After decades at the frontline campaigning for environmental policies, Edwin Lau Che-feng, founder of The Green Earth, is finally slowing down to focus on his health and passion for radio-controlled boats. The 68-year-old has been one of the most voc...

Popular doll Labubu and Blackpink’s Jennie were among the headline names and brands from the city and abroad that drew thousands of fans to Hong Kong’s third edition of pop culture festival ComplexCon early on Saturday. Organisers said this year�...

Before his first term as US president began in 2017, Donald Trump was probably best known for his book, The Art of the Deal. But by launching, together with Israel, a widely unpopular war on Iran, Trump has arguably dealt himself a very weak hand. Th...

Accelerating glacial retreat in the Himalayas over the past decades is threatening over 2 billion people in the region who depend on meltwater from the “water tower of Asia” for their daily needs, according to climate scientists. Glaciers in the ...

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has said Tehran is ready to facilitate the passage of Japanese vessels through the Strait of Hormuz, a key artery for global energy shipments, and that negotiations with Japan on the issue are ongoing. “We ha...

Hong Kong authorities will issue weekly announcements about the changes in international and local fuel costs from April, following mounting suspicion that businesses are prematurely raising prices because of the United States-Israeli war on Iran. Th...

As China undergoes a sweeping economic transition, its regions are also in the process of embracing change. The powerhouses of yesteryear must adapt or risk falling behind, as traditional industries become less reliable growth drivers and new sectors...

China has joined the global top-tier timekeeping club with a new optical clock that could help it play a leading role in redefining the second. A team, led by Pan Jianwei at the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei, has built a stro...

Pancakes are a common breakfast in many parts of China today, but few people are aware that the popular meal has been around for 5,000 years. An ancient griddle unearthed from the Yangshao site in central China’s Henan province reveals that the his...

Mario Orain used to earn his living on the road. Now, the 51-year-old driver spends most of his time parked up, waiting for bookings that rarely come. “It’s really bad,” he told This Week in Asia. “There are very few bookings. And fuel prices...

The Trump administration filed a lawsuit on Friday against Harvard University, accusing the institution of allowing a “hostile environment” towards Jewish and Israeli students during pro-Palestinian demonstrations on campus from 2023 to 2025. Pre...

Three weeks into the Iran war, tit-for-tat escalations on multiple fronts have dragged the Middle East to the brink of the region-wide conflict that its governments have repeatedly warned about – and tried to avert – since Hamas attacked Israel i...

When Uzma Naveed discovered she was a finalist for a global award in Paris, it should have been the proudest moment of her life. Instead, she met the news with what she described as “mixed feelings”. The 37-year-old refugee from Pakistan was chos...

Malaysia’s recent enforcements and cancellations linked to LGBTQ-related activities have ignited debate about whether the government is backsliding on reform. Rather than reading these moves purely as contradicting past administrations’ policies,...

South Korea shut down the heart of Seoul on Saturday for a comeback concert by K-pop supergroup BTS, as authorities prepare for an estimated 260,000 fans to flood the city’s streets and millions more to watch the show live on Netflix. The one-hour-...

A 31-year-old Georgia woman has been charged with murder after she took abortion medication and gave birth to a premature infant who died within hours, according to court documents and arrest records. Alexia Moore was arrested, charged and jailed by ...

As diplomatic friction between China and Japan drags on, no Japanese business executives will attend a key forum in Beijing of multinational companies this coming week, according to an internal list seen by the South China Morning Post. Nearly 80 top...

South Korea built the Cheongung-II to stop North Korean missiles. Now the system is stopping Iranian ones – and in doing so, has turned Seoul into one of the most sought-after defence suppliers on the planet. The medium-range surface-to-air missile...

Three Hong Kong police officers fired five shots at a knife-wielding man, suspected to be mentally ill, after he charged at them in the early hours of Saturday morning, hitting him twice. The assailant, a 43-year-old construction worker, was struck i...

Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX) last week proposed its biggest set of listing reforms since 2018 for Asia’s third-largest stock exchange. Delivered in a consultation paper, the reforms aim to further improve the competitiveness of the excha...

Chinese youth are enthusiastically adopting Japan’s “ita bag” fashion accessory style to showcase their admiration for beloved anime and real-life idols, elevating the culture with their imaginative designs. On China’s popular lifestyle-shari...

The US Treasury on Friday temporarily lifted sanctions on Iranian oil already loaded onto vessels, in Washington’s latest step to stem a supply crisis over the Middle East war. The authorisation allows for the delivery and sale of Iranian crude oil...

Operators of illicit fuel stations can earn as much as HK$10,000 (US$1,280) a day by smuggling untaxed petrol into Hong Kong using vehicles equipped with enlarged tanks and selling it to car club members via coded messages, the South China Morning Po...

Death is the family business for Viroj Suriyasenee, a second-generation Thai funeral director. His bespoke coffins range from plain wooden boxes to ornate creations trimmed in gold with plush red velvet interiors, priced anywhere from US$30 to US$30,...

A federal jury in California found on Friday that tech titan Elon Musk misled Twitter shareholders in an effort to drive down the company’s share price as he was poised to buy it in a US$44 billion deal. The verdict in a class action securities law...

The House Select Committee on China released a report on Friday asserting that China is manipulating its position at the United Nations to “undermine America’s interests and advance its international ambitions”. The 34-page report makes the cas...

A US federal judge on Friday ruled as unconstitutional a Pentagon press access policy that withdrew accreditations from a host of prominent media organisations. Elements of the policy are “unlawful because they violate the First and Fifth Amendment...

US President Donald Trump said Friday he was considering “winding down” military operations against Iran three weeks into the war, but warned the Strait of Hormuz would need to be policed by other countries. Trump’s comments were his strongest ...

The official line is straightforward: US President Donald Trump asked for a delay to his long-anticipated summit in Beijing with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, and it has been pushed back by “a month or so”. According to the White House, moving the m...

During a press conference of the annual “two sessions”, National People’s Congress spokesperson Lou Qinjian referenced the grass-roots football league Suchao or Su Super League, which drew millions of spectators in Chinese stadiums last year. A...

The administration of US President Donald Trump on Friday unveiled an artificial intelligence (AI) policy framework aimed at curbing state-level restrictions on innovation, as it urged Congress to address AI risks and reinforce the US edge in an inte...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected accusations on Friday that he had intended to offend Christians when he said the previous day that Jesus had “no advantage” over Genghis Khan. “More fake news about my attitude towards Christia...

The UK ⁠government gave authorisation on Friday ⁠for the US to use military bases in Britain to carry out strikes on Iranian missile sites that are attacking ships in the Strait of Hormuz. British ministers met on Friday ‌to discuss the war wit...

In 2012, American Jesse Appell stepped off a plane in China on a Fulbright scholarship to study an unusual subject: the art of Chinese comedy. Over the next few years, Appell, then in his 20s, found himself telling jokes in clubs across China, studyi...

Three victims of IRA bombings in England on Friday dropped their civil claim for damages against former Irish republican leader Gerry Adams, whom they had sought to hold personally responsible for orchestrating the blasts. The trio – who were injur...

Hong Kong police have launched a manhunt for three people involved in a suspected deception case in which a shop reportedly lost 73kg of gold bars worth an estimated US$12 million, the South China Morning Post has learned. The force said on Friday th...

A pregnant Syrian woman and her five young children died when a fire ripped through containers housing agricultural workers near the southwestern Antalya resort, the governor and media reports said on Friday. DHA news agency said the 27-year-old moth...

Chuck Norris, the US martial artist and Hollywood action star most famous for his role in Walker, Texas Ranger, has died, his family said on Friday. He was 86. The martial arts expert turned actor starred in a slew of action films since his acting de...

China is set to include 12 more commercial banks under the umbrella of its central bank-backed digital currency, the latest move by Beijing to scale up adoption of the digital yuan, also known as the e-CNY, as it transitions from a cash alternative t...

Chinese scientists have developed revolutionary software capable of fully simulating the extreme physics of supersonic fuel combustion in just one week. Previously, the same task could take a supercomputer years to complete, they said. Developed by a...

Residents of a housing complex destroyed in one of Hong Kong’s deadliest fires were misled into picking a convicted contractor for the estate’s renovation project amid “widespread” bid-rigging and other corruption in the construction industry...

President ⁠Donald Trump assailed ⁠Nato allies on Friday ⁠over their lack of support for the US-Israel war against Iran, calling the long-time US allies “cowards”. “Without the U.S.A., Nato IS A PAPER TIGER!” Trump said in a social media...

The first known combat damage to an F-35 fifth-generation fighter aircraft from a likely Iranian attack suggests that stealth jets can be detected by electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) sensor systems, according to Chinese analysts. US Central Command r...

Norway’s Crown Princess Mette-Marit said in an interview broadcast Friday that she was “manipulated” by convicted US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, whom she accused of extorting others. A commoner who married Crown Prince Haakon in 2001, Mette-M...

Swire Coca-Cola has won a HK$31.9 million (US$4 million) contract to supply Bonaqua water to some Hong Kong government offices, following a HK$52.9 million procurement scandal last year. According to a Government Logistics Department notice, Swire Co...

Hong Kong should leverage its position as a “safe haven for investment” to attract foreign capital amid the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, the head of InvestHK has said, noting that more companies using Dubai as a hub have shifted to the ci...

China’s exports of rare earth permanent magnets to the United States continue to fall, at a time when Washington and its allies are stepping up efforts to reduce reliance on the country’s critical mineral supply chains. Shipments of permanent mag...

The ⁠White House released an artificial intelligence policy on Friday that aims to pre-empt state rules, ensure protections for children and shield communities from prohibitive energy costs. The Trump administration has been pushing for a single le...

Prosecutors have formally indicted Shi Yongxin, the former abbot of the famed Shaolin Temple, four months after his arrest and following a string of financial and sexual scandals. Prosecutors in Xinxiang, Henan province, have formally charged Shi wit...

US air strikes may have weakened Iran’s ability to blockade the Strait of Hormuz, but in the short term it is probably too risky to provide a military escort for oil tankers because of the threat from drones and mines, according to Chinese analysts...