Ahead of China’s Double 11 shopping spree, a viral WeChat mini-programme called “Wallet, Please Wait” is helping consumers curb impulse purchases. The free tool borrows from corporate finance workflows, outsourcing approval of everyday purchase...

Japan’s government on Friday compiled a package of emergency measures to address a spate of recent personal data breaches caused by unauthorised access, amid growing public concerns over cybersecurity. Among the measures are promoting the use of ar...

Malaysia’s hope for a shift in US trade policy is unlikely to be realised for some time, experts warn, as the new Democratic-led Congress will face strong opposition from US President Donald Trump in its attempt to reverse some of his tariff measur...

Temperatures in Hong Kong are expected to drop to as low as 18 degrees Celsius (64.4 Fahrenheit) on Tuesday as a cold front hits the city early next week. According to the Hong Kong Observatory, a strong monsoon over the weekend will bring cooler wea...

Indonesia’s climate ambitions are being undermined by devastating wildfires that contradict its emissions-cutting strategy, casting a shadow over Jakarta’s push for a greener economy ahead of the 31st UN Climate Change Conference (Cop31). However...

Comedian Patton Oswalt once joked about the United States electing a KKK president after the progressive years of Barack Obama. The joke is worth retelling, not just because it’s funny but because it captures the swing between extremes in US politi...

Chinese commercial space firm Light Year Explorer has manufactured a rocket fairing with a wooden outer skin as part of the company’s push for lower-cost, mass-produced launch vehicles. The design of the protective shell uses low-density plywood fo...

A former Miss Thailand and well-known social activist was arrested on Friday alongside her husband, accused of siphoning off money from her charity to buy luxury homes as police examine an estimated 1 billion baht (US$30 million) in donations. Panadd...

The Democratic Party’s sweep of both houses of the US Congress could stabilise Washington’s commitment to the Philippines, bringing relief to allies rattled by President Donald Trump’s Iran war and his shifting foreign policy. Analysts expect b...

China’s top legislature has passed a landmark law targeting cross-border corruption, equipping Beijing with expansive new tools to pursue illicit offshore assets while countering foreign attempts to investigate wrongdoing in China. The Anti-Cross-B...

An EU funding crunch is threatening to stifle the bloc’s ambitions to expand its influence in Southeast Asia, as Brussels grapples with a budget deadlock that could slow infrastructure investments across the fast-growing region. The funding squeeze...

The US military has expanded its cybersecurity presence in Hawaii and set up a regional centre to better detect threats and disruptions to its Pacific communications networks. The new initiatives come amid US accusations of Chinese cyber operations t...

The sweeping midterm election victory by US Democrats has triggered warnings from analysts that an impending regulatory clampdown could derail the nation’s multi-trillion-dollar artificial intelligence data centre buildout. Wall Street forecasters ...

Three people accused of using artificial intelligence to impersonate corporate executives and lawyers to steal about US$129 million have been indicted on charges of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft, prosecutors said Thursday. Over more than a...

Hong Kong’s Exchange Fund, the war chest used to defend the local currency, reported a 74 per cent tumble in third-quarter earnings amid pervasive market uncertainty, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) said on Friday. Earnings totalled HK$18.6...

A Hong Kong court has sentenced a domestic helper to five months in jail for molesting her former employer’s 12-year-old daughter in the family home. Lady Jay Santos Flores, 45, offered no mitigation before she was sentenced at Kowloon City Court o...

Malaysia’s disgraced former prime minister Najib Razak moved closer to house arrest after Umno on Friday paid a 50 million ringgit (US$12.3 million) fine required under the terms of his royal pardon. The clemency granted by King Sultan Ibrahim Iska...

Hong Kong’s privacy watchdog has backed a proposed overhaul of rules to tighten access to land records, warning that journalists have no exemption when collecting data as complaints over information misuse appear to be worsening. Privacy Commission...

The close defence relationship between the United States and Israel is set to be restructured over the coming two years, with billions of dollars in direct annual military aid being phased out in favour of joint weapons technology programmes. US Pres...

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...

Malaysia’s Sarawak will hold a state election on December 12 as the incumbent government seeks a fresh mandate to press demands over autonomy and control of the territory’s natural resources. The filing of nominations will begin on November 28 an...

Weeks after the European Union and China struck a deal aimed at averting a looming trade war, the two sides remain at loggerheads over what is wrong with their relationship, how to fix it and who is to blame. At events in Brussels this week, threats ...

Japan’s growing strategic partnership with Vietnam is putting Tokyo’s commitment to a rules-based regional order under scrutiny, as Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi faces calls to press Hanoi over its failure to honour labour rights commitments. The...

Canada unveiled a budget on Thursday that calls for “economic independence” and says that while reducing its reliance on the United States will take time, “the shift is under way”. Prime Minister Mark Carney’s second budget since taking off...

Former Macau lawmaker Au Kam-san has been convicted on five out of seven charges in the city’s first national security trial, with the court handing him a 12½-year prison sentence. The Court of First Instance in Macau on Friday found the 69-year-o...

In the space of roughly 10 days, the two largest democracies in the Americas delivered setbacks to the populist right. In Brazil, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva staged a narrow but remarkable comeback, defeating Flavio Bolsonaro, the son of former preside...

China’s first UFC champion recently shared that her family has been pressuring her to get married, but she is afraid to use her real name on dating websites for fear of revealing her identity. Thirty-six-year-old mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter Zh...

Japanese and South Korean shares plunged on Friday after US shares tumbled overnight on worries that midterm election results could slow or derail the artificial intelligence data centre investment boom. Tokyo’s benchmark Nikkei 225 index fell 5.1 ...

A road project with coordinates pointing to Nigeria. A government building apparently located in the Sahara Desert. Another road mapped to a sea near Brunei. These are among the unlikely locations listed for infrastructure projects in the Philippines...

Israeli President Isaac Herzog said he will announce on Sunday whom he will task with trying to form a new government, after the opposition’s Gadi Eisenkot secured a commanding number of recommendations to replace Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu....

When Huang Baoying was growing up, her older brother helped look after her, their parents recalled. Huang Bocan would tutor his younger sister at night and help her with her studies, their mother said. To his parents, he was a responsible son whom th...

Before tech stocks plummeted in the US overnight, executives at a private wealth conference in Hong Kong highlighted AI infrastructure as a versatile “defence plus growth” investment opportunity, while cautioning investors against portfolios that...

A month-long police campaign in Japan to track down hundreds of suspects sought over the nation’s most notorious crimes, some dating back decades, underscores what analysts describe as the surprising ease with which individuals can vanish, even in ...

At their October meeting in South Korea last year, US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, recognising mutual vulnerability to export restrictions, agreed to suspend some of the most draconian measures they had imposed on each oth...

Beijing has hinted at the new leadership line-up in its military theatre commands, with fresh faces emerging during last week’s party conclave in the seating area reserved for key commanders, filling vacancies left by China’s anti-corruption driv...

South Korea’s government has announced it will revise a youth counselling manual that categorised homosexuality as a form of juvenile delinquency, after facing a backlash sparked by local media reports earlier this week. Homosexuality was grouped a...

Leaders of overseas institutions have expressed keen interest in taking part in Hong Kong’s planned university towns in the Northern Metropolis megaproject and stress that while financing remains a challenge, they will collaborate on activities to ...

[The content of this article has been produced by our advertising partner.] From private jewellery viewings to stepping aboard a yacht, the Festival of Connoisseurs took visitors beyond the conventional exhibition hall. This luxury festival is the fi...

US President Donald Trump on Thursday signed a proclamation that he says will preserve the Oval Office and Cabinet Room as a national monument, his first official action after his party was swept aside in midterm elections on Tuesday. But the action ...

Singapore is seeking to flip the script by turning its land and manpower constraints into reasons to embrace AI instead of fearing it, even as the technology carries the spectre of job losses and cyberthreats in the wrong hands, a senior official has...

Hong Kong police will enable artificial intelligence-powered facial recognition technology across their expanding smart surveillance network this month to improve the tracking of missing persons or suspects, with plans to save the data it generates f...

Hong Kong law firm Woo Kwan Lee & Lo is reportedly relocating to Causeway Bay after more than five decades in Central’s Jardine House, reserving about 39,000 square feet in Hysan Development’s Lee Garden Eight in a major lease for the new commerc...

California state Senator Scott Wiener of San Francisco, a prolific Democratic lawmaker who has reshaped state policy on a host of fronts – from housing to transgender rights – will succeed former House speaker Nancy Pelosi in Congress after San F...

⁠California Governor Gavin Newsom said on Thursday he will commute the death sentences of all 548 inmates currently condemned to execution in his state, the largest death row in the western hemisphere, declaring he believes capital punishment to be...

With domestic profits narrowing and production capacity expanding, China’s firms are continuing to widen their overseas footprints in search of new, more lucrative markets. In this series, we examine China Inc.’s next phase of “going global” ...

US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth said he will “not back down” against a “lame duck” US Congress, and that the calls for his impeachment will “not work” in his first reaction after the Democrats’ landslide victory in Tuesday’s midt...

Tech-led Nasdaq notched its deepest one-day drop since ‘Liberation Day’ in April 2025, wiping out trillions in market value on fears of more AI scrutiny, particularly on data centre construction, after Democrats won big in US midterm elections. T...

Democratic socialist Nithya Raman ousted incumbent Democrat Karen Bass to become the next mayor of Los Angeles, ending a heated race that saw the one-time allies spar over frustration with the status quo. Bass called Raman on Thursday to concede, aft...

Hundreds of thousands of striking workers protested across France on Thursday against the rising cost of living following weeks of youth-led demonstrations, with police firing tear gas as clashes broke out in some cities. The marches come as the euro...

The United States has imposed sanctions on two Chinese companies it accuses of supplying equipment and components to Cuba’s military, as Washington intensifies pressure on Havana’s foreign suppliers and expands its authority to target businesses ...