Chinese President Xi Jinping said he was “fully confident” of closer ties with Taiwan as he met a leader of the island’s opposition Kuomintang (KMT) party for the first time in almost a decade. “The historical trend that compatriots of both s...

Last week, on April 1 to be exact, Apple reached the grand old age of 50 (almost exactly a year younger than Microsoft), one of a tiny proportion of S&P-listed companies that have stayed the course for half a century. It is a company with which I hav...

Cheng Li-wun, chairwoman of Taiwan’s biggest opposition party, the Kuomintang, highlighted the need for peace as she spoke to the media in Beijing on Friday afternoon after her historic meeting with Communist Party chief Xi Jinping. It is the first...

China plans to launch its first rocket from open waters in the South China Sea, in a display of a more flexible, long-range maritime launch capability. The 31-metre (102-foot) tall, solid-fuelled Jielong-3 is expected to lift off at 7.30pm on Saturda...

A Malaysian association has come under fire after warning that wider work-from-home arrangements would hurt urban businesses, with critics accusing it of prioritising city-centre takings over the government’s effort to cut fuel use across the count...

China’s healthcare sector has been drawing offshore capital to Hong Kong-listed stocks as investors look for safe havens amid global volatility in commodities. The Hang Seng Healthcare Index, tracking some of China’s most innovative pharmaceutica...

Legendary British rock band Deep Purple made ⁠Japanese Prime Minister ⁠Sanae Takaichi’s day with a brief ⁠visit to their high-profile superfan on Friday as they returned to the country they first toured more than half a century ago. Takaichi�...

Hong Kong housing authorities have spent HK$34 million (US$4.3 million) on recovery efforts following the devastating fire at Wang Fuk Court, including removing damaged scaffolding, conducting structural assessments and strengthening works. The Housi...

Indonesia’s richest man has begun selling small stakes in his listed companies as tighter ownership rules push firms to increase shares available to public investors. Billionaire Prajogo Pangestu sold a 0.56 per cent stake in coal and mining holdin...

More than 150 Hong Kong civil servants were dismissed for serious misconduct or criminal convictions over the past three financial years, with police accounting for the largest number of cases. In a written reply to a lawmaker’s inquiry on Thursday...

Cheng Li-wun, chairwoman of Taiwan’s largest opposition party, the Kuomintang (KMT), spoke to the press in Beijing at 2.22pm on Friday, hours after her historic meeting with Communist Party chief Xi Jinping. It was the first meeting between leaders...

Hong Kong police have arrested a man over a bank robbery in Wan Chai, with preliminary investigations showing that HK$36,000 (US$4,595) was stolen. Police received a report at 12.26pm after a man robbed a branch of Bank of East Asia in Harbour View C...

Two Americans travelling in China who mistook a “happy funeral” banquet in rural China for a trendy restaurant were unexpectedly given a warm welcome by the locals. Well-known American YouTuber Ludwig Anders Ahgren, who is widely known as Ludwig,...

We have selected seven stories from this week’s news across Hong Kong, mainland China, the wider Asia region and beyond that resonated with our readers and shed light on topical issues. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please conside...

Buying illegal drugs has become as easy as ordering a pizza in South Korea – especially for teens and young adults who have grown up in the digital age – as drug trafficking has increasingly moved online. On platforms like Telegram and the dark w...

Hong Kong authorities must ensure its massive HK$1.8 billion (US$229.8 million) subsidy for diesel to mitigate record-high oil prices for the transport sector is not exploited by fuel companies through discount manipulations, an industry leader and a...

The Pentagon and the Vatican denied allegations of a rift following Pope Leo’s criticism of the Trump administration and a news report of a contentious meeting between a papal envoy and a top US defence official. In separate statements, the two sid...

China’s “desert wheat farms” have survived repeated sandstorms and continue to grow following an initial trial in the country’s largest desert, as part of an ongoing effort to combat desertification and unlock the land’s potential for stren...

Jardine Matheson is giving up its remaining office space in FWD Tower at Taikoo Place and plans to relocate staff back to Jardine House in Central as part of operational consolidation, sources said. The move reflects a wider trend of companies consol...

Her father is in custody at The Hague, her alliance with President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr has collapsed into bitter rivalry and she is fighting to halt impeachment proceedings before the Supreme Court. Despite all of that, Philippine Vice-President Sar...

Communist Party chief Xi Jinping and the chairwoman of Taiwan’s main opposition party both highlighted the message of peace across the strait as they met in Beijing on Friday, marking the first such talks between the sitting leaders of the two part...

Russia’s protest over a proposed investment by a Japanese company in a Ukrainian drone maker signals its concern that Tokyo may be supporting closer cooperation with Kyiv’s defence sector and planning to lift a long-standing ban on weapon exports...

In a potential boost to Middle East ceasefire efforts, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday that he authorised direct negotiations with Lebanon “as soon as possible” aimed at disarming Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants and ...

This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing. An independent committee examining the causes of Hong Kong’s deadliest blaze in decades held its 10th day o...

Economic growth across Asia is likely to slow even if oil prices stabilise in the coming months, as the impact of war in the Middle East ripples through industries from manufacturing to tourism, according to the Asian Development Bank. The US and Isr...

US Vice-President J.D. Vance will travel to Islamabad for the first round of talks on Saturday, with Iran to end the war in the Middle East, according to the White House. The US Secret Service has already arrived in the Pakistani capital to make secu...

Alibaba Cloud captured more than 50 per cent of global open-source model downloads as of March following the release of its Qwen 3.5 model series, a new report has found. The finding underscores the dominance of Chinese models in the global open-sour...

Three solid-state battery developers across China and the US are moving towards initial public offerings (IPOs), as geopolitical tensions and elevated oil prices fuel demand for more energy-efficient technologies. Qingtao (Kunshan) Energy Development...

US President Donald Trump’s public rebuke of South Korea for refusing to send warships to the Strait of Hormuz is an uncomfortable moment for a 70-year alliance, piling fresh pressure on a Seoul government already uneasy about Washington’s appeti...

With the coming summit between Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump back on schedule for May, the two leaders present two starkly different paths for the world: one defined by a “community with a shared future” and the other...

Thai authorities have seized assets worth 8.3 billion baht (US$260 million) belonging to people behind an alleged money-laundering network linked to transnational cyber scam operations in Cambodia. The latest seizure by the Anti-Money Laundering Offi...

A Chinese man who joined a matchmaking event while his wife had briefly gone to the bathroom, then claimed he was single, has sparked outrage online. On April 1, during “Auntie Wang’s Matchmaking” event in Bengbu, Anhui province, central China,...

Clashes over the screening of a controversial, award-winning Hong Kong coming-of-age documentary at an Italian film festival have escalated, with the director accusing the secondary school at the centre of the dispute of “blatantly lying” about t...

Hong Kong bus company boss Martin Lau feels overwhelmed as he attempts every option possible to minimise mounting losses wrought by runaway fuel prices. He has done everything he can think of, from trying to reduce services to doing his own repairs o...

Japan is forging ahead with an investment plan that could see as much as 1 trillion yen (US$6.3 billion) pumped into its shipbuilding sector as it tries to wrest back greater control of a key strategic industry. However, analysts said money alone wou...

A lobbying firm led by one of Donald Trump Jnr’s hunting buddies helped a Chinese company ⁠make its case to a US national security watchdog, public filings show. The case involved a US ⁠start-up that was seeking to have the Chinese firm removed...

Hong Kong developers are preparing to launch nearly 1,300 units in the coming days and weeks, with some edging up prices amid improving homebuying sentiment. On Sunday, 261 units at La Mirabelle I will be released, with average prices ranging from HK...

A US judge in Washington ruled ⁠on Thursday that the Pentagon is ⁠hampering journalists in defiance of a court order that required it to restore access to credentialled reporters covering the seat of US military power. US District Judge Paul Frie...

The US-Israel war on Iran could push Nato closer to becoming a “nominal” alliance, although it was unlikely to disband any time soon, a Chinese observer said. US President Donald Trump has repeatedly criticised the transatlantic defence alliance ...

The Iran war has been framed as a Middle East crisis with global energy consequences. That is true, but incomplete. It is also reshaping China’s strategic map. The disruption in the Strait of Hormuz, the jump in oil prices and the shock to shipping...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s corruption trial will resume on Sunday, the Jerusalem District Court confirmed, after emergency restrictions imposed during the conflict with Iran were lifted. A court statement on Thursday said that “t...

Russian ⁠President Vladimir Putin’s special ⁠envoy Kirill Dmitriev is currently in the United States and is meeting members of US President Donald Trump’s administration for ‌discussions on a peace deal for Ukraine and US-Russia economic co...

Brazil is set to exhaust its annual beef export quota to China by early May, industry officials said, as cattle prices hit a nominal record and Beijing’s import restrictions forced exporters across South America to scramble for alternative markets....

US first lady Melania Trump on Thursday rejected what she called “lies” about her relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, in a rare White House address where she also called on Congress to hold public hearings for his victims. T...

Russia has formally designated Nazi crimes against the Soviet population during World War II as genocide and criminalised their denial, after President Vladimir Putin signed amendments to the country’s criminal code, the Kremlin said on Thursday. T...

Six years ago, Chinese-American playwright Alex Lin was pursuing a career in tech, doing what she called “the stable thing” and promising herself she’d write when there was more time. The pandemic gave her that time – and with it the chance t...

US President Donald Trump said he plans to impose a 20 per cent tariff on all cars imported from the European Union unless the trade bloc “soon” removes import duties and other barriers to US goods, escalating global trade tensions. “Based on t...

Britain said on Thursday it had tracked and deterred three Russian submarines on an alleged month-long “covert operation” in UK waters in the North Atlantic near vital undersea cables and pipelines. Disclosing details of the joint mission with No...

Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said on Thursday that he represents a proud nation seeking to maintain global order, pushing back against the latest comments about ‌the Arctic island by US President Donald Trump. Trump on Wednesd...

Workplace sexual harassment complaints in Hong Kong have jumped by 38 per cent year on year, according to the equality watchdog. The Equal Opportunities Commission recorded 315 such complaints in 2025, up from 228 the previous year, the Constitutiona...