News - South China Morning Post

Hong Kong’s building authorities should consider inspecting the remaining properties in a luxury residential development and tightening work process documentation after one house was found to have used insufficient steel bars during construction, experts have said. Their suggestions followed the Buildings Department revealing at the weekend that it had launched an investigation into work quality i...

The alleged murder of an Okinawan woman by a US marine has put newly elected Governor Genta Koja under intense pressure, raising questions about whether the incident could deepen opposition against the American military presence just as Okinawa assumes greater importance in Japan’s regional security strategy. Koja only took office on September 30 after campaigning on economic issues rather than th...

US President Donald Trump on Monday said that he would pay for television advertisements himself or with money raised ‌from the Maga political committee after pushback over the use of taxpayer-funded television ads featuring him just before the November congressional elections. Ethics experts and lawmakers from both parties ⁠have criticised the three nationally broadcast ads, which ‌celebrate a “g...

Amid concerns over rising interest rates and a weak retail property market, a long-time investor has sold a portfolio of prime street shops in Tsim Sha Tsui – held for more than four decades – and locked in a profit of nearly HK$237 million (US$30.2 million) despite accepting a deal more than 40 per cent below his original asking price. The portfolio of retail shops in Cheung Lee Commercial Buildi...

The US Justice Department (DOJ) is seeking to revoke the citizenship of a former Navy sailor convicted of spying for China and a Florida man convicted of conspiring to act as an agent of Beijing, it announced on Monday. Jinchao Wei and Ping Li are among 40 people facing denaturalisation actions in what the department described as the largest batch of such filings under the Trump administration. Th...

The United States has accused mainland China of hiring an American citizen of Chinese origin to surveil the family of Taiwanese leader William Lai Ching-te, days after President Xi Jinping’s state visit to Washington. The Federal Bureau of Investigation on Sunday arrested 34-year-old Zhang Wanying at Los Angeles International Airport, alleging that she attempted to flee the country and charged her...

US President Donald Trump said on Monday that a threat linked to Iran ⁠had prompted the removal of American B-1 bombers from a British airbase. The planes had been stationed at RAF Fairford, the preferred European base for US bombers, and had recently been used in US strikes on Iran. Last week, five British men were arrested near the base – which Iran’s Revolutionary Guards previously said was a l...

The hotly contested court battle over government plans to build 12,000 public flats on Hong Kong’s oldest golf course has played its final round. The government decided not to appeal against a ruling that held its approval of an environmental impact assessment (EIA) report on the project to be unlawful. This is better than pursuing a further attempt to persuade the courts to uphold a fatally flawe...

Mainland Chinese prefer coercion over military force to settle the “reunification question” with Taiwan, and their opinion of the US remains low, although they favour engaging with Washington on trade and security. These are the results from the latest survey of Mainland citizens, conducted between April 16 and June 26. This straddled the first summit between US President Donald Trump and Chinese...

Former British politician and writer Jeffrey Archer has died aged 86, his publisher said in a statement on Monday. Archer, who was a Conservative MP for five years before serving as the party’s deputy chairman, died peacefully at his home between writing sessions on Monday, publishing house HarperCollins said. He had a successful career as a novelist and was made a life peer in 1992. The ⁠bestsell...

Xi Jinping’s state visit to Washington in September was steeped in pageantry. The Chinese president received two 21-gun salutes in three days, watched a flyover by the powerful B-2 stealth bomber, and viewed the founding documents of American democracy at the National Archives. US President Donald Trump called his summit with Xi a “great meeting” and rated it a “12 out of 10”. Xi was also positive...

A former Ohio music pastor who once appeared on American Idol was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole on Monday after a jury convicted him of murdering his wife while he was having an affair. Prosecutors said Caleb Flynn, 40, staged a home invasion in February after shooting Ashley Flynn, a 37-year-old teacher and volleyball coach. Flynn claimed she was killed by a burgla...

Bogota mayor Carlos Fernando Galan has called on the Chinese-led consortium building the city’s first metro line to send more workers to its stations, after the country’s top auditor warned that delays in several parts of the project could push back its opening in March 2028. “We are entering a critical stage, which is the final stretch,” Galan said in an interview published by local news magazine...

The International Criminal Court on Monday unsealed arrest warrants against four senior Taliban leaders, accusing them of the crime against humanity of gender persecution against women, girls and members of the LGBTQ community in Afghanistan since the Taliban seized power in 2021. The court said in a statement that warrants were issued in July and September last year for the Taliban’s supreme lead...

Quebec separatists eyed a return to power in Canada’s majority French-speaking province on Monday in an election that could test Prime Minister Mark Carney’s message of national unity to confront the United States. Carney is popular in Quebec and the possible success of the separatist Parti Quebecois (PQ) is not seen as a repudiation of his stance towards US President Donald Trump, whose trade war...

Moscow on Monday downplayed reports that a laboratory technician had died of plague, stressing that postmortem tests had not detected the disease, while Washington said it was closely monitoring the situation. Reports on Friday that plague had killed a 28-year-old woman named Darya Shipilova, who had been working for the anti-plague institute in Siberia’s Irkutsk region, sparked alarm. The news ou...

The US Energy Department will announce US$150 million in new funding for power lines in Alaska on Monday as Vice-President J.D. Vance visits the state, where Republicans are ‌fighting to hold a critical Senate seat in the November midterm elections. Vance is set to rally voters for Republican Senator Dan Sullivan, who is locked in a tight re-election battle with Democrat Mary Peltola. Flipping the...

A school bus flipped over onto its roof during a multivehicle crash in central Florida on Monday morning, killing two people – including a 10th grade girl – and injuring several others, authorities said. Some 39 people were on the school bus that was headed to Winter Haven High School in Winter Haven when an oncoming car crossed the centre line and caused the crash, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd...

For more than eight decades, the remains of US fighter pilot Morton Sher lay unrecovered in China. A photograph of a memorial to him in a Hunan village eventually helped investigators find where his plane crashed in 1943. Sher was buried in his hometown of Greenville, South Carolina, in December 2025, a homecoming that offers a rare example of what US-China cooperation can achieve for families of...

The owners of 14 subsidised sale flats have applied for a grace period to comply with Hong Kong’s new regulatory regime for subdivided homes, the housing minister has revealed, raising concerns that public resources were being abused. The cases were disclosed on Monday at a Legislative Council housing panel meeting when lawmaker Mark Chong Ho-fung asked Secretary for Housing Winnie Ho Wing-yin abo...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday vowed there would be no Hamas rule in Gaza as he attended a memorial event marking three years since the militant group’s October 7, 2023 attack. Monday is a national day of remembrance for the deadliest day in Israel’s history, with flags lowered to half mast on public buildings from 6.29 am, the time the attack began. Speaking during a state ce...

A 15-year-old student lost a hand on Monday picking up a police grenade as part of nationwide protests in France over classroom conditions that have disrupted lessons at hundreds of schools since last week. Some students returned to classrooms but others maintained actions outside their schools, ahead of a day of larger demonstrations expected on Tuesday. Authorities said the teenager was injured...

In the strongest sign yet of a shifting European Union policy on China, the leaders of France and Germany have demanded a new trade weapon that would cut off access to the EU market when third countries cause severe distortions. The tool would effectively act as a kill switch, allowing Brussels to respond rapidly to systemic distortions, potentially immediately. It would grant dramatic new powers...

A Hong Kong fertility clinic that had most of its services suspended for mishandling embryo biopsy specimens from two patients has been cleared to fully resume all treatments after implementing improvement measures. The Council on Human Reproductive Technology said on Monday that Heal Fertility in Central could resume all 17 treatment services covered by its licence from Tuesday, after members rev...

Hong Kong aviation authorities are investigating suspected illegal drone flying over Victoria Harbour during last week’s National Day fireworks display, after privately shot footage of the show went viral online. The footage drew the attention of local internet users after a mainland visitor, who came to Hong Kong during the “golden week” holiday, posted clips of the 23-minute display on his socia...