Hong Kong will introduce standardised cigarette packaging from March next year, with a nine-month transition period before full enforcement in December, as the city strips all branding and decorative design from packs and updates health warnings to r...

Hundreds of Thais, led by a veteran political activist, rallied outside the Israeli Embassy in Bangkok on Thursday in a rare public protest against a group of foreign nationals. The protest follows months of complaints about illegal landholding, disr...

Every climate summit now runs on the same illusion: the next pledge will be the one that finally saves us. It will not. The money the rich world has promised the poor world is not coming at anything like the scale advertised, and pretending otherwise...

Hong Kong signed two milestone memorandums of understanding with partners in the Greater Bay Area to harmonise standards and commercialise advanced aerial technology as the city accelerated its integration into national development plans. Deputy Fina...

While German companies operating in China increasingly view the global expansion of local firms as a chance to collaborate, the window of opportunity is narrowing as Chinese firms quickly adapt, according to a new report. The internalisation of Chine...

The educational ethos of “cultivating values and nurturing people” is based on a classic Chinese saying that emphasises building good morals and a sense of social responsibility alongside academic and technical knowledge. At the Education Univers...

Indonesia is demanding that Netflix pay an estimated 75 billion rupiah (US$4.3 million) in royalties accumulated since its launch in the country or risk being shut down. The National Collective Management Organisation (LMKN), a government-supported a...

Two laboratories in central China have been shut down for alleged surrogacy activities, an underground practice that persists despite repeated crackdowns. On Wednesday, the health bureau in Changsha, Hunan province, said six people were detained afte...

The suicide rate among under-15s in Hong Kong rose to a decade-high in 2025, going against a downward trend overall, with social media activity strongly predictive of cases among young people, according to research from a local university. The Centre...

Chinese artificial intelligence start-up Moonshot AI, developer of the popular Kimi K3 model, may explore options for dual listings in Hong Kong and Shanghai in pursuit of greater capital and exposure, according to two people familiar with the matter...

Hong Kong’s District Court has sentenced two men with autism to up to three years and two months in prison for their involvement in a pro-independence group seeking to separate the city from Chinese sovereignty. District Judge Ernest Lin Kam-hung o...

Apple’s long-awaited entry into the foldable smartphone market, the iPhone Duo, has drawn immediate attention in China over its eye-watering price tag and exclusive dual-eSIM design, as the American tech giant targets entrenched domestic rivals Hua...

Mainland Chinese supermarkets, including US warehouse retailer Sam’s Club, have dropped the Hong Kong-bound vegetable label under new customs rules. The change has triggered widespread concern among consumers, as the label had long served as a sell...

China’s next-generation combat aircraft will be able to fly by themselves if a pilot loses consciousness, navigate without satellite signals and operate in self-reorganising large drone formations. That is the plan laid out by researchers from the ...

Workers’ Party chief Pritam Singh has called for a more modest increase to Singapore’s ministerial salaries, challenging the argument that a higher pay was needed to attract top talent from the private sector. At Thursday’s parliamentary debate...

Grab Singapore has apologised after a new promotional series formatted like popular Chinese microdramas raised concerns over personal boundaries and passenger safety in the city state. Titled I Fell In Love With My Grab Driver, the video campaign sta...

A 61-year-old man died in hospital on Thursday after collapsing on board a Hong Kong train earlier in the morning. Police said they received a report at 7.39am from passengers who found the man collapsed on a Central-bound train as it arrived at Cheu...

A pair of Chinese cousins in their 50s have redesigned ethnic brocade and promoted it by cross-dressing in women’s clothing made from the fabric, despite facing objections from their family. Uncle Yang, 56, hails from Fujian province in southeaster...

One pilot of the Amazon Prime Air cargo plane that crashed in Miami on Sunday cautioned they were flying “too fast” just over a minute before touching down on the runway they overran, the National Transportation Safety Board said. The pilot conti...

Four Chinese nationals, including a woman, claimed trial at the Sessions Court in Balik Pulau, Malaysia’s Penang state, on Thursday to charges of kidnapping a Singaporean man. The accused: Liu Ting Jun, 46; Huang Jin, 39; Wang Hao Yu, 32; and Guan ...

A 23-month-old girl born with heart and brain conditions has died after her parents found her unresponsive in their Hong Kong flat, the South China Morning Post has learned. Police said they received a report from the infant’s mother at 5.30am, say...

The EU’s climate monitor said on Thursday that August was the hottest single month ever recorded globally, with ocean temperatures also reaching unprecedented highs as western Europe capped its warmest summer. In response to the assessment by the C...

US President Donald Trump kicked off the Republican Party’s midterm campaign season in Dallas on Wednesday night, headlining the opening of a highly unusual convention aimed at rallying voters ahead of November’s high-stakes battle for control of...

The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) is developing a new platform to pool capital from institutional investors, aiming to roughly quadruple the private capital it mobilises for infrastructure projects across Asia, according to a senior off...

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio defended controversial strikes on suspected drug-trafficking boats during a visit to Ecuador on Wednesday, arguing Latin American cartels would “eat these countries alive” if left unchecked. Hailing a new generat...

At least five people were killed and 86 remain missing for after a fire erupted aboard a ferry near a tourist hotspot in the Philippine province of Palawan, the coastguard said on Thursday. The blaze broke out on the MV June Aster on Wednesday evenin...

The Philippines’ military modernisation road map is set for delays over budget constraints, with critics calling out what they say is President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr’s “lip service” approach and questioning his commitment to the ambitious proj...

China’s ruling Communist Party has signalled a renewed push for social stability by quietly setting up a high-level party group about a year ahead of its 21st national congress. The creation of the Leading Group for Social Governance of the party�...

As we observe World Suicide Prevention Day on September 10, the global community reflects on a sobering reality: suicide remains a leading cause of death among young people. Every year, more than 720,000 people die by suicide – each life a story cu...

A Chinese man’s seven-year affair with an insurance agent has ignited a legal dispute, revealing dramatic details uncovered by his wife. Guo, from Liuzhou in Guangxi province, southern China, is married to Zhen, with whom he shares a two-year-old d...

China’s electric vehicle (EV) adoption rate has hit an all-time high, as the Iran war drives motorists to shift away from petrol cars despite a sluggish automotive market. A record 65.2 per cent of the 1.54 million cars sold in mainland China last ...

In the first of our series of previews on the five-year plan and policy address, to be announced on September 16, Natalie Wong and Matthew Cheng look at the key political issues and the city leader’s hopes for a second term. When Hong Kong’s lead...

Russia has rebuffed a strongly worded complaint from Japan over a statue in the city of Khabarovsk depicting a Soviet soldier smashing an imperial-era border marker bearing the Japanese emperor’s emblem, with analysts predicting bilateral relations...

Iran’s capture of a US military underwater drone gives Tehran an opportunity to study and potentially reverse-engineer the vessel, delivering a setback for the Pentagon and drone maker Anduril. The US military and Anduril have downplayed the signif...

The Trump administration on Wednesday said that China is on track to meet its agricultural purchase commitments, with the sector expected to feature prominently in the deliverables for US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping’s ta...

US investment firm Susquehanna International Group has agreed to lease more than 4,808 square metres (51,762 square feet) of office space at the Cheung Kong Center II, a prime office skyscraper developed by CK Asset Holdings in Hong Kong’s main bus...

Social media influencers Andrew and Tristan Tate lost their bid for release from a Miami jail on Wednesday as they contest extradition to Britain, where they are wanted on rape charges. In denying bail for the Tate brothers, Miami-based US Magistrate...

China is willing to help broker a possible meeting between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, sources have said just weeks before Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected in Washington for a bilateral summit. Multiple peop...

The Trump administration sanctioned Chinese-language marketplace Xinbi Guarantee on Wednesday, along with two affiliated organisations, as part of a wider crackdown on transnational cybercrime. The US Department of Justice also announced it had seize...

Greg Reverdiau, an Arizona-based drone trainer, said he saw something highly unusual for politically polarised America when he waded through public comments on a US government proposal to restrict foreign-made drones: a consensus. Reverdiau, the foun...

What kind of population is Hong Kong planning for? That is the question the chief executive’s policy address must tackle as the Northern Metropolis begins to take shape. Much more than just another new town, the Northern Metropolis is Hong Kong’s...

Brazil on Wednesday eliminated its federal import tax on small overseas parcels, moving in the opposite direction from US and European Union efforts to close a loophole that saw such Chinese retail giants as Shein and Temu expand rapidly. The elimina...

The creators of the long-running and enthusiastically insolent television show South Park aren’t known to be huge fans of US President Donald Trump. However, they’ve decided to adopt one of his ideas – in a way. They’re changing – at least ...

Ukraine and Moldova on Wednesday played down claims from Norway’s prime minister that a plane carrying President Volodymyr Zelensky was almost hit by a drone as it flew to Oslo. Jonas Gahr Store told Norwegian public broadcaster NRK that Zelensky�...

US President Donald Trump said he expected the war with Iran to end after the November US midterm elections and threatened again to attack a site associated with the Islamic Republic’s nuclear programme after the two sides launched their biggest wa...

The UN atomic watchdog’s board on Wednesday reported Iran to the UN Security Council for the first time in 20 years, citing it for failure to cooperate in a long-running investigation into uranium traces detected by inspectors at undeclared sites. ...

US President Donald Trump gave tens of thousands of dollars in cash gifts last year to executive assistant Natalie Harp and three other close aides working in the West Wing, according to financial disclosures released by the White House. The payments...

An artificial intelligence researcher who left OpenAI to join Anthropic has decided to leave the industry, accusing both US companies of “gambling with our lives” in the race to develop AI models capable of self-improvement. Jacob Coxon, 27, spen...

Hong Kong is mourning the death of Tung Chee-hwa, the city’s first leader after its return to Chinese sovereignty and a respected elder statesman, who died on Tuesday at the age of 89. Tung was surrounded by his family when he “passed away peacef...

British police said on Wednesday a criminal investigation into the populist Reform UK party would be widened to include allegations made in a documentary that officials planned to break electoral law on foreign funding. Reform, led by veteran Brexit ...