A Chinese defence giant has flexed its production muscle early in the new year by releasing a video of its star product, the J-35 stealth fighter, and pledging to double its warplane production over the next three to five years. On Tuesday, a green-c...

Taiwan actress and ex-model Jean Wang escaped an unhappy and abusive marriage to rebuild a career using her master culinary skills. Wang, 55, debuted as a model at the age of 15. She was once hailed as Taiwan’s most beautiful woman and was soon sna...

A teenager in the Philippines has been arrested for trying to sell her one-month-old baby for 50,000 Philippine pesos (US$845) on social media, as police warn that similar cases have been “spreading like wildfire” in recent years. The 17-year-old...

Fortnum & Mason, the upmarket department store chain that counts the British royal family among its regular customers, has announced that its flagship shop in Hong Kong will close by the end of the month. The British luxury goods brand, known for its...

India and Bangladesh have begun the process to renew a landmark agreement on sharing the waters of the Ganges, as analysts warn political disputes and uncertainty over Dhaka’s general election could complicate talks between the two neighbours. Offi...

A South Korean government-commissioned report found the Jeju Air plane crash in December 2024 that killed ‍179 people might not have been deadly if there had not been a concrete mound at the end of the runway, an opposition lawmaker said. The Boein...

China has launched an investigation and market competition assessment for its food delivery platforms, the State Council announced on Friday. “Recently, issues such as excessive subsidies, price wars and control over traffic flow in the online food...

US President Donald Trump has revived his ambition to take control of Greenland, whether by buying it or through military action, arguing that it would be in the interests of his nation’s security. Greenland is a semi-autonomous territory of US Nat...

The Philippines is stepping up efforts to protect undersea cables – the unseen backbone of digital communications – as a string of regional and global incidents has sharpened concerns that seabed infrastructure could be targeted for sabotage or e...

The red-hot Hong Kong initial public offerings (IPOs) of Zhipu AI and MiniMax Group, two of China’s hopefuls to take on US giants like OpenAI and Anthropic, have given a boost to Beijing’s ambitions in the artificial intelligence sector, accordin...

The Russian military ‍said it had fired its hypersonic Oreshnik missile at a target in Ukraine in response to what it described as an attempted Ukrainian drone strike on one of President Vladimir Putin’s residences last month, which Kyiv has deni...

Alongside death and taxes, there are few things more universally certain than corruption in public procurement. That is a reality worth keeping front of mind in Hong Kong as we home in on those we want to blame for the tragic Wang Fuk Court fire that...

Iranian protesters shouted and marched through the streets into Friday morning after a call by the country’s exiled crown prince for demonstrations, despite Iran’s theocracy cutting off the nation from the internet and international telephone cal...

Parents and other supervising adults should be allowed access to children’s electronic devices to protect their interests and ensure safety, according to recommendations from Hong Kong’s Law Reform Commission for proposed anti-cybercrime legislat...

A Hong Kong professional rugby player has been accused of molesting a patron at a bar and damaging a door bolt inside a police station while he was held in custody. Faizal Solomona Penesa, 33, on Friday appeared at Eastern Court for the first time ov...

A domestic helper has been sentenced to five months in jail for abusing an 11‑month‑old baby in her employer’s home in Hong Kong. Eastern Court on Friday heard the guilty plea of the 41-year-old helper, who admitted to ill-treating the baby at ...

Southeast Asian real estate firms are seeking to attract South Koreans to buy property, as soaring flat prices in Seoul make premium homes abroad comparatively more affordable, industry officials said on Friday. PropEasy, a Malaysian developer, recen...

Philippine Airlines has drawn widespread praise online for a new in-flight safety video that turns routine cabin instructions into a full-blown Filipino soap opera. Titled Care that Comes from the Heart, the six-minute video borrows heavily from the ...

China and the African Union issued a joint call to uphold an international law-based order, with particular respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, in a display of unity against Washington’s raid on Venezuela. Chinese Foreign Minister Wa...

Hong Kong authorities have launched a survey to gauge the long-term rehousing preferences of flat owners displaced by the devastating Tai Po fire, offering options for new subsidised homes outside the district as early as September this year. The sur...

Malaysia’s football authorities are under mounting pressure to convince Fifa that they can clean up after a forgery scandal that has shaken the national game, with experts warning that failure to act decisively could invite outside intervention by ...

A female tourist from China, who went diving in Semporna, Malaysia’s Sabah state, has called out another Chinese national who was seen dragging a critically endangered hawksbill turtle, breaking corals deliberately and killing sea slugs during a di...

Syria’s defence ministry declared a ceasefire in three neighbourhoods of the northern city of ‌Aleppo early on Friday, a move that could halt fresh fighting between government troops and Kurdish fighters. A fierce exchange of fire extended into t...

A new profession known as “instant reply providers”, or miao hui shi in Chinese, has trended on mainland social media. For a price, people who do the job offer quick and soothing replies for those who are angry, upset or in need of an emotional o...

A small fire triggered by a power bank broke out aboard an Asiana Airlines flight from Incheon to Hong Kong on Thursday night, injuring a passenger. Cabin crew put out the fire with an extinguisher within two minutes, while the passenger carrying the...

Hong Kong political heavyweights and former leaders gathered on Friday to pay tribute to the late commerce minister Gregory So Kam-leung, as family and friends honoured his devotion to public service. Among those who attended the memorial service for...

A former UN Middle East envoy has been chosen to direct US President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace to oversee the ceasefire in Gaza, Israel’s prime minister said on Thursday, as at least eight more deaths from Israeli strikes were reported there....

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...

The Philippines has expressed confidence in countering China’s widening influence in contested waters as its navy presses ahead with expanding its fleet, joint activities with foreign partners and the use of unmanned systems. Analysts say these mea...

Led by only the second civilian the country has sent into space, China had started a series of experiments on board its Tiangong space station that could lead to the development of safer and more powerful space batteries, state media reported on Wedn...

Nasa will conduct a medical evacuation in the coming days of an astronaut suffering an undisclosed ailment aboard the International Space Station, agency officials said. The early return would mark the first time in Nasa’s history that the agency h...

Singapore’s leader of the House, Indranee Rajah, has filed a parliamentary motion on the conduct of Workers’ Party (WP) chief Pritam Singh and his suitability to continue as the leader of the opposition. The office of the leader of the House said...

A senior Trump administration official has defended exports of advanced chips to China, arguing that the US is building its own “digital silk road” to counteract concerns that Washington is eroding the competitiveness of top US models. The commen...

China’s consumer prices stayed unchanged from the previous year in 2025 while factory-gate prices fell by 2.6 per cent, suggesting lingering deflationary pressures and underscoring the need for further efforts to boost prices in 2026. The flat annu...

This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing. Get faster notifications on the latest updates by downloading our app. Temperatures in many areas of Hong Kon...

Tensions over US President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown ‌rose across the United States on Thursday after the second shooting involving immigration officers in two days, deepening rifts between state and federal officials over how and why ...

US President Donald Trump’s suggestion that the Taiwan issue is “up to” Chinese leader Xi Jinping has stirred fresh concerns about the United States’ defence commitment among some on the island. Responding to Trump’s remarks, Chinese foreig...

Indonesia’s Bali is weighing a regulation that would require foreign tourists to disclose how much money they have had in their bank accounts over the past three months, the island’s most far-reaching proposal yet in a drive to deter low-spending...

I attended a memorial service last month for victims of the Nanking massacre, held at the Hong Kong government offices in Admiralty. Such occasions are solemn reminders of history’s darkest moments, forcing us to pause and reflect on the scale of t...

Senior officials in South Korea’s Prime Minister’s Office are voicing concern over Park Seok-woon, a committee chairman under its authority, after he joined protests criticising US President Donald Trump and his administration over American milit...

Chinese household appliances maker Dreame Technology unveiled more than 20 new artificial intelligence-embedded products at this year’s CES trade show in Las Vegas, showing a glimpse of the future when smart devices would run almost all chores in a...

Beijing is leveraging a distracted Washington to ratchet up pressure on Tokyo, launching an anti-dumping investigation into a key semiconductor chemical while the United States is preoccupied with Venezuela, according to analysts. China made moves ta...

Dozens of internet users in China turned up for the funeral of a 90-year-old grandmother after her granddaughter made an online plea for attendees. “My grandma passed away. It is a blessing funeral. Can you come to see her off?” the woman said in...

On a sunny afternoon in late November, hundreds of onlookers gathered beside a picturesque lake near Shanghai as a massive silver drone lifted off silently from the deck of a cutting-edge vessel, marking the dawn of a new chapter for the low-altitude...

McDonald’s has sold another Hong Kong retail property for HK$118.7 million (US$15.2 million), bringing the proceeds from its ongoing asset disposal programme to about HK$490 million, as well-capitalised investors continue to snap up prime real esta...

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, riding high in opinion polls, is expected to call a general election in the coming months to capitalise on her popularity and seize the opportunity to rebuild a Liberal Democratic Party-led government. Takaichi...

US lawmakers voted on Thursday to revive health insurance subsidies that expired at the end of last year, offering hope to millions of Americans facing steep premium hikes – and pressuring the Senate to follow suit. The bill, which passed with Demo...

Thousands of passenger and cargo air taxis could be flying across Hong Kong within a decade as the low-altitude economy takes off, according to one of mainland China’s largest drone makers, which hopes to launch operations in the city. AutoFlight s...

Shanghai, mainland China’s commercial and financial hub, has pledged to step up policing its manufacturing sectors to curb prolonged payment cycles that affect thousands of supply-chain vendors. Gu Jun, deputy secretary general of the municipal gov...

Venezuela released a number of imprisoned high-profile opposition figures, activists and journalists - both citizens and foreigners - on Thursday in what the government described as a gesture to “seek peace” less than a week after former presiden...