Iranian authorities revealed on Saturday that three of Tehran’s pilots who went down early in the Middle East war were still being held in Qatar, calling on the Gulf state to release them. Iran had previously reported one pilot killed and others missing after a sortie to Qatar in March, but news of their alleged capture was not publicised at the time. “Three Iranian pilots were captured alive by Qatari forces after their Su-24 fighter jets crashed during the war,” said General Mohammad...

Israeli air strikes on southern Lebanon killed at least 11 people on Saturday, in the deadliest attacks since a truce between Israel and Hezbollah went into effect on June 20. Lebanon’s health ministry and state news agency said an air strike that targeted a home on the edge of Ansar village killed seven people, including three children, and wounded two. The second, on the village of Deir al-Zahrani, killed four and wounded 17. Israel and the Lebanese government announced a “framework agreement”...

Police in Virginia have arrested a 19-year-old in connection with a shooting on Saturday that left five people injured. No one died in the shooting, though one victim sustained critical injuries. Chesterfield county police announced the arrest of Camron Harris of Henrico, Virginia. They found him hiding in a wardrobe on campus on Saturday afternoon. He was not a student at the university, authorities said. Police said they obtained eight felony warrants for his arrest including malicious...

Hong Kong police have launched an internal investigation into a female officer who posted a video of herself dancing in uniform on mainland Chinese social media, and ordered her to remove it. The video, which has gone viral in recent days, shows a short-haired female constable making hand gestures and moving to upbeat music. Her face is partly obscured by a filter featuring dog ears and a muzzle. A police spokesman confirmed to the South China Morning Post that the woman in the video was a...

Taiwan’s push to build a modern counter-drone shield has come under renewed scrutiny after an official audit uncovered technical shortcomings and a key procurement programme collapsed following repeated testing failures. The developments have fuelled concerns that Taipei’s efforts to match Beijing’s rapidly evolving drone technology are being undermined by capability gaps, procurement failures and delays in building an integrated counter-drone network. According to a recent report by Taiwan’s...

Hong Kong authorities have conducted a counterterrorism drill at the revamped Huanggang border crossing and used a new “crowd flow” test to simulate an unexpected surge in passenger numbers, with about 5,000 civil servants taking part. The counterterrorism exercise on Saturday was the first such drill to be held at the redeveloped checkpoint building. A Security Bureau spokesman said civil servants from around 30 bureaus took part in the drill, which aimed to test authorities’ management of...

The upgraded Huanggang border crossing between Hong Kong and Shenzhen is due to begin service following about six years of redevelopment. Sources previously said the Huanggang Port Hong Kong Port Area could open as early as September, becoming the city’s second round-the-clock checkpoint. Following the overhaul, the Huanggang checkpoint will no longer serve goods vehicles. The South China Morning Post sets out what users should know about the new arrangements at the expanded port. How can...

With the death of former Chinese premier Zhu Rongji, both China and the wider world have lost a great leader. Zhu took personal risks for better US-China ties. He believed that productive Sino-American relations were good for China and for the world. He was a global leader before China had achieved its current great power status. In mid-1990, when I was president of the National Committee on United States-China Relations, our organisation invited Zhu, then Shanghai mayor, to the United States....

The US push to promote “burden sharing” among its allies in the Indo-Pacific has seen it focusing on increasing its military capacity while lowering the political temperature in an effort to reassure its allies. But some analysts have questioned its chances of succeeding, arguing that this deterrence strategy has intensified great power rivalry and polarisation in the region, while driving deeper bilateral cooperation between China and Russia on the one hand and Russia and North Korea on the...

China has published ecological assessment reports on nine disputed South China Sea features, amid an escalating row with Washington over Beijing’s establishment of a “national nature reserve” in the contested waters. On Friday, the Ministry of Natural Resources’ South China Sea Bureau issued its 2025 marine ecological early-warning and monitoring bulletin, alongside a separate marine ecological protection and restoration report for the region. The releases were announced via an article posted on...

The US is readying unprecedented economic measures against Iran, as President Donald Trump seeks to intensify efforts to force Tehran to capitulate after almost six months of war. The president said in a brief interview with Fox News that the US was planning to hit Iran’s economy hard, and that he did not care if the conflict were to end before the November US midterm elections, which would hinge on voter perceptions of the economy. Trump has struggled to find an off-ramp to the war, which has...

Hong Kong’s inaugural five-year plan should prioritise the Northern Metropolis megaproject, strengthen the city’s position as an international financial centre and advance its artificial intelligence (AI) strategy, major business chambers have said. In submissions for the city’s first five-year plan, groups including the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong (AmCham) and the Federation of Hong Kong Industries (FHKI) identified the Northern Metropolis as a key economic driver. Their...

Hong Kong parents and concern groups have urged authorities to reinstate student subsidies after textbook prices recorded their sharpest increase since the Covid-19 pandemic, amid the growing use of digital learning tools. Prices for a list of textbooks now range from HK$4,000 (US$510) to HK$6,000, representing an average increase of 3.6 per cent for the 2026-27 academic year, the highest since the pandemic began in 2020, according to Education Bureau book list data. During the pandemic, prices...

Wearing a black mariner’s cap and with a wall-to-wall bookshelf as a backdrop, Cambridge University professor Alan Macfarlane greets his social media audience with a soft ni hao – “Hello” in Chinese. In his latest video, Macfarlane follows this signature opening by thoughtfully answering a question pulled from the comments: why has making genuine friends become so difficult? Few would have expected an 84-year-old British anthropologist and historian from Cambridge University to become a social...

At the Goodtime Chinese School in the Bethany suburb of Portland, Oregon, an American child stops school director Zhou Yanzhuo, of China, in the hallway to ask a question in English. She requests that he speak in Chinese and the third grader, who has no Chinese heritage, handily switches languages. The child is one of several dozen students attending rigorous summer classes for Chinese language instruction at an age when experts believe language acquisition is easiest. While American...

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Saturday his government would provide free online coaching lessons for competitive exams, weeks after massive youth-led protests forced the education minister to resign. Modi said the initiative was aimed at easing the financial burden on millions of families caught up in the country’s fiercely competitive education system. The 75-year-old leader made the announcement while speaking from the ramparts of New Delhi’s imposing 17th century Red Fort to...

For decades, the three days of summer considered the hottest of the year were among the busiest for South Korea’s dog meat restaurants, as diners sought traditional stamina-boosting foods to endure the heat. The third “boknal”, or hot day, of 2026 on Friday carried an added sense of finality. It was the last before a nationwide ban on the breeding, slaughter and sale of dogs ‌for meat takes full effect in February 2027. At the Moran Market in Seongnam, once the country’s best-known hubs for dog...

It may not be the most majestic creature on our beautiful planet, but the humble silkworm deserves a place alongside horses, cattle, cats, and dogs due to its profound impact on human civilisation. The luxurious fabric spun from the silkworm’s natural secretion ignited the creation of a vast global trade network, connecting Asia with the Mediterranean. This network became a catalyst for transformative exchanges of goods, ideas, and technologies across continents, significantly shaping the course...

China’s electric vehicles (EVs) already lead the way in terms of battery and autonomous driving technologies. Now, the country’s auto brands are adding a new dimension to the notion of intelligent cars: turning them into full-scale entertainment centres. A new wave of Chinese-developed EVs is hitting the market equipped with everything from voice-activated artificial intelligence (AI) assistants, to headlights that double up as film projectors and karaoke systems. Some even feature immersive...

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said he would speed up the pace of reforms and strengthen an anti-corruption drive as he sought to rebuild public support after a string of electoral defeats and party departures. Anwar acknowledged shortcomings by his administration that had led to frustration among Malaysians. While the economy grew 6 per cent last quarter and unemployment was low, Anwar said he “won’t deny” that Malaysians faced higher living costs. “The economic numbers are not winning...

Hong Kong authorities have suspended the main contractor and lift subcontractor working on a new clinical block at Queen Mary Hospital from tendering for public works after serious defects left most lifts unreliable and delayed the launch of services. An engineer and a lawmaker said on Saturday that the extent of the defects was “extremely rare” in Hong Kong and unreasonable, while the government’s decision to temporarily stop the firms from tendering for other projects was appropriate. The...

China has “strongly condemned” Japanese leaders for visiting the controversial Yasukuni Shrine and making an offering on the 81st anniversary of Japan’s announcement of surrender in World War II. Beijing said it had lodged a formal protest after Japanese defence chief Shinjiro Koizumi and others visited the shrine on Saturday. China and many other Asian countries view the site as a symbol of Japanese militarism. Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi did not visit in person but she sent a ritual...

Hongkongers should exercise extreme caution in guarding their personal data, especially during online shopping and membership sign-ups, the city’s privacy watchdog has said after complaints jumped more than 60 per cent year on year in the first half of 2026. Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data Ada Chung Lai-ling said on Saturday that residents’ personal data had become a valuable, tradeable commodity in the age of technology. The Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data received...

Hong Kong fintech hub Cyberport has added 66,000 square metres (710,420 sq ft) of space in its fifth-phase expansion, with more than half of its offices already leased to tenants including mainland Chinese technology companies, according to its chairman. Simon Chan Sai-ming also said on Saturday that Cyberport was positioning itself as a key driver in Hong Kong’s inaugural five-year plan by pushing artificial intelligence (AI) development as a pillar industry, expanding talent training and...

Russia is confounding expectations that its influence in the Middle East would drastically decline after the downfall of Syria’s Assad regime in 2024. At the time, Moscow operated about 100 military facilities in the war-torn country, following its intervention in the Syrian civil conflict from 2015 to prop up then president Bashar al-Assad in alliance with Iran and its regional proxies. When Assad was forced to flee to Moscow, and control of most of Syria was seized by Islamist rebels led by...

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung proposed talks with North Korea to formally end the long-running Korean war, as Pyongyang deepens ties with Russia while asserting its status as an “irreversible” nuclear state. The two Koreas remain technically at war because their 1950-53 conflict, triggered by a North Korean attack, ended with an armistice rather than a peace treaty. Lee made the proposal in his speech at a ceremony marking the anniversary of Korea’s liberation from Japan’s 1910–45...

Hong Kong’s lush forests are teeming with more wildlife ranging from birds arriving from neighbouring regions to newly discovered reptile species, experts have found, as they urge authorities to devise a conservation list to protect vulnerable local species. The call by the city’s conservationists to formulate a “red list” – a long-awaited measure since 2014 – coincided with National Ecology Day on Saturday. Marking the occasion, Deputy Chief Secretary Warner Cheuk Wing-hing said the...

Third plenums are ordinarily the quiet part of Vietnam’s political calendar. Between its five-yearly congresses, the Communist Party of Vietnam governs through numbered plenums of its Central Committee (CC): the first two settle personnel decisions, and the third, six months on, usually does no more than ratify the term’s work programme. This time, the third plenum of the 14th CC, held from July 20 to 24, did more. It set out the next phase of the country’s most sweeping administrative overhaul...

A truck driver fled the scene after his vehicle crashed into roadside barriers and burst into flames on Hong Kong’s Lantau Island early on Saturday, with debris from the collision injuring a taxi driver and a passenger travelling behind. The crash occurred at about 3.15am during an amber rainstorm warning. A 16-tonne truck carrying electronic parts was heading towards the airport when it crashed on the North Lantau Highway near Tung Chung Eastern Interchange. The vehicle skidded on the wet road,...

At one of the world’s biggest electronic dance music festivals in Belgium, entranced revellers recently found themselves dancing to sounds more often heard on a Singapore commute than a Tomorrowland stage. They included the MRT warning to “Sila berhati-hati di ruang platform” (“Please mind the platform gap” in Malay), familiar to millions who ride the city state’s metro system, and the piercing, repetitive call of the Asian koel, a bird whose cry is instantly recognisable in many Singapore...

Picture a fisherman hauling in his nets on a calm morning at sea, when his smartwatch suddenly vibrates with an alert: “Magnetic anomaly detected – possible submarine passing 500 metres below.” Far‑fetched as it sounds, Chinese scientists have just taken a decisive step towards making that scenario real. A team from the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science and the Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, both under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), has created a Hall‑effect...

A powerful magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck off the coast of Indonesia early Saturday, killing at least 47 people, collapsing buildings and homes as well as causing panic in a region prone to deadly quakes. Authorities said more than a dozen people were injured. Authorities issued a tsunami warning but later lifted it when Indonesia’s Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency said monitoring showed no significant sea-level changes that would pose a threat to coastal communities. The US...

For years, the conventional wisdom in Washington was that America’s China policy was moving in one direction: tougher. But walk into a classroom at Georgetown, Rice or another US university where the next generation of diplomats and foreign-policy professionals is being trained, and the picture looks less settled. A generation that has grown up with China’s rise is increasingly sceptical of the idea that Beijing should be treated primarily as America’s great strategic rival. That matters because...

When Brunei’s Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah recently stripped his daughter-in-law of a royal title, the move drew attention for its unusually public glimpse into discipline inside one of the world’s few remaining absolute monarchies. But it also offered a small example of what analysts who study Southeast Asia’s royal families describe as a wider challenge for the region’s monarchies: how to preserve authority through tradition and adaptation as public expectations change. An official announcement...

Thirty lions and tigers that were kept alive – barely – for years in cramped concrete cages at a closed Argentine zoo began entering jumbo-size transport crates on Friday as they embarked on ambitious journeys to wildlife sanctuaries halfway across the world in South Africa and the United States. The cats are being rescued from the former Lujan Zoo, about 70km (43 miles) northwest of Argentina’s capital of Buenos Aires, after years of uncertainty over their fate. Four Paws, the international...

More than 86,000 football fans passed through Kai Tak Stadium over two nights recently as Manchester City faced Inter Milan and Chelsea took on Juventus. Supporters filled nearby malls and restaurants, with some merchants reporting foot traffic three to four times higher than usual. For those few hours, Kai Tak offered a glimpse of what Hong Kong’s day-to-night economy could become: international visitors and local residents arriving early and extending the occasion beyond the stadium. The...

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi on Saturday skipped a visit to Tokyo’s controversial Yasukuni Shrine and sent an offering instead, but Defence Minister Shinjiro Koizumi and three other Cabinet members went there on the 81st anniversary of the end of World War II. Despite Takaichi, a conservative, staying away from the shrine that honours convicted war criminals along with the war dead, China said it “deplores” and strongly protests the moves. South Korea also expressed regret and...

Regional cooperation is a key priority in Hong Kong’s first five-year plan. In the fourth of a five-part series on the plan, we look at how life in the Greater Bay Area can get better, with the right policies. Read part one here, part two here and part three here. Eager to escape Hong Kong’s suffocating housing conditions, university administrative worker Polly Chan decided in 2023 to rent a weekend flat in Guangzhou. On weekdays, she lives with her mother in a cramped 300 sq ft flat in Tai Po....

A young Chinese man who has just graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Technology from the prestigious Wuhan University is set to embark on a new life as a doctoral student at the same institution. Peng Wenle is not just another ordinary 21-year-old; he was abducted at the age of three in 2008 from outside his parents’ telephone service shop in southern China’s Shenzhen and was recovered three years later, thanks to his parents’ tireless search. Wenle seized this academic...

As Leopold Aschenbrenner’s US hedge fund saw assets wiped off by more than two-thirds in a single month, some of China’s new portfolio managers also felt the shock across the Pacific, learning bitter lessons early in their careers. The 50-day market turmoil, sparked by a global correction in artificial intelligence stocks in June, turned some of China’s rookie managers into an unwitting focal point. Even seasoned investors faced hard questions from clients as portfolios sagged. For Yuan Zeqiang,...

With its padded leather and gold “CC” lock, Coco Chanel’s instantly recognisable bag is practically part of the uniform for any self-respecting Bangkok property agent – an apt accessory for a city that recently edged into the top 10 anywhere for luxury spending. But in chastened economic times liquidity and luxury are no longer in lockstep, challenging many of those with expensive tastes to find new ways to keep up appearances while balancing their books. Jirapun Ngam, 42, works in the...

Just months ago, disorganised planning from Washington in the lead-up to US President Donald Trump’s landmark China visit frustrated Chinese officials. Now, Beijing is watching the same story play out on the other side of the world. With less than six weeks until Chinese President Xi Jinping’s planned trip to Washington – his first state visit since 2015 – Beijing finds itself increasingly unsettled by the chaos within the Trump administration. Sources told the South China Morning Post that...

Venezuelan interim President Delcy Rodriguez’s tribute to Fidel Castro has drawn a blistering rebuke from US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, highlighting the political tensions surrounding Caracas’ rapprochement with Washington even as China seeks to preserve its economic interests in the South American country. Rodriguez marked the centenary of the late Cuban leader’s birth this week by praising Castro as a figure who “transcends time” and invoking his commitment to sovereignty, social justice...

President Donald Trump on Friday said he would “soon” declare the Strait of Hormuz waterway part of US territory after defeating Iran. “After we finish defeating Iran, which is being very badly defeated – pretty soon I’ll be declaring the Hormuz Strait a territory of the United States,” he said with a chuckle during a political rally at a police academy in Garden City, New York. “It’s true,” he added. It was unclear how seriously Trump intended the remark or whether it represented a new policy...

UK academic Jason Arday, who resigned from the University of Cambridge last week amid a high-profile plagiarism storm that featured racism claims, was found dead on Friday, the prestigious British institution confirmed. Arday, 41, was found unresponsive on Friday afternoon at an address in south London, according to the capital’s Metropolitan Police Service, which did not confirm the identity of the deceased person discovered. “We are desperately saddened to hear this tragic news,” Cambridge...

A US appeal court on Friday gave Chinese drone maker DJI another chance to challenge its inclusion on a Pentagon blacklist of companies allegedly linked to the Chinese military. DJI, a Shenzhen-based drone maker, has been engaged in a years-long legal battle with the US Department of Defence to be removed from the list. The latest ruling from the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit did not remove DJI from the list, but sent the case back to the lower court to reconsider one...

President Donald Trump dismissed concerns on Friday over living conditions and the mental health of service members on a US aircraft carrier deployed against Iran, while confirming the ship would soon rotate out. Asked by reporters whether family members were worried about the situation on the USS Abraham Lincoln, Trump said “no, they’re not”. Trump also rejected the idea that the ship – now at sea for nine months – had been deployed for too long. “No, no, no, not nearly enough,” he said. The...

Italian authorities recovered three artworks by Renoir, Cezanne and Matisse worth millions of euros that were stolen earlier this year from a private museum near the northern city of Parma, police said on Friday. A statement from the Italian Carabinieri’s art recovery squad said the artworks were discovered during searches ordered by prosecutors, but no details were given. The investigation is ongoing. Meanwhile, Brazilian police said late on Thursday that they had located eight stolen works by...

Luigi Mangione admitted in court on Friday to fatally shooting US health insurance executive Brian Thompson and pleaded guilty to two federal charges of stalking the executive with the intent to kill him. “I shot Mr Thompson in Manhattan and ‌he died,” Mangione said. The guilty plea will avert a federal trial in the closely watched case over the killing of the UnitedHealthcare CEO, a brazen crime that was condemned by public officials but became emblematic of Americans’ frustration with health...

Hong Kong’s Urban Renewal Authority (URA) has recorded an operating surplus of HK$338 million (US$43.3 million) for the 2025-26 financial year, after reporting three straight years of losses. At a banquet on Friday to mark the statutory body’s 25th anniversary, chairman Chow Chung-kong announced that the URA had returned to profit in the 2025-26 financial year, recording an operating surplus to fund ongoing urban renewal initiatives. That followed three consecutive financial years of losses....

Li, a woman in her late twenties from southwestern China, is anxious about her coming interview for a 10-year US visa. She has big plans for her travels – a weeks-long stay next year that would be her first visit to the country – followed by a planned return trip in two years while pregnant so her child can attain American citizenship. But those plans have been thrown into doubt. Last week, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order seeking to end “birth tourism”, tightening scrutiny on...

A helicopter pilot has died after crashing in a forest in eastern Germany while carrying out liming work, the police directorate in the city of Chemnitz said on Friday. Workers managed to pull the man from the helicopter after the impact, police said. Despite immediate first aid administered at the scene, the man died from his injuries. The helicopter had no other people on board. Police did not provide information on the identity of the pilot or the cause of the accident near the small town of...

A bomb-disposal team and a unit behind Hong Kong’s light public housing scheme have won this year’s chief executive’s award, praised for embodying civil servants’ professional spirit in “rising to challenges and pursuing excellence”. City leader John Lee Ka-chiu presented the Chief Executive’s Award for Exemplary Performance to the two interdepartmental teams at a ceremony on Friday. Lee praised them for fulfilling their duties with a steadfast sense of mission and exceptional competence,...

A woman in Hong Kong who owned multiple properties has lost HK$10 million (US$1.3 million) after being scammed by a fraudster posing as a prospective tenant. The police force revealed on Friday that the 64-year-old retiree, whose properties consisted of residential, commercial and parking spaces, was contacted via WhatsApp by a scammer in May in response to a rental listing she posted on Facebook. Police said that while no tenancy agreement was signed, the con artist struck up a friendship with...

At least eight workers have died following a toxic gas leak at a ship-breaking yard in the southeastern Bangladeshi district of Chattogram, officials said on Friday. The incident occurred at the Ferdaus Steel Shipbreaking Yard in Sitakund subdistrict, an area that hosts many ship-breaking yards where old vessels mostly imported from around the world are dismantled. Soon after the leak, many workers lost consciousness and were rushed to a local hospital. Six out of seven people taken to...

After almost four decades of international cooperation in space affairs, Brazil and China have unveiled details of a new project to launch a powerful meteorological and environmental satellite. It will be capable of monitoring the whole of South America, according to the space sciences department at Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE). Adenilson Roberto da Silva, general coordinator of engineering and technology with the INPE, said the satellite would provide “improved weather...

Vladimir Putin’s unprecedented visit to the disputed southern Kuril Islands signals a broader joint effort by Moscow and Beijing to pressure Japan, according to analysts. They said the coordinated push aimed to target Tokyo over a range of friction points, including Western sanctions on Russia and Japan’s stance on Taiwan. The Russian president paid a symbolic visit to the Kurils – a volcanic chain north of Hokkaido that Japan calls the Northern Territories – on Thursday, just ahead of...

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr on Friday said talks with China on joint oil and gas exploration had “moved forward” – signalling hopes of a deal before he leaves office in mid-2028, despite ongoing tensions in the South China Sea. Marcos also confirmed for the first time a “provisional understanding” with Beijing over resupply missions to the BRP Sierra Madre at Second Thomas Shoal, although he insisted this did not mean Manila was seeking China’s permission or surrendering...

As US-China tech tensions rise ahead of an expected leadership summit next month, analysts argue Washington’s latest restrictions are unlikely to cause a major disruption in China’s AI exports. But they caution that some of the measures – such as limiting access to “open-weight” models – represent a “genuine wild card” that could reshape the global landscape. Hong Kong-based analysts at Citi Research, led by Yu Xiangrong, argued in a Friday note that US tariffs and export controls were “unlikely...

The United States has sent a team of coastguards to train their Taiwanese counterparts as Beijing steps up its presence east of the island. Taiwan’s Coast Guard Administration said on Friday that its personnel were taking part in a two-week training programme led by US instructors. The training, which started on Monday, includes exercises aimed at strengthening small-boat operations and team coordination. “The US instruction team hopes to deepen the partnership between the two sides through...

Tariffs of up to 100 per cent that Washington has announced on imported drones would result in a “lose-lose outcome” for the United States and China, analysts said, as the technology is increasingly taking centre stage in the countries’ tech and trade rivalry. The new levies will further complicate manufacturers’ efforts to shift production to third countries or regions, where supply chains are already affected by earlier trade restrictions imposed by both sides, they added. On Thursday, US...

For Indonesian families who lost loved ones in the 2018 Lion Air crash that killed 189 people, the latest development in the US courts has deepened their pain that justice remains out of reach. Keith Griffin, a Californian lawyer who worked with disgraced Hollywood celebrity lawyer Tom Girardi in compensation suits related to the crash, was sentenced by a federal court in Chicago last week to one day in prison with credit for time served, meaning he avoided any further time behind...

The cockpit crew of a Cathay Pacific Airways flight from Hong Kong to London selected the wrong radio frequency when mistakenly responding to instructions for another aircraft, leading to a loss of communication with air traffic control in Romanian airspace last month, a Hong Kong investigation report has revealed. The government said on Friday that the Civil Aviation Department had completed a review of the airline’s full investigation report and expressed “serious concern” over the incident,...

Hong Kong authorities received more than 16,000 public submissions for the city’s inaugural five-year plan by the close of its consultation on Friday, with an official noting general support for more focused integration into national development and the strategic cultivation of emerging sectors. Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Janice Tse Siu-wa described the blueprint, which is set to be delivered next month, as “a milestone in public administration”, adding that it would...

Chinese scientists have achieved the quantum entanglement of cold atoms across a record-breaking 420km (260 miles), a breakthrough they say lays the groundwork for intercity quantum networks. According to a paper published by the peer-reviewed journal Physical Review Letters on August 11, the distance was more than four times previous demonstrations and exceeded the threshold at which direct transmission encounters fundamental physical limits. “Our experiment provides a test bed for studying...

A tunnel under construction at a hydropower project in India’s northern hill state of Uttarakhand collapsed overnight, leaving at least seven workers dead, officials said on Friday. A rescue operation was launched after a sudden rush of water and debris entered the tunnel at the Vishnugad-Pipalkoti hydroelectric project in Chamoli district later on Thursday night, said top district official Gaurav Kumar. Of 22 people who were working in the tunnel, 12 have been rescued alive and another three...

A drone entered Latvian airspace and was shot down by Italian Eurofighter jets, the military said on Friday. The decision to shoot it down was taken to avert a threat to Latvia’s population, Defence Minister Raivis Melnis said. An air alert was lifted after the drone was intercepted, Latvia’s military said on social media, after authorities had urged people across the Baltic state to avoid going outside and seek shelter. A spokeswoman for Latvia’s military said the drone was shot down over a...

China has confirmed that its new Y-20B heavy transport aircraft can be converted into an aerial refuelling tanker, potentially boosting PLA Air Force capacities deeper into the western Pacific. A documentary aired by state broadcaster CCTV on August 5 said the Y-20B, an improved variant of China’s Y-20 strategic transport powered by domestically developed WS-20 turbofan engines, could switch between transport and aerial refuelling missions using pallet-ready fuel tanks and removable refuelling...

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage won his self-triggered by-election in southern England on Friday, but saw his strategy to silence critics backfire when his main rival, Count Binface, a comedian dressed as a trash can, took more than a quarter of the vote. In a highly unusual move, Farage, one of Britain’s leading Brexit campaigners, did not turn up at the vote count in the southern English seaside resort of Clacton because, he said, ‌the police had advised him there was a campaign to disrupt the...

Gene-editing therapies for the nervous system may need at least another round of studies before they are safe enough to enter human trials, according to one of the world’s most influential figures in the commercialisation of brain science. “The techniques are reasonably well established for animal experiments, but they really haven’t been as mature for human studies,” said Karoly Nikolich, an adjunct professor at Stanford University School of Medicine, in an exclusive interview with the South...

A 73-year-old Chinese female entrepreneur has recently become the 22nd passenger of the domestically developed spacecraft CYZ1. On August 8, Huang Xiaochi was officially designated as passenger No 022 for CYZ1, a project by the commercial space start-up InterstellOr. Huang is scheduled to embark on a suborbital mission aboard the spaceship in 2028, reaching the Kármán line, the widely recognised boundary of Earth’s atmosphere where outer space begins, allowing her to view Earth from that vantage...

The disbarment of Workers’ Party chief Pritam Singh in Singapore is a professional blow for the leading opposition figure, but is not expected to further damage his political standing. Singh, 50, was struck off the roll of advocates and solicitors in a disciplinary hearing on Thursday, a decision that political analysts say reflects the hardline stance of the country’s legal system against dishonesty. On the political front, after years of parliamentary scrutiny, a court conviction and an...

Chinese museums have been criticised for spelling errors in their information boards, including one in Zhejiang province where one of the captions for an exhibition about the Long March turned the Red Army into a “red car”. Such mistakes are especially embarrassing given the high importance the authorities attach to Communist Party history and come amid an ongoing push to promote “red tourism” or revolutionary-themed attractions. The mistake by Zhejiang Provincial Museum in Hangzhou was one of a...

Hong Kong recorded a 15 per cent drop in investment scam cases in the first half of this year, but losses remained high at HK$1.65 billion (US$210 million), with police warning of fraudsters posing as representatives of legitimate overseas firms to swindle investors. Senior Superintendent Fanny Kung Hing-fun said on Friday that some of these firms of purported overseas origins did not exist at all, or had records of fraudulent activity in other countries. “For some of them, even their purported...

Hong Kong has raised its full-year economic growth forecast for 2026 to a range of 3.5 to 4.5 per cent following a 4.3 per cent expansion in the second quarter, supported by buoyant external trade and resilient domestic demand. Releasing its half-yearly economic report on Friday, the government revised its 2026 growth forecast from the previous range of 2.5 to 3.5 per cent, citing a stronger-than-expected performance in the first half of the year and taking into account the near-term outlook. It...

A UN investigative report accusing Myanmar’s military of carrying out a “sustained campaign of deliberate attacks on civilians” has muddied Min Aung Hlaing’s push for regional acceptance – but analysts say it is unlikely to derail his efforts to win recognition for his post-election government. The report by the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM), a body appointed by the UN Human Rights Council, documents a year-long investigation into alleged “war crimes and crimes against...

In a rare intervention, the US has propped up the Japanese yen. The move is seen as a bid to hold off a further rise in yields for US government bonds – amid Japan’s sell-off of US Treasuries to fund its shoring up of the yen – a rise that threatens the US artificial intelligence bubble. That the United States bought yen for the first time in decades – coordinating with Japan – had a bigger psychological impact on the market than Tokyo’s interventions alone. But give it three or four weeks and...

China should try to make sure that its new international artificial intelligence (AI) body is not seen as “naturally opposed” to the United States and its allies in case it puts off prospective members, analysts have warned. They said the World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organisation (Waico) was not designed as an alternative to the US Pax Silica partnership, which was established last December with the aim of reducing “coercive dependencies”. Waico was established at the World...

A teenager who fears dying young has narrowly escaped death twice this year after contracting influenza and respiratory virus infection, enduring what he described as his “most emotionally devastating breakdown”. Chen Tsz-kin, 17, was diagnosed with an incurable muscle-wasting disease at the age of 18 months and was told that people with the condition had an average life expectancy of 18. In a Facebook post on Thursday, he revealed that he had experienced two near-death episodes this year,...

The United States’ organ transplant system has been plunged into a crisis of public trust after federal health authorities decertified a major organ procurement organisation (OPO) over allegations that organs were harvested from donors who may still have been alive. The scandal has sent shock waves through Chinese communities and validated growing fears among Chinese students and parents. On August 5, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced the immediate decertification of...

A Hong Kong court has sentenced a former jewellery procurement manager to six years and eight months behind bars for stealing HK$11 million (US$1.4 million) worth of diamonds from suppliers to fund his gambling habit. Mui Ka-fai, 63, pleaded guilty on Monday to three counts of theft for reselling the small diamonds he misappropriated for personal gain while working for Tse Sui Luen Jewellery between April 2023 and February 2024. Sentencing the defendant on Friday, High Court Judge Andrew Chan...

A man who decided to burgle homes on his first visit to Singapore after finding the country “rich” was sentenced to three years and eight months’ jail on Friday. Huang Xiaozong broke into a suite at the Capella Singapore and two houses in Serangoon, stealing more than S$100,000 (US$78,000) worth of valuables. The 41-year-old earlier pleaded guilty to two counts of housebreaking, with one count of trespass taken into consideration for sentencing. The Chinese national visited Singapore for the...

A Malaysian university has drawn anger over plans to host controversial analyst Abdul Razak Baginda, the former lover of a Mongolian woman whose body was blown up with military-grade explosives in one of the country’s most notorious murders. The controversy has spread beyond social media to the International Islamic University Malaysia’s own academics, who on Thursday called for a review of Abdul Razak’s appearance at the university’s International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilisation...

A moving services manager has admitted to repeatedly molesting the 11-year-old daughter of his girlfriend in their Hong Kong home, and possessing more than 200 videos and photos he took during the seven assaults. Deputy District Judge Ivy Chui Yee-mei on Friday condemned the “despicable and sickening” acts of the defendant, who was 35 years older than the victim at the time of the offences. The 47-year-old defendant admitted to molesting the girl seven times between August 2023 and March 2024....

For Eric Huang, a Guangdong-based healthcare entrepreneur who owns a Lamborghini Aventador and a Tesla Model S Plaid, the appeal of Chinese premium electric vehicles (EVs) has grown as their technology has caught up with his expectations. “I hold electric cars to strict safety standards, so I used to stick to Tesla,” Huang said. But he added that domestic brands had now met his standards. His next purchase, he said, would be a six-seat premium electric minivan equivalent from a Chinese brand,...