Asia is entering a dangerous summer for food production as scientists warn of a “super El Nino” suppressing rainfall while the war on Iran drives up energy and fertiliser costs for farmers. India’s Meteorological Department has forecast a below...

Flights between China and Japan faced even more cancellations in March – with further cuts expected during the coming Labour Day holiday – as political tensions between the Asian neighbours continue to simmer. A total of 2,691 China-Japan flights...

[The content of this article has been produced by our advertising partner.] Octopus is moving further into Hong Kong’s transport system with the rollout of a taxi booking feature in its app, as the city steps up efforts to modernise a traditionally...

Eight mainland China-based companies – five of them biotech firms – passed listing hearings on the Hong Kong stock market in April, clearing the way for them to tap the city’s deep liquidity. The influx, including an AI-driven drug discovery fi...

[The content of this article has been produced by our advertising partner.] The Hong Kong Sevens concluded successfully this evening (19 April) at Kai Tak  Stadium with The Hong Kong Jockey Club having supported the tournament for the fifth consecut...

US Federal Reserve chair nominee Kevin Warsh’s policy vision – outlined during his Senate confirmation hearing – signals an extension of “America First” into monetary policy, Chinese analysts said. “Warsh’s policy proposals … mark a s...

In the spring of 2026, amid a fragile ceasefire in the Strait of Hormuz, President Donald Trump continues to insist that the United States is untouched by disruptions in the Persian Gulf. “We don’t use it”, he has claimed, echoing years of “e...

The magnitude 7.7 earthquake that hit Japan on Monday has renewed worries on Indonesia’s holiday island of Bali, which sits on the same Pacific Ring of Fire. Hours after the quake, the Japan Meteorological Agency issued a special advisory warning o...

In the first of a three-part series on Anthropic’s new powerful Mythos AI model, we look at its impact on Chinese AI, cybersecurity and competition with the US. US start-up Anthropic announced its latest artificial intelligence model Claude Mythos ...

The geopolitical fallout from the Strait of Hormuz chokehold in the Middle East is just a “dry run”, with the Pacific being where the real action will occur if superpowers were to clash, Singapore’s top diplomat has warned. Foreign Minister Viv...

Hong Kong residents, from housewives to stay-at-home mothers and couples, have rushed to theatres to secure HK$30 (US$4) tickets for Cinema Day, with many calling for even more discounts and family-friendly perks on other occasions. Before sales open...

China is backing Namibia’s bid to move beyond raw material exports by supporting the domestic processing of critical minerals and uranium. In a joint communique issued on Friday following talks in Beijing between Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his co...

Schools in India’s capital must ring regular bells to remind schoolchildren to drink water as the megacity gears up to face heatwave conditions, a new city order has said. Summer heat in the world’s most populous nation can be brutal – putting ...

Mexico’s government said it was bolstering security at tourist sites after a man opened fire on tourists at pyramids outside Mexico City less than two months before the Fifa World Cup. The Monday shooting, carried out by a lone gunman on top of one...

A Chinese woman who tried to copy a recently viral lamp post climbing challenge got herself stuck and had to call the police to rescue her. The woman, surnamed Song, from eastern China’s Jiangsu province, was out for an after-dinner walk when she d...

The first locally recorded case of dengue fever in Hong Kong in more than a year indicates that undiagnosed imported cases could lead to an outbreak in the coming months, a health official has warned, while stressing that the risk was preventable. Th...

Myanmar’s military-backed rulers have shaved time off Aung San Suu Kyi’s prison sentence and freed thousands of detainees, but analysts say the apparent goodwill gestures tell a story of a regime growing bolder, not more merciful. The government ...

Florida on Tuesday announced a criminal probe into whether artificial intelligence played a role in a deadly mass shooting at a university in the US state. The decision to launch an investigation came after prosecutors reviewed exchanges between Open...

The MTR Corporation has sold HK$18.8 billion (US$2.4 billion) in green bonds, the largest and the company’s first public bond issuance in the Hong Kong dollar market, in its latest efforts to diversify funding sources for a string of projects. The ...

A notorious North Korean hacking group is likely behind the theft of nearly US$300 million in cryptocurrency over the weekend, an affected party has said, in the biggest known crypto heist this year. It is the latest such incident linked to North Kor...

The State Council, China’s cabinet, has published guidelines on innovative drug pricing that a bank analyst has described as the “most significant” in a decade, as they aim to reward drug innovation and ease pricing tension for domestic and mul...

Pope Leo on Tuesday used the fourth and final leg of his Africa tour in Equatorial Guinea to denounce the “colonisation” of Africa’s minerals and the “lust for power” in a country whose president has been in office since 1979. Adoring crowd...

The satirical faux-news site The Onion has signed a new, restructured deal to take over Infowars from conspiracy peddler Alex Jones. Under the new terms, the Onion would license Infowars from Gregory Milligan, the court-appointed manager of the site ...

A Singaporean man who was seen in a viral video assaulting a Filipino woman at Lucky Plaza shopping centre was charged on Wednesday over the incident and a previous alleged attack on the same woman. Andrew Suresh Markandan, 47, was handed two charges...

The latest batch of residents to return to their flats in Hong Kong’s Wang Fuk Court under a special government arrangement said prayers and left flower bouquets on Wednesday as a final farewell to their fire-ravaged homes. The residents, who were ...

The Iran conflict is pushing Saudi Arabia to reconsider its US-led security strategy, with China emerging to play a limited, but functional role, analysts say. However, deep US ties in defence would restrict Saudi Arabia’s broader cooperation with ...

A US appeals court ruled on Tuesday that Texas can require the Bible’s Ten Commandments to be displayed in public schools, a win for Christian conservatives who want their faith in classrooms. The 120-page decision by the Fifth Circuit Court of App...

Both chambers of Britain’s parliament have approved a bill that would ban children aged 17 and under from buying cigarettes during their lifetime. The Tobacco and Vapes Bill aims to stop anyone born after January 1, 2009 (now aged 17) from taking u...

Lebanese armed group Hezbollah said it fired rockets and drones into northern Israel on Tuesday, accusing the Israeli military of violating a ceasefire ahead of US-mediated talks between the Israeli and Lebanese governments this week. The Israeli mil...

This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing. Four officers from Hong Kong’s fire department testified on Wednesday before an independent committee inves...

Half of Taiwanese not only doubt the US would send troops to defend Taiwan in the event of a cross-strait conflict but also question whether American weapons would prove effective, a poll this week has revealed. The results highlighted mounting scept...

Far-flung Pacific nations ⁠are reeling from the impact of a global ⁠fuel crisis as authorities scramble to manage energy supplies while families must grapple ⁠with fuel curbs and higher costs for food and access to healthcare. Global oil suppli...

A year ago, after more than a decade in the United Kingdom and several years in the United States – including time working for the United Nations in New York City – I returned to Asia and arrived in Hong Kong expecting it to also be a leading hub...

Contemporary Amperex Technology Ltd (CATL), the world’s largest electric vehicle (EV) battery producer, has unveiled its upgraded technologies – including lighter battery packs and faster charging modes – which are expected to accelerate the gl...

The world breathed a sigh of relief as US President Donald Trump announced he would extend the ceasefire with Iran, but uncertainty remains in the Middle East over how the US-Israeli war will end. These are the main takeaways from what happened overn...

A Japanese prefecture is paying its singles to use dating apps as the country grapples with record-low birth rates. Kochi prefecture announced on April 10 that it would subsidise private matchmaking app fees for its young residents, according to a Sa...

While people in modern times send new year greetings easily on social network apps, in ancient times it was a much more complicated ritual. In China, the origin of delivering new year greeting cards can be traced back to the Han dynasty (206 BC-AD 22...

A senior New Zealand minister has sparked outrage by deriding a planned free-trade deal with India as a “butter chicken tsunami”. Wellington is poised to sign a free-trade agreement with India in New Delhi next week. The New Zealand government ha...

Fraudsters have duped students studying abroad out of up to HK$1.5 million (US$191,531) each by accusing them of money laundering and luring them to Hong Kong to buy gold for bogus law-enforcement investigations, prompting a police warning. At least ...

Indonesia’s decision to raise prices for some non-subsidised fuel products could push more households towards subsidised grades, economists have warned, raising the risk of tighter supplies and piling pressure on a state budget already straining to...

China’s shipyards are emerging as beneficiaries from the US-Israeli war on Iran, securing new orders as crude transport bottlenecks worsen and global demand for large oil tankers rises. With the United States and Iran effectively blockading the Str...

US President Donald Trump and many of his leading Christian supporters and top Republicans are taking part this week in a marathon reading of the Bible in an America 250-themed event billed as encouraging a “return to the spiritual foundation that ...

A Chinese university student has been charged with unauthorised photography of US military aircraft in Nebraska during a road trip through several states, which included a stop at an air force base in South Dakota. Tianrui Liang, who is studying in G...

The Philippines is trying to gradually establish “stable foundations” for its relations with China before tackling tougher problems such as the long-running South China Sea dispute, according to the country’s ambassador to Beijing. “We need a...

The United States House Select Committee on China recently released a report on artificial intelligence. Titled “Buy What It Can, Steal What It Must: China’s Campaign to Acquire Frontier AI Capabilities”, it captures a hardening view in Washing...

China’s next-generation “drone-carrier” amphibious assault ship is en route to the South China Sea for critical sea trials, the military announced on Tuesday, in the same waters where the US, the Philippines and Japan are conducting large-scale...

A Canadian who was detained in China for nearly three years warned that Prime Minister Mark Carney’s electric vehicle deal risks creating a strategic dependency that the Asian superpower can exploit for political coercion. Michael Kovrig, a former ...

A Democratic lawmaker resigned on Tuesday, becoming the third member of the US House of Representatives to step down in just over a week as a wave of ethics scandals engulfs Congress. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick of Florida announced her immediate resi...

Prosecutors in the rape retrial of disgraced US movie mogul Harvey Weinstein told Tuesday how he wielded his power to prey on then-aspiring actress Jessica Mann. Weinstein, a central figure of abuse allegations that spurred the #MeToo movement, appea...

The Israeli military on Tuesday said two soldiers would receive 30 days of military detention and be removed from combat duty over the destruction of a statue of Jesus Christ in southern Lebanon. The decision comes after widespread condemnation of a ...