Russian President Vladimir Putin will travel to China next week, days after US counterpart Donald Trump concluded a visit that was heavy on ceremony and light on substance. Putin’s one-day trip will take place on Wednesday, the South China Morning ...

Finland warned the public of drones possibly entering its airspace, for the first time near the capital city Helsinki, in the early hours of Friday. Flights were disrupted at the country’s biggest airport, Helsinki-Vantaa, and about 1.8 million res...

The Philippine Senate has witnessed political coups, scandals and the occasional shouting match. It had never, until this week, seen a sitting senator sprint down its corridors in a muddy olive shirt, knocking aside female investigators like bowling ...

President Xi Jinping’s new formula for China-US relations is “aspirational”, but the “real test” will be ensuring the two powers can work together despite their deepening rivalry, a leading Chinese political observer has cautioned. During h...

Most readers of foreign news pages this weekend will be assuming that US President Donald Trump’s summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing has been dominating everyone’s attention. But across Asia, Trump, with his massive business ento...

Stephen Lin Er Chow, a physicist who designed a groundbreaking copper-free superconducting oxide capable of high-temperature superconductivity, has joined Zhejiang University from the National University of Singapore (NUS). Last year, at 27, Chow pub...

A new giant dinosaur weighing about 27 tonnes has been unearthed by researchers in Thailand, making it the largest ever found in Southeast Asia. According to a study published in the journal Scientific Reports on Thursday, the 27 metre (88 foot) long...

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s ruling alliance will try to show a united front this weekend, but two former ministers from his own party are threatening to pull attention back to the fractures inside the reformist camp. Pakatan Harapan (P...

Australia’s trade minister will visit China in an effort to shore up fuel supplies that have run short this year because of bottlenecks in the Strait of Hormuz during the US–Israeli war in Iran. Australian Trade and Tourism Minister Don Farrell t...

The local media should contribute to “telling the ‘good stories of Hong Kong’” amid global turbulence as the city formulates its first five-year blueprint to align with national development, Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu has said. Speaking...

A man who previously represented residents of fire-ravaged Wang Fuk Court in Tai Po has been arrested, along with his wife, on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud and money laundering, the South China Morning Post has learned. Sources revealed on Frid...

US President Donald Trump wrapped up his visit to China on Friday, the first by a US leader in nine years. The three-day trip, originally scheduled for March, had been postponed as due to the Iran war. Following Trump’s departure, Russian leader Vl...

Hong Kong must evolve beyond acting solely as a “superconnector” and reposition itself as a “super value-adder”, a leading think tank has said, urging the city to strengthen its role in global supply chains and align with national development...

South and Southeast Asian nations may emerge as unexpected clean energy beneficiaries after the Green Party of England and Wales made record-breaking gains in recent UK local council elections, according to analysts. The Greens expanded their footpri...

Before he even entered the race, Andy Burnham was the favourite to unseat Keir Starmer as Britain’s prime minister. The mayor of Greater Manchester led opinion polls and was the front runner among bookmakers and Polymarket. Late Thursday, the bigge...

Beijing joins Mars club after ‘nine minutes of ter­ror’ By William Zheng This article was first published on May 16, 2021 After seven months of space travel, three months in orbit and “nine minutes of ter­ror”, China has become the third co...

Malaysia will not oppose a bid by a fugitive businessman involved in the massive 1MDB corruption scandal to seek a pardon from US President Donald Trump, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said on Friday. Speaking to reporters during a visit to Seremban di...

A Chinese blogger drove 1,300km to take a fellow university student to her hometown to see her dead mother for the last time before her funeral. Both students are in grade four at North Minzu University in Yinchuan of Ningxia Hui Autonomous in northe...

Japan’s quest for rare earth self-sufficiency and its drive to decouple from Chinese supply chains have prompted the government to consider building a dedicated deep-sea mining vessel to recover minerals from the Pacific Ocean floor. Local media re...

A 29-year-old Hong Kong man died of misadventure linked to a rare complication following a gastroscopy at a public hospital two years ago, an inquest has found. The Coroner’s Court on Friday ruled that Lui Pak-to died of cerebral oedema, or brain s...

Chinese President Xi Jinping hosted the visiting US leader Donald Trump at Zhongnanhai in the heart of Beijing on Friday, the final day of Trump’s trip. Trees and roses The ancient trees and roses at Zhongnanhai drew Trump’s eye and sparked some ...

The number of tourist arrivals in Hong Kong grew by 10 per cent year on year in April, bolstered by the city’s annual Sevens rugby tournament. The Tourism Board revealed on Friday that the city welcomed 4.21 million visitors in April, taking the to...

Tensions were already high on Wednesday night in the Philippine Senate, days after lawmakers abruptly ousted its leader and an ex-police chief wanted by the International Criminal Court showed up after six months in hiding. But few could guess at how...

US President Donald Trump said he has secured “fantastic trade deals” during his high-stakes state visit to Beijing, as he met with his counterpart, President Xi Jinping, for a second day in Beijing. “This has been an incredible visit. I think ...

Hong Kong residents can enjoy an 11-day-long holiday over the Easter and Ching Ming holidays in 2027 by applying for only four days of leave, according to the list of official public holidays released by authorities. The Hong Kong government on Frida...

Russian leader Vladimir Putin will pay a one-day visit to Beijing, just days after President Xi Jinping wraps up his closely watched summit with his American counterpart Donald Trump. Sources told the South China Morning Post that the visit was expec...

We have selected seven stories from this week’s news across Hong Kong, mainland China, the wider Asia region and beyond that resonated with our readers and shed light on topical issues. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please conside...

Hong Kong’s privacy watchdog has condemned the owner of an education platform for paying a ransom to hackers who stole individuals’ personal data from 9,000 institutions worldwide, arguing that the money should have been spent on strengthening cy...

Against the backdrop of ceremonial grandeur at the Great Hall of the People on Thursday, US President Donald Trump leaned on centuries of shared history to set the stage for the future of China-US relations. In his state banquet address capping a lon...

Turnover soars as Cathay takes off By Jerry Norton This article was first published on May 16, 1986 Cathay Pacific Airways had a memorable take-off in the stock market yesterday, accounting for a massive $446 million worth of turnover, more than the ...

Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party is weighing a sharp rise in defence spending as pressure from US President Donald Trump and deteriorating regional security conditions force Tokyo to reassess how much it must do to protect itself. The party ...

Hong Kong is in a unique position to capitalise on yacht tourism – with over 1,000km of coastline and more than 200 islands, this natural advantage is something few international cities can match. Recent policy initiatives, ranging from new mooring...

A 70-year-old woman has died in a fire at a Hong Kong flat, with police suspecting it was caused by a malfunctioning air-conditioner. The blaze broke out at Yu Tung Court’s Hei Tung House in Tung Chung on Friday, with police saying they received re...

A doctor was sentenced to 18 months’ jail on Thursday for administering a substance to a woman as part of an aesthetic treatment that killed her. The ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) was administered too quickly and at too high a concentratio...

China has unveiled its latest photonic quantum computer, Jiuzhang 4.0, with researchers saying it can outperform the world’s fastest classical supercomputer by a vast margin, further strengthening Beijing’s push towards quantum supremacy. The res...

A young Chinese man has gone viral for making and selling fried rice wearing a suit at a night market, making 50,000 yuan (US$7,400) a month. The man, surnamed Lu, began running the stall in Yantai in eastern China’s Shandong province when he was 1...

This live article is freely available to our registered users. Please log in or create an account below. Unrivalled Xi-Trump summit analysis: get real-time updates and exclusive boots-on-the-ground reporting from our Beijing and Washington bureaus. S...

Canada’s proposed free-trade agreement with Asean could help the region expand sectors ranging from mining to manufacturing while advancing Ottawa’s push to reduce its dependence on the US, according to analysts, as both sides seek to accelerate ...

Long lines stretching across several blocks have formed in Hong Kong as shoppers turned up days ahead of the launch of the “Royal Pop” pocket watches – a collaboration between luxury watchmaker Audemars Piguet and Swatch. A South China Morning ...

The United States cast Israel-Lebanon talks held in Washington ⁠on Thursday as “productive and positive” and a State Department official said more discussions aimed at ending their conflict will continue on Friday. A senior Lebanese official sa...

US President Donald Trump’s landmark visit to China comes as the US-Iran war disrupts global energy supplies, fuels economic uncertainty and adds fresh strain to Washington-Beijing ties. In the latest instalment of a series examining how rivalry, i...

The head of the CIA visited Cuba on Thursday, an extraordinary step-up in contact between Washington and Havana as the communist-run island reels from US pressure, declaring that it was out of oil. John Ratcliffe’s ‌trip appeared to be only the s...

In recent years, the Brics grouping has attracted attention as it adds members and positions itself as the voice of the Global South. At a Brics forum held in Beijing last month, officials discussed expanding trade within the grouping. Such initiativ...

Brazil’s government expressed concern over China’s renewal of US beef import licences, warning the move could reshape competition in the country’s largest meat export market. A senior Brazilian government official told the South China Morning P...

A tourist from Washington state is facing federal charges after a witness recorded what prosecutors say was a video of him hurling a coconut-sized rock at an endangered Hawaiian monk seal just off a Maui beach last week. Igor Mykhaylovych Lytvynchuk,...

The head of US Border Patrol, the agency tasked with securing the nation’s frontiers and increasingly tapped by the Trump administration for immigration operations in American cities, announced his resignation on Thursday. Michael Banks’ decision...

We have put together stories from our coverage of Xi and Trump’s meeting in Beijing. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. Thucydides Trap, personal touches – all you need to know from Xi-Trump summit so ...

Gautam Adani and his nephew Sagar agreed to pay a total of US$18 million to settle Securities and Exchange Commission allegations they made false and misleading representations about Adani Green Energy. Gautam Adani would pay US$6 million and Sagar w...

US President Donald Trump said Chinese President Xi Jinping offered to help broker an end to the Iran conflict and ensure freedom of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz, underscoring how Middle East tensions have become intertwined with a broader...

Hong Kong police arrested a driver after his truck hit a parked vehicle and killed a worker on a closed section of the Cheung Tsing Highway in Tsing Yi in an accident that also left five others, including four South Korean tourists, injured on Thursd...