An increasing number of young people in China have, in recent years, begun to reject the previous generation’s tendency to flaunt wealth and success. Instead, they are embracing a new trend known as “reverse comparison” concerning income and st...

More than 400 Hongkongers have reported being stranded in the Middle East after major airspace closures triggered by the US-Israeli war on Iran disrupted dozens of flights between the city and the region. There are no signs yet of when they might ret...

Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto has wasted no time positioning himself as a diplomatic broker in the Middle East, offering to mediate between Iran and the United States even as the bombs are still falling. The problem, critics say, is that Indo...

A former Apple Daily senior executive jailed for national security offences in Hong Kong has lodged an appeal against his 10-year term, the first in a landmark trial that saw the founder of the now-defunct tabloid-style newspaper sentenced to 20 year...

China and the United States are looking for ways to revive reciprocal investments, even as conflict in the Middle East casts a shadow over an upcoming presidential summit. Joint ventures, licensing arrangements and so-called intellectual-property-lig...

China should accelerate development of a space-based solar power station, as the technology could one day do far more than beam clean energy to Earth, it might even help tame typhoons, according to a senior Chinese engineer. Duan Baoyan, the lead sci...

On the eve of the Chinese New Year, the Spring Festival Gala, one of the world’s most-watched television broadcasts, delivered more than just festive entertainment. It served as a high-definition manifesto of China’s “embodied AI” supremacy. ...

Since Iran came under US and Israeli attack on Saturday, its retaliatory missile and drone barrages have struck Saudi oil refineries, the world’s largest LNG plant in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates’ trade and transit infrastructure. Now the G...

Hong Kong International Airport has staged a large-scale emergency drill to test its ability to respond to a major aircraft accident, with more than 1,000 personnel and hundreds of volunteers taking part. The annual aircraft crash and rescue exercise...

The joint US-Israel strikes on Iran, which have plunged the Middle East into deeper turmoil, have received qualified support from some countries and condemnation from others. China – which confirmed the death of one Chinese national in Iran and the...

A Malaysian student has pleaded not guilty to desecrating the Koran and posting offensive content online, in a case that has stirred widespread anger in the Muslim-majority country during the holy month of Ramadan. Vikneswaran K. Selvanathan, 21, app...

A Malaysian national and a Filipino were killed on Tuesday when a helicopter crashed in a vacant lot about two hours southeast of Manila. The Bell 505 helicopter carrying five people, including two Malaysians, took off from the capital and was en rou...

Hong Kong must bolster its role as an offshore renminbi hub and expand its bond market amid escalating tensions of the US-Israel strikes on Iran to attract global capital during turbulent times, the city’s sole delegate to the nation’s top legisl...

A Hong Kong man has admitted killing his mother in a public rental flat four years ago under the delusion that she was a “monster lizard” who had pretended to be his family. Wong Chun-kit, 28, on Tuesday pleaded guilty to manslaughter on grounds ...

A Thai court issued arrest warrants for a foreign businessman and his wife accused of investment fraud and money laundering, with one victim allegedly conned out of more than US$30 million, police said. Thailand’s Central Investigation Bureau (CIB)...

Europe woke to a fresh surge in energy prices on Monday as the escalating war in the Middle East disrupted oil shipments and natural gas production in one of the world’s most critical energy-producing regions. The continent’s benchmark natural ga...

As judges in The Hague consider whether former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s crimes against humanity case should proceed to trial, a parallel battle over the narrative has taken hold online. Prosecutors at the International Criminal Court ...

A young Chinese man who offered cat-feeding services during the Chinese New Year reported earning 160,000 yuan (US$23,000) over the holiday. The sizeable earnings generated by the feline feeding enterprise have highlighted that there is significant d...

When Dujduan Ketsaro wed two men in a single ceremony in northeastern Thailand on Saturday, she was ready for the attention. “Marry one and the world won’t remember,” the 37-year-old former singer-songwriter quipped to a guest. “Marry two at ...

Just several days into the conflict, the Iran war has become attritional. Waves of drone attacks by the Islamic Republic are putting pressure on the defences of the US and its partners from Bahrain to the United Arab Emirates, depleting weapons stock...

Hong Kong police have been alerted to a suspected child abuse case after a video was posted online showing a man on an MTR train repeatedly slapping a baby’s foot because it was resting on the stroller’s front bar. The commuter who filmed the vid...

This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing. Hong Kong is set to witness a rare total lunar eclipse on Tuesday night, but the weather forecaster warns tha...

China has revoked the political advisory seats of three generals, including two who previously held key positions in the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) ground force, as the anti-corruption drive continues within the top brass and defence industry. ...

Commercial satellite imagery has captured what appears to be the first known strikes on an Iranian nuclear site since the start of the US-Israeli air operation, an independent policy institute said on Monday. The Institute for Science and Internation...

India wants 100 gigawatts of nuclear capacity by mid-century. It currently has roughly 8GW. Getting there will require not just capital, technology and political will, but a reliable fuel supply that domestic production alone cannot provide. The 10-y...

We have selected seven stories from the SCMP’s coverage of Asia over the past week that resonated with our readers and shed light on topical issues. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. Will Iran collapse ...

Rising tensions in the Middle East following attacks on Iran are having an impact on the trade corridors and investment plans of Chinese exporters and investors, who had seen Iran and the broader region as crucial growth markets. Joint strikes on Ira...

Filipina carer Charlot David made the run back and forth to the bomb shelter several times before deciding it was better to simply stay there. The 44-year-old mother of four, who has lived through “several wars” since moving to Israel in 2008, kn...

If the last two years were about saying “we are back”, this year’s Hong Kong “art week” has a more exploratory vibe, as a wave of new initiatives brings fresh ways to appreciate art and design. Here is a list of the bold first-timers creati...

Hong Kong’s flag carrier Cathay Pacific Airways has announced it will extend flight suspensions to Dubai and the Saudi capital Riyadh until next Saturday, as ongoing airspace closures continue to disrupt tours in the Persian Gulf until at least nex...

A Japanese man accused of conspiring with a woman to force a then 12-year-old Thai girl into sex work at a Tokyo massage parlour he operated has denied the charges. “I did not know she was underage,” Masayuki Hosono, 52, told the Tokyo District C...

We have selected seven of the most interesting and important news stories covering Latin America relations from the past few weeks. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. China becomes Brazil’s biggest vehic...

Some Hongkongers stranded in the Middle East amid a joint US-Israeli attack on Iran have called for greater help from the Chinese embassy and Hong Kong government, as others considered travelling by road to another city to fly back home. As of Monday...

Representatives of the Unification Church, the controversial South Korea-founded religious group that became a political flashpoint in Japan after the 2022 assassination of former prime minister Shinzo Abe, are set to return to court on Wednesday as ...

Beijing and Washington have begun discussing ways to revive reciprocal investment – a move that could be one of the few deliverables during an upcoming China visit by US President Donald Trump, according to multiple sources. The investment issue wa...

New Zealand’s tourism industry still needs to do more if it is to regain its title as the nation’s biggest earner of overseas revenue. While foreign visitor spending gained 7 per cent to a record NZ$18.1 billion (US$11 billion) in the 12 months t...

A recent report by South Korea’s National Intelligence Service suggests Kim Jong-un has selected his daughter, Ju-ae (or possibly Ju-hae), to succeed him as North Korea’s supreme leader. This is not the first time analysts have had to consider if...

Chinese military academics have stepped up calls to overhaul defence language training, arguing that linguistic proficiency has become as critical as firepower in modern warfare – a lesson starkly underscored by the Ukraine war. Among them is Lu Da...

A man’s journey across China’s congested highways to propose marriage has captured the internet’s attention after he posted a simple red banner in the back window of his car urging fellow drivers to give way. In February, many netizens shared a...

Pakistani authorities deployed troops and imposed a three-day curfew before dawn on Monday in the northern cities of Gilgit and Skardu after several people died and tens were injured in violent protests following the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leade...

Hundreds of Hong Kong politicians and business leaders head to Beijing on Tuesday for the nation’s annual “two sessions”, with observers expecting discussions to focus on the city’s role as an international financial centre and the Northern M...

Hong Kong’s government-backed investment fund is being redeployed to support the city’s sluggish commercial property sector, signaling authorities’ growing willingness to use public funds as a policy tool to steady office valuations and align r...

Sangharsh Bhusal returned to the spot outside Nepal’s parliament building where police shot him last year. The 28-year-old still bears scars on his head, hand and abdomen from the violence that engulfed Kathmandu during Nepal’s Gen Z uprising, wh...

US officials are considering caps on the number of AI accelerators Nvidia can export to any one Chinese company, which would further constrain the chipmaker’s re-entry into a crucial market. The Trump administration has talked about limiting Chines...

Ahead of China’s annual legislative meetings – typically a window into Beijing’s top-level policy agenda – this is the sixth entry in a series examining the complex economic recalibration driving China’s growth philosophy and its wide-rangi...

A key congressional advisory panel issued a warning on Monday about China’s rapidly advancing maritime capabilities and urged the Pentagon to maintain its undersea “superiority”, underscoring growing friction in US-China relations weeks ahead o...

Former US president Bill Clinton said in sworn testimony released on Monday by a US congressional committee that he had no knowledge of the sex crimes of the late financier Jeffrey Epstein. Clinton also said President Donald Trump, a one-time close f...

In the run-up to this year’s ‘two sessions’ – the annual meetings of China’s top legislature and political advisory body – high-level policymakers have reiterated the need to defuse financial risks and root out political corruption, two o...

In a year already brimming with threats of war and unrest, 2026 has brought some health scares for Asia. In January, two cases of the deadly Nipah virus emerged among healthcare workers, both nurses, in West Bengal, India. One of the two nurses has s...

A French court on Monday reduced on appeal the prison sentences of three men convicted over the 2020 jihadist beheading of a teacher who showed a class cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed. Samuel Paty, 47, was murdered in October 2020 by Abdoullakh Anzo...