News - South China Morning Post

Future settlers on Mars would need houses, but they must either spend huge sums transporting construction materials from Earth or use enormous amounts of energy to melt Martian soil into bricks. Scientists in Hong Kong say they have developed a quick and low-cost “living” building material made from genetically engineered yeast, gelatin and sand that can be 3D printed under conditions simulating t...

Malaysia is proving to be a middle ground for many Hong Kong and mainland Chinese investors looking to buy property in a country that provides the stability Singapore offers, but with competitive price points similar to those found in Thailand, according to analysts. Data from Juwai IQI, a property portal with 7 million listings across 111 countries, showed that in the first half of 2026, Malaysia...

Cornell University president Michael Kotlikoff said he was “deeply disturbed” by a student’s 2024 rape allegation that has drawn national outrage. “My heart aches when I think of what she experienced,” Kotlikoff said in a video message released on Saturday, saying the university must “do everything we can to prevent what happened to Jane Doe” from happening again. Lawyers for a Jane Doe last month...

From cooking and attending hospital visits to doing the actual quarrelling, paid “life stand-ins” are stepping in to manage these tasks, along with errands and awkward moments that many young Chinese would rather avoid. This trend, known as the “stand-in economy,” is gaining traction among time-strapped consumers who are willing to pay for convenience when daily responsibilities exceed their time,...

Two decades after stepping away from the spotlight, iconic actress Joey Wong made an unexpected return to the screen – not through a traditional production, but via artificial intelligence-powered reconstruction. In a two-minute video by NetEase this summer, Wong, one of the most well-known actresses of the 1980s and 90s, had some of her most celebrated roles recreated, including the beautiful gho...

Final-year students invited to recruiters’ apartments for help with their applications. Coffee dates with alumni who promise to explain how the company works. Inappropriate interview questions about boyfriends, marriage plans and sex lives. For young women in Japan, looking for a job has long entailed submitting themselves to the skewed power dynamics of the recruitment process. And before Thursda...

Since July, Hong Kong has permitted dogs in approved dining premises under a tightly regulated scheme. More than 2,200 restaurants applied, with more than 980 taking part within the first month. On the surface, these are straightforward changes to the rules around where dogs are allowed. But they reflect something more significant: a changing relationship between Hong Kong and the dogs who also ca...

US President Donald Trump shared online the supposed phone number of a Republican US senator on Saturday in an escalating dispute over making daylight saving time permanent. In a social media post, the president urged people to call a phone number he said belonged to Senator Tom Cotton, an Arkansas Republican who opposes the Trump-backed Sunshine Protection Act. The act would end the twice-yearly...

Hong Kong is playing a central role as part of a broader regional hub for research breakthroughs, the head of a leading global cancer organisation has said, adding that the city’s success in reducing its smoking rate has set an example for others to follow. Cary Adams, CEO of the Union for International Cancer Control, praised the city’s tobacco control efforts as the organisation held the World C...

As floodwaters surged from Bangkok’s drains, Fon’s car sank faster than her hopes of escaping the floods unscathed. She had bought it less than a month earlier. “I woke up at 5am but it was too late,” the 24-year-old said, recalling her decision last weekend to wait until dawn to move her car to a nearby shopping centre. “My car was already submerged. I hadn’t even started making the payments and...

Latvian Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs’ party was on course to win the largest share of votes in an election on Saturday amid growing security threats from Russia, putting him in a strong position ahead of coalition talks to form the next government. The United List secured 35.6 per cent of the vote, according to an exit poll released by LTV public broadcaster. If confirmed, this would be the best...

From online-gambling rings in eSwatini to SIM swapping in Kenya and cybercrime networks in Zambia, a wave of cross-border fraud is drawing African governments and China into closer security cooperation. China hosted East African security ministers and police chiefs in Lianyungang, Jiangsu province, on September 10 for talks on terrorism, kidnapping, online fraud and other cross-border threats. Chi...

When one of my seniors from medical school was pregnant during her surgical residency, she planned the exact date of her C-section so she could complete her training on time. When I asked why she didn’t consider taking maternity leave to recuperate afterwards, she said she couldn’t bring herself to lag behind her peers. “I didn’t want motherhood to slow me down,” she said. In medicine, it is commo...

The head of Tennessee’s prison system is resigning, Governor Bill Lee announced on Saturday, the first major shake-up since the stunning failed execution of Christa Pike landed her on a ventilator at a hospital. Frank Strada, commissioner of the Department of Correction, will step down this month, Lee said. Strada said in a statement that resigning was “in the best interest of Tennesseans” while a...

Authorities have launched a probe into the building quality of a luxury residential development in one of Hong Kong’s most expensive neighbourhoods in the Southern district after receiving a complaint from an owner that insufficient steel bars were used during construction. The Buildings Department said on Saturday it was “highly concerned about the incident” relating to One Stanley in Stanley, bu...

Christie’s auctioneer Rupert Banner leans forward with practised showmanship as bidding stalls on a rare Yongzheng bowl near New York’s iconic Rockefeller Centre. He pauses as if willing offers from thin air, scanning dozens of in-person buyers and phone banks connecting with China, London, Texas. It will be a bad look if the frenzy abates for this delicate peach-decorated bowl highlighted on Chri...

Flames and smoke were seen rising from a facility belonging to Saudi oil giant Aramco south of the kingdom’s capital Riyadh on Saturday, an AFP journalist said. The circumstances remained unclear but in recent weeks Aramco, majority-owned by the Saudi state, has come under attack from the Houthi group targeting the kingdom as part of the war in Yemen where Riyadh is backing the internationally rec...

The US is set to deploy one of its signature anti-ship missile systems to the Japanese island closest to Taiwan, an unprecedented move that comes as tensions in the region between Beijing and Tokyo continue to simmer. The ground-based US uncrewed missile platform known as the Navy-Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System (NMESIS) will be deployed on Yonaguni Island in Japan’s Okinawa prefectu...

As global adoption of the open-source RISC-V chip architecture accelerates, US intellectual property provider MIPS is collaborating with Chinese firms at an unprecedented level, according to a senior executive, highlighting how cross-border cooperation persists despite intense tech rivalry between Washington and Beijing. MIPS, which was acquired by US chipmaker GlobalFoundries last year, was drivi...

North Korea said on Saturday it test-fired an intermediate-range ballistic missile that it claimed has manoeuvrable flight capabilities designed to evade missile defences in South Korea and Japan. The latest test comes amid heightened tensions between the two Koreas over border landmine blasts. Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, said her brother supervised the tes...

Hong Kong public universities will raise undergraduate tuition fees for non-local students studying general courses by up to 26 per cent in the 2027-28 academic year, marking the sharpest increase in recent years as institutions adjust to an expanded quota. Non-local students admitted to the University of Hong Kong’s (HKU) medicine and dentistry programmes will face the steepest jump, with annual...

Hong Kong police have busted a burglary syndicate that recruited illegal immigrants and is believed to be behind at least 25 break-ins across the city in recent weeks, with stolen cash and valuables exceeding HK$3.6 million (US$458,773). Six people aged 31 to 45 – five mainlanders and a local resident – were arrested in a Friday operation following a review of surveillance footage, police said. Th...

Chinese troops have taken part in a mass multinational exercise in Russia featuring new anti-drone and ground robot systems – drills that Russian state media said “applied lessons” from the Ukraine war. The troops were among more than 47,000 military personnel involved in the Tsentr-2026 – or Centre-2026 – drills in the central western Chelyabinsk region from Monday until Saturday. The Russian Min...

Thirty-one years ago, Hongkonger Raymond Lo Shu-yuen was diagnosed with stage four liver cancer and had a quarter of the organ removed. Now 75, Lo said the illness, despite its physical and mental toll, had taught him invaluable lessons about ageing, health and making the most of life. “I can say that the cancer itself saved me,” he said. “Why? If I did not have this illness, I would not have chan...

The botanical societies of the United States and China have signed a plant science cooperation initiative, vowing to strengthen bilateral ties and foster an open scientific community to tackle global issues. The joint initiative was signed during a Sino-American botany conference last month in Taian, in China’s eastern Shandong province, which brought together hundreds of experts from institutions...