The term Russian oligarch conjures images of posh London mansions, gold-plated Bentleys and sleek superyachts in the Mediterranean, their decks draped with partiers dripping in jewels.But the raft of sanctions on oligarchs announced by President Joe ...

On a Saturday night in early December, dozens of people mingled in a luxury watch shop at The Landmark, an upscale shopping centre in Hong Kong’s most vibrant business and financial district of Central. Most attendees were time piece enthusiasts, b...

A free-trade agreement struck last week between India and the United Arab Emirates is the first of a series of deals which will soon bring together members of US-sponsored strategic alliances in the Middle East and Asia.The UAE, a wealthy oil exporte...

Most fresh meat stalls in Hong Kong’s wet markets were closed on Saturday because of a shortage of supply, forcing residents to stock up on frozen products instead.The panic buying scenes were triggered by the closure of Sheung Shui and Tsuen Wan s...

A US warship sailed through the sensitive Taiwan Strait on Saturday, as part of what the American military calls routine activity that nonetheless irritates China.The US Navy’s 7th Fleet said its Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Ral...

About 3,000 isolation units converted from one of three public housing blocks are now ready for patients with mild coronavirus symptoms, according to Hong Kong’s housing minister, with the city expected to confirm more than 10,000 cases for the sec...

A group of residents in Tung Chung, on Hong Kong’s Lantau Island, are unhappy that proposed railway works in their estate will cause air and noise pollution and traffic congestion.The government announced last December that a large shaft for a tunn...

In one of America’s best-known Chinatowns, restauranter George Chen has nearly run out of the Chinese oolong tea he serves with meals.Despite ordering a new batch from China early in January, it had not arrived in San Francisco by late February, an...

Malaysia’s diplomats stranded in Kyiv are currently making their way to neighbouring Poland by road, after hanging in limbo earlier as Russian forces closed in on the under-siege Ukrainian capital.Their evacuation was confirmed by Malaysian governm...

Chinese President Xi Jinping stressed to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un the significance of cooperation between the two countries, North Korean state media reported on Saturday.In a message to Kim, Xi said China was ready to work with Korean side to...

China Evergrande Group lost control of some of its property projects around the country, as several state-owned developers picked away at its assets while the heavily indebted builder teeters on the brink with more thanUS$300 billion of total liabili...

The Hong Kong government will offer interest-free loans to small commercial property owners affected by its latest anti-epidemic policy that could prevent them from collecting rent for up to six months, the city’s finance chief has said.Financial S...

The Biden administration and EU’s call for sanctions against Russia will jeopardise the country’s ability to buy semiconductors and other technology – and it could affect military technologies in the future. The US government on Thursday said ...

The failure by Taiwan’s military to spot a civilian plane from mainland China near an islet held by Taipei earlier this month has highlighted a “serious weakness” in its radar system, a former instructor has said.Last week Taiwan’s defence mi...

In India, a child with ADHD screams at the computer in front of him, frustrated to the point of seizure. In Malaysia, a child with autism stares blankly at the on-screen face of a teacher he once knew but can no longer recognise. In Hong Kong, a sing...

The crisis in Ukraine is sending Asia’s stock investors searching for hedges and shunning names that may get hammered, while they also consider the implications of a drawn-out war.So far, Asia’s commodity and shipping stocks are emerging as safer...

This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing.The worsening fifth wave of coronavirus infections in Hong Kong and the delay in isolation and treatment have ...

At least 198 Ukrainians, including three children, have died in three days of fighting following the Russian incursion, according to Ukraine’s health minister, Interfax reported.The minister said 1,115 people were wounded including 33 children, acc...

As Russia’s pounds Ukraine, causing death and destruction, it has not yet seized the nation’s capital, Kyiv.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who says he’s the Kremlin’s No 1 target, has vowed to stay in the country, even as Russian tro...

Liky Li, a live-streamer based in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, often works between midnight and 8am to pitch music boxes and Harry Potter figurines to online consumers in cities such as London and Manchester, instead of those in local loca...

There’s a perennial argument in Hong Kong over whether the Cantonese slang term gweilo is racist or not. Its usage has finally got some legal recognition that will hopefully put a stop to critics’ attacks.District Court Judge Herbert Au-Yeung rej...

When a Hong Kong construction worker recently tested positive for Covid-19 along with his wife, they were faced with a predicament: how to isolate at home when they shared a 200 sq ft subdivided flat with six other family members?Rather than risk inf...

When Qinyang Meng bent her back to a 90-degree angle, eyes looking skywards, she had unwittingly kick-started a viral trend.Called the “blue-green waist challenge”, Chinese social media users began posting their attempts at performing the dance M...

Whether it is possible to eradicate Covid-19 is, for now, a hypothetical question. While we should not dismiss the possibility in the years ahead, an international expert review of the feasibility and desirability of attempting Covid-19 eradication h...

When Chinese medical student Jinjin received an update on her smartphone on Wednesday about a state of emergency in Ukraine, she joked with her classmates, doubting that Russia would really attack.By Wednesday night, however, her classmates started f...

Rising oil prices as a result of the Russia-Ukraine conflict represent a wake-up call for China’s energy security, experts have warned, stressing the importance of greater self-reliance for the world’s largest crude importer.Beijing has yet to of...

A US federal judge ruled on Friday that a Virginia school system illegally discriminated against Asian-Americans when it overhauled the admissions policies at an elite public school.The ruling from US District Judge Claude Hilton found that impermiss...

US officials alerted China late last year of Russia’s impending plan to invade Ukraine, but Beijing passed Washington’s information along to Moscow with assurances that it would not try to stop any action, a person familiar with the matter said.�...

As Russia continues its assault on Ukraine, several Asian governments are scrambling to evacuate their citizens via its neighbours to the west.Japan said it had an estimated 120 citizens in Ukraine as of late January and evacuation flights were being...

The United States top health agency on Friday drastically revised its guidelines for masking to stop Covid-19 transmission, a decision that means most Americans will not be advised to wear them in indoor public spaces, including schoolchildren.“We�...

Thousands of Ukrainians crossed into neighbouring countries to the west in search of safety as Russia pounded their capital and other cities with air strikes for a second day.Those arriving were mostly women, children and the elderly after Ukraine’...

More comprehensive, regular and transparent communication is “sorely needed” between China and the United States, and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) could help drive bilateral talks over trade gr...

Have we psyched ourselves up for a war already? Moving from a unipolar world to a multipolar world was always likely to be messy and risk-prone. But few saw how fast we had moved from beating war drums to actual armed conflict between the Great Power...

Ukrainian authorities warned on Friday that radiation levels had increased in the Chernobyl exclusion zone since it was seized by invading Russian troops, although the UN’s nuclear watchdog said it currently “posed no danger”.Russian President ...

President Joe Biden on Friday nominated federal appellate judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to become the first black woman to serve on the US Supreme Court, saying it is time for the nation’s top judicial body to reflect “the full talent and greatness...

February 25 is likely to usher in a change in the post-1945 world order, with national security being prioritised over sovereign rights and non-interference. Despite earlier reassurances of non-aggression, Moscow launched an offensive against Ukraine...

Hong Kong finance chief Paul Chan Mo-po will work from home for five days after a domestic helper at his official residence contracted Covid-19, the government has revealed.The helper at the financial secretary’s residence on Shouson Hill Road test...

The EU’s envoy in Hong Kong has written to Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor expressing concerns over coronavirus policies, saying 10 per cent of Europeans left the city over the last year amid uncertainties over anti-epidemic measures, th...

From Chelsea penthouses to Highgate mansions, Russia’s long-standing infatuation with UK real estate is evident from a cursory glance at some of the country’s priciest property transactions. The past decade has seen that trend explode.The number ...

Hong Kong’s biggest international school group will continue with tutorials and self-study online in March and April, despite the government bringing the summer holidays forward to free up campuses to conduct citywide Covid-19 screening.The announc...

Russia is looking for a swift victory to create a buffer state and a pro-Moscow government in Ukraine rather than occupy the country long term, diplomatic observers said.Russian missiles and shelling began raining down on Ukrainian cities on Thursday...

An Australian man pleaded guilty on Friday to hurling a wine bottle from his flat at a group of Muslims having a dinner party that struck and killed a Singaporean man.Andrew Gosling is being tried in a Singapore court on a charge of committing a rash...

Alibaba Group Holding’s cloud services business emerged as a bright spot in an otherwise sluggish December quarter for the Chinese e-commerce giant, which posted its slowest quarterly revenue growth since going public in 2014.The Hangzhou-based fir...

Work is under way on about a third of Hong Kong’s new makeshift Covid-19 hospitals and isolation facilities, while hundreds of medical professionals from mainland China will start arriving in the city as early as next week to operate one site, the ...

Seven people died and dozens more were injured when a 6.2-magnitude earthquake rocked Indonesia’s Sumatra island on Friday, with residents shuttling loved ones to safety as buildings crumbled around them.The quake came just minutes after a less vio...

Hong Kong authorities on Friday sought to bring in “experienced and skilled” butchers from mainland China after an outbreak at the city’s two slaughterhouses resulted in operations being suspended and dwindling supplies.To ensure a continuous s...

The United States is struggling to find support from its major allies in the Middle East as it seeks to punish Russia for invading Ukraine, despite investing heavily in new geopolitical architecture for the region.Both Washington’s closest regional...

Swedish speed skater Nils van der Poel has given one of the two gold medals he won in Beijing to Chinese-Swedish dissident Gui Minhai to protest against China’s human rights violations, Amnesty International said on Friday.Van der Poel, who was fie...

The defiant head of Arm China, the mainland joint venture of British semiconductor design company Arm, asserts that the Chinese firm may go public in either Shanghai or Hong Kong after 2025, weeks after the SoftBank Group Corp-owned UK tech outfit re...

Beijing will strengthen control of China’s financial risks and steady the economy after its top anti-corruption watchdog uncovered a number of weaknesses within the financial sector during a two-month investigation.“[We must] adhere to the princi...