News - South China Morning Post

Russia attacked Ukraine with missiles and drones on Saturday, killing two and wounding 19 others, officials said, as Kyiv awaits supplies of air defence munitions after a shortage has ‌left it exposed to Russian attacks. Eleven people were wounded in the capital, Kyiv, by an attack that used ballistic and cruise missiles as well as drones. “Civilian infrastructure was hit even before the air raid...

Hong Kong student numbers at UK private schools experienced a record decline after Britain imposed a 20 per cent tax on fees last year, with total enrolment falling by 17 per cent and new admissions down by 26 per cent. A consultant specialising in student recruitment for British private schools said enrolment levels had returned to those seen before Hong Kong’s emigration wave, with parents becom...

Hong Kong police have arrested 65 people, including 11 sex workers and 54 others involved in suspected illegal gambling, in a two-day joint crackdown with fire services and immigration authorities targeting triad-linked income sources. The force said on Saturday that another three people were issued summonses for running an illegal petrol station during the joint operation conducted on Thursday an...

The Chinese ambassador to India’s attempt at bridge-building has triggered a fierce nationalist backlash back home, including accusations that he has lost sight of his role. “The ambassador seems to have forgotten his actual job,” one social media user wrote this month of Xu Feihong, arguing that the envoy’s role was to make Indians more friendly towards China – not the other way round. Another to...

New Zealand and India announced on Saturday the creation of a strategic partnership encompassing defence and security, during a landmark visit by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon feted his guest with an indigenous Maori welcome and a guard of honour, seeking to expand relations after signing a free-trade pact in April that he has touted as an economic boon. Modi’s vis...

Hong Kong’s police chief has thrown his weight behind a controversial government reform of the appraisal system that will deny a pay rise to the bottom 5 per cent of performers, despite concerns raised by frontline officers. Commissioner of Police Joe Chow Yat-ming said on Saturday that management would step up efforts to explain the new policy to staff through various internal channels. “As the h...

More than 130 flights between Hong Kong, Taiwan, mainland China and Japan have been cancelled, while 10 high-speed rail services have been suspended as Typhoon Bavi barrels towards China’s east coast. Hong Kong International Airport’s webpage showed that 64 inbound flights and 71 outbound flights were cancelled on Saturday, with more than half scheduled to travel between the city and Taipei. Servi...

Turkey’s health ministry has fined more than 100 obstetrician-gynaecologists for carrying out cesarean sections, suspending them from duty and forcing them to undergo training. The country has the highest rate of C-section births among the OECD’s 38 nations, according to the last available data from 2023, with around 615 such procedures out of every 1,000 live births that year. Medical professiona...

BYD, the world’s largest electric vehicle (EV) maker, has intensified efforts to promote its high-performance batteries and superfast charging technology around the world as it tests a car that it says boasts the world’s longest driving range in a journey from Rome to Hong Kong. A fleet of upgraded versions of the Z9GT, a car produced under BYD’s premium Denza brand, has been travelling across Eur...

Volkswagen Group’s deliveries in China slumped during the first half of 2026 to their lowest level in 16 years, as local electric vehicle (EV) brands further siphoned off buyers’ interest in petrol cars amid a slowing market. Through its three ventures with Chinese partners, the German car brand handed over a total of 971,000 units to customers in China between January and June, down 26.1 per cent...

The brave new world of artificial intelligence (AI) is going to be a mixed and divisive blessing for governments – not least those of key Asian countries – as well as for financial markets. The AI revolution points to higher economic growth for economies linked to the tech supply chain, with others being left behind. It also signals the potential for financial crises. Balancing these risks will be...

A 19-year-old Chinese student recently made a will bequeathing his personal wealth of 20 million yuan (US$2.9 million) to his childhood friend, sparking heated discussion online. The teenager from Shanghai, surnamed Li, recently set up a notarised will to bequeath the property under his name, including a flat and savings of millions of yuan, to his childhood friend. Li claimed that his parents had...

Tolls at Hong Kong’s cross-harbour tunnels could be adjusted in the future to better control the flow of vehicles as traffic volume has exceeded levels recorded before fees were overhauled in late 2023, transport authorities have said. A Transport Department paper submitted to the Legislative Council said tolls would need to remain flexible in the future because queues during some peak periods wer...

US-imposed sanctions targeting other countries and a growing list of Chinese laws aimed at countering the measures are creating a compliance minefield for African businesses dealing with the world’s top two economies. At risk is a broad range of industries including mining, banking, telecommunications, technology, energy, infrastructure and others in which African businesses are simultaneously exp...

Pan Sok still remembers his relative screaming as a tiger dragged him away one night, deep inside the Cambodian rainforest where they were tapping trees for resin. So he is “not happy” about a plan to reintroduce the big cats, a decade after they were declared extinct in Cambodia. “I saw the tiger take him with my own eyes,” he said, describing the attack that took place over 30 years ago. “He was...

No government subsidies will be needed to build the long-awaited Pak Shek Kok station on the East Rail line, Hong Kong’s minister has said, after authorities agreed to grant the MTR Corporation development rights at two sites. Secretary for Development Bernadette Linn Hon-ho said on Saturday that the “rail-plus-property” model would fully cover construction costs, even though a detailed estimate h...

Three-legged dogs and one-eyed cats are common sights at a veterinary clinic opened by an animal welfare group in the Fo Tan area of Hong Kong’s Sha Tin district, with some of the creatures having been there so long that the centre has become their home. While their injuries or illnesses vary, they share the same painful experience of being displaced by the Northern Metropolis, a government projec...

Footage of the punishment quickly went viral: an unmarried couple each receiving 21 lashes of the cane in Indonesia’s Aceh province after being accused of kissing in a car and live-streaming it on TikTok. As each blow landed on their backs, the unnamed man, 22, and woman, 25, visibly grimaced. The woman later burst into tears, wailing in pain as the public punishment continued. The caning was carr...

US President Donald Trump threatened Iran on Saturday after the funeral of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei saw open calls for his killing, further underlining the tensions gripping the Middle East, as an interim deal to end the war buckles under repeated crossfire in the region. Trump made the comments on social media after senior US officials demanded that Iran make a public statement sayin...

For a man sanctioned by Beijing, barred from visiting China and accused of damaging bilateral ties, Gilberto Teodoro Jnr sounded remarkably composed. Composed, that is, until the conversation turned to the South China Sea – the very subject that landed him in hot water in the first place. In an interview this week, the Philippines’ defence chief said that Manila would keep only limited military co...

Shanghai raised its local typhoon warning on Saturday afternoon as eastern China braced for the arrival of Typhoon Bavi, cancelling flights and ferry services and evacuating thousands of people. As of 6pm, Shanghai transport authorities had limited the speed on the overground sections of four subway lines, and warned it may impose further limits or partially suspend services on the rest of the net...

Russia’s decision to ban diesel exports this week has roiled global energy markets, exacerbating shortages of the industrial fuel and sending prices soaring, even in countries that no longer buy the fuel from Moscow. Diesel accounts for the largest share of global oil consumption and soaring prices can ripple through the global economy given its wide range ‌of uses, from industrial machinery and f...

A profound demographic and economic shift is sweeping through Asia, quietly rewriting the rules of national development. The traditional paradigm of treating population ageing as a passive fiscal burden is being dismantled as Beijing makes the “silver economy” and proactive ageing strategies the pillars of national security and economic growth. China’s population aged 60 and above reached 320 mill...

The Philippine consulate in Hong Kong is investigating allegations that domestic helpers are being recruited in the city to become surrogate mothers for couples in other countries for up to 1 million pesos (US$16,220). At least five Filipino domestic helpers recruited in Hong Kong said they were not paid the promised amount despite carrying babies to full term, with one woman told that the child b...

Polling stations across Malaysia’s Johor state closed at 6pm on Saturday, with the voter turnout nearing the expected 70 per cent of a more than 2.7 million electorate. All eyes are now on the results – set to determine the stability of Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s coalition government. Johor has become a battleground between federal partners – Pakatan Harapan (PH), led by Anwar, and Barisan Nas...