News - South China Morning Post

Standing alongside prominent technology executives, US President Donald Trump announced a voluntary agreement under which major artificial intelligence (AI) companies will use internal controls and monitoring, outside audits and board oversight to manage risks. The White House calls the commitments “morally binding”, but the accord does not create a comparable system of legal enforcement. The admi...

It’s perhaps the most dramatic wound inflicted on the Gaza Strip by Israel’s military campaign over the past three years: the city of Rafah, once home to a quarter million people, has been erased. Satellite imagery shows the Israeli military has systematically razed the southern city and other towns and districts to the ground and in some places ploughed away the rubble. Demolition, using bulldoze...

In the industrial heartland of Normandy, more than 100km (62 miles) away from Paris, lies the small town of Cleon. Home to fewer than 5,000 residents and a Renault factory, the town and its environs are a near-perfect reflection of the current state of France’s rust belt, where economic activity and jobs are dwindling – the factory’s workforce has shrunk from almost 5,000 to 3,124 in 10 years. Yet...

Travellers heading to and from the revamped Huanggang Port must use authorised public transport services only, including pre-booked licensed taxi fleets, as other ride-hailing services will not be available inside the boundary control area, according to the Hong Kong government. At a press conference on Wednesday, transport officials also urged travellers not to rush to use the new port in the ini...

We have put together stories from our coverage on science from the past two weeks to help you stay informed. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. Chinese researchers say missile lidar model can spot US F-35 at up to 61.5km A computer simulation developed by Chinese researchers suggests that a missile-borne system with the latest light detection and rangin...

A 47-year-old man will be charged on Thursday over a series of perfume thefts at Changi Airport, the Singapore Police Force (SPF) said on Wednesday. The thefts date back to November last year and involved almost S$1,410 (US$1,102) worth of perfume, the police said in a news release. SPF said it was alerted to the first theft on November 5, 2025, after a retail assistant discovered that a box of pe...

Malaysia’s Melaka will hold a state election on November 14 as the Umno-led Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition nears a pact with Islamist rivals, leaving Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s alliance facing another difficult contest after a string of recent defeats. The filing of nominations will begin on October 31 and early voting on November 10, Election Commission chairman Ramlan Harun said on Wednesda...

Singapore occupies a “peculiarly sensitive existential point” as it seeks to retain strategic options amid a great power rivalry, Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan has said, doubling down on the city state’s stance of refusing to take sides. He also warned that the global landscape would remain unsettled if China and the United States failed to address their respective domestic issues. Speaking...

A missile attack on Ukraine’s capital Kyiv killed two people on Wednesday, the mayor said, after President Volodymyr Zelensky warned of “massive strikes” heading towards the city. The capital has come under increased attack in recent weeks as winter approaches, with air raid sirens wailing nearly constantly to warn of incoming Russian strikes. Residents hunkered down in subway stations early on We...

A former nursing student at a leading private hospital in Hong Kong has been jailed for two years and four months for stealing cash, credit cards and a phone from patients and colleagues, causing losses of at least HK$59,000 (US$7,517). Leung Ho-fung, 29, was sentenced at the District Court on Wednesday after pleading guilty to 11 counts of theft. He admitted stealing an iPhone, HK$6,500 (US$828)...

Israel marked the third anniversary of Hamas’ October 7 attack on Wednesday with silent tributes, new strikes on Gaza and intense political debate, weeks before elections in which the country’s deadliest day will be front and centre. At the site of the Nova music festival, where Hamas militants in trucks and paragliders opened fire around dawn on October 7, 2023, family members bowed their heads i...

The European Union’s top trade mandarins depart for Beijing on Wednesday for two days of intensive negotiations but expectations in Brussels are measured as to what the talks will deliver. Maros Sefcovic, the EU’s trade chief, will meet his Chinese counterpart Wang Wentao on Thursday and Friday – three months after their last encounter in Brussels, when the Europeans set an October deadline for si...

US firm ArriVent BioPharma’s shares plummeted after a late-stage trial failure involving a cancer drug licensed from China, a setback that analysts said highlighted the challenges facing Chinese biotech companies expanding overseas. New York-listed ArriVent closed down nearly 47 per cent on Tuesday after reporting that its cancer treatment firmonertinib failed to meet its main goal in a phase 3 tr...

Climate change and agricultural development have brought a new goose population to China with unique migratory patterns, a study has found. In an article on the Chinese Academy of Sciences website, researchers from the CAS Institute of Zoology said they had discovered a “genetically distinct” population of swan geese that emerged in Beijing over the past century. They said the timing of their arri...

A marooned three-metre-long (nine feet) shark in South Korea has drawn more than a million visitors to the coastal city of Busan, boosting local retail sales and triggering a trademark war, as authorities rush to stop opportunistic vendors from cashing in on the viral phenomenon. The shark, nicknamed “Bukangi” in reference to the park where it has become trapped, has become an internet darling and...

Hong Kong police are investigating the case of a 10-year-old girl who was made to carry bags of beer after videos were posted online showing her being berated by a man amid a confrontation with bystanders concerned about her wellbeing. Police said they received a report at about 10.30pm on Tuesday of a girl in school uniform being made to carry two bags containing numerous beer cans to a building...

The 521kg (1,148lbs) of suspected methamphetamine seized by Laotian authorities from a private jet was not sourced from Malaysia, with the drugs believed to have originated in Laos and been destined for Manila, the Philippines. Bukit Aman Narcotics Crime Investigation Department (NCID) director Hussein Omar Khan said police were informed by Laotian authorities on Tuesday that the cross-border smug...

A woman in central China invested 14 million yuan (US$2 million) to acquire 196 parking spaces in a residential community, later selling them at a significant mark-up, which led to furious residents suing her. The lawsuit centred around a residential block, the name of which was not disclosed, located in Changsha, Hunan province. The property project was completed and put on the market in 2018. At...

Malaysia’s repatriation of Myanmar nationals ahead of a visit to Kuala Lumpur by the war-torn country’s leader appears to mirror efforts by other Asean countries seeking to mend ties with Naypyidaw. Several members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations have stepped up engagement with Myanmar at the bilateral level recently, raising questions about whether a gradual normalisation between th...

Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu’s vision of an “AI city brain” is bold and timely. An integrated system linking data across transport, public works, environmental monitoring and emergency response could help Hong Kong manage risks more proactively and coordinate services more effectively. The initiative is highly commendable. It also raises a critical question: can a city brain truly understand a...

The US military in Okinawa will impose a curfew from midnight to 5am for a month starting Friday following the arrest of a marine on suspicion of robbing and murdering a local woman, its regional coordinator said on Tuesday. All US military personnel on Okinawa will also observe a 48-hour operational pause from noon on Wednesday, during which there will be “no off-base liberty, including a complet...

Creators of China’s first Tibetan-language AI model have pledged to speed up upgrades aimed at promoting ethnic integration. Approaches to advancing the large language model, DeepZang, were discussed at a seminar on Monday that brought together representatives from research institutes, universities and enterprises, according to state-run portal Chinanews.com. It said the event held in Hohhot, in C...

Hong Kong’s West Kowloon Cultural District is betting on property development to ease its financial pressures amid a widening operating deficit, but experts have warned that land sales will only provide temporary relief and cannot replace a sustainable long-term funding model for the arts hub. The warning comes as the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority prepares to tender a prime residential...

Jeff Kingston used to take long walks with his dogs across the hills of Gunma in central Japan. But not this year. He has good reason. Kingston said he has encountered bears in those mountains more than 100 times over the years and been charged by aggressive bears around a dozen times. In 2014, a black bear knocked him down and attacked him across the skull with its claws, leaving a gash that requ...

US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that he would speak very soon with Russian President Vladimir Putin over the reported plague death of a laboratory technician, as Washington pressured Moscow for transparency. Russian authorities denied that they were imposing anti-plague measures and played down the reports of an incident at a plague research institute in Siberia’s Irkutsk region last wee...