South Korea earned US$116.63 billion more from the world than it spent in the second quarter of this year – exceeding the combined current account surpluses of Germany and Japan for the first time on record. The current account measures a country�...

For decades, China was one of the world’s largest sources of migrant labour. Its workers staffed factories at home and built infrastructure abroad. But demographic decline may eventually force China to contemplate a striking reversal: importing wor...

Hong Kong employees will have better control over the management of their compulsory retirement savings under the Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF) starting from December 21. The new “full portability” mechanism comes after another major change in 2...

A Malaysian ruler has demanded accountability over the mismanagement of a pilgrimage fund, where a government rescue, criminal proceedings against former officials and half-hearted reforms have fuelled concerns over political influence in an institut...

Chinese biotech firms face fresh headwinds in their global expansion as Washington’s proposed outbound investment restrictions threaten to disrupt deal structures, even though drug licensing agreements remain untouched for now, analysts say. The US...

Chinese AI video-generation models have surpassed leading US rivals in visual quality, but several fall behind in safety safeguards, according to researchers at the University of Hong Kong. ByteDance’s Seedance 2.0 Pro took top spot in a ranking of...

Sydney’s new multibillion-dollar airport has already confused some travellers, with passengers mistaking the new facility for the Australian city’s existing airport and even booking flights to the wrong side of the country. Western Sydney Interna...

A fire broke out on Monday at Hong Kong’s waste-to-energy incinerator on an artificial island off Shek Kwu Chau. The blaze started at 12.43pm at the Integrated Waste Management Facilities Phase I and was upgraded to a No 3 alarm at 1.24pm, the Fire...

The villagers who first spotted the five baby orangutans in a casuarina forest in India in early September were puzzled by their reddish hair and unfamiliar faces. The three males and two females, aged six to eight months – were left on a plantatio...

Around 280 of the world’s top bankers, including 120 group chairmen and CEOs, will gather in Hong Kong next week to learn how the city has been rethinking its playbook as they move forward, Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) chief executive Eddie ...

China’s expanding semiconductor industry is fuelling anxiety in South Korea, where a new report from PwC has warned local chipmakers to defend profitability as Chinese rivals scale up production and strengthen market share. Samil PwC, the South Kor...

The death of a 21-year-old delivery rider at an underground gig in Malaysia, now being investigated as murder, has highlighted concerns over crowd safety and regulatory flaws in the country’s independent live music scene, industry players say. Poli...

Former Japanese prime minister Yasuo Fukuda, who used ⁠his brief period ⁠in office to seek ⁠closer ties with Asian neighbours, particularly China, has died at the age of 90, according to the Nikkei business daily on Monday. The Japanese politic...

Hong Kong is well positioned to help companies deploy green services and technologies across belt and road countries, the city’s leader and a mainland Chinese official have said, with authorities noting that at least five enterprises have signed up...

The Communist Party has started a key four-day conclave focused on party discipline and fighting corruption, as official media outlets say adherence to the party’s leadership under President Xi Jinping is key to the country’s success. The meeting...

As days of dangerous heat become more frequent in Japan, Sendai has emerged as the most comfortable city, with a climate that is “not too hot and not too cold”. The Miyagi prefectural capital, about 300km (186 miles) from Tokyo, has the best weat...

The Saudi-led military coalition fighting Yemen’s Houthis struck several of the group’s missile launchers and storage facilities, a spokesman said on Monday, while the Iran-backed group claimed a new attack on Riyadh’s international airport. Th...

Four years ago, party-goers dressed as police officers were reportedly mistaken for the real thing amid a deadly crowd crush in South Korea’s capital. Now, as Seoul prepares for its fourth Halloween since the disaster, police have launched a week-l...

We have put together stories from our coverage last weekend to help you stay informed about news across Asia and beyond. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. China carries out in-depth investigation of Turke...

A man has died after falling from a building while trying to flee a Hong Kong police raid on a suspected drug den in Yau Ma Tei. The 42-year-old man, surnamed Kwong, was found unconscious outside 385-387 Reclamation Street at about 9.28pm on Sunday. ...

A 26-year-old warehouse worker has been injured in Hong Kong after being chased by three dogs and bitten by one of them on his way to work. A source said police received a report at around 8am on Monday from the victim, surnamed Leung, saying one of ...

An AI-generated Chinese rap song featuring some of the country’s most well-known historical figures has taken social media by storm. Titled “The One Who’s Been There” (Guo Lai Ren), the track crossed 100 million views across platforms in less...

An international arbitration body in Hong Kong is exploring business opportunities in the Middle East and Africa, citing the city’s neutrality and predictability as key draws for new markets amid rising geopolitical tensions. Domitille Baizeau, co-...

Japanese companies are moving to pay compensation to ⁠users following waves ⁠of cyberattacks that have disrupted internet ⁠services and raised concerns about economic stability. GMO Internet said customers would be compensated for losses stemmi...

Long before artificial intelligence became the next big thing in the tech industry, Wang Jian was crafting the foundational infrastructure that would eventually power it. In 2008, he joined Alibaba Group Holding – owner of the South China Morning P...

A Chinese court recently heard a land dispute between neighbours who have been fighting over the same issue for two centuries and across multiple generations, stunning social media users. The court in Yanta district, Xian, in northwestern China’s S...

Are China’s increasingly powerful open-weight AI models a cybersecurity threat, or could restricting them ultimately make the internet less secure? The dilemma has become a growing concern as Chinese developers including DeepSeek, Z.ai and Alibaba ...

Chinese researchers have found that the Yarlung Tsangpo River – soon to host the largest mega dam in the world – may face increased run-off and flood risks over this century. Using tree-ring width chronologies in the southeastern Tibetan Plateau,...

Singapore has expanded its investigation into haze-creating fires in Indonesia that have blanketed the city state in smog, requesting information from 10 locally registered companies. The National Environment Agency (NEA) sent notices seeking documen...

The head of Hong Kong’s new drug regulatory body has pledged to build a fully capable and globally trusted agency that will become a catalyst for medical innovation rather than merely acting as a “miniature version” of existing overseas models....

The latest rankings confirm what many in Hong Kong already know: the city’s universities are exceptional. Five institutions continue to sit among the world’s top 100, reflecting decades of investment, academic ambition and hard work. Yet behind t...

While few dispute that China is narrowing the gap with the United States in developing artificial intelligence (AI) models, there is one area where Chinese firms are already the undisputed leaders: video. China has seen a proliferation of advanced ge...

Hong Kong’s insurance watchdog is tightening oversight of the city’s booming premium financing market, as the once-niche lending arrangement spreads to lower-tier insurance buyers, while also reviewing regulations, particularly on how insurers ev...

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s tour of a commercial vehicle factory during a surprise visit to the Chinese border city of Dandong on Saturday points to Pyongyang’s drive to modernise its buses and expand industrial ties with Beijing. In a symb...

North Korea sent a letter to the United Nations Security Council accusing Seoul of fabricating a landmine explosion that injured three South Korean soldiers, its state media reported on Monday. Tensions between the two Koreas have soared since the So...

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva won re-election on Sunday in a dramatic comeback after trailing in the first round, extending the rule of a government that has overseen record Chinese investment. The Superior Electoral Court said Lula h...

Interpol will seek approval at its general assembly in Hong Kong next month for a new “silver notice” system to target criminals’ assets and speed up financial investigations into transnational crime. Hong Kong’s police chief also pledged to ...

“How can South Korea’s law be this weak? Twenty-three people died!” Those were the words of Chinese mother Li Shun-ji after South Korea’s Supreme Court upheld a reduced four-year prison sentence for Aricell CEO Park Soon-kwan over a 2024 fact...

After HSBC RedCoin launched on Friday, Anchorpoint – the stablecoin-issuing joint venture led by Standard Chartered – said it plans to launch a retail product on a public blockchain, even as it takes a “prudent approach”. “Our next major mi...

US President President Donald Trump at a Sunday campaign rally ratcheted up his push to link US Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed to Muslim extremists, comparing him to the 9/11 attackers while saying Democrats would let violent anti-American terrorist...

Long before artificial intelligence became the next big thing in the tech industry, Wang Jian was crafting the foundational infrastructure that would eventually power it. In 2008, he joined Alibaba Group Holding – owner of the South China Morning P...

It’s common knowledge that Hong Kong has a spectacular skyline, especially at night. And given our current obsession with boosting tourism and other value-adding objectives, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that our tourism authorities are activel...

A Supreme Court justice in Brazil ordered polls in the presidential run-off to stay open for two more hours on Sunday, minutes after voting had officially ended at 5pm Brasilia time (4am on Monday in Hong Kong). The order left election officials acro...

The presidential election in Bulgaria on Sunday ended inconclusively, with the next head of state to be picked in a run-off, according to election officials. A record low turnout, attributed by observers to a general mistrust in politicians resulting...

Venezuelan opposition ⁠leader Maria Corina Machado was greeted by tens of thousands of cheering supporters as she made ⁠her way by car to Caracas on Sunday night, after she arrived home following several failed return attempts which have strained...

US Attorney General Todd Blanche on Sunday defended the Trump administration’s lawsuit to block certification of Alaska’s Senate results if Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan loses the race and argued that the legal challenge was a necessary step ...

Marine Le Pen, France’s far-right candidate to succeed President Emmanuel Macron, kicked off her campaign Sunday vowing to “restore the rule of law” if elected next year. Le Pen – the front runner in the polls – seems to be benefiting from ...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Iran and its allies might try to disrupt Tuesday’s Israeli elections, warning the Islamic republic against any hostile acts. The remarks came as Israel’s Channel 12 reported, citing unnamed sources, tha...

Storms battered northern Europe Sunday, killing a man, cutting power to more than 150,000 homes and disrupting travel and phone networks. A man died when a tree fell on him in southwestern Scotland, while a runner in a marathon in northern France was...

Philippine police are investigating a laptop found alongside images of child abuse at the former home of Meghan Markle’s estranged father, with “full results” expected in a week, the country’s interior minister has said. Thomas Markle, whose ...