A new survey suggests that while Southeast Asian elites acknowledge China has done more to help the region fight the coronavirus than its rivals such as the United States, they are more anxious about Beijing’s rising regional clout now than they we...

Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Myanmar’s biggest city for a fifth consecutive day on Wednesday, defying a ban on protests as the military moved to tighten its grip on the country.Crowds swarmed through Yangon demanding the relea...

Shares of Phoenix Media Investment soared by the most in at least a decade, amid a potential reshuffle in its top ranks, raising speculation that China’s government will step in to take over the management of the unprofitable operator of six namesa...

This story is published in a content partnership with POLITICO. It was originally reported by Marianne Levine and Burgess Everett on politico.com on February 9, 2021.Two of the Senate Republican Party’s leading moderates. The 2012 Republican presid...

A Chinese company says it has developed system software for quantum computers, but an expert questions if the effort is ahead of the current stage of hardware development.Xinhua reported on Monday that Origin Quantum, a Hefei-based start-up in the so...

A New Zealand Maori leader who was ejected from parliament this week for refusing to wear a tie in the chamber said forcing him to a Western dress code was a breach of his rights and an attempt to suppress indigenous culture.On Tuesday, Speaker Trevo...

The head of the US military’s Central Command warned that the United States faced greater competition in the Middle East from both China and Russia, adding another layer of geopolitical tension to the already volatile region.In an address at the Mi...

China and some east Asian nations racked up gains in their share of global exports in 2020, propelled by their ability to weather the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a United Nations report released on Wednesday.China boosted its sh...

North Korea has stolen more than US$300 million worth of cryptocurrencies through cyberattacks in recent months to support its banned nuclear and ballistic missile programmes, a confidential UN report said.Compiled by a panel of experts monitoring sa...

Anyone arriving in England and found to have lied about a recent visit to a country on the UK government’s travel ban list faces up to 10 years in prison under new tough coronavirus border policies.Health Secretary Matt Hancock said that from Monda...

When the Tokyo Olympics begin in July, there will be no socialising, no handshakes and definitely no hugs. Those are the strict rules organisers have imposed on athletes at the coronavirus-postponed Games, outlined in the latest rule book released th...

California has surpassed New York as the US state with the most coronavirus deaths, a grim reminder of the pandemic’s toll even as the vaccine roll-out and a sharp drop in new cases buoyed hopes of life eventually returning to normal.More than 45,0...

The United States is deploying long-range B-1 bombers to Norway to train in the strategically important High North in a new show of force unseen in the region since the Cold War.“High North, low tensions” goes an old saying, describing the relati...

Hong Kong’s health authorities are expected to announce on Wednesday how existing social-distancing measures will be relaxed after the Lunar New Year holiday, according to a government source, as the city faces fewer than 20 new Covid-19 infections...

The Philippine foreign secretary Teodoro Locsin Jnr has denounced as “crooked” his own government’s plan to sell its properties in Japan to fund the fight against the coronavirus.Government officials, apparently backed by President Rodrigo Dute...

New Zealand said it is urgently seeking clarification from Chinese authorities after Beijing suspended imports from two of its seafood factories.Shipments from a Sanford facility that processes mussels and a Sealord Group fish processing plant have b...

This story is published in a content partnership with POLITICO. It was originally reported by Natasha Bertrand and Daniel Lippman on politico.com on February 9, 2021.Few Trump-era mysteries are as intriguing as what the 45th president said to Vladimi...

Hong Kong’s High Court has thrown out the second judicial challenge to the government’s controversial requirement for domestic workers to live with their employers, even during maternity leave.Yvette Dingle Fernandez and her daughter, Eloisa Vale...

Foreign direct investment (FDI) into China rose 4.6 per cent from a year earlier in January to 91.61 billion yuan (US$14.2 billion), the Chinese Commerce Ministry said on Wednesday.In US dollar terms, FDI rose 6.2 per cent year on year to US$13.47 bi...

Europe’s oldest person, French nun Sister Andre, has survived Covic-19 and will celebrate her 117th birthday this week, her carers said.Lucile Randon, who took the name of Sister Andre when she joined a Catholic charitable order in 1944, tested pos...

The Philippines will strengthen its naval presence in the South China Sea to protect its fishermen, its new military chief said on Tuesday, as concerns grow about the operations of China’s coastguard in disputed waters.The Philippines has protested...

This story is published in a content partnership with POLITICO. It was originally reported by Gabby Orr and Meredith McGrath on politico.com on February 9, 2021.For former US president Donald Trump, the opening day of his second impeachment trial did...

China’s producer price index (PPI) rose for the first time in a year due to a rise in demand as the economic recovery continued and as factories passed on rising input prices, data released on Wednesday showed.PPI, reflecting the prices that factor...

Tension between Australia and China has been growing despite record bilateral trade. Two events stand out: Australia taking the lead in boycotting Huawei and its call for an international inquiry into the origins of Covid-19. Regardless of Australia...

Chinese President Xi Jinping has sent a letter to Communist Party members in a hallowed revolutionary site stressing the need for unity ahead of the party’s centenary later this year.State media reported that Xi had told party members in Beizhuang ...

When the coronavirus pandemic hit last year, Japan’s booming sauna industry had a problem: packed hot rooms seemed to violate all the new rules of social distancing and ventilation.But instead of spelling the end of the good times, the challenge ha...

When fresh meat and vegetables run low at home, part-time receptionist Linda Lim usually only has one supermarket in mind for grocery shopping: a Sheng Siong outlet just five minutes away by car.For her, the no frills, home-grown supermarket chain ch...

Hong Kong district councillors, who could soon be required to take oaths of allegiance, face disqualification if they are found to be not patriotic enough or a threat to national security following official probes into their past conduct, the Post ha...

World Health Organization investigators looking into the origins of Covid-19 in China have said it was most likely that the virus spread to people via an intermediary animal and ruled out the possibility that it came from a laboratory leak.The leader...

A West Texas judge has a word of caution to those attending court hearings via Zoom: always check for filters before logging on.Judge Roy Ferguson’s warning comes after a lawyer accidentally joined a video court hearing while using a Zoom filter th...

The United States will not accept World Health Organization (WHO) findings coming out of its coronavirus investigation in Wuhan, China without independently verifying the findings using its own intelligence and conferring with allies, a State Departm...

China’s top disciplinary body has warned that corrupt elements linked to “big tigers” such as disgraced former security chief Zhou Yongkang are still in place.A series of reports published on Monday by the Central Commission for Discipline Insp...

The final version of China’s antitrust guidelines includes small, but potentially significant, changes from the previous draft that could make it complicated for Beijing to single out monopolies, according to legal experts.They said those revisions...

Federal safety officials on Tuesday blamed the helicopter crash that killed Kobe Bryant and eight others on board last year on the pilot’s poor decision to fly into clouds where he became disoriented and plunged into a Southern California hillside....

This story is published in a content partnership with POLITICO. It was originally reported by Andrew Desiderio and Kyle Cheney on politico.com on February 9, 2021.The US Senate voted on Tuesday to uphold the Senate’s authority to put Donald Trump o...

Israel’s Aleph Farms has cultivated a ribeye steak using three-dimensional “bio-printing” and real cow cells – an achievement that is prompting the startup to eye other meat.Working with the faculty of biomedical engineering at the Technion-I...

A spacecraft from the United Arab Emirates swung into orbit around Mars on Tuesday in a triumph for the Arab world’s first interplanetary mission.Mission controllers at the UAE’s space centre in Dubai announced that the uncrewed craft, called Ama...

Song Deping landed in the United States with little money and big dreams in 2004, settling in New York City’s Flushing neighbourhood.The Sichuan native lived in a small apartment with strangers, in a bedroom divided in half with a shared toilet and...

Authorities have ordered all 3,000 pigs at a farm in northern Hong Kong culled after African swine fever appeared to be spreading at the facility.Six samples taken from one shed on the premises at Wong Nai Tun in Yuen Long returned traces of the dise...

A Chinese businesswoman was sentenced to three years’ jail on Tuesday, according to her supporters, after she spoke out in defence of dissident law professor Xu Zhangrun, who has openly criticised the Communist Party and President Xi Jinping.Geng X...

Motown legend Mary Wilson, the longest-reigning original Supreme, has died at 76 years old. The American singer died on Monday night at her home in Las Vegas and the cause was not immediately clear, said publicist Jay Schwartz. Wilson, Diana Ross a...

Only nine out of nearly 340 Hong Kong secondary schools polled in a survey intend to resume full in-person classes after the Lunar New Year holiday by meeting a government condition that all staff be regularly tested for the coronavirus.The poll by t...

Nigerian police said on Tuesday they had freed three Chinese workers kidnapped last week from a gold-mining site in southwestern Osun state.The Chinese were abducted and their police escort killed on February 1 following a dispute with local labourer...

The first person charged under Hong Kong’s national security law may challenge prosecutors’ decision to remove jurors from his trial, but is expected to face an uphill battle following the top court’s latest ruling on its jurisdiction.Tong Ying...

Thailand will rely on Covid-19 vaccines from China’s Sinovac Biotech to kick off an inoculation drive that aims to cover about two-thirds of the nation’s eligible population by the end of this year, potentially paving the way for a full reopening...

Beijing said it would work with other countries in the region to maintain peace and stability after the United States sent two aircraft carrier strike groups to the disputed South China Sea on Tuesday, the latest sign of continued military tension un...

Chinese President Xi Jinping has promised to supply more coronavirus vaccines to Europe and import more goods as he seeks to win over a region that is growing increasingly sceptical of Beijing.Addressing an online gathering with 17 Central and Easter...

China and Vietnam must manage their own maritime disputes and resist outside instigation, Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Monday.In a phone call with his Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Phu Trong, Xi also said the Regional Comprehensive Economic P...

Widespread sleep deprivation among Chinese children has prompted the government to include students’ sleep hours in its appraisal of schools.The Ministry of Education has called on schools to find ways to ensure students get enough sleep, and will ...

A Harvard University professor who argued that the Japanese army did not force Korean “comfort women” to work in brothels for the military but that they were willingly recruited as prostitutes has come under increasing fire from Koreans, with a g...