Chinese carmakers could capture between 15 and 30 per cent of the European automotive market by 2035, up from roughly 10 per cent this year, analysts at Citi said, with the outcome resting on how far Brussels goes in tightening tariffs and made-in-EU...

Net profit at Hong Kong’s rail operator the MTR Corporation more than doubled to HK$15.87 billion (US$ 2 billion) in the first half of the year, from HK$7.70 billion a year earlier, as strong gains from property development offset largely flat perf...

Financial markets have been gripped by concern in recent days over reports that China was introducing a new tax on returns from offshore insurance policies. The significance of the episode could prove more complex than the initial market reaction sug...

At a bustling fruit store in Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay, a crowd of workers sporting damp towels around their necks or fan vests buy up chilled drinks to stay hydrated as temperatures hit 32 degrees Celsius (89.6 Fahrenheit) on a busy weekday morning...

Three mainland Chinese scientists have won this year’s Future Science Prize, China’s first privately funded award recognising scientific achievement, for breakthroughs in molecular mechanisms, porous materials and arithmetic geometry. The event, ...

US military facilities across the Pacific are in a worrying state of decay, the Pentagon inspector general warned, raising concerns about bases that are critical to deterring China. Corrosion and holes in buildings, falling ceilings and the presence ...

Thailand’s possible acquisition of a supersonic cruise missile from India would help the Southeast Asian country defend its interests against Cambodia and could even fuel a “mini-arms race” between the two neighbours, analysts have said. The Br...

A highway operator in Gansu province, northwestern China, apologised on Wednesday after a service area sign for the hot water room, mistranslated in English as “open water rooms”, was shared on social media. Similar translation errors, as well as...

Hong Kong lawmakers have warned of potential loopholes that bid-riggers can still exploit despite a government proposal to tighten proxy votes, owner attendance at renovation meetings and other oversight issues in its review of building maintenance r...

A Hong Kong magistrate has acquitted a former auxiliary police officer of assaulting his wife at their home last year, citing inconsistencies in her testimony about his alleged attack after he refused to care for their baby. Magistrate Claudia Ng Che...

The US military campaign against Iran has so far failed to force Tehran to capitulate. The Trump administration is betting once again that suffocating economic pressure will do the job. Facing a shortfall of necessary munitions and wary of continuing...

A research team at Zhejiang University has cracked a molecular puzzle, turning ordinary yeast into a powerful factory for an expensive cancer drug and boosting its production by a thousand times. The anticancer drug vinblastine has long been sourced ...

A new term, “pre-made children,” has recently gone viral on Chinese social media, highlighting the trend of parents prioritising their children’s studies over rest and enjoyment during summer holidays. This term, which gained traction this summ...

A Form Six student has become one of Hong Kong’s top scorers in this year’s university entrance examinations after her biology grade was upgraded following a remarking request, bringing the record-breaking total to 25 students from 16 schools who...

Russian President Vladimir Putin visited on Thursday Russia’s far eastern Kuril Islands for the first time, prompting a “strong” protest by Japan which also claims the territory. Russian-Japanese relations have long been dogged by tensions over...

Yangtze Memory Technologies Corporation (YMTC) has broken into the world’s top three NAND flash memory suppliers by volume for the first time, marking a milestone for China’s semiconductor ambitions as it strives to narrow the revenue gap with gl...

Employed mothers in Malaysia have defended emergency leave rights amid debate over unfair workplace expectations and the challenge of balancing family and long hours. The dispute erupted after a woman complained on live radio that colleagues with chi...

Hysan Development, the largest commercial landlord in Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay shopping district, posted an underlying profit of HK$1.11 billion (US$140.19 million) for the first half of 2026, an increase of 7.4 per cent from a year earlier, driven...

Ethiopia’s new US$12.5 billion mega-airport project has thrust the nation into the heart of a geopolitical tug of war between the United States and China. Ethiopian Airlines, Africa’s largest carrier, is developing the massive Bishoftu Internatio...

For years, Elon Musk has dreamed of conquering a range of chronic health conditions by inserting computer chips into the human brain. But that vision could become reality fastest in China, where state authorities are launching a coordinated effort to...

Welcome to Open Dialogue, a series from the South China Morning Post where we bring together leading voices to discuss the stories and subjects occupying international headlines. In this edition, we invited a leading Chinese scholar of South Asian af...

Nurses are collapsing at work as they endure extreme heat in buildings that are proving unfit for the record temperatures gripping Britain. Conditions are “inhumane”, the Royal College of Nursing said on Thursday. Members have reported temperatur...

Surrounded by a clutter of carton boxes, bottles of dishwashing liquid and rows of dry snacks, Ramasamy Vellasamy holds court behind a cashier. For nine hours a day since 1986, he has been running a provision shop on the ground floor of a housing blo...

A Singapore court barred Pritam Singh, the chief of the main opposition party, from practising law following his criminal conviction for lying under oath to a parliamentary committee. The Law Society of Singapore brought the case after Singh was conv...

A father in southwestern China, who once dug a grave for his two-year-old ailing daughter, has transformed it into a flower garden after she made a remarkable recovery. Zhang Xinlei, from Neijiang in Sichuan province, was born with severe thalassaemi...

India is looking to join France’s sixth-generation fighter programme in a long-term bid to secure a role in the next era of air warfare, from advanced aircraft technology to the industrial work of designing and building future combat systems. But a...

A study analysing data from hundreds of countries and regions suggests China’s Belt and Road Initiative is linked to better governance and economic development, according to researchers from Nanjing University. They found the trade and investment s...

Jury trials are a rarity among the world’s legal traditions, but a fundamental bedrock of the common law system. The jury’s role as the decider of a defendant’s guilt makes them the natural centrepiece of a criminal trial, but an often overlook...

Hong Kong has changed since the turmoil of 2019-20. Few people would dispute this. The more important question is what kind of city it is becoming. It is evolving into a more nationally integrated yet still distinctive city. The emerging model seeks ...

Three of Russia’s largest grain terminals in the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk have halted operations after being damaged in a massive overnight drone attack by Ukraine. Grain shipments from Novorossiysk are currently impossible because of serious...

What will a stronger international financial centre look like for Hong Kong? Doubling down on yuan internationalisation is a key focus, experts say in this second of our five-part series on the city’s first five-year blueprint. Read part one here. ...

Fubon Bank (Hong Kong) has opened its first branch outside its home market, moving into mainland China to tap surging cross-border business opportunities as competition among foreign lenders in the Greater Bay Area intensifies. The branch, located in...

Fears of a new industrial revolution in which artificial intelligence replaces manual labour have yet to materialise in Southeast Asia – but white-collar workers should brace themselves. Nearly one in four workers in the region face generative AI (...

Tonnes of aid from regional partners began to roll into Colombia on Wednesday, as the search for survivors in the rubble of a powerful earthquake grew more desperate after the temblor razed buildings, buckled roads and crushed cars. The devastation h...

For decades, thousands of Chinese investors made pilgrimages each spring to Omaha, in the central US state of Nebraska, treating Warren Buffett’s shareholder meetings for investment firm Berkshire Hathaway less as corporate briefings than as audien...

US prosecutors have charged 11 people over an alleged decade-long network that arranged more than 1,000 sham marriages, primarily for Chinese nationals seeking green cards, including matches with at least 14 active-duty American soldiers. About 11 of...

China said on Wednesday it would help Colombia recover from the magnitude 7.4 earthquake that struck the country’s west on Monday, killing more than 200 people. Foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said Beijing would do what it could in suitable w...

As President Xi Jinping prepares for summit talks with Donald Trump in Washington next month, the United States is closing one of the few remaining openings between the two countries by targeting scientific research. This field has been one of the mo...

The Trump administration announced on Wednesday the establishment of a task force to end birth tourism in the latest push to curtail the practice after the Supreme Court recently rejected US President Donald Trump’s attempt to restrict constitution...

At Jantar Mantar, New Delhi’s designated protest site, India’s future spent weeks enduring the heat and demanding change. But what kind of change, and why? These were young people, many of them highly educated but still without a job despite sitt...

A US congressional advisory body on China said the country is projecting an image of confidence even as concerns about its economy and future growth remain beneath the surface, following a week-long visit to Beijing, Shanghai and Hangzhou in July. Me...

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, the youngest person to hold the role, will leave at month’s end, President Donald Trump announced Wednesday. Leavitt, 28, just recently returned to the White House after taking a brief leave for the bir...

Day briefly turned to night in Spain on Wednesday, as the country witnessed its first total solar eclipse in more than a century, plunging it into eerie darkness in one of nature’s greatest spectacles. The spectral glow of the sun’s outer corona,...

The US-China Board of Investment, one of the key outcomes of the May summit between US President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping, is unlikely to be among the deliverables for their expected meeting next month in Washington, according to th...

Eurovision Song Contest organisers announced rule changes on Wednesday excluding any country in an armed conflict from hosting the competition and increasing the minimum age of competitors. While they did not mention any country by name, Israel, whic...

Israel on Wednesday carried out its first air strike in more than a week in Gaza, both sides said, breaking a relative lull as the US pressed a peace plan. The Israeli military said it targeted a Hamas commander, charging that he had been planning at...

Spectacular images of lava flowing down the slopes of an erupting Mount Etna have drawn flocks of tourists to the Italian volcano – to the worry of local guides. The tallest active volcano in Europe, Etna has been spewing ash and lava for days, for...

“Regardless of what lies ahead – be it a minefield or a deep abyss – I will forge ahead unswervingly, dedicating my entire life and energy to the country until my dying day.” Those words, spoken at the dawn of his premiership, came to define ...

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday he hoped more countries would join a defence agreement signed last week between Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan aimed at stabilising a region wracked by conflict. The so-called Mecca Joint Defence Ag...

A Hong Kong baby food producer has voluntarily recalled several products from store shelves as a precaution after parents and online users raised concerns that they might contain rice weevils. Baby Basic said on Wednesday that the recall covered “i...