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Hong Kong’s welfare chief has defended a “professional” call by doctors and social workers to return a 12-year-old girl to the flat where her mother had just jumped to her death, hours before the child also killed herself. A registered clinical psychologist said the girl should have been moved to a relative’s home immediately, instead of going back to the flat where her mother’s suicide took place...
Hong Kong parents have voiced shock and grief over the apparent suicide of a mother and daughter on Wednesday, believed to be tied to academic pressure, with education leaders calling for stronger mental health support for families and youth. Police said a 48-year-old woman died after falling from her flat in Taikoo Shing, while a source told the South China Morning Post that her 12-year-old daugh...
Hong Kong parents have voiced shock and grief over the apparent suicide of a mother and daughter on Wednesday, believed to be tied to academic pressure, with education leaders calling for stronger mental health support for families and youth. Police said a 48-year-old woman died after falling from her flat in Taikoo Shing, while a source told the South China Morning Post that her 12-year-old daugh...
China said it had carried out a scientific expedition in Scarborough Shoal, amid renewed confrontation with the Philippines over the disputed South China Sea atoll. The research mission – which began on May 20 – involved deploying a floating platform for environmental monitoring and sampling, the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ South China Sea Institute of Oceanology said in a statement on Wednesday....
The Hong Kong government should expand its planned mandate for driver-monitoring systems on public buses to other modes of transport and upgrade road infrastructure as part of a multipronged strategy to cut down on traffic accidents, industry leaders have said. The remarks on Thursday followed authorities’ revelation a day earlier of a plan submitted to the Legislative Council to leverage technolo...
South Korea imposed on Thursday a record US$409 million fine on e-commerce giant Coupang over a leak that exposed the data of more than 30 million customers, provoking ire from US lawmakers. The move caps a months-long probe into the country’s largest online retail platform, which is incorporated in the United States. Allegations of a massive data leak first surfaced in November, becoming an unexp...
India is taking unprecedented measures to restore confidence in its national student examination system after a series of scandals fuelled angry protests from young people and put pressure on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government. Last month, authorities took the extraordinary step of cancelling the medical entrance exam results of more than 2 million students after allegations of widespread l...
Singapore police said arrest warrants for fugitive financier Jho Low remain active, even as the Malaysian continues efforts to seek clemency from US President Donald Trump. “Warrants of arrest and Interpol red notices for both Tan Kim Loong and Low Taek Jho are still in effect,” the police said in a statement on Wednesday. Tan is a known associate of Low and is also implicated in Malaysia’s multib...
Through the invitation of a good friend, I had the privilege last Saturday of attending a charity movie screening held by SideBySide, a non-profit social service organisation. The film chosen for the event was We’re Nothing At All, a recently released social drama by veteran director and screenwriter Herman Yau Lai-to. While widely known for his more commercial titles, Yau is never afraid of tackl...
As demand for AI servers soars, leading Japanese and South Korean multilayer ceramic capacitor (MLCC) makers are shifting further upmarket, opening the door for Chinese competitors to gain share in lower-end segments despite lagging their rivals in advanced technology. MLCCs – often referred to as the “rice of the electronics industry” because of their ubiquity – are tiny electronic components tha...
[The content of this article has been produced by our advertising partner.] In Hong Kong, few conversations among parents are as charged as the one about school places. From the moment a child turns three, families begin plotting pathways in an already competitive system. But what if that uncertainty could be removed at the very start? The English Schools Foundation (ESF) announced this week that ...
North Korea is gaining in strategic importance for China to counter the United States, but Pyongyang may refrain from intensifying military ties with Beijing, analysts say. During his meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Monday, Chinese President Xi Jinping said both sides should “enhance exchanges in diplomacy, law enforcement and military affairs”, according to state news agency Xinhu...
North Korea is gaining in strategic importance for China to counter the United States, but Pyongyang may refrain from intensifying military ties with Beijing, analysts say. During his meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Monday, Chinese President Xi Jinping said both sides should “enhance exchanges in diplomacy, law enforcement and military affairs”, according to state news agency Xinhu...
Chinese AI-enabled equipment can help police assess the physical health, mental state, and even risk level of suspects, according to demonstrations at a law enforcement equipment exhibition in Beijing last week. Chinese firms presenting their latest biometric devices at the international police and anti-terrorism technology expo said they could reduce manpower requirements for a police force and i...
Wang Junming from central China’s Hunan province may be 25 years old, but he is still the size of a baby. Standing at 66cm tall, Wang has the IQ of a child. He is spoiled by his family, including his 21-year-old sister, who all call him “baby”. He need not worry about graduation and jobs as his peers do and he sleeps before 8pm every day. The eye pouches and wrinkles on his face and the characters...
Our report that China’s landmark Pinglu Canal is set for trial operations in September was one of the most read the week it was published. Interestingly, most of those who read the report were from the United States, followed by Malaysia, Singapore, Canada, Australia and Hong Kong. The report had three times as many Singaporean readers as local ones. I find this disparity concerning and not for re...
A Kazakhstan-based commercial bank backed by China Citic Bank is seeking to collaborate with Hong Kong financial institutions and investors to develop new financing channels for the Central Asian country through the city’s thriving offshore renminbi market. Murat Baisynov, chairman of Altyn Bank, told the South China Morning Post that three clients of the Almaty-headquartered lender were currently...
The global energy crisis has helped propel BYD back into pole position in China’s automotive sector, allowing it to regain ground on Geely Auto as demand for battery-powered vehicles accelerates worldwide. The Shenzhen-based electric vehicle (EV) maker, which lost its title as mainland China’s largest carmaker in the first quarter of 2026, rebounded strongly in the following two months as the US-I...
The Philippines’ armed forces chief has moved to quell fears of political intervention after a bitter Senate leadership crisis triggered tighter security, stalled military promotions and fuelled concern that partisan groups could exploit “rumblings” inside the ranks. Armed Forces Chief of Staff General Romeo Brawner Jnr acknowledged unease among some personnel but told This Week in Asia that the m...
Canada’s culture minister on Wednesday introduced legislation that would ban children under 16 from having social media accounts and require AI chatbot services to limit production of harmful content. The proposed Digital Safety Act makes Canada the latest in a wave of countries cracking down on social media platforms over concerns of harm to children. “We have seen the very serious consequences t...
The FBI said on Wednesday that it seized more than a dozen internet domains used by Chinese intelligence services to gain personal information in hopes of fooling, conscripting or blackmailing Americans with security clearances into divulging sensitive information. “The fake consulting company domains seized by the FBI illustrate the lengths the Chinese government’s intelligence services will go t...
Chinese propagandists have been trying to use OpenAI’s flagship chatbot to gin up opposition to Donald Trump’s tariffs and intervene in American debates over data centres and AI, OpenAI said in a report published on Wednesday. The company said its efforts, dating to late 2025 and early 2026, appeared to have had little or no effect, but it is another indication of how central generative AI is ...
US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that the United States might not renew its free trade agreement with Canada and Mexico and criticised trade deficits with those countries, although he said he was talking with their leaders about the matter. The three countries need to approve a renewal of their existing agreement by July 1 or signal their intention to exit the pact, a process that w...
In early April, hours after US President Donald Trump threatened to bomb Iran “back to the Stone Ages” in a prime-time address, China’s yuan-denominated cross-border payment system set a record for transaction volume in a single day. The Cross-Border Interbank Payment System (CIPS) skyrocketed to 1.22 trillion yuan (US$180.3 billion) on April 2, almost doubling the daily average volume in February...
During a recent discussion in Shenzhen with British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper, I was reminded that the development of artificial intelligence (AI) is no longer only a technological race. It is a test of whether major economies can build the institutions, standards and economic systems needed to integrate intelligent machines into human society. Britain has every reason to enter this new era ...
Pope Leo on Wednesday blessed a giant new tower at Barcelona’s famed Sagrada Familia Basilica after celebrating mass inside what is now the world’s tallest church. A choir of 600 singers performed at the service which lasted around 90 minutes and was attended by Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez as well as King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia. The stained-glass windows in various colours shone brig...
The United States ramped up pressure on Iran on Wednesday by carrying out more strikes and the Treasury Department slapping fresh sanctions on entities that it says “have supported weapons procurement” on behalf of Tehran, including some in mainland China and Hong Kong. “We hit them hard yesterday and we’re going to hit them again hard today,” US President Donald Trump told reporters at the White ...
The United States ramped up pressure on Iran on Wednesday by carrying out more strikes and the Treasury Department slapping fresh sanctions on entities that it says “have supported weapons procurement” on behalf of Tehran, including some in mainland China and Hong Kong. “We hit them hard yesterday and we’re going to hit them again hard today,” US President Donald Trump told reporters at the White ...
The United States ramped up pressure on Iran on Wednesday, with President Donald Trump threatening more strikes and the Treasury Department slapping fresh sanctions on entities that it says “have supported weapons procurement” on behalf of Tehran, including some in China and Hong Kong. “We hit them hard yesterday and we’re going to hit them again hard today,” Trump told reporters at the White Hous...
