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Authorities across eastern China have stepped up their emergency preparations and cancelled hundreds of flights as Typhoon Bavi, the ninth storm of the season, intensified overnight and barrelled towards the coast on Saturday. The storm is forecast to make landfall between Taizhou in Zhejiang province and Fuding in Fujian province in the early hours of Sunday, packing winds of up to 45 metres per ...
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...
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...
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 Central Asia 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 born...
The coalition of Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim was dealt a blow on Saturday after state rival Barisan Nasional (BN) trounced Pakatan Harapan (PH) in the Johor election. The Election Commission announced BN’s victory of 48 seats so far, out of 56 up for grabs, with PH managing only seven. BN’s result was better than the 40 seats it secured in the 2022 race. The vote count for the final sea...
Malaysia’s Barisan Nasional (BN) has retained the state of Johor with a simple majority amid vote-counting on Saturday night, securing 29 out of 56 seats and beating Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition. Johor was turned into a battleground between the federal partners, with both coalitions fielding candidates in every constituency and a voter turnout nearing the expected ...
Malaysia’s Johor election closed on Saturday with the dominant coalition Barisan Nasional (BN) set to retain its grip on the state, beating Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s Pakatan Harapan (PH). Johor was turned into a battleground between the federal partners, with both coalitions fielding candidates in every constituency and a voter turnout nearing the expected 70 per cent mark for a more than 2.7...
Malaysia’s Johor state election closed on Saturday with unofficial tallies showing the dominant coalition Barisan Nasional (BN) firmly ahead of Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s Pakatan Harapan (PH). The final results will determine the stability of Anwar’s coalition government, with Johor turned into a battleground between the federal partners. Both coalitions fielded candidates in every constituenc...
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...
Red, blue and yellow flags crowded the roads into Johor Bahru before dawn on Saturday, lashed to lamp posts, flyovers and roadside trees after a campaign in which Malaysia’s governing allies spent two weeks trying to cut each other down. The campaign ended at 11.59pm on Friday, silencing the loudspeakers and convoys that had criss-crossed the state since late June. At 8am, the contest moved to 1,0...
A young woman from southeastern China who once posed with her father outside Tsinghua University as a child has fulfilled a long-held dream by graduating from the elite Beijing institution. Wu Han, from Guangdong province, recently drew widespread attention on mainland social media after sharing two photos taken 17 years apart. In June, she received a master’s degree from Tsinghua University’s Aca...
As residents of eastern China brace for Typhoon Bavi to make landfall, bloggers have turned to AI weather models to post forecasts on social media, prompting criticism from state media, which warned that the amateur predictions could fall foul of the law. State broadcaster China Media Group reported on Thursday that some bloggers claiming to be “weather enthusiasts” were issuing forecasts using da...
There is a bogus version of Singapore’s prime minister that exists only to steal money. It connected to a Zoom call, thanked a stranger for his time and helped relieve him of US$3.8 million – with the real Lawrence Wong, for a time, none the wiser about what had happened. The victim had received a WhatsApp message purporting to be from the secretary to the cabinet, inviting him to a private meetin...
China on Friday accused the United States of misusing its national power by blacklisting more than 60 Chinese companies, alleging that Washington has “disregarded the consensus” reached between US President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing in May. In early June, the Pentagon blacklisted dozens of Chinese companies – including Alibaba, Baidu and BYD – as “Chinese military compa...
Apple on Friday sued OpenAI, accusing the artificial intelligence company of orchestrating a campaign to steal the iPhone maker’s trade secrets as it tries to develop its own consumer hardware device. The lawsuit – filed in a federal court in San Jose, California – paints a picture of an aggressive effort by OpenAI to poach Apple employees and extract confidential information to build its own devi...
Wu Shicun is the founding president of China’s National Institute for South China Sea Studies and chairman of the Huayang Centre for Maritime Cooperation and Ocean Governance. In this interview he discusses ways Beijing can respond to rival claimants in the disputed waters. SCMP Plus readers get early access to articles in the Open Questions series. With Manila intensifying its “transparency” camp...
As the United States marks the 250th anniversary of its founding, it confronts a new world order dominated by its relationship with China. In this wide-ranging series, we examine the pressure points and possibilities in those ties, from hard tech to soft power. Here, Xinyi Wu examines how changes to Washington’s trade policy have reverberated through the formerly secure international economic orde...
We are all used to Western assessments of Deng Xiaoping. You may even be convinced by them, as I was for a long time. Ezra Vogel, for example, wrote in Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China: “It was [Deng] who would finally realise the mission that others had tried for almost two centuries to achieve, of finding a path that would make China rich and powerful.” And, according to Orville Sch...
US President Donald Trump faces questions about the security of his new Air Force One plane gifted by Qatar, after he took an older jet home from a Nato summit this week. The billionaire president has barely been able to contain his excitement over the retrofitted Boeing 747-8 aircraft, which took him to Ankara on its maiden trip outside the United States. But then Trump abruptly announced in Turk...
US President Donald Trump faces questions about the security of his new Air Force One plane gifted by Qatar, after he took an older jet home from a Nato summit this week. The billionaire president has barely been able to contain his excitement over the retrofitted Boeing 747-8 aircraft, which took him to Ankara on its maiden trip outside the United States. But then Trump abruptly announced in Turk...
British police arrested a man on Friday on suspicion of murdering Ann Widdecombe, after the 78-year-old former government minister and Reform UK politician was found dead having “sustained serious injuries”. Police said a 26-year-old, white British man had been arrested in Newton Abbot, a town about 15km (nine miles) from Widdecombe’s home in rural southwest England. Devon and Cornwall police ass...
King Charles hosted Prince Harry and met with his family for the first time in years Friday as they try to repair a rift that has persisted since his youngest son and wife quit royal life and moved to America six years ago. Harry, Meghan, and their two children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, met with the king and Queen Camilla at Highgrove House, a country estate west of London. The Duke of ...
A new round of US-China dialogue on the risks of artificial intelligence, even just for the sake of dialogue, will be important for furthering US national security, according to former senior US officials responsible for China affairs. The assessment comes after the world’s two leading AI superpowers agreed to a new round of intergovernmental talks on AI safety following the Trump-Xi summit in Bei...
A new round of US-China dialogue on the risks of artificial intelligence, even just for the sake of dialogue, will be important for furthering US national security, according to former senior US officials responsible for China affairs. The assessment comes after the world’s two leading AI superpowers agreed to a new round of intergovernmental talks on AI safety following the Trump-Xi summit in Bei...
A woman who authorities say married more than a dozen men in Las Vegas to fund her gambling has agreed to plead guilty to two felonies. Jiaying Chen, 33, waived her right to a preliminary hearing during an appearance before Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Rebecca Saxe on Tuesday. Chen’s lawyer, Thomas Wells, said she plans to plead guilty later this week to one count each of bigamy and obtaining mo...
The absence of Iran’s supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei from the funeral ceremonies of Ali Khamenei raised questions about his health and fear of assassination, as well as indicating he may perform a quite different function as No 1 compared with his all-powerful father. The marathon funeral ceremonies for Ali Khamenei, killed on February 28 in an air strike on the first day of the US-Israeli war wi...
It’s not yet the winter holiday season, but Christmas trees are back in the spotlight, caught in the geopolitical tug of war between Washington and Beijing. As the United States and China work to stabilise ties through a newly proposed bilateral trade mechanism, one of the most vocal groups weighing in is not the technology industry or manufacturers, but American Christmas tree growers determined ...
US President Donald Trump said on Friday that Washington had agreed to resume discussions with Iran despite declaring an end to the fragile truce that had halted months of conflict between the two countries. “The Islamic Republic of Iran has asked us to continue ‘talks.’ We have agreed to do so, but the United States has stated to them, in no uncertain terms, that the Cease Fire is OVER!” Trump wr...
