We have selected seven stories from the SCMP’s coverage of Asia over the past week that resonated with our readers and shed light on topical issues. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. Southeast Asia’s ...

Hong Kong authorities have reserved the right to seek compensation from contractors over faulty lift installation work that has delayed operations at Queen Mary Hospital’s new block, the development minister has said. Secretary for Development Bern...

First Hong Kong astronaut Lai Ka-ying will deliver a live lecture from space to students and teachers at her alma mater on Wednesday morning, with the session also broadcast to pupils across the city and in neighbouring Macau. According to an Educati...

Although President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi shared a brief exchange last week at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, the real action will unfold later this week at the Brics summit when Xi ar...

A Malaysian court has nearly doubled jail time for a woman who stabbed her boyfriend to death for demanding sex after ruling that the sentencing court had been “over-sympathetic” towards the accused. The Court of Appeal increased the prison sente...

Dozens of young people congregated at Nepal’s burnt-out parliament building on Tuesday to mark the anniversary of deadly anti-corruption protests that toppled the former government. The gathering in memory of those who died in the demonstrations ca...

China’s top police officer has pledged deeper cooperation with his Central Asian counterparts to crack down on terrorism, separatism and extremism, while strengthening measures to protect Belt and Road Initiative investments. Presiding over an info...

Two thieves broke into a museum dedicated to French impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir in southern France on Tuesday, stealing “four works of art”, one of which they dropped as they fled, a mayor said. “This morning, two individuals br...

Martin Romualdez, a cousin of Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr, accumulated so much wealth over the past three years that he had to convert it into mansions and shares to avoid scrutiny, the Office of the Ombudsman alleged on Tuesday – a d...

A grass-roots group associated with Australia’s ruling Labor Party has called on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s government to break from “the American war machine” and pursue an independent defence policy for the future. Traditional securi...

A handful of home-grown Chinese companies involved in brain computer interfaces (BCIs) are moving towards initial public offerings (IPOs) on onshore markets, taking advantage of the sector’s status as a new darling of private capital. The trend fit...

Hong Kong rail giant the MTR Corporation has won a bid as part of a consortium to design and build an underground train station and develop property in Sydney’s second central business district in Australia. The corporation said on Tuesday that it ...

Hong Kong should consider allowing the Mandatory Provident Fund to invest in more asset classes, and lure more long-term patient mainland capital, such as pension funds, to invest globally through the city, the Financial Services Development Council ...

Vietnam’s president and Communist Party chief travels to Russia and France this week, on a trip analysts say is designed to do double duty: shore up support for Hanoi’s claims in the South China Sea and help bankroll its bid to become a high-inco...

Chinese scientists have proposed developing “underground agriculture” in abandoned coal mine tunnels as part of a push to create a green, circular economy for the country’s massive mining industry. A team of researchers from Shanxi, a major coa...

China plans to deploy artificial intelligence computing clusters containing 100,000 accelerator cards and sharply expand the country’s intelligent computing capacity over the next five years, as Beijing steps up investment in the infrastructure und...

A 62-year-old woman from southern China, who cannot speak standard Mandarin or recognise the English alphabet, has gone viral on social media for singing over 100 songs in six different languages. Li Deru, known online as @Auntie Ru, boasts 800,000 f...

A wave of Houthi attacks Tuesday on Saudi Arabia wounded more than 70 people and ignited fires at several oil facilities and utilities in the kingdom’s southern region, authorities said, a major escalation in the renewed conflict between an importa...

Beijing has recommended the largest-ever cohort of civil servants from Hong Kong for roles in United Nations agencies this year, expecting the deployments to broaden their global perspective and strengthen the city’s position as a bridge between Ch...

Singapore’s transport minister on Tuesday defended Singapore Airlines’ investment in Air India, saying the city state’s flag carrier must grow overseas because there is a limit to how many people will fly to or from Singapore. Responding ‌to ...

Singapore’s ministers will receive progressive salary increases, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong has announced. The entry-level ministerial salary benchmark will rise to S$1.8 million (US$1.4 million) from S$1.1 million, while the prime minister’s p...

As China’s southern tech hub Shenzhen gears up to host November’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit, its province, Guangdong, is making sure its technological prowess is also receiving global attention. At Saturday’s Asia-Pacific ...

Taradevi Tamang’s village exists on official maps, but on the ground, it looks as though it was never there at all. Two weeks ago, raging floodwaters ripped through her village in central Nepal’s Nuwakot district, sweeping away Tamang’s tin-roo...

Up to 200 Hong Kong-bound domestic helpers remain stranded in Indonesia despite the reopening of several affected airports, as the city’s employment agencies association braces for possible further closures due to volcanic ash. Indonesian transport...

Hong Kong firms could look to Kazakhstan as a base for advanced manufacturing and as a gateway to Europe, while the city’s robust capital markets could attract businesses in the Central Asian country, a diplomat and business adviser has said. Sabr ...

Fresh off a joint air drill, China will for the first time showcase several PLA Air Force aircraft overseas at an air show this week. The featured aircraft were selected for the air show in Egypt to demonstrate the air force’s integrated combat abi...

Russian missiles and drones pounded Kyiv overnight, killing two people and sending smoke billowing above the Ukrainian capital, ending Moscow’s temporary halt to strikes on the city. Russian President Vladimir Putin had ordered the pause in attacks...

“I do not want to stop [searching]. If I pause, I start thinking about my brothers and sisters and all the moments of my life here.” Gui Xinwei, deputy chief of the Gyirong Border Inspection Station, was speaking to Chinese state broadcaster CCTV...

Kazakhstan has recorded the largest student population and fastest enrolment growth at Hong Kong’s public universities among Central Asian countries in recent years, according to official data, while students from the country say the city is the mo...

Australia is in the process of finalising a treaty with another Pacific island nation, with the national broadcaster reporting that Canberra has struck an “in-principle” agreement with the Solomon Islands. The two nations will work to sign the de...

South Korean citizens’ groups have called for the abuse of wartime “comfort women” to be recognised by Unesco, as analysts say the ongoing feud between Seoul and Tokyo threatens to upset recent improvements in their relations. They also suggest...

When Cathay Pacific Airways announced direct flights to Almaty starting next January, the significance went beyond adding another destination. The service will be Cathay Pacific’s first to Central Asia and the only non-stop passenger connection bet...

A woman in eastern China took legal action against her son, seeking more than 360,000 yuan (US$54,000) in compensation for her role in caring for his daughter. This dramatic case has ignited a nationwide debate concerning evolving perspectives on gra...

Calls to reduce English’s status as a core subject in China’s education system have resurfaced after an internet-famous maths teacher urged the country to end “worshipping foreign things”. The controversy has revived a long-running debate ove...

Hong Kong’s flagship tech hub at the border with mainland China received bids from firms specialising in cutting-edge fields such as chips, artificial intelligence and quantum technology, the South China Morning Post has learned. The government las...

While the announcement last week of the closure of a 40-year-old mall in Singapore’s Marina Bay district for redevelopment has caused an outpouring of sentiment among shoppers and tenants, experts say the prime real estate has to be updated into a ...

Hong Kong’s bid to become a global education hub is likely to transform the sector as a sustainable source of property demand, with the city tipped to see around 200,000 non-local students by 2035, according to CBRE. The city’s international scho...

US President Donald Trump posted an image of dark “next generation” US Space Force uniforms on Sunday that the text claims were “inspired by the discipline and functionality of the Starship Trooper uniform” – a design the director of the 19...

Indonesia had planes flying again on Tuesday after a volcanic eruption forced the country’s major airports to close for days, with authorities saying that flights would resume gradually. The disruption, caused by the eruption of Anak Krakatoa, halt...

Investigators with the US National Transportation Safety Board said on Monday they had recovered the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder from an Amazon Prime Air cargo plane that overran the runway and crashed while landing in Miami on Su...

UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s government is expected to ban trade with Israeli settlements in the West Bank on Tuesday as he seeks to adopt a stronger policy on an issue that is important to his governing Labour Party but may anger US President ...

The risk of a conflict over Taiwan is shaping Japanese defence planning, with Tokyo shoring up security at home and abroad for a potentially prolonged fight. But there are economic, demographic and political constraints on how far its military transf...

Japan will substantially raise its fees for residence permits next month. Depending on the period of stay applied for, renewing or changing one’s residency status could cost as much as ¥75,000 (US$480). The application fee for permanent residency ...

Gadi Eisenkot, the main challenger to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, accused the sitting premier of looking merely after his own political survival and not the country’s security at a rally in central Israel on Monday. Unveiling the can...

Canada’s retaliatory tariffs on billions of dollars in US products took effect Tuesday, as a trade war between the North American neighbours heats up. The announced duties of 15 per cent, 25 per cent and 50 per cent apply to C$27.6 billion (US$20 b...

The number of ships sailing through the Panama Canal could be cut further due to drought caused by the El Nino weather pattern, the new administrator of the waterway said on Monday. Panama has declared a nationwide emergency over El Nino, a phenomeno...

The suspected murderers of two Australian surfers and an American at a Mexican surfing hotspot went on trial Monday, two years after their killings in a suspected robbery. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson, aged 30 and 33, respectively, an...

The United Nations rights chief on Monday demanded accountability for swelling numbers of deaths in US immigration custody, and urged Washington to halt deportations to places where people face “irreparable harm”. Speaking before the UN Human Rig...

Britain’s King Charles has reiterated that Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, remain non-working members of the royal family following their return to the United Kingdom. A letter sent on behalf of the king to senior government officials said the c...