Geopolitical competition has long been understood in territorial terms. Power was measured by control over land, resources and populations. Rivalry was expressed through military confrontation, alliance formation and the defence of borders. As econom...

A Hong Kong court has sentenced 13 parents and a merchant to up to 14 months in jail for offering bribes ranging from HK$20,000 to HK$200,000 (US$2,600 to US$25,600) to a kindergarten administrator at the city’s biggest international school group i...

China’s military mouthpiece accused Japan of “dangerously expanding” its defence industry – in capacity, technology and international engagement – and said it had “crossed the red line”. In a rare full-page report on Monday, PLA Daily c...

Malaysia’s central bank has raised its 2026 growth outlook, saying the economy is on track to expand between 4 and 5 per cent despite mounting risks from the Iran war. The revised forecast from Bank Negara Malaysia marks an upgrade from the governm...

Japan’s defence ministry said on Tuesday that long-range missiles with counterstrike capabilities have been brought into service at two Ground Self-Defence Force bases in the country. The deployment of the missiles at Camp Kengun in Kumamoto prefec...

EnerVenue – a rechargeable battery start-up co-founded by Full Vision Capital, the family office of Hong Kong tycoon Peter Lee Ka-kit – has raised US$300 million in its latest round of financing and appointed a new CEO to accelerate the large-sca...

Hong Kong’s key decision-making body has approved plans for an elevated smart mass transit railway system in Kai Tak that will connect the cruise terminal and other major facilities in the area to the local MTR station. The Executive Council’s en...

European governments breathed a sigh of relief in October when the US and China sealed a fragile trade truce that paused more sweeping Chinese rare earth restrictions and papered over a Sino-Dutch row over chipmaker Nexperia. Now, however, the Europe...

Singaporeans are not flocking to Malaysia’s Johor just for groceries these days – fuel is the “obsession” for the moment. Petrol prices have spiked sharply in the city state due to the Middle East conflict, with RON95 at almost three times th...

Emmanuel Macron touches down in Tokyo this week with a packed agenda and a receptive audience in a Japanese government anxious about a choked oil route and looking for support amid its diplomatic falling-out with Beijing. The French president’s thr...

Gulf allies of the United States, led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, are urging President Donald Trump to continue prosecuting the war against Iran, arguing that Tehran has not been weakened enough by the month-long US-led bombing camp...

A Chinese influencer gained more than a million followers in just two weeks by simply teaching people how to rent a home. His efforts earned widespread support and appreciation from Chinese netizens. The influencer, known as Gulumao, was born in the ...

A former Hong Kong truck driver who caused the death of a pregnant woman was sentenced to 22 months in prison on Tuesday, with the judge saying the man had made “continuous” wrong decisions in his driving. District Judge Josiah Lam Wai-kuen also ...

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the US may need to reassess its relationship with Nato after the Iran war is finished, calling the military alliance’s alleged lack of support during the Middle East conflict “very disappointing”. Rubio assai...

In Seoul last week, South Koreans were stripping shop shelves of plastic bin bags. Not food, not medicine. Bin bags. Nearly 2.7 million of the city’s mandatory “pay-as-you-throw” bags were sold each day, almost five times the normal volume, as ...

We have selected seven stories from the SCMP’s coverage of Asia over the past week that resonated with our readers and shed light on topical issues. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. Trump’s ‘wind-u...

More than 47,000 taxi drivers have adopted the commercial version of the Octopus app or equipped their cabs with mobile card readers ahead of new electronic payment regulations taking effect in Hong Kong on Wednesday, transport authorities have said....

Kenya has revived construction on its multibillion-dollar Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) extension that stalled more than six years ago, replacing heavy sovereign debt with innovative financing after renegotiating its loans with China. According to Ken...

This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing. Public hearings by a judge-led independent committee investigating Hong Kong’s deadliest blaze in decades h...

Iran is pushing the Houthis to prepare for a renewed campaign against Red Sea shipping, contingent upon any further escalation by the US in its war on the Islamic Republic, according to European officials familiar with the matter. Leaders of the Yeme...

For years, Malaysians watched singer-actress Bella Astillah’s heartbreak unfold in public. Her tribulations – a troubled marriage, cheating scandal and very public split – struck a chord with many, underscoring the stigma that divorced women fa...

Flight bookings in China have grown 20 per cent year on year ahead of the annual Ching Ming Festival holiday that starts this weekend and follows public school breaks in much of the country – despite higher airfares on account of rising fuel prices...

Hong Kong police have arrested a 49-year-old bus driver on suspicion of dangerous driving causing death after a collision that killed two people on the Lantau Link highway. The double-decker operated by Long Win Bus was travelling on the Tsing Yi sec...

When InvestHK’s director general Alpha Lau Hai-suen recently said that companies using Dubai as a hub had mostly shifted to Hong Kong after the outbreak of the Iran war, the instinct to leverage the city’s position as a safe haven for investment ...

A knife-wielding attacker with suspected mental illness who was shot twice by police in Hong Kong’s Kwai Chung has died after spending 10 days in hospital in a critical condition. The government on Tuesday confirmed the 43-year-old suspect, identif...

Taiwan has pushed back against a growing number of foreign governments that label it part of China in their internal systems. But questions are mounting over whether Taipei’s retaliatory moves can deliver results. The dispute has widened in recent ...

A six-year-old boy in central China was left alone in a hotel for more than two weeks, touching hotel workers who stepped in to care for him like family. According to Henan Television, the boy, nicknamed Chengcheng, checked into a hotel in Zhengzhou,...

Hong Kong’s initiatives to develop an intellectual property (IP) economy remain loosely defined and will require sustained investment and clearer coordination to take shape, industry players and analysts have said, following the latest budget outli...

As Japanese combat troops prepare to join war games in the Philippines next month – their first return to Philippine soil since 1945 – some Filipinos say the real issue is not only what Japan is doing now, but what it still has not fully reckoned...

With Chinese coffee brands eyeing overseas expansion, analysts said those seeking to succeed as global players must move beyond low-price strategies and a narrow focus on operational efficiency. “Overseas consumers have long associated Chinese bran...

Pop megastar Taylor Swift was sued by ⁠a Las Vegas ⁠performer on Monday who said ⁠Swift’s latest hit album The Life of a Showgirl violates her trademark rights. Maren Wade said in the complaint that marketing for Swift’s album threatened to...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu voiced confidence on Monday that Iran’s Islamic republic would eventually fall, though he again said that was not the objective of the US-Israeli war on the country. “I think this regime will collapse int...

In the days after the United States and Israel tipped the Middle East into a new and catastrophic crisis with their attacks on Iran, European leaders were all over the map. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and German Chancellor Frie...

The US Supreme Court will hear arguments on Wednesday on birthright citizenship, with Chinese nationals at the centre of disputed claims of abuse amplified by US President Donald Trump’s immigration campaign. “Birthright Citizenship is not about ...

Nasa began the countdown on Monday for humanity’s first launch to the moon in 53 years. The 32-storey Space Launch System rocket is poised to blast-off on Wednesday evening with four astronauts. After a day in orbit around Earth, the Orion capsule ...

As tensions simmer along the Pakistan-Afghanistan frontier – fuelled by disputes over the contested Durand Line, recurring cross-border strikes and the persistent threat of Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) fighters operating from Afghan soil – a ...

A man who crashed his pickup truck into a Detroit-area synagogue earlier in March was carrying out an attack inspired by the Iran-backed group Hezbollah and had sought to inflict as much damage as possible, the FBI said on Monday. Ayman Ghazali made ...

The US ⁠military is upgrading White House facilities for the new East Wing, the administration said on Monday, after US President Donald Trump said the ballroom would be built atop a “massive” fortified complex. “The military is making some u...

The United States has formally reopened its embassy in Caracas, Venezuela, after the restoration of full diplomatic relations with the South American country following the Trump administration’s removal of then-president Nicolas Maduro in early Jan...

Two Chinese container ships sailed through the Strait of Hormuz on Monday on their second attempt to leave the Gulf after turning back on Friday, ship-tracking data showed. The critical waterway has effectively been shut since the US-Israeli war with...

Israel’s parliament on Monday passed a law approving the death penalty on Palestinians convicted of murdering Israelis. The bill’s passage marked a major victory for Israel’s far-right, which has pushed hard for the measure. Prime Minister Benj...

The Pentagon has flouted a court order blocking it from enforcing a policy limiting news reporters’ access to the Defence Department’s headquarters, a lawyer for The New York Times asserted on Monday in urging a federal judge to compel the govern...

A French court on Monday issued an arrest warrant and a one-year prison sentence against the Chinese captain of a suspected Russian “shadow fleet” tanker over failing to comply with orders to stop his ship. Chen Zhangjie, 39, was sentenced in abs...

French authorities are investigating a suspected link to Iran after thwarting a bomb attack outside a Bank of America building in Paris at the weekend, the interior minister said on Monday. The authorities suspect a link to Iran due to similarities t...

After a seven-hour drive to a trading post in northern Philippines, 35-year-old farmer Elmer Ullani took home nothing but an empty petrol tank even after selling 10 tonnes of cabbage. Ullani, who hails from the northern town of Tinoc in Ifugao provin...

The world is bracing for an aluminium supply shock after two major Middle Eastern smelters were damaged in Iranian attacks over the weekend, a disruption likely to push more production to China in the near term and potentially for years to come, anal...

Fire alarm and firefighting pump systems at the housing estate engulfed in Hong Kong’s deadliest blaze in decades were found to have been switched off a week before the tragedy struck, with no action taken to reactivate them, an evidential hearing ...

Hong Kong police have arrested a 36‑year‑old man on suspicion of taking upskirt images of a woman in a Sha Tin mall. Officers received a report from a passer-by that a man was secretly filming a woman inside the GreenPrice store in New Town Plaza...

Chinese tech giants Xiaomi and Alibaba Group Holding have launched spring recruitment drives amid fierce competition for the talent driving the global artificial intelligence boom. The campaigns come as the smartphone and e-commerce giants, respectiv...

China is developing a revolutionary air-breathing engine for next-generation fighter jets and hypersonic missiles. Designed to operate continuously from a stationary start-up to over Mach 6, the “contra-rotary ramjet engine” could replace the com...