News - South China Morning Post

Lorelai Jacinto had worked as a domestic helper in Riyadh for two and a half years before she flew home to the Philippines on September 19, increasingly worried that the conflict in the Middle East was making it unsafe to stay. “When the conflict with Iran happened, I started feeling like it wasn’t safe there any more because I was right there in Riyadh myself, so the bombing, the missiles, were c...

Costa Rica, considered for decades a peaceful enclave in turbulent Central America, has now made fighting drug trafficking one of its main goals. And it is turning to one of its Central American neighbours for inspiration in its hardline crackdown. On Wednesday, President Laura Fernandez inaugurated a mega-prison that emulates the Terrorism Confinement Centre (CECOT) that has become a symbol of Sa...

Five Guangdong-registered yachts will sail into Hong Kong waters on Friday when the Southbound Yacht Travel Scheme launches, the city’s marine chief has said, adding that officers will step up patrols. A ceremony marking the scheme’s maiden voyages will also take place. The launch is a key step in the government’s plan to develop Hong Kong’s yacht economy, as outlined in the city’s first five-year...

Pyongyang test-fired two types of cruise missile from a submarine, its state news agency said on Thursday, after weeks of friction with Seoul over a landmine explosion along their border. The missiles were fired into the East Sea, also known as the Sea of Japan, on Wednesday without “any adverse impact on the security of neighbouring countries”, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said....

Confronted by a fuel crisis beyond its control, Bangladesh’s government is spending hundreds of millions of dollars each month to insulate its people from surging prices. But as growth slows and inflation rises, the new government’s reform plans are being tested before it has had much time to clean up the country’s bad banks or retool its young, abundant – but underemployed – workforce for the AI...

Issues affecting ageing populations worldwide will form the core of discussions for policymakers and health industry leaders gathered at the Abu Dhabi Future Health Summit, with a particular emphasis on how practising prediction and prevention can help ensure life is lived to its fullest. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has positioned itself as a global leader in transformative healthcare policy, a...

Like people elsewhere in the world, Chinese people often have nicknames in addition to their official names. Some of these may surprise people from other cultures because they sound humble or even unflattering. Chinese parents have traditionally given their children humble, sometimes vulgar, nicknames – occasionally using animal names such as “Dog” or “Pig.” The practice dates back to ancient time...

Malaysian property tycoon Lee Yeow Seng is making waves as one of the most aggressive buyers of commercial real estate in Singapore, and he is not done yet. His IOI Properties Group is in exclusive talks and due diligence to purchase two property assets – Chijmes, a retail venue inside a former Catholic convent in its civic district, and the nearby Capitol Kempinski hotel, CEO Lee said in an inter...

At 17, Hong Kong secondary school student Agastya Rekhi has been teaching finance and economics to younger children for nearly three years. Meeting families struggling to understand how prices, investments and economic news impacted their daily lives during voluntary work convinced him that access to information was only part of the problem. How that information was communicated was just as import...

A stabbing rampage by a repeat violent offender wearing an electronic ankle monitor has raised questions about whether South Korea’s system can adequately supervise those deemed high-risk and prevent attacks before they happen. The 59-year-old suspect told investigators he had become frustrated over what he perceived as mistreatment at a hospital, police said on Wednesday. Three criminal profilers...

As the Chinese saying goes, “Even an upright judge finds it hard to settle family matters.” Whenever Chinese TV channels air reality shows that centre on couples or parent-child relationships, controversy is guaranteed. Heated debates ensue over who is right and who is wrong. Viewers examine every facial expression in microscopic detail and overanalyse every word before arriving at their verdict....

Singapore will “keep its options open” on taking legal action against errant companies as air quality in the city state deteriorates to very unhealthy levels. Singapore is collecting data on the haze as it weighs possible action under its Transboundary Haze Pollution Act, the Straits Times reported on Wednesday, citing Minister for Sustainability and the Environment Grace Fu. The law, enacted in 2...

The United States and China are in regular talks to iron out details of a framework announced last month for handling AI-related incidents and institutionalising bilateral dialogue, multiple sources told the South China Morning Post. The technical teams of the two countries aim to make AI cooperation a potential deliverable when presidents Xi Jinping and Donald Trump meet on the sidelines of the A...

Chinese military scientists claim they have developed an algorithm that could help identify electronic warfare units using civil aviation flight data. The researchers said they had located two sources of interference that were spoofing their locations near Israel during the conflict with Iran. The team did not explain why they had focused on the Israeli military. The researchers estimated the loca...

Hong Kong postal workers denied permanent contracts have criticised a special government transfer scheme as too narrow, calling for more pathways into roles that match their experience, such as workman and artisan positions. Several affected workers told the South China Morning Post on Wednesday that the concessions offered insufficient support and failed to reflect their skills or circumstances....

Japanese companies have faced a growing wave of cyberattacks in recent weeks, exposing millions of customers’ records as analysts warn that artificial intelligence is helping hackers exploit long-standing security weaknesses and overcome language barriers that once offered some protection. More than 500 breaches of corporate systems were reported in the year to this month, surpassing the total for...

The Australian defence ministry has launched an investigation into how a video recording device ended up in the cabin of a navy ship. The device was discovered aboard the HMAS Leeuwin, docked in the northeastern city of Cairns in the state of Queensland. Senator Jacqui Lambie – a prominent advocate for the Australian armed forces – said she had received a message from a former member of the navy c...

Amid Hong Kong’s commercial property downturn, British conglomerate Jardine Matheson has sold a street shop in Causeway Bay for HK$80 million (US$10.2 million) after holding it for more than 50 years, accepting a price HK$10 million below its earlier valuation. The property, a ground-floor shop in H&S Building at 36 Leighton Road, with a gross floor area of about 11,727 square feet, was acquired b...

The world is on the cusp of a “China shock 3.0” driven by exports of artificial intelligence (AI), biotechnology and robots, which could hit harder than the current wave, a leading economist on China has said. “We are already at the starting point of the China shock 3.0,” Alicia Garcia-Herrero, a senior fellow at Brussels-based think tank Bruegel and chief economist for Asia-Pacific at investment...

Susan Thornton is a former American diplomat who for decades worked on US policy in Eurasia in the State Department before becoming acting assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs during the first Trump presidency. She is the director of the Forum on Asia-Pacific Security at the National Committee on American Foreign Policy and a senior fellow at the Paul Tsai China Centre,...

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has called a nearly US$1.5 trillion defence budget request “absolutely critical”, warning that whoever falls behind in autonomy, robotics and AI will fall “even further behind” as Washington eyes China’s rapid military modernisation. Speaking at a panel discussion during the Association of the United States Army (AUSA) Annual Meeting and Exposition on Wednesday, H...

Be warned. The global economy is likely to experience a recession next year. War across the Middle East is set to escalate, wrecking energy supplies for many years, even as the artificial intelligence (AI) bubble is ripe to burst. This, however, would also create an energy leadership opportunity for China. High energy prices already fuel demand for Chinese renewable energy products and electric ve...

SpaceX boss Elon Musk said on Wednesday that any disruptions reported by Ukraine in using the Starshield satellite communications system would be the responsibility of the US government, not his company. “Starshield systems are owned and controlled by the US government. Any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military and ultimately POTUS,” Musk said, referring to US President Donald Tr...

US stocks dropped to their worst day since July on Wednesday, following the latest signal that inflation is getting worse. The S&P 500 sank 1.1 per cent for a fifth loss in the six days since setting its all-time high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 48 points, or 0.1 per cent, and the Nasdaq composite slid 1.9 per cent as stocks in the artificial-intelligence industry led the way lower. Sto...

Bank of America, the second-largest US bank, failed to promptly report hundreds of millions of dollars in suspicious transactions bearing signs of Chinese money-laundering networks, US regulators said on Tuesday, announcing more than US$1.21 billion in penalties for broader anti-money-laundering and sanctions failures. The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN, said the activity included...