In a rare public protest in Singapore, hundreds gathered in Hong Lim Park over the weekend to denounce the “US war machine”. They brandished placards and banners, including one with horns drawn on US presidents past and present captioned: “This...

A quiet but consequential shift is reshaping the global artificial intelligence competition, and it has little to do with which country builds the most powerful model. Jensen Huang did not mean to describe a geopolitical strategy. But when Nvidia’s...

China’s central government has publicly criticised several local authorities – including a relatively poor county in Sichuan province – for “imprudent” fiscal spending for the first time in an ongoing campaign urging officials to adopt a �...

A breakthrough in India’s nuclear power research has been hailed as a defining moment for the country’s energy programme and a step towards self-reliance. Earlier this month, Indian scientists revealed they had achieved criticality, a state of se...

Hong Kong’s finance chief has expressed confidence that the city will climb to at least second place in the global ranking of international financial centres within 10 to 15 years. Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po said on Wednesday at the HSBC G...

We have put together stories from our coverage on electric and new energy vehicles from the past two weeks to help you stay informed. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. Tesla outraces China’s BYD in pure...

A man raped a domestic worker in an open field in Singapore’s Rochor and stole money from her shortly after witnessing another man allegedly sexually assault the woman. Malaysian Harvin Velanggany, 24, was sentenced on Monday to eight years’ jail...

A leaked plan to grant the US military sweeping overflight access to Indonesia’s airspace has triggered a domestic backlash over concerns that Jakarta is “colluding with the aggressor” amid Washington’s war on Iran. Analysts say the defence d...

DBS Bank (Hong Kong) has agreed to pay about HK$2.62 billion (US$334 million) for six floors at The Center – once the world’s most expensive skyscraper – marking the city’s largest office transaction so far this year. The lender acquired the ...

American views on China have softened ahead of a high-stakes summit between US President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in May, with positive sentiment nearly doubling since 2023, a survey by the Pew Research Centre has found. Wh...

An online industry has emerged which allows people to create “wealthy” personal profiles on social media in China by buying “luxury lifestyle” photographs for as little as one yuan (15 US cents). The pictures feature travel scenery, gourmet d...

The latest Singaporean establishment that the internet has come for with its pitchforks and torches is the Cantonese zi char restaurant, Eat First. The Geylang restaurant recently received a spate of one-star Google reviews following an article publi...

Israel’s spy chief has pledged more covert efforts to try to topple Iran’s government, a tacit acknowledgment the countries’ conflict would continue even as the US pursued a new round of peace negotiations with the Islamic Republic. David Barne...

Attendance at Hong Kong’s flagship Rugby Sevens may take a hit from the conflict in the Middle East, as softer hotel bookings suggest fallout from flight disruptions and higher travel costs. The three-day tournament, running from Friday to Sunday a...

An American YouTuber who caused outrage for filming himself kissing a statue commemorating Korean wartime sex slaves has been sentenced to six months in prison, a court in Seoul said on Wednesday. Johnny Somali, 25, gained notoriety several years ago...

For the first time in nine months, former South Korean president Yoon Suk-yeol finally saw his wife again on Tuesday. He was the defendant. She was the witness. She barely looked at him. The reunion, their first since his arrest following a failed ma...

The number of secondary school students diagnosed with mental illness in Hong Kong has doubled over the past five academic years, with the increase potentially under-reported due to reluctance among some pupils and parents to disclose health informat...

Major General Feng Yufang, a leading missile scientist with the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Rocket Force, died on Monday at the age of 63, according to state media and the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE). The official CAE website confirmed ...

Beijing’s point man on Hong Kong affairs has urged businesspeople to serve as the “main force” driving the city’s economic development by investing in innovation and the Northern Metropolis project, calling on them to demonstrate their patrio...

Britain’s King Charles will have tea and a private meeting with ⁠President Donald Trump during his US state visit later this month, as the UK government hopes his “soft power” can heal a damaging rift between the allies caused by the Iran war...

The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) has denounced proposed tolls in the Strait of Hormuz as a worrisome step in the wrong direction, while noting that several thousand stranded seafarers remain the international shipping community’s foremos...

This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing. A judge-led panel investigating the causes of Hong Kong’s deadliest fire in decades, which killed 168 peopl...

The US military said on Tuesday that four people had been killed in a strike on another alleged drug-trafficking boat, the fourth such deadly attack in as many days. US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) said in a post on X that the strike – just as the p...

Jewellery and cash worth hundreds of millions of ringgit were found in overfilled luggage bags stored in a luxury condominium in Kuala Lumpur during a raid linked to the 1Malaysia Develop­ment Bhd (1MDB) investigation, the High Court heard. The poli...

Not all scientists are willing to share why they returned to China. Most remain tight-lipped about their reasons for returning home and their specific experiences because of political or other non-scientific reasons. Professor Zhang Kai is an excepti...

Former Philippine leader Rodrigo Duterte discussed removing President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr from office and even considered assassination if a supposed power-sharing deal fell apart, a jailed witness told a House impeachment hearing into Vice-Presiden...

Taiwan’s political pendulum is reversing. The government led by Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) William Lai Ching-te is increasingly discredited, not least for selling out the jewel of its semiconductor industry to the United States under pr...

Several restaurants in eastern China are using artificial intelligence (AI) robots to cook as many as 100 dishes to cut costs, sparking a heated discussion on social media. In Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, at least three such eateries have been operat...

Hong Kong authorities should consider the impact of technological developments when drafting policies, observers have said, noting the government’s decision to halt plans for basketball betting reflected a lack of thorough discussion. Their remarks...

For Hong Kong’s 3.3 million PayMe users, everyday transactions such as buying coffee or splitting bills with friends could soon involve stablecoins, with HSBC preparing to introduce the digital currency in the second half of this year. That comes a...

The operator of Japan’s Narita International Airport is considering compulsory acquisition of farmers’ land to complete a planned third runway, recalling the forced land purchases that led to violent clashes between riot police and local resident...

As the US imposes its own blockade on shipping through the Strait of Hormuz following the collapse of talks with Iran at the weekend, we take a look at how major economies in Asia and Europe could be affected by further restrictions on passage throug...

Chinese robotics companies are increasingly banking on quadruped robots as major revenue drivers, a trend highlighted by AgiBot’s recent decision to spin out its four-legged robotics unit into a new subsidiary called AgiQuad, and Amap’s coming la...

The US naval blockade of Iranian ports is not a tactic to force China to pressure Iran into a peace deal, according to analysts. Rather, the US aimed to end the war through showing its maritime supremacy over the world’s most vital energy chokepoin...

After more than 20 hours of high-level negotiations in Islamabad, US Vice-President J.D. Vance confirmed that Washington and Tehran were walking away without a deal. Iran reportedly refused to accept US terms on its nuclear programme, laying bare the...

The retrial of disgraced film mogul Harvey Weinstein on a rape charge on which a jury was previously deadlocked started on Tuesday, although he will remain imprisoned for other offences regardless of the verdict. Weinstein is accused of the third-deg...

Russia and China’s top envoys met in Beijing on Tuesday to discuss the Iran war, Ukraine and Taiwan as Beijing stepped up its Iran war diplomacy and tensions with Washington increased. In a jab at Washington and US President Donald Trump that did n...

A Parisian man could not believe his luck on Tuesday when he found out he had won a Pablo Picasso painting worth US$1 million with a US$117 raffle ticket. “How do I check that it’s not a hoax?” said Ari Hodara, 58, after organisers called him f...

New research suggests that gifted men are less conservative in their political views than men of average cognitive ability. A study conducted in Germany found that men with higher IQs are less inclined to traditional values, but the lead author, psyc...

US President Donald Trump’s son Eric Trump and his wife, Lara, will accompany the president on his trip next month to China, a spokeswoman for the family organisation said on Tuesday. Two sources earlier said members of Trump’s family, including ...

Brazil will require foreign partners to process rare earth minerals domestically as a condition for access to its reserves, a senior government official said this week, setting terms that could reshape how Chinese and Western firms compete for resour...

A German court on Tuesday sentenced a 28-year-old Chinese student to 11 years and three months in jail for repeatedly drugging and raping his girlfriend and filming the abuse. In a case reminiscent of that of France’s Gisele Pelicot, the Munich cou...

Israeli and Lebanese ambassadors held rare face-to-face talks, facilitated by Washington, on Tuesday, with all sides agreeing to launch “direct negotiations at a mutually agreed time and venue”. “Israel expressed its commitment to engage in dir...

As US President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping prepare to sit down in the coming weeks, negotiations on deliverables and scheduling have accelerated, including a possible visit to Beijing’s Temple of Heaven and a military parade, accord...

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni lacks courage and has let Washington down, US President Donald Trump told an Italian newspaper on Tuesday, delivering a blunt public rebuke to one of his closest European allies. Meloni had been a vociferous supp...

Hong Kong landlords who fail to fix water seepage affecting flats below face a minimum inspection bill of HK$17,000 (US$2,170) if they take no action within 28 days of notification under a pilot scheme designed to fast-track such cases. The plan, lau...

Chinese President Xi Jinping ‌called for a more robust, resilient and dynamic ‌strategic partnership with the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday, as Beijing intensified what observers have described as its “quiet but pragmatic” diplomacy during ...

A resident of Hong Kong’s fire-ravaged Wang Fuk Court housing estate in Tai Po has said that a drawer in her flat had been rummaged through, prompting a police investigation and rekindling burglary fears in the sealed residential complex. Police la...

Chinese energy storage firm Sigenergy has ignited a market frenzy with its initial public offering (IPO) plan in Hong Kong, drawing an oversubscription of over 1,000 times, while its listed peer Guoxia Technology enjoyed a rally, as the duo capitalis...

The Philippine military on Tuesday rejected Beijing’s claim that Manila had staged a “cyanide stunt” near a contested reef in the South China Sea, after Filipino officials accused Chinese fishermen of using cyanide around a grounded warship tha...