Water pipe smoking will contribute to about 1 million new lung cancer cases globally by 2050, with the Western Pacific region bearing the brunt, according to a study led by a World Health Organization (WHO) research agency that was recently presented in Hong Kong. The study, which is yet to be published, was headed by Dr Mahdi Sheikh, a scientist of the early detection, prevention and infections branch at the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). It estimated that there would be 82...

When Hong Kong debates how to raise its birth rate, the conversation usually revolves around money: bigger baby bonuses, tax concessions, housing support, cheaper childcare and so on. These economic measures are necessary. Lowering the cost of raising a child removes some real and immediate barriers. However, there is another, lesser-known factor that works more subtly and implicitly. It comes not from economics but from the structure of the language or languages we speak each day. Consider a...

China’s artificial intelligence companies have spent years persuading consumers to pay for their technology. Now, Moonshot AI, the start-up behind Kimi, is taking a different approach: offering AI computing benefits through a credit card. The company has teamed up with the Agricultural Bank of China (ABC) and American Express for what it calls “the world’s first AI native credit card”. After getting one for myself, the experience offered an intriguing way to bring AI services into everyday...

For patients with advanced, metastatic cancer that has progressed despite systemic therapy – options remain critically limited. Now, Chinese scientists are pointing to an unconventional therapeutic agent – the element iron. This idea originated in industrial waste water treatment: iron can react with hydrogen peroxide to generate hydroxyl radicals, which degrade various organic and toxic molecules in waste water. Chinese scientists wanted to treat malignant tumours the way they treat waste water...

Many delegates to ⁠the International Monetary Fund’s steering ⁠committee walked out of a meeting on ⁠Saturday when Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov addressed the group in Russian, three sources familiar with the matter said. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has roiled the International Monetary and Financial Committee, preventing it from reaching consensus statements in the years ‌since. There were deep divisions again at this week’s annual meetings of the IMF and World Bank...

Hong Kong police have received more than 100 reports of unauthorised credit card transactions related to pre-orders of Apple’s latest iPhone model, the South China Morning Post has learned. Apple began its online pre-orders for its foldable iPhone Duo on Friday at 8pm, and complaints about suspicious transactions began to appear on social media overnight. Some credit card users claimed duplicate or unauthorised purchases of the new model. A source said the transactions involved a few million...

Despite ⁠tens of thousands of security personnel deployed to stop them, youth protesters in India scaled barricades last ⁠week, chanted anti-government slogans and scuffled with police officers trying to drag them away. “Long live the revolution,” shouted one young man before police bundled him into a bus. Street protests in India this year are likely to be higher than at any time in the past decade, the independent Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project has said, as dissent mounts...

Chinese-made cars filmed sensitive information during a Norwegian military exercise, including access codes at secure sites and officials’ comings and goings, raising concerns about the risks posed by connected vehicles. During a security exercise at Oslo airport on September 14 to 18, waiting soldiers tapping on their vehicle’s screen discovered videos recorded by the on-board cameras, the Dagens Naeringsliv newspaper revealed. The recordings showed who was getting in and out of the cars, the...

Slain Hong Kong socialite Abby Choi Tin-fung’s partner told a court this week she initially misled him about her former in-laws’ wealth before describing them as horrible and ungrateful after a bitter family dispute. Chris Tam Fong-chun’s testimony also shed light on his complex relationship with Choi and his former classmate Alex Kwong Kong-chi. The three remained connected through their four children, as Choi had two with each man. During the third week of the murder trial, Tam told the High...

Seeing what looked like a brown blob in a tree while driving through Siberia’s Irkutsk region, 36-year-old Daria Tyurneva pulled over, curious to get a better look. She was not expecting to find a bear cub, perched on a branch, several metres up. “We stopped, without turning off the engine or taking off the gear, because we knew the mother could be somewhere nearby,” Tyurneva said, showing a phone video she recorded of the bear. Her sighting was one of several to spook Russians in recent weeks,...

Hong Kong’s newly revamped Huanggang Port is expected to handle more than 100,000 passenger trips a day over the three-day Chung Yeung Festival holiday, although the departure hall was quiet on Saturday morning. Secretary for Security Chris Tang Ping-keung said the port had operated smoothly since opening on Monday, handling about 80,000 passenger trips a day, with the figure exceeding 92,000 on Friday. That represented a 1.5-fold to an almost twofold increase from the 30,000 to 40,000 trips...

Ongoing fires in Indonesia that have blanketed parts of Southeast Asia with toxic haze have triggered the highest-level alert by the regional bloc’s climate and fire monitor. “Activation of Alert Level 3 for the Southern Asean region,” the Singapore Asean Specialised Meteorological Centre (ASMC) said on its website, seen on Saturday. Based near Singapore’s Changi Airport, the ASMC uses a four-tiered alert level system, from zero to three, with the highest triggered if there is a “high risk of...

Japan has long established itself as a pioneer of mediation in Southeast Asia. In 1990, for example, its officials helped broker talks between Cambodia’s warring factions, supplementing international efforts to end conflict in the country. Now, Tokyo is seeking to upgrade its diplomatic toolkit. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ International Peace Mediation Unit was set up in March, followed by the launch of the Parliamentary Association for Peace Mediation in May. Around the same time, the...

Former Malaysian minister Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad has confirmed that he was one of two individuals detained by the Selangor Islamic Religious Department (Jais) over an alleged khalwat case. Nik Nazmi, who helms Parti Bersama Malaysia, said he was at a residence in Petaling Jaya on Thursday with a woman after they decided to continue a discussion about a project there. “We had initially started the discussion with friends at a studio in Brickfields, Kuala Lumpur, before moving to Petaling Jaya to...

Hong Kong’s next phase of development should make room for both butterflies and buildings, conservationist Dr Yau Wing-kwong has said, arguing that biodiversity can be incorporated into parks, schools and neighbourhoods without holding back the city’s growth. Yau, founder of Environmental Association Limited, has spent nearly three decades promoting community-based conservation. He is a finalist for the Spirit of Community Award in this year’s Spirit of Hong Kong Awards, co-organised by Sino...

The owner of a Chinese kindergarten has been jailed for life after more than 200 children were poisoned by lead in the country’s worst food safety scandal for almost two decades. A total of six people were jailed on Friday for making or selling harmful foodstuffs by Lanzhou Intermediate People’s Court in Gansu province. Li Huifang, owner of the Peixin Kindergarten in Tianshui, was handed a life sentence and fined 500,000 yuan (US$75,000), while Zhu Jinglin, the principal, was jailed for 15 years...

Distinctive features will set Hong Kong apart from London, a major bullion hub, as the city accelerates efforts to develop an international gold and precious metals trading ecosystem covering the entire value chain, a minister has told the South China Morning Post. In an exclusive interview on Thursday, Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury Christopher Hui Ching-yu said the city would officially launch a central gold clearing platform in the first quarter of next year. It would...

Taylor Swift and Lady Gaga each chose Singapore as their only Southeast Asian stop on recent world tours. Fellow American singer Olivia Rodrigo played Thailand and the Philippines, but likewise skipped Indonesia. Next weekend, however, Jakarta is finally getting the big international headline act it has been craving – in the form of Ye. The controversial American rapper, formerly known as Kanye West, is set to play Indonesia’s capital next Saturday, marking the only Southeast Asian appearance on...

A judge has sentenced three Mexican men to more than 158 years in prison each for the 2024 murders of two Australian brothers and their American friend, a case that tarnished Mexico’s image by exposing the risks foreigners face when visiting the tourism-dependent country. Friday’s sentencing, which came a week after the men were found guilty, marked the end of a lengthy legal process over the killings of Australians Callum and Jake Robinson, and American Carter Redd Rhoad. Their bodies were...

Coconut farmer Sombat Chuekrod travelled more than 200km (120 miles) to join hundreds on the streets of Bangkok on Friday demanding that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank change how they deal with the developing world. Finance ministers, central bank governors and other top policymakers gathered this week in the Thai capital for the IMF-World Bank Annual Meetings, as decision makers tackle an inflation crisis fuelled by the Iran war and other economic shocks. The message from...

US President Donald Trump on Friday signed an executive order that puts on hold a sweeping new sanctions package targeting the Russian economy, telling Congress the pause was in the national interest. Named after late South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham, the measure had sought to clamp down more quickly on the flow of financial resources fuelling the war against Ukraine. The move comes a week after Trump stunningly said the US had agreed to purchase diesel from Russia to try to bring down...

For cancer patients in Hong Kong, emotional distress can persist beyond the clinic, with a large combined analysis of multiple studies linking depression and anxiety to lower chances of survival. Claudia Chan Shu-ying, a medical student at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), is developing CancerCompanion, a digital companion designed to offer emotional support between appointments, including late at night when professional help may not be immediately available. The system uses AI-powered...

A man in southwestern China has sparked widespread criticism after holding a wedding with one woman and a celebration for his baby with another at the same venue on the same day. According to The Beijing News, Wu Linfeng, from Liupanshui, Guizhou province, held a wedding ceremony with Kong Sihan on the first floor of a restaurant while hosting a 100-day celebration for his son with his former girlfriend, Lin Si, on the second floor. One poster at the venue showed Wu and Kong in wedding attire...

Airline employees in Japan are experiencing a surge in abuse incidents from customers linked to delays or cancellations of flights or from being refused boarding due to late check-in, according to a survey. Some 30 per cent of ground staff or cabin crew reported bearing the brunt of passengers’ anger over such matters in the past year, according to the survey by the Japan Federation of Aviation Industry Unions released last month, rising from 7 per cent in its previous survey in 2023. In...

Almost two decades after gaining permission to conduct yuan business for local clients, foreign-funded banks are still refining their strategy in China, where the financial sector is dominated by state-owned lenders. While Citi exited its China retail banking business, other foreign banks have continued to close branches and sub-branches, focusing instead on digitalisation, wealth management and core clients to strengthen their foothold in the market. Deutsche Bank (China) announced the closure...

China and the Philippines recently traded accusations over the medical evacuation of a Philippine serviceman from a grounded naval vessel in the hotly disputed Second Thomas Shoal in the South China Sea. The incident has sparked renewed worries about potential armed skirmishes in a global artery of trade. But Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr was also quick to emphasise the economic dimensions of a major conflict. After a decade of rapid economic growth, the Philippines is facing...

A growing number of former senior government officials have joined the race for seats on Hong Kong’s Election Committee, a trend observers say will enhance the prestige and legitimacy of the body tasked with choosing the city’s next leader. As the two-week nomination period draws to a close next Tuesday, the Registration and Electoral Office had received 1,115 nominations for 982 elected seats on the Election Committee as of Friday. The poll will be held on November 22 and the elected members...

Beijing’s decision to allow a bigger Japanese business delegation to go to China next month may be cause for some optimism but “hot economics and cold politics” will continue to dominate the strained relationship between the two countries, observers say. Kyodo news agency reported this week that Beijing had agreed to allow the Japanese Business Federation – the country’s most influential business lobby, also known as Keidanren – to expand its delegation coming to China next month. The group will...

US ⁠President Donald Trump made a ⁠joke about the popularity of ⁠the name Mohammad in the Muslim world as he mocked Iran’s presidency during a campaign speech on Friday. “You know, if you’re in doubt about somebody’s name from the Middle East, just say ‘Mohammad’,” Trump told a ‌crowd in Dalton, Georgia. “You have about a 65 per cent chance. ‘Hello, Mohammad.’ I’ve done it for years now. I’ve never been wrong.” Mohammad is one of the most common male names among Muslims, who often name their...

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi on Saturday sent a ritual offering to Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, regarded by Japan’s neighbours as a symbol of the country’s past militarism, at the start of its three-day autumn festival. Takaichi, known as a conservative who routinely visited the Shinto shrine before becoming prime minister a year ago, was unlikely to visit the shrine during the festival, a source close to her said, amid strained relations with China and relatively stable ties with South Korea. The...

In hindsight, it was only a matter of time before Esha Yusof joined the growing ranks of Malaysian shoppers being drawn to Chinese e-commerce giant Pinduoduo. Esha is a relative newcomer. She signed up in July, more than half a year after the platform launched in Malaysia – and has been smitten with it ever since. Rock-bottom prices, a vast range of products and seamless payments through a popular local e-wallet make it easy for the 32-year-old to spend an average of 500 ringgit (US$122) a month...

⁠North Korea conducted an underwater ⁠test of a new torpedo weapon system on Thursday to verify technological upgrades, state news agency KCNA reported on Saturday, describing the test as a success and a significant step in ‌the country’s naval development. The test verified propulsion technology developed through more than 180 tests over the past five years, KCNA said, adding that artificial intelligence was used for target detection and guidance in the new high-speed precision-guided...

Beijing warned Brussels not to “fantasise” that taking a hard line will force it into concessions, as the bloc confirmed plans for a gung-ho new kill switch that will allow Brussels to “immediately” kick China out of the single market. Exactly a week after the two sides struck a surprise deal to restrict the volume of hybrid cars China ships to Europe, the flare-up suggests the threat of a trade war between two of the world’s three biggest economies has far from subsided. “The EU should not...

A teacher threw her phone at the teenage gunman who killed four people at an Oregon junior school, then tackled and fought with him – probably saving lives before he was shot by a father who followed him into the building, police said Friday. Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz called the teacher’s actions “heroic” during a news conference and said she was not injured. He identified the attacker as 16-year-old Griffin J. John II and said all of the victims were shot in the same classroom. Authorities...

A US congressional committee has released details of investigations into dozens of researchers, many of them Chinese-American, revealing the scale of government scrutiny sweeping academia over alleged links to China. The documents – running to hundreds of pages – were released alongside a separate report by the House Select Committee on China. Titled “How to Stop China’s Theft of Taxpayer-Funded Research”, the report pushes back against arguments by universities and academic groups that tighter...

Sean “Diddy” Combs has been moved to a federal prison in Pennsylvania after reports that the hip-hop mogul was living the high life and was injured in a fight at his New Jersey lock-up, a person familiar with the matter said on Friday. The federal Bureau of Prisons is transferring Combs, 56, from FCI Fort Dix to FCI Allenwood Low, a low-security facility south of Williamsport and about 250km (155 miles) west of New York, the person said. The person was not authorised to speak publicly and did so...

Paraguay’s technology minister said on Thursday that sanctions imposed on him by Beijing over his country’s ties with Taiwan would only accelerate joint projects with the island. Gustavo Villate, who heads the Ministry of Information and Communication Technologies, wrote in a lengthy social media post that the relationship with Taipei would “never be on the negotiating table”. He also suggested that Beijing had acted to protect Chinese telecoms suppliers kept out of Paraguay’s networks. “This...

As the US prepares to host the G20 summit in Miami in December, Americans’ views of participating countries vary, with China viewed more favourably than Russia, although both rank near the bottom, according to the latest Pew Research Centre report. Americans gave China an average rating of 37 out of 100, compared with 27 for Russia, Pew found in a report released on Friday. Canada, Australia, Japan and Italy received the warmest ratings, with average scores in the mid-to-high 60s. “Russia stands...

A Republican lawmaker is requesting the Pentagon blacklist 58 Chinese universities and 62 technology labs as national security threats, a move Beijing calls Cold War-style overreach and critics warn could freeze US-China scientific collaboration and ultimately undermine American innovation itself. In a letter to US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth, House Select Committee on China Chairman John Moolenaar urged the Pentagon to add several prestigious Chinese institutions – some linked to Nvidia,...

Katie Zacharia was “let go” as White House press secretary on Friday, a White House official said, five days into a tenure dominated by questions over her claimed legal career in China, where she said she had passed a bar exam. Her exit came on the same day Beijing invited her to visit China more often, responding to her remark that the country “doesn’t even have proper toilets”. US President Donald Trump said he had urged her to reconsider the job but denied firing her. “I told her: ‘I think...

Pope Leo spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin by phone on Friday, calling for a ceasefire in a Russian-occupied city in southern Ukraine, as he recovers in hospital from a lung cancer operation. The Vatican said that Pope Leo “expressed his deep concern about the grave humanitarian situation in the city of Oleshky, in the Kherson region, and called for a ceasefire to allow the delivery of food and medical assistance, and the voluntary and safe evacuation of the civilian population”. The...

Tesla CEO Elon Musk unveiled what he described as a “flying” car, equipped with thrusters, during a live-streamed event at his SpaceX rocket company’s facility on Thursday. Technical and regulatory challenges have so far prevented the much-hyped flying car sector from getting off the ground. Musk revealed his new Roadster sports car during a launch event at a SpaceX test facility in Texas. During the demo, which was live-streamed on Tesla’s X account, the car launched from a steep steel ramp and...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday asked European Union leaders to provide Kyiv an extra 70 billion euros (US$79 billion) in funding next year to help it keep fighting Russia. “The war will cost 155 billion euros next year. And we need at least 70 billion euros more from you – for defence, for weapons and for our resilience,” Zelensky said in a speech at an EU summit in Brussels. “This is a realistic amount. And I ask you to find this support. It will help us hold Russia back.” The...

China and America are talking again. There are leaders’ meetings, phone calls and a new channel for discussing artificial intelligence. Officials are cautiously trying to keep the relationship from veering into crisis. And yet some of the hardest questions remain untouched. Neither side is giving much ground on advanced chips, export controls remain a battlefield and neither Washington nor Beijing appears ready to slow its race to develop increasingly powerful AI. So what, exactly, does it mean...

Hong Kong police have arrested two men over their alleged involvement in at least six break-ins across Kowloon over the past three months, with total losses amounting to HK$1.7 million (US$216,629). The pair – a 54-year-old mainland Chinese man and a 34-year-old Hong Kong resident – were arrested separately on Thursday in Sham Shui Po and Tsim Sha Tsui, respectively. Police identified and located them following a break-in targeting four flats in a private residential building on Farm Road in...

Japan is increasingly turning to foreign companies to accelerate its military modernisation, drawing on overseas technology, expertise and production capacity to plug defence gaps that could prove critical in a potential regional conflict involving China. The push has gathered momentum over the past week, with Tokyo confirming a contract for Ukrainian interceptor drones and a multinational fighter consortium preparing to expand its design operations in Japan. French defence giant Thales is also...

Hong Kong’s Fire Services Department will launch three new AI-assisted drone technologies to strengthen fire detection and its response to heightened risks during tomb-sweeping activities ahead of the Chung Yeung Festival on Sunday. Wong Tak-fai, acting divisional officer for information and communications technology, said on Friday that the technology would improve the speed and accuracy of fire detection to help the department operate more efficiently. “Artificial intelligence [AI] not only...

China’s R&D investment grew by 8.2 per cent last year – fuelled by double-digit growth in fundamental science and university funding – in sharp contrast with deep budget cuts across the US research sector. Total investment in research and experimental development crossed 3.9 trillion yuan (US$583 billion) in 2025, “maintaining a trajectory of steady growth”, the National Bureau of Statistics said when releasing the data on Friday. State news agency Xinhua noted on Friday that in the five years...

While Washington’s efforts to block Chinese electric vehicles (EVs) were originally intended to protect its domestic automotive industry, they have sparked concerns the strategy is hurting America’s carmaking competitiveness. With a lack of a coherent industrial policy discouraging long-term investment, the protectionist approach was backfiring on Detroit’s EV transition, said David Zhang, a macroeconomics and policy analyst at Trivium China, who added that EVs could be a “perfect concession” in...

Dutch semiconductor equipment giant ASML is expanding into next-generation hybrid bonding, a technique that creates dense electrical connections by directly joining chips or silicon wafers, according to a new report. Major Chinese companies are also adopting the technology to improve chip performance. ASML submitted 27 patent families related to hybrid bonding tools between December 2022 and November 2024, according to a report published by semiconductor and AI supply chain research firm...

The awarding of the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize to South African jurist Navanethem “Navi” Pillay matters for reasons that go well beyond the laureate herself. The award does three things at once. First, it restores credibility to the prize. Second, it rejects in unambiguous terms the Thrasymachian doctrine that might is right, which has become the operating philosophy of major powers. Third, it highlights a warning of what happens when a hegemon decides it is above the law. The correction was...

Police detained India’s ‘cockroach’ movement founder Abhijeet Dipke on Friday, student leaders and supporters on Friday as hundreds poured into central Delhi, waving the national flag and demanding the resignation of India’s election chief. The youth-led ‘Cockroach Janta Party’ (CJP), opposition groups and student organisations have held almost daily protests this month demanding Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation over a revision of voter lists that critics ⁠say favours...

Chinese scientists have unearthed a fossil of the earliest known flightless bird, offering compelling evidence that not all early birds evolved to take to the skies. The discovery could also challenge long-held assumptions – including ideas dating back to evolutionary theorist Charles Darwin – that flightlessness in birds arose only as a secondary adaptation after earlier species had mastered flight. The 150 million-year-old fossil of the Late Jurassic avialan Yuezhuornis yangyuanensis found in...

Hong Kong authorities have found that lifts in another 39 buildings are lacking proper door-frame components following an investigation into faulty replacement works carried out by a contractor involving missing fire-safety parts. The South China Morning Post also learned on Friday that police had arrested a director and two registered lift engineers from the lift contractor, Taizoom Elevator, on suspicion of deception over work at 48 lifts at two housing estates. The latest incidents come just...

Singapore has identified seven companies it says were involved in wildfires in Indonesia that are choking the city state with haze, and plans to issue notices requiring them to take preventive measures, the Business Times reported. The companies will receive notices under the Transboundary Haze Pollution Act requiring them to stop or refrain from burning and submit plans to prevent a recurrence, the newspaper reported, citing Sustainability and the Environment Minister Grace Fu at a Friday press...

In talks with Israel’s president on Thursday, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi called for an immediate easing of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and for Israel to reverse its West Bank settlement expansion. “The imperative priority is to fully open access routes into Gaza. Two million civilians must not be left to struggle on the brink of survival, nor can this humanitarian catastrophe be allowed to spread,” Wang said, according to a Chinese foreign ministry statement on Friday. The meeting with...

A Malaysian ruler known for being reserved has publicly berated his chief minister over efforts to unseat him, telling the politician to “go away” and withdraw his claim that the monarch no longer holds the throne. Negeri Sembilan, south of Kuala Lumpur, has been caught in a dispute since April over who is its rightful ruler, bringing down one state government aligned with Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s ruling Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition and leaving its newly appointed chief minister without...

Beijing has invited White House press secretary Katie Zacharia to visit the country more often after she said in an interview that China “doesn’t even have proper toilets”. The newly appointed spokeswoman for the Trump administration made the controversial remarks in an interview on Thursday with conservative commentator Jack Posobiec, when talking about the perception around 2016 that “the gold days, the glory days of the US were over and China was on the horizon”. “I remember this very...

Hong Kong authorities have ordered the developer of One Stanley to inspect eight more homes, including one acquired by a Mongolian mining tycoon’s family, as concerns over substandard work at the seaside luxury estate mount. The details of the inspection were contained in a sales brochure updated by developer K&K Property on Friday and follow an announcement by the Buildings Department last month that it would conduct random checks on buildings at the estate. Online property news platform...