BYD, the world’s largest electric vehicle (EV) maker, has intensified efforts to promote its high-performance batteries and superfast charging technology around the world as it tests a car that it says boasts the world’s longest driving range in ...

Volkswagen Group’s deliveries in China slumped during the first half of 2026 to their lowest level in 16 years, as local electric vehicle (EV) brands further siphoned off buyers’ interest in petrol cars amid a slowing market. Through its three ve...

The brave new world of artificial intelligence (AI) is going to be a mixed and divisive blessing for governments – not least those of key Asian countries – as well as for financial markets. The AI revolution points to higher economic growth for e...

A 19-year-old Chinese student recently made a will bequeathing his personal wealth of 20 million yuan (US$2.9 million) to his childhood friend, sparking heated discussion online. The teenager from Shanghai, surnamed Li, recently set up a notarised wi...

Tolls at Hong Kong’s cross-harbour tunnels could be adjusted in the future to better control the flow of vehicles as traffic volume has exceeded levels recorded before fees were overhauled in late 2023, transport authorities have said. A Transport ...

US-imposed sanctions targeting other countries and a growing list of Chinese laws aimed at countering the measures are creating a compliance minefield for African businesses dealing with the world’s top two economies. At risk is a broad range of in...

Pan Sok still remembers his relative screaming as a tiger dragged him away one night, deep inside the Cambodian rainforest where they were tapping trees for resin. So he is “not happy” about a plan to reintroduce the big cats, a decade after they...

No government subsidies will be needed to build the long-awaited Pak Shek Kok station on the East Rail line, Hong Kong’s minister has said, after authorities agreed to grant the MTR Corporation development rights at two sites. Secretary for Develop...

Three-legged dogs and one-eyed cats are common sights at a veterinary clinic opened by an animal welfare group in the Fo Tan area of Hong Kong’s Sha Tin district, with some of these animals having been there so long that the centre has become their...

Footage of the punishment quickly went viral: an unmarried couple each receiving 21 lashes of the cane in Indonesia’s Aceh province after being accused of kissing in a car and live-streaming it on TikTok. As each blow landed on their backs, the unn...

US President Donald Trump threatened Iran on Saturday after the funeral of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei saw open calls for his killing, further underlining the tensions gripping the Middle East, as an interim deal to end the war buckles unde...

For a man sanctioned by Beijing, barred from visiting China and accused of damaging bilateral ties, Gilberto Teodoro Jnr sounded remarkably composed. Composed, that is, until the conversation turned to the South China Sea – the very subject that la...

Typhoon Bavi battered Taiwan on Saturday, disrupting hundreds of flights and ferry services, injuring 36 people and forcing more than 14,000 people to evacuate while leaving over 150,000 households without power. Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport ...

Russia’s decision to ban diesel exports this week has roiled global energy markets, exacerbating shortages of the industrial fuel and sending prices soaring, even in countries that no longer buy the fuel from Moscow. Diesel accounts for the largest...

A profound demographic and economic shift is sweeping through Asia, quietly rewriting the rules of national development. The traditional paradigm of treating population ageing as a passive fiscal burden is being dismantled as Beijing makes the “sil...

The Philippine consulate in Hong Kong is investigating allegations that domestic helpers are being recruited in the city to become surrogate mothers for couples in Central Asia for up to 1 million pesos (US$16,220). At least five Filipino domestic he...

Malaysians in the state of Johor cast their ballot on Saturday in a closely watched election that is set to be a litmus test for the coalition government of Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim. With an electorate of more than 2.7 million, Johor has been tur...

A young woman from southeastern China who once posed with her father outside Tsinghua University as a child has fulfilled a long-held dream by graduating from the elite Beijing institution. Wu Han, from Guangdong province, recently drew widespread at...

As residents of eastern China brace for Typhoon Bavi to make landfall, bloggers have turned to AI weather models to post forecasts on social media, prompting criticism from state media, which warned that the amateur predictions could fall foul of the...

There is a bogus version of Singapore’s prime minister that exists only to steal money. It connected to a Zoom call, thanked a stranger for his time and helped relieve him of US$3.8 million – with the real Lawrence Wong, for a time, none the wise...

China on Friday accused the United States of misusing its national power by blacklisting more than 60 Chinese companies, alleging that Washington has “disregarded the consensus” reached between US President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinp...

Apple on Friday sued OpenAI, accusing the artificial intelligence company of orchestrating a campaign to steal the iPhone maker’s trade secrets as it tries to develop its own consumer hardware device. The lawsuit – filed in a federal court in San...

Wu Shicun is the founding president of China’s National Institute for South China Sea Studies and chairman of the Huayang Centre for Maritime Cooperation and Ocean Governance. In this interview he discusses ways Beijing can respond to rival claiman...

As the United States marks the 250th anniversary of its founding, it confronts a new world order dominated by its relationship with China. In this wide-ranging series, we examine the pressure points and possibilities in those ties, from hard tech to ...

We are all used to Western assessments of Deng Xiaoping. You may even be convinced by them, as I was for a long time. Ezra Vogel, for example, wrote in Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China: “It was [Deng] who would finally realise the miss...

US President Donald Trump faces questions about the security of his new Air Force One plane gifted by Qatar, after he took an older jet home from a Nato summit this week. The billionaire president has barely been able to contain his excitement over t...

British police arrested a man on Friday on suspicion of murdering Ann Widdecombe, after the 78-year-old former government minister and Reform UK politician was found dead having “sustained serious injuries”. Police said a 26-year-old, white ‌Br...

King Charles hosted Prince Harry and met his family for the first time in years on Friday, as they try to repair a rift that has persisted since his youngest son and wife quit royal life and moved to America six years ago. Harry, Meghan and their two...

A new round of US-China dialogue on the risks of artificial intelligence, even just for the sake of dialogue, will be important for furthering US national security, according to former senior US officials responsible for China affairs. The assessment...

A woman who authorities say married more than a dozen men in Las Vegas to fund her gambling has agreed to plead guilty to two felonies. Jiaying Chen, 33, waived her right to a preliminary hearing during an appearance before Las Vegas Justice of the P...

The absence of Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei from the funeral ceremonies of Ali Khamenei raised questions about his health and fear of assassination, as well as indicating he may perform a quite different function as No 1 compared with his...

It’s not yet the winter holiday season, but Christmas trees are back in the spotlight, caught in the geopolitical tug of war between Washington and Beijing. As the United States and China work to stabilise ties through a newly proposed bilateral tr...

US President Donald Trump said on Friday that Washington had agreed to resume discussions with Iran despite declaring an end to the fragile truce that had halted months of conflict between the two countries. “The Islamic Republic of Iran has asked ...

Hong Kong’s role as the exclusive Asian host of the Middle East’s flagship LEAP East exhibition affirms its status as a global hub for innovation and technology (I&T), the Tourism Board has said. The Asian debut of the expo wrapped up in Hong Kon...

An infusion tube delivering medicine to a premature baby at a Hong Kong public hospital was closed for unknown reasons shortly before her death three years ago, an inquest has heard. Two nurses testified at the Coroner’s Court on Friday about the c...

Hong Kong authorities have relaxed a recent proposal requiring mandatory annual medical check-ups for commercial vehicle drivers aged 65 to 69, reducing the frequency to twice in five years following an industry backlash. The proposal, set to take ef...

US President ⁠Donald Trump said ⁠on Friday he would ⁠not sign a bipartisan housing affordability bill that he had called “a big yawn”, but the measure can become law without his signature. Trump said in a social ‌media post that he was wi...

Prominent economist Jeffrey Sachs says he chose Hong Kong and Shenzhen as the final stop on an overland journey retracing the footsteps of Marco Polo because of their significant role in powering the world’s green and digital age. The Columbia Univ...

OpenAI’s latest GPT-5.6 release marks a growing emphasis on cost-efficiency, a move welcomed by some users in China who continue to access the blocked service via virtual private networks (VPNs) and third-party proxies, even as the artificial intel...

China has made income growth and the reform of its wage-distribution system a priority within broader efforts to cushion the domestic job market against the impact of artificial intelligence over the next five years. A new blueprint released by the M...

US scientists have carried out keyhole surgery with a Chinese-made robot taking the place of the lead surgeon. The general-purpose humanoid robot made by Unitree Robotics was remotely controlled by two human surgeons as it successfully removed a pig�...

After a rendition of My Way and a saxophone accompaniment that felt closer to crooning uncles at a wedding party than high-stakes diplomacy, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and his Thai counterpart Anutin Charnvirakul announced the serious bus...

Artificial intelligence has spent years learning to generate words, images and videos. Now, the industry’s attention is shifting towards “world models” – AI systems designed to simulate how the physical or digital world changes over time. Whi...

China’s flagship Communist Party newspaper has joined a sweeping rhetorical offensive against rival maritime claimant the Philippines, days ahead of the 10th anniversary of a South China Sea arbitration ruling rejected by Beijing as “illegal”. ...

A former Hong Kong plastic surgeon has been sued for more than HK$12 million he allegedly owes to a friend who lent him the money to help him contest a manslaughter charge arising from a botched botox injection eight years ago. Retiree Diana King Yue...

Hong Kong’s government will release just one residential site for sale in the July to September quarter, maintaining a cautious approach even as the housing market rebounds, while officials argue that supply from other channels will keep the city o...

Hong Kong’s privacy watchdog has ordered the removal of a viral dashcam video clip showing a heated argument inside a ride-hailing vehicle between a driver and a passenger, identified in the footage as singer David Lui Fong. In response to queries ...

The Strait of Hormuz faces a renewed plunge in maritime traffic after the United States ended its ceasefire with Iran, casting a shadow over a tentative commercial recovery, as analysts warn unaddressed differences in the framework agreement risk fue...

India’s struggle to replenish its depleted fighter fleet has led one of the world’s largest defence spenders to seek spare parts from decommissioned aircraft. New Delhi recently secured nine retired British-built Jaguar ground-attack jets, which ...

A man was nearly sucked out of the window of a Ryanair flight when it “detached” mid-air en route to Germany, with other passengers pulling him back inside, witnesses and officials said. The passenger, described as a tourist from Serbia on a flig...