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Malaysia’s plan to stop wealthier drivers from enjoying cheap subsidised petrol has left Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim facing a politically fraught question: how to define “rich” without punishing households already squeezed by higher living costs. The issue has sharpened as the Middle East energy shock strains government finances, forcing authorities to weigh fiscal discipline against the risk of ...
Hong Kong’s Tsim Sha Tsui has retained its title as Asia’s priciest luxury retail strip, commanding £16,160 (US$22,000) per square metre in annual rents, as the city remains among the world’s most active markets in terms of new high-end store openings, according to Savills. London’s Bond Street replaced Tsim Sha Tsui as the top global luxury retail property market with rents of £19,228 per square ...
A wave of bullishness is sweeping through Hong Kong’s real estate market. A report by S&P Global Ratings on May 5 said an “upside surprise” could materialise. One of the catalysts for a stronger-than-expected recovery was evidence of more competitive bids at residential land auctions in recent months. S&P said, “Hong Kong has become the first major city in China whose property market has bottomed....
A call from the former CEO of Proton for Malays to abandon a “mentality of waiting for aid” has been met with ridicule online, with social media users pointing to the national carmaker’s own long history of government support. Speaking on Sunday at the inaugural Musyawarah Nasional (National Discourse) dialogue platform founded by Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, Syed Zainal Abidin Syed T...
History was made this Labour Day, as China’s southern Shenzhen Bay port cleared 24 tonnes of South African apples and central Hunan province processed 6,000 bottles of South African wine – the first time these goods had reached the Asian economic giant under a new zero-tariff arrangement. The duty-free access for African partners from May 1, which saw the 10 per cent tariff rate for apples removed...
Lawmakers in the Philippines started voting on Monday on whether to impeach Vice-President Sara Duterte-Carpio, in what could create a major hurdle for her bid to run for the presidency in 2028. A house justice committee last month found probable cause for her impeachment in a petition from activists accusing her of misusing public funds, accumulating unexplained wealth and of threatening the liv...
Lawmakers in the Philippines are set to vote on Monday on whether to impeach Vice-President Sara Duterte-Carpio, in what could create a major hurdle for her bid to run for the presidency in 2028. A house justice committee last month found probable cause for her impeachment in a petition from activists accusing her of misusing public funds, accumulating unexplained wealth and of threatening the li...
Hong Kong authorities plan to lease out government-built day care facilities for the elderly to the private sector under a pilot programme aimed at providing more diverse services targeting older middle-class residents. Labour and Welfare Bureau officials said in a Legislative Council panel meeting on Monday that the government would introduce the “publicly built, privately run” model to provide “...
Hong Kong authorities will experiment leasing government-built elderly care facilities to the private sector, with the pilot programme aiming to provide more diverse services targeting middle-class senior residents. Labour and Welfare Bureau officials said in a Legislative Council panel meeting on Monday that the government would roll out a “publicly built, privately run” model to provide “more di...
Hong Kong authorities will experiment leasing government-built elderly care facilities to the private sector, with the pilot programme aiming to provide more diverse services targeting middle class senior residents. Labour and Welfare Bureau officials said in a Legislative Council panel meeting on Monday that the government would roll out a “publicly built, privately run” model to provide “more di...
China ranked third in a new global index measuring competitiveness in AI for biotechnology, healthcare and longevity, as the race to apply AI moves from chatbots and general-purpose models into regulated, data-heavy industries such as drug discovery, diagnostics and preventive medicine. The latest edition of the Global AI Competitiveness Index, released on Monday by Deep Knowledge Group, a consort...
Canadian singer-songwriter The Weeknd will perform two concerts at Hong Kong’s Kai Tak Stadium in October as part of the final leg of his “After Hours Til Dawn” world tour, confirming an earlier report by the South China Morning Post. The announcement coincides with K-pop act Babymonster’s reveal on Monday that the girl group will perform in the city on January 9 next year at AsiaWorld-Arena, mark...
Canadian singer-songwriter The Weeknd will perform two concerts at Hong Kong’s Kai Tak Stadium in October as part of the final leg of his “After Hours Til Dawn” world tour, confirming an earlier report by the South China Morning Post. The details coincide with K-pop act Babymonster’s announcement on Monday that the girl group would perform in the city on January 9 next year at AsiaWorld-Arena, for...
Hong Kong authorities plan to finalise the cap on ride-hailing vehicles and the technical framework of a long-awaited regulatory regime before pushing them through as law ahead of the legislature’s recess in mid-July. In a document submitted to the Legislative Council on Monday, the Transport and Logistics Bureau also outlined penalties for ride-hailing platform operators over non-compliance. Offe...
Hong Kong authorities plan to finalise the maximum number of ride-hailing vehicles allowed on the city’s roads and the technical details of a long-awaited regulatory regime before pushing them through as law ahead of the legislature’s recess in mid-July. In a document submitted to the Legislative Council on Monday, the Transport and Logistics Bureau also specified penalties for ride-hailing platfo...
Hong Kong authorities should issue about 20,500 licences in the first phase of regulating ride-hailing platforms, lawmakers and experts have said, arguing that the city needs at least 15,000 active cars daily to meet existing demand and avoid worsening transport shortages. The proposal came as several lawmakers told the South China Morning Post, on condition of anonymity, that the government had r...
A growing number of late-night cafes across Japan are opening their doors to mothers struggling with babies who will not stop crying, offering a rare refuge during the most isolating hours of parenting. The idea of a “nighttime crying cafe”, which appeared in an online comic nearly a decade ago, first resonated with readers and is now gaining real-world traction as spaces inspired by that vision a...
A growing number of late-night cafes across Japan are opening their doors to mothers struggling with babies who will not stop crying, offering a rare refuge during the most isolating hours of parenting. The idea of a “nighttime crying cafe”, which appeared in an online comic nearly a decade ago, first resonated with readers and is now gaining real-world traction as spaces inspired by that vision a...
Hong Kong lawmakers have called for a rethink of a government scheme to develop homes for the elderly, days after the city’s second largest public housing provider revealed it would stop building homes targeting senior residents for the coming 10 years. Lawmaker Andrew Lam Siu-lo of the Legislative Council’s housing panel said on Monday that the government had not been proactive enough in formulat...
Hong Kong will serve as a global partner in pandemic preparedness, leveraging its “unrivalled” status as a medical innovation hub to combat emerging health threats such as a recent hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship, the city’s leader and health chief have said. Speaking at the Asia Summit on Global Health on Monday, Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu underscored the city’s commitment and strategi...
South Korea’s military is exploring a strategic partnership with Hyundai Motor to potentially deploy robotics to the front lines as Seoul accelerates investment in AI-powered, unmanned systems to tackle a deepening troop shortage. The defence ministry said it was discussing cooperation with Hyundai as part of efforts to respond to changes in the battlefield environment and develop a “hi-tech, scie...
Chinese researchers say they have developed a crocodile-inspired ceramic body armour that can deflect projectiles and potentially offer a low-cost alternative for lightweight ballistic protection. The team – led by associate research fellow Zhaoxiu Jiang at Ningbo University – based their design on the asymmetric, overlapping scales of crocodile skin, which provide a protective barrier against pre...
A Chinese barbecue stall owner paused his business to donate stem cells to a three-year-old toddler and was rewarded by long queues of customers. Shao Sanhu, 33, from central China’s Anhui province, put his barbecue stall on hold for 13 days to carry out the Good Samaritan deed. He put a notice on the tarpaulin that covered his stall on April 18, saying that the business was on hold for a week bec...
British paratroopers landed on a “golf course covered in rocks” to supply medical personnel and oxygen to Britain’s most remote overseas territory as it deals with a suspected hantavirus case, an army commander said on Sunday. The UK Health Security Agency confirmed on Friday that a British national had disembarked from the cruise ship MV Hondius to the South Atlantic island of Tristan da Cunha, w...
Clothes seller Lata Solanki used to face a devastating choice when India’s summer heat hit dangerous levels: risk her health going door-to-door for sales, or lose her income? But now the 42-year-old is part of an insurance scheme that pays out when temperatures hit a threshold, so she can stay home without jeopardising her finances. The “parametric” model pays out automatically when specific trigg...
A Hong Kong professional rugby player has denied molesting a patron at a bar, but admitted vandalising police property following his arrest last year. Faizal Solomona Penesa, 33, on Monday pleaded guilty at Eastern Court to damaging a door bolt at Central police station while in custody on suspicion of groping a woman at Bobby’s Rabble on Wyndham Street on September 28, 2025. He pleaded not guilty...
We have put together stories from our coverage last weekend to help you stay informed about news across Asia and beyond. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. Could omega-3 supplements hurt the brain? Chinese military study flags risks 2. Hong Kong schools record net student rise for 2 years straight 3. Trump heads to China weakened as Xi gains leverage ...
The prison cell, it turns out, is no obstacle to running a criminal empire. All you need is a smartphone, an encrypted messaging app and an overwhelmed corrections system, even if it is thousands of kilometres away. That was the conclusion law enforcement officials in South Korea and Japan reached after tracing a string of drug deals, home invasions and brazen robberies to inmates already serving ...
In the sci-fi novel The Three-Body Problem, humans build “gravitational wave antennas” to broadcast to the cosmos. Now, Chinese scientists have made a step forward in turning that idea into hardware – only in reverse. Science and Technology Daily reported on Saturday that a team from the Institute of Mechanics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences had developed the optical core of a giant space detec...
A teenager was charged on Monday with assaulting controversial blogger Amos Yee over the weekend at an anime convention in Singapore. Bosco Chun Ho Wang, an 18-year-old Chinese national and Singapore permanent resident, was given one charge each of public nuisance and voluntarily causing hurt. The incident occurred at about 2.10pm on Saturday at level 4 of Suntec City Convention Centre. Chun is ac...
