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A Burmese python has gone viral on social media after it was spotted along a busy road in a Hong Kong shopping district on Sunday evening, with an expert saying heavy rain over recent weeks may have forced wild animals into urban areas. The snake was caught on camera by a passing jogger near Causeway Bay’s Jardine Noonday Gun at around 11pm that day. In the clip, the reptile, which appears to be a...
A British man who kept his mother’s body in a freezer for nearly three years while he received almost £80,000 (US$108,000) of her welfare benefits was jailed on Monday. Christopher Phillips, 60, had admitted preventing the lawful and decent burial of his 89-year-old mother Sylvia Phillips after she died in March 2023 until his arrest at their home in Porthcawl, south Wales, in February this ye...
In getting into a sexual relationship with his 13-year-old niece, a man sexually exploited her, raped her during staycations and “punished” her with sex acts when he grew jealous about a schoolmate she was dating. The 38-year-old Singaporean man, who cannot be named to protect the victim’s identity, was sentenced to 21 years’ jail and 16 strokes of the cane on Monday. He pleaded guilty to six char...
The Chinese air force is using an AI-enabled system to draw up battle plans for operations involving more than 100 units, according to a state television documentary. The “intelligent strike planning system” was designed to help commanders and pilots by prioritising targets, coordinating attack waves and allocating specific tasks to units, the CCTV programme broadcast on Sunday said, adding that i...
With the US-Israel war on Iran entering its sixth month, Chinese policymakers have a multitude of questions weighing on their minds, with two proving particularly thorny according to a prominent economist: how much longer the conflict might last, and whether it will necessitate adjustments to previous plans. While the continuing impact on China might remain “small”, said Mao Zhenhua – co-director ...
The next leader of the University of Hong Kong (HKU) must have a fresh mindset, as someone who has spent a decade in the role may struggle to drive change, an insider has told the South China Morning Post, adding that the university is weighing whether to take part in the Northern Metropolis megaproject. The source said the successor to incumbent Xiang Zhang – who has decided not to renew his five...
The next leader of the University of Hong Kong (HKU) must have a fresh mindset, as someone who has spent a decade in the role may struggle to drive change, an insider has told the South China Morning Post, adding that the university is weighing whether to take part in the Northern Metropolis megaproject. The source, who is close to the HKU council, said the successor to incumbent Xiang Zhang – who...
Robbyant, the embodied artificial intelligence division of Ant Group, has begun seeking external funding, becoming the fourth unit of the fintech giant to step up capital-raising efforts. The unit said it was in talks with investors on Monday. As Ant Group’s “core initiative in embodied intelligence”, a Robbyant spokesperson said it would remain focused on developing a general-purpose “robot brain...
WuXi AppTec, Asia’s largest provider of contract pharmaceutical research, posted net income that smashed market expectations in the first half of the year amid strong demand tied to weight-loss and diabetes drugs, as well as gains in its US business. Interim net profit attributable to the owners of the Shanghai-based drug contractor advanced 33.7 per cent to 11.08 billion yuan (US$1.64 billion) fr...
Wuxi AppTec, Asia’s largest provider of contract pharmaceutical research, posted net income that smashed market expectations in the first half of the year amid strong demand tied to weight-loss and diabetes drugs, as well as gains in its US business. Interim net profit attributable to the owners of the Shanghai-based drug contractor advanced 33.7 per cent to 11.08 billion yuan (US$1.64 billion) fr...
Artificial intelligence is transforming the world at extraordinary speed. It is reshaping manufacturing, finance, healthcare, education, scientific research and even the way governments make decisions. While AI advances at an unprecedented pace, one fundamental question has come to the fore: how to govern intelligence in an interconnected yet increasingly fragmented world? The question came into s...
China has revised regulations on the protection of chip design, a critical move to push for tech self-sufficiency amid US export controls. Premier Li Qiang signed a State Council decree to promulgate the revised rules on the protection of layout designs of integrated circuits, Xinhua reported on Monday. The new rules will take effect on October 15. The revision clarified financial penalties for in...
The US tech industry’s increasingly hawkish attitude towards China has caused alarm among some observers who warn it could cause greater mistrust between the two countries. Silicon Valley has become much more politicised in recent years, with leading figures such as Elon Musk donating vast sums to political campaigns, including Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential bid. The US government has placed tec...
Hong Kong police have arrested a mother and her husband’s aunt after the mother allegedly mistakenly fed her two children cannabis-infused sweets, sending them to hospital. The force received a report at about 4pm on Monday that a six-year-old boy and 12-year-old girl had fallen ill at their home in Wang Tak House, Wang Tau Hom Estate. The girl vomited, while the boy briefly lost consciousness, ac...
Local farmers have suffered six-figure losses because of extreme downpours since May, with a farm in northern Hong Kong flooded for seven hours during heavy rain on Sunday. Leung Yat-shun of Shun Sum Yuen farm in Yuen Long said on Monday that efforts to grow tens of thousands of sunflowers had been a washout since May, with precipitation in July alone having already surpassed typical levels by 23 ...
Hong Kong’s Catholic diocese has urged worshippers to avoid masses led by a conservative group excommunicated by the Vatican after a priest from the fraternity was reported to be holding regular events in the city. The diocese’s call came about a month after the Vatican excommunicated followers of the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) over the group’s decision to consecrate four new bishops against t...
Thailand has issued a full-throated rebuttal of comments by a UN human rights specialist whose visit last week to Cambodia found 20,000 people remain displaced by the border war, as the neighbouring nations engage in a battle for international opinion over their deadly territorial dispute. Thailand and Cambodia fought a brief but bloody border war in July and December last year that killed scores ...
Chinese AI company DeepSeek is inviting open-source developers to test its upcoming “harness” – software designed to turn large language models (LLMs) into AI agents – accelerating a push into agentic tech as DeepSeek’s latest V4 Flash model sends another cost-efficiency shock wave through Silicon Valley. The Hangzhou-based firm was looking for open-source project developers to join beta testing f...
A construction safety manager has died after falling about 10 floors at a work site in Hong Kong’s Kowloon City. Authorities received a report at 12.40pm on Monday that a man had plunged from a rooftop before landing on the fourth floor at the site on Sa Po Road. Emergency responders discovered the 39-year-old man unconscious and trapped on scaffolding. Firefighters spent more than an hour bringin...
Only days ago, the Japanese yen’s descent showed no signs of stopping, having already dropped to a 40-year low. But by Monday morning – after a rare intervention on the currency’s behalf by Tokyo and Washington – it surged as high as 155.23 per US dollar, its strongest level since early May, according to Chinese financial data provider Wind. The joint action took on an extra layer of intrigue afte...
Small commercial sea drones that have shown they can monitor PLA warships in the South China Sea have emerged as a new potential challenge for Beijing in the disputed waters. Last week, Seasats, a California-based autonomous vessel maker, released footage – which has been verified by Reuters – showing its Lightfish drone operating near a Chinese Type 052D guided-missile destroyer on June 16. The l...
Two teenage siblings from eastern China excelled in this year’s gaokao, leading to their acceptance into the country’s top universities and igniting intense discussions surrounding their exceptional talents and family education. Xu Haotian, 17, and his sister Xu Haolin, 15, achieved scores of 688 and 699 out of a maximum of 750, respectively, in this year’s national university entrance exam. Haoli...
Malaysia’s call for major powers to apply international law “consistently, not selectively” could signal growing regional unease with how big players are seen to invoke rules only when convenient. Defence Minister Khaled Nordin delivered the message on Monday at the 37th International Military Law and Operations Conference in Kuala Lumpur, where he said major powers had a special responsibility to...
An employee of a Hong Kong fertility clinic is suspected of lying to cover up a mistake involving mixed-up embryo biopsy specimens, the South China Morning Post has learned, with police listing the case as fraud and placing the worker, who has returned to Malaysia, on the wanted list. A source said the employee worked at Heal Fertility in Central and was responsible for extracting specimens from e...
An employee of a Hong Kong fertility clinic is suspected of lying to cover up a mistake involving mixed-up embryo biopsy specimens, the South China Morning Post has learned, with police listing the case as fraud and placing the worker, who has returned to Malaysia, on the wanted list. A source said the employee worked at Heal Fertility in Central and was responsible for extracting specimens from e...
An employee of a Hong Kong fertility clinic is suspected of lying to cover up a mistake involving mixed-up embryo biopsy specimens, the South China Morning Post has learned, with the police listing the case as fraud and placing the worker, who has returned to Malaysia, on the wanted list. A source told the SCMP that the employee worked at Heal Fertility in Central and was responsible for extractin...
Malaysia’s attempt to recast Forest City from a China-backed “ghost city” into a hub for global wealth and mobile talent is facing an early governance test after police last week uncovered two alleged online scam syndicates operating across 32 luxury homes. The raids have sharpened questions over whether oversight is keeping pace with Putrajaya’s drive to revive the waterfront project beside Singa...
A top theoretical journal of the Communist Party has acknowledged that a stark economic divide exists between China’s booming AI sector and its struggling traditional industries. And while arguing that this divergence was not unique to China, the Qiushi Journal stressed that rapid technological advances must not leave ordinary citizens behind. In a commentary published on its website on Sunday, th...
On August 3, five-year Chinese treasury bond futures began trading on the Hong Kong stock exchange. Market attention has focused on the new product, but its real significance emerges when set against the deep shifts under way in the international monetary system. History offers a clear lesson: no currency has graduated from a trade settlement currency to a genuine investment and reserve currency o...
Four former Hong Kong warehouse workers have been jailed for up to seven years for conspiring to steal more than 800 unsold Chanel handbags and wallets worth at least HK$8.7 million (US$1.1 million). The High Court on Monday sentenced the four defendants over two foiled plots to steal from the French fashion house’s storage spaces at the Goodman Interlink warehouse in Tsing Yi between June 2016 an...
