A woman in central China, who borrowed one million yuan (US$140,000) to treat her daughter-in-law, has captured the hearts of millions on social media through her unwavering dedication. For the past five years, she has been providing round-the-clock ...

The American public still wants the United States to be “engaged and take the lead” in international affairs, with support increasing for military intervention if Taiwan were to be attacked, according to a new survey. This view contrasts with US ...

Ten people were injured in a collision between a double-decker KMB bus, a rubbish truck and a taxi in Kwai Chung on Saturday. Police said the drivers of all three vehicles and seven bus passengers sustained injuries. According to the force, the incid...

When Russia’s full-scale invasion began nearly four years ago, a 26-year-old soldier known as Monka did not see a combat role she could do. But that changed as technology reshaped the battlefield and opened new paths. Last year, she joined the mili...

Funds siphoned off from the Philippines’ flood control projects and converted into cryptocurrency may be linked to online scam syndicates run by offshore gaming operators, an official from the country’s cybercrime unit has revealed. Renato Parais...

Stock prices are nervously high, bond and real estate prices are under downward pressure, cryptocurrency assets have sustained falls and global debt is at record levels. One common factor behind these coinciding and worrying trends is that much of th...

Contractors in Hong Kong are racing to tear down scaffolding nets used for estate renovation works to meet the government’s end-Saturday deadline, but some admit they will need more time. An industry representative on Saturday estimated that work a...

China’s artificial intelligence boom is giving rise to a new cohort of “solopreneurs”, who are turning their business dreams into reality with the help of technology, offering a glimmer of hope in an otherwise bleak job market. While there is n...

A three-year-old toddler in eastern China has captivated the nation with her striking Caucasian features, despite her parents being Chinese. The story has garnered 120 million views on mainland social media. Living in Yancheng, Jiangsu province, her ...

Indonesia’s disaster agency on Saturday reported a rise in the death toll from floods and landslides on the island of Sumatra, saying at least 883 people had been confirmed dead while more than 500 were missing. The National Disaster Management Age...

What happens when a democracy begins to fear its own internet? In Indonesia, that question is no longer hypothetical, as the government threatens to pull the plug on major online platforms many of its people rely upon. When Jakarta warned last month ...

Newly released surveillance footage from the US hotel where American actress Tara Reid claims she was drugged last month shows the actress downing more drinks than she recalls. Reid, 50, maintains she was drugged on November 23 at the DoubleTree Hote...

The French military used jammers as several suspected drones flew over a closely guarded base housing nuclear ballistic submarines, prosecutors said on Friday. It was the latest in a series of mysterious drone flights over airports and sensitive mili...

A woman from northeastern China, who faced online harassment for wearing a clothing tag while hiking, later clarified that it contained information about a missing child as part of a brand’s charitable initiative. Deng, hailing from Jilin province,...

For Malaysian tech worker Sam, there were three short steps to being replaced by robots at a global social media company’s Kuala Lumpur office. First came weeks spent training the company’s artificial intelligence systems. Then came the ominous w...

Fire safety risks persist at building sites across Hong Kong following the deadly blaze in Tai Po last week, the Construction Industry Council has warned, after a scaffolding worker at a major subsidised estate was sacked for smoking. Council chairma...

Russian President Vladimir Putin held talks with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday at an annual summit and agreed to diversify mutual economic ties, as the United States presses India to revise its decades-old partnership with Russia. The...

From shoes and clothing to food, daily necessities, logistics services and even university sponsorships for two orphans, donors from all walks of life have come together to support survivors of the Tai Po fire, Hong Kong’s deadliest in decades. Bey...

Beijing’s omission of the term “denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula” from a new white paper suggested its “tacit acceptance” of North Korea as a nuclear-armed state while prioritising its strategic competition with Washington, analysts...

When online outrage torpedoed the latest episode of One‑Punch Man, few saw past the animation flaws. But what followed exposed a creative industry buckling under impossible expectations. The sixth episode of the long-awaited third season of the Jap...

A young man from Australia with a huge social media following has given an 88-year-old US supermarket worker the gift of retirement. Ed Bambas from Michigan was presented with an oversized cheque for US$1.7 million on Friday – the result of an extr...

China’s top aircraft maker is stepping up efforts to promote its first business jet as it looks to break into a market dominated by Western aviation firms like Gulfstream Aerospace. The Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac) took the rare...

Jeff Rowe grinned with satisfaction when the dashboard of his John Deere combine harvester showed the yield of the first run on his family’s farm during this year’s harvest: 253 bushels per acre, equivalent to 13.8 tonnes of corn per hectare. The...

A protective shield at the Chernobyl nuclear plant in war-torn Ukraine, built to contain radioactive material from the 1986 disaster, can no longer perform its main safety function due to drone damage, the UN nuclear watchdog said on Friday, a strike...

Taiwan’s updated crisis and war survival guide has ignited fierce political debate, hailed by officials as a lifeline amid Beijing’s mounting military pressure but blasted by critics as costly propaganda prompting fear rather than readiness. Mass...

China’s official media has called on disciplinary watchdogs to stop giving low-level officials insulting nicknames that imply they are not doing their jobs properly. The provincial publicity department of the eastern province of Zhejiang became the...

As sure as night follows day, you can always count on the big Western media outlets to politicise anything bad that happens in Hong Kong or on the mainland. So with the horrific Tai Po fire, you can be sure those platforms will go to town with that a...

Hong Kong’s deadliest fire in decades has been put out, but the sight of the charred remains of Wang Fuk Court’s housing blocks still conjures up painful emotions and all too vivid memories for many people in the surrounding neighbourhood. The fi...

A Thai woman declined rescue and chose to remain stranded on a rooftop amid severe floods to stay with her pet dog and cat, garnering online praise. The woman, known as Jazz, appealed for help on social media on November 22. She reported being trappe...

The tarpaulin barely held against the wind, sagging under days of ceaseless rain. For the earthquake survivors of San Remigio, in the central Philippines, it was all that remained – a thin sheet of plastic above a patch of mud, standing in for the ...

US President Donald Trump met with the leaders of Mexico and Canada to discuss trade issues on Friday after the leaders hosted the 2026 World Cup draw at Washington’s storied Kennedy Centre. The White House said Trump held talks with Canadian Prime...

Chinese electric vehicle maker Li Auto has launched its first wearable product, the Livis artificial intelligence glasses, marking a bold foray into the rapidly expanding market already crowded by tech giants like Alibaba Group Holding, Huawei Techno...

US President Donald Trump’s new national security strategy frames America’s allies not just as partners, but as instruments to preserve US primacy and counter China’s rise, analysts say. The strategy urges wealthy allies to increase defence spe...

During his Southeast Asia trip in October, US President Donald Trump sealed deals with Malaysia and Thailand on the same day – both aimed at securing and diversifying America’s supply chains for critical minerals and rare earths. Trump and Malays...

The US Supreme Court agreed on Friday to decide the legality of US President Donald Trump’s directive to restrict birthright citizenship in the United States, a contentious part of his efforts to curb immigration and a step that would alter how a 1...

For much of the modern era, power was easy to recognise. It belonged to the states that could win wars decisively, enforce sanctions effectively and impose political outcomes far beyond their borders. That definition no longer works. The world is mov...

The White House released a national security blueprint on Friday, marking a sweeping assertion of US influence in the Americas. The framework pledges to prevent non-Western powers from expanding their foothold across the Western Hemisphere, a clear r...

A US federal judge on Friday ordered the release of the grand jury transcripts from the investigation in Florida of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The Justice Department requested the unsealing of the transcripts after US President Donald Tr...

More than a week after US immigration authorities separated 6-year-old Yuanxin from his father during a routine check-in with ICE in New York, it has been confirmed that the child has been placed in the custody of the US Office of Refugee Resettlemen...

Frank Gehry, who designed some of the most imaginative buildings ever constructed and achieved a level of worldwide acclaim seldom afforded any architect, has died. He was 96. Gehry died on Friday in his home in Santa Monica after a brief respiratory...

Beijing and Washington held a call on Friday to discuss bilateral trade and economic ties, as a variety of practical issues – from soybean orders to computer chips – remain problematic despite the trade truce in October. Chinese Vice-Premier He L...

US President Donald Trump was awarded the new Fifa peace prize on Friday at the 2026 World Cup draw – giving the soccer spectacle to set matchups for the quadrennial tournament even more of a Trumpian flair. Trump, who has openly campaigned for the...

The European Union hit Elon Musk’s X with a €120 million (US$140 million) fine on Friday for breaking its digital rules, in a move that risks a fresh clash with US President Donald Trump’s administration. The high-profile probe into the social ...

A group of vaccine advisers on Friday scrapped a long-standing recommendation that all US children receive the hepatitis B shot at birth, a major policy win for health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jnr that disease experts say will reverse decades of p...

Hong Kong authorities have hit back at US politicians’ “absurd and fact-twisting” allegations over the health of former media boss Jimmy Lai Chee-ying and their call for his unconditional release from prison. A spokesman for the Hong Kong gover...

Export controls may have been the economic weapon of choice in 2025, but the Dutch minister at the centre of the Nexperia crisis has admitted he was blindsided by Beijing when it blocked the company’s chips from leaving China. His concession raises...

Candidates started campaigning again this week for Hong Kong’s coming Legislative Council election, but opted for a more subdued approach, including fewer street booths and volunteers, in the aftermath of last week’s deadly fire in Tai Po. Some L...

The People’s Liberation Army has carried out an urban warfare drill, according to state media, in what appears to be a response to Taipei’s bid to fund improved “asymmetric capabilities”. In a report on Wednesday, state broadcaster CCTV aired...

Hong Kong actress Cecilia Cheung Pak-chi has accused her former agent of exerting undue pressure on her and defrauding her out of 8 million yuan (US$1.13 million) by making false representations. Cheung, 45, took the witness box at the High Court on ...

Major Chinese airlines have extended their offer of full refunds for flights to Japan for another three months, as the heated diplomatic row between Beijing and Tokyo shows no signs of easing. On Friday, Air China, China Eastern Airlines and China So...