Breakthroughs in cheap Chinese open-weight artificial intelligence models have spooked US investors, but analysts argue plummeting model costs will benefit the AI industry in the long run by supercharging global demand for AI systems. Companies acros...

A fire has broken out at a flat in a Hong Kong housing estate, resulting in at least 12 people feeling unwell from the effects of smoke and residents fleeing to the rooftop for safety. The blaze erupted at Begonia Mansion in Taikoo Shing’s Harbour ...

Just outside the Nigerian capital Abuja, where Green Agriculture West Africa Limited (Gawal) is based, locals do not refer to the company by name, instead as the place where the Chinese supply “magic” rice seeds. Ahmed Yusuf, 42, credits the seed...

A 1991 black-and-white portrait photograph has become an iconic symbol of impoverished Chinese students’ yearning for knowledge, profoundly altering the life of its subject. The photograph, titled “I Want to Go to School,” captures a poignant m...

A defence pact among Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan appears to be aimed at deterring Iran and Israel from tearing up the Middle East with their conflict amid Washington’s inability to guarantee regional security, observers say. Under the terms o...

Restaurateur Ken Chu Ka-chun recorded a 20 per cent boost in business at one of his restaurants at Kai Tak Sports Park over the past month, thanks to pet owners dining in under a government scheme allowing dogs into nearly 1,000 Hong Kong establishme...

Visitors to major events in Hong Kong have spent HK$5.8 billion (US$739 million) during the first half of the year, averaging HK$3,314 per head, the city’s finance chief has said. In his weekly blog on Sunday, Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po sa...

Hong Kong police have arrested 147 people after dismantling a triad syndicate suspected of setting up centres to coordinate bank accounts and handle HK$600 million (US$76 million) in allegedly illicit proceeds. Police said on Sunday that they had con...

The Maldives recently called to revive a South Asian grouping, which has been suspended for over a decade. But given the tensions between two of the most influential countries in that region – India and Pakistan – that request is likely to go unh...

Hong Kong has recorded the highest temperature since records began in 1884 on Sunday afternoon under the impact of Severe Typhoon Dolphin. According to the Hong Kong Observatory, the outer subsiding air associated with Dolphin brought generally fine ...

The head of German arms giant Rheinmetall is refusing to be intimidated despite round-the-clock security due to a litany of threats to his safety. On Sunday, Armin Papperger said “chickening out” was not an option in his field. “These jobs must...

Typhoon Dolphin is expected to make landfall along the coast of Zhejiang and Fujian provinces between Sunday night and Monday morning, prompting Shanghai to cancel nearly 60 per cent of flights to and from the metropolis on Sunday. China’s National...

Safety regulators launched an investigation on Sunday into a “near collision” between two passenger aircraft at Australia’s busiest airport that injured a crew member. The incident, which involved a Jetstar pilot being forced to apply sudden br...

Vietnam’s seafood and garment sectors are facing a labour shortfall even with raised wages, as Hanoi expands a drive to send more workers overseas for higher-paying jobs. The contradiction reflects a broader challenge for the Southeast Asian countr...

In only a few years, the surveillance start-up Flock has installed more than 100,000 licence plate reader cameras across the United States. But a grass-roots movement upset over privacy concerns is fighting back – even going so far as systematicall...

When a shot rang out at the Debsirin Nonthaburi School on the outskirts of Bangkok on Friday morning, 14-year-old Khim and her classmates peered over a balcony to see if the noise had come from a construction site. But more loud bangs followed, until...

Hong Kong’s first five-year plan will create more quality jobs and support young people seeking to start businesses, while the Northern Metropolis megaproject will help them move up the housing ladder, the city’s leader has said. Speaking at the ...

“Women hold up half the sky.” This iconic quote attributed to Mao Zedong has been central to Beijing’s messaging about gender equality for decades. It was not just a slogan. After the founding of the People’s Republic in 1949, the Communist P...

Young Malaysians are reporting worsening illnesses, heat-related health problems and disruptions to basic services as climate change intensifies, raising questions over whether the country’s adaptation policies can protect future generations. Unice...

Hong Kong’s first five-year plan will be judged not by how many initiatives it assembles. Instead, it will be judged by whether it explains where the city intends to be by 2030 and how it will get there. The consultation document covers the expecte...

A man from southern China travelled 3,000 kilometres to search for his pen pal from 24 years ago, stirring nostalgia among many for their own youth pen pals. Li Zhicong, around 40, hails from the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region and has been working ...

Professor Dennis Lo Yuk-ming, vice-chancellor and president of the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), is a world-renowned molecular geneticist widely regarded as the Hongkonger closest to winning a Nobel Prize, but he maintains “a calm attitud...

Former US president Joe Biden’s prostate cancer has spread to other parts of his body and is causing him pain, even as he continues to speak out on public issues, his son Hunter said in an interview. In a wide-ranging interview with the BBC broadca...

In northern Nigeria, 1,500 couples have tied the knot at a mass wedding organised by the state. The two-day ceremony in Kano State was aimed at people who, for financial reasons, would otherwise struggle to afford a wedding. According to the regional...

Last month, as thousands of young Indians led by a group calling itself the Cockroach Janta Party, marched towards Parliament in New Delhi, they were met with tear gas and struck with batons by the police. It appeared that India’s moment in South A...

The Strait of Hormuz is, by some accounts, named for a Zoroastrian deity destined to emerge victorious after a 9,000-year stand-off with an adversary. Iran’s leaders feel their own victory is at hand and will not require the same epic patience. The...

Ukraine on Saturday denied targeting Bulgaria after a drone exploded close to the strategic Trans-Balkan gas pipeline linking Turkey to Ukraine near the Romanian border. Bulgaria’s defence ministry said the drone was of a type “widely used by the...

Kosovo’s parliament had to be suspended on Saturday after an opposition lawmaker pelted caretaker Prime Minister Albin Kurti with eggs, as a long-running political crisis threatens to trigger another snap election. Europe’s youngest democracy has...

The United Arab Emirates on Saturday said Iran had targeted a tanker belonging to the state-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) while it was transiting the Strait of Hormuz. Iran has imposed an effective blockade of the strait and wants to c...

The advancement and diversification of Beijing’s anti-ship missile platforms have bolstered its denial capabilities in the first island chain and could divert US and allied navies from warfare in a Taiwan Strait contingency, according to analysts. ...

A girl died from critical wounds Saturday after a pupil opened fire at a secondary school and his home outside Bangkok the day before, bringing the death toll from the attack to nine people. The 14-year-old opened fire at around 10am on Friday at Deb...

In a historic breakthrough, a Chinese-led international team of scientists has confirmed the existence of the glueball – a rare form of matter made entirely of force. The finding was announced by a Chinese research team on Thursday at the Internati...

Robot dogs could one day lead the way across the moon, patrolling research stations, scouting hazards and helping astronauts search for scientifically valuable rocks, according to a blueprint by researchers working on China’s lunar base. The concep...

A Manila-bound Cebu Pacific flight returned to Hong Kong airport after its cargo door was suspected to have opened on Saturday. Police said officers were alerted at 3.05pm to the incident involving flight CEB143. The aircraft, an Airbus A321, landed ...

At least 12 flights connecting Hong Kong with mainland China, Taiwan and Japan have been cancelled as Typhoon Dolphin gradually moves away from Japan’s Okinawa prefecture and approaches eastern China. Hongkongers in Okinawa whose travel plans were ...

Following Italy’s rejection of its ultimatum to lift the border checks imposed in response to the Ceuta migration crisis, Spain has in turn announced that it will carry out checks on travellers from Italy. From midnight on Saturday, travellers from...

Taiwan’s leader rehearsed a late-night emergency evacuation during the island’s largest annual military exercise in response to growing concerns over potential “decapitation” strikes by the People’s Liberation Army, local media reported on ...

A coalition of Hong Kong employers has called on the government to freeze the pay of foreign domestic workers this year, warning that any wage increases may result in mass sackings. They also proposed a new pay-for-performance mechanism to allow empl...

Global pharmaceutical giants are doubling down on investing in China’s fast-growing biotech companies given the sector’s huge room for valuation growth, according to speakers at the Global Health Summit, which concluded in Hong Kong on Saturday. ...

Overwhelmed by a high volume of inquiries, a 17-member Hong Kong charity offering pro bono help to migrant workers has turned to artificial intelligence (AI) to scale up its operations. David Bishop, co-founder and director of local non-governmental ...

Four people, including a child, were killed in Russian attacks on the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, and the surrounding region, local officials said on Saturday, as Ukraine hit another oil refinery in Russia. Residents endure regular drone and missile bar...

Though the relationship between the Chinese and Indian governments has been thawing, Beijing has yet to win over the Indian public as it lacked a long-term strategy and communication channels, according to Chinese researchers. Beijing needed to find ...

Amazon has confirmed it is financing a massive, private gas power plant in Texas that could become the single largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. It is the latest example of tech giants going off the grid to get their AI ...

Hong Kong parents should have their children vaccinated against respiratory infections as the city faces a triple threat from influenza, Covid-19 and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), a medical expert has said. Dr Mike Kwan Yat-wah, an honorary clin...

The world might be dividing into rival camps and competing trade blocs, but international capital flows remain footloose and fancy free. In so doing, they pose a threat to what remains of stability in the real economy. A good example of this growing ...

Hong Kong should follow international peers in legislating to bar children under 16 from social media to combat cyberbullying and addiction, education experts and lawmakers have said, while stressing the need for broad social consensus. At a panel di...

An artificial intelligence (AI)-generated actress has amassed 400,000 followers on a leading social media platform in China within just two months, with a miniseries she stars in garnering an astonishing 250 million views. The success of the virtual ...

South Korea’s national football association apologised on Saturday ⁠after a media report ⁠alleged it had provided “sexual services” ⁠to foreign referees when they were in the country for international matches more than a decade ago. South...

Hong Kong’s commerce chief is set to lead a delegation of mainland Chinese and local firms to Malaysia next week, noting that about 200 enterprises from across the border have already set up offices in the city since last year, using it as a steppi...

Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis launched ballistic missiles and drones at displacement camps and residential neighbourhoods in the city of Marib on Friday, killing two people and wounding 14, state news agency SABA reported, citing local authorities. ...