Hong Kong authorities are looking into driving up Covid-19 vaccinations by offering incentives such as exempting jab recipients from certain travel restrictions and social-distancing measures, the city’s leader has revealed.Chief Executive Carrie L...

A visit by European Union ambassadors to the Xinjiang region of China has stalled over their request for access to jailed Uygur academic Ilham Tohti, a diplomatic source confirmed on Wednesday.Since 2019, China says it has invited foreign diplomats a...

Washington has warned it may restrict flights from local carriers such as Cathay Pacific Airways over objections to Hong Kong’s quarantine rules, which it says are denying “fair and equal opportunity” to US airlines.The US Department of Transpo...

China would have to take “resolute but moderate” countermeasures if the European Union decided to impose sanctions over human rights abuses in Xinjiang, observers said, after Beijing’s envoy to the 27-member bloc warned Brussels not to interfer...

Japanese messaging app Line, owned by SoftBank’s Z Holdings, allowed Chinese engineers at a Shanghai affiliate to access data on Japanese users without seeking their consent, Japanese media reported on Wednesday.Under Japanese privacy regulations, ...

A committee historically dominated by Hong Kong’s pro-establishment camp will get the biggest share of seats in the city’s legislature under Beijing’s proposed overhaul of the city’s electoral system, a senior official confirmed on Wednesday....

Myanmar’s most powerful Buddhist monks’ association called on the junta to end violence against protesters and accused an “armed minority” of torture and killing innocent civilians since last month’s coup, media said on Wednesday.In its mos...

Boris Johnson’s government was accused of inching towards authoritarian rule after the UK parliament voted for a bill that could end peaceful protests, even a one-person demonstration deemed too noisy.In the debate leading up to the vote, the Polic...

A company that fired a woman for taking too much maternity leave must pay her salary compensation and severance pay, Chinese state media reported on Sunday.The woman, surnamed Zhong, was fired for “absenteeism” after taking three months of matern...

A truck driver and two passengers were trapped in their vehicle and had to be freed by firefighters after it crashed through railings and plunged down a slope on Hong Kong’s Lantau Island on Wednesday.Emergency personnel were called in when the tru...

Japan’s failure to recognise same-sex marriage is unconstitutional, a court ruled on Wednesday, in a landmark first verdict on the issue that campaigners welcomed as a major victory.Lawyers for plaintiffs in the case said the ruling should pile pre...

Banking giant HSBC announced on Wednesday that its iconic Hong Kong headquarters would be closed until further notice amid a growing number of Covid-19 cases among staff.The closure came as the city recorded 11 new infections on Wednesday, and as loc...

Australia on Wednesday asked AstraZeneca and the European Union for urgent access to 1 million vaccines to deal with an alarming Covid-19 surge in neighbouring Papua New Guinea.Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he wanted to divert doses that Austral...

Washington has slapped financial sanctions on 24 Hong Kong and mainland Chinese officials, expanding its punitive action in retaliation for Beijing’s drastic shake-up of Hong Kong’s electoral system.The extended punitive action announced on Wedne...

Since coronavirus shutdowns began last March, thousands of Asian-Americans have faced racist verbal and physical attacks or have been shunned by others, according to a study released Tuesday.The study by Stop AAPI Hate documents 3,795 racially motiva...

Taiwan has stepped in with an offer to help Paraguay buy Covid-19 vaccines after protests in the South American country over its government’s handling of the pandemic.Thousands of Paraguayans protested in the capital Asuncion over the lack of medic...

Eight people were killed in shootings at three different massage parlours in the US state of Georgia on Tuesday and a 21-year-old male suspect was in custody, police said, though it was unclear if the attacks were related.Most of the victims were wom...

The Chinese government has made technology and innovation key priorities in its development plans for the next five years, as it strives to build a “Digital China” and overtake the US as the world’s No 1 economy. In this second part of a series...

A 30-year-old Singaporean man began physically abusing his 68-year-old mother in 2017, starving her and not allowing her to shower or “make noise” when he was stressed by school work.Andy Koh Ju Hua, who was studying for a Master’s degree at th...

A high-level meeting between US and Chinese diplomats in Alaska this week will primarily serve to increase understanding of the two parties’ positions, with low expectations for substantive commitments from Beijing, US officials said on Tuesday.The...

The Pritzker Architecture Prize, the field’s highest honour, has been awarded to the Paris-based duo of Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal for “prioritising the enrichment of human life”, especially in the context of public housing.The selec...

On February 28, in the western Sydney suburb of Harris Park, men armed with wooden bats and hammers attacked five Sikh students in their 20s who were driving home from dinner. They escaped unhurt, though their car suffered severe damage. One of the v...

When US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan meet top Chinese diplomats in Anchorage, Alaska, on Thursday they may be surprised by the confidence China exudes these days.America’s accelerating de...

Domestic helpers in Hong Kong are reluctant to receive Covid-19 jabs because of worries about possible side-effects and the efficacy of vaccines, according to concern groups and an employers’ association.The lukewarm response comes as authorities e...

Katherine Tai, President Joe Biden’s nominee for US Trade Representative, won unanimous support in a US Senate procedural vote on Tuesday and appeared set for confirmation on Wednesday.The rare 98-0 vote on the motion to end debate on the nominatio...

This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers.Hong Kong’s online booking platform for Covid-19 vaccinations experienced a sudden surge in interest on Tuesday, after the city widened the scheme to cover 5.5 million peo...

The black market for human placentas is thriving in China, despite the banning of the practice more than a decade ago, an investigative report has found.People who buy fresh human placenta believe it has healing properties and will either cook and ea...

Japan’s foreign ministry has warned it could be forced to implement “measures that are truly effective” against embassies that refuse to pay traffic fines, after it emerged that the diplomatic corps of Russia and China were some of the worst of...

North Korea might begin flight testing an improved design for its intercontinental ballistic missiles “in the near future”, the head of the US military’s Northern Command said on Tuesday, a move that would sharply increase tensions between Pyon...

In the border district of Xishuangbanna in southwest China’s Yunnan province, the global pandemic has put residents of the small ethnic minority village of Mandian under pressure to change old habits.Behind a traditional homestead with a small gard...

This story is published in a content partnership with POLITICO. It was originally reported by Bryan Bender on politico.com on March 16, 2021.The Defence Innovation Unit remains an exceedingly small outfit by Pentagon standards, with a permanent staff...

Cigarette use in a number of developing countries may fall to zero in the next three decades as smokers quit or switch to alternative products, according to a new report.Smoking will disappear by 2050 from the US, parts of Europe, Australia and large...

A new US intelligence report published on Tuesday said that China did not interfere in the 2020 presidential election, but blamed Russia and to a lesser extent Iran for state-sponsored interference in the race between Donald Trump and Joe Biden.“We...

Lightning strikes may have supplied primordial Earth with enough phosphorus to support the emergence of life, according to new research on Tuesday that offered an alternative explanation as to how living organisms were born.Phosphorus is a vital buil...

A Chinese citizen suspected of throwing Molotov cocktails at his country’s embassy in Berlin to protest Beijing’s treatment of minorities is being held in custody for attempted arson, German prosecutors said on Tuesday.The 42-year-old man has bee...

Britain’s Prince Harry has spoken to his elder brother William for the first time since he and his wife Meghan’s Oprah Winfrey interview but the talks were “not productive”, a friend of the couple said on Tuesday.During the interview aired by...

An opposition politician on Tuesday accused the Hong Kong government of altering district council meeting records by omitting speeches he and his allies had made.But the Home Affairs Department, which runs the secretariat that supports district counc...

China’s rapid development of its sovereign digital currency, the so-called digital yuan, is causing the United States to worry that it could fall behind in the race for financial technology innovation, analysts said.The digital yuan is one of the m...

The US and China are both expected to adopt a tough stance and set out their red lines during Thursday’s meeting between their most senior diplomats in Alaska, but observers believe it will still be an improvement on the last meeting between the tw...

Britain on Tuesday unveiled plans to pivot its strategic focus towards Asia, counter Russia and controversially bolster its nuclear stockpile, in one of the biggest overhauls of security, defence and foreign policy since the Cold War era.The conclusi...

China is building more underground silos from where its most powerful intercontinental ballistic missiles could be launched, according to reports.They are reportedly being built in the north of the country and are designed to accommodate the DF-41 an...

China’s ambassador to the European Union has warned against imposing sanctions on Beijing over its actions in Xinjiang as the bloc decides how to respond to the crackdown on the Uygur minority.“I want to emphasise that sanctions are confrontation...

A drug that has been used to treat leprosy for decades has also been found to be effective against Covid-19, according to a study by researchers from Hong Kong, the United States and Denmark.The newly identified use of clofazimine meant that a more a...

China is intensifying its crackdown on illegal sand mining in the Yangtze River to ensure water supply, flood control and ecological safety.In a joint notice issued on Monday, the ministries for water, public security and transport said they were “...

Malaysia’s opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim on Tuesday sought to defuse dissent among supporters over a purported plan to join forces in upcoming polls with rivals such as the ex-leader Najib Razak, saying talks remained at a preliminary stage.Anwar...

Beijing has ordered all levels of government across China to lower their debt levels, as leaders move to address the fiscal risks that arose last year when policymakers boosted spending and cut taxes to fight the economic fallout from the coronavirus...

A Hong Kong nursery school teacher broke down in court on Tuesday as she recalled her final days with a five-year-old pupil who was allegedly murdered by her parents.The teacher described the deceased as a playful “little girl who liked to laugh a ...

When China’s newest hydropower plant is completed in July, it will produce 16 times the energy of the Hoover Dam in the United States.Standing nearly 300 metres (985 feet) tall, and made with more than 8 million cubic metres of concrete, the Baihet...

Hong Kong’s jobless rate rose to 7.2 per cent in February, the highest since 2004, with the labour chief warning the market will continue to face challenges as the coronavirus pandemic is not yet under control.The rolling three-month unemployment r...

The United States and Japan warned China against “coercion and aggression” on Tuesday after their defence and foreign ministers met in Tokyo, on the first overseas visit by members of President Joe Biden’s cabinet.In a US-China war, whose side ...