Grok-generated deepfake images of Japan’s Princess Kako, the niece of Emperor Naruhito, in a bikini circulating online have renewed scrutiny on Elon Musk’s X chatbot. Since the AI assistant started allowing users to manipulate any posted image, a...

A Chinese phone application called “dead or alive” that helps users check in daily has become a top-ranked app, reflecting the trend of solo living among the country’s young people. The sileme app, or “Dead or alive” in English, is a wordpl...

Shares of Chinese companies tied to commercial rocket production tumbled after they cautioned that a recent rally had outpaced underlying fundamentals. Hunan Aerospace Huanyu Communication Technology plunged as much as 20 per cent on Tuesday, while C...

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s first visit to Asia has raised India’s hopes for a long-awaited trade pact with the European Union as Berlin pushes for deeper engagement with South Asia amid heightened global tensions. Merz began his two-day v...

Honduras electoral authorities rejected on Monday an order by the outgoing president to recount November’s election won by Trump-backed candidate Nasry Asfura. Asfura, a conservative businessman, was declared the winner of Honduras’s presidential...

America’s top defence official declared that the US must achieve unquestioned AI “dominance” to prevent adversaries from gaining a technological edge, as he unveiled a strategy that includes integrating Elon Musk’s chatbot Grok. Secretary of ...

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Iran’s current leadership may be nearing its end amid mass protests across the country. “If a regime can only stay in power through the use of violence, then it is effectively finished,” Merz said on Tuesda...

Malaysia’s top judge has warned that the country does not have enough judges to deal with a growing workload, stressing that this has placed an “immense and growing pressure on the justice system”. In his speech at the Opening of the Legal Year...

China and the European Union began 2026 with another trade clash. As the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism entered its definitive phase, Brussels tightened compliance and Beijing warned of countermeasures. However, this week, the two sides si...

Hong Kong newspaper Ming Pao is winding up its operations in Canada by the end of this month, marking the closure of all newsrooms run by the city’s major print publications in the North American country. Employees working for the Toronto and Vanco...

Three Australian Labor politicians have apologised after a complaint alleged they were overheard playing a game of “shoot, s*** or marry” about male political opponents at a crowded public festival, an episode that has widened into a debate over ...

The lawyer representing a former Apple Daily senior executive has said his client regretted not standing firmly by her journalistic principles against the editorial interference of her ex-boss Jimmy Lai Chee-ying. Three High Court judges adjourned se...

Cell scientist Alexey Amunts – an expert in mitochondrial biochemistry – relocated to China this month to join the Shenzhen Medical Academy of Research and Translation (SMART). Amunts, who was previously at the Max Planck Institute in Germany, co...

Thailand’s election season has triggered a dizzying array of cash giveaway offers from parties vying for votes, from a US$2,000 payment for newborns to debt write-offs and US$100 monthly top-ups for the poorest households to combat pay worth US$6,3...

UBS Group conveyed a sanguine outlook on Chinese stocks in 2026, as the world’s second-largest economy proved to be an important alternative for global investors seeking to diversify away from US equities, which face headwinds from stretched valuat...

Two cases within a week involving foreign-registered cars receiving subsidised RON95 fuel have led to calls for Malaysia’s government to go after the vehicle owners as well rather than just the petrol station operators. The common view was that it ...

China’s top health official has called on Hong Kong to serve as a key pillar in promoting traditional Chinese medicine globally, as the city’s leader pledged to align local policies with the national development strategy in the field. At a launch...

Some Iranians were still using Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite internet service despite a nationwide communications blackout, three people inside the ‍country have said, the latest example of Starlink being used to counter internet shutdowns in ge...

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is said to be weighing up an early election, a move that could put her in a stronger position with both China and the United States if she secures a decisive win, according to observers. But a diplomatic thaw be...

One of Hong Kong’s largest developers, Sun Hung Kai Properties (SHKP), has entered into a land deal worth around HK$1.4 billion (US$179.5 million) with the government for a site in Kwu Tung South, setting up one of the biggest housing projects in t...

Indonesia’s Prabowo Subianto reiterated his commitment to a US$32 billion project to build the country’s new capital city as he ‌made his first overnight stay there as president, the government said. Questions about ‍the fate of the Nusantara...

Malaysian police are investigating after a viral road-rage video showing a Ferrari driver aggressively chasing another driver triggered a wave of online fury in the country. Social media users turned their ire on perceived elite entitlement after the...

A UN agency and a charity established by former Hong Kong leader Leung Chun-ying have agreed to strengthen collaboration on public health projects, following talks in Switzerland. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organ...

A former US Navy sailor convicted of selling technical and operating manuals for ships and operating systems to an intelligence officer working for China was sentenced Monday to more than 16 years in prison, prosecutors said. A federal judge in San D...

China’s central bank strengthened the yuan’s daily fixing for a third consecutive session to a nearly 16-month high, as the currency also held firm in offshore markets despite recent US dollar strength. On Tuesday, the People’s Bank of China se...

A heartfelt essay by a 12-year-old girl to the uncle who adopted her after her father died has moved many people online. The essay, titled “My Second Father”, went viral after her uncle, Wei Yi, read it on his social media account. Wei, 33, and h...

Hong Kong internet couple “Mr and Mrs Ho” still have no legal representatives in a domestic violence dispute that escalated into a criminal case, which has drawn wide public attention and filled the courtroom. The District Court heard on Tuesday ...

Reza Pahlavi, who as a boy was groomed to be the next shah of imperial Iran but has spent nearly five decades in exile, has emerged as a rallying figure in the protests shaking the Islamic Republic. The chant of “Pahlavi will come back!” has beco...

A partnership between China’s SciNeuro Pharmaceuticals and Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis on Monday has revived hopes for treating Alzheimer’s disease, which affects some 55 million people worldwide and could cost the global economy US$2.8 t...

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. India overtakes Jap...

South Korea has belatedly acknowledged that a concrete structure built beyond a runway turned a routine emergency landing into the deadliest-ever domestic aviation disaster, in a reversal that has unleashed a furious debate over safety oversight and ...

More train tour packages to mainland China are expected, as 16 new destinations are added to Hong Kong’s high-speed rail network, industry leaders have said, with the enhanced connectivity expected to boost cross-border traveller numbers in both di...

China is stepping up its efforts to use its vast coal reserves instead of oil to produce plastics and synthetic rubber. Coal can be refined to make olefins – an essential raw material for tens of thousands of chemical products that include plastics...

A domestic helper in Singapore abused a 90-year-old woman she was supposed to care for, including slapping her face and hitting her with a diaper. Some of the mistreatment occurred while the victim, who has moderate vascular dementia, was partially u...

When Nestle began pulling its baby milk formula off shelves last month over fears of contamination with a dangerous toxin, Malaysian father Mukhriz Hazim felt his trust in the world’s largest food company begin to falter. Since news of the contamin...

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi will push for closer ties with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung at a summit on Tuesday, as Tokyo struggles to draw a line under its widening diplomatic dispute with China. Both sides will focus on security c...

Hong Kong stocks rose on Tuesday as global investors broadened their focus beyond US markets, fuelling gains across Asian equities, while the yuan advanced to its strongest level against the US dollar since May 2023. The Hang Seng Index closed 0.9 pe...

Internet fraudsters tricked more than 270 Hong Kong residents out of nearly HK$14 million (US$1.8 million) through online shopping scams in the first week of 2026, police have said. The average daily loss of HK$2 million prompted the force to issue a...

A Japanese man has been arrested under a rarely used 19th-century law against duelling after a late-night street fight in Tokyo that police say was arranged in advance left another man dead, fuelling wider concern about Japan’s violent amateur figh...

Mainland chip designer GigaDevice Semiconductor jumped more than 37 per cent on its first trading day in Hong Kong on Tuesday, as the Beijing-based firm’s debut catered to investor appetite for tech companies amid China’s push for self-reliance. ...

For years, Tokyo residents woke to the sound of crows ripping open rubbish bags, the city’s backstreets strewn with the remains of last night’s dinners. Today those scenes have mostly disappeared, thanks to a 25-year campaign to curb the crow pop...

Last month, the United States announced its decision to sell advanced weapons amounting to US$11.1 billion to China’s Taiwan region. The authorisation of the largest ever arms package to Taiwan since China and the US established diplomatic relation...

When Libby Alexander and Simon Holliday noticed that many domestic helpers and Hong Kong residents at local beaches could not swim, they decided to take action. They soon learned that despite Hong Kong being surrounded by water and having an abundanc...

In the daytime the temperature in northern China often stays below freezing, but for many rural villagers the prohibitive cost of heating means that they have little choice but to endure the cold. “We dare not turn on the heating during the day,”...

A Chinese woman who bought a “love insurance” policy for 199 yuan (US$28) in 2016 claimed a 10,000-yuan (US$1,400) payout ten years later. The payout came after she and her partner officially registered their marriage in 2025, following a decade ...

Australia’s ambassador to the United States, Kevin Rudd, is stepping down, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Tuesday, a year ‍earlier than expected following criticism from US President Donald Trump. Rudd, a former Australian prime minister...

Hong Kong has taken a significant stride towards cross-border drone flights by teaming up with Nansha in mainland China to develop unified standards, policies and validation pathways through joint tests and trials – an effort that could set a globa...

Distressed Chinese property developer Vanke’s potential debt restructuring constitutes a one-off, technical default, and was not likely to result in contagion effects, according to an HSBC report. The leading mainland developer before it got caught...

A century after thousands of foreigners were massacred in Japan following a devastating earthquake, human rights advocates worry about rising vigilantism should disaster strike again. It follows calls from the mayor of at least one Japanese city for ...

Foreign and mainland Chinese drug makers are fighting for a multibillion-dollar slice of the domestic weight-loss market by slashing prices by as much as 80 per cent, as China faces a worsening obesity crisis. Competition in the sector, dominated by ...