Live headlines from trusted global sources. Click any story to open it on the original website.
China’s fandom culture predates today’s pop idols and live-streaming celebrities by millennia. In ancient times, fame was cultivated in the streets, restaurants, and poetry circles, where beauty and talent transformed poets and performers into objects of public fascination. One of China’s earliest heartthrobs was Pan Yue, a writer from the Western Jin dynasty (266–316), better known by his nicknam...
China’s fandom culture predates today’s pop idols and live-streaming celebrities by millennia. In ancient times, fame was cultivated in the streets, restaurants, and poetry circles, where beauty and talent transformed poets and performers into objects of public fascination. One of China’s earliest heartthrobs was Pan Yue, a writer from the Western Jin dynasty (266–316), better known by his nicknam...
Thousands of Hongkongers were stuck for hours at multiple land checkpoints in what one traveller called “unprecedented” large crowds on Monday night, as more than 673,000 residents returned to the city from mainland China after the long weekend. Some were also reportedly turned away from the Shenzhen Bay border before it closed that night. Among the 740,000 residents entering the city on Monday, a...
Thousands of Hongkongers were stuck for hours at multiple land checkpoints in what one traveller called “unprecedented” large crowds on Monday night, as more than 673,000 residents returned to the city from mainland China after the long weekend. Some were also reportedly turned away from the Shenzhen Bay border before its closing time on Monday night. Among the 740,000 residents entering the city ...
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. Did US restrictions sink Malaysia’s US$147 million Norway missile deal? Norway’s revocation of export licences for a naval missile system sold to Malaysia has thrust into ...
Unitree Robotics, a luminary in China’s humanoid robot boom, has reported a sharp plunge in first-quarter profits just days before its crucial listing hearing, casting a shadow over its Star Market initial public offering (IPO) as soaring expenses and a brutal price war catch up to the industry’s hype. The Shanghai Stock Exchange’s listing committee is scheduled to review Unitree’s IPO application...
The consumption of Ilex paraguariensis – known as “yerba mate” in South America – has spread beyond the borders of Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil and is now gaining popularity in China. “Our exports have doubled since last year,” said Juan Luis Lorenzo, a local producer involved in the direct exports of yerba mate to China. The increase in exports by Lorenzo’s cooperative reflects the broader rise ...
Over the years, the consumption of Ilex paraguariensis – known as yerba mate in South America – has spread beyond the borders of Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil and is now gaining popularity in China. “Our exports have doubled since last year,” Juan Luis Lorenzo, a local producer involved in the direct exports of yerba mate to China, said. The increase in exports by Lorenzo’s cooperative reflects th...
Three elderly Hong Kong hikers who were reported missing in Sai Kung have been found following a rescue operation lasting more than 12 hours, according to authorities. The Fire Services Department called off the operation at 11.05am on Tuesday after the trio, all in their 70s, were located. None required hospital treatment. A government helicopter had also been deployed during the early morning se...
Hong Kong rescuers are continuing their search for two hikers who reportedly went missing in Sai Kung on Monday, after locating their 76-year-old companion early on Tuesday. Authorities said on Tuesday that a government helicopter had been deployed to locate the pair in the morning. Police said they received a report from members of a hiking group at 10.15pm on Monday, saying three in their party ...
This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing. Hong Kong issued its first “very hot weather” warning of the year on Tuesday, with temperatures expected to reach as high as 33 degrees Celsius (91.4 Fahrenheit). The forecaster said an anticyclone aloft would bring “generally fine and very hot weather” to the ...
Shinnosuke Abe, manager of the Yomiuri Giants, has stepped down following his arrest on suspicion of assaulting his daughter, the Japanese baseball club said on Tuesday. Abe, 47, was taken into custody by police for allegedly grabbing his 18-year-old daughter and forcing her to the floor at their home in Tokyo on Monday. He was later released. Giants president Toru Kunimatsu apologised, saying vio...
Student housing is tipped to be a top choice among investors in mainland China’s property market as demand continues to outstrip the supply for suitable accommodation for university students, according to analysts. Interest in investment in the student housing segment particularly on the mainland, Hong Kong and Australia has risen, according to property consultancy CBRE. “Much of this increase is ...
Saxophonist Sonny Rollins, who spent more than two years practising in solitude as a young man on a windswept New York bridge to reinvent his playing and become one of the giants of jazz, died at the age of 95 on Monday, his publicist said. Rollins had recorded the confidently titled Jazz Colossus album in 1956. But the saxophonist remained wracked with self-doubt. So, in the summer of 1959, he...
A Hong Kong school principal has been suspended from his post with immediate effect after he was seen swearing at security guards during a student trip to Singapore, the institution announced on Tuesday, hours after authorities in the city state revealed they would investigate the incident. Edmund Wong Chun-sek, a former lawmaker and manager of San Wui Commercial Society Secondary School in Tuen M...
Singapore authorities are investigating a Hong Kong principal after he was seen swearing at security guards during a student trip to the city state, with his secondary school saying sorry for the dispute that sparked “public concern and unease”. In response to queries from the South China Morning Post, Singapore police said Sunday evening that they had received a report and that investigations wer...
“America is open, America is ready for you. We want you to come”. The United States’ new tourism chief, Nick Adams, boldly delivered the invitation at last week’s IPW Fort Lauderdale inbound travel trade show in Florida. “We can protect our borders and open our doors at the same time,” he insisted. “We want you to have a great vacation. There is no country like America on Earth.” Australian-born A...
“America is open, America is ready for you. We want you to come”. The United States’ new tourism chief, Nick Adams, boldly delivered the invitation at last week’s IPW Fort Lauderdale inbound travel trade show in Florida. “We can protect our borders and open our doors at the same time,” he insisted. “We want you to have a great vacation. There is no country like America on Earth.” Australian-born A...
Telecoms giant China Mobile International is planning another route to connect terrestrial cables in Central Asia with Hong Kong’s submarine network, aiming to enable more efficient data transmission between the “stan” countries and the rest of the world, a senior executive has said. Kevin Chan Kin-fan, the company’s head of carrier business, said the developing telecommunications sector in Centra...
Shinsegae Group chairman Chung Yong-jin on Tuesday apologised to the public in person, eight days after Starbucks Korea, run by the conglomerate, sparked controversy with its “Tank Day” marketing event, which critics say inappropriately referenced South Korea’s pro-democracy movement of the 1980s. “Regardless of the reason, the fact that we have hurt the hearts of our citizens carries a heavy resp...
The Reverend Canon Peter Douglas Koon Ho-ming was blunt when he said, “Once there are no political issues, everything in Hong Kong is a livelihood issue.” He was also correct. Housing is this city’s biggest livelihood issue. It is also the hardest to tackle by far. The current administration has probably done more in this area than previous ones. Since Beijing’s top official for Hong Kong affairs ...
US forces attacked missile sites in southern Iran and boats trying to lay mines on Monday, US Central Command said, imperilling a fragile ceasefire and casting new doubt on a deal to end the Middle East war. The strikes came as top Iranian negotiators arrived in Doha for the latest round of talks to end the months-long conflict, and as the Israeli military stepped up hostilities with Iran-backed H...
US forces attacked missile sites in southern Iran and boats trying to lay mines on Monday, US Central Command said, as top Iranian negotiators arrived in Doha for talks to end the war. “US forces conducted self-defence strikes in southern Iran today to protect our troops from threats posed by Iranian forces,” Tim Hawkins, a US Central Command spokesman, said in a statement. It gave no details of t...
A rare visit by Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr to Japan this week marks Manila’s latest bid to establish a counterweight to Beijing over the South China Sea dispute. During the four-day trip, the first state visit by a Philippine leader to Japan in over a decade, Marcos is expected to discuss boosting defence and other ties between Manila and Tokyo amid the security challenge posed by C...
US deployment of the Typhon missile system to southern Japan could directly threaten China’s coastal cities and block crucial naval routes to the Pacific, a Chinese analyst has warned. The Typhon mid-range missile launcher was expected to be positioned in southwestern Japan next month for joint US-Japan military exercises, Kyodo News reported last week. Fu Qianshao, a Beijing-based military analys...
A taxi driver in China has been applauded online for waving the fare of a young boy and teaching him how to communicate when he is short of money. The video of the incident from the cab’s surveillance camera has trended on social media after it was reported by state media CCTV, garnering more than 1.2 million likes. On the afternoon of May 17, a boy, who is about 10 years old, took a taxi alone in...
Inside a massive retail and office complex called 11 Skies next to Hong Kong International Airport, all 800 shops sit vacant and only two of 120 food outlets were open earlier this month. They were supposed to begin operating in the 3.8 million sq ft development – equivalent in size to about 53 football pitches – by last year. A recent South China Morning Post visit to 11 Skies found it largely em...
HSBC is targeting an increase in its Hong Kong client base to match the city’s population of 7.5 million, a goal to be driven mainly by international investors, according to its Hong Kong CEO Maggie Ng. Hong Kong has already seen almost 2 million new customers sign up to the HSBC Hong Kong office over the past two years, bringing its total customers to 7 million at the end of last year. “It is my ...
A reported US delay in delivering hundreds of Tomahawk cruise missiles could slow Japan’s plans to give its military a long-range strike option, analysts said, exposing a potential gap between Tokyo’s new defence ambitions and Washington’s ability to supply the weapons. The missiles are central to Japan’s effort to build a counterstrike capability, giving it the ability to hit enemy bases if the c...
The Israeli army intensified strikes in southern Lebanon on Monday, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had ordered the military to escalate its offensive in an effort to “crush” Hezbollah. The air strikes come as the United States and Iran seek to finalise the terms of an agreement to end the Middle East conflict, which could include the Lebanon front, where Israel and Hezbollah have wag...
