After drones were flown in China at heights above 8,000 metres (26,247 feet) – approaching that of Mount Everest – the authorities are moving to crack down on illegal flights that threaten the safety of commercial aviation. The controversy highli...

A Japanese social worker opened an unconventional daytime bar nicknamed “It is OK to be useless” to offer comfort to those experiencing significant social pressure. Operating about five days a month from 2pm to 6pm, the snack bar Hirusuna Nakasu,...

Seven people have been injured and sent to hospital after a driver lost control of his car and crashed into an oncoming bus in Hong Kong’s Stanley. Police said on Saturday that officers were alerted at 12.44pm to the accident at No 32 Stanley Villa...

Hong Kong motorists and commuters will enjoy shorter travel times when the Yau Ma Tei section of the Central Kowloon Bypass opens on Sunday. The dual three-lane bypass, which connects Yau Ma Tei and Kowloon Bay, is designed to alleviate traffic conge...

Beijing-based ByteDance has raised pay and sweetened incentives as the TikTok owner steps up efforts to retain and attract talent globally, as it makes progress on settling the future of its US business. In an internal letter released to all staff on...

An obsession with “security” can create increasing insecurity. This paradox is being amply demonstrated as advanced nations, including the United States and Japan, take or contemplate joint action aimed at bolstering economic security but which c...

The once-feared Qing dynasty military commander, Oboi, is being transformed into a charming figure by young people in China, becoming a local version of Father Christmas. A recent video circulating on mainland social media showcased Oboi, portrayed b...

Hong Kong health authorities will guide residents on when to seek Chinese medicine treatment, identifying conditions where it is considered more effective than the Western practice in the sector’s development blueprint. Commissioner for Chinese Med...

At midnight on Christmas Eve, the words of the traditional hymn “The Night of Christmas” will ring out in the tiny grotto in Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity, built on the site where Christians believe Jesus Christ was born. “On the night o...

“Outraged” medical professionals across the Philippines are urging Congress to curb or scrap what they call “medical pork” – tax money for patient assistance that is channelled through politicians via personally signed guarantee letters –...

A Hong Kong district officer has apologised for the clothing she wore at the funeral of the firefighter Ho Wai-ho, who died battling the Tai Po blaze, after her choice of attire drew criticism from many online. In a social media post, the Home Affair...

Iran executed a man convicted of spying for the Israeli intelligence and army on Saturday, state media reported. State TV identified the executed man as Aghil Keshavarz, saying he had “close intelligence cooperation” with Mossad and took photos o...

Hong Kong Disneyland has joined an annual fundraising drive to bring holiday warmth to communities across the city, extending a partnership that began in 2019. Operation Santa Claus (OSC), jointly established by the Post and public broadcaster RTHK i...

Hong Kong’s development chief has vowed to tighten building safety laws to punish those exploiting loopholes, warning that authorities will show no leniency towards the construction sector that has come under public scrutiny after the deadly Tai Po...

For more than half a century, pandas have helped serve as ambassadors for China around the world, but their time in Japan appears to be drawing to a close with the last two bears in the country set to return next month. Hopes of receiving new ones so...

A court in Turkey has ruled that a husband repeatedly liking online posts made by women other than his wife could break marital trust, thereby serving as grounds for divorce. The landmark decision came from a case in the central city of Kayseri. Acco...

US President Donald Trump began a rally on Friday night in North Carolina talking about crime and then highlighted his efforts to combat economic uncertainty – while also steering clear of addressing new disclosures involving the convicted sex offe...

For much of the past year, Asian exporters have been racing to stay ahead of a global tariff storm – re-routing shipments, reconfiguring supply chains and absorbing rising costs as the United States tightened its trade barriers. Now another pressur...

Halal-certified hotels and food premises in Malaysia are allowed to display Christmas decorations, according to Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Religious Affairs) Zulkifli Hasan. He clarified that there are no restrictions against hala...

South Korea’s foreign resident population has climbed to an all-time high, driven by a sharp rise in young migrants and a particularly strong influx from Vietnam, according to new data. The 2025 Immigrant Residence and Employment Survey, published ...

A US-based chemist has been awarded one of Russia’s top science honours, prevailing over a competitive field of applicants from 40 nations, including some of the “strongest applications” from China, according to the prize chair. Valery Fokin, a...

The sole lawmaker-elect of the centrist Roundtable party in Hong Kong has said his victory in the recent Legislative Council election could embolden more moderate and outspoken politicians to contest future polls. Mark Chong Ho-fung also called on th...

A drone school in northeastern Japan is developing a new system that uses drones and artificial intelligence to identify and automatically track bears amid a surge in bear-related incidents. The new system being developed by D-Academy Tohoku in Gojom...

One more person has been confirmed dead in Hong Kong’s Tai Po fire, bringing the death toll to 161, the police chief has said, citing results of further forensic analysis. “Further forensic tests found the DNA of another person in one of the bodi...

A Burkinabe teenager who used artificial intelligence to post fake news of a French coup on social media got more than he bargained for. As well as millions of views and tens of thousands of “likes”, he also acquired a certain notoriety – and F...

Nearly 70 per cent of Japanese want the law to be changed to permit an empress, with observers suggesting that the recent emergence of Princess Aiko on the international stage is fanning a groundswell of support for her to become a future monarch. A ...

Catch up on some of SCMP’s trendiest stories this year. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. 79-year-old influencer lost 30kg and has bone density of a 20-year-old. How? Joan MacDonald is an unlikely influ...

Taiwan’s military has stepped up training in decentralised command and control, aiming to ensure frontline units can operate independently in the event of a sudden attack from Beijing. The shift comes as defence and intelligence officials warn lawm...

The horrors of war are so seared into the minds of people that the resultant images in their heads can bias them to picture future conflicts as being like previous ones. The more tragic and terrible the past conflicts, the stronger this bias tends to...

Japan’s Sushiro, the world’s largest conveyor-belt sushi chain, debuted in Shanghai in early December 2025, to much fanfare. People have been queuing hours for a table, with some resorting to buying tickets from scalpers. The popularity of the Os...

When a gunman murdered 35 people in Tasmania in 1996, Australia’s political leaders united to implement some of the West’s toughest gun laws. Nearly three decades later, after 15 people were killed at a Jewish festival at Bondi Beach, consensus i...

Hongkonger Cecilia moved to Canada in 2023, believing it to be the cheapest and easiest way for her to get permanent residency overseas. The 32-year-old, who asked to be referred to by her first name due to privacy concerns, was part of an emigration...

A “petty” Chinese man has faced online scorn after he sued his fiancée to get back all the money he had spent on her because she “ate too much”. A court hearing involving the ex-couple went viral on social media after it was reported on Dece...

As the windows rattled from distant explosions, British tourist Brian* sat sleepless in a dim hotel room in Thailand’s Trat province, waiting out a curfew he had not known existed. With artillery ringing out from across the border with Cambodia, hi...

If pharmaceutical drug patents are an hourglass turned over on the day of approval – with the approaching loss of exclusivity known in the industry as the “patent cliff” – then Big Pharma is currently watching the final grains of sand slippin...

The US Justice Department released thousands of heavily redacted documents related to the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein on Friday that made scant reference to President Donald Trump but extensively featured Democratic form...

Donald Trump’s administration launched the military strikes on Friday in Syria to “eliminate” Islamic State (Isis) group fighters and weapons sites in retaliation for an ambush attack that killed two US troops and an American civilian interpret...

China’s robotics industry is turning into a humanoid arms race as start-ups – fresh from big funding rounds – are rolling out new robots in a bid to beat tech giants to real-world deployment. Beijing-based Noetix Robotics this week unveiled Hob...

In a wide-ranging, two-hour year-end briefing on Friday, Washington’s top diplomat Marco Rubio offered pragmatic remarks on China, signalling a tonal shift in the administration’s approach towards Beijing amid broader “America first” prioriti...

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday promised not to force Ukraine into any agreement to end Russia’s invasion as European allies joined fresh talks in Miami. The weekend talks come as Russian President Vladimir Putin in an annual news confe...

At a shopping centre in Shenzhen’s coastal business district, a store’s entrance feels more like a security checkpoint than a retail gateway. Customers check their bags, don white silk gloves, and pass through a gate. Beyond the checkpoint, which...

Given the breakneck speed of technological and commercial developments across the world, China is perhaps one of only a few sovereign states with a comprehensive strategy on both artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics. The Chinese state philosophy...

Officials in the US state of Rhode Island have denounced misinformation that they said complicated their multi-day search for the gunman who killed two students and wounded others at Brown University. Law enforcement identified the suspect as Claudio...

Tourists who want to get close to Rome’s Trevi Fountain will soon have to pay a €2 (US$2.34) fee, the city ‌mayor said on Friday, as authorities look to profit more handsomely from Italy’s ‍many attractions. Mayor Roberto Gualtieri told rep...

Nine Republican lawmakers, including several congressional committee chairs, sent a letter this week urging US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth to add more than a dozen Chinese technology firms to the Pentagon’s list of companies alleged to have link...

Notably safe Taiwan was rocked on Friday evening after an attacker exploded smoke or petrol bombs in the subway, stabbed several people, including at least three to death, and injured several others before killing himself when he jumped off a buildin...

US President Donald Trump’s Justice Department on Friday released only a partial set of documents related to its investigation into convicted sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein, an issue that has sparked the first major split between Trump�...

A French court on Friday rejected the state’s request to suspend Shein’s site in France as “disproportionate” after the e-commerce giant removed illicit products sold on its platform. French authorities had requested the ultra-fast-fashion gi...

Satan owns a Bernedoodle. A great big fluffy one that likes to sit in Satan’s lap. That’s if by “Satan” you mean Kristin Cabot, aka the woman from the Coldplay kiss cam scandal, who just gave her first interview about the ever-so-brief moment...

The rebuilding of a World War II-era airfield in Micronesia with the help of Chinese companies has raised alarm in the United States, with US defence analysts warning about Beijing’s growing footprint in the strategic western Pacific. Cleo Paskal, ...