After years of concern over students using artificial intelligence to cut corners, Singapore’s universities are embracing the technology, driven not just by changes in the classroom but by pressure to prepare graduates for an economy that increasin...

Chinese President Xi Jinping led the party elite to pay a final tribute to former premier Zhu Rongji who was cremated on Tuesday as national flags were lowered to half mast. Zhu, who died of an illness in Beijing last Wednesday aged 97, served as pre...

Hong Kong customs has arrested 10 people and seized suspected cannabis buds worth an estimated HK$56 million (US$7 million) in a month-long operation targeting a syndicate accused of smuggling the drug from Southeast Asia to Europe and Africa via the...

When the Hong Kong stock exchange launched five-year China government bond futures on August 3, it did more than simply expand the city’s derivatives product suite. As the only China government bond futures in the offshore market, the contract dese...

This article was first published on August 18, 1961. Hong Kong declared infected area Authorities adopt strict measures against cholera Stringent health measures to protect Hong Kong have been taken following the confirmation yesterday (August 17, 19...

Hong Kong’s offshore yuan bond market has seen another record-breaking deal – the largest single issuance by a Chinese state-owned enterprise – underscoring the growing appeal of the city’s dim sum bond market. State Grid Corporation of China...

Men in military fatigues identical to those worn by Japan’s Ground Self-Defence Forces (SDF) are reportedly prowling evacuated communities in Kumamoto prefecture to loot abandoned homes and businesses in the aftermath of last month’s earthquake. ...

Aboard his boat moored along the Strait of Hormuz, Iranian fisherman Mohammad Amin mended a torn fishing net after a long day in waters that have long sustained his livelihood, but are now shadowed by the threat of death. It has been less than a mont...

Thailand’s justice minister pledged on Tuesday to review pardon criteria following backlash over the release of an 85-year-old drug trafficker who served less than a decade of a life prison sentence. Laota Saenlee, a former anti-communist guerrilla...

A Hong Kong court has sentenced a man to 22 years in prison for repeatedly raping his daughter since she was 13, with the judge saying the penalty could not make up for the ordeal the victim suffered and calling it one of the worst sexual assault cas...

–

Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown’s securing of another term, despite a dispute with New Zealand over his government’s deals with China, suggests voters are more focused on the cost of living than geopolitical concerns, analysts have said. B...

US President Donald Trump cited India’s election system as a model for the US, bringing the world’s largest democracy into a contentious American debate over voter access and election security. Trump said the identification requirements make elec...

A decision has yet to be made on whether Malaysian authorities will file an extradition request for a local pilot arrested in Indonesia, according to Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail. Saifuddin said on Tuesday that investigations should be con...

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. How Southeast Asia�...

A preacher and prominent conservative commentator has drawn backlash in Malaysia after questioning why a banner for a traditional Chinese festival was not written in Malay, the country’s national language. Ridhuan Tee Abdullah, an ethnic Chinese Mu...

A top naval software expert, whose work helped warships to process battlefield information and support combat decisions, has vanished from the Chinese Academy of Engineering’s online membership list. Zhao Xiaozhe, 63, a vice-admiral in the PLA Navy...

Chinese commercial banks recorded a rare, modest uptick in net interest margin (NIM) in the second quarter of 2026, marking the sector’s first quarterly expansion in the profitability indicator since 2022, even as underlying loan demand remained we...

Hong Kong authorities aim to complete a revamp of the city’s heat-stress warning system by the end of this month, the labour minister has said, following criticism that the alert level was not increased during record-breaking temperatures. Secretar...

An independent committee investigating Hong Kong’s deadliest fire in decades will postpone submitting its report by a month, to the end of October, attributing the delay to the complexity of issues and the large volume of documents it must review. ...

Southeast Asian exporters may soon face a heavier burden of proof to show they are not helping Chinese goods dodge US tariffs after the White House named nine countries in the region as part of what it called a global “Shadow Transshipment Network�...

China’s state media has called for English-language terms related to artificial intelligence (AI) to be dropped in favour of standardised Chinese equivalents in a push to boost the country’s “discourse power”. As AI technologies have rapidly ...

Women working in US President Donald Trump’s White House were not surprised that press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced last week she was leaving her job – and they do not think it was just because she wants to spend time with her young child...

An increasing number of hotels in Japan are offering “sleep tourism” experiences – stays designed to promote high-quality and restful sleep. The trend, which started gaining popularity overseas several years ago, provides hotels with an opportu...

Zhipu AI’s launch of China’s first answer to Project Glasswing signals a shift in how the country’s top artificial intelligence labs approach global cybersecurity, according to a researcher. The Beijing-based firm – now known internationally ...

A student carrying two pistols shot to death a fellow student before killing himself on Tuesday in an attack in a southern Philippine high school campus that he live-streamed using a body-worn camera, police and other officials said. It was the secon...

Loaves of sourdough bread now fill the display window of Suchart and Friends Gun, a firearms shop-turned-bakery in Bangkok’s old quarter where pistols and rifles once lined the glass case. Like all the gun shops in Thailand, it ‌has been banned f...

China cut its holdings of US Treasuries to a nearly 18-year low in June, as Beijing continued to diversify its foreign exchange reserves amid heightened geopolitical tensions and growing uncertainty over the policy outlook in the United States. Holdi...

As the United States, Russia and China race to turn a melting Arctic into the world’s next major economic gateway, their strategic ambitions face a hidden threat: thawing permafrost. Since returning to office last year, US President Donald Trump ha...

Hong Kong’s self-financing postal administration will stop offering permanent civil service contracts to new employees as part of cost-saving measures amid a worsening financial outlook. The abrupt move by Hongkong Post sparked concerns among civil...

President Donald Trump’s decision to scale back joint military exercises with South Korea does not just slight a long-time ally but raises broader concerns about the security interests of the United States in Asia and elsewhere. Trump explained his...

The much-anticipated revamped Huanggang Port, expected to open later this year, should be seen as more than a story about faster clearance. Its deeper significance lies in a question that deserves wider discussion: if border functions can be redesign...

Colombia’s new housing minister has come under fire after it emerged that he took his family on a Caribbean holiday while the country was reeling from a devastating earthquake that left thousands homeless. The August 10 earthquake, which killed nea...

AI desktop pets are gaining popularity in China, offering young workers an outlet for workplace frustration and providing bereaved owners with a digital means to preserve memories of their deceased pets. Virtual pets first emerged on messaging platfo...

Hong Kong infrastructure and artificial intelligence (AI) firms are well placed to capitalise on a surge of expansion opportunities in Malaysia, but unlocking this potential will require cultural sensitivity and adapting to local market dynamics, ind...

Indonesia’s next electric-vehicle push will test whether President Prabowo Subianto can turn rising demand, nickel wealth and consumer subsidies into an integrated domestic industry that captures more value at home, or merely make imported and loca...

The US diesel crack, a key measure of refining profitability, hit an all-time high of US$102.20 a barrel on Monday as global supply disruptions from the wars in Iran and Ukraine run into peak agricultural consumption season. Measured as the premium �...

The Hong Kong property market’s recovery is forecast to moderate in both prices and rents in the coming months as disruptions brought about by artificial intelligence, slower population inflows and other factors are likely to impact the upturn, acc...

US President Donald Trump said on Monday that he would not seek to extend the memorandum of understanding with Iran, claiming that while Iran wants to make a deal, “they’re not going to make the kind of a deal that I feel is necessary”. The agr...

Moscow said on Monday it had summoned the Japanese ambassador after Tokyo condemned President Vladimir Putin’s recent visit to Russia’s far-eastern Kuril Islands, which are also claimed by Japan. Russian-Japanese relations have long been dogged b...

Speculation is growing that Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth is at increasing risk of losing his job, raising questions about the possible implications for US-China relations, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter. The sources, speaking o...

There is something about the speed of consensus on China’s rocket failures that should give us pause. Within hours of Long March-7A rocket’s disintegration over the South China Sea on August 10, trade reports were pointing to an engine as the lik...

Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa arrived in Beijing on Sunday for his first state visit to China, an eight-day trip during which he will seek to lift suspensions on 14 Ecuadorian shrimp processors and secure fresh investment in energy and mining. No...

Thousands of people gathered in central London late on Monday to hold a vigil for black academic Jason Arday, blaming racism and relentless media pressure for his death last week. The vigil in central Trafalgar Square came as the head of Cambridge Un...

US President Donald Trump’s approval rating has fallen to the lowest level of his presidency, with an overwhelming majority of Americans ‌concerned the US war with Iran will last a long time, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll that concluded on Mo...

Rapper Tupac Shakur was shot dead in an act of gang revenge ordered by a mobster who later boasted of it, jurors heard on Monday, as one of America’s most anticipated trials got under way, 30 years after the murder. Duane “Keffe D” Davis, a one...

The theft ⁠of four paintings by Renaissance master Antonello da Messina may have involved organised crime and raised troubling questions about security at a museum in the Sicilian artist’s hometown, a local official said on Monday. Enzo Caruso, M...

Nvidia has agreed to provide a ⁠guarantee of up to US$105 billion ⁠to help ⁠OpenAI lease a sprawling data centre in Ohio being developed by SoftBank-backed SB Energy, in one of the chipmaker’s largest infrastructure financing commitments. The...

A Russian court on Monday convicted a prominent opposition politician for speaking out against the war in Ukraine and sentenced him to 11 years and one month in prison in the latest crackdown leading up to next month’s parliamentary election. The v...