Beijing is using AI to help its radars better detect low-altitude drones, according to a top Chinese military scientist who cited drone swarm tactics in the US’ ongoing attack on Iran as an emerging pressure on radar. This development was revealed ...

United States and Chinese trade negotiators will meet in Paris on Sunday and Monday, seeking to ready a deal ahead of US President Donald Trump’s visit to Beijing at the end of the month. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Trade Representative Ja...

Spare a thought for the iceberg A23a which, after an extraordinary 40-year life voyaging around the southern Atlantic Ocean, is this month expected to die unnoticed close to the island of South Georgia, a mess of “brash ice, small icebergs and berg...

As soaring copper prices make the metal highly sought after, more cable thieves are targeting some of Malaysia’s busiest urban rail lines, causing significant inconvenience to commuters and headaches for authorities aiming to combat the scourge. Th...

In January, the US-based magazine Newsweek reported that China had started dredging sand on an obscure feature in the Paracel Islands, the archipelago known as Xisha by the Chinese and Hoang Sa in Vietnam. More recent satellite images suggest that Ch...

Vietnam produced the largest trade surplus with the United States in January, overtaking both Mexico and China, latest official US data shows, as its exports rose sharply while Chinese direct shipments to the United States fell. Hanoi has been negoti...

Two former leaders of a now-disbanded alliance behind Hong Kong’s annual Tiananmen Square vigil have a case to answer in a high-profile trial after judges ruled the evidence supported prosecutors’ allegations that the activists incited others to ...

Apple announced a reduction in the App Store commissions it charges developers in China ahead of the annual World Consumer Rights Day, drawing approval from the country’s biggest gaming companies Tencent Holdings and NetEase. The US tech company sa...

Declining fertility rates have long been viewed as a drag on economic growth, but the outlook may not be entirely bleak for Asian economies such as China, South Korea and Japan, analysts said. Demographic pressure was accelerating investment in robot...

Businessman Albert Tei has released a photo purportedly showing a Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) officer brandishing a firearm to back his claims that he had a gun pointed at him during a raid on his home last November. Speaking to repor...

Donald Liao Poon-huai, one of Hong Kong’s most influential government architects and public housing visionaries who became the first Chinese official under British rule to serve as secretary for district administration, has died at the age of 96. H...

As conflict in the Middle East pushes oil beyond US$100 per barrel, Angola and other African producers are in line to be among the main beneficiaries. On Thursday, following renewed tanker attacks, Brent crude oil prices surged back past US$100 a bar...

A young girl from central China earned widespread praise online after fearlessly confronting riding instructors over why they assigned her friends vicious horses. Nine-year-old Langlang from Huangshi in Hubei province has been travelling the world wi...

Illegal operators in Hong Kong have been converting vehicles into mobile refuelling points and posing risks to public safety, according to authorities, as they reported a 42 per cent jump in average monthly complaints about illicit petrol stations. A...

Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX) has unveiled its biggest listing reforms since 2018, broadening its special listing regime for innovative companies and opening the door for smaller and more diverse firms to list in the city, the bourse operat...

Australia’s decision to send a surveillance aircraft and air-to-air missiles to the Gulf highlights the difficult position the country now faces: supporting US and regional partners while trying to avoid being drawn deeper into the widening conflic...

Nasa cleared its moon rocket on Thursday for an April launch with four astronauts after completing the latest round of repairs. The 98-metre (322-foot) rocket will roll out of the hangar and back to the pad next week at Florida’s Kennedy Space Cent...

This year’s ‘two sessions’, China’s biggest annual political gathering, featured the announcement of the lowest GDP growth target in decades and official approval for the 15th five-year plan. SCMP Plus hosted a webinar to discuss these develo...

Greater Bay Airlines will more than double its fuel surcharge on certain routes starting next week, becoming the last Hong Kong passenger carrier to raise prices as war rages in the Middle East. The airline announced on Friday it would raise prices d...

Cambricon Technologies, a Chinese semiconductor designer seen as a potential alternative to US giant Nvidia, will pay its maiden dividend after posting its first full-year profit since listing in 2020. Cambricon, dubbed “little Nvidia”, planned t...

Asean should position itself as a safe haven for investment amid worsening global volatility, the host country said as the region’s economic ministers kicked off their meeting in Manila on Friday. “Let us ensure that Asean remains a region where ...

We have selected seven stories from this week’s news across Hong Kong, mainland China, the wider Asia region and beyond that resonated with our readers and shed light on topical issues. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please conside...

China has become the first country to mass produce the strongest carbon fibre, which has wide applications for defence industries such as aerospace, drones and robots, state broadcaster CCTV’s military channel reported on Wednesday. The domesticall...

A video showing Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi looking visibly exhausted after a budget committee session on Thursday went viral online, sparking concerns over her well-being ahead of a trip to the US to meet President Donald Trump. Takaichi ...

The full implementation of taxation reforms pledged in China’s new five-year plan would substantially ease the fiscal strains on local governments, a leading tax policy expert said, while adding that it would not alter the central government’s do...

They were killed by American bombs. They were held at gunpoint by Japanese guards who fired indiscriminately into the crowded holds and when the ship finally went down, many were left to drown. Eight decades later, the United States is coming back fo...

Hong Kong’s fresh graduates are facing increasingly challenging career prospects, with 69 per cent of job sectors recording their fewest vacancies in six years, a trend experts attribute to the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and a sluggish ec...

The United States has imposed sanctions on two companies and six individuals for their roles in operations that used information technology workers in foreign countries to raise money for North Korea. The Treasury Department said the schemes, orchest...

Across Asia’s densest cities, the milestones of adulthood are quietly shifting. Couples share kitchens with parents. Some wait years on public housing lists. Others secure a flat before thinking about a ring. In some cases, keys come before vows. I...

Indian households are rushing to buy electric induction stoves, draining ⁠stocks online and in stores, ⁠amid fears of a potential cooking gas ⁠shortage tied to the Middle East conflict. India, the world’s second-largest importer of liquefied ...

A 102-year-old woman from eastern China has won hearts online with her optimistic attitude and unique lifestyle. Jin Baoling, a centenarian from a rural area in Taizhou, Zhejiang province, is frequently visited by her son, daughter-in-law and grandda...

Conglomerate Swire Pacific has sold part of its stake in Hong Kong flag carrier Cathay Pacific Airways for HK$1.8 billion (US$230 million) to raise working capital. In a rare move, the group revealed on Friday that it sold 153.05 million shares at HK...

Trina Lau spent nearly three months looking for work after she was laid off from an e-commerce firm in Hong Kong in December. It was the 23-year-old’s first job after graduating with a communications degree last year. The position only lasted for s...

BMW could be approaching the end of the tunnel in China as signs of stabilisation raise hopes of a turnaround after the German carmaker reported that sales dropped by double digits in the key market in 2025. “Transaction prices in the market for ou...

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr’s pitch for a United Nations Security Council seat this week was notable for his sidestepping of an issue at the core of Manila’s foreign policy in recent years. As he appealed to UN members in New York, ...

Some Chinese lawmakers and advisers are pushing to secure higher pensions for elderly farmers, underscoring the persistent income disparity between the country’s urban and rural residents. The latest government work report, approved on Thursday, co...

California Governor Gavin Newsom said there was no imminent threat to the state, despite a warning from the FBI that Iran could send drones to the west coast in retaliation for war. Newsom said drone issues “have always been top of mind”. “We�...

An American military refuelling plane went down in Iraq and rescue efforts were under way, US Central Command said on Thursday. The KC-135 aircraft was part of the operation against Iran but the crash was not due to hostile fire or friendly fire, the...

Arrests in a HK$315 million (US$40 million) insider dealing case underscore Hong Kong’s commitment to upholding the integrity of its stock market amid a surge in new listings and share placements, according to industry players. The Independent Comm...

Serbia’s president confirmed late on Thursday that his country possesses Chinese supersonic surface-attack cruise missiles, after photos of the weapons attached to Serbian fighter jets leaked online. Photos, which began circulating on social media ...

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is expected to visit China with President Donald Trump later this month after appearing to show little interest in previous invitations from Beijing, the South China Morning Post has learned. According to sources, sp...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday issued ⁠a veiled threat to kill Iran’s new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei even as he acknowledged that Israel’s joint air war with the US may not lead to a collapse of Tehran’s clerical g...

The war in Iran is not just another Middle Eastern crisis. It is a window into what world politics looks like when rules are weakest and power is most concentrated. Washington has spoken in the language of surrender and coercion, European governments...

ROTC (Reserve Officers’ Training Corps) students in an Old Dominion University classroom subdued and killed the shooter who killed one person and wounded two others, the FBI announced on Thursday. Dominique Evans, special agent in charge of the FBI...

A 41-year-old man was killed Thursday after ramming his pickup truck into a synagogue on the outskirts of Detroit, Michigan, causing a blaze and triggering a huge police response. US media reported the assailant had recently lost family members in an...

A UK judge on Thursday jailed for 13 years a mother-of-10 who forced a vulnerable woman to work as a “house slave” for more than two decades. Amanda Wixon subjected the woman, who was a teenager when the ordeal began, to more than 25 years of abu...

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has taken responsibility for his “mistake” in sending Peter Mandelson to Washington as ambassador, as Downing Street denied there was a “cover-up” in the release of files related to the appointment. The pri...

[The content of this article has been produced by our advertising partner.] Anchors Academy, recognised as one of Hong Kong's leading private schools for kindergarten and primary education, is taking a significant leap forward. The school has announc...

Hong Kong customs officers have arrested two men in a crackdown on a syndicate accused of laundering HK$4.7 billion (US$600.54 million) in criminal proceeds over four years and running a drug business. Investigators from customs’ financial investig...

Iran’s new supreme leader has vowed to keep blocking the Strait of Hormuz, attack US bases and avenge the blood of its martyrs in his first statement since succeeding his father. “The lever of blocking the Strait of Hormuz must definitely be used...