Hong Kong’s stock market operator will allow special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) to list, joining global bourses from New York to Singapore in opening another fundraising avenue for start-ups.SPACs must raise at least HK$1 billion (US$128...

Covid-19 vaccines approved by the World Health Organization can be given in a “mix-and-match” schedule for either the first two doses or as a booster, the agency said on Thursday, confirming a practice many countries have been following out of ne...

TikTok owner ByteDance has created a stand-alone shopping app in China, similar to its Fanno platform in Europe, betting on the new trend of Gen Z consumers buying on tips from online influencers.The new app, called Douyin Box, is described as “an ...

Hong Kong police have arrested a 21-year-old man and confiscated HK$51 million (US$6.5 million) worth of illegal drugs in an anti-narcotics operation ahead of the festive season.Officers intercepted the man when he left a Kwun Tong industrial unit wi...

Hongkongers should brace for a cool and rainy Christmas courtesy of a typhoon now moving across the Philippines and South China Sea, the Observatory said on Friday.An intense northeast monsoon, meanwhile, is expected to lower weekend temperatures, wi...

Australian authorities on Friday rushed to track down hundreds who attended a Taylor Swift album party in Sydney last week that has become a super-spreading event as cases in the country hit a new pandemic high for the second straight day.Covid-19 in...

Allowing cargo aircrew to self-isolate after arriving in Hong Kong represents a major loophole in the city’s bid to keep out Covid-19’s new Omicron variant, medical experts have said, urging the government to change the policy.Calling the next tw...

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has accused “forces with ulterior motives” of inciting riots in the Solomon Islands last month, which have been blamed in part on discontent with China.Wang made the remarks during the first official exchange with...

It can be hard to say no when your boss asks you to sing for charity in front of all your colleagues, but Hong Kong staff at a global investment bank have come up with a way to get off the hook while still contributing to a good cause.“I donated HK...

When he inherited power in North Korea 10 years ago, Swiss-educated basketball fan Kim Jong-un seemed open to foreign ideas and market reforms, but is increasingly shutting down outside influences as he enters his second decade in office.North Korea ...

Priscilla Wong Pui-sze, a barrister who chairs the city’s police watchdog, has been made the new head of the University of Hong Kong’s (HKU) governing council.Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, in her capacity as HKU chancellor, has appo...

At least 27 people were feared dead after a fire broke out at a psychiatry clinic in the Japanese city of Osaka on Friday, according to an official, and media reported that police were investigating suspected arson.An official at Osaka’s city fire ...

The strongest typhoon to hit the Philippines this year uprooted trees, toppled power lines and flooded villages as it barrelled across the archipelago on Friday, leaving at least six people dead.More than 300,000 people fled their homes and beachfron...

Chinese mining companies have been warned against “blindly” organising inspection trips to sites in Afghanistan, after reports that some of them are looking for opportunities in the Central Asian nation since the withdrawal of US troops in August...

Facebook parent Meta Platforms has announced a sweeping crackdown on surveillance companies that it says have used its social media websites to spy on people in more than 100 countries.In a report published on Thursday, Meta identified six companies ...

Britain and Australia have signed a free trade deal projected to eventually boost bilateral trade by over £10 billion (US$13.3 billion), eliminating tariffs, opening up sectors like agriculture and allowing freer movement for service-sector professi...

Tencent Holdings, China’s social media and gaming giant, has resumed updates for nine of its apps, a sign that regulatory pressure may be easing.Tencent confirmed to the South China Morning Post on Friday that nine apps, including QQ Music and WeCo...

Rescuers have brought 18 miners to safety, with three still trapped in a flooded underground coal mine in central China’s coal-producing Shanxi province.The first man was lifted from the pit in Xiaoyi city at 2.15pm on Friday, just hours after sign...

South China Morning Post managing editor Brian Rhoads recently flew home to the United States to attend a memorial service for his late father. After he had already left, the Hong Kong government moved the US into a new high-risk category, meaning he...

Iconic Black-American feminist author bell hooks, known for her trailblazing works on the intersection of gender, race and class, died on Wednesday aged 69, her family said.Born Gloria Jean Watkins in 1952, hooks passed away early Wednesday at her ho...

China has revised down the size of its economy and growth rate for 2020 with Beijing increasingly worried about mounting headwinds and a further slowdown in economic activities.Authorities revised down China’s 2020 gross domestic product (GDP) grow...

As speculation mounts that embattled UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson could face a leadership challenge as early as the new year, potential contenders for the Conservative throne are sharpening up their image.Johnson’s reputation is reeling followin...

Australian police on Friday said investigations were continuing into the deaths of five children after a bouncy castle was lifted into the air from strong winds at a school party, including if it was properly tied to the ground.The school was holding...

Indonesia’s limited regulations against sexual violence have come under fresh spotlight after a rape case in religious boarding schools went viral, reigniting debate about the power that Islamic leaders bear in the world’s most populous Muslim-ma...

Postal Savings Bank of China’s recent 300 million yuan (US$47 million) “sustainability linked loan” to a state-owned coal producer in Shanxi province has raised concerns among global climate think tanks, who fear it could undermine Beijing’s ...

As Cambodia is increasingly pulled into China’s orbit, the United States should refrain from punishing Phnom Penh while simultaneously expecting it to help.This is especially true when Washington needs Cambodia’s cooperation – as it chairs the ...

From passing out leaflets at street booths to hanging up posters in shop windows, young people in Hong Kong are throwing their energy into an election they feel speaks volumes at a time of unprecedented change.No, they are not trying to drum up suppo...

Michael Cohen claimed in a new lawsuit on Thursday that Donald Trump retaliated against him for writing a tell-all memoir, saying his abrupt return to federal prison last year endangered his life and amounted to punishment for criticising the preside...

The Omicron variant of the coronavirus evades immunity offered by an inactivated Covid-19 vaccine developed by Sinopharm, a lab study has found.Researchers from the University of Washington and Swiss antibody therapeutics company Humabs BioMed invest...

At least five people died as a powerful and extremely unusual storm system swept across the Great Plains and Midwest amid unseasonably warm temperatures, spawning hurricane-force winds and possible tornadoes in Nebraska, Iowa and Minnesota.In southea...

The US Senate approved long-time diplomat Nicholas Burns on Thursday to be the country’s next ambassador to China, after a Republican hold on his nomination was lifted in exchange for passage of a bill to counter China’s alleged human rights abus...

Sex and the City actor Chris Noth denied sexual assault accusations reported by the Hollywood Reporter on Thursday, saying his encounters with two women in 2004 and 2015 were consensual.Noth plays the romantic partner Mr Big, or Big, in the HBO telev...

Former US first lady Melania Trump on Thursday launched her own NFT platform, the latest public figure to join the crypto boom.A non-fungible token (NFT) is a digital object that can be a drawing, animation, piece of music, photo, or video with a cer...

From their various vantage points in major trade hubs, three businessmen have had front-row seats to China’s economic ascension since it joined the World Trade Organization in 2001.And the 20-year journey has been a lucrative one for Li Yixin, a Sh...

For more than a year, businesses and rights groups in the US watched anxiously as the Uygur Forced Labor Prevention Act moved through Congress in fits and starts, wondering if legislative gridlock would ultimately sink a popular, bipartisan bill.That...

The United States has added eight more Chinese companies, including the world’s top commercial drone maker DJI Technology and artificial intelligence (AI) giant Megvii, to an investment blacklist for alleged involvement in the surveillance of Musli...

Soaring Omicron cases left Britons scrambling on Thursday to make alternative Christmas plans, faced with cancellations, long queues for vaccines and France shutting the border to UK visitors.Britain recorded a second consecutive record daily number ...

The US Congress gave its final stamp of approval to forced labour legislation to ban imports from the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region in China, clearing the bill’s way to the White House where US President Joe Biden is expected to sign it into law...

The Boss is getting a Christmas bonus.Bruce Springsteen has sold his entire catalogue of music, including his master recordings and song publishing catalogue, to Sony Music Entertainment in a blockbuster deal that reportedly could be worth US$500 mil...

A Haiti gang has released all 12 hostages two months to the day that they were kidnapped in Haiti’s capital, Haiti National Police spokesman Garry Desrosiers and two US government sources confirmed.The hostages were abducted just east of Port-au-Pr...

One of Beijing’s top state-run media outlets has attacked the head of Hong Kong’s main opposition party, saying he and his allies have to be swept away in a “house clean up” or else the group will have no future.In a commentary on Thursday, P...

Authorities have increased the compensation for civil servants who will work at the roughly 630 polling stations set up across Hong Kong for the Legislative Council election on SundayBut a major civil service group said the adjustment, which came ami...

[Sponsored Article]  Running from September to November, 15 short-listed promising scholars at the City University of Hong Kong (CityU) presented their latest work in five Hong Kong Institute for Advanced Study (HKIAS) Rising Star Lectures, focusin...

The Biden administration said on Thursday it is imposing new sanctions on several Chinese biotech and surveillance companies and government entities for actions in Xinjiang province, the latest step against Beijing over human rights abuses of Uygur M...

The annual EU-China summit has been postponed amid concerns that there is little chance of making progress in key areas, sources said.One person who has been briefed on the matter said the summit – initially planned to be held by the end of the yea...

Some 110,000 fake health passes are in circulation in France, the interior ministry said Thursday, with hundreds of investigations launched against makers and users of the forged documents.The health pass, showing proof of vaccination, Covid-19 recov...

Hong Kong’s public hospitals are planning to introduce a low-interest home loan scheme that will allow staff to borrow up to HK$6 million (US$769,230) to buy flats in the world’s most expensive property market, a move aimed at retaining employees...

China is calling for more global talent to bolster technological innovation and national power, amid growing concern from foreign investors that Beijing’s “dual-circulation” strategy might turn it further inward and hamper international collabo...

A Hong Kong police officer drew his gun but failed to stop a suspected pet smuggler from fleeing in a delivery van during an operation in which investigators confiscated 52 pedigree kittens and puppies believed to have been illicitly brought into the...