – allegedly masterminded by a repeat offender just weeks after his release from jail, have stirred criticism of the justice system and raised questions over p...

Scientists in Antarctica have to deal with extreme cold, wind and months of total darkness while they carry out their research. Inland, the temperature can plummet below minus 80 degrees Celsius (minus 112 degrees Fahrenheit) during winter, while win...

A policeman from eastern China and his wife saved a family of five from a crashed car dangling over a steep slope during their honeymoon, earning widespread praise for their bravery. The 28-year-old civil policeman from Jiangsu province, Fan Kaiyue, ...

Cuba’s power grid failed on Sunday, causing another nationwide blackout, a state utility said in a social media post. As the lights suddenly turned off across Havana, residents who were sat outside to get some respite from the summer heat audibly g...

Hong Kong sporting event organisers should use technology to better track and monitor athletes, lawmakers have urged after a triathlete went missing at sea in Tai Po and was later found dead. The death of the participant in the city’s Summer Triath...

We have put together stories from our coverage last weekend to help you stay informed about news across Asia and beyond. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. From property to portfolios: why Chinese families...

Two women who died in an explosion at an Aeon shopping centre following a powerful earthquake in Japan’s Kumamoto prefecture last week were instructed by their employer to return inside to put sales proceeds in a safe, according to the company. Two...

In China’s arid northwest, local state media in the Ningxia Hui autonomous region are celebrating a surge of rainfall in an area that usually averages 300mm (about 12 inches) per year. The rain belt moving northwards would bring “climate dividend...

Ho Chi Minh City’s bustling jewellery quarter has fallen unusually quiet. Customers are not browsing for engagement rings or necklaces any more – instead they are clutching old receipts and certificates, hoping to sell diamonds they no longer tru...

A surgical procedure for Alzheimer’s disease being tested in Hong Kong has the potential to improve patients’ ability to take care of their basic needs such as getting dressed and remaining socially engaged. The ongoing clinical trial, launched b...

A potential US ban on Chinese open-weight artificial intelligence (AI) models could cost American businesses up to US$12 billion per year, according to calculations by a US-based academic, as technology firms increasingly turn to cost-efficient Chine...

When Japanese entrepreneur Moe Kasugai was a student at Seoul’s Yonsei University, she was struck by how some of the prestigious South Korean college’s brightest graduates struggled to land a job. So in 2019 she launched a service to connect Sout...

Turkey’s ascension to Asean dialogue partner marks the west Asian country’s bid to position itself as a middle power, according to analysts. The upgrade on July 21 breaks an Association of Southeast Asian Nations moratorium in place since the UK�...

On a cloudy evening in late April, a tech event hosted at Beijing’s National Convention Centre by Contemporary Amperex Technology Ltd (CATL) drew nearly 1,000 people eager for a glimpse of next-generation electric vehicle (EV) batteries that could ...

Hong Kong can expect sunnier but very hot weather later this week, the city’s forecaster has said, as residents woke to an amber rainstorm warning for the second consecutive morning. The Hong Kong Observatory on Monday issued the amber rainstorm wa...

Playing a musical instrument helps medical students perform surgical tasks 10 per cent faster and more skilfully, according to a new study by the University of Hong Kong (HKU). The results showed that students with musical experience completed surgic...

Chinese officials tend to report only good news and bury bad news for propaganda purposes and career advancement. That is why it came as a genuine surprise when, on July 22, Zhang Enhui, the party chief of Changchun, an industrial powerhouse known fo...

The Malaysian ruling coalition’s poor showing in the Negeri Sembilan poll on Saturday marks its third straight defeat in eight months – an embarrassing run that is forcing its largest party to confront the cost of governing with former rivals. Pa...

The bamboo-copter is one of the most famous gadgets from the pocket of Doraemon, an iconic robot cat from a Japanese cartoon series who employs futuristic devices to assist a clumsy boy, notably enabling the protagonists to fly. In fact, this gadget ...

Two Hong Kong fire service contractors linked to alleged malpractice in the city’s deadliest blaze in decades are still in business and remain open to taking on new contracts, the South China Morning Post has learned, as lawmakers raised concerns o...

International asset managers, pension funds and insurance companies have shown strong interest in offshore China government bond futures, which are set to start trading in Hong Kong for the first time on Monday, according to senior stock exchange exe...

Ukraine’s use of cheap, adaptable drones to slow Russia’s military advance has become a model for countries looking to modernise their armed forces, with the Philippines the latest to explore what defence lessons it can learn from Kyiv. Some anal...

Firefighters worked to contain huge blazes in the northwestern US city of Spokane early Monday after officials reported hundreds of structures had been reduced to cinders. Around 60,000 people have been ordered to evacuate as wildfires threaten the c...

US President Donald Trump said that new negotiations with Iran would begin on Monday after he decided to hold off on striking the Islamic republic to pursue a deal to end the war entering its sixth month. Trump told reporters on Sunday that the talks...

The bearish sentiment surrounding China’s electric vehicle (EV) sector has intensified after three premium carmakers reported weak sales for July, further heightening concerns that the market is heading for another brutal price war. EV makers Xpeng...

Zhou Bo is a retired senior colonel in the People’s Liberation Army, a senior fellow at Tsinghua University’s Centre for International Security and Strategy, and the author of the book Should the World Fear China? This interview first appeared in...

Exploring new channels for connection is important for enhancing communication. That seems to be one of the major themes of the first “new style Legco dialogue” with Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu, held last week after lawmakers retur...

Venezuela’s imprisoned former leader Nicolas Maduro on Sunday welcomed “any path to dialogue”, ahead of a US-backed meeting in the coming week between representatives of the Latin American country’s interim government and opposition leaders. ...

Britain’s new Prime Minister Andy Burnham has signalled his support for a written constitution for the UK, which unlike most countries, does not have one authoritative document. Since entering office just two weeks ago, the former mayor of Greater ...

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, 80, said on Sunday he was “in great shape” as he launched his candidacy for October elections, with pressure from US President Donald Trump’s administration looming over the campaign. A titan of th...

Greek police on Sunday said they had arrested a suspect in their investigation into the death of a British woman whose body was found in a suitcase in Athens last month. The police in a statement said they had arrested a 26-year-old man, identified i...

The death toll from a mass rush of migrants from Morocco into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta last week reached at least 72 on Sunday, as five more bodies were found along the North African coast, officials said. The number of fatalities was considerabl...

A suicide bomber targeted protesters at an anti-militant rally in northwestern Pakistan on Sunday, killing at least 14 people, including police officers, and wounding more than two dozen others, officials said. The attack happened in Kabal, a town in...

Greece’s fire department says the collision of two firefighting helicopters battling a major wildfire burning out of control west of Athens on Sunday left two crew members dead, while another two were recovered alive. The fire department said the d...

Hong Kong’s leader has met the head of mainland China’s securities regulator to discuss deepening links between the two financial markets ahead of the launch of the city’s first yuan-denominated bond futures. Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu sa...

An educational trust established by Hong Kong-based conglomerate Jardine Matheson will end its prestigious undergraduate scholarship programme for Oxford and Cambridge universities after a strategic review, redirecting the funds to institutions in As...

Israeli air strikes hit Gaza for a second straight day on Sunday, killing at least 18 Palestinians, medics said, despite US President Donald Trump’s announcement of a breakthrough in efforts to implement last year’s ceasefire agreement. From dawn...