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The son of Myanmar’s jailed pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has said his mother’s “spirit cannot be caged”, in a moving video greeting for her 81st birthday – a milestone she again marks while confined by the junta. Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s de facto leader until the 2021 coup removed her administration, was jailed for 33 years following that military takeover on charges including election fraud an...
An exodus of private business jets from China since the days of Covid-19 appears to be stabilising this year amid a potential shift in demand across industries, suggesting that sales by cash-strapped owners of the multimillion-dollar assets have largely run their course, according to an aviation-services firm. While a few deliveries of new business jets in China are currently “pending”, very few w...
We’ve never had it so good. The S&P 500 and Nikkei 225 have hit record highs this month. SpaceX had its spectacular initial public offering, the largest in history. The company raised an eye-popping US$75 billion and saw a sharp rise in its share price to a mind-blowing valuation of US$2.5 trillion in two days. The US-Iran deal on reopening the Strait of Hormuz caused petrol prices to drop back to...
Italy’s foreign minister on Friday cancelled a visit to the United States over reported comments by US President Donald Trump that appeared to mock Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. “The grave and offensive words of President Trump … offend the whole of Italy,” Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, who had been due to visit the US on Sunday and Monday, said on social media. Meloni said she was “stunned” b...
Chinese authorities will promote the further integration of AI and consumption, according to a plan released by the Ministry of Commerce and seven other ministries. It includes 17 new measures that aim to create new drivers of consumption growth by embedding artificial intelligence in consumer goods, services and the retail and commerce sectors through new smart products, robots, subsidies, infras...
Iran’s Strait of Hormuz body said on Friday it would waive planned fees to use the strait during a 60-day negotiation period under the memorandum of understanding signed with the United States this week. Ships seeking passage through the strait while the interim agreement was in force must submit transit requests at least 48 hours before arrival, Iran’s Persian Gulf Strait Authority said...
Hong Kong police have arrested nine people in connection with two burglaries at a farm in Tin Shui Wai, with some of the stolen items already pawned in Macau and the total losses exceeding HK$2.7 million (US$344,500) in cash, watches, jewellery and gold. Senior Inspector Lam Ka-kit of Yuen Long district’s crime squad said the suspects, comprising eight men and a woman, allegedly belonged to a synd...
A Vietnamese national deported to South Sudan by Donald Trump’s administration under its controversial third-country deportation programme was repatriated to Vietnam on Friday after spending more than a year in detention. South Sudan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced the repatriation of 44-year-old Tuan Phan at a press briefing on Friday. “We are grateful that while in our custody Mr Phan wa...
Hong Kong’s pet funeral service providers have urged the government to allow animal ashes to be placed alongside those of their owners, citing a growing demand for such arrangements amid a rapidly expanding afterlife market for furry friends. Petmento, part of local group Sage laGreen Funeral Services, said it had been asking the government to relax regulations by allowing animal ashes to be place...
The Chinese embassy in the UK has called on the British government to “stop its acts of slander and suppression” after a court jailed two men linked to the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in London for up to 10 years for spying on activists. Bill Yuen Chung-biu, a manager at the office, was sentenced on Thursday to eight years behind bars for assisting a foreign intelligence service, while co-...
The Chinese embassy in the UK has called on the British government to “stop its acts of slander and suppression” after a court jailed two men linked to the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in London for up to 10 years for spying on activists. Bill Yuen Chung-biu, an office manager at the office, was sentenced on Thursday to eight years behind bars for assisting a foreign intelligence service, w...
Arsenio Butil Jnr fell to his knees and began to pray when last week’s deadly 7.8-magnitude earthquake began shaking his home on the coast of the southern Philippines. When he opened his eyes, he saw a once-familiar shoreline changing in real time, with swathes of previously submerged coral suddenly pushing above the waterline. The June 8 quake, driven by a shifting of the nearby Cotabato Trench, ...
Australia has supplied the Philippine coastguard with a new batch of aerial and underwater drones that could significantly enhance Manila’s capability to monitor activities in the disputed South China Sea. The systems would help the coastguard gather evidence and enhance deterrence across the contested waters, including areas within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone, where Manila has faced ...
A defence fair in Beijing has shown portable laser weapons that can be carried by a single soldier to shoot down drones, realising a vision that was once the domain of science fiction. The Lijian series, meaning “sharp swords”, developed by Chinese defence supplier Harbin Xinguang Optic-Electronics Technology, was displayed at the Defence Information Equipment & Technology Exhibition 2026, a three...
A Chinese man whose dating of a woman consisted of a five-minute video call before marrying her within three days regretted what he had done just nine days later. The 32-year-old man, surnamed Gu, who is from the eastern province of Zhejiang and is a single child, blamed parental pressure for his rash decision. He spent 200 yuan (US$30) to register with a local matchmaking centre, which introduced...
A social media post by London Mayor Sadiq Khan calling his city and Singapore global powerhouses has ignited scrutiny of both places, with critics arguing that they are worlds apart. Khan, who was in Singapore this week, posted a picture of himself standing in front of the Marina Bay skyline on Sunday with the caption: “This is what it looks like when two global powerhouses unite. Delighted to be ...
A fire that broke out at a primary school in Tokyo on Friday, injuring eight pupils and two teachers before being extinguished, authorities said. The fire was reported around 11am, according to the local fire department. It started in a room next to the music room on the top floor of Takinogawa Dai-san Elementary School in the Kita area of the Japanese capital. It was extinguished at around 1.45pm...
After two wars in the space of a year, diplomacy over Iran’s nuclear programme has come back to much the same place it was before the fighting began. The memorandum of understanding signed by US President Donald Trump and his Iranian counterpart, Masoud Pezeshkian, on Wednesday sets up talks that non-proliferation experts said would largely resume the US-Iran diplomatic track Washington broke off ...
The Group of Seven nations this week agreed to pare their reliance on China for vital raw materials, while European leaders struggled to reach a consensus on how to respond to a flood of low-cost Chinese imports. No single country should supply more than 60 per cent of the G7 nations’ rare earths and permanent magnets by 2030, their leaders agreed during a summit in Evian, France. The nations will...
Hong Kong actor and singer Eason Chan bought a HK$182.53 million (US$23.29 million) property in the city’s Southern district, according to official records, joining a list of the rich and famous who have recently snapped up luxury homes. Chan, whose full name on the official record was Chan Yick Shun Eason, purchased the home in Shouson Hill in a deal registered on Wednesday, records from the Land...
A mainland Chinese research vessel has conducted a marine environmental survey in waters east of Taiwan, the latest sign of Beijing’s bid to reinforce its jurisdictional claims in the area following Japanese-Philippine maritime boundary talks. The survey, which ran from Tuesday to Thursday, was conducted by the Ministry of Natural Resources’ East China Sea Bureau, which deployed the oceanographic ...
As China’s relationship with African countries has deepened, the country’s influence is spreading into more areas. In the first of a series of articles, Jevans Nyabiage explores how a drive to expand Chinese language education in Africa is being stymied by a shortage of teachers. For years, Chinese language training in Africa has been provided mainly through Beijing-backed Confucius Institutes at ...
Israel and Hezbollah agreed a ceasefire on Friday, a US official said, after deadly exchanges between the two sides in Lebanon put a deal to end the Middle East war under strain less than two days after it was signed. Talks that were scheduled for Friday between the US and Iran in Switzerland to take the deal to the next stage were postponed amid the fighting, with no new date announced. Tehran’s ...
Israel and Hezbollah agreed to a ceasefire in Lebanon on Friday, a US official said, after an escalation in fighting there jeopardised the chances of an interim agreement on ending the war in Iran turning into a lasting Middle East peace deal. US-Iran talks in Switzerland planned for Friday were cancelled as fighting flared in Lebanon, creating new uncertainty about the timing of negotiations vi...
Fighting flared in Lebanon on Friday, with authorities reporting 21 killed in Israeli air strikes and Israel announcing the deaths of four of its soldiers. The violence is the worst since the sealing of a US-Iran deal to halt the wider Middle East war, which was supposed to also pause fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon. The deaths of the soldiers drew a furious reaction in Israel, wi...
Lebanon said 18 people were killed on Friday in Israeli air strikes in the south, while Israel’s military reported its first soldiers killed there since the sealing of a US-Iran deal to halt the Middle East war, including in Lebanon. Israel had said it was striking Hezbollah targets overnight and into the morning, while the Iran-backed militant group said it was attacking Israeli forces around the...
Lebanon said 18 people were killed on Friday in Israeli air strikes in the south, while Israel’s military reported its first soldiers killed there since the sealing of a US-Iran deal to halt the Middle East war, including in Lebanon. Israel had said it was striking Hezbollah targets overnight and into the morning, while the Iran-backed militant group said it was attacking Israeli forces around the...
This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing. Hong Kong enjoyed a few sunny spells on the Tuen Ng Festival, just a day after the city issued its top-tier black rainstorm warning twice only hours apart, as some hiking experts warned outdoor enthusiasts to be mindful of safety hazards. The Hong Kong Observat...
This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing. Hong Kong once again enjoyed a few sunny spells on Tuen Ng Festival, just a day after the city issued its top-tier black rainstorm warning twice only hours apart, as some hiking experts warned outdoor enthusiasts to be mindful of safety hazards. The Hong Kong O...
This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing. Hong Kong once again enjoyed a few sunny spells on Tuen Ng Festival, just a day after the city issued its top-tier black rainstorm warning twice only hours apart, as some hiking experts warned outdoor enthusiasts to be mindful of safety hazards. The Hong Kong O...
