Malaysia’s unity government is holding in Putrajaya, but its uneasy alliance is fraying in the states after Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s Pakatan Harapan (PH) moved into opposition in Melaka even as it is still reeling from a rout by its federal...

When Hong Kong launched its latest Connect programme on July 7, most of the attention focused on gold. That misses the bigger story. Delivery Connect, part of the city’s new gold clearing and settlement system, is not simply another financial initi...

The Philippines has begun holding active school shooter drills after a rare act of violence in Tacloban City last month during which two teenage students opened fire, killing three schoolmates and injuring 20 others. On Wednesday, at one educational ...

Hong Kong needs to diversify the source of its listed companies and investors if it is to reclaim its recently lost crown as the world’s top initial public offering (IPO) venue, according to a government think tank. “Hong Kong should continue to ...

It is part-boat, part-bridge and part-life raft – and in the massive floods in southern China, it has been all rescue vehicle. The foldable, self-propelled pontoon barge has emerged as a powerful new tool in the response to the disaster, used to re...

Hundreds of eager visitors queued up overnight for the opening of the Hong Kong Book Fair on Wednesday, but some slammed organisers for chaotic crowd control measures. The primary draw for many in the overnight queue outside the Convention and Exhibi...

Hong Kong authorities have pledged to fast-track renovation, equipment installation and testing at an upgraded border checkpoint as the legislature prepares to approve the Huanggang Port bill this week, pending an opening date. Secretary for Security...

The feud between Samsung Electronics’ device-making and chipmaking divisions is deepening, as employees in the smartphone and home appliance businesses are expressing anger over a nearly 100-fold compensation gap between them and employees in the c...

More than half of the reading glasses tested by Hong Kong’s consumer watchdog failed to label pupillary distance, a key measurement for aligning lenses to ensure clear vision and reduce the risk of eye strain. The Consumer Council tested 17 models ...

Hongkongers buying insurance for their pets have been urged to carefully examine third-party liability terms and pay special attention to coverage related to disputes and animals with a history of aggression. The Consumer Council issued the warning o...

It was supposed to be just another hectic day on New Delhi’s roads. Instead, early this month, several e-rickshaws on the Indian capital’s crowded streets reportedly came to a halt mid-ride in separate incidents that left drivers stranded and pas...

Chinese motorcycle tycoon Zhang Xue has donated five million yuan (US$735,000) to flood-stricken Guangxi right after clearing a 100-million-yuan (US$15 million) corporate debt, moving many online. Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, in southern China, ...

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has threatened to close “all other export corridors that benefit the US and its allies”, Iranian media reported, after Iran shut the Strait of Hormuz and the US reimposed a naval blockade of Iranian port...

New Zealand’s interest in joining a newly signed defence pact between Australia and Fiji may mark the start of a broader hard security alliance covering the South Pacific, but analysts warn smaller states’ concerns are likely to go unaddressed. T...

We have put together stories from our coverage on science from the past two weeks to help you stay informed. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. China’s satellite engine smashes record, leaves US rival fa...

China’s leading memory chipmaker, ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT), has priced its Shanghai initial public offering at 8.66 yuan (US$1.28) apiece, positioning the company for the largest listing by a Chinese semiconductor company on a mainland b...

A new era began between Spain and the tiny British territory of Gibraltar on Wednesday, as border checks that have long been a source of tension and frustration were finally lifted. Several dozen people and vehicles crossed the border from Spain for ...

A Chinese research university plans to phase out traditional English classes, citing the ability of artificial intelligence (AI) translators to bridge language barriers in real time. In a video posted to the university’s social media account on Jul...

New home prices in four Chinese first-tier cities rose by an average of 0.1 per cent last month, extending a four-month rebound and signalling a gradual recovery in market sentiment as housing stabilisation measures gain traction. Compared with May, ...

A plan to cut the cost of domestic flights for foreign visitors to Nepal could end up making them more expensive for citizens, according to airline operators that warn against scrapping one of the country’s most contentious tourism pricing policies...

Phu Nhuan Jewellery, Vietnam’s largest listed jeweller, is facing a crisis of confidence after police detained the former head of its gem certification subsidiary over his alleged links to a transnational diamond-smuggling ring. Shares in PNJ, as t...

An independent, judge-led committee investigating Hong Kong’s deadliest fire in decades heard the first round of closing submissions from legal representatives on Wednesday, following 27 sessions of evidential hearings. Counsel representing the com...

The Hong Kong Observatory issued an amber rainstorm warning at 10.05am on Wednesday and urged residents to take precautions such as staying away from watercourses. The forecaster warned that widespread heavy rain could affect Hong Kong in a couple of...

Imagine, for a moment, that you lived in ancient China, with a rival state threatening your people’s very existence. In the quest for any advantage, one strategy might involve performing a ceremony to invoke assistance from the ancestors. However, ...

The Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) has sent its first formal delegation to mainland China since the party’s founding, seeking to maintain cross-strait peace through dialogue amid heightened tensions with Beijing. The nine-member delegation from the ...

Mainstream media, particularly in Hong Kong, have historically been conservative in their research and development spending. Media executives prefer to shop for off-the-shelf solutions, treating technology as back-office support rather than a core gr...

A pilot of the major Japanese airline All Nippon Airways was sentenced to 20 months in prison on Tuesday for abusing his power to grope a female flight attendant after work. The Tokyo District Court ruled that Ryota Mise, 44, acted in a “mean and p...

Secondary Six students across Hong Kong have received their results for the city’s university entrance examinations. They returned to their schools on Wednesday to collect result slips for the Diploma of Secondary Education (DSE), which grades most...

Malaysia’s navy is preparing to take delivery of a warship fully equipped for anti-submarine, anti-air and electronic warfare – everything, that is, except a way to sink an enemy ship. After nearly a decade of delays, financial scandal and shipya...

China is an existential threat to the United States, and Washington needs to slow Chinese momentum and accelerate US technological advances, or fall well behind the Asian giant, witnesses told lawmakers at a Congressional round table on Tuesday. Amon...

Hong Kong health authorities have made an urgent appeal for a heart transplant for a six-month-old boy in a critical condition, saying the Hospital Authority will also seek assistance from mainland China soon. An authority spokesman said on Tuesday e...

There will be no turning back the clock if the US House has its way. The House passed a bill on Tuesday that would make daylight saving time permanent. Proponents, including the White House, argued the change would provide more daylight during the ti...

A decade after Beijing rejected the ruling by The Hague’s Permanent Court of Arbitration on its South China Sea claims, rival nations continue to manoeuvre for control. In the third of our series on the anniversary, Laura Zhou looks at why the gap ...

Huddled in a room around a big screen, dozens of Boko Haram members listened intently as external consultants, whom they called “the white guys”, coached them on how to use leading artificial intelligence chatbots with laptops pre-installed with ...

Connectivity can be an ambiguous term. Different states use it in different ways at different times. In Southeast Asia, as in other regions where regional diplomacy exists in the backdrop of ever-stronger great power disputes, connectivity lies in th...

A Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton nicknamed “Gus” sold on Tuesday for US$50.1 million at Sotheby’s in New York, making it the most valuable dinosaur fossil bought at auction, after a 10-minute battle between seven bidders. “Gus” is one of the wo...

American chipmaker Nvidia has shipped “very few” H200 artificial intelligence (AI) chips to mainland China and Hong Kong, a top Trump administration official told lawmakers on Tuesday, marking the first deliveries since the United States approved...

US Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett told lawmakers Tuesday that a sharp increase in threats targeting her and other justices is increasingly encroaching on their personal and family lives. During a rare appearance by justices before Congress, ...

Warren Buffett has stopped donating to the Gates Foundation, ending a two-decade philanthropic partnership following revelations about interactions between Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates and the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. ...

British ⁠counterterrorism police said on Tuesday that ⁠former government minister Ann Widdecombe, who was found murdered at her home last week, was clearly targeted, adding that officers were still working to establish the motive. “It is clear ...

The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency has ordered its ⁠officers to suspend most vehicle stops around the country, after agents fatally shot two men six days apart during traffic stops in Texas and Maine, officials said on Tuesday. The s...

Writer E. Jean Carroll has collected over US$5.6 million that a jury awarded in her sexual abuse and defamation lawsuit against US President Donald Trump, court records and her lawyers said. The payment – representing the US$5 million jury award, p...

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday abandoned plans to impose a 20 per cent charge on commercial cargo passing through the Strait of Hormuz, less than a day after unveiling the proposal, while pressing ahead with a naval blockade targeting Iranian t...

Singapore’s Home Affairs and Law Minister K. Shanmugam and Manpower Minister Tan See Leng said on Tuesday they would donate to charity the damages awarded to them in their defamation suit against Bloomberg. In separate social media posts published ...

Hong Kong police have arrested a 21-year-old student and a jobless 19-year-old on suspicion of deliberately causing more than 120 traffic accidents across the city in “crash-for-cash” scams, racking up more than HK$1 million (US$127,570) in fraud...

US consumer inflation slowed more than expected in June as energy prices retreated, but the moderation was insufficient to convince financial markets to take an interest-rate increase from the Federal Reserve this year off the table against the backd...

China’s successful recovery of a reusable rocket has sparked debate among aerospace experts over whether its unconventional approach could actually cut the cost of reaching space. On Friday, the country’s Long March-10B became the first orbital-c...

Thousands of Indonesian free meals kitchens complained on Tuesday they had ⁠been left in the lurch ⁠by the government’s move to scale ⁠down President Prabowo Subianto’s flagship free meals programme to save money. Jakarta is considering a p...

Five traffic accidents have occurred on Tsuen Wan Road within the first three days of the launch of a new overpass, prompting Hong Kong transport authorities to install additional signage reminding motorists of the new arrangements. Three of the inci...

Louis Vuitton is set to face off against China’s trademark regulator in a Chinese intellectual property court on Thursday, as the French luxury brand deals with public backlash in China over a separate legal battle against a local milk tea brand. L...