A 21‑year‑old Hong Kong woman’s Van Cleef & Arpels watch worth HK$838,000 (US$107,000) has gone missing from the city’s oldest luxury hotel after she invited three men to her room for drinks in the early hours of Thursday. Police said staff a...

An uncivilised folk custom in ancient China known as Pai Xi, or “Beating for Joy”, involved striking women with sticks in an attempt to exorcise evil spirits and pray for conception. Pai Xi, also known as Da Sheng, meaning “Beating for Birth”...

A US aircraft carrier has reportedly left the South China Sea after a live-fire drill and is heading to the Middle East amid anti-government protests in Iran. US cable news network NewsNation reported on Thursday that the Pentagon ordered the USS Abr...

US President Donald Trump’s threat to impose 25 per cent tariffs on countries that do business with Iran has dented India’s ambition for the strategic Chabahar port and affected New Delhi’s trade with Tehran. Trump’s latest threat could curta...

In China, bookstores are the new hotspot, but not because of what’s on the shelves. Eye-catching interior designs are drawing photographers and influencers to snap photos among the bookshelves. But not everyone is happy about this new trend. China�...

One acronym has epitomised investors’ perception of US President Donald Trump’s resolve in following through on his threats to impose sky-high tariffs on America’s trading partners. On May 2 last year, Financial Times commentator Robert Armstro...

Singapore’s Prime Minister Lawrence Wong has stripped the Workers’ Party chief Pritam Singh of his role as the city state’s first Leader of the Opposition following Singh’s conviction for lying under oath to a parliamentary committee. Singh a...

Hong Kong labour authorities have suspended the use of elevating platforms at a construction site where a 65-year-old worker died after getting trapped between the device’s railing and a wall. The Labour Department on Thursday said it was “sadden...

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung’s back-to-back visits to China and Japan suggest a “pragmatic approach” to reset ties with both countries as tensions soar between Beijing and Tokyo, analysts said. Lee met Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Taka...

Washington’s recent offer of US$45 million in funding to reinforce the Thailand-Cambodia ceasefire is a sign that the US is scrambling to regain the upper hand over China in mediating the rift between the Southeast Asian neighbours, according to an...

Malaysia is amenable to lifting its ban on Grok – but only if Elon Musk’s microblogging site X proves that its AI chatbot can no longer be used to generate sexualised images of women and minors, according to its communications minister. “X must...

Chinese semiconductor start-up SpacemiT, fresh off an over US$86 million funding round, is gearing up for mass production of its new RISC-V chips, using an architecture rivalling Intel’s and Arm’s, which is seen as Beijing’s hope for achieving ...

We have selected seven Lifestyle stories from the past seven days that resonated with our readers. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. ‘Umami, salty, stinky’: how 3 flavours define China’s Ningbo cuis...

For the very rich, a dream car like a Ferrari, Lamborghini or Porsche used to cost 2.5 million ringgit (US$617,240) in Langkawi, a duty-free island in Malaysia’s Kedah state. They will now cost about 5 million ringgit. Industry players say the fede...

Map applications used by seven of eight power bank rental platforms display inaccurate navigation or location data, which may cause delays and extra charges for users, Hong Kong’s consumer watchdog has found. The Consumer Council on Thursday also f...

China is recruiting social workers for disputed islands in the South China Sea. According to a notice published on Monday, the government of Sansha, the authority set up to administer the disputed territories, said it was looking for 11 “community ...

A 50-year-old Japanese woman, who was mocked for being “ugly” as a child, has shunned cosmetic surgery and spent 13 years taking more than 30,000 selfies to study make-up, skincare and fashion. The ridiculing left Kozue Sakurada with deep emotion...

Extra costs and the use of public resources may be incurred under the Hong Kong government’s proposed moves to increase professional scrutiny of building maintenance projects following the deadly Tai Po inferno, a lawmaker has said, calling for fur...

A federal officer shot a man in the leg on Wednesday night in Minneapolis, a week after the fatal shooting of a local woman by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent touched off angry protests and an intensifying clash between state leaders and...

A crane collapsed over a Thai highway outside Bangkok, crushing cars and killing two people on Thursday, just a day after another construction crane plunged onto a rail track in the country’s northeast, killing 32 passengers. Thursday’s incident ...

Pakistan is increasingly confident of making billion-dollar arms sales, headlined by the JF-17 fighters its co-produces with China, as up to six Muslim-majority countries look to upgrade their air forces amid growing geopolitical turbulence and civil...

Passenger trips at the Hong Kong International Airport reached 61 million in 2025, marking a 15 per cent year-on-year increase, after a full year of operation with the facility’s third runway. The Airport Authority said on Thursday that the strong ...

Japan and the Philippines signed a defence pact on Thursday that would allow the tax-free provision of ammunition, fuel, food and other necessities when their forces stage joint training to boost deterrence against China’s growing aggression in the...

Hong Kong’s consumer watchdog has called on businesses to improve services for elderly customers after receiving more than 9,200 complaints in the past three years, including a woman who spent HK$400,000 (US$51,294) on beauty treatments. The Consum...

China’s military says it is using quantum technology to gather high-value military intelligence from public cyberspace. The People’s Liberation Army said more than 10 experimental quantum cyber warfare tools were “under development”, many of ...

European aviation evaluators have begun test flights of China’s home-grown C919 airliner in Shanghai, the Post has learned, as the manufacturer of the narrowbody jet presses ahead with its bid to secure Western safety certification – a crucial st...

The announcement that BTS will return to Malaysia after more than a decade has sent K-pop fans into a frenzy, with many calling it a once-in-a-lifetime moment. The South Korean supergroup will stage two concerts in Kuala Lumpur on December 12 and 13,...

Hong Kong and Shenzhen can work closely to empower finance with artificial intelligence, delegates said on Thursday at the China Conference: Greater Bay Area, an event hosted by the South China Morning Post. Joseph Chan Ho-lim, undersecretary for Fin...

Elon Musk’s platform X on Wednesday announced measures to prevent its AI chatbot Grok from undressing images of real people, following global backlash over its generation of sexualised photos of women and children. The announcement came after Calif...

US President Donald Trump’s backing for a Senate bill that would allow tariffs of up to 500 per cent on goods from countries buying Russian oil has raised the prospect of a near-freeze in trade between India and its largest export market, as New De...

Recent events in Hong Kong, particularly the tragic blaze at Wang Fuk Court in Tai Po last November, have focused society’s attention on reforms to the legal system, especially those concerning building management and maintenance. Corruption and im...

“Rural heating problems in Hebei cannot wait any longer” declared a recent report in Farmers’ Daily. It described a disturbing reality in parts of northern China: elderly villagers who would rather shiver through freezing temperatures than turn...

US President Donald Trump’s pressure campaign to unify his party behind his takeover of Venezuela succeeded Wednesday when all but three Senate Republicans voted to block a resolution opposing further military action in the country. US Vice-Preside...

In a landmark case in China, two AI chatbot developers have appealed against their convictions on pornography charges over software that generated sexual content for paid users. The Shanghai First Intermediate People’s Court began on Wednesday hear...

Social media in China has been shocked and outraged by a midwife who cut off a newborn baby’s finger when severing his umbilical cord during a caesarean section. The infant boy was born on the morning of December 25, at Xuyi County People’s Hospi...

Hong Kong lawmaker Duncan Chiu owns 54 properties at home and overseas, more than any of the other 89 lawmakers, a review of their declaration of interests shows. But Chiu indicated that he is considering selling his properties in the West, citing ge...

A requirement to set minimum prices for their cars in the European Union will reduce sales there for Chinese electric vehicle (EV) makers, but higher profit margins will eventually improve their bottom lines and brand reputations, according to analys...

US President Donald Trump has put allies and trade partners on notice, invoking national security powers to ease China’s chokehold on critical minerals, warning global suppliers to negotiate agreements to secure reliable, diversified supplies for t...

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s bid to strengthen her slim parliamentary majority through a widely expected snap election has grown riskier after the country’s largest opposition party struck an alliance with a former ruling coalition pa...

Four crew members departed the International Space Station on Wednesday after a medical issue prompted their mission to be cut a month short - a first for the orbiting laboratory. A video feed from Nasa showed American astronauts Mike Fincke and Zena...

Hong Kong and mainland Chinese stocks outpaced their US peers for the first two weeks of 2026 and should continue to do so for the rest of the year on the back of relatively cheaper valuations, a firmer yuan and policy tailwinds, as geopolitics drive...

US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he had held a “long call” with Venezuela’s interim president Delcy Rodriguez, the first known contact between the two leaders since the ousting of Nicolas Maduro. “We just had a great conversation t...

The race between the US and China to dominate the world’s artificial intelligence industry has become “complex and challenging to forecast”, according to ChatGPT creator OpenAI. In a blog post this week, published ahead of the first anniversary...

The White House’s top science adviser on Wednesday said that the Biden administration’s decision to get rid of the Justice Department’s China Initiative was “damaging”, though stopped short of recommending that it should be fully brought ba...

Witnesses and lawmakers at a foreign affairs hearing blasted the Trump administration’s approval for the sale of Nvidia’s H200 AI chips to China and called for it to reverse the decision, as the White House’s top technology adviser defended the...

China’s electric vehicle (EV) exports doubled in 2025 amid rising overseas demand for affordable cars and Beijing’s anti-involution campaign. The country – the world’s leading EV manufacturer – sold more than 2.6 million units to overseas m...

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday made a vague statement that he had been told “on good authority” that plans for executions in Iran have stopped, even as Tehran has indicated fast trials and executions ahead in its crackdown on protesters. ...

When US President Donald Trump gave his blessing to sales of Nvidia’s powerful H200 artificial intelligence chips to China, he sparked a national security backlash in both countries. Rather than seeing it as an olive branch, many Chinese commenters...

On January 17, a quiet revolution will take place across around two-thirds of the world’s oceans. A landmark United Nations agreement known as the High Seas Treaty will formally enter into force, creating the first legally binding global framework ...

The US Secretary of the Navy on Tuesday outlined US President Donald Trump’s Golden Fleet initiative, stating that revitalising the American shipbuilding industry was essential for restoring strategic maritime dominance over China. Speaking at the ...