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Russian drones and missiles pounded the Ukrainian capital Kyiv and other cities early on Tuesday, killing at least 11 people and wounding more than 100, authorities said, following days of warnings about Moscow’s plans for a major assault. Russia has targeted Ukraine’s power supply and infrastructure in a war now more than four years old, while Ukraine has stepped up attacks this year on Russian o...
Russian air attacks on major Ukrainian cities such as Kyiv, Dnipro and Kharkiv killed at least nine and wounded more than 60 early on Tuesday, authorities said, following days of warnings that Moscow was planning a major assault. Russia has targeted Ukraine’s power supply and infrastructure while Ukraine has stepped up attacks this year on Russian oil facilities in a war now more than four years ...
We have selected seven stories from the SCMP’s coverage of Asia over the past week that resonated with our readers and shed light on topical issues. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. Russia’s military activity has Japan fearing a dual-front war Japan’s call to maintain “impeccable” defences on its northern frontier reflects Tokyo’s deepening concern ov...
Hong Kong authorities should offer more timely and flexible urgent accommodation for residents uprooted by a new regulation aimed at eliminating the city’s notorious subdivided flats, lawmakers have urged. Their comments were made on Tuesday after the Housing Bureau briefed lawmakers on plans to reserve up to 180 transitional flats in urban and extended urban areas to tenants evicted on short noti...
Denmark’s Social Democratic leader Mette Frederiksen said on Monday she has agreed to form a centre-left coalition government, maintaining her grip on power amid a crisis in ties with US President Donald Trump over the future of Greenland. The deal to form a minority cabinet gives Frederiksen a third consecutive term as prime minister, ending months of uncertainty after a March election in whic...
Drone swarms and stealth submarines are playing a growing role in modern warfare, yet aircraft carriers remain a symbol of military might. That can be seen in China’s investment in the warships, as well as other countries including France, Turkey, India and Japan. China’s naval fleet has been expanding at a rapid pace, with its fourth aircraft carrier fast taking shape, according to the latest sat...
Japan is slipping towards a banana shortage crisis, the latest disruption linked to the Middle East conflict. The reason: the country ships in the tropical fruit while it is still green, then ripens it in rooms filled with ethylene before bunches reach store shelves. Supplies of the naphtha-derived gas are running low in an economy that imports more than 90 per cent of its crude oil. Japan bought ...
As Hong Kong sent its first astronaut into space, leading industry experts at the Global Prosperity Summit 2026 (GPS 2026) said the city was well positioned to be a facilitator of aerospace development by tapping into emerging opportunities in the aerospace economy and contributing its professional services expertise to this burgeoning field. Just days before it was announced that Hong Kong’s Lai ...
To head off a public health crisis, China is stepping up efforts to find new treatments for Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease. As its population ages, the country already has more cases of these neurodegenerative diseases than anywhere else in the world and their prevalence is rising faster than the global average. Cases of Parkinson’s disease in China are forecast to rise from 3.6 milli...
Hong Kong’s education minister has apologised after parents received SMS notifications of their children’s primary school allocations a day before the official announcement, with authorities launching a review and stressing that the results to be released on Wednesday should be treated as final. Some parents were left confused on Tuesday following text messages that listed the correct school choic...
Hong Kong education authorities have apologised and launched a review after parents received SMS notifications of their children’s primary school allocations a day ahead of the official announcement, stressing that the results to be released on Wednesday should be treated as final. Some parents were left confused on Tuesday following text messages that listed the correct school choices but the wro...
Hong Kong education authorities have apologised after parents received SMS notifications of their children’s primary school allocations a day ahead of the official announcement, stressing that the results to be released on Wednesday should be treated as final. Some parents were left confused on Tuesday morning following text messages that listed the correct school choices but the wrong calendar ye...
Some Hong Kong parents have been left confused after receiving SMS notifications about their children’s primary school allocations a day before the official announcement, with messages showing correct school choices but the wrong calendar year. The Education Bureau’s hotline was overwhelmed on Tuesday morning as many parents called seeking answers. The South China Morning Post reached out to the E...
Asia’s fuel needs may take priority over the strategic risks of relying on oil from heavily sanctioned Russia, according to experts. Currently, there is little political appetite to treat the surge of Moscow’s crude flowing eastward through a “dark fleet” of tankers as a potential security issue. The US-Israeli war on Iran has caused the price of Brent crude – the benchmark measure – to spike to a...
For decades, Asia’s ambitions in outer space were closely associated with scientific discovery, technological prestige and national symbolism. Space programmes were designed to demonstrate engineering capability, economic modernisation and geopolitical influence. Today, outer space is undergoing a deeper transformation. It is no longer viewed merely as a frontier for exploration; increasingly, it ...
Taiwan’s navy will support patrols around the Taipei-controlled Dongsha Islands after mainland Chinese coastguard activity near the South China Sea atoll surged over the past year. The activity has fuelled concerns in Taipei that Beijing is using the remote outpost to test Taiwan’s responses and refine its grey-zone tactics. Taiwan’s Coast Guard Administration said mainland Chinese coastguard vess...
A boy in eastern China who survived catastrophic burns is battling daily pain on the badminton court, determined to become a champion like his idol Lin Dan. Xuanxuan, 12, from Jinan in Shandong province, was asleep with his family when a fire tore through his parents’ small noodle shop six years ago, Qilu Evening News reported. He suffered the worst injuries, with burns covering 97 per cent of his...
A lack of direct flights has been a bugbear to Hong Kong and Kazakhstan forging closer ties but with the city’s leader now in Astana and hints of incentives on the table, hopes are rising for a breakthrough. It is understood that a Hong Kong-based airline is now exploring launching such flights up to three times a week, but the details are being ironed out. Asel Suankulova, managing director of Ka...
Japan’s patience with Britain as a defence partner is being tested after reports that funding shortfalls in London could delay a next-generation fighter jet that both countries are developing with Italy. The Global Combat Air Programme, or GCAP, is intended to deliver a new fighter for the three countries by 2035, but The Telegraph reported on Saturday that the aircraft could be delayed by several...
Democratic Senators Elizabeth Warren and Andy Kim on Monday slammed the Trump administration for potentially allowing advanced American AI chips to be sent to overseas units of Chinese firms, and called on Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to testify to Congress on the issue, according to a statement. In a surprise move, the Department of Commerce, which oversees US exports, on Sunday issued gui...
China’s top diplomat said on Monday that Beijing and Brasilia should “jointly repel external challenges”, as the two countries opened a high-level strategic dialogue in Beijing. Foreign Minister Wang Yi made the remark during a visit by his Brazilian counterpart, Mauro Vieira, who arrived in the Chinese capital this weekend for the fifth Global Strategic Dialogue between the two governments. “Prac...
“You have absolutely no idea of what you’re talking about. The whole point of Pax Silica is to partner with countries who are good at doing different things because everyone wins from a secure supply chain,” wrote US Undersecretary of State for Economic Affairs Jacob Helberg on a social media website in response to an online critic of the US strategic initiative with the Philippines. The spirited ...
US President Donald Trump’s nearly US$1.8 billion fund to compensate victims of alleged government “weaponisation” has been put on hold after the White House faced fierce opposition from Republicans in Congress, three sources familiar with the plan said on Monday. The rare rebuke of Trump demonstrated some Republicans’ increased willingness to flex their political power against the president, part...
US President Donald Trump’s US$1.8 billion fund to compensate victims of alleged government “weaponisation” has been put on hold after the White House faced fierce opposition from Republicans in Congress, three sources familiar with the plan said on Monday. The extraordinary rebuke of Trump underscored an increased appetite to flex political power among some Republican senators against the presid...
US President Donald Trump’s US$1.8 billion fund to compensate victims of alleged government “weaponisation” has been put on hold, two sources familiar with the plan said on Monday. The fund emerged from a legal settlement between Trump and the Justice Department to resolve an unprecedented lawsuit in which the president had sued the Internal Revenue Service for US$10 billion over the alleged mis...
China’s SAIC Motor plans to set up a car factory in Spain’s northwestern region of Galicia that would be its first production facility in the European Union, the regional government said on Monday. Galicia’s leader Alfonso Rueda said his administration had given strategic priority to the project, with an initial investment envisaged at around €200 million (US$232 million). The project, which i...
The US decision to classify two Brazilian gangs as terrorist organisations is a political one aimed at boosting an ally of US President Donald Trump, the son of former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, politicians and analysts say. The gangs join eight other Latin American organised crime groups designated by the US as foreign terrorist organisations. But unlike the rest, they do not operate in ...
The US decision to classify two Brazilian gangs as terrorist organisations is a political one aimed at boosting an ally of US President Donald Trump, the son of former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, politicians and analysts say. The gangs join eight other Latin American organised crime groups designated by the US as foreign terrorist organisations. But unlike the rest, they do not operate in ...
US President Donald Trump has suffered a partial legal setback in his push to exclude transgender people from the military. The Trump administration may not remove the plaintiffs who brought the case from active military service, a federal appeals court in Washington said on Monday. The wider ban remains in place for now, however, giving the administration time to appeal. The ruling partly upheld ...
A Pentagon policy illegally banned transgender troops from military service, a divided panel of federal appeal court judges ruled on Monday in another legal setback for US President Donald Trump’s sweeping agenda. The majority opinion – by a three-judge panel from the US Court of Appeals for the District of Colombia circuit – held that the Trump administration’s policy was designed to exclude peop...
