South China Morning Post

Hong Kong police have arrested a 19-year-old woman for falsely claiming to have planted explosives in an office in Kwai Chung, after searches found no suspicious items. Police revealed on Sunday that the arrest was made the day before in Wong Tai Sin, after officers conducting online patrols iden...

When Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was laid to rest in Tehran earlier this month, Indonesia, home to more Muslims than any other nation on Earth, decided to send only its ambassador – at first. The decision raised questions not only about Jakarta’s non-aligned foreign policy but also the tensions at the...

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun will make ⁠his first trip to the White House this week to present a plan to US President Donald Trump on how to disarm Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah and secure Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon. Aoun, who served as the commander of Lebanon’s US-backed army bef...

Mr Kenneth Jeyaretnam, secretary general of the Reform Party (RP), has died, his wife said on Sunday. He was 67 years old. Jeyaretnam died in his sleep, surrounded by family, on Saturday, said Amanda Jeyaretnam in a post on her husband’s social media. “He was my beloved husband and a loving and d...

The Chinese city of Changzhou is building what it claims will be the country’s first city-level “green token factory”, as local governments race to answer Beijing’s call to power massive artificial intelligence computing demands with clean energy. The project would be powered by green energy and ...

A writer from central China once hailed as a “literary prodigy” has had her master’s degree revoked for plagiarism. Jiang Fangzhou, 36, grew up in an ordinary family in Hubei province. Her mother is a Chinese-language teacher and online writer, while her father is a railway police officer. But he...

Hong Kong will press ahead with its new dog-friendly dining scheme despite a public backlash and the withdrawal of 11 participating restaurants, the environment minister has said, describing the situation as part of an initial adjustment period. Secretary for Environment and Ecology Tse Chin-wan ...

An intergovernmental mediation body headquartered in Hong Kong has resolved at least one more dispute since settling a case involving parties from Singapore and mainland China, while its influence has grown to cover 46 signatory and 16 contracting states. Teresa Cheng Yeuk-wah, secretary general ...

Homeowners of a fire-hit Hong Kong estate who waited months for an extraordinary general meeting have urgent questions regarding compensation and the state of their flats, though its agenda excludes a crucial building examination report. Hop On Management Company, the government-appointed adminis...

The US military launched air strikes on Sunday targeting Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard to retaliate for the killing of American troops in Jordan, further widening the crossfire between the nations as they fight over the Strait of Hormuz. The strikes, now part of a weeklong campaign that...

Hong Kong’s lawmakers have embarked on an unprecedented week-long study visit to Beijing, with the Legislative Council’s president saying the trip would help their work of ensuring the city better aligns with national development. Starry Lee Wai-king on Sunday highlighted the significance of the ...

Smaller, family-run businesses in mainland China are embracing advanced artificial intelligence (AI) more readily than large enterprises, while market agility and steady power supplies will determine the winners of the global AI race, industry leaders have said at a forum in Indonesia. Panel spea...

India is stepping up engagement with Indo-Pacific middle powers as uncertainty grows over the future of US security commitments in Asia, with analysts saying New Delhi is building a web of partnerships that allows countries with different strategic interests to cooperate without joining a formal ...

Hong Kong students can benefit from taking a gap year after the university entrance exam, but should set clear goals for their future, education sector experts have said, pointing to the increasing value of applicants with experience outside the classroom. NGOs and experts said that setting aside...

Meite Siaka wears many hats. By day, he is a senior tax official, a lecturer at the National School of Administration and deputy mayor of Kani in northern Ivory Coast. But outside government, he serves as the founding president of the Ivorian Federation of Chinese Martial Arts (FIAMC), a group he...

A long-discussed plan for an Asean power grid is gaining steam, according to investors and Indonesian policymakers gathered in Bali, as surging demand from AI and data centres, as well as the region’s energy transition, fuels optimism over the initiative. On Friday, representatives from sovereign...

Asia’s only dedicated exorcism centre – designed to train not only Philippine priests but clergy from across the region – sits just off a busy thoroughfare in Metro Manila. Inside, neatly made-up rooms for visiting priests line warmly lit halls that lead to a chapel where the 400-year-old ritual ...

BNP Paribas, France’s largest lender and the second-largest in Europe, has found that an increasing number of wealthy European clients are seeking to establish family offices in Hong Kong to capitalise on growing opportunities in the region, according to a banker from the lender. A growing number...

Malaysia’s anti-corruption agency has opened an investigation into losses tied to state pension fund Kumpulan Wang Persaraan Diperbadankan’s investment in failed Indonesian agritech start-up eFishery. A team was formed on Friday to “study and examine the issue thoroughly,” Malaysian Anti-Corrupti...

Official support and collaboration with private capital are critical for sovereign wealth funds to succeed, the head of Hong Kong’s government-owned investment vehicle has said, as she spelled out strategies needed to deliver high returns. At the inaugural Nusa Dua Forum organised by the South Ch...

Artificial intelligence (AI) is driving unprecedented demand for computing, placing photonic chips at the centre of the race to develop next-generation AI hardware. By transmitting data with light rather than electricity, photonic technologies are widely seen as a way to overcome bandwidth and po...

Hong Kong has embarked on the path of drawing up its first five-year plan – a significant moment in its history. Hong Kong’s first five-year plan should be more than a local economic blueprint. Properly conceived, it should define how the city contributes to China’s national development while pre...

A man in eastern China was stunned to discover that his family’s battered dining table was in fact a Qing dynasty (1644–1912) honour board commemorating an ancestor’s success in the imperial examinations. Xu, a villager in Anhui province, shared the unusual story in an online video on July 12, wh...

Tears, anger and exhaustion marked the conclusion of an inquiry into the deadly fire at Hong Kong’s Wang Fuk Court, as survivors condemned government departments for passing the buck and demanded accountability. Residents have reacted to the conclusion of an inquiry into the deadly fire at Hong K...

Indonesia’s Danantara must outlive political administrations to prove its worth to investors and most importantly to the people, according to the sovereign wealth fund’s chief investment officer. Pandu Sjahrir said the fund was focused on the demutualisation of Jakarta’s stock market and to suppo...

On a clear summer morning at Mount Fuji’s fifth-station trailhead, the crowds look more beach ready than alpine prepared with canvas slip-ons, bare legs and lightweight jackets. Above them, Japan’s most famous peak rises to 3,776 metres (12,389 feet) and into sub-zero temperatures, even in July. ...

Influencer brothers Andrew and Tristan Tate were arrested by federal authorities Saturday in Miami, according to the US Marshals Service. The charges against the pair were not immediately announced. Brady McCarron, a spokesman for the Marshals Service, said the warrant was sealed. They were arres...

Prominent Cuban dissident artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcantara flew to exile on Saturday in the United States after serving a five-year sentence on the island, as Washington urged Havana to release more than 700 political prisoners. Otero Alcantara, designated a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty In...

For years, aerial drones frequently buzzed above the Huangpu River in Shanghai, capturing breathtaking views of one of China’s most iconic central business districts and the lights of thousands of homes. But the spectacular aerial photos that once defined one of the world’s largest commercial dro...

The recent resignation of Keir Starmer as Britain’s prime minister has reignited a debate over the United Kingdom’s post-Brexit identity – and talk of rejoining the European Union. Over the past decade, has Britain’s decision to exit the EU returned the UK to its splendid isolation – or merely a ...

Former Apollo Global Management Chief Executive Officer Leon Black told Congress he paid US$21 million to a woman he accused of blackmailing and extorting him. The billionaire investor said during a June 26 interview with the US House Oversight Committee that he paid the money to the woman, with ...

The US military on Saturday announced the first American troop deaths due to direct Iranian fire since the opening days of the war, saying two were killed and another was missing in an attack on a base in Jordan. They were killed Friday as the US and partner forces defended against Iranian ballis...

Israeli Environmental Protection Minister Idit Silman has reclassified crocodiles from wild animals to “captive-bred wildlife”, a move that clears the way for the reptiles to be used for security purposes, including to deter prison escapes. Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir – w...

The Canadian military was preparing on Saturday to evacuate a remote community of 600 people threatened by forest wildfires that have spread, choking smoke across a broad swathe of the United States. Federal Emergencies Minister Eleanor Olszewski said late on Friday that the armed forces would us...

An independent committee examining the causes of Hong Kong’s deadly Wang Fuk Court blaze will delay submitting its final report to late October, a month later than expected, citing the need for more time to review documents, the South China Morning Post has learned. A source confirmed to the SCMP...

The global AI race is no longer just about chips or models. Increasingly, it is also about data – namely, the language resources that feed and train them. Beijing has identified that layer as a new strategic frontier, accelerating the buildout of a national ecosystem of Chinese-language data for ...

Greater global cooperation and development-focused AI regulations are urgently needed to prevent a widening digital divide, scholars and international figures said at China’s premier AI conference on Saturday. The message aligned with a broader pitch on display at the annual World AI Conference (...

Chinese social media accounts are profiting by hinting at the downfall of corrupt officials ahead of formal announcements, state media has warned, highlighting a “grey market” around Beijing’s anti-corruption campaign. The trend had created a new challenge for Chinese law enforcement, state-run j...

Authorities in India’s capital Delhi moved social activist Sonam Wangchuk to hospital against his will on Saturday, after his condition worsened on the 21st day of a hunger strike launched to demand the resignation of the federal education minister. Wangchuk, 59, had been fasting since June 28 in...

When devastating floods swept through Assam in northeastern India in 2018, the disaster quickly triggered a troubling question within New Delhi’s security corridors: could control over the weather become a new tool of geopolitical pressure or warfare? As technology advances, could control over th...

Hong Kong customs officers have arrested three men in connection with 131 kilograms (289 pounds) of suspected ketamine worth about HK$51 million (US$6.5 million), disguised as sugar cubes and found in air cargo transported to the city. Chiu Kai-wing, a senior investigator with the Customs and Exc...

Some residents displaced by Hong Kong’s deadliest inferno in decades have called for merging the Housing Bureau’s Independent Checking Unit (ICU) with the Buildings Department, after a public inquiry revealed regulatory failures linked to communication problems between the two arms of similar fun...

Sun Hung Kai Properties (SHKP), Hong Kong’s largest developer by market capitalisation, has sold out the first batch of units at its Garden Regency project in the New Territories on Saturday, according to agents. By 3.30pm, all 138 flats the developer had launched in the Kam Tin North project in ...

Alibaba Group Holding’s chip design unit, T-Head, has announced that it will open-source its proprietary software stack, marking its latest effort to streamline developer operations and challenge the dominance of American chip giant Nvidia’s CUDA ecosystem. At the World AI Conference (WAIC) in Sh...

An independent inquiry into Hong Kong’s deadly Tai Po fire has concluded after examining more than 1 million files and hearing from 80 witnesses across 30 public sessions, uncovering the causes of the blaze that killed 168 people. The panel, chaired by Justice David Lok Kai-hong, wrapped up its h...

India’s first privately built orbital rocket took its maiden flight on Saturday, its company said, marking a significant step for the South Asian giant as it eyes a bigger slice of the global space economy. The Vikram-1 rocket, built by Skyroot Aerospace and designed to carry small satellites int...

Indonesia is pushing ahead to transform the holiday island of Bali into an international financial centre, with its parliament set to debate new laws this week while a key conference set out targets and cited models such as Hong Kong as an example. Minister of Investment and Downstream Industry R...

In Abidjan, the commercial capital and economic engine of Ivory Coast, the extent of Chinese infrastructure development is a permanent feature of the transport and trade networks. This includes the Alassane Ouattara Bridge, commonly known as the Cocody Bridge, which links the affluent eastern dis...

The Hong Kong government has indicated that it is unlikely to hold a by-election to fill the vacancy left by former lawmaker William Wong Kam-fai’s resignation over his drink-driving and hit-and-run case, citing time constraints and cost-effectiveness concerns. Secretary for Constitutional and Ma...

It turns out it isn’t just office jobs people should be worried about AI taking, some athletes might want to watch their backs too. In a scene that could have come from the Terminator film franchise, two robots battled it out in an MMA fight in Shenzhen this week, leaving social media users stunn...