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Hong Kong’s legislature is set to visit Beijing as a full body for the first time since the city’s return to Chinese sovereignty in 1997, with the planned delegation of all 90 lawmakers aiming to learn how to better support alignment with the national 15th five-year plan. Legislative Council president Starry Lee Wai-king announced on Wednesday that the trip would take place in July. Lawmakers were...
Hong Kong’s legislature is set to visit Beijing as a full body for the first time since the city’s handover to Chinese rule in 1997, with all 90 lawmakers expected to join the delegation as it seeks better alignment with the national 15th five-year plan. Legislative Council president Starry Lee Wai-king announced on Wednesday that the trip would take place in July. Lawmakers were informed that the...
A luxury cruise ship hit by a deadly hantavirus outbreak and marooned for days off the coast of Cabo Verde with close to 150 people on board was due to head to Spain, while South Africa confirmed it identified among the victims a strain of the virus that can – in rare cases – spread among humans. And the Swiss government said a man who returned to Switzerland after being a passenger on the MV H...
Spain has allowed a cruise ship hit by hantavirus cases and three deaths to dock in the Canary Islands, as health authorities investigate whether human-to-human transmission occurred on board. The decision was taken in coordination with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the European Union, in line with international law and humanitarian principles, the Spanish Health Ministry said late on Tu...
Japan has long grappled with what to do about hikikomori – the social hermits who seal themselves off from the world, sometimes for years, retreating from all human contact. In the past, these recluses were thought of as a youth problem: troubled teenagers, rudderless young men. But that framing no longer holds. Japan’s shut-ins are growing old, and the parents keeping them alive are growing older...
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his visiting Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi voiced support for a new Gulf security framework during talks in Beijing on Wednesday, as Wang called for a swift reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. Countries in the Gulf and Middle East “should take their future into their own hands”, the top Chinese diplomat said, adding that China backed “the establishment of a...
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his visiting Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi voiced support for a new security framework in the Gulf as Beijing’s top diplomat urged a swift reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. Stating that countries in the Gulf and Middle East “should take their future into their own hands”, Wang in Beijing on Wednesday said China backed “the establishment of a regional peac...
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi have voiced support for a new security framework in the Gulf as Beijing’s top diplomat urged a swift reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. Stating that countries in the Gulf and Middle East “should take their future into their own hands”, Wang in Beijing on Wednesday said China backed “the establishment of a regional peace an...
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has called for a swift reopening of the Strait of Hormuz in his meeting with visiting Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Beijing. “Regarding the strait issue, the international community shares a common concern over restoring normal safe passage through the strait,” Beijing’s top diplomat said on Wednesday, according to a statement by the Ministry of Foreig...
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has called for a swift reopening of the Strait of Hormuz in his meeting with visiting Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Beijing. “Regarding the strait issue, the international community shares a common concern over restoring normal safe passage through the strait,” Beijing’s top diplomat said on Wednesday, according to a statement by the Ministry of Foreig...
We have put together stories from our coverage on science from the past two weeks to help you stay informed. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. China builds world’s first ‘coal battery’ with zero emission Chinese scientists have developed a way to generate electricity and achieve higher energy efficiency than conventional burning methods, while producin...
Across much of India, an energy crunch caused by the Iran war has prompted long queues for cooking gas cylinders. That is not a problem for Gauri Devi. On a stove with blue flames, she flips a chapatti flatbread, burning biogas produced from cow dung – an alternative fuel helping ease pressure on supplies. “It cooks everything,” the 25-year-old said in her courtyard kitchen in Nekpur, a village in...
Across much of India, an energy crunch caused by the Iran war has prompted long queues for cooking gas cylinders. That is not a problem for Gauri Devi. On a stove with blue flames, she flips a chapatti flatbread, burning biogas produced from cow dung – an alternative fuel helping ease pressure on supplies. “It cooks everything,” the 25-year-old said in her courtyard kitchen in Nekpur, a village in...
A rescuer at the site of an explosion that killed 26 people and injured 61 in Hunan’s Liuyang city has described the dangerous and extremely difficult clean-up mission amid gunpowder and sparks after he and others were wounded by secondary blasts on Tuesday morning. An excavator operator surnamed Xiao, who volunteered to aid rescue work at the site of the initial fireworks plant blast, said he had...
A Hong Kong secondary school facing student backlash over newly tightened mobile phone rules has said it will seek further feedback from stakeholders and review the policy’s scope and implementation. A source also told the South China Morning Post on Wednesday that Kwun Tong Maryknoll College had planned to extend the policy to all students after launching a pilot scheme for Form Three and Four st...
A woman in eastern China shed 21.5kg in just four months because her best friend told her she would look like the famous actress Yang Mi if she became thinner. The woman, who uses the alias taozichibubao, shared her slimming experience on social media, winning massive admiration from internet users, the Ningbo Evening News reported. Living in Zhejiang province, the woman previously weighed 64kg. H...
Four paintings linked to one of the world’s most audacious financial frauds stood on easels at Malaysia’s anti-corruption headquarters on Wednesday: a Picasso, a Miro, a Balthus and an Ultrillo – all allegedly bought with money stolen from the Malaysian people. The unveiling of the works at the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission’s (MACC) headquarters in Putrajaya marked the first public showing ...
A group of 13 Australians related to alleged Islamic State (Isis) jihadists is returning home from Syria, Australian authorities said on Wednesday, warning some will face arrest. The four women and nine children, who had been living in Roj camp in Syria, are expected to land in Sydney and Melbourne airports on Thursday, according to local media. Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said he received an...
Japan’s prime minister touched down in Australia on Sunday with a set of shared anxieties – about Trump, China and the fragility of supply chains that the two insular nations have long relied upon – to which she sought some small relief. By the time she departed, Sanae Takaichi and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had signed an economic security pact, unlocked nearly US$1 billion in crit...
China and the United States are taking divergent paths to developing artificial intelligence (AI), putting their technology ecosystems increasingly at odds. This divergence was on show on April 24 when start-up DeepSeek launched its next-generation V4 AI models that were optimised for use with the Ascend chips and associated software tools of tech giant Huawei Technologies. China has for years bee...
Hong Kong’s legislature has issued a written warning to lawmaker Judy Chan Kapui for driving on the wrong side of the road, urging her to be mindful of her conduct and meet the public’s expectations. The official warning was issued by the Legislative Council’s Supervisory Committee on Wednesday, four months after the 45-year-old New People’s Party lawmaker was filmed driving against the flow of tr...
This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing. All eyes were on the Hong Kong Housing Bureau’s Independent Checking Unit (ICU) on Wednesday, as one of its officers testified before a judge-led panel about its role in the Tai Po blaze. Senior maintenance surveyor Andy Ku Siu-ping was the only witness giving ...
This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing. All eyes are on the Housing Bureau’s Independent Checking Unit (ICU), whose officers are scheduled to testify before a judge-led panel on Wednesday about their role in Hong Kong’s Tai Po blaze. Senior maintenance surveyor Andy Ku Siu-ping will be the only witne...
A South Korean appellate court judge who presided over a high-profile case involving former first lady Kim Keon-hee was found dead early Wednesday morning, police said. Shin Jong-oh, who had overturned a lower court’s not guilty verdict and imposed a harsher sentence on Kim, was discovered with severe injuries in a flower bed near the Seoul High Court building in Seocho district, southern Seoul. H...
For German consumer Erik Böhme, a first visit to the Beijing auto show was an eye-opener – the world’s largest car exhibition showcased a vast array of electric vehicle (EV) brands, many already gaining traction in Europe. “I think there will be more Chinese brands coming and being successful in Europe,” said Böhme, a freelance automotive consultant who spent two days at the event, which ran throu...
Hikers should not underestimate the risks of climbing in Japan during the volatile spring transition in May, a mountaineering expert has warned after two Hong Kong men became stranded in the Northern Alps, one of whom later died. Veteran mountaineer Chung Kin-man said on Wednesday that climbers might develop a false sense of safety due to warmer weather in lowland areas in May, even as conditions ...
Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa was once one of the most visible faces of Rodrigo Duterte’s deadly war on drugs, a tough-talking national police chief who was seen as the hatchet man carrying out the former Philippine president’s crackdown against alleged criminals of the narcotics trade. Now a senator, Dela Rosa has somewhat fallen off the radar – for six months, he has not appeared for work after report...
Russian attacks throughout eastern Ukraine killed at least 27 people on Tuesday, including 12 in one of the worst strikes so far this year, hours before a midnight deadline ushering in an open-ended ceasefire proposed by Kyiv. Russia announced a ceasefire for May 8 to 9 to coincide with commemorations of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in World War II and a military parade in Moscow’...
China’s chip champions channelled a larger proportion of revenue into research and development (R&D) than their US peers, first-quarter earnings show, as Beijing presses ahead with its tech self-reliance drive amid an artificial intelligence boom. Beijing-based Moore Threads spent half of its revenue on R&D in the quarter ended March 2026, while Shanghai-based MetaX spent 45 per cent over the same...
North Korea welcomed foreign visitors and firms to a trade fair this week, showcasing home-grown products including the latest model of its sleek Jindallae smartphone. Diplomatically isolated and under biting sanctions over its nuclear and weapons programmes, North Korea has an ageing manufacturing base which analysts doubt has the ability to make high-quality consumer technology. Still, Pyongyang...
