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Two Singapore residents who were on board the hantavirus-hit cruise ship MV Hondius are currently being isolated at the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID), where they are being tested for the virus. “Their test results are pending. One has a runny nose but is otherwise well, and the other is asymptomatic. The risk to the general public in Singapore is currently low,” the Communicable D...
Chinese artificial intelligence start-up Moonshot AI has raised about US$2 billion in a new funding round, boosting its valuation to more than US$20 billion as it navigates Beijing’s new listing rules for companies registered overseas. The funding was led by Meituan and involved China Mobile. Over the past six months, Moonshot had raised a total of US$3.9 billion, according to a statement by the d...
A Hong Kong man who allegedly stole HK$50,000 (US$6,380) worth of Gundam models was injured while leaping from a building in To Kwa Wan after police came to arrest him on suspicion of burglary. Police said on Thursday that the man, aged 40, was linked to the burglary at a building on Mok Cheong Street two days earlier, which resulted in the theft of 10 boxes of Gundam models and three empty suitca...
Two former Chinese defence ministers, Wei Fenghe and Li Shangfu, have received suspended death sentences after being found guilty of corruption, according to Xinhua. A military court found Wei guilty of accepting bribery, while Li was found guilty of both accepting and offering bribes, according to a two-paragraph statement released by Xinhua late on Thursday afternoon. The statement did not speci...
Two former Chinese defence ministers, Wei Fenghe and Li Shangfu, have been sentenced to death with reprieve on corruption charges, according to Xinhua. More to follow...
Chinese Premier Li Qiang told visiting US Senator Steve Daines that Beijing hoped to maintain “stable and predictable” trade ties with Washington, a week before a highly anticipated summit between Xi Jinping and Donald Trump. In his meeting with Daines on Thursday, Li called for both sides to engage in more dialogue rather than confrontation, pursue more mutually beneficial cooperation rather than...
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told visiting US Senator Steve Daines that Beijing hoped to “truly stabilise and improve” Sino-American ties, a week before a highly anticipated summit between Xi Jinping and Donald Trump. In his meeting with Daines on Thursday, China’s top diplomat said Beijing and Washington should seek “harmony without uniformity” and be “partners rather than adversaries”. “The ...
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told visiting US Senator Steve Daines that Beijing hoped to “truly stabilise and improve” Sino-American ties, a week before a highly anticipated summit between Xi Jinping and Donald Trump. In his meeting with Daines on Thursday, China’s top diplomat said Beijing and Washington should seek “harmony without uniformity” and be “partners rather than adversaries”. “The ...
A Shanghai company has been ordered to pay a woman employee 690,000 yuan (US$101,000) for illegally firing her because her husband works for a rival firm. Xuhui District People’s Court made the ruling in Shanghai in late April, the Yangtze Evening News reported. The woman, surnamed Liu, started working at the company in 2006. The firm’s name was not disclosed in the report, only that it operates i...
Indonesia’s economy grew 5.6 per cent during the first quarter of 2026, its fastest pace in more than three years, but analysts warn that the coming months will pose significant tests for Southeast Asia’s biggest economy. Statistics body BPS attributed the growth to robust household consumption – which made up 54.36 per cent of gross domestic product and grew by 5.52 per cent year-on-year – and a ...
AirAsia X co-founder Tony Fernandes said he is preparing to launch a new airline, betting that expanding while the aviation industry’s being roiled by high oil prices will pay off in the future. The new airline will be announced in the next month or two, Fernandes said in a video interview from Montreal late on Wednesday. The low-cost Southeast Asian carrier group is moving some planes for the bus...
US President Donald Trump said conflict in the Middle East would be “over quickly”, as Iran considered a peace proposal that could lead to the reopening of the vital Strait of Hormuz. “We’ve had very good talks over the last 24 hours, and it’s very possible that we’ll make a deal,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday, according to Reuters. The president has repeatedly played up th...
Hong Kong authorities have urged the public to stop using a certain model of Zwilling electric kettle over concerns that the handle may detach, posing a risk of scalding. The Electrical and Mechanical Services Department on Thursday issued a safety recall for the kettle (model 53005). Consumers should contact the supplier, Cheong Hing (1917) Company Limited, at 2687 5879 to arrange a refund. The s...
Hong Kong police are investigating an allegation that a four-year-old boy was indecently assaulted at an international school in Stanley, with the institution saying its security footage showed “no evidence of any wrongdoing” on the day of the suspected incident. A source said on Wednesday that the International Montessori School kindergarten pupil complained to his family that his buttocks were s...
Hong Kong police are investigating an allegation that a four-year-old boy was indecently assaulted at an international school in Stanley, with the institution saying its security footage showed “no evidence of any wrongdoing” on the day of the suspected incident. A source said on Wednesday that the International Montessori School kindergarten pupil complained to his family that his buttocks were s...
TikTok is investing US$25 billion in data infrastructure projects in Thailand, the company’s biggest investment announced to date in Southeast Asia, as China’s technology giants continue expanding their footprint in the region. The investment would be used to install additional servers and expand data storage and processing infrastructure across Bangkok, Samut Prakan and Chachoengsao provinces to ...
For an indication of how much the energy crisis is shaping the path of monetary policy, look no further than Australia. On May 5, the country’s central bank raised interest rates for the third consecutive time, unwinding last year’s monetary easing. The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) said “higher fuel prices are adding to inflation and there are indications that this is likely to have second-roun...
A Taiwanese company with mainland China subsidiaries has fired the nephew of Taiwan’s interior minister, Liu Shyh-fang, whom Beijing blames for Taipei’s hostile cross-strait policies. In a statement issued on Wednesday night, a Jiangxi-province-based subsidiary of Taiwan’s Long Time Technology Co. Ltd said Yen Wen-chun had been dismissed from all positions at the firm and its mainland units, effec...
A Taiwanese company with mainland subsidiaries has fired the nephew of Taiwan’s interior minister, whom Beijing deems responsible for Taipei’s hostile policies towards the mainland. The mainland subsidiary of Taiwan’s Long Time Technology Co. Ltd in Shanggao county, Jiangxi province, issued a statement on Wednesday night saying Yen Wen-chun, the nephew of Taiwan’s interior minister Liu Shyh-fang, ...
Canadian singer-songwriter The Weeknd will perform in Hong Kong for the first time in eight years as part of the final leg of his “After Hours Til Dawn Tour”, with sources telling the South China Morning Post that the concert is set to take place at Kai Tak Sports Park in October. Live Nation on Wednesday posted a cryptic teaser video across several regional social media accounts, including those ...
An Australian lawyer has been fined HK$3,000 (US$383) by a Hong Kong court after he admitted to fleeing a restaurant and a massage parlour without paying bills totalling about HK$1,200. Samuel Anthony Monkivitch, 50, pleaded guilty at Eastern Court on Thursday to three charges, including two counts of making off without payment. In the first case, he failed to pay for a HK$639 meal at a Times Squa...
Myanmar’s appointment of a close confidant of US President Donald Trump to rebuild ties with Washington could offer the regime a sliver of hope to rebrand itself, even as a breakthrough on major issues, such as American investment in the country’s critical minerals sector, is likely to be limited. Naypyidaw’s Ministry of Information has hired veteran American political lobbyist Roger Stone to boos...
South Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday rebutted US President Donald Trump’s assertion that a South Korean-operated vessel was attacked as it was acting on its own without US protection in the Strait of Hormuz – a focal point of the ongoing Iran war. “For several days before the fire broke out, the ship had been anchored in the relevant waters near the United Arab Emirates on the inn...
The EU’s outgoing top trade official Sabine Weyand used her departing appearance at the European Parliament to pour cold water on the prospect of an investment deal with China, hinting instead that new weapons for dealing with Chinese “macroeconomic imbalances” could be on the way. Weyand, who is leaving her role as the EU’s director general for trade after a seven-year tenure, said the Comprehens...
The EU’s outgoing top trade official Sabine Weyand used her departing appearance at the European Parliament to pour cold water on the prospect of an investment deal with China, hinting instead that new weapons for dealing with Chinese “macroeconomic imbalances” could be on the way. Weyand, who is leaving her role as the EU’s director general for trade after a seven-year tenure, said the Comprehens...
An elderly man in Hong Kong is believed to have killed his ex-wife before hanging himself at a public housing estate, as he reportedly felt “hopeless” after their separation following years of marital conflict worsened by their son’s suicide, police have revealed. Terry Wan King-hang, the Sau Mau Ping assistant district commander of crime, said on Thursday that the force believed the 77-year-old m...
An elderly man in Hong Kong is believed to have killed his ex-wife before hanging himself at a public housing estate, as he reportedly felt “hopeless” after their separation following years of marital conflict worsened by their son’s suicide, police have revealed. Sau Mau Ping Assistant District Commander of Crime Terry Wan King-hang said on Thursday that the force believed the 77-year-old man kil...
Tracy Arm Fjord, in southeastern Alaska within the Tongass National Forest, presents a majestic vista, with a narrow sea inlet surrounded by towering granite cliffs, waterfalls and glaciers. One morning last year it also was the site of a powerful landslide that triggered a huge localised tsunami. Researchers have now determined that the tsunami on August 10, 2025, was the second-highest ever rec...
A top online influencer in China who was fined 18.91 million yuan (US$2.6 million) for evading nine million yuan in taxes has attracted significant attention on social media. The case of Bai Bing, a food influencer with more than 40 million followers, was revealed by China’s State Tax Administration (STA) in late April, according to the media outlet CCTV. The authorities said that between 2021 and...
A top online influencer in China who was fined 18.91 million yuan (US$2.6 million) for evading nine million yuan in taxes has attracted significant attention on social media. The case of Bai Bing, a food influencer with more than 40 million followers, was revealed by China’s State Tax Administration (STA) in late April, according to the media outlet CCTV. The authorities said that between 2021 and...
