Ambassadors from the EU’s 27 member states will huddle in Brussels this week to thrash out a memorandum on critical minerals with the United States. Underpinning the debate will be a tension that girds many elements of the bloc’s dealings in 2026...

Senior officials from China and the United States have started a new round of trade talks in Paris, as the two sides seek to pave the way for US President Donald Trump’s expected visit to Beijing later this month. The delegations – led by Chinese...

This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing. Hong Kong faces a damp week ahead as humidity is expected to peak at 95 per cent with the arrival of a season...

Hong Kong police seized HK$20 million (US$2.55 million) worth of suspected cocaine in a village house in Sha Tin and arrested a 28-year-old man in an anti-drug trafficking operation on Saturday. Senior Inspector Conrad Chan Yuen-fun, of the narcotics...

A survey showing workers in Indonesia as the happiest in Asia-Pacific has prompted discussions about the factors underpinning their positive attitudes relative to their regional peers. A workplace report published this month by employment marketplace...

A Hong Kong couple have been arrested after their one-year-old son fell to his death from a high-rise residential building in Tsuen Wan, the South China Morning Post has learned. Preliminary investigations showed that the living room windows in the f...

Hong Kong’s terrorism threat level remains moderate amid the escalating conflict in the Middle East, the city’s security chief has said, urging residents to stay vigilant in the globally connected city. Secretary for Security Chris Tang Ping-keun...

Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto said he was “pretty surprised” by the US-Israel war on Iran, adding that he did not see any “rationality” in the military campaign. Prabowo, a retired general who now heads the world’s largest Muslim-ma...

Some trains were misaligned with the platform screen doors on the MTR’s Tsuen Wan line on the first day a new signalling system was implemented in Hong Kong, but such teething problems were rare in a launch that went largely according to plan. The ...

Since the Iran war began late last month, it has threatened shipping across the Middle East’s two most important maritime chokepoints – the Strait of Hormuz and the Bab el-Mandeb – through which much of Asia’s energy imports and manufactured ...

Central Asian governments are leveraging the diplomatic fallout from the US-Israel war on Iran to assert their autonomy and reinforce their long-standing strategy of balancing major powers, according to analysts. For decades, the five former Soviet r...

A pet shop owner from southwestern China discovered an abandoned cat with a note and cash, uncovering an elderly person’s final, loving gesture for their pet. On March 7, the woman surnamed Sun, who runs a pet shop in Chuxiong, Yunnan province, fou...

The conflict in the Middle East could divert new capital to Hong Kong due to the city’s stability and regulatory certainty, the treasury minister has said, while pledging to keep markets operating smoothly amid energy price shocks caused by the war...

With two weeks of Hong Kong’s art month remaining, the city will continue to host a rich array of events, from a pop culture convention to a slew of exhibitions. The South China Morning Post highlights some of the shows taking place in the rest of ...

Several years ago, prime ground-floor spaces in major shopping malls across Beijing and Shanghai’s business districts were commonly occupied by electric vehicle (EV) showrooms, with staff often escorting customers to car parks for test drives. Many...

What does the world’s digital economy rest on? Thousands of kilometres of fibre-optic cable lying on the ocean floor and, increasingly, in the crosshairs of great-power rivalry. The confluence of recent subsea cable disruptions, gaps in the 1982 UN...

Turkey’s powerful foreign minister said on Saturday that there is no serious initiative to resume negotiations between the United States and Iran but that he believes Iran is open to backchannel talks. The comments by Hakan Fidan came as Ankara is ...

While hundreds of Hongkongers stranded in the Middle East have scrambled for flights home after the US-Israel war against Iran broke out, a devoted Christian from the city has chosen to stay in Israel, saying she has experienced far worse before. The...

For Hong Kong’s Topaz Family Office, investing in hotels in Japan holds up as a sound decision even as a Middle East war clouds the macroeconomic environment. The wealth manager has made Japan a central plank of its pivot into hospitality and real ...

Hands knotted by a lifetime of hard work, Supon Haochareon says Thai farmers in his position do not get to retire. Instead, the 81-year-old and his wife Lamduan, 74, must tend more than 300 trees in Samut Sakhon, an hour west of Bangkok, agonising ea...

Japan has deployed its domestically produced long-range missiles near the East China Sea – a move that could be interpreted by Beijing as crossing a “strategic threshold”, analysts said. Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara said on Mo...

A budget bubble tea chain from China best known for its cheap ice creams and drinks may soon be adding roller coasters and immersive shows to its menu. Mixue, boasting more stores than McDonald’s and growing rapidly outside China, is planning to bu...

When people picture Hong Kong, they often imagine a relentless concrete jungle – a vertical city where glass and steel dominate the skyline. Yet a quiet revolution is beginning to reshape how our city develops. Last week, the Civil Engineering and ...

Joe*, a 20-year-old Hong Kong student, began seeking emotional support for dating advice, family relationships and stress management a few months ago to ease his anxieties. He asked questions during his commute to school, while studying in the evenin...

A wave of “cyber heartbreak” has swept social media in China as young people “mourn” loving artificial intelligence (AI) partners suddenly “cancelled” by system upgrades or entirely wiped out by server shutdowns. The bizarre phenomenon, d...

For many of those rescued from Southeast Asia’s scam compounds, escape is not the end of the ordeal. They leave behind the locked gates, surveillance and violence, but often return home carrying injuries, trauma and the stigma of having been forced...

The increasing military use of drones has raised questions about the future role of helicopters as countries such as China and the United States increasingly pivot towards the use of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS). Traditionally, helicopters have be...

There are places in the world where you expect war to intrude. And then there are places where its arrival feels surreal. For me, the Sri Lankan city of Galle has always belonged firmly to the latter category. The old fort, perched above the Indian O...

The American flag was raised on Saturday over the US embassy in Venezuela for the first time since 2019, a move that highlighted the recent shift in relations between the two countries since then President Nicolas Maduro was captured by American troo...

Jurgen Habermas, best known for his theory of political consensus-building, shaped the discourse of post-war ⁠Germany more than any other popular intellectual. He died on Saturday, aged 96, in Starnberg, ⁠Germany, the publisher Suhrkamp said. Ove...

Turkey expressed deep concern on Saturday over Israel’s ongoing strikes on Lebanon, voicing fears it could commit “a new genocide” under the guise of fighting Iran-backed Hezbollah. “We are frankly concerned [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] ...

US President Donald Trump on Saturday urged other nations, including China, to deploy ships to help secure the Strait of Hormuz, a key route for global oil supplies disrupted by the war in the Middle East. “Many Countries, especially those who are ...

Israel said the war against Iran was entering its “decisive phase” on Saturday, as explosions rocked cities across the Middle East, with strikes on the US embassy in Baghdad and a major Emirati energy facility. Washington’s embassy in Iraq was ...

UN chief Antonio Guterres has said that diplomatic channels remain open to end the war between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah and urged the international community to support Lebanon. “There is no military solution, only diplomacy, dialogue and f...

Anti-government protesters attacked a ⁠Communist party office in northern Cuba early on Saturday, a ⁠state-run newspaper reported, in a rare outburst of public dissent triggered by worsening blackouts that have been exacerbated by a US oil blocka...

Washington’s redeployment of elements of its missile defence systems from South Korea to the Middle East could be read by China as a short-term capability gap in the region, analysts said. They said the move also underlined US flexibility to move i...

Hong Kong’s MTR Corporation has warned of possible glitches, such as misalignment between train and platform doors and automatic speed changes, as a new signalling system on the Tsuen Wan line is set to begin operating on Sunday. The rail giant sai...

Pakistan’s president on Saturday warned neighbouring Afghanistan’s Taliban government that it had “crossed a red line” by launching drone attacks on civilian areas in Pakistan and said the administration in Kabul had brought “grave conseque...

The British government is looking to provide “targeted” support for ⁠poorer households to offset the impact of ⁠surging energy costs due to the conflict ⁠in the Middle East, finance minister Rachel Reeves has said. In an interview published...

As powerful AI agent OpenClaw explodes in popularity and raises security concerns, some Hong Kong users have described how the bots, while helpful, have conversations with themselves in a language they do not understand and ask questions about their ...

⁠Thailand’s King Maha Vajiralongkorn formally opened the new parliament on Saturday, as last month’s general election result faces court scrutiny over bar codes on the ballots that may have violated the law. The bar codes might undermine the se...

Chinese researchers have proposed a semi-humanoid robot mounted on a wheeled platform as part of key infrastructure for the country’s lunar research station slated to take shape by 2035. Combining mobility with humanlike dexterity, the robot is des...

Hong Kong flag carrier Cathay Pacific Airways plans to hire 3,000 employees globally this year, including pilots and flight attendants, to support its growth plan, with the airline expressing strong confidence in its future expansion potential. The c...

Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas on Saturday called on Iran to refrain from targeting neighbouring countries, while affirming Tehran’s right to defend itself against Israel and the United States. In a rare appeal, Hamas also urged the internatio...

Two monks have clashed during a religious ceremony at a historical Buddhist monastery in Hong Kong, leaving one injured and the other in police custody. Police officers were called to Chuk Lam Sim Yuen in Tsuen Wan at around 9.40am on Saturday after ...

China’s national flag carrier is set to run direct passenger flights to North Korea for the first time in six years later this month, the latest sign of warming ties between the two neighbours. The official app of Air China, one of the country’s ...

Some Hong Kong residents displaced by the deadly Tai Po fire remain in limbo as they complained of rude or unhelpful officers on a government outreach team who failed to answer their questions about authorities’ long-term resettlement plan. The 100...

Stranded for two weeks at the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas as drones and missiles set ships ablaze nearby, 26-year-old seafarer Ambuj says he has not been home for six months and cannot wait to see his family. Ambuj, who asked Reuters not to use his ...

Living in container houses under the constant shadow of terrorism, Chinese diplomats in Somalia represent the extreme front line of a new, assertive era in Beijing’s foreign policy. During a video call to staff at the Chinese embassy in Mogadishu, ...

A boxing coach from Iran who worked in China for two years has quit his job and returned to his homeland to be with his family amid US-Israeli air strikes on the country. The trainer’s touching story was revealed by his boss on social media and att...