China

1h ago

Delhi leads EV charge in India’s clean air push but not everyone goes with flow

In an affluent neighbourhood in New Delhi, electric vehicle charging stations near a popular shopping area were busy with drivers powering up their scooters, trucks and cars. India’s capital city is i...

1h ago

Windsurfer Lee Lai-shan wins Hong Kong’s first Olympic gold in 1996 – SCMP archive

This article was first published on July 30, 1996. Our golden girl by Nazvi Careem and Scott McKenzie Cheers and tears swept Hong Kong yesterday (July 29, 1996) on the back of the golden victory for O...

1h ago

Chinese passenger takes wheel as driver collapses from severe pain, rushing him to hospital

When a ride-hailing driver suddenly experienced severe stomach pain and requested his passenger to take over the wheel to exit the highway, she instead drove him directly to the hospital. On July 14,...

1h ago

China’s Pop Mart opens new store in Singapore’s Sentosa amid slowing domestic sales

Chinese toymaker Pop Mart International ramped up its global expansion on Wednesday by opening a new store on Singapore’s Sentosa Island – alongside its first overseas Pop Bakery dessert store in the...

2h ago

‘Take sides’? Malaysia insists on conditional neutrality amid US-China tech rivalry

Malaysia is finding it increasingly difficult to stay neutral in the US-China rivalry as the superpowers lock horns over trade, investment and the security of advanced technology, according to a top g...

2h ago

Hong Kong doctor acquitted 15 years after complaint as watchdog drops case

A Hong Kong ophthalmologist has been cleared of professional misconduct after the city’s medical watchdog decided to offer no evidence against him, 15 years after a complaint was lodged over his handl...

3h ago

Pentagon official hails ‘stronger’ military ties with PLA at anniversary event

A senior Pentagon official on Tuesday said US-China military communication was “stronger than it has been in years”, marking a rare bright spot in the broader strategic rivalry between the world’s two...

3h ago

Asian scam gangs snare educated English speakers with fake job ads: UN agency

The UN’s migration agency is warning that criminal networks have been trafficking hundreds of thousands of people – many of them educated English speakers – to work in online scam centres, and the cas...

4h ago

Japan quake death toll rises to 13 after newly reopened Aeon Mall collapses

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said 13 people have been found dead after a powerful quake shook part of southwestern Japan and rescue work was continuing Wednesday morning for the missing. A m...

4h ago

Independent bookshop of 50 years to close after national security raid

A 50-year-old independent bookshop has announced it will close when its lease ends, following a raid by Hong Kong national security police earlier this month. Greenfield Book Store, located on Sai Yeu...

4h ago

US Senate confirms Clayton as Trump’s new spy chief

The US Senate confirmed Jay Clayton as Donald Trump’s top intelligence official Tuesday, putting a permanent chief in charge of the country’s spy agencies as the president revives unsupported election...

4h ago

EU’s US$17 million maritime aid for Philippines targets Asian ‘fault lines’

The European Union’s upgraded partnership with the Philippines signals the bloc’s aim to diversify its Indo-Pacific strategy beyond trade into the security arena. Such a move shows Brussels is seeking...

4h ago

China has 6 of world’s 10 most innovative humanoid robot start-ups: report

China is widening its lead over the United States in the race to develop humanoid robots, with Chinese firms accounting for six of the world’s 10 most innovative start-ups in the sector, according to...

5h ago

Man dies, 78 people evacuated after fire breaks out at Hong Kong village house

A man was killed and nearly 80 people were forced to evacuate after a fire broke out at a village house in Hong Kong on Wednesday. Authorities said they were alerted at around 4.30am to a blaze at a m...

5h ago

HSBC to relocate senior executive to Hong Kong amid pivot to Asia: sources

HSBC Holdings will relocate its group chief people and governance officer, Aileen Taylor, from London to Hong Kong later this year, as the lender doubles down on expanding its Hong Kong and Asia opera...

5h ago

US posts photo of coastguard working with Taiwan after Beijing starts patrols

The United States has released a rare photo of the American and Taiwanese coastguards operating together at sea, as Beijing expands maritime law enforcement in waters east of the island. The American...

6h ago

AI competition heats up as US targets Southeast Asia’s public sector

Washington’s new AI Spark initiative to promote American artificial intelligence systems in Southeast Asia’s public services and digital infrastructure is seen as a move to counter the region’s deepen...

6h ago

How Hong Kong can chart a cycle-friendly course

During the opening ceremony of Ride to Shine Hong Kong this month, Secretary for Culture, Sports and Tourism Rosanna Law Shuk-pui challenged Hongkongers to cycle more than 1.2 million km – a distance...

6h ago

Chinese gaokao student’s inspiring story captivates nation after losing last relative

An 18-year-old Chinese girl recently lost her last living relative as she embarks on her university journey, yet she has declined donations, asking that they be given to others in need. Zeng Zixuan sc...

6h ago

Should China aim for the lead in making AI rules for the world?

Beijing should step in to fill the global “vacuum” in rules on artificial intelligence as a Chinese AI model opens up a policy divide in the United States, according to various institutions within Chi...

7h ago

AI boom will sustain Hong Kong’s export surge, lift GDP outlook, economists say

Hong Kong’s export surge will extend into the coming months, driven by the global AI boom, economists have told the South China Morning Post, adding that gross domestic product (GDP) growth could surp...

7h ago

South Korean scientists solve 250-year-old dementia-linked brain mystery

Researchers in South Korea say they have finally worked out how the brain flushes away waste – offering a clearer picture of the processes involved in dementia and other brain disorders that could one...

7h ago

Shanghai Clearing House targets global growth with expanded offshore yuan push

China is pushing a new model to boost international sales of its domestic bonds, with the Shanghai Clearing House (SHCH) leveraging global financial networks to expand the offshore yuan pool. Writing...

8h ago

Elon Musk launches invite-only X Money where users can send cash to one another

Elon Musk’s social media company X, formerly known as Twitter, launched its own bank account-like product where users can send money to one another. The service, known as X Money, is not a new bank. X...

8h ago

Life in prison, no parole, for US teenager who killed 4 in Georgia school shooting

A US teenager who shot dead four people at a high school with a gun his father gave him as a Christmas present was sentenced to life in prison on Tuesday. Colt Gray, 16, pleaded guilty to carrying out...

9h ago

Saudi Arabia says it shot down more drones as Houthis claim to have turned back tanker

Saudi Arabia said on Tuesday that it shot down drones fired by Iran-backed militias in Iraq for a second day, while Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen claimed to have forced a Saudi oil tanker to turn...

9h ago

US bans new Chinese robots, power inverters in latest tech crackdown

The Trump administration on Tuesday announced bans on imports of new Chinese robots and power inverters, citing threats to US national security and supply chain vulnerabilities. Without naming China,...

9h ago

Can China and Indonesia’s strong financial ties withstand ‘resource nationalism’?

Back in 2009, when China’s economy was expanding at about twice today’s pace, a little-known private firm made a quiet bet on uncharted territory: Indonesia. The company was on a quest: to secure nick...

10h ago

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang meets US officials as scrutiny grows over China chip access

Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang is meeting US officials and lawmakers in Washington this week amid reports that its export-controlled processors have been used to train advanced Chinese artificial...

11h ago

Cate Blanchett and Angelina Jolie appeal for refugee protections as UN convention turns 75

Cate Blanchett, Angelina Jolie and Archbishop of Canterbury Sarah Mullally were among public figures who on Tuesday called for refugee protections to be upheld as the United Nations decried mounting p...

11h ago

Defendant in Salman Rushdie stabbing declines to testify in federal terrorism trial

The man on trial in the stabbing of Salman Rushdie chose on Tuesday not to testify or call any witnesses in the federal terrorism case, which is expected to head to the jury as soon as Wednesday. Hadi...

12h ago

Keiko Fujimori sworn in as president of Peru following narrow election victory

Keiko Fujimori was sworn in as Peru’s ninth president in a decade at an official ceremony in Lima on Tuesday, Agence France-Presse journalists observed. The conservative 51-year-old won June’s run-off...

13h ago

Trump shows irritation with Netanyahu before White House talks on Iran

US President Donald Trump voiced ⁠irritation with Benjamin Netanyahu ahead of their White House meeting on Tuesday, complaining that details of the Israeli prime minister’s planned talking points on I...

14h ago

Zelensky has a ‘good meeting’ with Trump as he seeks more cooperation with US

US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met on Tuesday ahead of Senator Lindsey Graham’s funeral, with the two leaders discussing ways for Ukraine to produce its own power...

15h ago

France, Spain make headway against wildfires but new heatwave looms

Firefighters raced on Tuesday to subdue huge wildfires that have forced unprecedented evacuations of tens of thousands of people across France and Spain, as western Europe braced for another heatwave....

15h ago

Lindsey Graham eulogised as an ‘American original’ at memorial service

Senator Lindsey Graham, the son of pool hall owners who rose to become one of his generation’s more influential US politicians at home and abroad, was being eulogised Tuesday as a “swashbuckling” publ...

16h ago

‘I was quite scared’: Hongkonger in Japan’s quake-hit Kumamoto describes shock

A Hongkonger has described being “quite scared” as a 7.1-magnitude quake shook Japan’s southern Kumamoto prefecture where she and her boyfriend were travelling, while the city’s travel authority confi...

16h ago

Exclusive: The Jacob Helberg interview

16h ago

Record Chinese biotech out-licensing meets rising US scrutiny

China’s emergence as a global biotechnology innovation hub has become a source of strategic concern in the United States, prompting policymakers in Washington to re-evaluate how to respond to its grow...

16h ago

Telling Hong Kong judge to retire early is sufficient penalty for plagiarism: experts

Telling a Hong Kong judge found to have plagiarised submissions in his judgments to retire early is a sufficient penalty, as he has already suffered reputational damage and is losing tens of millions...

17h ago

Singapore growth to hold firm but AI boom a ‘major uncertainty’: central bank

Singapore’s economic growth should remain firm in the second half of 2026 although a major uncertainty is the sustainability of the AI investment boom, the head of its central bank said on Tuesday. Mo...

17h ago

Footprints in Kenya shed light on prehistoric human cousin Paranthropus

Footprints left on a muddy lakeshore in northern Kenya ⁠around 1.43 million years ago are providing new insight into the size and behaviour of a species in the human evolutionary lineage that was the...

17h ago

The Philippines, sovereignty and the Pax Silica Industrial Hub – how US’ Helberg sees it

The struggle between the US and China over who will lead in artificial intelligence is one of the defining competitions of our time. In the third part of our exclusive interview with a key player defi...

17h ago

HKU says next leader must have ‘fresh ideas’ for coming ‘transformation’

The University of Hong Kong (HKU) will launch a global hunt for its next leader to guide the institution to “fresh ideas” and through a coming “transformation”, the head of its governing council has s...

17h ago

Oman offers Iran Gulf-backed plan for voluntary fees to use Hormuz

Oman presented Iran with ⁠a plan backed by Gulf states to manage the Strait of Hormuz, including collecting voluntary fees for using it, a Gulf source and a Western diplomat told Reuters on Tuesday. T...

18h ago

Malaysian police raid online scam centres in Johor, arrest 335 people

Malaysian ⁠police have raided 32 premises ⁠hosting online scam activities in Forest City in the state of Johor, arresting 335 people and seizing assets worth about 1 million ringgit (US$245,000), acco...

18h ago

A new peak in US-China tech rivalry? Tibet drone hub launches on Mount Everest

Beijing has launched a drone research hub in Tibet near Mount Everest in an effort to exploit its high-altitude advantage in the ongoing competition for technological dominance between the US and Chin...

18h ago

China cracks down on sales of decommissioned military equipment ‘to protect PLA’s image’

Beijing has tightened its rules on the sale of military equipment to ban its sale through unauthorised channels. “In recent years, some business operators have openly sold, online and offline, goods …...

19h ago

India’s ‘cockroach’ protests reveal a deeper social mobility crisis

India’s latest youth protests began after examination papers were leaked. They could ultimately be seen as a referendum on the country’s development model. The immediate trigger was the controversy ar...