A Hongkonger suspected of driving under the influence of an illegal drug was arrested early on Tuesday following a 4km high-speed chase that ended down a dead-end street.The 31-year-old was driving his white Honda along Prince Edward Road East in San...

In his first conversation with a counsellor, Alok (name changed to protect his identity) said nothing for 15 minutes. In the second call, the silence lasted 11 minutes.In the third, eight minutes passed before the 10-year-old boy, who last month lost...

A plan to toughen Hong Kong regulations on prepaid SIM cards by requiring users to provide their real names and personal data took a major step forward on Tuesday, but with a major twist – a planned cap on the number of cards one person or business...

New York City police have charged a man with a hate crime after he was arrested for an unprovoked assault on a 55-year-old Asian woman in the Chinatown area, police said.Alexander Wright, 48, was charged with “assault”, “assault as a hate crime...

Investigators in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen have turned to vibration simulations to identify the cause of the mysterious trembling that shook the SEG Plaza, after a nearly two-week probe failed to explain it conclusively.While waiting for ...

Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor on Tuesday declined to say if it was unlawful for Hong Kong residents to call for an end to China’s “one-party rule”, a regular refrain at the city’s annual Tiananmen Square vigil, now banned for a s...

One of Taiwan’s largest religious groups has stepped in to help resolve the island’s Covid-19 vaccine shortage issue by offering to donate 500,000 doses of US Johnson & Johnson’s jabs.The offer came as Taiwan reported 332 new infections and 13 ...

As other Western democracies in the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing network turn their gaze towards China, its smallest member has broken ranks.New Zealand – part of the post-war alliance with the United States, Britain, Canada and Australia – has...

Cathay Pacific Airways will start hiring Hong Kong-based pilots again for the first time in about 18 months, as it kick-starts the long process of rebuilding the business for after the Covid-19 pandemic, the Post has learned.Hong Kong’s beleaguered...

More than one-third of the world’s heat deaths each year are due directly to global warming, according to the latest study to calculate the human cost of climate change.But scientists say that’s only a sliver of climate’s overall toll – even ...

There was mayhem at a meeting of the African Union’s parliament as lawmakers scuffled over a ballot box and a man appeared to aim a head-high kick at a female colleague amid shouts that there were people armed with guns in the room.Numerous scuffle...

A veteran diplomat recently appointed by Beijing to head the foreign ministry’s Hong Kong office met with the city’s leader for the first time on Tuesday, the Post has learned.Sources said Liu Guangyuan, who arrived in Hong Kong on Tuesday last w...

Schools in Myanmar opened on Tuesday for the first time since the military seized power, but teachers and students were set to defy the junta’s calls for full classrooms in a show of resistance. Four months of national turmoil have followed the Feb...

Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said it’s not an isolated incident that more than 200 children were found buried at a former indigenous residential school.Trudeau’s comments come as indigenous leaders were calling for an examination of e...

Leading thousands of protest marchers through central Sydney and joining a landmark class action lawsuit are not usual activities for most 14-year-olds.But Australian student Izzy Raj-Seppings has abandoned more frivolous extracurricular activities i...

Lithuania’s top diplomat in China has rejected claims that her country was taking sides against Beijing by quitting the China-led 17+1 mechanism, saying the withdrawal was prompted by less-than-expected trade benefits.Diana Mickeviciene, the Lithua...

To acquire a 9-hectare plot of land on Indonesia’s south-western island of Sumba, a getaway some 50 minutes by plane from Bali, French entrepreneurs Fabrice and Evguenia Ivara first had to request for ancestral approval.This unusual requirement led...

Hong Kong’s leader has insisted plans to ban unvaccinated residents from certain venues should a fifth wave of the coronavirus emerge are designed to return life to normal for residents, rather than punish people for not getting the jabs.Chief Exec...

This story is published in a content partnership with POLITICO. It was originally reported by Laurens Cerulus and Hans von der Burchard on politico.eu on May 31, 2021.Joe Biden must feel like he’s having flashbacks.Two weeks before the US president...

An espionage trial involving a former Polish secret services agent and an ex-employee of Huawei Technologies Co begins in a Warsaw court on Tuesday as some European states consider whether to exclude the Chinese group’s equipment from their 5G tele...

Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin on Monday announced an additional 40 billion ringgit (US$9.7 billion) stimulus package, ahead of the imposition of stricter lockdown measures to curb the rapid spread of Covid-19.The Southeast Asian nation is...

China’s factory activity expanded at the fastest pace this year in May as domestic and export demand picked up, though sharp rises in raw material prices and strains in supply chains crimped some companies’ production, a business survey showed on...

China’s top scientists broadly welcomed President Xi Jinping’s latest call for researchers to spend more time in labs and less time on events, although some said they often find it hard to avoid promotional activity, non-academic meetings and ban...

As the coronavirus situation deteriorates in Malaysia, brickbats are coming thick and fast for Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin – not just from the official opposition, but from ostensibly friendly forces as well.Former prime minister Najib Razak �...

Hongkongers of a certain age can now revisit the scene of many a sharp bank and tight landing at a newly opened park built on the site of the city’s former Kai Tak airport.Dubbed the Kai Tak Sky Garden, the narrow 1.4km-long public space runs down ...

A video of a Peking University professor complaining about his daughter’s poor academic scores has gone viral online, highlighting the anxiety many Chinese parents feel about their children’s education.Ding Yanqing, an associate professor at the ...

This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing.Torrential downpours swept Hong Kong on Tuesday, with the Observatory issuing two amber rainstorm warnings wit...

Hongkonger Mary Cheung* was 29 and visiting Beijing for the first time when she stopped at Tiananmen Square and snapped photographs cheerfully in April 1989.Not long after she returned home from her holiday, mainland Chinese students began gathering ...

Efforts to retain doctors in Hong Kong’s public health system have been effective in slowing departure rates, a senior hospital official has said, rejecting concerns that a proposal racing its way to legislative reality will lead to competition for...

The regularly-voiced response from some readers to political opinions in this column, “if you don’t like it here then go home”, is somewhat problematic for me. Hong Kong is where I have lived for more than three decades and I have few connectio...

China has set up a high-powered leading group on carbon neutrality, underscoring the importance Beijing gives the climate issue.Chaired by Han Zheng, China’s first vice-premier and a member of the powerful Politburo Standing Committee, the high-lev...

Peru on Monday more than doubled its official coronavirus death toll, becoming the country with the highest Covid-19 mortality per capita anywhere in the world.The government said it had raised the count from 69,342 to 180,764 on the advice of a pane...

This is the seventh in the South China Morning Post’s series of explainers about China’s Communist Party in the lead-up to the party’s centenary in July. Here, Phoebe Zhang breaks down the demographics of the 100-year-old party’s membership.S...

France, Germany and other European countries demanded answers on Monday following reports the US spied on its allies using Danish underwater cables, as questions mounted over whether Denmark knew about the operation.In an investigative report on Sund...

Coronavirus variants with clunky, alphanumeric names have now been assigned the letters of the Greek Alphabet in a bid to simplify discussion and pronunciation while avoiding stigma.The World Health Organization revealed the new names on Monday amid ...

Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) has issued a plea for a ban on the sale of magnetic balls due to a deadly trend on the video platform TikTok.Tiny magnetic balls, which are typically sold as toys, have become the focus of a recent TikTok vi...

The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) called on Monday for countries to launch negotiations this year on an international treaty to boost pandemic preparedness, as part of sweeping reforms envisioned by member states.Tedros Adhanom Ghebreye...

What was China’s one-child policy?China’s one-child policy was rolled out in 1980 by Deng Xiaoping and was strictly enforced after the population had increased to 969 million in 1980 from around 540 million in 1949.It restricted most couples to o...

[Sponsored Article] A key objective for the Hong Kong Institute of Advanced Study (HKIAS) is to provide a platform for world-leading scholars to engage in pioneering research and share their findings with a wider international audience.  In doing ...

The United Kingdom on Monday announced plans to accelerate its relocation of Afghan staff who worked with the military and their families ahead of a planned withdrawal of US-led Nato forces.Under the relocation scheme for former and current Afghan st...

The rapid construction of two buildings at Cambodia’s Ream Naval Base, just north of where United States-funded facilities were demolished by Phnom Penh last year, has raised concerns that China stands to benefit from the upgrades, according to a W...

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has called on the European Union to handle its dealings with China more calmly, and on Ireland to be a stabilising influence in the deteriorating relationship.Wang made the remarks in a meeting on Sunday with his Iris...

A Hong Kong judge questioned on Monday whether animals had the right to sue after a woman who adopted one of 30 pets thrown from a building last year challenged prosecutors’ decision not to press charges against the two alleged perpetrators.Mr Just...

Fully vaccinated residents in the EU should be exempt from Covid-19 quarantine when travelling within the bloc, the European Commission urged on Monday in a sign of increased confidence in its jabs roll-out.The EU executive’s update to its non-bind...

Hong Kong authorities need to boost housing supply and guide residents in embracing opportunities in mainland China as they try to mend social divisions and promote the country’s success to the rest of the world, according to speakers at a high-pow...

The eldest son of a prominent Chinese historian who taught at a university in Japan’s Hokkaido and is currently detained by Chinese authorities on suspicion of espionage is calling for his father to be released.“As a family, we can only hope that...

Forty-seven Hong Kong opposition figures charged over their roles in an unofficial primary election last July are now facing the possibility of life in prison after a magistrate granted prosecutors’ request to move their trial to the High Court, wh...

China’s central bank said on Monday that it would raise the amount of money that financial institutions must set aside as reserves for their foreign exchange deposits, in the latest move to curb the yuan’s recent rapid appreciation.The increase i...

A Chinese physicist has said that a new wind tunnel in Beijing to be unveiled “soon” will put China decades ahead of the rest of the world in hypersonic technology.Chinese Academy of Sciences researcher Han Guilai told an online lecture last week...

One of the world’s busiest ports could see shipments delayed as a coronavirus outbreak that earlier closed part of the facility spurs stricter virus-control measures.All cargoes leaving Yantian Port in China will require reservations, according to ...