The European Union’s push to bar Chinese suppliers from its critical infrastructure under a proposed new Cybersecurity Act would cost the bloc a jaw-dropping €367.8 billion (US$431.4 billion) over the next five years, a new study has warned. The ...

Hong Kong’s retail sales jumped by 12.8 per cent in March, bringing first-quarter growth to 9.8 per cent, driven by a spurt in sales of electric cars ahead of the withdrawal of tax breaks. Provisional figures released by the Census and Statistics D...

It was the perfect split-screen for the race to succeed Donald Trump – so long as your name is Marco Rubio and not J.D. Vance. In a packed White House briefing room, journalists shouted over each other in a bid to get a question from the US secreta...

Fewer than 5 per cent of Hong Kong flights have been cancelled in May and June combined, and about 1 per cent during the peak July travel period, the Airport Authority has said, despite a global fuel crisis triggered by the Middle East war, adding it...

Asia’s next food crisis is under way. After the US-Israeli strikes on Iran, shipping through the Strait of Hormuz collapsed, sending shock waves across energy, fertiliser and food systems. Fuel, freight and fertiliser costs are rising sharply, ampl...

Hong Kong’s legislature is set to visit Beijing as a full body for the first time since the city’s return to Chinese sovereignty in 1997, with all 90 lawmakers expected to join the delegation as it seeks better alignment with the national 15th fi...

Spain has allowed a cruise ship hit by hantavirus cases and three deaths to dock in the Canary Islands, as health authorities investigate whether human-to-human transmission occurred on board. The decision was taken in coordination with the World Hea...

Japan has long grappled with what to do about hikikomori – the social hermits who seal themselves off from the world, sometimes for years, retreating from all human contact. In the past, these recluses were thought of as a youth problem: troubled t...

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi have voiced support for a new security framework in the Gulf as Beijing’s top diplomat urged a swift reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. Stating that countries in the Gulf a...

We have put together stories from our coverage on science from the past two weeks to help you stay informed. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. China builds world’s first ‘coal battery’ with zero emi...

Across much of India, an energy crunch caused by the Iran war has prompted long queues for cooking gas cylinders. That is not a problem for Gauri Devi. On a stove with blue flames, she flips a chapatti flatbread, burning biogas produced from cow dung...

A rescuer at the site of an explosion that killed 26 people and injured 61 in Hunan’s Liuyang city has described the dangerous and extremely difficult clean-up mission amid gunpowder and sparks after he and others were wounded by secondary blasts o...

A Hong Kong secondary school facing student backlash over newly tightened mobile phone rules has said it will seek further feedback from stakeholders and review the policy’s scope and implementation. A source also told the South China Morning Post ...

A woman in eastern China shed 21.5kg in just four months because her best friend told her she would look like the famous actress Yang Mi if she became thinner. The woman, who uses the alias taozichibubao, shared her slimming experience on social medi...

Four paintings linked to one of the world’s most audacious financial frauds stood on easels at Malaysia’s anti-corruption headquarters on Wednesday: a Picasso, a Miro, a Balthus and an Ultrillo – all allegedly bought with money stolen from the ...

A group of 13 Australians related to alleged Islamic State (Isis) jihadists is returning home from Syria, Australian authorities said on Wednesday, warning some will face arrest. The four women and nine children, who had been living in Roj camp in Sy...

Japan’s prime minister touched down in Australia on Sunday with a set of shared anxieties – about Trump, China and the fragility of supply chains that the two insular nations have long relied upon – to which she sought some small relief. By the...

China and the United States are taking divergent paths to developing artificial intelligence (AI), putting their technology ecosystems increasingly at odds. This divergence was on show on April 24 when start-up DeepSeek launched its next-generation V...

Hong Kong’s legislature has issued a written warning to lawmaker Judy Chan Kapui for driving on the wrong side of the road earlier this year, urging her to be mindful of her conduct and meet the public’s expectations. “I humbly accept the decis...

This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing. All eyes are on the Housing Bureau’s Independent Checking Unit (ICU), whose officers are scheduled to testi...

A South Korean appellate court judge who presided over a high-profile case involving former first lady Kim Keon-hee was found dead early Wednesday morning, police said. Shin Jong-oh, who had overturned a lower court’s not guilty verdict and imposed...

For German consumer Erik Böhme, a first visit to the Beijing auto show was an eye-opener – the world’s largest car exhibition showcased a vast array of electric vehicle (EV) brands, many already gaining traction in Europe. “I think there will ...

Hikers should not underestimate the risks of climbing in Japan during the volatile spring transition in May, a mountaineering expert has warned after two Hong Kong men became stranded in the country’s Northern Alps, one of whom later died. Veteran ...

Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa was once one of the most visible faces of Rodrigo Duterte’s deadly war on drugs, a tough-talking national police chief who was seen as the hatchet man carrying out the former Philippine president’s crackdown against al...

Russian attacks throughout eastern Ukraine killed at least 27 people on Tuesday, including 12 in one of the worst strikes so far this year, hours before a midnight deadline ushering in an open-ended ceasefire proposed by Kyiv. Russia announced a ceas...

China’s chip champions channelled a larger proportion of revenue into research and development (R&D) than their US peers, first-quarter earnings show, as Beijing presses ahead with its tech self-reliance drive amid an artificial intelligence boom. ...

North Korea welcomed foreign visitors and firms to a trade fair this week, showcasing home-grown products including the latest model of its sleek Jindallae smartphone. Diplomatically isolated and under biting sanctions over its nuclear and weapons pr...

As ceasefires fail, peace talks stall and the Strait of Hormuz remains under a blockade, the deepening Middle East crisis has exposed the structural limitations of global security frameworks. The US-Israel war on Iran since February has strained Unit...

A pro-Kremlin Japanese politician has said Russia is trying to arrange a meeting of the two nations’ foreign ministers in July, although analysts suggest that Muneo Suzuki’s efforts to act as a go-between are unlikely to bear fruit. Suzuki, who r...

Global attention is fixated on Japan’s strategic shift under Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi. From the strengthened US-Japan alliance to the tense stand-off with China, from advocating for constitutional reinterpretation to allowing weapons exports a...

The son of Myanmar’s deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi demanded France’s help in seeking independently verified proof of his mother’s life after she was transferred to house arrest, her lawyers said. The country’s junta chief-turned-president M...

The US Army on Tuesday shot a Tomahawk missile from its Typhon Mid-Range Capability launcher system in the Philippines during a military exercise, marking the first time it has fired such a weapon since the system’s arrival in the country two years...

An eight-year-old Iranian boy who left his primary school in China for his mother country in January and later lost contact with his teachers for 42 days has returned to the campus, thrilling his classmates. On April 27, when the boy named Radin, dre...

Anna, a domestic helper from the Philippines, had managed her finances well until she took out two loans over the past few months for a friend she described as being “like a mother to me”. The 37-year-old, who asked to be identified only by her f...

With Singapore facing a global energy crisis due to the conflict in the Middle East, the “storm clouds” that Prime Minister Lawrence Wong warned of at an election rally last year now appear to be an understatement. Under the scorching midday sun ...

A teenage boy shot dead two staff members and injured two other people, including a student, at a school in northeast Brazil on Tuesday, prompting panicked students to try to escape over a wall, authorities and a witness said. A 13-year-old boy was a...

Debris from the demolition of the White House East Wing that was dumped at a nearby public golf course has tested positive for lead, chromium and other toxic metals, the National Park Service said. An interim report by a Virginia engineering firm say...

China urged the United States to drop its latest Section 301 investigations into alleged excess capacity, calling the probe legally flawed at a Washington hearing just days before a planned summit between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping. “[It] lacks su...

For decades, the Strait of Hormuz has been a narrow passage with a big footprint. Whenever it comes under tension, the world is reminded that energy security is less a policy construct than an everyday reality for Asia’s economies, factories and pr...

The World Health Organization said on Tuesday that it suspects some rare human-to-human transmission of the deadly hantavirus took place between very close contacts on board a luxury cruise ship hit by seven confirmed or suspected cases. Human-to-hum...

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday rejected suggestions that China has challenged his administration over the Iran war, highlighting his “very good relationship” with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping ahead of their planned summit next week. Speak...

US President Donald Trump has renewed his criticism of Pope Leo, potentially complicating a fence-mending visit that Secretary of State Marco Rubio plans to make to the Vatican on Thursday. In an interview with conservative commentator Hugh Hewitt, T...

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni ⁠said on ⁠Tuesday that fake images ⁠of her generated by artificial intelligence were circulating online, warning that such false photos could deceive the public and target people unable to defend themselves...

Panama’s foreign minister has called on a group of opposition lawmakers visiting China to deliver a firm message defending the country’s sovereignty, as tensions over a wave of detentions of Panamanian-flagged vessels show no signs of easing. Jav...

Hong Kong’s security chief has reaffirmed that fire services will act as the gatekeeper for safety after a legal vacuum was exposed during an inquiry into the city’s deadliest blaze in decades, stressing the department’s existing manpower could...

After years of debate over whether claw and pinball machines encourage high-stakes gambling, Hong Kong has finally proposed stricter oversight to curb gaming, particularly among teenagers. Cases of addiction linked to these machines are rising in the...

For most military powers, proving the success of one’s technology in real combat almost always requires undertaking the grave risks of war and human casualties. In the case of the People’s Liberation Army, Beijing continues to exercise great caut...

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi will visit China this week, less than 10 days ahead of a high-stakes visit to Beijing by US President Donald Trump. Araghchi was set to arrive on Wednesday and hold talks with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi, t...

Japan’s defence minister pledged to deepen military cooperation with the Philippines during a visit Tuesday to Manila, aiming for the “early transfer” of Abukuma-class destroyers to the archipelago nation. The two countries’ shared grievances...