Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has told Europe that “choosing sides” will not resolve its security challenges as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine overshadows Beijing’s ties with the bloc. In a videoconference with EU foreign policy chief Josep ...

Shanghai reported almost 6,000 new local Covid-19 infections on Wednesday, as the financial hub’s outbreak continued to grow. The municipality, which on Monday began a partial lockdown, announced 5,982 new local cases – its highest tally of this ...

Germany declared on Wednesday an “early warning” that it could be heading for a gas supply emergency and said the measure was designed to prepare for a possible disruption or stoppage of natural gas flows from Russia. The move comes ahead of Mosc...

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan lost his parliamentary majority overnight with a key coalition partner jumping ship, dealing the former cricket star another blow in his fight for political survival. No Pakistani prime minister has ever complet...

A Hong Kong man lost nearly HK$15 million (US$1.9 million) in a phone scam in which he was accused of smuggling Covid-19 vaccines by con artists posing as government officials. The 26-year-old man, surnamed Zhu, transferred more than HK$6 million (US...

Alibaba has led a US$60 million funding round into Chinese augmented reality (AR) start-up Nreal, a move seen as the e-commerce giant’s latest effort to prepare for the metaverse, a conceptual virtual world that some consider to be the next iterati...

The wife of the former Goldman Sachs banker on trial over the 1MDB scandal told the jury her feng shui master warned her husband’s boss of “bad karma” – a prediction that seems to have come true. Hwee Bin Lim, the wife of ex-Goldman Sachs ban...

Donald Trump has called on Russian President Vladimir Putin, who launched an invasion of Ukraine last month, to reveal any compromising information he might have on US President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter. The former Republican president returned to a...

As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine accelerates European Union defence cooperation, a watchdog said Tuesday that EU institutions face vulnerabilities on another front: cybersecurity. The warning by the European Court of Auditors covers the wide range o...

The United States should focus on achieving economic independence from China rather than pressuring Beijing to change “unfair” trade practices, US Trade Representative Katherine Tai will suggest on Wednesday, marking a shift in strategy toward th...

The US State Department issued a travel advisory on Tuesday warning that Moscow “may single out and detain US citizens in Russia” and repeating earlier warnings for Americans not to travel to the country. The warning was “due to the unprovoked ...

A court in southern China ordered a company that fired a pregnant staff for dozing off during overnight shifts to pay her 48,146 yuan (US$7,560) for unlawful dismissal. The woman, identified only as Xiaoyi, was fired by the managers in June 2019 beca...

Stringent anti-pandemic restrictions have contributed to the departure of business talent, Hong Kong’s leader has conceded, as she pledged to uphold the city’s international status amid its fight against the coronavirus. Speaking at her regular e...

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A Chinese state media editorial has reaffirmed China’s commitment to its “dynamic zero-Covid” strategy to contain the coronavirus, detailing what it said was Chinese President Xi Jinping’s role in fighting the latest surge in cases. The edito...

North Korea tried to deceive the world about the type of missile it fired last week, claiming that it successfully tested a “huge,” new ICBM while actually firing off a rocket first launched in 2017, South Korean defence officials said. The inter...

The family of a 91-year-old man who died of heart failure were shocked to learn hours before his funeral in Hong Kong last Sunday that his coffin could not be found. With the body still at a private hospital’s mortuary, the funeral agent could not ...

Hackers stole cryptocurrency worth over US$600 million from a digital ledger used by players of the popular online game Axie Infinity, in a major digital cash heist revealed on Tuesday. Interest in cryptocurrency has boomed, along with its values, bu...

A debate over G20 host Indonesia’s decision to invite Russian leader Vladimir Putin to the annual summit later this year has hit a crescendo, with Western leaders including US President Joe Biden inclined to expel Russia, and China insisting Moscow...

Chip factories located in the semiconductor-manufacturing area of Shanghai are scrambling to ensure production and delivery after the city imposed a strict, phased lockdown from Monday to battle an outbreak of the Omicron variant of Covid-19. Chip co...

A video of a three-year-old boy standing on a stool to help straighten up his vegetative father’s tilting head became a viral sensation in China. The boy, nicknamed Tutu, often imitates the adults caring for his father and occasionally asks to perf...

Health authorities have been urged to allow antibody serology test results to be used as proof of Covid-19 infection to help residents stuck in vaccine pass limbo and better gauge the number of positive cases in Hong Kong. Residents unable to registe...

In February 1972, US president Richard Nixon defied conventional foreign policy wisdom when he arrived in Beijing for meetings with Chinese leader Mao Zedong. In recognition of the trip’s historical significance, the South China Morning Post is run...

Jada Pinkett Smith promoted healing in an Instagram post on Tuesday, her first public comment since her husband slapped comedian Chris Rock at this year’s Academy Awards ceremony. Will Smith unexpectedly strode onto the Oscars stage on Sunday and s...

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky says that the talks with Russian negotiators have given some positive signals but warned Russia cannot be trusted. Russia announced after Tuesday’s talks between Ukrainian and Russian delegations in Istanbul...

American pop artist Jeff Koons is to send sculptures to the moon later this year on a spacecraft blasting off from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, his gallery said on Tuesday. Koons, one of the most celebrated and expensive living artists, is fa...

Foreign residents in Shanghai have described supermarkets “flooded with people” and a sense of growing frustration after authorities in the financial hub abruptly announced a large-scale lockdown to contain a coronavirus outbreak. The city, which...

Migration from Hong Kong to Canada has soared to levels not seen since 1998, the year after the city’s handover to China, according to new data. The exodus from the territory comes after Ottawa set up new exit routes for young Hongkongers in respon...

US lawmakers investigating the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol have identified a roughly eight-hour gap in official records of then-president Donald Trump’s phone calls as the violence unfolded and his supporters stormed the building, accordi...

China has issued visas to American investigators and technical advisers to support its investigation into last week’s deadly crash of a China Eastern Airlines Boeing 737-800 in that country, the US National Transportation Safety Board said on Tuesd...

The United States on Tuesday authorised a fourth dose of either the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna Covid-19 vaccines for people 50 and older, as authorities warn of a possible new wave driven by the BA.2 subvariant. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA)...

In what appeared to be a coordinated action to tackle Russian espionage, at least four European allies expelled a total of dozens of Russian diplomats on Tuesday. The expulsions come against a backdrop of relations between Russia and the West that ha...

Chinese researchers say they have revived a wheel-less landing technology invented by Nasa more than 60 years ago, and it is being used on the country’s latest hypersonic test plane. Most winged aircraft land on a set of wheels that absorb shock an...

More private and self-financing care homes in Hong Kong will be asked to join a scheme to improve on their ventilation conditions, as part of efforts to prevent another deadly Covid-19 outbreak at facilities for the elderly. The measures were discuss...

The United States has warned that exports to Russia – including China’s – in which US content accounts for more than 25 per cent of the overall value, must first be licensed by Washington to avoid running afoul of sanctions, according to a seni...

A suicide index reached “crisis level” at the height of Hong Kong’s raging fifth wave of Covid-19 cases two weeks ago, according to university researchers, who warned on Tuesday that should the alarming trend continue, more people than ever wou...

Nine Hong Kong street sleepers have each won HK$100 (US$12.78) in compensation after a court ruled the government had failed to exercise reasonable care in handling their personal belongings in a 2019 clearance operation at a park. The Small Claims T...

Britain on Tuesday detained a Russian-owned, US$50-million superyacht boasting a freshwater swimming pool, in what it called a “warning” to Moscow of the consequences for invading Ukraine. The impounding of Phi, the first superyacht ever to be he...

Shanghai’s delivery couriers have become a valuable lifeline inside the Covid-19-hit Chinese metropolis, as they transport without fail essential supplies to various locked-down communities and homebound residents across the city of 25 million inha...

China will host a series of meetings about Afghanistan on Wednesday, featuring representatives of Russia, the US, the Taliban, and South and Central Asian countries, as it ramps up diplomatic engagement with its troubled neighbour. The meetings in Tu...

UK police said they will recommend 20 fines for staff and officials close to Boris Johnson over parties during the pandemic, which broke rules imposed by the government to contain the spread of coronavirus. The individuals – who London’s Metropol...

A biotech company has launched a digital platform to allow Covid-19 patients self-isolating at home in Hong Kong to check their viral load through photos of their rapid test kits. The service, developed using artificial intelligence, has been provide...

For many Indian users and sellers on Shopee, Southeast Asia’s largest social e-commerce platform, the company’s announcement that it would be shutting down local operations came as a shock. Mohd Ikram Ansari, a 19-year-old decorative hookah selle...

China protested to Australia for turning back Chinese students for not disclosing they had undergone mandatory military training at Chinese universities. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said on Tuesday that several Chinese students rec...

Beijing has urged Washington repeatedly to deliver the improved relations it says US President Joe Biden promised, but events since Biden’s latest talks with counterpart Xi Jinping suggest a marked uplift is unlikely, according to experts. With Was...

Britain’s Queen Elizabeth made her first public appearance in five months on Tuesday when she joined the royal family and other dignitaries at a memorial service in honour of her husband Prince Philip, who died last year. Philip, the Duke of Edinbu...

What does China’s timid response to Russia’s war in Ukraine have in common with its coronavirus lockdowns in Shanghai and Shenzhen? Both are unpopular, to say the least – and rarely has Beijing’s handling of domestic and foreign policy headac...

Fugitive Hong Kong tycoon Joseph Lau Luen-hung is to put on sale a portfolio of Chinese imperial porcelain valued up to HK$151 million (US$19 million) through auction house Sotheby’s in April after suffering losses in stock market investments. Mark...

A former opposition lawmaker jailed for nearly two years for his role in a series of unauthorised protests in Hong Kong has been ordered to spend two extra weeks behind bars, after a magistrate found him guilty of holding the legislature in contempt ...

Horseshoe bats are a critical piece of the Covid-19 origins tracing puzzle but bat researchers say a lack of knowledge about hidden species makes preventing the next pandemic extremely difficult. There are more than a 100 species identified within th...