The United States can launch stealth bombers across continents, track missiles from space and deploy forces anywhere on the planet. But as the nation approaches its 250th birthday next month, studies suggest a more basic question demands attention in Washington: can the military reliably fuel, sustain and connect those forces in a crisis? From the skies to orbit, two new reports point to vulnerabilities in critical pillars of US power projection at a time of intensifying strategic competition...

A pair of rare brown wood owls have been bred at a botanic garden in Hong Kong, with two chicks fledging last month. Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden in Tai Po kept the breeding programme under wraps for weeks, allowing the chicks to grow undisturbed before announcing it. The chicks, still downy white, were seen peering curiously from their nest among ferns in the farm’s mature forest. Their mother kept watch from a nearby tree during the day and foraged for food at night, the farm said in a...

The administrator of the Hong Kong estate devastated by a deadly fire last November has missed the deadline to hold a much-anticipated meeting with flat owners, but has promised to resolve various challenges and make new arrangements soon. Hop On Management Company issued a notice about the delay to Wang Fuk Court residents on Saturday, the day the meeting was supposed to be held and the deadline upheld by the Lands Tribunal last week in line with the Building Management Ordinance. The tribunal...

The invention of modern anaesthetics in 1846 is a pivotal milestone in the history of modern medicine, yet humans have long sought to alleviate surgical pain. Recent research has showed that in the 14th century, Ming dynasty (1368–1644) surgeons utilised a toxic plant concoction to create an anaesthetic, developed by the renowned traditional Chinese medicine surgeon Xia Quan. This discovery provides physical evidence that supports ancient texts, making it a fascinating contribution to medical...

In a blaring nightclub in wartime Myanmar, partied-out revellers doze until dawn by the dance floor, wary of journeying home despite the end of a post-coup curfew. Lasers streak the smoke-filled air and music is cranked up to 150 decibels, according to one DJ – as loud as a jet engine at take-off – but the weekend clubbers slumbering on sofas dotted around the warehouse-sized Yangon venue do not stir. “That became a habit, they’re used to it,” said one 29-year-old veteran of the capital’s elite...

Chinese investors in Indonesia’s nickel industry recently sent a formal protest letter to President Prabowo Subianto. The message reflects their concerns over Indonesia’s political and economic direction, and the long-term trajectory of Chinese investment and Indonesia’s industrialisation programme will hinge on how Indonesia resolves them. The letter, submitted by the China Chamber of Commerce in Indonesia (CCCI), complained about a series of government policies, including proposed royalty...

Two major Japanese chemical manufacturers could halt production of a gas crucial to AI chipmaking starting next month, as supply tightens and prices surge amid Beijing’s export controls on tungsten. The price of tungsten hexafluoride has jumped more than 200 per cent year on year because of supply bottlenecks, coupled with rising chip demand, market data showed. The gas is a critical precursor in the semiconductor industry, where it is used to develop the microscopic connections inside advanced...

A woman swimmer was ⁠seriously injured in a shark ⁠attack at a Sydney beach on ⁠Saturday, authorities said, in the latest of a spate of such encounters off Australia’s coast. Emergency services were called to Coogee Beach in the east of Sydney, Australia’s largest city, in the morning on reports that the 35-year-old had been bitten by a large shark about 30 metres (100 feet) from the shore. “The woman was pulled from the water by members of the public, who commenced first aid,” police said in a...

Peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait needs a “joint answer” from people on both sides, Beijing’s top Taiwan affairs official said on Saturday. “As profound changes unseen in a century accelerate across the world, the international landscape is becoming increasingly turbulent and complex, the situation in the Taiwan Strait remains complex and severe,” Wang Huning told the Straits Forum, an annual event designed to boost exchanges between Taiwan and mainland China. “The future direction of...

Bangladesh’s new leader is set to visit Malaysia and China later this month in a trip that Dhaka says reflects its independent foreign policy – with the decision to skip India seen less as a snub than a bid to strike a diplomatic balance. Tarique Rahman, who became Bangladesh’s 11th prime minister in February, plans to visit Malaysia on June 21–22 before a three-day official visit to China from June 23 on his first overseas trip since taking office. The Malaysia leg, scheduled ahead of any visit...

A Hong Kong intern doctor arrested on suspicion of unauthorised access to patient data has been released after about 21 hours in custody and has reportedly been taken back to her former workplace for evidence collection. A source told the South China Morning Post that the 24-year-old woman, surnamed Lai, was released from Cheung Sha Wan Police Station at around 4pm on Saturday. She was arrested at around 7pm on Friday on suspicion of accessing a computer with dishonest intent. Lai was reportedly...

The United States said it downed multiple Iranian drones targeting commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz early on Saturday, hours after both sides said a deal to end the Middle East war was closer than ever. The interception came after weeks of halting talks between Tehran and Washington, mediated by Pakistan, that have been marked by threats and exchanges of fire despite a fragile truce agreed in April. US Central Command (CENTCOM), which oversees operations in the region, posted on social...

Washington has ordered Anthropic – a leading entity in America’s AI sector – to block all foreign nationals from accessing its latest models, Fable 5 and Mythos 5, citing national security concerns, according to the Silicon Valley-based firm. The unprecedented export-control measure – the first to target specific AI models – came just days after Anthropic released the models, underscoring Washington’s increasingly hands-on approach to regulating frontier artificial intelligence...

Workers began removing President Donald Trump’s name from the facade of the Kennedy Centre early on Saturday, hours after a court-ordered Friday deadline to remove references to Trump from the building and other aspects of the iconic performing arts venue’s operations. Scaffolding was erected on Friday around a section of the building that includes Trump’s name, but shortly after midnight, the Kennedy Centre asked a judge to extend the deadline until noon Eastern Time on Saturday because of...

With more than 20 years of experience as a light goods van driver, Hongkonger Fung Fu only started considering switching to becoming a private driving instructor when he noticed the economic outlook was getting gloomier. “Many restaurants have closed down, and companies are making fewer orders of goods. Besides, more drivers are joining the logistics industry, resulting in keener competition,” the 48-year-old told the South China Morning Post. “As I am getting older, my job of carrying heavy...

When Natasha Ann Lum was growing up, there was no place for Singlish – an English-based creole language in Singapore – at home. Her father was adamant that Lum and her brother not speak with broken grammar or use conversational markers such as “lah”, “lor” or “eh”. “He didn’t have the luxury of education and felt like he missed out on work opportunities because he didn’t speak English at a level that was required, so he wanted to make sure my brother and I would be better off,” said the software...

China activated the world’s first three-band optical fibre communication system early this month, technology that its developers say could expand the carrying capacity of future AI networks. According to the project team, a single fibre can carry more than five times the traffic of conventional systems, while transmission capacity per core increases by nearly half. The project, completed in Qingdao in the eastern Chinese province of Shandong, was jointly developed by state-owned...

The International Criminal Court ordered a medical assessment of former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte to determine whether he is fit to stand trial, with proceedings set to start in November. It is the second time that Duterte, who is facing charges of crimes against humanity over his drug war that killed thousands of people, will undergo a health check ordered by the court. The ICC’s pre-trial chamber found in January that the former leader, who ruled the Philippines from 2016 to 2022,...

A possible meeting next week between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump offers a chance to reset ties following a year of strained relations over tariffs, Pakistan, and now, the Iran war. US forces this week attacked three Indian-crewed vessels in the Gulf of Oman region, killing at least three sailors and prompting protests from New Delhi. Modi and Trump would likely want to contain the latest tensions and avoid derailing efforts to get relations back on track...

This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing. The Hong Kong Observatory cancelled the amber rainstorm warning for a second time on Saturday, after the city was hit by heavy showers and thunderstorms under the combined influence of a southwest monsoon trough and a low-pressure trough. The earlier downpours prompted the forecaster to issue an amber rainstorm warning – the lowest in the three-tier system –...

After seven years working in the shadows, He Tingbo stepped back into the limelight last month. The head of Huawei Technologies’ secretive semiconductor business – widely dubbed the company’s “chip queen” – had been out of the public view since 2019, when Washington severed the Chinese company’s global access to advanced technology, including semiconductors. Her retreat into the background became a symbol of Huawei’s battle for survival. That all changed last month on a global academic stage in...

President Donald Trump said late on Friday that a “swift and lethal kinetic” US strike has killed Tren de Aragua gang leader Hector Rusthenford Guerrero Flores. “At my direction, ‌the United States Southern Command delivered a swift and lethal kinetic strike to successfully execute Nino Guerrero, the infamous leader of Tren De Aragua, one of the most bloodthirsty Terrorist Organisations on Planet,” Trump said in a post ⁠on Truth Social on Friday evening, referring to Guerrero Flores by his...

As Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi heads to the G7 meeting in France next week, she is expected to hear rumblings of discontent over Tokyo’s apparent diplomatic outreach to Moscow. With European Union member states and most Nato nations united in their resolve to push back on Russia’s ongoing aggression against Ukraine and isolate Moscow, Japan’s very different approach to Vladimir Putin’s regime has not been overlooked. Senior officials from Japan’s foreign and trade ministries travelled...

Let me pick up where I left off in a previous column. On sabbatical in China, I was reeling from being pored over by parents at the Shanghai marriage market, and judged to be too old and overqualified. But if no vigilant parent would have me for their offspring, perhaps someone in my more permanent home of London would? So I began again. Although nine months away from British dating apps had not changed them, something in myself had changed. The algorithms may rely on Photoshop and well-meaning...

Hong Kong’s Development Bureau will test whether heavy-duty drones, weighing nearly 150kg (330.6lbs) each, can carry essential items across up to six sites over the next 12 months, the South China Morning Post has learned. In response to queries from the SCMP, the bureau revealed it was partnering with two companies to test whether the devices could carry heavy materials such as cement and manhole covers for construction work. Other potential applications include clearing drains and cleaning...

A woman in eastern China has been reunited with her birth family 22 years after running away as a child, fearing punishment for breaking a bottle of shower gel. Liu Xiuhong, from a rural family in Ganzhou, Jiangxi province, was nine years old when she moved with her migrant-worker parents to Jieyang, Guangdong province, where they lived in a cramped rented room, according to the mainland outlet Shicheng Media. While playing at a friend’s home in 2004, Liu accidentally smashed a glass bottle of...

A US federal judge who was disciplined after an investigation found that she had sex with a police officer in her chambers and then lied about it wrote a letter to a former law clerk apologising for her “harmful, offensive, and unprofessional behaviour”. An investigation initiated last year by the chief judge of the 11th Judicial Circuit found that US District Judge Eleanor Ross had sex in the courthouse with a high-ranking uniformed police officer within earshot of staff, attended a partisan...

Dan Rae Hugo has never heard of the Asean Petroleum Security Agreement. All he knows is that his diesel costs have doubled, his profit margins have evaporated and the rice on his neighbours’ tables now costs 20 per cent more than it did before the Iran war. The 43-year-old has been farming the fields of Iloilo, the Philippines, for 18 years. He has never worked harder for less. “It’s all the inputs: the diesel, the labour for operating the machines, the transportation when we harvest … It’s the...

Sushila Devi sat sobbing on the floor of her house in Deoria, northern India after authorities told her that her husband was one of three sailors killed in a US attack on a ship off Oman. “If he had told us about the dangers, I would have called him back,” she cried out as women from the family gathered around to console ‌her. “The government should not allow people to go there.” India on Friday took the rare step of lodging a second protest with the US over the strike that took place more than...

Japan’s transport ministry on Friday reprimanded Japan Airlines and urged it to compile preventive measures by July 17 after an incident in which two cabin attendants drank the day before a flight in May, delaying a scheduled flight for about 40 minutes. The female JAL employees had falsely reported in an internal investigation that they had not consumed alcohol in violation of company regulations, according to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. The ministry determined...

In an era of naval warfare defined by air superiority, precision missiles and autonomous drones, China’s navy appears to be bringing back the “big guns”. A new naval gun system is said to be in development which takes 155mm, or 6.1-inch, artillery shells. That would make it the largest of its kind in the world today. The naval gun has recently been spotted undergoing sea-based performance testing from an experimental warship, which suggests it is moving closer to being deployed by the People’s...

The Philippines’ confrontational approach to maritime territorial disputes, such as its championing of the 2016 South China Sea arbitration ruling, has not only failed to resolve regional tensions, it also risks undermining Asean centrality. In May, addressing Japan’s National Diet, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr announced that Manila would mark the ruling’s 10th anniversary in July, an occasion he said “embodies our determination to resolve disputes through peaceful means”. That is...

Inside a sprawling broadcast hub in Dallas, thousands of devices supplied by Lenovo are helping Fifa manage and distribute content from stadiums across the United States, Canada and Mexico, forming part of the technological backbone of the largest World Cup ever staged. The central role played by the Chinese-founded technology company highlights a reality often obscured by geopolitical tensions between Washington and Beijing: while US policymakers have increasingly scrutinised Chinese technology...

A shooter who opened fire in the West Texas city of Midland died on Friday after a stand-off with police following an attack that left one person dead and at least nine others injured, city officials said. The suspect, 45-year-old Victor Mata Villarreal, had shot at police just days earlier during a chase and was already being sought by authorities when he began firing at officers and bystanders in Midland, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety. Police were called to the area after...

Even popes have travel delays. Lucky for Pope Leo, King Felipe VI offered a way out, and a way home. Leo’s Iberia charter, due to take him back to Rome after a week-long visit to Spain, was grounded by a technical problem Friday, prompting Spain’s king to offer his private jet instead. Felipe escorted Leo to his Falcon on the tarmac at the airport in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, in the Canary Islands. Leo and members of his delegation boarded the plane and took off, more than three hours after he was...

Catapulted by the market debut of his rocket company SpaceX, Elon Musk is now the world’s first trillionaire. That level of wealth, all owned by just one person, was once unfathomable. Before Friday, the trillion dollar mark was reserved for measures like the GDP (or staggering debt) of a handful of major economies – and, in the last decade alone, the value of some of the biggest companies to ever trade on the stock market. Musk’s new title arrives amid a wider acceleration for the richest of...

The Trump administration on Friday said that it is “80-85 per cent” confident of signing the peace agreement with Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and end the war in the Middle East. “We do expect to be signing this agreement over the next few days … if I were to give you a confidence that we were going to be signing this agreement, I maybe would have said 75 per cent this morning; it’s probably more like 80-85 per cent now, but it’s not 100 per cent,” a senior administration official...

In a post on the social media platform he owns, Elon Musk recently lamented: “Whoever said ‘money can’t buy happiness’ really knew what they were talking about.” Now the world’s richest person can put that maxim to an even bigger test as he adds a new title: world’s first trillionaire. Shares of SpaceX rose 19 per cent on Friday to US$160.95 each in their first day of trading, vaulting the value of the rocket and AI company Musk founded to US$2.2 trillion. His fortune now stands at the...

British artist David Hockney, one of the most influential and defining figures in contemporary art whose paintings captured the world in brilliant colour, has died aged 88, his publicist announced on Friday. Tributes poured in for the 1960s pop art pioneer who established himself as a globally renowned painter and master draughtsman and kept painting, experimenting and exhibiting right up until his death. “I think I’ve something to say to people – that’s why,” he told the Daily Telegraph in...

A one-year-old boy remains in a critical condition in a Hong Kong hospital after contracting Covid-19, the second infant confirmed as severely infected with the contagious disease within a week, according to health authorities. The Centre for Health Protection at the Department of Health said on Friday that both boys had good past health but had not been inoculated against Covid-19. The centre urged unvaccinated high-risk groups to get vaccinated, warning that the overall Covid-19 activity could...

Huawei Technologies is studying whether to run its newest Ascend artificial intelligence chips inside its cloud and AI services in Latin America, a senior executive has confirmed, in a move that would push Chinese-designed hardware deeper into a region long courted by US suppliers. Mark Chen, president of Huawei Cloud Latin America, gave the confirmation in an exclusive interview with the South China Morning Post after his presentation at the Rio Web Summit, the technology and innovation...

The Tumen River has resurfaced as one of the big issues for keen observers of relations between China and North Korea but after the leaders of the two countries met this week, there was no mention of it in the official statements after the summit. The river is a natural border between China, North Korea and Russia, and a narrow strip of it that runs between North Korea and Russia blocks Chinese access to open waters. Beijing has long tried to convince its two neighbours to open the waterway to...

The United States and China should hold regular high-level meetings and deepen cooperation on emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, as greater transparency is essential to avoid a downturn in relations, a veteran US diplomat has said. Richard Haass, president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, said meetings between senior officials from Washington and Beijing should become routine, rather than being treated as “news”. “This is a relationship that needs to be...

As the United States quietly pulls its most precious military assets away from the coasts of Asia, they are falling back to places like Guam in Micronesia, a US island territory far beyond the reach of most conventional missiles. It sounds like a retreat but for the Chinese military it is actually a much trickier problem. In modern warfare, distance can become a shield and dispersion a weapon. This is the puzzle a team of Chinese defence scientists has been solving. Their answer, published...

Hong Kong’s finance chief praised a blockbuster film about the Teochew community as it premiered locally on Friday, and highlighted the ethnic group’s contributions to the city’s development, even as some critics panned the production as overly patriotic. Dear You, an unexpected box-office hit that was shot on a shoestring budget, focuses on a grandson’s efforts to learn more about his family history by tracing letters sent home in Chaoshan from Thailand. The film will go into general release in...

An intern doctor has been arrested by Hong Kong police on suspicion of accessing patient data without authorisation and fired from her hospital, according to an insider and medical authorities. A source said the 24-year-old woman was arrested on Friday evening after allegedly accessing a computer with dishonest intent at Caritas Medical Centre in Sham Shui Po. She was being detained for investigation, the insider added. According to the source, the Hospital Authority had received an anonymous...

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Friday ⁠rejected the ⁠idea that he had ⁠lost authority in his role, and said he would fight to keep his job, adding that anyone who wanted to replace him would have to deal with the same financial ‌constraints. The comments come a day after Defence Minister John Healey delivered a fresh blow to the prime minister’s already weakened leadership by quitting and accusing Starmer of being unable to commit the resources needed to keep the country safe, in a dig...

China’s decision to ban Philippine Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jnr and his family from Chinese territory has taken Beijing’s maritime feud with Manila into unusually personal territory, with analysts saying the move appeared aimed at warning other Philippine officials against taking a hard line. The sanctions, announced by China’s foreign ministry on Thursday following Teodoro’s recent criticism of Beijing, also prohibit Chinese organisations and individuals from engaging in transactions,...

A Hong Kong court has extended an injunction restraining the finance chief of a private college, his wife and two other defendants from handling more than HK$25 million in allegedly misappropriated funds. The High Court on Friday also ordered the four defendants to disclose to Hong Kong Chu Hai College all of their assets worth HK$50,000 or more within 21 days, to help the plaintiff assess which items could be linked to the case. Finance director Ray Yip Kam-chun appeared in court for the first...

Even Western pundits grudgingly admitted the summit between President Xi Jinping and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was a success. Both sides, according to Bloomberg, “appear to have walked away with what they wanted”. Given China’s rising pre-eminence while avoiding any damaging war, it’s no surprise that Xi had the upper hand in his recent meetings with US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. But with Kim, the stakes for Beijing were just as high, in light of Tokyo’s...

The US and Iran may sign an agreement to reopen the Strait of Hormuz on the sidelines of the Group of Seven world leaders summit next week, according to senior officials. A senior Iranian official indicated overnight that a deal is likely, said a G7 official and a diplomat from outside the group, who both asked not to be named discussing sensitive matters. This year’s G7 summit takes place in Evian, in the French Alps, from June 15 to June 17. Geneva, in Switzerland, is nearby and being floated...

Zhejiang University in China has overtaken Harvard University to become the top academic institution in the world, according to the 2026 Nature Index. This is the first time Harvard has lost its top position in the rankings since the index’s inception in 2014. Tsinghua University, also from China, was third. Chinese institutions dominated this year’s list, accounting for nine of the top 10 – up from eight in last year’s rankings. Of the top 20, China has 17, with Stanford University No 12 and...

Beijing has confirmed the arrest of Min Zin, a US citizen and political analyst at a Myanmar-focused think tank, on suspicion of espionage and endangering national security. “It is understood that Min Zin has been placed under criminal detention by the relevant authorities in accordance with the law on suspicion of engaging in espionage and endangering China’s national security,” foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian said on Friday. Lin did not give further details of charges against Min Zin, but...

Three property sites will be handed over to the future operator of the planned green transit system in Hong Kong’s East Kowloon to boost the project’s financial viability under arrangements approved by the government. The project, which will link Choi Hung and Yau Tong, will be put to tender next month with the goal of opening the 7km (4.3 mile) rail line by 2033. Similar to the arrangements for the transit system in Kai Tak, the successful bidder for the East Kowloon project will be responsible...

China has established a top-level laboratory in Shanghai dedicated to photonic computing as the country strives to bypass the power constraints and US technology curbs hobbling its ambitions in artificial intelligence development. The Shanghai Key Laboratory of Integrated Photonic Computing Chips and Systems, launched on Wednesday, was China’s first industry-academia platform dedicated to the field, Shanghai’s Jiefang Daily reported on Thursday. Zou Weiwen, director of the new laboratory and a...

The state elections in Johor and Negeri Sembilan, scheduled for July 11 and August 1, have opened two battlegrounds where economic issues take precedence over the political wrangling of Malaysia’s coalition parties. The ballot will also test whether Singapore-linked rail projects, economic zones and a data centre investment push have translated into support among Johor’s 2.73 million voters grappling with higher living costs. Nominations to fill 56 seats in the Johor state assembly will begin on...

A Hong Kong district councillor criticised for her links to the former owners’ committee of the fire-ravaged Wang Fuk Court has resigned from her advisory role for another housing estate in Tai Po, following the announcement of a petition. A notice from the incorporated owners of Plover Cove Garden, seen by the South China Morning Post, announced on Friday that Peggy Wong Pik-kiu had resigned from her honorary adviser role with the housing estate’s incorporated owners’ committee. The...

Beijing is seeking to expand people-to-people exchanges with Taiwan as it hosts hundreds from the island for an annual event, despite the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) banning Taiwanese officials from taking part. The Straits Forum, now in its 18th edition since 2009, is Beijing’s key platform for cross-strait people-to-people engagement, promoting exchanges in fields from culture to economics as part of its broader push for cross-strait integration. The main forum takes place on...

Hong Kong airport’s security contractor has expanded its canine patrol unit to the newly relaunched Terminal 2, deploying its 20 dogs and their handlers to cover the upgraded facility as needed. Jacob Cheung Tat-keung, executive director of the Aviation Security Company (Avseco), said on Friday that operations at Terminal 2 had been generally smooth, although passenger numbers had increased as 15 airlines had moved in over the past few weeks. Cheung said the deployment of the dogs would depend...

China’s chip design software industry is rallying behind Huawei Technologies’ ambitious new architecture aimed at producing chips that can rival leading global products, but analysts warn a steep uphill climb remains before local players can break the market stranglehold of US rivals. Empyrean Technology, a major Chinese electronic design automation (EDA) provider, became the latest supporter of the new chipmaking methodology. The company recently unveiled Argus, a new physical verification...

Hong Kong is reeling from a double tragedy on Wednesday after a 48-year-old social worker jumped to her death from her 19th-floor home in Taikoo Shing after arguing with her 12-year-old daughter about “education problems”. Hours later, the girl also jumped from her living room. The South China Morning Post breaks down the sequence of events and examines how Hongkongers can cope with stress and maintain harmonious family relationships. 1. How did the tragedy unfold? First, a government social...

A man in China who sparked public outrage for abusing and killing his adopted dogs has been detained for throwing objects from a height and vandalism. The period of administrative detention he was placed under lasts for as long as 15 days and it is the toughest penalty the police could impose in the case because of inadequate anti-cruelty to animals law in the country. According to the statement issued by the Police Bureau of Liangjiang New District of southwestern Chongqing on June 10, the...

As the European Union prepares tougher measures to counter what it sees as the “China shock 2.0”, a researcher with a Beijing-linked think tank has accused Brussels of clinging to a flawed narrative that China’s economic rise is an inherent threat to Europe. The criticism came as Beijing reportedly cancelled two high-level meetings with the EU in the Chinese capital this month, including a ministerial-level digital dialogue and a visit by a senior EU diplomat, according to the Financial Times on...

The Hong Kong government gazetted a bill on Friday that, if passed, would waive salary tax on fund managers’ performance-linked bonuses, so long as they meet certain requirements, in a move to introduce further tax reform to strengthen the city as a wealth management centre. The bill, which will be first read by lawmakers on June 24, may attract more fund managers and family offices to operate in the city, the government said. The measure would make Hong Kong the first major Asian financial...

Hong Kong actress Barbara Chan Man-yee has died at the age of 66, five years after the death of her husband, actor Liu Kai-chi. Chan’s sons said that she died peacefully on Friday morning, surrounded by family at Prince of Wales Hospital in Sha Tin after an illness. The announcement did not specify the nature of her condition. Her husband died in the same hospital in 2021 after reportedly battling stomach cancer for several months. “In accordance with her wishes during her lifetime, the memorial...

Chinese regulators are stepping up public enforcement against the nation’s corporate giants, marking a departure from the low-key approach adopted after a bruising 2021 tech crackdown. In recent months, agencies have summoned company representatives, launched high-profile investigations, and named and shamed offenders. However, while the uptick in activity has rattled investors, some analysts and observers contend that this does not herald a return to China’s heavy-handed campaign that...

China called on major nations to “foster a free and facilitative trading environment” ahead of two summits next week that may herald a trade war with the European Union. Vice-Premier Zhang Guoqing said China was “steadfastly expanding high-standard opening up” in a videoconference hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney attended along with representatives from Brazil, India, Italy, Japan, South Korea,...

Chinese scientists have uncovered differences between American and Chinese vaginal microbiomes, revealing that a bacterium closely linked to bacterial vaginosis and preterm birth is more prevalent and virulent in American women. The study underscores the need for localised treatments and “fills a critical gap for Asian populations and provides a foundational platform for global vaginal microbiome research and microbe-host interaction studies”, according to the researchers. The scientists said...

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr will travel to Russia next week for a summit with Moscow and Southeast Asian leaders in a visit analysts say will allow Manila to show it can fulfil its role as Asean chair while keeping diplomatic channels open with major powers, despite closer security ties with Washington. While the trip is unlikely to signal a shift in Philippine foreign policy, observers say it will be watched closely in both Washington and Beijing for any concrete outcomes on...

In their 2022 book Sinostan, Raffaello Pantucci and Alexandros Petersen saw Central Asia as China’s “inadvertent empire”. If that is true – and the five-country region embracing Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan (informally called the C5) certainly sits at the heart of China’s Belt and Road Initiative – then Beijing could not have chosen a less noticed corner of the world atlas. Unnoticed, perhaps, by almost everyone except Halford Mackinder, who in 1904 described...

EU tech sovereignty may prove an “illusion” in an AI world dominated by China and the US, a Chinese expert has argued, urging Beijing to seize the opportunity during Donald Trump’s second term to make its products indispensable to middle powers. The past few weeks have seen a number of efforts by middle powers to try to control their AI technology stacks. Last week, the European Union rolled out its Technological Sovereignty Package in a bid to make the bloc “a global leader” in artificial...

Bangladesh and India have agreed to deepen cooperation along their shared border with improved intelligence sharing and coordinated patrols, according to a joint statement released on Friday, amid strained relations over alleged undocumented migration. Dhaka has accused Indian authorities of attempting to ‌force migrants across the border without due process, complicating efforts to stabilise ties following the 2024 ousting of Sheikh Hasina and India’s broader effort to identify and deport...

A series of emergency management and local government officials in central China’s Hunan province have come under investigation following a catastrophic fireworks factory explosion that killed 37 people last month. The provincial discipline inspection commission announced on Thursday that three senior figures within the emergency management system were under investigation for “serious violations of discipline and law”. The officials are Lei Min, deputy director of the safety production emergency...

Hong Kong will allow dogs into 1,000 restaurants starting on July 9, under a scheme that caterers say could lift business by up to 20 per cent. The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department on Friday announced the scheme’s roll-out date after holding a ballot to select 1,000 restaurants from the 1,615 eligible applications. The licensed restaurants are evenly distributed across Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and the New Territories. Wan Chai had the highest number of successful applicants, with...

Hong Kong can be “more than New York and Silicon Valley combined” by positioning itself as a hub that integrates global financial depth with technological innovation and manufacturing capacity, the finance chief has said. Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po said on Friday that Hong Kong had a unique edge over New York and Silicon Valley, thanks to advanced manufacturing capabilities that its American rivals lacked, which were the result of integration with the Greater Bay Area. Speaking at the...

Crying without a clear reason can be a major source of anxiety for parents. As families look for new ways to navigate the uncertainty of early childcare, Japanese developers are rolling out AI-powered tools designed to identify the possible causes of a baby’s distress. One of them is Babylingual, a free app released in March by Moto Numazawa, a 25-year-old father in the Kanagawa prefecture city of Chigasaki, near Tokyo. In late April, Numazawa held his smartphone up to his three-month-old son,...

More than 1,000 Orang Asli, the indigenous people of Peninsular Malaysia, rallied outside a federal ministry in Putrajaya on Friday in a rare mass protest to demand recognition of their ancestral land and an end to evictions and development on their territories. Many wore traditional headgear as they marched through Malaysia’s administrative capital, carrying signs reading “Orang Asli are not immigrants”, “Respect the Orang Asli right to self-determination” and “Our voices will not be...

A Hong Kong retiree has received 40 hours of community service for slapping a five-year-old boy who threw a tantrum and berated his domestic helper at a shopping centre earlier this year. Lok Kam-ming, 61, returned to Tuen Mun Court on Friday to be sentenced for what his lawyer described as an incident arising from the “unfortunate encounter” between him and a child whom he first met at Grand Yoho in Yuen Long on January 8. Lok, who pleaded guilty last month to assault occasioning actual bodily...

A major immigration corruption scandal could mar Indonesia’s ambition to entice foreign funds and high-skilled workers, according to observers, further tanking investor confidence in Southeast Asia’s largest economy. The country’s Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) last week arrested eight high-ranking immigration officials, including then deputy minister Silmy Karim, for allegedly extorting foreigners seeking residency and work permits in Indonesia. KPK also detained nine visa agents...

The global business appetite for China’s yuan is strengthening as Beijing’s long-term campaign to internationalise its currency gains traction, according to a new industry white paper. More than 95 per cent of overseas companies expect to maintain or increase their cross-border yuan settlements over the coming year, according to the latest findings from Bank of China, one of the country’s leading state-owned lenders. The report, released this week, showed that 34.5 per cent of surveyed overseas...

India’s new ambassador to China has paid his first visit to Tibet in the latest sign of thawing relations between the two Asian neighbours. Vikram Doraiswami – who speaks Chinese and took up the post in Beijing last month – arrived in Lhasa, capital of the Tibet autonomous region, on Thursday, according to a statement posted on social media by the Indian embassy. The visit was to “review arrangements made by the local government for Indian pilgrims proceeding to Mount Gang Renpoche and Lake...

A one-legged teenage boy from a mountainous village in southwestern China has gone viral on social media for excelling at basketball using a wooden crutch handmade by his father. The story of the 13-year-old boy, nicknamed Apei, was first shared by an influencer under the handle @awenzaidajiating in late May, garnering one million likes. On June 5, the boy finally was able to wear an artificial limb which was tailor-made in Shenzhen, also in southern China, and donated by the charity Shenzhen...

A Hong Kong school recovering from the suicides of a Primary Six pupil and her mother does not subject students to intense academic pressure, a student and the vice-principal have said, emphasising that promotion to its secondary section is automatic. Their remarks came on Friday as an experienced psychologist advised against allowing surviving relatives to return home immediately after the suicide of a family member at the residence. A 48-year-old woman took her own life at her flat in Lu Shan...

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 consider subscribing. 1. Was Xi’s stance on North Korea military ties also a message for US, Russia? During his meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Monday, Chinese President Xi Jinping said both sides should “enhance exchanges in diplomacy, law...

A mechanical technician has died after he was injured and left unconscious during an inspection of an amusement ride at a Hong Kong theme park. Police received a report at 9.08am on Friday that the 63-year-old man was found unconscious in Ocean Park’s mountain area, with injuries to his head and shoulders. Emergency personnel transported the victim to Ruttonjee Hospital in Wan Chai at around 9.30am. He was pronounced dead at 10.33am following unsuccessful efforts to resuscitate him. The cause of...

It’s the ultimate symbol of American politics under Donald Trump – a blood-soaked cage match on the lawn of the White House for the US president’s 80th birthday. A giant arena dubbed “The Claw” has been built on the famed South Lawn for Sunday’s tournament featuring 14 Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) contestants. Critics have panned the unprecedented US$60 million “UFC Freedom 250” event as tone-deaf at a time when Trump’s war in Iran has sent the cost of living soaring for ordinary...

Investors across Asia have been largely shut out of the world’s largest-ever initial public offering, which has forced them to find creative ways to make bets on SpaceX’s US$75 billion global spectacle. With no direct access to the IPO, traders from Seoul to Shanghai are piling into companies along the space supply chain, industry-themed exchange-traded funds (ETF) and Nasdaq 100 Index-tracking funds in hopes of eventually capturing some of the gains that many expect once SpaceX shares hit the...

Hong Kong’s catering industry is aiming for 6 to 8 per cent business growth during this year’s Fifa World Cup, with the sector exploring creative ways to attract customers and keep fans from travelling to mainland China, despite time differences for matches. Edward Leung Hei, chairman of the Hong Kong Feast and Retreat Association, said on Friday that measures included offering discounts on snacks and drinks, broadcasting match replays during happy hours, hosting lucky draws to boost the...

The vulnerability of submarine cables during conflicts has made seabed infrastructure a fresh concern for global communication and maritime safety, prompting 17 Asian and European nations to step up collaboration on defence strategies in recent months. But the two largest marine powers, China and the United States, were not among those countries. From the blow-up of the Nord Stream pipeline to the development of new technology such as China’s deep-sea cable cutter, the seabed has become the...

This article was first published on June 13, 1966 36 feared dead in storm horror At least 36 people are feared to have died in the fierce floods following one of the worst rainstorms in Hongkong’s history. Last night (June 12, 1966) officials— still working on rescue operations — revealed that 32 people were still missing, and 33 were injured. More than 600 people were rendered homeless by the 78 landslides which occurred. Among the dead are two journalists, Mr John A. Stuart, 31, and Mr Kevin...

A South Korean court sentenced ex-president Yoon Suk-yeol to 30 years in prison on Friday for sending military drones into North Korea, saying he planned the action as pretext for his disastrous martial law declaration in 2024. The drone flights two months before Yoon suspended civilian rule had sparked anger in North Korea, which accused the South of dropping propaganda leaflets as well. Judges said Yoon intended to provoke Pyongyang “into carrying out armed or equivalent acts against South...

US Park Police opened an investigation on Thursday into giant markings of the numbers “8647” – which have been associated with opposition to President Donald Trump – on the grass of the National Mall. A spokesperson for the Department of the Interior, which manages the National Mall in downtown Washington, described the incident as “deranged vandalism” and said it “will not be tolerated”. “Any threat against the president is taken very seriously by the department, and our US Park Police will...

The Philippines has a rare opening to turn its geography, skilled workers and deepening ties with Japan into a stronger maritime industrial base, but analysts say Manila’s push to make shipbuilding a strategic industry will be judged by whether fresh investment can produce lasting capacity. President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr gave that drive a concrete boost on June 3 when he ordered the addition of 64 hectares (158 acres) to the West Cebu Industrial Park (WCIP), one of the country’s key shipbuilding...

A prominent backchannel political figure between Japan and China has died, days before a reported planned trip meant to ease deep bilateral tensions. Yohei Kono, best known for his historic apology on August 4, 1993, to tens of thousands of “comfort women” who were forced by the Japanese military into sexual slavery during World War II, died on Monday. He was 89. Considered a moderate voice within Japan’s conservative ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), Kono was the country’s chief cabinet...

Ohin Construction, its managing director and several employees were charged on Thursday over alleged lapses linked to the sinkhole that appeared in Singapore’s Tanjong Katong neighbourhood in July last year. The company faces eight charges, mostly under the Building Control Act, Workplace Safety and Health Act and Workplace Safety and Health (General Provisions) regulations. Its managing director, 64-year-old Ivan Ong Khiaw Yang, and six others were also charged in relation to the case. A car...

Before Scott Pelley was fired from 60 Minutes last week, he accused CBS’s editor-in-chief of “murdering” the programme he had served for over two decades. For a show that once defined hard-edged journalism, his dismissal raises questions about what institutional independence means. The split followed a tense staff meeting in which Pelley confronted the show’s new executive producer. In a statement after his firing, Pelley said the organisation was becoming more policitised and tried to get him...

Chinese deep-sea explorers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) have discovered the largest “whale-fall site” ever recorded in the Indian Ocean. The graveyard is the Earth’s deepest and most extensive known accumulation of whale fossils, carcasses and the unique ecosystems they support, with some fossils dating back about 5.3 million years. Detailed in a paper published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature on Wednesday, the study was conducted by researchers from the CAS Institute of...

[The content of this article has been produced by our advertising partner.] Nearly one in ten people in Hong Kong now live with diabetes, and the city’s burden is growing. An ageing population, shifting lifestyles, and a substantial number of undiagnosed cases have combined to make diabetes an increasingly urgent public-health challenge2,3. For people with diabetes (PwD) the condition is a daily physical reality, but its wider consequences are less visible: diabetes steadily erodes mental and...

A 25-year-old woman in China has been diagnosed with acute pancreatitis after she followed an extreme weight-loss regime which consisted of eating once a week and hardly eating a thing for the remaining six days. The woman, who uses the alias Qingqing and lives in Hangzhou, eastern Zhejiang province, is 1.55m tall. She previously weighed 55kg, the Xinmin Evening News reported. However, months ago, she made a rigorous plan to get slimmer. This involved eating little for six days a week and...

Thai Princess Bajrakitiyabha Mahidol, the king’s eldest daughter, has died at the age of 47, the royal palace announced on Friday, more than three years after she slipped into a coma following a sudden illness. She was suffering from an abdominal infection and “her condition continued to worsen” until she “passed away peacefully” on Thursday evening, the Bureau of the Royal Household said in a statement. The late princess will lie in state at the Grand Palace in Bangkok and her funeral will be...

A sea of 500 tents covered the white sands of remote Ham Tin Wan in Sai Kung during a recent holiday, turning one of Hong Kong’s most scenic beaches into a makeshift campsite for crowds of overnight visitors. Some of the campers had joined tours from mainland China for the Labour Day “golden week” holiday, sleeping in rows of identical tents and gathering around camping tables for hotpot dinners, with ingredients hauled across the border by their guides. By morning, the sink in the beach’s only...

Electric vehicles accounted for a record 66.7 per cent of new car sales in mainland China during the first week of June, the latest sign that the country’s battery-powered carmakers are benefiting from the global energy crisis. Two out of every three new cars sold on the mainland in the seven days ending June 7 were either pure electric or plug-in hybrid vehicles, according to data from the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA). The penetration rate climbed from 62.9 per cent in May as a wave...

China’s ports continued to dominate global efficiency rankings in 2025, with seven Chinese trade hubs placing in the top 10, according to a study by the World Bank and S&P Global released on Wednesday. The latest edition of the annual report comes at a time when ports are playing a more vital role in the global economy than ever, as facilities strive to handle intense disruptions to global supply chains amid the aftermath of the Red Sea crisis and the ongoing fallout from the US-Israel war on...

A spate of agreements Nvidia has reached with South Korean companies presents a long-term road map for the country to expand its role in the semiconductor and physical AI industries, observers say. The most significant deal Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang made during his whirlwind three-day trip to Seoul that ended on Sunday was with SK Telecom to build AI infrastructure, including factories. An AI factory is a data centre running an end-to-end operational system that continuously collects and processes...

Republican Congressman Rob Wittman on Thursday called the US killing of three Indian sailors off the coast of Oman “a very, very unfortunate incident”, claiming that the US military is trying to “determine exactly what happened”. “Our thoughts and prayers go out to those Indian families who lost their loved ones there in that situation,” Wittman told the South China Morning Post. “I know that our United States military is looking into that to try to determine exactly what happened there, but...

A Malaysian mother of two broke down in tears as she begged for leniency from the sharia High Court in Melaka for attempting to have sex with another woman’s husband last year. According to Sinar Harian, the accused, Siti Iqbar Mazlan, 35, during the proceedings before Judge Abu Bakar Daud on Thursday said that she regretted her actions and also apologised to the man’s wife, Puteri Norfatimah Ishak, 25. According to the charges, Siti Iqbar and Hairul Mokhsin Zaini, 24, were found to have...

Prices for some new homes in Hong Kong have rebounded by as much as a third from the housing market’s lowest level a few years ago amid robust demand, according to analysts. Developers have priced new units this year in Tseung Kwan O, Wong Chuk Hang and Tai Wai between 7 and 36 per cent higher than those sold in the same projects or in the same districts in previous years, data tracked by JLL showed. The consultancy said that on average, prices for the first sales in new developments this year...

Elon Musk’s SpaceX on Thursday confirmed it will begin trading on the Nasdaq exchange Friday in the biggest initial public offering in history, a blockbuster market debut that could propel the entrepreneur to trillionaire status. In a filing with the US markets regulator, the company priced more than 555 million shares at US$135 each, placing SpaceX in the top 10 of Wall Street’s biggest companies with a valuation of just under US$1.8 trillion. It will be valued more than Musk’s own Tesla car...

The United States must ensure the next chapter of responsible innovation is written in America, not in China, lawmakers and witnesses told a congressional hearing on Thursday as they sounded the alarm over US-China competition for global supremacy in artificial intelligence (AI). “Cyber security and national security must be taken seriously. The United States cannot afford to let China or any other adversary gain a technological edge in artificial intelligence,” said Tim Scott, chairman of the...

A Toronto police officer was shot and killed Thursday by a suspect in the investigation into a shooting attack that damaged the facade of the US consulate in the Canadian city in March, police said. One 19-year-old suspect was in custody at a hospital in critical condition while officers searched for a second suspect, who was identified as 19-year-old Zara Jabbi and was considered armed and dangerous, Toronto Police Chief Myron Demkiw said at a news conference. “I urge you to turn yourself in,”...

Taiwan’s representative to the United States expressed confidence that Washington would approve a new round of arms sales to Taiwan, though US President Donald Trump has yet to make a decision on the matter. Asked on Thursday about a pending US$14 billion US arms sale to Taiwan, Alexander Tah-ray Yui, Taipei’s de facto diplomatic envoy, told CNN: “It’s up to President Trump to decide. Once the review is done, we expect that the sale, that the announcement will be made because we need those arms...