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Debate star and physicist Guo Yanliang leaves a top European quantum lab for China
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Debate star and physicist Guo Yanliang leaves a top European quantum lab for China

Guo Yanliang, a champion debater who honed his argumentation skills in international contests and on online variety shows, has left one of Europe’s top quantum laboratories to set up his own research group in Beijing. Guo, 33, says he sees scientific research as a debate between different opinions, which made him more compatible with China than Europe. This year, he returned to China to take a pos...

Philippine retailers tweak recipe to feed consumer demand for cheaper goods
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Philippine retailers tweak recipe to feed consumer demand for cheaper goods

From switching ingredients to staggering price increases, Philippine companies are rethinking strategies to cover rising costs without losing customers squeezed by inflation and a weak peso. The Philippines is now grappling with the second-weakest growth and fastest inflation among Southeast Asia’s economies after a corruption scandal weighed on confidence and the Iran war stoked consumer prices. ...

Chinese woman, 31, faces lifelong walking issues after water-only diet cuts 20kg in weeks
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Chinese woman, 31, faces lifelong walking issues after water-only diet cuts 20kg in weeks

A woman from central China undertook a fasting regimen for half a month and lost 20kg, but ultimately suffered from a serious brain disorder from which she may never fully recover. The 31-year-old woman from Henan province, who wishes to remain anonymous, was recently reported by local media to have developed walking difficulties and memory deterioration after consuming nothing but water for 15 co...

Hong Kong needs clearer framework for handling high heat on work sites
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Hong Kong needs clearer framework for handling high heat on work sites

Feel strongly about these letters, or any other aspects of the news? Share your views by emailing us your Letter to the Editor at letters@scmp.com or filling in this Google form. Submissions should not exceed 400 words. Public debate over Hong Kong’s recent heatwave has rightly focused on protecting frontline workers. However, one group remains largely absent from the discussion: site managers and...

Gang attack in Haiti leaves at least 47 dead as anger mounts over police failures

Gang attack in Haiti leaves at least 47 dead as anger mounts over police failures

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At least 47 people were killed and 22 more injured in an overnight gang raid on a neighbourhood overlooking Haiti’s capital of Port-au-Prince, the UN said on Monday, prompting anger over the lack of protection from repeated deadly attacks. The United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti ‌said estimates could still change. The hillside community of Kenscoff, in a strategic position overlooking routes...

Landslide kills 18 people in Hong Kong’s Sau Mau Ping – SCMP archive

Landslide kills 18 people in Hong Kong’s Sau Mau Ping – SCMP archive

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This article was first published on August 26, 1976. Tragedy hits Sau Mau Ping At least seven people, including four children, were killed by the landslide that hit Sau Mau Ping Estate yesterday (August 25, 1976). Yesterday’s disaster was only a few blocks away from a slope which slipped on June 18, 1972, killing 67 people. Fire Services teams, assisted by the Army, spent the night under search li...

Singapore reports rise in home thefts, shoplifting and molestation

Singapore reports rise in home thefts, shoplifting and molestation

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The number of theft cases in homes jumped by about 25 per cent in the first half of 2026, even as Singapore’s overall physical crime situation remained stable. There were 459 thefts in dwelling cases at residential premises in the first six months of the year, up 25.1 per cent from 367 cases over the same period in 2025, according to the Singapore police’s midyear crime brief for 2026. Theft in dw...

In Singapore, molest, shoplifting and theft in dwelling rise in first half of 2026: police

In Singapore, molest, shoplifting and theft in dwelling rise in first half of 2026: police

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The number of theft cases in homes jumped by about 25 per cent in the first half of 2026, even as Singapore’s overall physical crime situation remained stable. There were 459 thefts in dwelling cases at residential premises in the first six months of the year, up 25.1 per cent from 367 cases over the same period in 2025, according to the Singapore police’s midyear crime brief for 2026. Theft in dw...

Gold strategy: how a Chinese vault network could bolster yuan’s role

Gold strategy: how a Chinese vault network could bolster yuan’s role

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China is building a global network of gold vaults and accelerating central bank reserve buying as part of efforts to promote the yuan’s role in international trade, according to an S&P Global Ratings report on Tuesday. Firms such as Zijin Mining – China’s largest gold processor – and Shandong Gold Mining were also expected to expand “faster than most of their global peers” after Beijing reclassifi...

Gold strategy: why a Chinese global network of vaults would bolster yuan’s trade role

Gold strategy: why a Chinese global network of vaults would bolster yuan’s trade role

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China is building a global network of gold vaults and accelerating central bank reserve buying as part of efforts to promote the yuan’s role in international trade, according to an S&P Global Ratings report on Tuesday. Chinese gold miners, such as the mainland’s largest gold processor Zijin Mining, and Shandong Gold Mining, were also expected to expand “faster than most of their global peers” afte...

Hottest ocean temperature recorded as ‘super’ El Nino forms

Hottest ocean temperature recorded as ‘super’ El Nino forms

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Scientists have recorded the highest temperature ever measured in the world’s oceans, as climate change combines with a powerful El Nino in the tropical Pacific. The global average sea-surface temperature hit a record 21.1 degrees Celsius (70 Fahrenheit) on August 22, according to Europe’s Earth observation agency Copernicus, which has been tracking the metric daily since 1979. The previous single...

Hong Kong to revamp senior secondary science and maths curriculum from 2029-30

Hong Kong to revamp senior secondary science and maths curriculum from 2029-30

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Hong Kong’s education authorities will revamp the senior secondary school science and extended maths curriculum by providing additional syllabus options from the 2029-30 academic year in a bid to attract more students and nurture talent in the field. The Education Bureau also said it had asked schools to actively encourage students interested in science and mathematics to take two or more science ...

Netanyahu says Iran tried to kill one of his sons

Netanyahu says Iran tried to kill one of his sons

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that Iran had attempted to assassinate one of his two sons, without offering further details. “Something incredible happened: Iran targeted one of my sons. Iran tried to kill one of my sons,” Netanyahu said during a phone interview with Israel’s Channel 14. The claim came during a discussion about reports that the Shin Bet domestic security ...

South Korea pledges to help Trump revive talks with North Korea’s Kim

South Korea pledges to help Trump revive talks with North Korea’s Kim

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South Korea and the US agreed to maintain close coordination on efforts to revive dialogue with North Korea, days after Pyongyang rebuffed President Donald Trump’s overtures and launched a barrage of short-range ballistic missiles. South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun told US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a phone call late on Monday that Seoul would work to ensure that Trump’s recent message...

Reflections of a reformed grammar Nazi

Reflections of a reformed grammar Nazi

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“Nothing bad can happen. It can only good happen.” Donald J. Trump It would be easy to write off the regular word salads of America’s 47th president as the increasingly incoherent ramblings of an elderly man in obvious mental and physical decline. However, one can also argue that Trump’s seemingly dyslexic struggles with the English language reflect a deliberate disregard for grammar rules that re...

Australia’s top music charts ban AI songs to protect human artists

Australia’s top music charts ban AI songs to protect human artists

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Music made by artificial intelligence will be banned from Australia’s top charts under new guidelines aimed at protecting “the human nature of artistry”, an industry body said on Tuesday. Under new rules in force from Friday, music must be “substantially human made” to be eligible for the charts, the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) said. “Wholly AI-generated tracks will not be eli...

Want to keep a big dog in Hong Kong? Experts share what you should know

Want to keep a big dog in Hong Kong? Experts share what you should know

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Heat, humidity and crowded living spaces could pose challenges for Hongkongers hoping to keep large or aggressive dogs as pets, experts have said, urging potential owners to consider the needs of such animals before deciding to house them. They issued the warning after a woman and two small canines were mauled in two separate attacks last week. The woman was found collapsed in Ping Yeung Tsuen, ho...

Viral false claims about quakes, Hiroshima expose Japan’s online conspiracy problem

Viral false claims about quakes, Hiroshima expose Japan’s online conspiracy problem

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Two outlandish claims that gained large audiences online in Japan recently have “shocked” misinformation experts, who say conspiracy-style narratives are feeding on disaster anxiety, fading wartime memory and an online information ecosystem that rewards outrage and suspicion. In the aftermath of the July 28 earthquake in Kumamoto prefecture in southern Japan, a social media user claimed that seism...

UK’s Burnham plans US trip to lobby Trump on Ukraine Patriot missiles

UK’s Burnham plans US trip to lobby Trump on Ukraine Patriot missiles

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UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham said he and other European leaders plan to travel to the US next month to lobby President Donald Trump to let Ukraine access some of its Patriot air defence missile stocks ahead of the winter. “I’m looking forward to going to New York in September,” Burnham said in an interview with Bloomberg in Kyiv on Monday evening, referring to the coming UN General Assembly meet...

UK’s Burnham plans US trip in September to lobby Trump on Ukraine needs

UK’s Burnham plans US trip in September to lobby Trump on Ukraine needs

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UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham said he and other European leaders plan to travel to the US next month to lobby President Donald Trump to let Ukraine access some of its Patriot air defence missile stocks ahead of the winter. “I’m looking forward to going to New York in September,” Burnham said in an interview with Bloomberg in Kyiv on Monday evening, referring to the coming UN General Assembly meet...

US judge postpones Lockerbie bombing trial over new evidence

US judge postpones Lockerbie bombing trial over new evidence

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A federal judge on Monday postponed a trial in the US for a former Libyan intelligence official charged in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, citing the discovery of new evidence that defence lawyers want to examine in the nearly 40-year-old case. Jury selection was scheduled to begin Wednesday for the federal trial of Abu Agila Mohammad Mas’ud Kheir Al-Marimi in Washington DC. His trial will ...

Judge postpones US trial for Libyan man charged in 1988 Lockerbie bombing

Judge postpones US trial for Libyan man charged in 1988 Lockerbie bombing

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A federal judge on Monday postponed a trial in the US for a former Libyan intelligence official charged in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, citing the discovery of new evidence that defence lawyers want to examine in the nearly 40-year-old case. Jury selection was scheduled to begin on Wednesday for the federal trial of Abu Agila Mohammad Masud Kheir al-Marimi in Washington. His trial will b...

How China’s anti-corruption fight became Xi Jinping’s most important policy

How China’s anti-corruption fight became Xi Jinping’s most important policy

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The South China Morning Post has launched a major data project diving into President Xi Jinping’s signature anti-graft campaign. In the first part of a series accompanying the data project, Phoebe Zhang looks at how the campaign became one of the Communist Party’s most important policies. In the early years of President Xi Jinping’s first term, when graft fighters were taking down senior officials...

US targets up to 200,000 foreigners in largest-ever mass visa revocation

US targets up to 200,000 foreigners in largest-ever mass visa revocation

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The Trump administration is preparing to revoke the business and tourism visas of up to 200,000 foreigners who have applied for or are currently seeking asylum status in the United States. If it happens, the move would be the largest single mass revocation of visas in US history and would likely face legal challenges. Unless challenged or revised, the State Department was expected to announce in t...

US set for largest mass visa revocation, targeting up to 200,000 foreigners

US set for largest mass visa revocation, targeting up to 200,000 foreigners

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The Trump administration is preparing to revoke the business and tourism visas of up to 200,000 foreigners who have applied for or are currently seeking asylum status in the United States. If it happens, the move would be the largest single mass revocation of visas in US history and would likely face legal challenges. Unless challenged or revised, the State Department is expected to announce in th...

US Supreme Court gives Trump temporary win on mail-in ballots as midterms loom

US Supreme Court gives Trump temporary win on mail-in ballots as midterms loom

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The US Supreme Court gave President Donald Trump a temporary victory on Monday, lifting a lower court block on his executive order curbing the use of mail-in ballots. The Republican president signed an order in March seeking to restrict mail-in voting ahead of the November midterm elections but it was immediately met with multiple legal challenges. Democratic-led states sued the administration on ...

US Supreme Court clears the way for Trump mail voting order in advance of midterms

US Supreme Court clears the way for Trump mail voting order in advance of midterms

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The Supreme Court on Monday cleared the way for US President Donald Trump to move ahead with his executive order restricting mail-in voting, though it remains unclear how much his administration can implement before the fast-approaching midterm elections. The decision appears to leave room for additional court challenges that could further slow Trump’s order. The US Postal Service laid out how it ...

Forcing women to drink at business dinners has no place in modern China

Forcing women to drink at business dinners has no place in modern China

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Reports of a female employee allegedly being assaulted at a drinking party in Hangzhou brought back a version of myself from more than a decade ago. Back then, I was one of those young women routinely invited to business dinners. Seating followed an unwritten rule, with the most powerful person taking the seat of honour, flanked by two young women. Everyone knew what we were there to do: keep the ...

US targets China’s telecoms grip in Venezuela with new sanctions carve-out

US targets China’s telecoms grip in Venezuela with new sanctions carve-out

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The United States is opening Venezuela’s telecommunications sector to new investment and technology while explicitly excluding Chinese companies, a move that could reshape a market where Huawei and ZTE have become deeply embedded and give Western suppliers an opening as the country expands its 5G networks. The US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on Friday issued two ge...