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Two American military cargo aircraft have been spotted landing in Beijing – another apparent sign that US President Donald Trump’s trip to China will go ahead as expected this month. According to images posted on Chinese social media by several aviation photography enthusiasts, the C-17 US Air Force heavy-lifters – bearing the tail numbers 088204 and 055140 on their vertical stabilisers – arrived ...
Nearly 60 per cent of homeless residents in Hong Kong plan to reduce medical visits in response to higher public medical fees introduced this year, a non-governmental organisation survey has found, with advocates urging authorities to introduce automatic waivers and simplify subsidy application procedures. Kenny Ng Kwan-lim, deputy head of programmes at Impact HK, a charity supporting the city’s h...
Two foreign activists from a Gaza-bound flotilla who were brought to Israel for interrogation appeared before an Israeli court on Sunday, according to the rights group defending them. The flotilla of more than 50 vessels had set sail from France, Spain and Italy with the aim of breaking an Israeli blockade of Gaza and bringing supplies to the devastated Palestinian territory. They were intercepted...
Hong Kong should not renew the HK$3 per litre diesel subsidy when it expires at the end of June. Instead, it should use the funds to launch a crash programme to accelerate electrification of public transport, starting with the minibus fleet. The crisis in the Middle East has had a serious impact on fuel prices. In response, a government task force has recommended a package of measures to provide t...
A woman carrying a knife has been arrested after being tackled by the crowd during the Rain Rave Water Music Festival in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday night. In a viral video, a man can be seen attempting to disarm the woman. Several others from the crowd, along with security personnel, then joined in to restrain her until the police arrived. She was seen being arrested shortly after. Kuala Lumpur poli...
As the energy shock unleashed by tensions in the Middle East rippled through Africa, a massive oil refinery in Nigeria’s biggest city of Lagos, owned by Africa’s wealthiest man, came to the rescue. Running at its full capacity of 650,000 barrels per day, the world’s biggest single-train refinery supplied fuel to many African countries that usually relied on imports through the Strait of Hormuz, fr...
A robot in a high-visibility vest carrying a loud hailer while patrolling a park in China’s northeastern Jilin province has caused much amusement online. “We have sprayed pesticides in the park. It is highly poisonous,” the robot was exclaiming through the loud hailer. The robot was also saying that when worms eat the pesticide it they instantly lie down and pretend to be dead, state media CCTV re...
Astronomers in Japan have recently launched what they say is the country’s first organisation dedicated to the search for alien life, with radio observations planned in the summer next year. “They must exist somewhere in the universe. I’m excited to be putting this into action,” said Shinya Narusawa, an astrophysical expert at the University of Hyogo and head of the Japanese Society for SETI – the...
This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing. Hongkongers should expect mainly cloudy skies accompanied by occasional showers and thunderstorms in the next two days, the local forecaster has said, after an amber rainstorm warning stayed in effect for 3½ hours on Sunday afternoon. The Hong Kong Observatory ...
This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing. The Hong Kong Observatory has warned that hail may affect the city shortly, after issuing the amber rainstorm signal on Sunday afternoon. The amber signal was issued at 2.20pm, indicating heavy rain exceeding 30mm per hour had fallen or was expected to persist ...
This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing. The Hong Kong Observatory issued the amber rainstorm warning on Sunday afternoon, saying that violent gusts might affect the city. The signal was issued at 2.20pm, indicating heavy rain exceeding 30mm per hour had fallen or was expected to persist across the ci...
Hong Kong is set for its strongest quarterly growth in almost five years, the city’s finance chief has said, citing a 17 per cent rise in visitor numbers and a 5.2 per cent increase in retail and catering activity. Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po said in his Sunday blog that 602,000 visitors entered Hong Kong in the first two days of mainland China’s Labour Day “golden week”, up 6 per cent yea...
Singapore wealth-tech firms are increasingly using Hong Kong as their first major overseas expansion market, betting that the city’s large pool of idle savings, deep wealth base and role as a regional financial hub will support the scaling of their retail investment platforms. The latest entrant, Chocolate Finance, launched in Hong Kong last month with a product targeting retail investors’ idle ca...
Across Bangkok, aromas of garlic, chilli and grilled meat drift from roadside stalls and carts, but tighter controls on vendors threaten livelihoods and the street food culture that defines the Thai capital. Convenient, full of flavour and popular among locals and tourists alike, Bangkok’s street food is one of the city’s signatures, where sizzling woks and smoky charcoal grills turn boulevards an...
Rising youth suicides in Manila, fuelled by emotional distress and digital triggers, have spurred calls to expand support for vulnerable Filipinos, as the deeply religious country begins to confront mental health more openly. In 2018, Macy Castaneda Lee, a 16-year-old Manila high school student, thought about ending it all after grappling with past trauma, including childhood molestation. Now a jo...
A new US drawdown of roughly 5,000 troops from Germany over the next year prompted strong questions from both Nato allies and Republicans in Congress. A Nato spokesperson said the defence alliance is looking for details on the US effort, which was announced on Friday, adding that Washington’s move underscores the need for Europe to continue to invest more in its own defence. The alliance remains c...
Perched above the streets of Tai Hang, the 91-year-old Haw Par Mansion has stood as a watchman to Hong Kong’s evolving history. The mansion and its front garden are the only remaining sections of what was once a sprawling estate and theme park built in the 1930s by the Aw family of Tiger Balm ointment fame. They are striking examples of the period’s architectural hybridity, often called the Chines...
Industry leaders from Hong Kong’s property management sector have said a security staff shortfall of up to 25 per cent persists, as they defended a major housing estate’s recruitment of one-third of its guards from across the border. The owners’ corporation of Richland Gardens in Kowloon Bay has come under fire after announcing on social media last week that 31 guards from mainland China would be ...
In December 2010, on the final day of his three-day India visit, Chinese premier Wen Jiabao offered a metaphorical vision for bilateral ties, suggesting that “the dragon and the elephant should tango”. The analogy – dragon for China, elephant for India – had already circulated in Western academic and media circles as a comparative frame. With Wen’s remark, it formally entered China’s diplomatic le...
China’s smartphone and electronics supply chain is adapting its expertise to support the country’s fledgling but fast-growing humanoid robotics industry, as component suppliers seek new growth beyond a slowing mobile market. The sector received a glimpse of that crossover after Honor’s humanoid robot D1, a dark-horse entrant from the smartphone maker, won Beijing’s recent robot half-marathon, beat...
China’s smartphone and electronics supply chain is adapting its expertise to support the country’s fledgling but fast-growing humanoid robotics industry, as component suppliers seek new growth beyond a slowing mobile market. The sector received a glimpse of that crossover after Honor’s humanoid robot D1, a dark-horse entrant from the smartphone maker, won Beijing’s recent robot half-marathon, beat...
In India, cuddly and colourful animals are paraded across Instagram, Facebook and YouTube channels, where free advice is shared on how to raise a lemur – or what to feed an iguana – in congested megacities far from forest habitats. Cuteness has become a commodity in Asia’s social media world, with Thailand’s main airport emerging as a reluctant hub for wild animal smuggling. On Wednesday, a 19-yea...
The eight-year-old son of Guangzhou businessman Terry Fang recently arrived at a blunt conclusion: Chinese tech is “cool”. The boy’s impression was formed not in the classroom, or even online, but through repeated exposure to real-world industrial settings. Earlier this year, Fang took his children to a local low-altitude aviation company, where they watched electric vertical take-off and landing ...
Middle Eastern governments are dusting off decades-old proposals for overland oil and gas pipelines, and urgently drawing up plans for new rail-sea transport corridors in a belated response to the wartime disruption of major maritime trade through the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea. With the threats to these key shipping lanes and economic infrastructure set to linger after the multifront confli...
China has become one of the largest sources of investment in land parcels and other properties in Singapore, as the safe-haven status of Southeast Asia’s top financial hub continues to attract global capital, according to analysts. China-linked developers and business entities have become more active in the market, said Alan Cheong, executive director for research and consultancy at Savills Singap...
For decades, Hong Kong’s tourism success rested on a clear formula: shopping, dining and urban experiences. That model is losing momentum. Overnight visitor spending has fallen from around HK$193 billion (US$24.6 billion) in 2015 to HK$128 billion last year. Shopping has declined sharply as spending shifts to sightseeing and experiences. Travellers are no longer coming only to consume – they seek ...
Members of unlicensed hiking tours were among the hundreds of visitors who packed into Hong Kong’s Ham Tin Wan campsite on the second of mainland China’s Labour Day “golden week” break. The sink at the scenic Sai Kung hotspot’s only public bathroom was left clogged by food scraps after some visitors opted for hotpot, among other options. On Saturday evening, a South China Morning Post reporter est...
Japan and China are Asian powerhouses that should collaborate responsibly for the peace and prosperity of the region. However, bilateral relations have experienced ups and downs since the start of the century and are now at their lowest point after normalisation in 1972. A major cause of this is the widening perception and information gap between the two nations that needs to be addressed through ...
More than 40 years ago, he became the first person from his rural family to study at a university in China. Four decades on he was appointed chancellor of UC Riverside, a prestigious school in the United States. The story of S. Jack Hu, a Chinese-American who is the first individual with a bachelor’s education from mainland China to head a top US institution, has trended on social media, inspiring...
When Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto recently visited Seoul for a state visit, one of the most memorable moments was a photo that he took with a 19-year-old Indonesian K-pop idol. Nyoman Ayu Carmenita, better known as Carmen of the girl group Hearts2Hearts, symbolises Indonesia’s ascendancy in the K-pop universe: no longer just a vast market for the genre’s stars, with the country increasing...
