An advocacy group representing the underprivileged in Hong Kong has urged the city’s finance chief to allocate at least 25 per cent of gross domestic product to public expenditure ahead of his budget address next week to ensure there are enough res...

Tensions are escalating between the competing power blocs of the Middle East as the decisive round of Iran nuclear talks heads towards an as-yet uncertain conclusion.Negotiations in Vienna between representatives of Iran and four global powers over t...

As Hong Kong’s daily coronavirus infections keep surging to record highs, many cannot help wondering how the situation has spiralled so much out of control.To be fair, the government has been following a “dynamic zero-infection” strategy, with ...

A submarine shown in a video posted on social media could be a new, smaller Chinese class prioritising stealth and low cost, and used to counter drones, experts said.Video footage posted on Facebook in a group called “Comments on the PLA” appeare...

A cross-border truck driver in China’s southern tech hub of Shenzhen tested positive for Covid-19 on Saturday, as six cities across the country reported 28 confirmed cases.According to Shenzhen authorities, the 35-year-old man had been delivering g...

A recently inked deal to build a nuclear power plant in Argentina is the latest effort by China to engage with Latin American countries using its advanced clean energy technology, part of a broader push to expand its influence in the region.The US$8 ...

As she ran for chief executive in 2017, then-chief secretary Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor told Hong Kong people she would transform our city for the better. Her 777 votes were a harbinger of how lucky Hong Kong was to become under her leadership as chi...

Hong Kong breached a new threshold with about 2,000 suspected Covid-19 cases reported on Sunday, along with more than 1,340 confirmed infections, as sources revealed authorities were considering imposing rolling lockdowns according to districts.Insid...

The United States government set off alarms in Beijing with last week’s addition of Chinese entities to an export watch list, as the move tightened the stranglehold on China’s technological supply chain by hitting at its most vulnerable parts.The...

Canadian police made the first arrest of a protester blocking a key bridge to the United States on Saturday, more than a day after authorities moved in seeking to end the blockade of the important trade corridor.Demonstrators opposing government pand...

Taiwan’s main opposition party has called on local officials to ban some Japanese food imports after the island’s government lifted restrictions imposed in response to the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster.In a video conference on Friday with Kuomi...

When Edy Mulyadi, a journalist and small-time politician, hit the headlines in Indonesia last month for calling the location of its planned new capital city “a place where genies dump kids”, he sparked a backlash from community groups in Kalimant...

After running a garment production business in Guangdong province for more than 10 years, Wang Mei packed up her sewing machine this year and headed back to her rural countryside home, taking a job selling industrial ink in Dongguan.Meanwhile, Zhang ...

Cyclone Dovi caused power outages, mudslides and evacuations across New Zealand on Sunday, but neither the storm nor the music of Barry Manilow could dislodge anti-vaccine protesters camped outside parliament.Instead, hundreds of protesters – inspi...

Children and teens in Hong Kong have lower levels of mental health than their counterparts in other regions. This is not news. We know from research over many years that young people in Hong Kong are suffering, and recent articles in the Post have dr...

The United States on Saturday denied that it had carried out military operations in Russian territorial waters, after Moscow said its naval vessel chased away an American submarine in the Pacific.Russia accused the US of breaking international law an...

Australia said on Sunday it was evacuating its embassy in Kiev as the situation on the Russia-Ukraine border deteriorated quickly, with Prime Minister Scott Morrison calling on China to not remain “chillingly silent” on the crisis.The United Stat...

For thousands of years, political philosophers have searched for a model of government best suited for their societies. In Plato’s republic, philosopher-kings are preferred. In the Politics, Aristotle’s treatise on governance, he identifies six f...

Hongkonger Sit Pui-yu, 72, is staunchly against taking a Covid-19 vaccine, even if his refusal means he will no longer be able to dine out or shop for food in wet markets.Sit, who is single and lives alone in a public housing flat in Wong Tai Sin, sa...

In the second of a three-part series on Hong Kong’s coming chief executive election, Gary Cheung and Natalie Wong examine why Beijing is taking its time indicating its preferred candidate. The first part can be found here.With just a week to go bef...

A new Philippine government agency tasked to handle issues related to overseas Filipino workers is likely to bring more bureaucracy and confusion, migrant workers and specialists say, while others fear it may further increase the country’s reliance...

Despite warnings from the US government of a possible imminent Russian attack on Ukraine, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has confirmed a trip to Russia for next week.Bolsonaro is expected to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday. “...

A Pennsylvania father about to stand trial on charges he tortured and starved his 12-year-old son before the boy died has pleaded guilty to several charges and was sentenced to life in prison without parole.Scott Schollenberger Jnr, 43, of Annville, ...

The coastal Madagascar town of Mananjary was largely destroyed after Tropical Cyclone Batsirai, aid workers said on Saturday, as more relief supplies arrived by plane.The storm left 120 people dead, mainly on the east coast of the Indian Ocean island...

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has received a questionnaire from London’s Metropolitan Police as part of the investigation into parties in Downing Street during Covid-19 lockdowns, his office said on Saturday.If he is found to have broken his...

United States F-22 fighter jets arrived in the United Arab Emirates on Saturday, part of an American defence response to recent missile attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels targeting the country.The Raptors landed at Al-Dhafra Air Base in Abu Dhabi, wh...

Hundred of people protested in London and other UK cities on Saturday, demanding government action to tackle the sharply rising cost of living, Agence France-Presse photographers reported.One of the marches organised by The People’s Assembly headed...

A “number” of British nationals are being detained in Afghanistan, the UK government said on Saturday, adding that it had raised the issue with the country’s Taliban authorities.The foreign ministry’s statement to Agence France-Presse came a ...

US President Joe Biden told Russia’s Vladimir Putin that invading Ukraine would cause “widespread human suffering” and that the West was committed to diplomacy to end the crisis but “equally prepared for other scenarios,” the White House sa...

Washington’s new Indo-Pacific strategy could make it tougher for Beijing to use its economic clout in the region in the longer term, even as other more immediate crises distract the United States, diplomatic observers said.While senior US officials...

Roger Cox, a lawyer who helped win cases forcing the Dutch government and oil giant Shell to cut carbon emissions, is to receive a 10,000-euro (US$11,410) award in Germany for contributing to global peace.Organisers of the Dresden Prize said Cox was ...

Hundreds of Hindu nationalist protesters marched in the Indian state of Gujarat on Saturday, prompting the closure of stores owned by several multinational companies caught up in a furore over social media posts supporting disputed Kashmir.The messag...

French police fired tear gas at demonstrators on the Champs Elysees avenue in Paris on Saturday shortly after a “Freedom Convoy” protesting against Covid-19 restrictions made it into the capital.Cars carrying protesters managed to get through pol...

Gunmen in the southern Philippines killed a Muslim rebel and eight of his companions in a road ambush Saturday that authorities said was apparently sparked by a land dispute.Several attackers raked two SUVs with assault rifle fire in an early morning...

The western Pacific island nation of Palau could be hit by a devastating earthquake within two years, a study by Chinese government scientists has warned.According to a paper published in domestic peer-reviewed journal Progress in Earthquake Science,...

Police have arrested a man who allegedly set fire to a bin at a Covid-19 testing site at a public housing estate in northern Hong Kong to express his disappointment with the service.Officers received a report at 4.45pm on Saturday about the fire bein...

Ten former workers from Dyson’s biggest parts supplier, Malaysian firm ATA IMS, are claiming compensation from the home appliance maker over poor working and living conditions at ATA factories, a law firm representing them said.The ex-employees all...

Hong Kong police have arrested a 32-year-old electronics repairman in Central on Friday for allegedly inciting others to spread the coronavirus.The force revealed on Saturday that the man posted messages in a local forum in January and February encou...

China urged its citizens in Ukraine to “pay close attention to” changes in the local situation, as the United States and several other countries asked their nationals to evacuate immediately amid warnings of an imminent invasion by Russia.A notic...

The head of Myanmar’s military government appealed Saturday for national unity among the country’s restive ethnic minorities as he presided over a parade marking the 75th anniversary of a historic agreement that sought but failed to ensure harmon...

The famous terracotta army just became larger after 20 warriors were discovered in newly excavated holes inside one of the site’s most famous pits.According to CGTN, the Emperor Qin Shi Huang’s Mausoleum Site Museum in Xian, in northwest China, a...

Argentina’s entry into the Belt and Road Initiative is a significant advance in Beijing’s bid to strengthen ties with Latin America, according to experts.During a high-profile visit to Beijing last week for the opening of the Winter Olympics, Arg...

China’s censors have deleted multiple scenes and altered reference about a recurring lesbian character in the 1990s US television sitcom Friends, which has sparked outrage among the popular show’s large audience on the mainland.That has practical...

Hong Kong’s public transport has been dealt a fresh blow by the fifth wave of the coronavirus outbreak, with patronage down 40 per cent, according to Secretary for Transport and Housing Frank Chan Fan.In a weekly blog post on Saturday, Chan said th...

More than 40 Chinese passengers remained camped out in Denmark’s main international airport on Saturday after they were misdiagnosed with the coronavirus and missed their flight to China.Copenhagen Airport said the 45 travellers were among 54 who f...

Peter Davies, a Hong Kong resident, travelled to Hawaii over Christmas last year to spend time with his Britain-based family, but soon found himself caught in a web of flight cancellations and logistical challenges that would keep him away from home....

Shackled by her neck and locked up all day in a squalid shack, video footage of a mentally-ill woman imprisoned by her husband has cast a shadow over the festive mood created by Beijing’s Winter Olympics.The woman, surnamed Yang, has become a sourc...

Hong Kong university students were caught by surprise when at least five institutions told dormitory residents to return home, or would ask them to do so, as a precaution amid a surge in the number of local coronavirus cases.Chinese University (CUHK)...

Hong Kong’s famed restaurant scene is rapidly losing its shine, with thousands of outlets having shut or bracing for closure after being battered by strict Covid-19 rules amid the current surge in infections.“It is all doom and gloom for the city...

Japan will ease its strict border controls, beginning with foreign workers and students, the Nikkei reported.The government will start accepting more than 1,000 people a day this month and will gradually raise the cap to several thousand.“We will t...