Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi sent a ritual offering on Tuesday to a shrine honouring the country’s war dead that has long angered neighbouring countries but did not visit in person, media reports and an unidentified source close to the ma...

Hong Kong police are investigating two separate traffic accidents on Tuesday that led to the deaths of two women. In the first case, police were alerted at about 8.51am to a light goods vehicle driven by a 36-year-old man travelling along Cha Kwo Lin...

The two main ferry operators running daily services between Hong Kong and Macau will raise fares by up to 11 per cent amid surging fuel prices, while a union said bus drivers were reporting lost income as companies cut services. Chief Executive John ...

China’s recent diplomatic efforts in the Middle East have led to speculation over whether its global strategy has shifted. There is consensus that China is stepping into a leadership role and trying to play peacemaker. Meanwhile, a few sceptics poi...

When the Duchess of York gave birth to a baby girl exactly 100 years ago, nobody expected that the young princess would one day sit on the throne. Queen Elizabeth II would eventually become Britain’s longest serving monarch, reigning for over 70 ye...

We have selected seven stories from the SCMP’s coverage of Asia over the past week that resonated with our readers and shed light on topical issues. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. Singapore balances ...

China has announced that it now has the capacity to build up to 50 nuclear reactors simultaneously, as it doubles down on a push to rapidly expand its nuclear power generation and become a global leader in the sector. The figure came from a report re...

The year-long celebrations to mark Hong Kong Disneyland Resort’s 20th anniversary will run until June, still giving visitors from around the world plenty of opportunity to experience the thrills and excitement of what is billed as “The Most Magic...

Indonesia appears to have ceded its position as Asean’s natural leader to Singapore in a new survey of regional opinion leaders, with analysts pinning the shift on President Prabowo Subianto’s preference for pursuing Jakarta’s ambitions outside...

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Samsung Electronics chairman Lee Jae-yong posed for a widely shared selfie in New Delhi on Monday, drawing attention to the optics of “selfie diplomacy” at a Korea-Indi...

Hong Kong’s top-ranking civil servants will be held accountable if they fail to provide adequate support in policy formulation, the city’s leader has said, despite a new investigation mechanism that primarily targets department heads. Chief Execu...

A Chinese influencer’s live-stream recounting how she was lured to Cambodia and forced into a cyber scam operation was abruptly cut off, shortly before her social media account was banned. The 20-year-old, known online as Umi, is a live-stream host...

Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia are working closely together to keep vessels moving safely through the Straits of Malacca and Singapore, Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong said on Tuesday, stressing the three countries’ shared responsibility for ...

Researchers in China have replicated the epic journey of one of the world’s most fascinating migratory fish within the confines of an artificial pool, potentially saving it from extinction. From hatching to maturity and spawning, eels undergo six s...

Hong Kong’s leader has defended the government’s decision to put the legalisation of basketball betting on hold, stressing the policy was never intended to encourage gambling and that all risks must be controlled before any further steps are take...

Hong Kong authorities have arrested five men at registered pharmacies and seized thousands of unregistered anti-obesity medicines and boxes of slimming injections, vowing to launch more joint operations to clamp down on illegal sales across the city....

Chinese stocks are likely to continue the resilience they have shown since the war in the Middle East began, thanks to haven demand for yuan-linked assets, the green shoots of the property market and the inclusion of tech start-ups in key equity gaug...

The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has affected every Asean nation, with a crisis looming, according to Malaysia’s Sultan Nazrin Shah. The Perak ruler said the ongoing conflict in the Middle East would directly affect the economies of countries in...

Governments across Southeast Asia have been banking on work-from-home arrangements for civil servants to ease the sting of soaring energy costs triggered by the Iran war, but analysts say the maths is messier than it may first appear. Indonesia estim...

Residents have continued searching for memorabilia in their fire-ravaged homes on the second day of pick-up sessions at Wang Fuk Court, with some using a robotic device for assistance and others expressing gratitude to neighbours who saved their live...

China has developed a world-first high-voltage synchronous condenser, reviving a century-old grid stabiliser technology to support the country’s rapid transition to renewable energy, according to a state media report. The state-run China Electric P...

Rohingya refugee Rahila Begum spent two days adrift ⁠in the Andaman Sea this month, clinging to a wooden shard after her ⁠overcrowded boat capsized, one of the few survivors of a disaster that left 250 missing and feared dead. She was among the t...

Despite China’s stronger-than-expected first-quarter economic growth, young jobseekers found little respite as March brought a rise in youth unemployment across urban areas, snapping six straight months of decline. The jobless rate for the 16-to-24...

This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing. Hong Kong labour authorities’ handling of Wang Fuk Court residents’ complaints and inspections at the ren...

The number of members from China’s leading scientific and engineering institutes in the top ranks of the Communist Party has doubled over the course of a decade, according to a new report. It said the number of academicians in the party’s 18th Ce...

Say “open source” and “China” and most people will think of its world-conquering artificial intelligence (AI) large language models. Its open-source computer chips are just as significant. These chips are based on the RISC-V architecture (pro...

The Hong Kong government plans to launch a public consultation this quarter on its first five-year blueprint aligned with national development, aiming to gather views on which policies to focus on in the coming years. Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu...

Victory Giant, a Chinese manufacturer of printed circuit boards (PCBs) for artificial intelligence and high-performance computing, rose by 57.23 per cent in its trading debut in Hong Kong on Tuesday, as investors rushed to tap into surging global dem...

He was your friendly neighbourhood uncle, polite and pleasant. He even brought fruits and vegetables from his orchard for people in the area. So, when the 71-year-old Malaysian man was arrested for shooting three people dead, it came as a shock for m...

Twenty-two strategic enterprises have signed agreements with the Office for Attracting Strategic Enterprises (OASES) to open or expand operations in Hong Kong. The latest group marks the sixth cohort under the government’s flagship investment attra...

Reports of friction inside Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party suggest Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s biggest political challenge may now lie not with the opposition, but within her own party. Despite her strong public standing following Feb...

China’s top civilian aircraft manufacturer is reassessing geopolitical risks to its supply chains – particularly for jet engines sourced from foreign firms – according to a source at the planemaker, as deliveries of its flagship C919 passenger ...

There is a tendency to portray the global artificial intelligence (AI) landscape as consisting of two bitter rivals – China and the United States. The remaining 80 per cent of the world’s population, by virtue of their supposed dearth of scale, r...

A nine-year-old boy in rural China who relies on his 73-year-old grandfather and brings him meat from his school canteen because he fears the old man might die without it has touched millions of internet users in the country. The boy, who is nickname...

Hong Kong health authorities are investigating a third measles case involving an aircraft maintenance worker at the airport, saying his infection is epidemiologically linked to those of two colleagues. The Centre for Health Protection said on Monday ...

As the clock ticks down to the end of a two-week ceasefire between the US and Iran, all eyes are on whether they can return to the negotiating table in Pakistan, while the stand-off in the Strait of Hormuz continues. These are the main takeaways from...

Hong Kong’s major retailers are using aggressive tactics such as direct sourcing and leveraging massive economies of scale to avoid raising prices despite surging logistics costs arising from the war in the Middle East. But their resilience is bein...

Iran’s firing on two Indian-flagged oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz has raised fresh questions about how far Tehran can protect even friendly shipping as the conflict pushes closer to maritime chaos. The attack on Saturday has been especially a...

Another Democrat is exiting the crowded contest for California governor. Betty Yee – a former state controller – announced on Monday she was suspending her campaign, just over a week after fellow Democrat and former US congressman Eric Swalwell l...

European consumers, spooked by rising oil prices due to the Middle East conflict, rushed to buy battery-powered cars last month, with Chinese electric vehicle (EV) brands poised to reap the benefits and give their global expansion a boost. Battery EV...

The United States and Iran both warned they were ready for war as the clock ticked down on a ceasefire on Tuesday, with uncertainty over whether talks that US President Donald Trump had announced would resume in Pakistan. The White House said US Vice...

As the US-Israel war on Iran raises global concerns about energy security, a new report has found that the clean power sector is rapidly gaining ground and emerging as a solution for nations looking to reduce their reliance on oil and gas imports. Th...

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said on Monday that planned talks with Israel aim to end hostilities and the occupation in southern Lebanon, even as Hezbollah and its supporters rejected the negotiations. Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah has sharp...

US Labour Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer is out of President Donald Trump’s cabinet, the administration announced on Monday, after a series of alleged abuses of her position’s power, including having an affair with a subordinate and drinking alcoh...

For Tim Avanzato and the team at Lanca Sales, Monday marked the start of a high-stakes digital scramble to recover tariffs paid after US President Donald Trump imposed steep duties on almost all imports, including from China, last year. While the New...

China has released new regulations that aim to counter the “unjustified” extraterritorial use of foreign laws, the latest move to protect its interests from external threats. Analysts view the move as a shift from diplomatic protests to legal war...

Apple on Monday announced that Tim Cook will step down as the tech giant’s chief executive officer in September, handing the top job to company veteran John Ternus. The announcement answers long-simmering questions about a successor for 65-year-old...

Indonesia says it is not choosing sides. That is true in diplomacy. It is less true on the map. The “major defence cooperation partnership” announced by Washington and Jakarta on April 13 is written in the safe language of official communiques: c...

China “has to be involved” in nuclear arms control talks, while the US must step up its nuclear modernisation, including deploying more bombers, a senator responsible for overseeing American strategic forces said on Monday. “We need to be able ...

A gunman killed a Canadian tourist and wounded six other people on Monday at Mexico’s famed Teotihuacan archaeological site, authorities said. The gunman killed himself after opening fire at the heavily visited destination in central Mexico, home t...