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The parents of a Hong Kong baby without legal identity have insisted on not providing DNA proof for birth registration on privacy grounds, with the city’s welfare minister saying authorities would “strive to meet” the family after finally receiving an email reply from them. Secretary for Labour and Welfare Chris Sun Yuk-han on Tuesday said that the Social Welfare Department had finally received a ...
A vehicle fire in an undersea tunnel prompted the partial closure of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge for about 40 minutes on Tuesday afternoon, resulting in major traffic disruptions. The authority managing the bridge said in a social media post that the incident began at 12.58pm when a truck pulled over after one of its tyres caught fire. “A rapid, coordinated response involving bridge firefigh...
A vehicle fire in the undersea tunnel of the Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge caused major traffic disruption on Tuesday afternoon, prompting a partial closure of the key link between the three cities. The Transport Department said at 1.55pm that the incident occurred in the tunnel bound for Zhuhai and Macau, with the middle and slow lanes closed. Footage circulating online shows the tunnel filled wi...
The head of the World Health Organization on Monday concluded his visit to Democratic Republic of Congo by briefing the president on the response to the Ebola outbreak, which an aid agency warned was likely much larger than official figures show. The outbreak, already the third-largest on record, persisted for weeks undetected, say health officials, who are now behind the curve and struggling to ...
The waters off eastern Taiwan have become a new flashpoint after Tokyo and Manila announced formal negotiations to delimit the maritime boundary of the exclusive economic zones (EEZs) and continental shelf between Japan and the Philippines. On Monday, China’s coastguard carried out enforcement patrols in the region, exercising Beijing’s claimed right to maintain its own EEZ and continental shelf r...
A valiant official in China has been dubbed “Mud Buddha” after a photograph emerged of him covered in sludge while he was averting disaster by evacuating residents before a catastrophic landslide. From the evening of May 17 to the early morning of May 18, a downpour hit Shanghongyan Village in Maguan county, southwestern Yunnan province. At its height, the level of precipitation reached 256mm, the...
Hong Kong will relaunch direct flights with Almaty in Kazakhstan in the first quarter of next year, the city’s leader has announced in a breakthrough which businesses have said will be essential for easing travel and strengthening ties with Central Asia. Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu, who is leading a high-powered delegation to the region, also said on Tuesday that the city would start delibera...
Discrimination towards foreign residents in Japan has expanded from Koreans and Kurds to Muslims as their population is estimated to have nearly doubled in recent years, according to observers and community members. Misinformation and hate speech are spreading on Japanese social media and mosques are receiving a barrage of abusive phone calls and emails. Some are asking why they are suddenly being...
Shares of Tencent Holdings surged 10 per cent on Tuesday, driven by investor optimism over reports that the Chinese tech giant is close to launching an artificial intelligence agent within its super app WeChat. Tencent was testing a prototype AI agent for the WeChat ecosystem, which boasts 1.4 billion active users, and planned to start the compliance process as soon as this month for a public laun...
Shares of Tencent Holdings surged as much as 8 per cent on Tuesday, driven by investor optimism over reports that the Chinese tech giant is close to launching an artificial intelligence agent within its super app WeChat. Tencent was testing a prototype AI agent for the WeChat ecosystem, which boasts 1.4 billion active users, and planned to start the compliance process as soon as this month for a p...
A top US general’s description of South Korea as a “dagger in the heart of Asia” aimed at China has laid bare the differences in how Washington and Seoul view their alliance and Beijing. US Forces Korea commander General Xavier Brunson made the blunt remark in a podcast interview hosted by the US Army War College on May 22, drawing a backlash both from Beijing and from Seoul itself. South Korea’s ...
A Taiwanese air force aircraft crashed during a training mission on Tuesday, killing two experienced pilots and prompting renewed scrutiny of the island’s ageing fleet of T-34 basic trainers. The T-34C aircraft went down at about 8.08am at Gangshan Air Base in Kaohsiung, southern Taiwan, while conducting a simulated engine-failure exercise, according to the island’s air force. Both pilots on board...
Russian drones and missiles pounded the Ukrainian capital Kyiv and other cities early on Tuesday, killing at least 18 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 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...
