China’s state broadcaster has given a rare glimpse of PLA war gaming, with footage of a simulated encounter between Chinese and French multi-role fighters. The tabletop exercise pitted Chinese J-16 fighters against French Rafales, a model reportedl...

A Chinese mukbanger was banned after her live-streams featuring bizarre food choices, such as vinegar-soaked chewing gum, went viral and were reported by netizens for “having a bad influence on children.” The food influencer, known by the handle ...

Nearly 3,000 households and 34 shopping centre tenants in a northern Hong Kong district were left without fresh water during one of the most important family-gathering festivals, as the water authority apologised and rushed to restore supply. The Wat...

The body of the Filipino domestic helper who died in Hong Kong’s deadly blaze last month has been repatriated to her home country, with a senior Philippine official hailing her as a heroine. Separately, Hong Kong’s Secretary for Home and Youth Af...

The State Council has approved draft regulations for implementing China’s new value-added tax (VAT) law, which is aimed at governing the country’s largest source of tax revenue and set to come into effect early next year. The regulations, release...

A 49-year-old man was rescued on Sunday after his paraglider spiralled out of control and crashed into a wooded area in Hong Kong’s New Territories, the second accident involving such aircraft this month. Police received a report at 11.27am from a ...

Nine people have died and at least 10 others were wounded after a group of gunmen carried out a shooting at a South African pub during the early hours of Sunday, authorities said. The incident occurred just before 1am in the township of Bekkersdal, w...

Discussions on the India–Middle East–Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) are being revived by some of its founders even as questions persist over the political will to implement the ambitious project, with analysts saying the Gaza situation is a key ...

China is often described today as having “overcapacity” in manufacturing. Its dominance in solar panels, batteries and wind equipment, for example, has left many observers baffled. How did a country once dismissed as undeveloped become, within a ...

A yoga studio in Thailand has gone viral for providing visitors the unique opportunity to interact with puppies during their workouts, creating a truly stress-relieving experience. Chinese fitness influencer “Scarlett Johanfu” recently shared a v...

Vaccine expert Hu Haitao, who studied under Drew Weissman, the Nobel laureate and pioneer of mRNA biology, has given up his tenured position at a US research institute and returned to China – a decision that required little explanation in 2025, he ...

Divisive rhetoric and AI-driven misinformation are undermining international cooperation in the wake of the deadly Bondi Beach attack, a leading counterterrorism expert has warned. Adam Hadley, the founder and executive director of Tech Against Terro...

Saudi Arabia has quietly expanded access to its only store that sells alcohol, allowing wealthy foreign residents to buy booze in the latest step in the once-ultraconservative kingdom’s experiment in liberalisation. There has been no official annou...

Laughter and the scent of chocolate filled the air at Hong Kong’s Nina Hotel Island South on Saturday, as 11 children came together to craft edible Christmas trees. The festive workshop, held on December 13, brought Nina Hospitality, the hospitalit...

Thailand bombed a casino and a bridge in Cambodia, according to reports, as clashes between the two sides continued unabated ahead of a special Asean foreign ministers’ meeting on Monday to discuss the conflict. Thai F-16 fighter jets struck O’Ch...

Hong Kong’s newly opened Central Kowloon Bypass, along with a planned major road and rail expansion of over 40 per cent in the next few years, will boost the city’s competitiveness and integration with national development, the finance chief has ...

A huge electricity outage hit San Francisco on Saturday, leaving 130,000 residents without power and prompting city authorities to ask residents to stay home, according to the utility provider and the mayor. Large parts of the west coast tech hub, wh...

Voter turnout in Hong Kong’s Legislative Council election was affected by the city’s deadliest fire in decades, recording the second-lowest rate since the 1997 handover despite a modest rise from the previous poll, the constitutional affairs chie...

A Chinese woman who worked as an art director made headlines after quitting her job to become a professional combat athlete, ultimately achieving the milestone of being China’s first female participant in the World Slap Fighting Championship. Ding ...

Singapore has long been a proven test bed for international food and beverage chains as a wealthy, brand-savvy market where new entrants can generate instant buzz – and just as quickly disappear for those who fail to cook up a storm. The first part...

Vladimir Putin is ready to talk to France’s Emmanuel Macron over the war in Ukraine, the Russian president’s spokesman said in an interview published on Sunday. Putin has “expressed readiness to engage in dialogue with Macron”, Dmitry Peskov ...

China’s top court has ruled that if an employer fires an employee for sexual harassment it should not have to pay compensation to the dismissed worker – a move lawyers said would make it easier for victims to take action. The ruling was among fiv...

Hong Kong’s long-awaited Yau Ma Tei section of the Central Kowloon Bypass opened on Sunday, with eight bus routes – including three new ones – to begin operating on Monday, cutting peak-hour travel time between West and East Kowloon from 30 min...

In Chow Kit, a crowded district of Kuala Lumpur forever caught between progress and prejudice, Amy* moves quietly through narrow alleys – a transgender outreach worker tending to lives the city prefers not to see. Her evenings begin with small ritu...

North Korea said on Sunday that Japan’s nuclear ambitions “must be prevented at any cost” after a Tokyo official reportedly suggested the country should possess atomic weapons. Pyongyang’s reaction came after the unnamed official in the prime...

Landlords in Hong Kong and Singapore are expected to continue allocating space to flexible office operators as multinational corporations reshape the sector’s risk profile and fuel long-term demand, according to industry experts. A major driver beh...

Beijing and New Delhi have taken another step towards normalising economic ties after a five-year rift, as China moves to introduce a simplified visa process for Indian nationals that could help it tap India’s fast-growing travel market. The Chines...

Catch up on some of SCMP’s biggest stories about China’s soft power this year. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. Labubu, soft power of a stealthy ‘ugly-cute’ sort, takes on America The Chinese-mad...

Chinese archaeologists unearthing the ruins of the earliest known settlement in the Yangtze River Delta say water management may have been the origin of ancient “cities” in the area. Researchers began large-scale excavations of the Doushan site i...

Stand-alone flagship stores with distinctive architectural facades, long prevalent in global metropolises like Tokyo, Seoul and New York, are gradually gaining traction in China, as the country’s retail landscape undergoes a broader shift from encl...

Extensive redactions and the limited number of documents released related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein angered some Republicans and did little to defuse a scandal threatening the party ahead of the 2026 midterm election. The Trump admini...

Japan is expressing renewed concerns about foreign nationals buying land and property across the country, with growing alarm over the acquisition of property close to “sensitive sites” as well as overseas investors causing prices to spike beyond ...

On December 15, Jimmy Lai Chee-ying was found guilty on two charges of conspiring to collude with external forces and a charge of conspiracy to publish seditious materials by the High Court of Hong Kong. The verdict was welcomed in the city and, as e...

Cheung Siu-ling struggles to fight back tears whenever she looks at the 600 goats she has kept for years at a farm near Hong Kong’s border. By the end of January next year, the herd will either have to be relocated or put down. The owner, who is in...

A Chinese company has generated widespread envy among netizens after its boss unveiled a plan to distribute 18 flats as an incentive for employee retention, allowing staff to obtain property after just five years with the company. Recently, a job pos...

China has boosted its armour steel production speed by 30 per cent with continuous investment in tech upgrades, while a major American steelmaker that provided military-grade steel for tanks, ships and mine-resistant vehicles ceased operation for fin...

In the space of a single week in early December, three household names in South Korean entertainment abruptly retreated from the spotlight. Actor Cho Jin-woong announced his sudden retirement on December 6 after decades-old reports resurfaced online ...

Public calls are growing for the FBI to give its promised US$50,000 reward to a homeless man who provided information essential to leading authorities to the gunman they say killed two Brown University students and an MIT professor. Authorities say t...

China has pulled far ahead in the race to build humanoid robots, issuing five times as many related patents as the United States over the past five years, Morgan Stanley said in its latest Robot Almanac. In “Robot Almanac, Volume 3: Humanoids & Ind...

At least 16 files disappeared from the Justice Department’s public webpage for documents related to Jeffrey Epstein, including a photograph showing US President Donald Trump – less than a day after they were posted, with no explanation from the g...

A recently leaked Pentagon report has projected heavy US losses should it intervene in a Taiwan conflict, highlighting Washington’s growing anxiety over Beijing’s rapidly improving capabilities, according to defence experts. In a classified asses...

Victims of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein on Saturday expressed anger after a long-awaited cache of records from cases against him were released with many pages blacked out and photos censored. The trove of material released by the US Justice...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday called on the United States to put more pressure on Russia to end the war, as diplomats converged on Miami for fresh talks. Zelensky also said that Washington had proposed the first face-to-face nego...

The United States has seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela in international waters, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem confirmed on Saturday, a move that comes ‍just days after US President Donald Trump announced a “blockade” of...

A paraplegic engineer from Germany blasted off on a dream-come-true rocket ride with five other passengers on Saturday, leaving her wheelchair behind to float in space while beholding Earth from on high. Severely injured in a mountain bike accident s...

Police have arrested three men in northern Hong Kong following a dramatic high-speed car chase, with dashcam footage posted online showing one suspect falling out of the vehicle during the pursuit. The car driver and his two passengers were arrested ...

It has been a turbulent year for the fraught US-China relationship. In the fifth part of a series looking back at the events of 2025, we examine how Trump’s strained relationship with farmers in America’s rural heartland may impact the 2026 midte...

Worried residents of a Hong Kong housing estate are demanding a halt to a planned renovation project following last month’s deadly fire at nearby Wang Fuk Court in Tai Po after a man arrested earlier was linked to its consultant for the scheme. Wan...

A group of 31 Malaysians, victims of a job scam syndicate in Myawaddy, Myanmar, have been successfully repatriated following a high-level diplomatic operation, the Malay language daily Sinar Harian reported. They arrived at the Bukit Kayu Hitam immig...

Taiwan’s proposed missile shield known as T-Dome has “critical vulnerabilities and flaws” and would be unreliable against an attack by the People’s Liberation Army, according to a mainland Chinese military magazine. The air defence system –...