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With its sweeping victory in a key state election, the far-right Alternative for Germany is putting pressure on the ruling federal coalition and could nudge Berlin towards a more pragmatic approach to China, analysts said. By securing 43.8 per cent of the vote in the September 6 election in Saxony-Anhalt – more than double its 2021 result – the AfD sent shock waves and piled further pressure on Ch...
Malaysia’s Umno has been drawn deeper into a royal row in Negeri Sembilan, after the president of the dominant Malay nationalist party denied attending a meeting reportedly linked to a bid to remove the state’s ruler. The controversy has put the new Umno-led state government under pressure barely six weeks after taking office, reviving the same royal crisis that helped bring down its predecessor a...
DeepSeek has released its V4.1 Flash model, claiming it outperforms its previous flagship while cutting inference costs and boosting speeds – the latest salvo in China’s aggressive price-and-performance war. The Chinese artificial intelligence developer said on Thursday that V4.1 Flash used a new “Causal-Encoder-Decoder” architecture. While built on a massive 552 billion-parameter framework, it re...
Twenty-five people were killed after a fire broke out on Thursday morning aboard a foreign-flagged cargo ship in the eastern Chinese port city of Qingdao. The vessel with 42 people on board was undergoing repairs at the state-owned Qingdao Beihai shipyard, according to state broadcaster CCTV. The blaze, which started at around 11.15am, was put out by 2.30pm, the report said. Twelve people were eva...
At least 20 people have been killed after a fire broke out on Thursday morning aboard a foreign-flagged cargo ship in the eastern Chinese port city of Qingdao. The vessel with 42 people on board was undergoing repairs at the state-owned Qingdao Beihai shipyard, according to state broadcaster CCTV. The blaze, which started at around 11.15am, was put out by 2.30pm, the report said. Twelve people wer...
A foreign-flagged cargo ship caught fire on Thursday morning while docked for repairs in the eastern Chinese city of Qingdao, causing heavy casualties, state broadcaster CCTV reported. The blaze started at around 11.15am at the state-owned Qingdao Beihai shipyard, the report said. It did not say how many had been killed or injured. President Xi Jinping has given orders to step up search and rescue...
A foreign cargo ship caught fire on Thursday morning while docked for repairs in the eastern Chinese city of Qingdao, causing heavy casualties, state broadcaster CCTV reported. The report did not mention the number of killed or injured. President Xi Jinping has given orders to find those missing in the fire. More to follow...
China signalled a willingness to help set up a meeting between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, the South China Morning Post reported exclusively. Beijing is playing an “active” and “constructive” role in rebuilding US-North Korea diplomacy, the SCMP said on Thursday, citing unidentified people familiar with the matter. A Trump-Kim meeting could potentially take place...
All logos, colourful designs and branding will be stripped from cigarette packs in Hong Kong under new rules that take effect in March next year as part of a fresh push to reduce smoking rates. The Department of Health announced on Thursday that subsidiary legislation would require all retail packs of cigarettes, long cigarette boxes and specified cigars to drop brand logos and advertising element...
Hong Kong will introduce standardised cigarette packaging from March next year, with a nine-month transition period before full enforcement in December, as the city strips all branding and decorative design from packs and updates health warnings to reduce smoking rates. The Department of Health announced on Thursday that the new rules for smoking products will require all retail packs of cigarette...
Hundreds of Thais, led by a veteran political activist, rallied outside the Israeli Embassy in Bangkok on Thursday in a rare public protest against a group of foreign nationals. The protest follows months of complaints about illegal landholding, disrespect towards local culture and proliferation of religious houses for Israelis, echoing those made by some locals in the Philippines and Sri Lanka. I...
Hundreds of Thais, led by a veteran political activist, rallied outside the Israeli Embassy in Bangkok on Thursday in a rare public protest against a group of foreign nationals. The protest follows months of complaints about illegal landholding, disrespect towards local culture and proliferation of religious houses for Israelis, echoing those made by some locals in the Philippines and Sri Lanka. I...
Every climate summit now runs on the same illusion: the next pledge will be the one that finally saves us. It will not. The money the rich world has promised the poor world is not coming at anything like the scale advertised, and pretending otherwise has become the main business of climate diplomacy. Barely nine weeks before the UN climate summit Cop31 opens in Antalya, Turkey, the honest task is ...
Hong Kong has secured support from more than 50 organisations to develop common standards for the low-altitude economy, as the city seeks closer integration with the national strategy for the sector. The announcement was made on Thursday at a low-altitude economy forum attended by Secretary for Transport and Logistics Mable Chan. The low-altitude economy covers commercial activities involving dron...
Hong Kong signed two milestone memorandums of understanding with partners in the Greater Bay Area to harmonise standards and commercialise advanced aerial technology as the city accelerated its integration into national development plans. Deputy Financial Secretary Michael Wong Wai-lun said on Thursday the cross-border pacts would combine the production and testing capabilities of the Guangdong-Ho...
While German companies operating in China increasingly view the global expansion of local firms as a chance to collaborate, the window of opportunity is narrowing as Chinese firms quickly adapt, according to a new report. The internalisation of Chinese companies has emerged as the most frequently cited business opportunity for German firms in China, selected by 36 per cent of survey respondents an...
The educational ethos of “cultivating values and nurturing people” is based on a classic Chinese saying that emphasises building good morals and a sense of social responsibility alongside academic and technical knowledge. At the Education University of Hong Kong (EdUHK), this ethos drives the institution’s approach to its growth strategy, from the way its undergraduate and postgraduate programmes ...
Indonesia is demanding that Netflix pay an estimated 75 billion rupiah (US$4.3 million) in royalties accumulated since its launch in the country or risk being shut down. The National Collective Management Organisation (LMKN), a government-supported agency overseeing the country’s royalty system, said the streaming platform had not paid music royalties since entering the Indonesian market 10 years ...
Two laboratories in central China have been shut down for alleged surrogacy activities, an underground practice that persists despite repeated crackdowns. On Wednesday, the health bureau in Changsha, Hunan province, said six people were detained after a tip about a “laboratory that illegally uses assisted reproductive technologies”, according to state news agency Xinhua. A day earlier, the Wuhan M...
The suicide rate among under-15s in Hong Kong rose to a decade-high in 2025, defying an overall downward trend, with social media activity strongly linked to cases among young people, according to research from a local university. The Hong Kong Jockey Club Centre for Suicide Research and Prevention at the University of Hong Kong also used World Suicide Prevention Day on Thursday to call for school...
The suicide rate among under-15s in Hong Kong rose to a decade-high in 2025, going against a downward trend overall, with social media activity strongly predictive of cases among young people, according to research from a local university. The Centre for Suicide Research and Prevention at the University of Hong Kong also used World Suicide Prevention Day on Thursday to call for schools to ramp up ...
Chinese artificial intelligence start-up Moonshot AI, developer of the popular Kimi K3 model, may explore options for dual listings in Hong Kong and Shanghai in pursuit of greater capital and exposure, according to two people familiar with the matter. Since a meeting with its financial backers in July, when the Beijing-based company announced plans for an initial public offering in Hong Kong, it h...
A Hong Kong court has sentenced two men with autism to up to three years and two months in prison for their involvement in a pro-independence group seeking to separate the city from Chinese sovereignty. District Court Judge Ernest Lin Kam-hung on Thursday found that courier Chan Tai-sum, 27, and waiter Ng Chi-tung, 25, had been heavily involved in the Taiwan-based Hong Kong Democratic Independence...
We have selected seven Lifestyle stories from the past seven days that resonated with our readers. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. The wild days of Hong Kong’s Category III era: when sex and gore went mainstream The adults-only, Category III rating was introduced in 1988, making stars of actresses including Shu Qi and Amy Yip 2. Sugar’s link to deme...
Apple’s long-awaited entry into the foldable smartphone market, the iPhone Duo, has drawn immediate attention in China over its eye-watering price tag and exclusive dual-eSIM design, as the American tech giant targets entrenched domestic rivals Huawei Technologies and Xiaomi. Unveiled on Wednesday, the iPhone Duo – Apple’s thinnest and most expensive flagship model yet – captured the attention of ...
Mainland Chinese supermarkets, including US warehouse retailer Sam’s Club, have dropped the Hong Kong-bound vegetable label under new customs rules. The change has triggered widespread concern among consumers, as the label had long served as a selling point for high quality amid frequent mainland food-safety incidents. The removal stems from new rules by the General Administration of Customs. From...
China’s next-generation combat aircraft will be able to fly by themselves if a pilot loses consciousness, navigate without satellite signals and operate in self-reorganising large drone formations. That is the plan laid out by researchers from the Shenyang Aircraft Design & Research Institute, a top Chinese military aircraft design organisation, in a paper last month. The institute is associated w...
While Singapore’s officials are among the highest-paid in the world, money alone cannot attract the brightest leaders to public service, lawmakers have said during a debate on the increase in ministerial salaries – a move supported by both opposition and ruling party MPs. The parliamentary discussion on Thursday, which saw MPs share their personal reflections on stepping into public office, follow...
Workers’ Party chief Pritam Singh has called for a more modest increase to Singapore’s ministerial salaries, challenging the argument that a higher pay was needed to attract top talent from the private sector. At Thursday’s parliamentary debate on changes to the political salary framework, Singh questioned if the city state’s high-earners in the private sector were deterred from politics because o...
Grab Singapore has apologised after a new promotional series formatted like popular Chinese microdramas raised concerns over personal boundaries and passenger safety in the city state. Titled I Fell In Love With My Grab Driver, the video campaign stars local actress-model Regina Lim as Emily, a widow stretched thin by the demands of her children and mother. The campaign’s trailer, released on Frid...
