In ancient China, when a man became seriously ill, his family might arrange a wedding for him in an attempt to drive away the disease. The custom is called chong xi, literally translated as “clashing with joy”. Its rationale is that a happy event...

From A-list underwear campaigns to everyday wardrobe staples, tight briefs are often hailed as the ultimate symbol of masculine appeal. However, a major new study out of China suggests that choosing tight underwear over classic boxer shorts could lea...

Hong Kong police will activate artificial intelligence-powered facial recognition across their expanding smart surveillance network on Monday, the force’s commissioner has said. Speaking after attending a police passing-out ceremony, Commissioner o...

Hong Kong will launch a trial scheme next year to handle proxy voting via an electronic platform, a move designed to pave the way for a cap on proxies and curb rampant bid-rigging in private housing estates. Announcing the plan on Saturday, Secretary...

China is updating a law that has underpinned one of the most remarkable industrial transformations of our time. After two decades of rapid renewable-energy development, China is preparing to rewrite the rules that have guided, supported and guarded i...

Nearly a year after taking effect, the landmark High Seas Treaty risks becoming another geopolitical battleground among major powers, observers have warned. Ratified by 105 countries, including China but not the United States and Russia, the Agreemen...

Slain Hong Kong socialite Abby Choi Tin-fung’s former brother-in-law began his defence in the seventh week of the trial over her alleged murder, describing himself as a close friend but claiming he “blanked out” while helping to dispose of her ...

It sounds like a Bollywood thriller, but a spate of shootings and extortion threats targeting Mumbai’s stars has sent the industry scrambling for bodyguards, reviving memories of the underworld’s grip on cinema in the 1990s. From gunshots to cash...

The world’s first attempt to edit genes inside a child’s brain, which killed a six-year-old girl in Shanghai last year, has led to the firing of scientists following an official investigation that found they had broken research rules and taken mo...

A war of words has erupted between a popular preschool in Hong Kong and a parent who alleges that his two-year-old son suffered a large bump on his head on campus, though police closed their investigation after finding no CCTV evidence that the child...

Democratic US senators have told Elon Musk to preserve all records related to his company SpaceX’s restrictions on Ukraine’s use of its Starlink and Starshield satellite services. Ukrainian forces say Starshield, the military-grade version of ‌...

Flights between the United States and Hong Kong will face continued disruptions over the next two days, the Airport Authority has warned, after a nationwide US ground stop forced the cancellation of nearly 10,000 flights and hit at least 17 services ...

Leaders of top British universities have urged the city to look beyond institutional rankings in its “Study in Hong Kong” campaign, warning that attracting and keeping top overseas talent requires government-backed career incentives and clear pos...

Hong Kong police have arrested three teenage boys on suspicion of assaulting a 13-year-old fellow pupil on campus, after a social media post criticised the school’s handling of the alleged bullying. Police said they received a report on Wednesday t...

The Chinese military is mining big data to get better recruits and stamp out corruption in the march towards its centenary next year. As part of an overhaul called “end-to-end sunshine” recruitment, the People’s Liberation Army has been command...

Indonesia has abandoned plans to make a powerful new state-owned enterprise the “sole exporter” of its palm oil, coal and ferroalloys, in a move that has reassured some businesses, even as questions over oversight and pricing remain. President Pr...

The Russian government has established a cull of ⁠up to ⁠30 per cent of brown bear ⁠populations to keep numbers in check after bear attacks killed 36 people this year, the Ministry of Natural Resources was quoted as saying on Friday. A ministry...

A Chinese confinement nanny’s heartfelt farewell to a baby she had cared for over three months moved the family and people online, shining a spotlight on the country’s postpartum care industry. In her final days caring for the baby, nicknamed Lit...

“I thought spooks were supposed to be stealthy,” the uncouth, flatulent anti-hero Jackson Lamb complains in the hit British spy series Slow Horses as an annoying underling loudly enters his rundown office building, known to fans as Slough House. ...

More than half of voters in Melaka had cast their ballots in the southern Malaysian state election by Saturday afternoon, in a contest where Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s ruling Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition faces formidable odds against the incu...

When Mao Hamasaki, also known as DJ Mao, took to the social media platform X earlier this month to recount the ordeal of consuming a spiked drink in Hong Kong, her comments were accompanied by an apology, leaving many local social media users perplex...

China owns 80 per cent of the world’s underwater data centre patents, giving it a decisive lead in critical technologies, according to a two-decade study of global patents in the field. The findings reveal a shift away from the West in the race to ...

The White House on Friday confirmed an unprecedented meeting between leaders of the US, China and Russia on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit in Shenzhen next week. “President [Donald] Trump will conclude his visi...

Outside the Grand Hyatt hotel in Manila earlier this year, five people were arrested as hundreds of activists chanting “Junk Pax Silica!” clashed with anti-riot police. Inside, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr hobnobbed with some 600 inv...

US Air Force personnel at the RAF Lakenheath base in Britain responded to “suspected unauthorised drone activity” on Friday evening, although no personnel, aircraft or infrastructure were affected, a US Air Force spokesman said. “We continue �...

SpaceX launched Starship towards orbit on Friday in its boldest test yet: a 22-hour flight that aimed to capture the entire rocket in a move meant to accelerate moon and Mars travel. But Elon Musk’s company had to lower its expectations when the fi...

US lawmakers have been demanding answers about potential national security risks and White House oversight of advanced chip exports to China following revelations that former Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang was in a relationship with a businesswo...

When G7 leaders gathered at the French resort of Evian-les-Bains in June, Donald Trump arrived late but wasted no time in grabbing the spotlight. With a cheeky declaration, “I am the boss”, the US president drew a ripple of awkward laughter from ...

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) says airplane departures can resume after the agency lifted a nationwide ground stop caused by communications problems. Air travel across the United States had come to a halt earlier on Friday afternoon after...

The European Commission is moving to shield its industrial machinery and chemical sectors from Chinese imports, and is weighing a “kill switch” mechanism. Together with Washington, Brussels has settled into a familiar narrative: a record trade de...

At least 180 passengers and crew members were rescued Friday after a tanker lost control, hit and sank a paddleboat on the Mississippi River, the mayor of New Orleans said. Video from the scene showed the much larger Atlantic Asphalt tanker hit the c...

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Friday blamed the Commerce Department, led by Howard Lutnick, for delaying the blacklisting of Megaspeed, an Nvidia customer suspected of diverting advanced AI chips to China, days before US President Donald Tru...

Microsoft on Friday apologised for a global outage that disrupted public services and businesses around the world, as it reported a “broad recovery” for Outlook email and other services. The company ruled out any malicious “cyber or AI” activ...

China and the United States held the inaugural meeting of their bilateral Board of Trade as the two countries aim to work out deliverables ahead of high-level talks between their leaders. During the online meeting on Friday, the two sides held “can...

Pope Leo held the central event of his 12-day South America tour on Friday, an outdoor mass in northern Peru where he told a vast crowd of people who once knew him as their bishop that he thanked God he was alive to see them. People arrived on foot a...

The EU must “act now” to ensure Europe stays in the AI race with the US and China, French AI firm Mistral’s Chief Executive Arthur Mensch told a summit of the bloc’s leaders on Friday. The leaders heard from Mensch and Nobel Prize winner Geof...

The head of Hong Kong’s Catholic diocese has asked all of the city’s parishes to hold special masses and prayers to mark the first anniversary of the deadly Tai Po fire later this month. Cardinal Stephen Chow Sau-yan invited parishes to offer mas...

US President Donald Trump will press Southeast Asian economies to join Pax Silica, his campaign to China-proof AI and chip supply chains, when he attends the Asean summit in Manila next week. According to people familiar with the matter, artificial i...

Hong Kong’s construction industry is facing mounting public scrutiny following a string of scandals involving substandard work, defective installations and questionable maintenance practices. From malfunctioning hospital lifts and missing fire-safe...

Jensen Huang’s abrupt resignation from Nvidia has cast uncertainty over the US chip giant’s multibillion-dollar investments in open-source artificial intelligence, while potentially depriving Chinese developers of one of their most influential ad...

Two environmental samples taken from Hong Kong’s Mai Po nature reserve have tested positive for the “highly pathogenic” H5 avian flu virus, the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) has said. A department spokesman said that...

Six people died ⁠near Kenya’s capital Nairobi ⁠after the top floor of a building under construction collapsed on Friday, a police official said, the latest in a string of construction accidents to ‌hit the country recently. “So far we have ...

A head-on collision between a container truck and a passenger bus killed at least 23 people, including three children, in eastern India on Friday, a police official said The crash took place on a highway bordering Kaziranga National Park in the north...

China and the United States have a shared interest in preventing artificial intelligence (AI) from being misused, but differing views over what constitutes a serious safety incident could complicate efforts to build a bilateral communication mechanis...

China could retaliate with tighter rare earth export controls if Washington further restricts chip sales in the wake of the Nvidia saga, Chinese analysts say, though they expect broader US-China trade talks to remain on track ahead of a planned meeti...

Hong Kong education authorities have ordered a nursery in Kowloon Tong to submit a report after it allegedly failed to explain why a two-year-old pupil had a large bump on the back of his head after classes. The Education Bureau said it was highly co...

America’s AI bubble is starting to look like a Ponzi scheme. Artificial intelligence companies increasingly rely on a data centre boom that allows them to raise more money from debt markets. But the midterm elections have swept in state governments...

A 14-month-old girl died in Hong Kong on Friday after catching influenza, the third death of a child recorded by the city’s health authorities this flu season. The Centre for Health Protection said that although influenza activity had shown signs o...

In early November, a low-resolution photo of an internal meeting circulated on China’s social networks, accompanied by a caption with only one sentence: “It is said that he is a top-tier introduced talent at the 10,000-tonne level.” The main pe...

China’s finance ministry on Friday clarified the enforcement details of its offshore trust tax, officially excluding Hong Kong pension fund accounts held by mainland Chinese and providing detailed calculation methods for publicly traded Hong Kong s...