Chinese artificial intelligence start-up DeepSeek has previewed a plan for a more autonomous AI agent that can handle multiple tasks with minimal human intervention, as it steps up competition with US rivals OpenAI and Anthropic in developing coding ...

China’s first female conductor, Zheng Xiaoying, is 97 years old, but she continues to give outstanding performances to audiences. In August, the nonagenarian conducted the Chinese-language version of the opera Carmen in Xiamen, in southeastern Chin...

For decades, China has supplied African militaries with small arms and land-based equipment such as armoured vehicles, trucks and artillery. Now, it is selling them more specialised weapons, including armed drones and electronic warfare systems. Anal...

Turkey has moved the country’s Kurdish militant leader to a newly built part of an island prison where he has been incarcerated since 1999 as part of efforts to end decades of conflict, a senior Kurdish official said. Improving prison conditions fo...

Hong Kong sweltered through its warmest October on record, as an extremely strong El Nino, a weak northeast monsoon and a persistent anticyclone aloft over southern China combined to drive temperatures to unprecedented levels, the weather forecaster ...

The 2026 Global Governance Forum in Xiongan, Hebei province, wrapped up on October 25. Against a backdrop of acute strains on multilateralism and a widening global governance deficit, the forum galvanised a shared sense of urgency across the internat...

India’s new high-altitude combat tank was designed to go where its heavier armoured fighting vehicles cannot: the thin mountain air, narrow roads and small bridges along its disputed border with China. In its base configuration, the Zorawar weighs ...

Beijing has stepped up its maritime presence around Taiwan, deploying coastguard patrols from the island’s eastern approaches to waters near Quemoy and remote Dongsha Island. Chinese coastguard spokesman Jiang Lue said on Saturday that a formation ...

The Trump administration’s online accounts are circulating images of a pumpkin carved with a sombrero design and a fake Halloween-themed background around a black man apparently accused of food assistance fraud, in social media posts slammed by cri...

Malaysian Transport Minister Anthony Loke Siew Fook has dismissed a recent claim on social media that students were forced to serve alcohol at an old boys’ association reunion and centenary dinner, calling the allegations a politically motivated at...

The Hong Kong government’s reforms to crack down on bid-rigging are intended to bring about a “revolutionary overhaul” of the city’s building maintenance ecosystem, the justice minister has said. Three days after the government unveiled a ran...

Taipei Mayor Wayne Chiang Wan-an faces an unexpectedly tough re-election fight in a race closely watched for its potential to damage the main opposition party Kuomintang and further strain the island’s relations with Beijing. Just five months ago, ...

Driving along the wide boulevards of Astana during a recent trip to the Kazakh capital, signs of China’s growing commercial footprint were everywhere. Chinese cars were becoming a common sight on the streets here, as brands from BYD to Changan made...

Long dubbed an “air-conditioned nation”, Singapore is experimenting with cooling alternatives from chilled beams to “passive displacement” to curb its thirst for energy-guzzling air conditioning. The city state has the highest per-capita air ...

For Singaporean flight attendant Chloe Tan Zi Ling, 35, the problem with paper straws is their impracticality. “It softens before we can finish the drink, so we have to gulp it down without a straw,” she said, adding that reusable metal alternati...

Former Japanese adult film actress Mao Hamasaki was admitted to intensive care at a Hong Kong hospital after being allegedly drugged while working in a club in Tsim Sha Tsui on Sunday morning. Hamasaki’s manager published a post on her Facebook pag...

Celebrating one’s 18th birthday is not typically a poignant occasion, but for Hongkonger Chen Tsz-kin, adulthood began with a mixture of excitement and anxiety. At 18 months old, Chen was diagnosed with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a genetic condit...

Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport has reclaimed its position as China’s busiest airport, handling more than 67 million passenger trips in the first nine months of 2026 following a major expansion last year, the municipal government announced. ...

For over three decades, Dolores Balladares Pelaez has lived and worked in Hong Kong without once returning to the Philippines for Undas, the annual two-day observance honouring the dead. This year, she is arranging prayers from afar for her late fath...

Three Chinese-language newspapers in Hong Kong have raised their retail prices by HK$3 (40 US cents) this month, marking the first sector-wide adjustment in two years. Ming Pao’s increase took effect on Sunday, raising its single-copy price from HK...

Argentina is the latest country seeking to lure investors with an investment-for-citizenship programme, providing another residency and diversification option for the wealthy, including those from mainland China and Hong Kong, according to analysts. ...

A Chinese photographer is facing fierce public backlash for charging middle-aged women inflated fees while allegedly subjecting them to sexually suggestive remarks during photo shoots. Known online as “Duan Gongzi,” 48-year-old army veteran Duan ...

Russia’s influence has surged among young people across Africa in recent years, leaping over former colonial power France while still trailing China, a survey of African youths has found. Many young Africans now perceive Russia to be an ally, obser...

A little-known South Korean music act has climbed the charts with a viral hit that has caught listeners off guard – not just for its sudden popularity, but because its vocals were generated entirely by artificial intelligence. Meomuru’s single, �...

A Vincent van Gogh painting not shown publicly for more than 60 years recently drew hundreds of people to Sotheby’s Hong Kong. Painted in May 1890, Châtaigniers en fleurs (Chestnut Trees in Flower) is a major work from his Auvers-sur-Oise period a...

Van driver Wong Siu-po, 48, feels life is becoming more difficult than ever as rising fuel prices cost him an additional HK$5,000 (US$640) a month, about a third of his monthly income. With an 11-year-old daughter and an unemployed wife to support, h...

A 21-year-old woman who posted on social media that she was planning to shoot US President Donald Trump at his rally in Florida’s Daytona Beach has been arrested, authorities said. Trump visited Daytona on Friday to help drum up the vote for Republ...

Southeast Asia’s electric vehicle boom risks leaving the region’s smaller companies behind, as Chinese automotive giants bypass local part-makers in favour of imported components and locked-in supplier networks. Local manufacturers across Indones...

The theft of billions of dollars from Binance within a matter of minutes, the biggest cryptocurrency heist in history, was orchestrated by North Korean hackers, the FBI said on Saturday. The Federal Bureau of Investigation said in a statement that th...

When Zhuhai hosted its inaugural air show in November 1996, the event showcased the J-8IIM fighter, a second-generation fighter equipped with Russian radar and weapons, alongside a limited line-up of home-made aircraft. Imported planes were the focus...

What kind of living space can truly be called a “home”? That was the question on my mind when I visited United Court, a transitional housing estate in Tung Tau, Yuen Long, run by the Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui Welfare Council. While there, I shared...

Saying the US president was “grasping at straws”, a federal judge on Saturday threw out Donald Trump’s US$10 billion lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal and media mogul Rupert Murdoch over a story reporting on his ties to wealthy financier ...

As Washington seeks to loosen China’s dominance over critical minerals, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio urged other members of the Group of 20 (G20) to strengthen supply chains and secure strategic trade routes as the group’s foreign ministers�...

Police fired tear gas and clashed with protesters in Paris and elsewhere on Saturday as hundreds of thousands marched across France against soaring living costs and police violence, with some demonstrators dressed as clowns and witches for Halloween....

German police fired water cannon to disperse firework-hurling protesters on Saturday and were also pelted with other projectiles, as tensions rose at the end of massive youth-led protests. In Berlin, Frankfurt, Cologne and dozens of other cities, dem...

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Saturday that the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, or the Quad, was not an “anti-China” coalition, as the grouping’s top diplomats finalised preparations for the leaders’ summit in the Philippines nex...

A Hong Kong man believed to have accidentally fallen from a height struck a domestic helper on the podium of a luxury housing estate in West Kowloon on Saturday, with the pair sent to hospital. Police said they received a report at 7.43pm that the ma...

Deaths in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC’s) Ebola outbreak have topped 5,000 as the country grapples with the relentless spread of the disease and cases are recorded in other African countries, the latest government data on Saturday show...

A leading Hong Kong telecommunications carrier has confirmed that an order requiring it to justify its operation in the United States has been ceased, after the company reportedly agreed to wind down its business under pressure from a US regulatory a...

Iran’s supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei on Saturday warned the United States and Israel against returning to war, according to a written statement, following threats from the Islamic republic’s foes of a possible resumption of strikes. “If the e...

China is further narrowing access to a key government recruitment programme for overseas-educated graduates, limiting their pathways into the country’s civil service and party-state system. More than a dozen provincial-level regions, including Beij...

Chinese archaeologists are set for a hi-tech turn, with the latest five-year blueprint aiming to deploy AI and deep-sea robots to trace Chinese history, decipher the origins of East Asian humans and expand the country’s cultural soft power. Scienti...

Chinese first lady Peng Liyuan hosted her German counterpart, Elke Budenbender, in Beijing on Friday for a tea reception in a bid to showcase Beijing’s soft power and foster closer bilateral ties. Peng stressed the rich cooperation with Germany in ...

Vendors at Hong Kong’s Wine and Dine Festival reported a stronger turnout and signs of improving business on Saturday as the annual event entered the weekend, coinciding with Halloween celebrations and extended opening hours until 1am. Some exhibit...

Prime Minister Andy Burnham said on Saturday he was “open” to the UK issuing a formal apology for its role in the transatlantic slave trade, but ruled out financial reparations. The Labour leader made the remarks days before attending a Commonwea...

America’s push for 2027 combat readiness in the Indo-Pacific is raising questions over whether a year that US military officials linked to a possible People’s Liberation Army attack on Taiwan has instead become a planning benchmark. The preparati...

Nearly 200 nations have struck hard-fought agreements at a UN biodiversity summit, but the outcome was accompanied by disappointment over missed opportunities to address humanity’s destructive toll on nature. Delegates cheered on Friday as crucial ...

Beijing and Washington have been urged to foster a new generation of talent to bridge gaps between the countries and strengthen people-to-people exchanges amid growing frictions and concerns about a lack of China expertise in the US. Academics and ex...

Fu Chengyu, the former chairman of leading oil giants Sinopec and China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), is under investigation for corruption by the country’s top watchdogs. The Communist Party’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspe...

Revellers packed Lan Kwai Fong dressed as golden Buddhas, Lipton tea drink cartons and bottles of ketchup and mustard, with bars expecting a business bump of more than 50 per cent as Hong Kong’s first “Halloween Month” roared to a close on Satu...