There is a good deal more to the rapid rise in bond yields around the world, not least in Asia, than meets the eye. It suggests a recognition by financial markets that governments are spending beyond their means, tax revenues and borrowing power. The...

America’s latest defence strategy worryingly downgrades the importance of the Indo-Pacific, a US senator warned on Saturday, even as the Pentagon chief delivered a speech reassuring allies of commitment at a defence forum in Singapore. Tammy Duckwo...

A retired American teacher is planning to travel to China in late summer for a reunion with a female farmer he assisted decades ago. In 1999, Ronald Sakolsky, then teaching English in China, was inspired by Inner Mongolian farmer Yin Yuzhen’s battl...

Hong Kong authorities will crack down on flavoured tobacco substances in the next phase of its enhanced smoking control measures, with the health minister describing such products as a “poisoned chalice” designed to hook younger people. Secretary...

Hong Kong authorities have slashed the time needed to send emergency mobile alerts to residents from an hour to 15 minutes under a HK$150 million (US$19 million) system, while messages can now be tailored to specific districts, the security chief has...

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth softened his tone towards China in his speech on Saturday to the Shangri-La defence forum compared with the previous year. Speaking two weeks after the meeting between Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping in Beijin...

A professor at a private university in South Korea’s Daejeon has been disciplined and removed from all teaching duties after allegedly making sexually inappropriate remarks to students during class. According to the university on Friday, the school...

Venture capitalists and industrial giants in China are aggressively backing developers of dexterous robotic hands – the toughest bottleneck in the global humanoid hardware arms race – in a funding blitz that is rapidly driving up start-up valuati...

The Trump administration’s immigration surge into US cities last year resulted in 668,000 job losses, creating a “chilling effect” that pervaded local economies, hurt businesses and affected American-born workers, according to a report from the...

Singapore’s Union of Security Employees (USE) said on Thursday that it “stands firmly behind” the security guards involved in a confrontation with a Hong Kong school principal in which he swore at them. The secondary school principal, Lee Cheuk...

Hong Kong-registered yachts can berth more easily in designated mainland Chinese ports in the Greater Bay Area, as Beijing has waived customs guarantees and simplified administrative procedures, paving the way for more seamless leisure vessel travel ...

The success of Wang Fuk Court residents’ attempt to seek compensation for losses arising from Hong Kong’s deadliest fire in decades will hinge significantly on the findings of the independent committee investigating the disaster as claimants must...

A research team from northwestern China has released a new algorithm that could fundamentally change how drone swarms hunt and destroy enemy targets. The algorithm, known as HG-STR (Heterogeneous Graph Spatio-Temporal Reasoning), promises to allow a ...

Indonesia lost nearly US$1 trillion in resource wealth over a 34-year period due to deceptive trade practices, President Prabowo Subianto declared in parliament on May 20. That same day, a set of new export controls was unveiled. Foreign-exchange ear...

The upgrading of a comprehensive strategic partnership between the Philippines and Japan underscores how the allies are future-proofing their ties amid growing uncertainty in the Indo-Pacific, analysts say. “This milestone reflects the strength, de...

Microchip development has always been a race to build smaller and smaller transistors – the fundamental components of chip circuits. Now China’s Huawei Technologies wants to change the game entirely. Faced with US tech export restrictions that bl...

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth addressed the annual Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore on Saturday morning, just two weeks after a summit between the presidents of China and the United States. The speech was expected to be a barometer of the summit�...

A recent controversy surrounding a surau (prayer hall) in Malaysia appeared straightforward at first. A resident of Taman Seraya, Selangor state, raised concerns about the noise and congestion, particularly during prayer times. Police subsequently in...

Stepping into the former trading hall in Exchange Square on Thursday was like walking through a doorway into the 1980s. Brokers, wearing the iconic red jackets of the period, stood alongside Cathay Pacific Airways flight attendants in retro uniforms,...

Recent moves by companies such as Gardenia and H&M to shift some operations from Singapore across the Causeway have put the spotlight on Malaysia’s growing appeal as a more affordable base for businesses facing high costs and a tight labour market ...

Hong Kong’s taxi trade has warned that 10 per cent of the cab owners in the city could soon default on vehicle mortgages as licence values plunge, with many drivers switching to the new ride-hailing regime where 10,000 permits will be issued. The m...

One of the most dreaded terms in dentistry is “root canal,” but at least we get to enjoy the perks of modern medicine. Now, imagine enduring that painful process nearly 60,000 years ago. An international team of scientists believes they have foun...

This live article is freely available to our registered users. Please log in or create an account below. Get real-time updates and exclusive reporting. Subscribe now with great savings to stay ahead. Defence ministers, military chiefs, diplomats and ...

A federal judge ordered US President Donald Trump to respond to “grievous allegations” that his deal with the government to create a US$1.8 billion fund to resolve his lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service was the result of a “fraud” o...

The goodbye emails started arriving on a Monday. By Friday, Sheila’s inbox told the story of an organisation coming apart at the seams, one farewell at a time. Sheila* had spent nearly a decade helping run US-funded development projects in the Phil...

Central Asia is tilting more decisively towards China as geopolitical uncertainty deepens, with Beijing’s expanding influence recasting the former Soviet states’ strategic orientation. In the final instalment of a three-part series, Cao Jiaxuan e...

When Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr accepted the Asean gavel from Malaysian counterpart Anwar Ibrahim in Kuala Lumpur last October, the script was already written: a packed agenda, South China Sea diplomacy in the spotlight and a regional ...

A former Southern California mayor pleaded guilty on Friday to acting as an illegal agent of the Chinese government. Eileen Wang, who stepped down as the mayor of Arcadia earlier this month, was charged in April with one count of acting in the US as ...

⁠A judge on Friday ordered the removal of US President Donald Trump’s name from the Kennedy Centre for the ‌Performing Arts, ruling that the iconic Washington venue cannot be renamed without an act of Congress. US District Judge Christopher Coo...

China’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi said ‌on Friday that Canada could surpass its goal of increasing exports to China by 50 per cent by 2030 during a meeting with Canada’s Foreign Minister Anita Anand. Wang said he thought Canada’s ex...

Former US attorney general Pam Bondi rebuffed questions about President Donald Trump’s involvement in handling records of the Justice Department’s investigation of accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, Democratic lawmakers said. “She refused ...

The Canadian man who helped scores of people worldwide kill themselves by selling them poison pleaded guilty on Friday to 14 counts of aiding suicide, as prosecutors said they will withdraw murder charges. Since Kenneth Law’s arrest in 2023, detail...

The European Commission agreed on a tough new approach to trade relations with China, at a rare Beijing-focused debate among Brussels’ leadership on Friday. In a presentation, trade chief Maros Sefcovic laid out why the bloc needed to take stronger...

A former chairman of the Hong Kong Journalists Association has failed in his bid to overturn a conviction and five-day jail sentence for obstructing a police officer. Ronson Chan Ron-sing, 45, had refused to present his identity card to police during...

The conduct of another Hong Kong educator has been thrust into the spotlight after photos showing him carrying a female student in his arms surfaced online, with education authorities revealing they dealt with the matter when they first learned of th...

Vietnam’s leader To Lam on Friday struck a sombre tone at a summit when he warned of three foundational crises converging to cause global instabilities – those of international order, development models and strategic trust. He was delivering the ...

A federal judge on Friday temporarily blocked the Trump administration from moving ahead with a US$1.8 billion compensation package that critics have denounced as a “slush fund” for President Donald Trump’s political allies. US District Judge L...

Finance ministers ⁠from the EU’s six ⁠biggest economies (E6) have agreed a ⁠common position on a European Commission proposal for joint capital markets supervision, Germany’s finance ministry said on Friday. The push for financial market pl...

A Kenyan court temporarily halted the opening of an Ebola quarantine centre for US nationals on Friday following a petition filed by a rights group. The facility was due to open in the east Africa nation on Friday according to US officials, to quaran...

A Hong Kong court has jailed two footballers and a betting agent for up to 17 months in the city’s largest match-fixing scandal in recent years, ruling that they deliberately undermined the integrity of the sport. Former Hong Kong Under-23 player B...

Hong Kong leader John Lee Ka-chiu met lawmakers on Friday to discuss a “highly targeted, substance-heavy” report they compiled outlining proposals on how the city’s first five-year plan should proactively align with national development. The cl...

Young people from China and the United States should continue to contribute to cultural exchanges and mutual understanding between the two countries, Chinese President Xi Jinping has said in a letter to a university student in Hong Kong. The Chinese ...

China’s claim it had used “electronic interference” during a confrontation with a Dutch warship in the disputed waters of the South China Sea might signal growing confidence in its capabilities in this area, analysts said. The PLA’s Southern ...

A 51-year-old hiker who went missing on Lantau Island has been found dead after a two-day search amid a heatwave in Hong Kong. Authorities launched a search for the man, surnamed Chan, on Thursday after his wife made a report to police that morning. ...

I did not pay much attention during maths and science classes in school. I could never get into the mindset for STEM study, but I can see there is comfort in the fact that the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter will always be pi, or ...

China and British delegations discussed concrete plans to strengthen military engagement during talks on Friday on the sidelines of a major security event in Singapore. Major General Meng Xiangqing, who led the Chinese delegation to Asia’s largest ...

Lo Wai-kwok, the 73-year-old chairman of Hong Kong’s largest pro-business party and a former lawmaker, has announced his engagement to a Cantonese opera actress 42 years his junior, becoming the talk of the city’s political circles. Lo’s engage...

The Shenzhou-21 astronauts returned to Earth on Friday after staying in Tiangong space station for more than 200 days, establishing the record for longest on-orbit stay by a Chinese crew. The trio touched down at the Dongfeng landing site in the Inne...

A Philippine anti-corruption court ordered the arrest of a prominent senator on Friday over allegations he pocketed a kickback of millions of dollars in a flood-control project, in the latest crisis to entangle the Senate. Senator Jinggoy Estrada sur...

China has condemned the launch of maritime boundary negotiations between Japan and the Philippines, calling the talks “completely illegal and void”. The protest followed a joint statement released on Thursday after a summit between Japanese Prime...