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Former US Treasury secretary Henry Paulson has urged Washington and Beijing to manage their escalating strategic competition to prevent it spiralling into broader conflict, warning that deepening distrust now poses a greater risk than trade imbalances. The US-China relationship was “the most consequential” in the world, requiring careful stewardship as rivalry sharpened across trade, technology an...
Malaysia’s search for alternative crude supplies is complicating Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s “friends with all” foreign policy, analysts have said, with the country potentially tapping Russian oil despite Western sanctions against Moscow. On Thursday, oil prices rose again after Iran declared the Strait of Hormuz closed, 103 days after the US-Israel war with Iran began on February 28. Washingto...
China might be downplaying nuclear weapons by not mentioning the issue after Xi Jinping’s visit to North Korea but that does not mean it has accepted its neighbour’s growing arsenal, according to analysts. Neither Beijing nor Pyongyang mentioned nuclear weapons or denuclearisation in their statements on the Chinese president’s two-day state visit to Pyongyang this week. Since Xi’s summit with US P...
An upgraded border crossing between Hong Kong and Shenzhen is expected to open next month, allowing travellers to complete immigration in just five minutes, according to authorities. The redeveloped Huanggang Port Building will be the first link between the two cities to adopt the “collaborative inspection and joint clearance” model. The South China Morning Post looks at the details of the checkpo...
The rapid escalation in hostilities between Iran and the US-Israel alliance since Sunday is being driven by Tehran’s growing confidence that it can arise like a mythical phoenix from the ashes of war, strategically stronger than ever in the Middle East. To achieve this objective, Tehran has enacted a tactical shift in its “unity of the theatres” strategy involving its Axis of Resistance allies in ...
Chinese memory module maker Biwin has signed a two-year agreement worth US$1.86 billion to secure flash memory chips, a deal larger than its annual revenue, as demand from artificial intelligence servers and data centres squeezes supply. Under the locked-volume, locked-price arrangement, Biwin would buy enterprise-grade chips in batches from the third quarter of 2026 through the second quarter of ...
A dog slaughterhouse owner in southern China has closed his facility and begun transitioning to a new livelihood with support from animal advocates, just days before the start of the annual controversial Yulin dog meat festival. Launched by local traders in 2010, the Yulin festival, held annually around late June in Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, is widely regarded as a commercial campaign to b...
Russia has lifted its ban on the popular gaming platform Roblox after tens of thousands of children and parents sent letters complaining about the measure. The platform, which allows users to build their own games and share them with others, was among Russia’s most popular mobile games, tying third with TikTok in usage time among children in early 2025, according to Kaspersky Lab, a Moscow-based g...
Rocket launches in Kazakhstan are being pitched to Hong Kong travellers, as some Central Asian travel operators make their debut at the city’s flagship travel expo ahead of new direct flights to the region. Six Kazakhstan-based operators set up booths under the theme “Visit Almaty” at the 40th International Travel Expo, the annual event running from June 11 to 14 at the Hong Kong Convention and Ex...
Two days of anti-immigration violence in Northern Ireland is nothing short of racist thuggery, Britain’s minister for the province said on Thursday, after police deployed water cannon to tackle rioters for a second night. Hilary Benn said there was less disorder on the streets of Belfast on Wednesday night as opposed to Tuesday, when rioters targeted ethnic minorities and foreign residents by tor...
Two days of anti-immigration violence in Northern Ireland is nothing short of racist thuggery, Britain’s minister for the province said on Thursday, after police deployed water cannon to tackle rioters for a second night. Hilary Benn said there was less disorder on the streets of Belfast on Wednesday night as opposed to Tuesday, when rioters targeted ethnic minorities and foreign residents by tor...
An EU-China dialogue on digital matters has been postponed as tensions between the two sides threaten to boil over. The meeting, initially scheduled for June 23 in Beijing, will no longer take place, with no immediate date set for a follow-up, people familiar with the situation confirmed. The Financial Times reported on Thursday that the talks had been abruptly cancelled by Beijing, along with a s...
Three Indian sailors on a commercial vessel hit by the United States off the coast of Oman are dead, New Delhi’s shipping minister said on Thursday. “It is deeply unfortunate to learn of the tragic incident aboard the Palau-flagged MT Settebello,” Sarbananda Sonowal said in a statement, referring to the strike on the vessel a day earlier. “Sadly, three Indian seafarers initially reported missing a...
The Philippines may be taking steps to curb gambling addiction, but for Bridges of Hope founder and director Jon Ty, the number of helpline calls that he has received over the past year tells a different story. Such calls to the rehabilitation centre’s hotline were mostly related to gambling, with the number rising to nine out of 10 total calls so far this year from seven out of 10 in 2025, Ty sai...
A high-ranking workplace safety official in central China’s Shanxi province has been placed under investigation over a massive coal mine explosion that killed 82. Zhang Heping, deputy director of the provincial department of emergency management, is suspected of “serious violations of discipline and law”, according to a statement released by the provincial discipline inspection and supervisory com...
Zou Jiayi is president and chairwoman of the board of directors of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), a multilateral development lender headquartered in Beijing and inaugurated in 2016. Before leading AIIB, Zou was deputy secretary general of the national committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, China’s top political advisory body. She previously held seni...
Zou Jiayi is president and chairwoman of the board of directors of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), a multilateral development lender headquartered in Beijing and inaugurated in 2016. Before leading AIIB, Zou was deputy secretary general of the national committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, China’s top political advisory body. She previously held seni...
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. Where did Tokyo restaurant Sézanne’s 3 Michelin stars go? Tokyo’s Sézanne restaurant, which once held the No 1 spot on Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants list, has been quietly stripped of its three Michelin stars ahead of the gu...
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. Where did Tokyo restaurant Sézanne’s 3 Michelin stars go? Tokyo’s Sézanne restaurant, which once held the No 1 spot on Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants list, has been quietly stripped of its three Michelin stars ahead of the gu...
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. Where did Tokyo restaurant Sézanne’s 3 Michelin stars go? Tokyo’s Sézanne restaurant, which once held the No 1 spot on Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants list, has been quietly stripped of its three Michelin stars ahead of the gu...
Three men were charged on Thursday for their alleged involvement in a scheme to falsely declare China-made mattresses as Singapore goods in an apparent attempt to evade US import duties. Singaporeans Loh Yew Kong, 68; Leong Yu Fong, 41; and Loh Chen Sing Darren, 37, as well as three companies – Brighture Et Riche, Brighture Et Riche (Int) and Zenova International – were charged in connection with ...
The vast majority of Uber passengers consider the government’s plan to cap ride-hailing vehicle permits at 10,000 “very insufficient”, according to a survey by the firm, as the company attempts to challenge elements of the proposed regulatory regime. The US-based ride-hailing firm said on Thursday that the survey, conducted last month over six days, drew 10,009 passenger respondents, 90 per cent o...
A vast majority of passengers consider the government’s plan to cap ride-hailing vehicle permits at 10,000 “very insufficient”, according to a survey by Uber, as the company attempts to challenge elements of the proposed regulatory regime. US-based Uber said on Thursday that the survey, conducted last month over six days, drew 10,009 passenger respondents, 90 per cent of whom considered the 10,000...
Hong Kong’s business community has signed six agreements with Kazakhstan to support the development of the country’s new hi-tech and economic hub, as Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu positioned the city as the project’s gateway to global capital and the mainland Chinese market. The memorandums of understanding (MOUs), unveiled at an investment round table on Thursday, centre on the development of ...
A Thai court on Thursday sentenced two ethnic Chinese Uygur men to death for the 2015 bombing of Bangkok’s Erawan shrine. The worst attack on the city in recent history killed 20, including tourists from China, Malaysia and Singapore. The men, Bilal Mohammed, 41, and Yusufu Mieraili, 36, were arrested in a manhunt that followed the August 17, 2015, bombing which brought carnage to the heart of Ban...
The mayor of a southern Philippine town that was devastated by a powerful earthquake pleaded on Thursday for helicopters to transport food to stave off hunger in several landslide-isolated villages. The 7.8 magnitude offshore quake, one of the strongest to hit the archipelago in half a century, struck on Monday off the southern province of Sarangani and has left at least 47 people dead and 688 inj...
Robotic snakes have been deployed in southwestern China to inspect power lines and ensure a stable power supply during the country’s high-pressure national college entrance exam. The snakelike robots spiral around power lines in Kunming, the provincial capital of Yunnan, to detect hazards such as broken wires, worn components and abnormal temperatures. The device’s developer, the power supply bure...
As China’s gaokao, or national college entrance exam, fell on June 7 to 10 this year, the bigger challenge that female candidates face during the test is receiving increasing attention online. Gaokao is an exam that most Chinese secondary school pupils take to further their study. According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics in China, females account for around half of the secondary sc...
Japan’s signing of a 20-year LNG supply deal with Malaysia’s Petronas has cast the Southeast Asian country as a valuable energy and security partner, as Tokyo looks to protect itself from global supply shocks and deepen ties with trusted allies. The latest move also underscores how, amid the energy crisis, Asian nations are striking deals bilaterally, with Malaysia leveraging its vast natural reso...
Police blasted water cannons at protesters in Northern Ireland who set small fires and hurled bricks, rocks and bottles at them during a second night of violence Wednesday over a brutal stabbing on a Belfast street. Demonstrators wearing masks tore bricks from the walls outside homes and smashed pavements with sledgehammers to toss at riot police. In one place, the unruly crowd used sections of a ...
