News - South China Morning Post

Canada will not allow medically assisted suicide for people whose only condition is mental illness, the justice minister said on Wednesday, seeking to close debate on one of the country’s most controversial healthcare issues. Canada legalised assisted dying for those at the end of life in 2016. The right was extended to those suffering from serious and incurable illnesses in 2021, even if death wa...

Donald Trump wants to turn his luxury Florida golf course into retreat for future US presidents modelled on the historic Camp David getaway, the White House said Wednesday. The plan would make the Trump International Club in West Palm Beach – where the 80-year-old billionaire often spends weekends on the fairway – into an official sanctuary for his successors. “The United States government has ask...

The United States has proposed requiring universities and other certified schools to pay US$70,000 for each foreign student entering a post-graduation work programme, a measure that could sharply raise the cost for thousands of Chinese graduates seeking employment experience in the country. The Department of Homeland Security announced on Wednesday that the proposed fee would apply to initial part...

The French government said on Wednesday it was pausing the use of stun grenades in its policing of student protests, after a 15-year-old boy’s hand was blown off during a clash with riot police, fuelling protesters’ accusations of police brutality. Protests showed no sign of easing, with more than 500 schools closed a day after demonstrations swept across the country, and unions representing high-...

Singapore’s air pollution worsened to the highest in the world as haze from Indonesia wildfires blankets the region days before the city state’s annual Formula One weekend. Air quality levels in Singapore were in the “very unhealthy” range as of Wednesday afternoon, according to data from IQAir. Nearby Kuala Lumpur, which was earlier in the top spot, ranked as the second-most polluted city globall...

Initial results from the world’s first two working nuclear clocks indicate that China’s timepiece is about six times as stable as the one in Vienna, according to papers published this week by the journal Nature. The clocks were developed independently but both the Chinese team, led by Tsinghua University in Beijing, and the researchers at Vienna’s TU Wien used thorium-229 nuclei embedded in crysta...

Ten people were injured in a knife attack at a ‌school in Ostroleka in northeastern Poland on Wednesday, the town’s mayor said, with police detaining the 19-year-old suspect, who was among those hurt, shortly after the incident. Masovian Regional Governor Mariusz Frankowski told reporters that nine people had been taken to hospital but that none of them was in a ⁠life-threatening condition. “The i...

Around two dozen luxury houses at One Stanley have been sold since Hong Kong authorities launched an investigation into alleged structural defects in March, with buyers including local and international businesspeople. These transactions have prompted experts to call for stronger homebuyer protections, including implementing a mandatory period for buyers to rescind contracts when statutory violati...

More than 300 people signed up for Hong Kong’s Election Committee poll as the nomination period opened on Wednesday, vying for seats on the body that chooses the city’s leader. The nomination period for committee subsectors for the November 22 election will run until October 20. The 1,500-member body will select Hong Kong’s next chief executive in March next year. The Registration and Electoral Of...

While China’s export engine still has room to grow, many of its trading partners may be approaching the limit of how much more they can absorb, which could place a ceiling on further growth over the coming years, according to a Goldman Sachs report. “At least over the next few years, there is still room for Chinese exports to maintain their strong momentum,” analysts said in the report led by the...

Despite Malaysia’s insistence that its long-standing non-alignment policy extends to cyberspace, analysts say the country’s reliance on American and Chinese technology could make such a stance difficult to sustain amid the rivalry between the two superpowers. Defence Minister Mohamed Khaled Nordin said on Monday that Malaysia would “always remain neutral” in cyberspace, arguing that cyber threats...

Sri Lanka’s anti-corruption authority arrested former first lady Shiranthi Rajapaksa on Wednesday over allegations that her charity misused donations collected for a children’s hospital. President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s government has revived long-dormant corruption investigations involving members of the once-powerful Rajapaksa family, which dominated Sri Lankan politics for nearly two decade...

“Science has no borders,” Arup Neogi, an India-born scientist who works at a US-sanctioned university, told Chinese state media. Neogi’s speciality is photonics, the study of generating, controlling and detecting light. At the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (UESTC) in the southwestern city of Chengdu, he leads a team exploring the interconnection between light and sound....

Hong Kong and Indonesia can deepen cooperation in green finance as their ties strengthen, the country’s special envoy for international trade has said, adding that the city’s common law expertise can support the nation’s efforts to attract family offices. Hong Kong also played a vital role as a conduit channelling mainland China investments to Asean, Mari Elka Pangestu told reporters before delive...

In December 2022, a Chinese J-11 fighter came within metres of a US RC-135 surveillance plane over the South China Sea, according to the US military, which criticised it as an unsafe manoeuvre. China, however, held the American crew responsible and claimed the RC-135 had suddenly veered towards the Chinese jet despite repeated warnings. Both sides released video footage, yet neither accepted the o...

⁠Yemen’s Houthis attacked Aden’s international airport with ballistic missiles and explosive-laden drones on Wednesday, the country’s transport ministry said, as fighting between the Iran-aligned group and Saudi-backed government forces intensified. Fighting has been focused in recent days on areas around the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a shipping route that has become more crucial for energy exports si...

The nomination period opened on Wednesday for elections to the 1,500-member body responsible for choosing Hong Kong’s next chief executive and 40 lawmakers. Hopefuls from at least four subsectors submitted their nomination forms on the first day. The South China Morning Post explains the significance of the Election Committee polls, who signed up on the first day and what to watch for. What is the...

Hong Kong police have arrested 17 more people linked to a suspected “crash-for-cash” scam syndicate as authorities investigate 669 suspicious claims totalling more than HK$137 million (US$17.4 million). Among those arrested was an insurance claimant accused of filing 12 compensation claims worth more than HK$3 million. Officers from the commercial crime bureau arrested the 17 claimants aged 27 to...

Bhavya Gupta was a Grade 4 student when the 2012 horrific gang rape and murder of a medical college intern who was on a private bus in New Delhi, which sparked nationwide outrage and led to the execution of four attackers, prompted her teacher to mention the case in class to raise awareness about women’s safety. “My teacher gathered all the girls in the classroom and told us about it, and after th...

Chinese contractors will build Latin America’s longest cable-stayed bridge, a trans-bay span in Brazil, as their latest stamp on new infrastructure overseas. A consortium of Chinese companies is set to construct much of the Salvador-Itaparica Bridge, which is due to become the region’s biggest cross-sea project supported by cables once completed in 2031, Chinese and Brazilian media said. They woul...

The mother of slain Hong Kong socialite Abby Choi Tin-fung has told a court that her daughter’s former brother-in-law was a “bootlicker” who coaxed her into funding an egg waffle shop and hiring him as a driver months before her death. Choi’s mother, Cheung Yin-fa, said on Wednesday that Anthony Kwong Kong-kit had frequently sought financial support from her daughter before he allegedly joined his...

The European Parliament voted for a significantly tougher China position on Wednesday, despite strong and long-standing lobbying from Beijing to tone down its official stance. The chamber backed stronger actions against Beijing, stating it is a “decisive enabler” of Russia, calling for a “continuous [European] naval presence and joint exercises” in and around the Taiwan Strait, and urging swift ac...

Monsoon floods in Thailand have killed 60 people since mid-September, officials said, as surging waters exact an increasing economic toll – destroying homes and crops, killing livestock and flooding factories. Bangkok buckled at the end of September as 300mm (11.8 inches) of rain – around one month’s worth – hit its creaking drainage system over just three days. The floodwaters have largely retrea...

Hong Kong’s stock index compiler will add 10 fast-growing companies with at least HK$500 million (US$64 million) in annual sales into the city’s technology-focused benchmark in a bid to revitalise an index that has missed out on artificial intelligence-driven gains. The threshold is among a set of new measures Hang Seng Indexes Company will use to reform the Hang Seng Tech Index, which is referred...

In a Moscow museum that once housed evidence of Stalin-era repression, serene family scenes flickered on a screen as a narrator hailed the tranquillity of pre-World War II life in the Soviet Union. The museum – set up to commemorate the “genocide of the Soviet people” – has elbowed out the award-winning Gulag History Museum, a harrowing collection that had for years cast a light on the killings an...