Shares of Akeso surged after British drug maker AstraZeneca moved to advance the Chinese biotech firm’s flagship cancer drug, while a new deal from US giant Merck further underscored the sector’s global momentum amid easing fears of US curbs. Ast...

Armageddon is what will happen when billionaires, or even trillionaires, are given free rein. Could this be the final outcome of late-stage American capitalism and democracy? Imagine a human-extinction event: a rogue artificial intelligence (AI) revo...

Hong Kong’s High Court has sentenced a man with a triad background to three years and two months after he attacked an associate with a hammer, leaving the victim bleeding on the street before he died of an overdose hours later. The court heard on T...

The governor of an Indonesian prison has been suspended after authorities uncovered a suspected luxury compound for VIP inmates within the grounds, prompting a parliamentary inquiry. However, Director General of Corrections Mashudi denied the accusat...

China is offering the world’s brightest young scientists generous 15-year research grants for free exploration, as the country accelerates its drive to become a global science powerhouse. Dou Xiankang, director of the National Natural Science Found...

Global investors are turning to China again in search of alternatives to crowded US asset markets, with Pimco seeing Chinese bonds as one of the safest ways to diversify portfolios after sentiment towards the world’s second-largest economy “flipp...

The Philippines has 20,000 teaching vacancies to fill, a budget hearing has revealed, with sector insiders warning that the gap signals a mounting education crisis. Those in the industry are calling for transparency in the teacher hiring process, inc...

Behind the unmarked door of a shoplot along a quiet commercial stretch of Forest City in Malaysia’s Johor state, four customers sat tapping away, playing slot-style games on tablets. A stern-looking man stood guard at the entrance, his eyes darting...

Less than 0.5 per cent of registered Hong Kong nurses received their training outside the city, while 99.8 per cent of those working in public hospitals are locally trained, health authorities have said amid a growing row with a trade union over empl...

US forces are set ⁠to pull out from their last bases in Iraq by Wednesday, a departure celebrated as a victory by Iran and its allies who now have deep influence in the country where 4,500 Americans died during more than two decades of war. Iraqi s...

Hong Kong welcomed four companies to start trading on Tuesday after they raised a combined HK$14.4 billion (US$1.83 billion) – but three opened below their offer prices, adding pressure to an already sluggish month for initial public offerings (IPO...

Malaysia began an operation to send nearly 1,500 Myanmar nationals back to their war-torn homeland on Tuesday, pressing ahead with a government-to-government repatriation deal despite warnings that returnees could face persecution and forced conscrip...

A Hong Kong technician who won a global prize for train repair at an international competition for vocational skills has pledged to apply insights from the competition to his job, as he recalled three days of intense examination to fix railway system...

Standing water ⁠in Thailand’s capital is expected ⁠to clear within three days if there is no additional rainfall, the government said on Tuesday, as flag carrier Thai Airways struggled to resume regular services following heavy rain and floodin...

China’s top diplomat Wang Yi met Japan’s former foreign minister Takeshi Iwaya, who is leading a 50-member delegation of corporate executives, in Beijing on Monday, marking the highest-ranking Chinese official reception for a Japanese visit in ne...

Hong Kong’s media should eliminate falsehoods and expand their global reach, the chief executive has said, urging news workers to serve as “spokespeople” for good stories about mainland China and the city. City leader John Lee Ka-chiu on Tuesda...

The US and China need to improve communication, work together more closely and more fully embrace technology to stem risks associated with artificial intelligence, the founder of Nvidia said on Monday. “We should recognise that we’re competitors,...

Last year, Japan was flooding its rice market with emergency stockpiles in a bid to mollify voters angered by the soaring price of its staple grain. Now, it has the opposite problem: a glut. That is welcome news for shoppers, but the whiplash is hurt...

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. Bangkok declares fl...

US chip giant Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) has agreed to acquire World Labs, the artificial intelligence start-up founded by renowned Chinese-American computer scientist Li Fei-Fei, for US$8.2 billion in an all-stock deal, as the company steps up its...

A Hong Kong man who allegedly installed pinhole cameras in the changing rooms of a popular gym chain has been released on bail pending the identification of victims. Construction site foreman Fung Kwok-wang, 34, was not required to answer a count of ...

The ocean drilling ship Mengxiang has returned from its first expedition in the South China Sea, where it set a national depth record and obtained basalt core samples that could help to unravel the region’s tectonic history. The 30-day expedition o...

US prosecutors reopened an investigation Monday into an alleged gang rape at Cornell University following claims the elite college failed to properly punish the men involved. The alleged victim said in a civil lawsuit this month she was drugged with ...

A couple in their late 70s gunned down their son-in-law in a California city park over the weekend, authorities said, and court documents showed the victim had been in a bitter custody dispute with their daughter. Jonathan McKinsey, a 40-year-old gam...

Hong Kong is set to welcome 1.29 million mainland Chinese visitors over the National Day “golden week” break, fuelling questions online about what locals and tourists can do during the celebrations. On popular mainland social media platform RedNo...

China plans to complete a geological map of Mars by the end of 2028, as its space rivalry with the United States intensifies. Hou Zengqian, chief scientist of China’s next Mars mission known as Tianwen-3, on Monday said the map would cover the enti...

A young Chinese wife selflessly donated her kidney to her husband suffering from uraemia because she “did not want to lose him,” despite the success rate being less than 10 per cent. In September, Liang, 25, donated her left kidney to her husband...

Travel companies in southern Japan are pinning their hopes on a business revival following a planned visit by Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako to the areas hardest hit by a major earthquake this summer. The imperial couple, who were scheduled to m...

The official opening of the Pinglu Canal on September 16 is a milestone in modern Chinese history. More than an infrastructural feat, it signals a strategic recalibration of how China’s inland economies connect with the sea and Southeast Asia, and ...

Australian industrial property developer Goodman Group has withdrawn an application to develop a 24-hour data centre on Sydney’s north shore following public push back. Goodman said it would not proceed with its Project Mars development application...

A Chinese team has set a world record for the most autonomous underwater drones operating at the same time, deploying more than a hundred of the small robots in a swimming pool test. The Guinness World Record for “most autonomous underwater vehicle...

Hong Kong is bracing for a surge of mainland Chinese visitors to its eco-sensitive areas during the National Day “golden week” holiday, as strong interest in countryside attractions raises questions over whether the city can absorb crowds without...

Japan risks being pulled into a spiral of online disinformation about foreign crime that is stoking xenophobia and playing into the hands of the far-right, researchers warn. The trend is reportedly deepening divisions within Japanese society and crea...

A US judge blocked the Trump administration on Monday from conditioning counterterrorism funds to state and local ‌governments on changes to election administration. The decision by Washington-based US District Judge Amir Ali marks the latest defea...

US soybean farmers have described the exclusion of US soybeans from China’s import list under the newly announced Board of Trade mechanism as a “missed opportunity”, even as Beijing ramped up purchases of the crop ahead of last week’s summit ...

Israel’s domestic security service filed a complaint against a television channel that reported Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the UAE, his office said on Monday, the government’s first acknowledgement of the trip despite not naming th...

Pope Leo on Monday ⁠said concerns that artificial intelligence ⁠could destroy the world are not “fake news” and should be taken seriously, in an apparent rebuke of US President Donald Trump. The first US pope, who has warned of the dangers of...

The US-China AI competition faces a dilemma. Both countries see artificial intelligence as a source of economic, scientific and strategic power, so neither has much incentive to slow down. Yet the more capable and autonomous AI becomes, the more impo...

China will stand by Cuba in defending its sovereignty and resisting outside interference, foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said on Monday as Washington stepped up its campaign to force political change in Havana. Guo made the remarks at a regula...

The Trump administration is revoking the visas of 27 Latin American officials, former officials and their families, including Bolivia’s attorney general, over accusations of corruption. The officials and their families come from Bolivia, Colombia, ...

Jamie Dimon’s recent whirlwind visit to Hong Kong followed a similar script: a schedule packed with meetings involving the entrepreneurs and business leaders connecting China with global markets. But it was his increasingly visible stance on global...

A French investigative website on Monday alleged that far-right National Rally (RN) leader Jordan Bardella made antisemitic comments in writing in 2013, but the close ally of presidential front runner Marine Le Pen dismissed the claims as fake. Accor...

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on Monday boosting the size of the army by 15,500 troops in the fourth such order this year. Putin’s order comes as both Russia and Ukraine suffer mounting casualties in the more than 4½-year Ukrain...

US President Donald Trump’s administration was set to grant a limited waiver to its Iran sanctions programme on Monday to allow for flights carrying Shiite Muslim religious pilgrims between Iran and Iraq, a person with direct knowledge of the matte...

US President Donald Trump on Monday announced a new US$15 billion steel plant being built in Iowa, highlighting an economic victory in a key battleground state where Republicans face competitive midterm races. Trump announced the new plant at an Oval...

Andrew Bailey, one of the FBI’s two deputy directors, said on Monday he is resigning his position, leaving the most prominent US law enforcement agency after a little more than a ‌year. Bailey, a Republican ally of US President Donald Trump who l...

Residents of Mexico’s Baja California Sur state boarded up homes and workers hauled dirt and rubble to shore up embankments as Hurricane Polo bore down on the peninsula on Monday, threatening high winds, floods and mudslides. Meanwhile, Hurricane N...

A heavily redacted police report has deepened the mystery surrounding the death of a young Chinese semiconductor researcher at the University of Michigan, who took his own life soon after what US federal agents described as a routine and voluntary in...

SpaceX launched its enormous Starship into orbit for the first time on Monday and successfully delivered the most advanced Starlink satellites yet, but cut the flight short to ensure safety. The spacecraft re-entered over the Pacific and splashed dow...

A former police constable who spent 21 years paralysed after an attack on duty will be buried in Hong Kong’s official cemetery for public servants lauded as heroes, the South China Morning Post has learned. A source said that Jacky Chu Chun-kwok, w...