Hong Kong’s Cinema Day has drawn a record-breaking 201,000 film-goers, despite a marginal decline in occupancy rates compared with last year. The Hong Kong Theatres Association, which organises the annual event, revealed the figures on Sunday, just...

In the span of a few days earlier this month, developments that usually sit in separate policy compartments began to converge. Abu Dhabi’s crown prince arrived in Beijing as President Xi Jinping used the visit to set out China’s four-point positi...

Southwestern China’s busiest airport was mopping up and struggling to resume operations on Sunday after the biggest hailstorm in a decade grounded flights, damaged aircraft and stranded passengers. Hailstones, some as big as fists, battered Kunming...

More than 5,000 Guangdong motorists have been approved to drive into Hong Kong’s urban areas under a southbound travel scheme as of March, while 90 per cent of the 3,500 travellers who booked to visit have stayed for one or two days. The Transport ...

Once a niche destination, Central Asia is quickly emerging as a key market for Chinese travellers, supported by robust traffic growth, expanding air links and deeper economic ties under Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative, according to analysts. Dat...

The shooting on Saturday night of a Secret Service agent at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner raises questions yet again about the protection afforded to America’s political leaders at a time of increased political violence. Hund...

Hong Kong will trial a “mosquito-to-control-mosquito” strategy next year, under which the insect males are infected with bacteria to prevent their offspring from reaching maturity, following the city’s first local dengue fever case in over a ye...

Hong Kong authorities have stepped up publicity with mainland Chinese media ahead of a ban on possessing alternative smoking products, including e-cigarettes in public places, which will take effect before the Labour Day “golden week” holiday. Di...

Social media posts that appear to match the California man arrested on Saturday in the shooting at the White House correspondents’ dinner show he is a highly educated tutor and amateur video game developer. A May 2025 profile photo of Cole Tomas Al...

Hong Kong’s sales of luxury homes more than doubled in the first quarter from a year earlier, helped by a buoyant stock market and attractively priced assets that drew the attention of wealthy investors including mainland Chinese buyers, according ...

A Japanese underground idol has stirred an online debate by offering fans the unusual perk of sniffing her armpits. Hari Matsumoto, from Wakayama, Honshu island, has attracted over 400,000 followers on social media thanks to her bubbly personality an...

Watch a cheap commercial drone destroy a battle tank on the frontlines in Ukraine, or a cut-price Iranian Shahed menace Tel Aviv, then ask yourself why Southeast Asia’s defence ministries are suddenly very interested in unmanned aerial vehicles. Th...

Hong Kong’s initial public offering (IPO) market has raised more than HK$140 billion (US$17.87 billion) as of April, maintaining its global lead, the city’s financial chief has said, while indicating a renewed push to develop gold trading amid ri...

It’s midnight. A call was made to Malaysia’s Fire and Rescue Department about a forest fire in Tanjung Bungah, Penang. Firefighters rushed to the scene only to discover there was no such blaze. The department gets a prank call every other day. Ma...

India has reportedly signed a deal to buy Russian missiles that target support aircraft as its arch-rival Pakistan and China continue to integrate their aerial weapons profiles. Russia has cleared the export of around 300 R-37M ultra-long-range air-t...

It was meant to be a glitzy Saturday night at a Washington ballroom featuring President Donald Trump, but the glamour was shattered by gunshots that left guests diving to the floor and the US leader bundled out by security personnel. Trump was seated...

For six months, Adriana Lim Escano’s teenage son went to school and said nothing. He had tried to do the right thing – stepping in when a group of boys bullied a classmate – and paid for it with half a year of misery, name-calling and social is...

A new wave of South Korean content creators is descending on Chinese cities, cameras in hand, transforming the streets of Shanghai, Shenzhen and beyond into lively backdrops for travel vlogs and lifestyle videos. Dubbed the “Korean v-blogger influx...

For 42 years, Ha Sung-ki has sold large speakers to churches and event halls from his electronics shop inside Seoul’s Sewoon Plaza. On a weekday afternoon, the corridor outside – once part of a bustling merchants’ network – is largely empty. ...

Student mental health is a matter of great concern. According to the latest data from the Education Bureau, the number of secondary students with mental health issues has doubled over the past five years, from 660 in 2020-21 to 1,330 in 2024-25. In r...

Chongqing, also known as ‘the most confusing city’ has become one of China’s most popular tourism attraction spots in recent years. Many Chinese and international social media content creators have hopped on the viral trend of making videos abo...

A citywide study should be launched to examine how global warming is affecting plants in Hong Kong and the knock-on effect on the rest of the ecosystem, botanists have urged after witnessing clear changes in leaf-shedding and flowering patterns. Some...

After an hour’s drive through the jungle of Borneo, you reach more jungle. Your rental van from the Balikpapan city airport shakes precariously, navigating a partial bridge washout. A roadside sign admonishes against poaching the endangered sun bea...

A long-standing and widely-circulated rumour that the Forbidden City in Beijing uses 600,000 tonnes of pig’s blood each year to dispel evil has been debunked. The liquid is actually used as a form of adhesive which is painted on the famous palace�...

US President Donald Trump and other top US leaders were evacuated from an annual White House correspondents dinner in Washington on Saturday night after a gunman fired several shots at the glitzy, high-profile event. The president, first lady Melania...

An explosive device killed 13 people travelling on a bus in southwestern Colombia on Saturday, an attack the country’s army chief described as a “terrorist act” that also left at least 38 injured as violence linked to drug trafficking in the re...

War on Iran has changed many things, not least of which is the tenor of nuclear debate in two of America’s closest Asian allies: countries that have long defined themselves by the weapons they do not possess. For decades, the question of whether So...

Lebanese state media reported a series of new Israeli strikes in the country’s south on Saturday night, after attacks earlier in the day killed six people despite a recently extended ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hezbollah. The new attack...

In the world of mathematics, the United States is becoming an outlier. The International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) – the world’s most important mathematics conference and the venue for awarding the prestigious Fields Medal – is facing wo...

Hong Kong Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po recently said the city could rise to become the world’s No 2 financial centre in 10-15 years. That is the right kind of ambition. In a world being reshaped by geopolitical fragmentation, China’s growi...

Hungary’s outgoing Prime Minister Viktor Orban said he would not take up his seat in parliament following his party’s landslide defeat in this month’s election but wants to stay on as Fidesz’s leader to lead a process of “renewal”. The mo...

A former University of South Florida student has been charged with killing his roommate and the roommate’s girlfriend – two doctoral students from Bangladesh who disappeared earlier this month, authorities said Saturday. Hisham Abugharbieh, 26, i...

In the latest move as the US and Iran circle each other warily and the world holds its breath, US President Donald Trump on Saturday ordered his negotiating team not to travel to Pakistan for talks on ending the eight-week war that has upended the gl...

Pope Leo has called for the worldwide abolition of the death penalty on Saturday, a day after the US administration mulled expanding the penalty. “The dignity of the person is not lost even after very serious crimes are committed,” Leo said in a ...

An image of a Hong Kong construction worker smoking a cigarette while on bamboo scaffolding at a residential building has prompted outrage among internet users, who have drawn comparisons with the suspected cause of the city’s deadliest fire in dec...

Palestinians on Saturday buried a woman pregnant with twins and two of her children who were among at least 13 people killed in Israeli strikes in Gaza. The toll on Friday included two men who were killed in Gaza City, and eight others killed in the ...

Afghanistan’s foreign ministry says Afghans who helped America’s war effort and have been stuck in Qatar in the hope of reaching the United States can safely return to Afghanistan. The statement on Saturday by foreign ministry spokesman Abdul Qah...

When US special forces raided Caracas and abducted president Nicolas Maduro and his wife in early January, the Venezuelan capital was hit by widespread power outages and communication blackouts. Yet, within hours of the attacks, connectivity began to...

An attack by “unknown armed terrorists” has been carried out on military barracks and other targets in the capital Bamako, the military in Mali reported on Saturday. Attacks had also occurred in other locations in the country, the general staff r...

Including clear, comprehensive definitions of consent in Hong Kong’s reform of sexual offence laws will provide greater clarity for all parties and better protect victims, experts and a survivor have said. Barrister Stephen Keung Pit-chun said on S...

As one of the world’s largest automotive glass producers, and the subject of an Oscar-winning documentary, Fuyao Glass is a familiar name in the United States. Now, its founder has warned he is prepared to shut down his American plants if trade fri...

Every time a European leader lands in Beijing with a business delegation, the same speculation follows: is the Atlantic consensus beginning to crack? Is part of Europe drifting towards China and away from Washington? In Spain’s case, the drama expi...

Hundreds of firefighters were battling wildfires in the forests of northern Japan on Saturday, as authorities urged more than 3,200 people to evacuate their homes, government officials said. As of Saturday morning, blazes in the mountainous areas of ...

In a prelude to a possible second round of peace talks in Pakistan, Iran ramped up its rhetoric against the United States on Saturday, warning of retaliation if the US kept up its shipping blockade. Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, the...

Hong Kong police have arrested two men in connection with a series of thefts targeting homeless people in Yau Tsim Mong district that involved about HK$142,000 (US$18,100) worth of stolen property. Inspector Frankie Chiu of the district said on Satur...

A Chinese naval video has fuelled speculation that its next aircraft carrier is likely to be nuclear-powered. The film Into The Deep was released on Wednesday to mark the 77th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Liberation Army Navy. Highli...

Argentina has called for talks with the UK over the Falkland Islands after reports the US could review its position on the South Atlantic territory in retaliation for Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s lack of support for the war in Iran. Downing Street...

Hong Kong’s new ban on possessing e-cigarettes, commonly known as vapes, and related products in public places will take effect on April 30. Residents and visitors caught violating the rule could face a fine of up to HK$50,000 (US$6,380) and a maxi...

The father of Mo Li Kai-yin, the dancer paralysed by a falling giant screen during a 2022 concert by popular Hong Kong boy band Mirror, has died. The Christian Ministry Institute on Saturday announced the death of Reverend Derek Li Shing-lam, who spe...

For Ian Chu, capturing one last image of the sea from his home before it was gone forever was deeply important to him as he returned on Saturday to the scene of the deadly blaze at Hong Kong’s Wang Fuk Court to collect his belongings. Chu lived in ...