Taiwan will largely lift a ban on some Japanese food imports imposed after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster as it seeks closer cooperation with Tokyo.Citing the need to join global trade pacts, including the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement...

Australia’s prime minister on Tuesday apologised for widespread sexual harassment, abuse and bullying of political staff, a year after a high-profile rape allegation rocked the country’s parliament.Addressing lawmakers, Scott Morrison apologised ...

Hong Kong’s public hospitals are being overwhelmed with asymptomatic coronavirus cases, with medical workers showing “signs of exhaustion” and some new patients waiting in outdoor holding areas for up to 16 hours before being admitted, union ch...

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding has allocated net proceeds of US$986.9 million from its inaugural sustainability bonds to 12 projects.The bonds, issued last February, were used to fund initiatives in five environmental, social, and gov...

A Washington think tank says it has identified a military base close to North Korea’s border with China that is likely intended for stationing of intercontinental ballistic missiles.The Centre for Strategic and International Studies based its repor...

This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing.Hong Kong has taken the unprecedented move of allowing close contacts of Covid-19 patients to be isolated at h...

Major South Korean presidential candidates accused China of laying claim to their culture after a performer wore a traditional Korean dress during the opening of the Beijing Winter Olympics.A woman in a white and light purple hanbok dress marched alo...

An American lawyer has been returned to jail after a Hong Kong judge dismissed his appeal against a 4½-month sentence for assaulting a plain-clothes policeman during the social unrest of 2019.The High Court on Tuesday rejected Samuel Phillip Bickett...

Chinese video-sharing platform operator Bilibili said in an internal letter on Monday that the sudden death of a young employee was not caused by working overtime.The death of the 25-year-old in the Chinese city of Wuhan, capital of Central China’s...

The Covid-19 pandemic will not end with the Omicron variant and New Zealand will have to prepare for more variants of the virus this year, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Tuesday in her first parliamentary speech for 2022.Ardern’s warning cam...

Washington’s approval of a possible US$100 million deal to upgrade Taiwan’s Patriot missile defence system reflects the US’ willingness to help Taipei arm itself against growing military threats from Beijing, Taiwan said on Tuesday.Taiwan also ...

Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai was on hand to watch China’s Eileen Gu win Olympic gold in the freeski big air competition in Beijing on Tuesday.Peng could be seen in the stands wearing a black knitted hat with the Olympic rings on them and a black ...

China has stepped up pressure on Britain over the Falklands, insisting London respond to Argentina’s latest demand that it relinquish control of the islands, known as Las Malvinas in Spanish.The Chinese embassy in Britain reiterated Beijing’s sta...

As the world’s most acquisitive sovereign wealth fund turns 40, it’s never had so much money to manage – nor faced more challenges trying to manage it.Two investment pillars that have helped fuel growth for Singapore’s GIC Pte. – China and ...

The March election to determine Hong Kong’s next leader will proceed as planned, despite a recent spike in coronavirus cases, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor has said.Explaining her rationale on Tuesday, Lam noted that the chief executiv...

A US physicist is continuing his quest for damages after accusations that he gave trade secrets to China collapsed before they could be tested in court.Lawyers for Temple University professor Xi Xiaoxing and his wife filed a brief on Monday with a fe...

Top US government science adviser Eric Lander, who helped map the human genome, resigned on Monday after being found to have bullied his staff, behaviour President Joe Biden vowed he would not tolerate when he took office.“I am devastated that I ca...

Russian President Vladimir Putin said he was ready for compromise and would look at proposals put forward by French leader Emmanuel Macron during talks on Monday, while still blaming the West for raising tensions over Ukraine.Emerging from a meeting ...

Following the passage of a US bill that stands to intensify a technology rivalry with China by trying to boost American competitiveness, state media and officials across the Pacific criticised the document as evidence of Washington’s “Cold War me...

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said on Monday that Myanmar’s military government had released an Australian economist detained for the past year, but Myanmar authorities denied his claim. Hun Sen later acknowledged his error.In a morning speech m...

The leader of Britain’s opposition Labour Party, Keir Starmer, was bundled into a police car on Monday after being confronted by angry protesters, an incident which some lawmakers have linked to false claims about him by Prime Minister Boris Johnso...

This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing.Key points:– Cap on public gatherings tightened to two people but families with more than two members exempt...

Gautam Adani, the Indian billionaire who turned a small commodities trading business into a conglomerate spanning ports, mines and green energy, is now Asia’s richest person.The 59-year-old mogul’s net worth reached US$88.5 billion on Monday, acc...

For many young schoolchildren, a highlight of their education is dissecting owl pellets to unearth the undigested remains of their preys.Now, evidence suggests that, much like owls, certain pterosaur species vomited food that they could not digest as...

Beijing officials and state media have been urging Hong Kong to stick with the “dynamic zero-Covid” strategy, warning that any shift towards “living with the virus” will result in disaster for the city and the deferment of any resumption of q...

Yang Sun-im, a 76-year-old mother of four, isn’t used to company.She has spent most of the past four decades alone, having divorced her husband when she was 33. The four children she raised on her own have all grown up, made new lives far away and ...

The United States said Monday it has agreed with Japan to resolve a trade irritant over steel tariffs imposed during the previous administration under Donald Trump, granting relief from the extra duties to a certain amount of imports.Although Japan w...

US President Joe Biden said the controversial Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline between Russia and Germany would be stopped if President Vladimir Putin orders an invasion of Ukraine.“We will bring an end to it,” Biden said at a joint news confer...

South Africa’s health regulator has registered the Sinopharm Covid-19 shot, clearing the way for the Chinese vaccine’s use for adults in the country.“This authorisation is based on acceptable safety, quality and efficacy data submitted by MC Ph...

Page Mill Winery sold 12,000 bottles of its zinfandel-cabernet-petite shirah blend of wines to China every year from 2015-18. Back then, Chinese consumers paid just US$30 to US$40 per bottle.But when the US-China trade war broke out in 2018, China sl...

Letting others know your Chinese zodiac sign is a fairly accurate way of telling your age. In a tiger year, I can’t help but reveal that I am that king of beasts.I was born in a water tiger year, which comes around every five cycles and is once mor...

Police in Canada’s national capital said on Monday they have seized thousands of litres of fuel and removed an oil tanker as part of a crackdown to end days long protest against the government’s Covid-19 measures, while a judge granted an interim...

Chinese researchers said allowing for the movement of people to Covid-zero regions like China would result in 234.2 million infections and 2 million deaths within a year.The key to controlling Covid-19 lies in the development and widespread use of va...

The US National Archives said Monday it had retrieved 15 boxes of records that had been improperly removed from the White House and taken to Donald Trump’s southern Florida home – including “love letters” from North Korean leader Kim Jong-un....

The United States on Monday offered a US$10 million reward for information leading to the “identification or location” of the leader of the Afghanistan regional chapter of the Islamic State group.The reward offered by the US State Department was ...

The European Union is set to hold talks in the coming weeks with China over its alleged breach of global trade rules in a dispute with Lithuania – as the bloc moves forward with the early stages of a World Trade Organization (WTO) case.Beijing agre...

The Chinese tilt towards Russia is understandable enough. It is immensely satisfying to be able to tell American leaders that China will do what it wants to do, whether the arrogant West likes it or not.China is the big deal now – or so goes the ta...

After years of criticism, Awkwafina has finally responded to allegations that she used a “blaccent” and appropriated black culture to further her career.The star of Crazy Rich Asians and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings released a statem...

A prominent mathematician has compared his field of study to football, drawing on Vietnam’s 3-1 defeat of China in the 2022 Fifa World Cup qualifier to urge his Chinese peers to tackle greater challenges.The result by the national soccer team on Tu...

The US government on Monday announced restrictions on transactions with 33 Chinese organisations whose ownership is deemed to be “unverified”, and unsealed an indictment against a Shenzhen-based tech company already banned from supplying US feder...

Chinese scientists say they have developed a new Covid-19 testing device that can return accurate results within four minutes and is as accurate as the widely used PCR tests.Researchers from Fudan University in Shanghai said that, if developed furthe...

Seeking to quiet the furore over Joe Rogan, Spotify Chief Executive Daniel Ek has issued an extraordinary memo to employees, apologising for the drama they had to endure surrounding the controversial podcast host.“There are no words I can say to ad...

A Hong Kong police constable is expected to be dismissed after he allegedly followed two women home and asked them to be “his mistresses”, according to a source.The force insider said an initial investigation found that the 26-year-old officer, w...

They might live thousands of kilometres apart, but American businessmen Dan Digre and Ben Zhang are united in their irritation with tariffs on Chinese imports.Digre, the CEO of Minnesota-based speaker manufacturer Misco Speakers, has grown so sick of...

The World Health Organization and the Commonwealth of Nations issued a joint plea on Monday for vulnerable small states to get better access to Covid-19 jabs to help revive their economies.WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and Commonwealth Secreta...

Hong Kong police have made another arrest for the illegal discharge of fireworks over the Lunar New Year holiday, during which pyrotechnics were set off in daily displays across the city.The force on Monday said officers had arrested a 43-year-old ma...

China has expressed hopes of helping Poland to become a logistics hub and boosting trade with Central and Eastern European countries, as Beijing tries to improve its relations with the region.President Xi Jinping voiced the aim when he met Polish Pre...

A Hong Kong court has convicted a woman of animal cruelty for trapping her cat in a washing machine, but decided to return the pet to her care after noting the case was “not particularly serious”.Insurance agent Yuki Wong Yee-ting was arrested in...

Japanese pharmaceutical firm Shionogi & Co. said Monday it is looking to apply for approval of its oral Covid-19 drug as early as next week after mid-phase clinical trials showed it was effective in reducing the coronavirus in the body.The results of...

Vegetable prices in Hong Kong could remain high over the coming days, as tighter testing requirements in response to Covid-19 cases among cross-border truck drivers have caused supply chain disruptions.On Monday morning, two truck drivers coming from...