Hong Kong’s Heat Stress at Work warning system will be automatically upgraded when temperatures reach 35 degrees Celsius (95 Fahrenheit) across multiple districts, after labour authorities lowered its activation thresholds following criticism. Two ...

China’s Zhipu AI has launched its latest open-weight model, GLM-5.3-Flash – previously code-named Ox Alpha – saying that the system ran entirely on a cluster of 100,000 domestically produced chips during a high-profile stealth trial. The announ...

The next big competition in artificial intelligence is over science. The question is shifting from who has the largest model to who can use AI to shorten the discovery cycle: forming a hypothesis, running simulations, designing an experiment, operati...

China should forge a national consensus on “regaining mastery of the oceans” and direct overseas investment returns into defence spending to brace for sea-power competition with the US, according to a prominent Chinese academic. Di Dongsheng, ass...

The operator of the Hong Kong government’s 1823 platform will expand the use of artificial intelligence (AI) within the year to transcribe, summarise and triage residents’ inquiries, freeing frontline staff to handle more complicated cases. The D...

Bourse operator Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX) is exploring merging the GEM board with its main board by creating a new chapter of its listing rules, according to a source familiar with the discussions. The proposal to create Chapter 18D, wh...

Japan plans to look into popular animal cafes, where visitors can interact with anything from cats to capybaras, following concerns about hygiene and the creatures’ welfare, authorities said on Thursday. Japan has hundreds of the cafes where campai...

The Philippines’ push for military modernisation is being squeezed by a ballooning pension bill for its troops as fears mount over its ability to finance newer ships, aircraft and other defence assets. The Department of National Defence has propose...

Gold flows into Hong Kong eased to about 107 tonnes in July despite mainland corporate buyers pouring capital into new bullion vaults, as they bet on the city’s strategic ambition to establish itself as Asia’s premier hub for the precious metal. ...

At least 100 Hong Kong-based applicants have been affected by the indefinite postponement of US immigrant interviews worldwide, consultants have said, with student and travel visa applications also disrupted. The global pause, which marks a sharp tig...

The body of an unidentified person was found inside the wheel well of an aircraft at Malaysia’s Kuala Lumpur International Airport Terminal 2 (KLIA2) on Thursday (Aug 27). The body, whose gender has yet to be determined, was discovered at about 6.5...

Three people have been injured and four cats have died after a power bank caught fire in a public housing flat in Hong Kong, forcing nearly 80 residents to evacuate. Police said they received a report at 2.51am on Thursday from a resident that the po...

North Korea’s foreign ministry on Thursday denounced a US decision to approve the sale of missiles and related equipment to South Korea, vowing to respond “strongly and immediately” to hostile acts in various areas, state media Korean Central N...

Hong Kong’s privacy watchdog has arrested a boxer suspected of doxxing an opponent on social media by disclosing his personal information and workplace without consent. The Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data (PCPD) said on Thursda...

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has urged Washington to help “remove interference and overcome obstacles” to high-level exchanges as the two sides prepare for President Xi Jinping’s expected visit to the US next month. Meeting US Ambassador Da...

Beijing’s hundreds of thousands of weeping willows and poplars have been a welcome source of shelter from the fierce summer sun for more than four decades – but they may also be an unexpected source of pollution, according to new research. Scient...

Malaysia’s former prime minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob pleaded not guilty in a Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court on Thursday to failing to declare millions of ringgit in local and foreign currencies and gold bars. The 66-year-old is the second ex-leader to...

For more, check out the South China Morning Post’s full anti-corruption data bank project:

The lonely journey of a bull elephant trying to return to its jungle home has captured the hearts of Malaysians over the past week, putting a spotlight on the plight of wildlife struggling against deforestation and rapidly expanding human activity. T...

American pop star Bruno Mars will return to Hong Kong for the first time in nearly a decade to play four shows at Kai Tak Stadium in May 2027 as part of an expanded Asian leg of his “The Romantic Tour”. The Grammy-winning singer-songwriter would ...

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim is looking to push back national elections until the second half of next year, people familiar with the matter said, as state poll defeats and soured partnerships reveal his political vulnerability. That time fr...

South Korea’s police said on Thursday they were seeking indictments of seven transport ministry officials over the 2024 Jeju Air crash that killed all but two of the 181 people on board. The Boeing 737-800 operated by Jeju Air skidded off the runwa...

The assets managed by China’s private funds grew last month as those of its mutual funds shrank, with investors diversifying their portfolios amid a sell-off of semiconductor shares. The net assets under management (AUM) of domestic mutual funds sh...

Tokyo is experimenting with a radically faster way of buying new weapons – picking a domestically built interceptor drone less than three months after launching the procurement process. Analysts say this shift could help Japan respond more quickly ...

A proper kitchen, a washing machine and a table where children can do their homework – these are some of the bare necessities that people expect for their homes. But for many families living in subdivided flats in Hong Kong, that is unfortunately n...

Singapore’s new rules for messaging platforms mark a significant shift in the country’s fight against scams, placing greater responsibility on digital services to help stop fraudsters before they reach potential victims, as the government seeks s...

At least 180 people have been killed and more than 800 are missing after a massive Himalayan mudslide and flash flood struck the Gyirong Port area along the China-Nepal border on Wednesday. As of Thursday afternoon, three people are confirmed dead an...

Sumo chiefs are planning measures to beat Japan’s increasingly punishing summer heat, including avoiding venues that do not have air conditioning and lightening the load on weary wrestlers. Japan sweltered through its hottest summer on record last ...

Singaporean police raided the local office of iron ore trader Radiant World last week and questioned some of the firm’s employees, according to people familiar with the matter, part of an investigation into the company’s transactions after some c...

Chinese biopharmaceutical firm Akeso announced on Wednesday that its immunotherapy drug had outperformed AstraZeneca’s Imfinzi in a head-to-head phase-three trial for biliary tract cancer. The result represents another breakthrough for Akeso’s iv...

Hong Kong has widened its lead over Singapore as Asia’s most international city, buoyed by gains in innovation and ideas, but still trails in attracting technology investment, a leading business chamber study has found. The Hong Kong General Chambe...

Billions of yen from a higher departure tax that Japan plans to use to support tourism are being channelled into projects that critics say offer limited direct benefit to travellers, including measures to prevent bear attacks and eradicate an invasiv...

In 1984, Ha Tae-jun, then 24, spotted a notice recruiting for a special unit at the Military Manpower Administration office in central Seoul’s Yongsan district. The notice was scrawled on the wall in marker, with little explanation. Ha applied, and...

On a Saturday evening, Causeway Bay crackles with its famous retail energy, yet by 9 o’clock the streets begin their nightly death. There is nowhere magnetic to spill into – no late-night jazz den, immersive dinner theatre or playhouse humming wi...

A man in Taiwan who used a robot vacuum cleaner to gather evidence of his wife’s affair won a civil lawsuit but was subsequently sentenced to prison for invading her privacy. A recently released court ruling, reported by local media, disclosed that...

Hong Kong’s weather forecaster cancelled its rainstorm warnings on Thursday, following spells of heavy rain that led to the suspension of morning and whole-day schools, with afternoon classes allowed to proceed. The Observatory issued the red signa...

China has launched the world’s first 100-kilowatt (kW) floating solar farm built with bamboo frames, offering a more environmentally friendly approach to offshore energy. The floating solar platform, named Jilin-2, is made of composite bamboo tubes...

Yung, an elderly Hong Kong resident, has spent hours hanging out at a neighbourhood shopping centre in Kwai Chung all summer. But he has not been going there to shop, instead taking refuge from the sweltering heat in the mall’s soothing air-conditi...

British insurer Prudential announced a US$300 million share buy-back, to be completed by December, as it reported an 8 per cent increase in new business profit for the first half of the year. The buy-back and slower profit growth came amid market con...

On a farm up in the hills of South Korea’s Jeju Island, investigators this week uncovered what a mother had spent three months fearing they would not find: the body of her daughter. Jang Mi-ran, 37, vanished without a trace in May. Police records w...

Colombia’s new hard-right government wants to use prison ships adrift at sea to lock up people it considers highly dangerous criminals, a defence ministry source said on Wednesday. President Abelardo de la Espriella took office earlier this month, ...

Another two Chinese robotics start-ups have confirmed plans to launch initial public offerings in Hong Kong as early as next year, boosting the city’s role as a prime fundraising hub for China’s fast-growing technology sector. The two Hangzhou-ba...

Cooperation between the United States and China is required to manage the unprecedented societal impacts of rapidly advancing artificial intelligence (AI) technology, Bill Gates wrote in a new essay published on Wednesday. The call to action comes as...

The South China Morning Post has launched a major data project diving into President Xi Jinping’s signature anti-graft campaign. In the third part of a series accompanying the data project, William Zheng looks at the relationship between rich regio...

The Justice Department and the FBI said on Wednesday that they seized two Chinese state-sponsored online platforms that targeted US critical infrastructure and other critical networks, including Nasa, the Federal Reserve and the US Senate. According ...

International relations has long measured power through familiar instruments: military capability, territory, energy, capital and control of trade. The digital revolution added information to that equation. Artificial intelligence (AI) is taking the ...

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday declared “Mission Accomplished” in Iran even as the unpopular and costly war drags on with no end in sight and no sign that the US is close to achieving any of the lofty goals he set for the conflict. Trump ...

Two workers at Frankfurt Airport have died from malaria after being infected by mosquitoes believed to have arrived in Germany on aircraft from malaria-endemic regions, airport operator Fraport and city health authorities said on Wednesday. The first...

Tim Curry, the baritone-voiced British actor who pranced to movie fame as a singing, lingerie-clad “sweet transvestite” in the 1975 ⁠cult classic The Rocky Horror Picture Show, has died at ⁠the age of 80, his manager said on Wednesday. A caus...