News - South China Morning Post

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...

Japanese, South Korean and Thai brands have increased their share of new entrants in Hong Kong’s retail property market by 7 percentage points to more than one-third in the first nine months of 2026, while the demand for shops from mainland Chinese brands has slipped, according to Cushman & Wakefield. A slew of new brands helped lift the combined share of Japanese, South Korean and Thai brands to...

US authorities arrested ⁠a person in Washington state on Tuesday ⁠who they accuse of providing advice and offering to live-stream a deadly mass shooting carried out earlier this year in Canada. James Cody Bryant, 30, was detained on a charge of conspiracy to murder people in a foreign country in connection to the shooting at ‌Tumbler Ridge, according to the Department of Justice. The charge carrie...

China’s economic growth is expected to slow further next year as export strength fades and weak domestic demand persists, even as the global economy remains resilient, according to a new outlook from the Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE). The Washington-based think tank projects China’s GDP will grow 4.6 per cent this year and 4.3 per cent in 2027, down from 5 per cent growth i...

A former senior CIA official pleaded guilty on Tuesday in Virginia to a charge that he abused his position and government funds to enrich himself by acquiring Florida real estate and hundreds of gold bars worth over US$40 million, according to court records. David J. Rush fabricated a “highly classified” government programme to justify the acquisition of luxury property in south Florida that he in...

As President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump talked tariffs, agricultural quotas and critical minerals at last month’s closely watched summit in Washington, an “elephant in the room” loomed over the discussion: China’s efforts to gradually diversify away from US dollar assets. Beijing has gradually been cutting its holdings of US Treasuries while pushing to expand the yuan’s global use an...

Los Angeles County prosecutors are seeking bail of US$100 million each for a Chinese-born couple charged on Tuesday with conspiring to abuse young children who were born through surrogacy and raised in their California mansion. Guojun Xuan, 66, and Silvia Zhang, 39, allegedly directed nannies to physically punish the children, watched the beatings through an extensive surveillance system and coach...

Christa Pike, a Tennessee inmate who survived Tennessee’s attempt to execute her, is awake and speaking as she receives treatment at a hospital, her lawyers said on Tuesday. “Against all odds, Christa Pike is conscious, speaking and continues to receive critical medical care. “Despite the severe damage she endured to her arms, she is still handcuffed and shackled to the bed. Her recovery is medica...