A businesswoman from central China who once lived a life of luxury is rebuilding her future by digging up and selling lotus roots to repay five million yuan (US$700,000) of debt. According to the mainland media outlet, Changjiang Daily, 44-year-old H...

Former British prime minister David Cameron has revealed he was successfully treated for prostate cancer as he backed a targeted screening programme for the United Kingdom’s most common cancer in males. Cameron was urged to get tested by his wife, ...

Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu has pledged to sharpen the city’s competitive edge to better serve the country’s development by applying the guiding principles of the fourth plenum in everyday governance. Lee also said the public shoul...

The US is poised to supply Saudi Arabia with its most advanced F-35 stealth fighter jets, a move that analysts say reflects a new era of Middle East policy in which countering Chinese influence is fast becoming as important for Washington as maintain...

A Chinese drone maker has secured 1,600 orders for industrial models at the recently concluded Dubai Airshow – marking the largest ever single-order deal for the country’s manufacturers at the biennial event, as its companies target emerging mark...

Alibaba Group Holding’s new multipurpose artificial intelligence app, Qwen, recorded more than 10 million downloads in the first week of its public beta launch, faster than OpenAI’s ChatGPT or DeepSeek, the company said on Monday. The strong debu...

An Australian man who rushed at Wicked star Ariana Grande during a premiere in Singapore has been deported and barred from re-entering the country. “Johnson Wen was deported to Australia on November 23, 2025 and has been barred from re-entering Sin...

A joint declaration at the Cop30 summit in Brazil – reached without United States participation after Washington again pulled out of the Paris climate pact – has kept fragile climate cooperation alive for the Global South, even as the talks fell ...

John Lam, UBS’ head of China property research and a long-time contrarian, is retreating from his earlier bullish calls and joining his Wall Street peers in predicting that the country’s four-year real estate downturn is far from over. Lam said h...

By December 1, Russia is likely to approve and present its long-term road map for developing its rare earth sector, following President Vladimir Putin’s directive to the cabinet on November 4. On the surface, this is a domestic industrial policy st...

The escalating tensions between China and Japan have highlighted what some observers see as a deeper problem – the lack of stable communication channels. The row started earlier this month when Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said a conflict in the T...

Hong Kong authorities should offer more incentives to attract foreign filmmakers to shoot in the city and create fresh job opportunities for the local industry, the incumbent lawmaker of the sector has said as he seeks another term. Kenneth Fok Kai-k...

The renowned European electronic music festival, Tomorrowland, made its China debut in Shanghai on Saturday. Held for the first time indoors, the electronic dance music (EDM) festival drew thousands of ravers to the Hero Dome. Many say the EDM genre ...

Viral social media footage shows a woman being rescued from Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour in Hung Hom on November 19, 2025. The rescuer was later reported to be a senior AS Watson executive from Europe, Ed van de Weerd. Internet users have expressed...

Australian far-right senator Pauline Hanson wore a burka to parliament on Monday as a political prop in her push to ban the Muslim garment in public, sparking accusations of racism from Muslim senators over the stunt. Hanson wore the burka shortly af...

More than two months after a mass poisoning at a Bali hostel left a young Chinese traveller dead and scores of guests violently ill, the incident remains mired in conflicting accounts and uncertainty. Many of the lingering questions are due to the po...

Wingtech Technology, the Chinese owner of Nexperia, said it had received no meaningful reply after reaching out to the Dutch chipmaker’s headquarters for talks. “It is deeply regrettable and puzzling that, despite our utmost sincerity, the Dutch ...

An evening encounter with Egyptian mummies is in sight as the Hong Kong Palace Museum weighs extending its opening hours after its special exhibition attracted more than 16,000 visitors in the first four days but also complaints of poor crowd control...

A small fire triggered by an overheated power bank broke out on a Singapore-bound Scoot flight from Hong Kong over the weekend, but it was quickly extinguished by the cabin crew, with no injuries reported. Singapore Airlines’ budget arm Scoot on Su...

Chinese Premier Li Qiang urged Germany to stand by a rational and pragmatic China policy and focus on common interests as he met on Sunday with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. “We hope the German side will adhere to a rational and pragmatic China...

Malaysia’s plan to bar children aged 16 and under from having social media accounts from next year has sparked a public backlash, as experts warn that enforcement gaps, privacy risks and vague guidelines could blunt the policy’s impact. Communica...

A Chinese woman who recently recovered from injuries she suffered in an assault by a stranger in a public toilet has been diagnosed with leukaemia, attracting widespread sympathy on social media. The 22-year-old, known as Xu, first came to public att...

All official exchanges between Hong Kong and Japan should respect the nation’s dignity and align with the interests of Hongkongers, the city leader has said as he questioned the effectiveness of such interactions amid a diplomatic dispute between B...

Plans for a new nationwide UK digital ID are sparking widespread public concern, but some critics including far-right politicians are fuelling fears with unproven claims that it will be used to boost government control over people’s lives. They hav...

The race to develop artificial intelligence has pushed governments and technology giants to build new electricity plants and upgrade their decades-old grid networks, creating significant opportunities for Chinese power equipment companies, according ...

Two suicide bombers attacked the headquarters of a security force in northwestern Pakistan on Monday morning, killing three officers and wounding 11 others, police and rescue officials said. The attack took place in Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pa...

A Hong Kong father has been arrested on suspicion of attempting to murder his 11-year-old daughter by allegedly feeding her a poisonous substance and consuming it himself. Police said on Monday they had launched an investigation after receiving a rep...

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. ‘Disaster’: Egyptian exhibition at Hong Kong ...

More than two years after launching its economic security strategy and with the world swept up in economic warfare, the European Union still cannot decide what economic security means. Despite this, under the strain of US tariffs and Chinese export c...

Hong Kong’s finance chief will lead an 80-strong delegation to Italy this week to showcase the city’s technological breakthroughs and forge closer business ties, with a robotic start-up saying it has already secured orders from European counterpa...

North Korea’s wealth gap is reportedly widening, as luxury goods circulate among affluent border residents while ordinary citizens face growing extreme poverty. Economic disparities in areas near the Chinese border have become more pronounced compa...

Seven runners’ personal belongings are still missing after a chaotic baggage collection process at the Kerry Hong Kong Streetathon, which the organiser blamed on a Wi-fi system failure. Andes Leung Pak-hang, CEO and co-founder of event organiser Ru...

For most of her life, 59-year-old farmer Tip Kamlue has irrigated her fields in northern Thailand with the waters of the Kok River, which flows down from neighbouring Myanmar before joining with the Mekong River that cuts through Southeast Asia. But ...

The Indian Navy has marked a milestone with the launch of its first locally made anti-submarine ship, but it still faces a naval capabilities gap compared with arch-rival Pakistan, which is set to acquire potent Chinese-made submarines. The core issu...

Hongkongers are happy with their current weight and want to stay fit, but are dissatisfied with their finances and jobs, according to a Cigna Healthcare International survey released on Monday. Only 36 per cent of respondents in the city aimed to los...

Fifty of the more than 300 students kidnapped from a Nigerian Catholic school last week have escaped and have been reunited with their parents, the Catholic Church and Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) said on Sunday. But around 253 of the kidna...

Standard X-ray services at Hong Kong’s public hospitals will remain free under a medical fee reform that will introduce charges for radiology procedures from next year, the Hospital Authority has announced. But about 40 per cent of patients using c...

China’s top defence university is piloting a scheme that allows PhD students to graduate with a product or design instead of a thesis in an effort to solve “bottleneck” engineering problems amid the tech race with the United States. Harbin Inst...

Japan’s plan to sharply raise residency visa fees for foreigners to levels comparable with Western countries has split opinion among expatriates, who fear the move could worsen the nation’s persistent labour shortages. Officials say the additiona...

Prime office rents in Hong Kong and Singapore are expected to reach parity within two years, driven by diverging dynamics in demand and supply for office properties in the rival business hubs, according to CBRE. By the fourth quarter of 2027, tenants...

The National Games have been a nice distraction, bringing a reprieve from the daily grind and demands of life. Watching competitive sports and sharing in the anticipation, and the highs and the lows, temporarily transports us to another realm. Whethe...

A former member of the South Korean rock band Boohwal has been identified as one of 69 people implicated in a Ponzi scheme that collected more than 200 billion won (US$136 million) from illegal investments and stole 19 billion won. Police said singer...

A Japanese woman turned to ChatGPT for comfort after ending a real three-year engagement, then found herself in love and marrying her artificial intelligence-generated partner. The virtual relationship was sealed when she wore augmented reality (AR) ...

Snapchat has begun asking teenage Australians to verify their ages, the company said on Monday, just weeks before Canberra enforces sweeping laws banning under-16s from social media. From December 10, Australia will force social media platforms, incl...

Hong Kong plays a “pivotal role” in Sino-Egyptian relations, according to top officials from the North African nation, who have expressed high hopes of boosting trade and tourism with the city through cultural exchanges. Baher Sheweikhi, Egypt’...

Hong Kong’s push to establish a tokenised financial system is poised to attract more companies to set up treasury centres in the city, which would give investors broader options while reducing transaction costs, according to market players. Both co...

When activist Sudirman Arshad walked into a Kota Kinabalu police station last month, the 22-year-old expected to file a routine report after a minor traffic accident. Instead, he was held for hours and questioned under Malaysia’s Sedition Act over ...

A close ally of Bosnia’s Serb Republic separatist leader Milorad Dodik won a snap presidential election in a tight race with opposition candidate, the election commission said on Sunday, citing preliminary results. “According to preliminary, unof...

Nicholas Lardy is a non-resident senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, both Washington-based think tanks. He has studied the Chinese economy extensively, publishing sever...

Slovenians on Sunday rejected in a referendum a law that allowed terminally ill patients to end their lives, according to preliminary results released by the election authorities. The near-complete count showed that around 53 per cent voted against t...