Property tycoon Pan Shiyi issued a rare critique of China’s real estate sector, describing its development model as a “Ponzi scheme” and urging the industry to restore integrity and better protect homebuyers, just days after a fraud trial saw a...

The China-US trade war bubbled away this week, even as the Strait of Hormuz shutdown dominated global headlines. The US is finalising a multinational agreement on trade and critical minerals to break China’s grip on vital resources, US Trade Repres...

South Korea’s combat-proven, interoperable and geopolitically accessible surface-to-air missiles could hinder China’s efforts to sell its own defence systems to the Middle East, analysts have suggested. The US-Israel war on Iran has been marked b...

This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing. The Hong Kong Observatory issued an amber rainstorm warning on Friday afternoon, after earlier telling reside...

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer faced mounting pressure to quit on Friday over his appointment of Peter Mandelson as envoy to Washington, after it emerged the veteran politician had failed security vetting. The affair has haunted Starmer for months am...

Earlier this week I stumbled on a fascinating piece of research led by geography professor Becky Loo at the University of Hong Kong and soon to be published in the Nature Cities journal. Fascinating not just because of its scale – an analysis of 20...

Hong Kong’s security chief has pledged to replace emergency fax messaging between police and firefighters with a digital system and to increase phone lines at call centres, after an inquiry into a fatal Tai Po fire revealed that residents had waite...

A Pakistan-flagged tanker that entered the Persian Gulf over the weekend has become the first carrier to exit through the Strait of Hormuz with a crude cargo since a US blockade began on Monday, underscoring just how limited traffic through the vital...

As divorce rates continue to rise in Indonesia, more single mothers are bearing the brunt of financial hardship due to the challenges of collecting money for child support from their former spouses. For some women, they can get help from an initiativ...

Hong Kong’s conservation officers will step up coordination with police to carry out joint operations to enter private premises when investigating suspected animal abuse, following an ombudsman’s report that found existing procedures ineffective....

Vietnamese budget carrier VietJet Air has agreed to lease as many as 10 Chinese-made C909 regional passenger jets, giving a lift to their manufacturer’s goal of vying with Airbus and Boeing in overseas civil aviation. VietJet said in a statement on...

Two crew members and six passengers were killed when a private helicopter crashed in dense forest on Indonesia’s Borneo island, the transport ministry said on Friday. The Airbus H130 helicopter, owned by local firm Matthew Air Nusantara, lost conta...

An 80-year-old Hong Kong man was stabbed in the leg near Cosco Tower on Wing Lok Street in Sheung Wan on Friday morning. He sustained injuries to his left elbow and thigh after being attacked by a man wielding a knife. He was sent to Queen Mary Hospi...

An oil tanker sailing under the flag of Hong Kong has passed through the Strait of Hormuz and entered the Gulf of Oman in what appears to be a test of the US blockade targeting vessels entering or leaving Iranian ports, according to a maritime data f...

Myanmar ⁠has freed former president Win Myint and reduced the sentence of imprisoned former leader Aung San Suu ‌Kyi as part of an ‌amnesty that saw the release of 4,335 prisoners, according to state media. “The president has pardoned Win Myi...

Hong Kong customs has arrested seven people in a citywide crackdown on party rooms offering suspected illegal karaoke sets with songs that infringed copyright. The operation, code-named “Magpie”, took place between March 16 and Wednesday this wee...

China is a land where the unexpected becomes part of daily life, and these quirky excursions often add a touch of excitement to mundane routines. In southern China, during this year’s Tomb Sweeping Festival in early April, a woman surnamed Wu disco...

A primary school on an outlying island in Hong Kong will cease operations in the 2029–30 academic year after failing to submit a survival plan due to an insufficient number of Primary One pupils for next year. CCC Cheung Chau Church Kam Kong Primar...

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A South Korean woman in her thirties is facing child abuse charges after allegedly feeding her two-month-old infant tteokguk, or rice cake soup, with the case coming to light through photos she posted online. The dish, commonly eaten to mark the new ...

France and Britain are pulling together a coalition of more than 30 nations on Friday for a Parisian summit aimed at reopening the Strait of Hormuz. Neither the United States nor Israel or Iran have been invited to the first major European push to in...

We have selected seven stories from this week’s news across Hong Kong, mainland China, the wider Asia region and beyond that resonated with our readers and shed light on topical issues. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please conside...

South African opposition party leader Julius Malema was sentenced to five years in prison Thursday after he was convicted of breaking firearm laws by firing a rifle at a political rally in 2018. He was released pending an appeal, which will be heard ...

Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel said Thursday that while Cuba does not want military aggression from the United States, his country is prepared to fight should it happen. Diaz-Canel spoke during a rally that drew hundreds of people to commemorate t...

Asian refiners have grown increasingly reliant on US crude as oil-starved fuel makers scour the globe to replace Middle Eastern supply and stave off shortages that could ripple through the broader economy. Buyers in Japan led the charge to purchase M...

Hong Kong police are hunting for a man after mobile phones were snatched from two women moments before MTR train doors closed at two different stations. Police received reports from two victims, aged 48 and 33, at 8.24pm and 8.33pm on Thursday, respe...

This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing. The hearing by an independent panel investigating the deadly Wang Fuk Court fire in Hong Kong entered its 14t...

China’s food supply could be vulnerable to global price spikes triggered by extreme weather or global conflict, as international bodies warn the US-Israel war on Iran is worsening food insecurity worldwide. The country has sufficient staple grain s...

Manycore Tech, a design software developer hailed as one of Hangzhou’s “Six Little Dragons”, made its trading debut in Hong Kong on Friday, with shares rising 172 per cent at the open, as the company positions itself at the intersection of arti...

March is a highlight of Hong Kong’s cultural calendar. Last month, as I welcomed delegates to the International Cultural Summit during Art Week, many told me they had come to network with local and international collaborators and explore Hong Kong�...

An Australian company will import 250,000 tonnes of urea fertiliser from Indonesia in the coming months, easing fears of a shortage that would crimp food production, Canberra said on Friday. Australia is one of the world’s biggest exporters of crop...

Beneath the rigid honour codes of the criminal underworld, ancient Chinese thieves operated in a high-stakes gamble against the state. For those who broke the law and were captured, the cost of failure was inscribed on their skin or paid in blood thr...

In China’s hyper-competitive and lucrative tech industry, releasing cutting-edge artificial intelligence models for free may seem counter-intuitive – but it has become a core business strategy. At the University of Hong Kong last November, Alibab...

When it comes to hotel rooms, “luxury” does not necessarily mean clean and hygienic. A number of studies have shown that light switches and television remote controls are among the objects with the highest levels of bacterial contamination, while...

Bars and restaurants are gearing up for a bumper three days during the Hong Kong Sevens rugby tournament, brushing off concerns that rising airfares because of the Middle East war might put off visitors, with some operators expecting a surge of up to...

As the war on Iran continues to command global attention, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has stepped up his appearances at military events, using drills and missile tests to project confidence at home and defiance abroad. His heightened visibility s...

The International Monetary Fund and ⁠the World Bank said on ⁠Thursday they had resumed dealings with Venezuela, which had been paused since 2019. The move paves the way for a full IMF assessment of Venezuela’s economy for the first time in some...

China has crafted markets, mechanisms and incentives as the world’s largest buyer of commodities in a bid to free itself from its dependence on the US dollar, but the biggest threat to Washington’s global dollar dominance may well be Washington i...

At a congressional hearing on Capitol Hill on Thursday, lawmakers and experts accused China of buying “what they can” and stealing “what they cannot” in the global artificial intelligence (AI) race, while warning the United States’ immigrat...

Chinese researchers have developed a new diamond-copper material that they say can improve the cooling efficiency of artificial intelligence (AI) data centres by up to 80 per cent. The functional carbon materials team – from the Ningbo Institute of...

A senior US lawmaker called on Peru’s next government to reclaim the Chinese-controlled port of Chancay, describing the deepwater facility as a direct military threat to the western hemisphere. Congresswoman Maria Elvira Salazar, chair of the House...

Dubai has completed its first flying taxi station, with commercial operations expected to begin by the end of the year, authorities in the Gulf emirate announced on Thursday. Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed, crown prince of Dubai and United Arab Emirates ...

The decades-long negotiations on a code of conduct in the South China Sea may finally come to an end this year. Several parties involved, including China and the Philippines, have expressed confidence in reaching a final conclusion to the proposed se...

In a defiant display of “America first” brinkmanship, Washington’s top trade negotiator on Thursday sought additional funding to support US President Donald Trump’s new trade wars, insisting the administration will not be held hostage by Beij...

Britain’s top foreign ministry official will leave his post after Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Foreign Minister Yvette Cooper lost confidence in him, a source said on Thursday, following a row over the security vetting of Peter Mandelson. The di...

For the first time, scientists have measured the instantaneous mind-blowing power of jets blasting from a black hole. The jet power from this relatively close black hole-star system is equivalent to 10,000 suns, an international research team reporte...

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr said on Thursday night that a key suspect in a corruption scandal that has sparked public outrage in the Philippines has been arrested in the Czech Republic and that efforts were under way to repatriate the f...

A 10-day ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon appeared to be holding on Friday, a breakthrough that could provide critical relief to Washington’s strained temporary truce with Tehran Announcing the ceasefire, which came into effect at 5pm EST Thurs...

Beijing’s point man on Hong Kong affairs has met the city’s No 2 official and finance chief in the capital to discuss alignment with the national 15th five-year plan, as the government prepares to draw up its own inaugural blueprint by the end of...

Hong Kong leader John Lee Ka-chiu has met European Union representatives to discuss opportunities for cooperation, with the chief executive saying both sides highlighted a shared belief in multilateralism amid increasing tensions and market turmoil. ...