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Chinese scientists have achieved a breakthrough in “all-iron flow battery” technology that could sharply reduce the cost of storing renewable energy while significantly extending battery lifespan. Lithium costs over 80 times more than iron as a raw industrial material at present. An iron battery may offer a potential solution to one of the biggest bottlenecks in the global energy transition, accor...
Chinese scientists have achieved a breakthrough in “all-iron flow battery” technology that could sharply reduce the cost of storing renewable energy while significantly extending battery lifespan. Lithium costs over 80 times more than iron as a raw industrial material at present. An iron battery may offer a potential solution to one of the biggest bottlenecks in the global energy transition, accor...
Two of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s most formidable political rivals said on Sunday they were joining forces in a bid to oust his coalition government in the coming election expected later this year. The former prime ministers - right-wing Naftali Bennett and centrist Yair Lapid - issued statements announcing the merger of their parties, Bennett 2026 and There is a Future. “We are s...
This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing. An independent committee investigating Hong Kong’s deadly Tai Po fire examined the roles of building and home affairs authorities on the 20th day of evidential hearings. Four witnesses from the Buildings Department and the Home Affairs Department testified befo...
This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing. An independent committee investigating Hong Kong’s deadly Wang Fuk Court fire will scrutinise the roles of building and home affairs authorities on the 20th day of evidential hearings. Four witnesses from the Buildings Department and the Home Affairs Department...
This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing. An independent committee investigating Hong Kong’s deadly Wang Fuk Court fire will scrutinise the roles of building and home affairs authorities on the 20th day of evidential hearings. Four witnesses from the Buildings Department and the Home Affairs Department...
This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing. An independent committee investigating Hong Kong’s deadly Wang Fuk Court fire will scrutinise the roles of building and home affairs authorities on the 20th day of evidential hearings. Four witnesses from the Buildings Department and the Home Affairs Department...
This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing. An independent committee investigating Hong Kong’s deadly Wang Fuk Court fire will scrutinise the roles of building and home affairs authorities on the 20th day of evidential hearings. Four witnesses from the Buildings Department and the Home Affairs Department...
This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing. An independent committee investigating Hong Kong’s deadly Wang Fuk Court fire will scrutinise the roles of building and home affairs authorities on the 20th day of evidential hearings. Four witnesses from the Buildings Department and the Home Affairs Department...
Police in Thailand have arrested an Indonesian who allegedly defrauded Americans of about US$10 million, Thai authorities say, adding that they will extradite him to the United States. The 33-year-old Indonesian man was arrested on Friday at a luxury resort in the coastal town of Phuket after a tip-off from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Suriya Poungsombat of the national immigratio...
Electric vehicles (EVs) made in China now account for one in every three new registrations in South Korea, as Tesla’s Shanghai-built models power the surge and Chinese carmakers start to gain traction. The country’s auto manufacturers have further room to expand, analysts said, supported by higher fuel prices linked to the US-Israeli war in Iran and looser restrictions than traditional target mark...
Lebanon’s health ministry said Israeli strikes on the country’s south on Sunday killed 14 people, the deadliest day since a ceasefire in the Israel-Hezbollah war came into force over a week ago. It came as Israel and the Iran-backed group traded fresh accusations of breaching the fragile truce, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying the military was “vigorously” targeting Hezbollah and the ...
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said his country would continue to support Russia’s policies and he discussed the international political situation with Russia’s defence minister, state media KCNA reported on Monday. A Russian delegation including Defence Minister Andrei Belousov attended a completion ceremony for a memorial honouring North Korean soldiers killed while fighting in Russia’s Kursk...
Kudos to the Secretary for the Civil Service Ingrid Yeung Ho Poi-yan for introducing a two-tier civil service accountability system. This will include giving an independent statutory body, the Public Service Commission, powers to investigate “widespread, repetitive and systemic” management problems, while department heads can investigate problems involving rank-and-file officers. To many, the reva...
China has launched a comprehensive national campaign against Alzheimer’s, as projections warn the degenerative brain disease could affect nearly 10 per cent of citizens by 2050. With the world’s fastest-growing dementia caseload set to sharply grow by mid-century, China is mobilising top scientific institutions, major biotech firms and dozens of experts to accelerate the development of original tr...
China has launched a comprehensive national campaign against Alzheimer’s, as projections warn the degenerative brain disease could affect nearly 10 per cent of citizens by 2050. With the world’s fastest-growing dementia caseload set to sharply grow by mid-century, China is mobilising top scientific institutions, major biotech firms and dozens of experts to accelerate the development of original tr...
In several first-tier Chinese cities, chickens, which were once confined to the dinner table, are finding a new role: cherished household companions. On social media, posts and videos about “pet chickens” have racked up over 3.1 billion views, underscoring how they are reshaping perceptions of pet culture in urban China. In southeastern China’s Guangdong province, a local saying goes: “No chicken ...
The reserves of Hong Kong’s largest international school group have more than tripled to HK$3.75 billion (US$480.8 million) in over a decade, even as it taps different income sources to offset shrinking government subsidies, the South China Morning Post has found by reviewing the organisation’s annual reports. The English Schools Foundation (ESF) also said in its annual report for the 2024-25 acad...
A strong earthquake rattled Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido early on Monday, US and Japanese meteorological agencies reported, the latest in a series of powerful tremors to hit the island nation. The 6.2-magnitude quake struck at 5.23am in Hokkaido’s southern region, at a depth of 83km (52 miles), the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) reported, revising its preliminary estimate of magnitude 6....
Japan is planning to build what could become the world’s largest floating wind farm – a gigawatt-scale project off the Izu Islands to power the island chain and Tokyo. But the plan, championed by Governor Yuriko Koike, is facing questions over whether it can be delivered by 2035. There are also doubts about the power generation forecast and whether Japan could tackle the technical demands of such ...
US President Donald Trump’s Justice Department is using the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday to try to pressure preservationists to drop their lawsuit over his planned US$400 million ballroom on the site of the former East Wing of the White House. “It’s time to build the ballroom,” acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said plainly on Sunday on social media, posting a ...
US President Donald Trump’s Justice Department is using the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday to try to pressure preservationists to drop their lawsuit over his planned US$400 million ballroom on the site of the former East Wing of the White House. “It’s time to build the ballroom,” acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said plainly on Sunday on social media, posting a ...
Military spending in the Asia-Pacific rose at the fastest pace for 16 years in 2025 as US allies felt “growing uncertainty” over whether Washington would honour its security commitments, according to a new report. Total global spending reached US$2.89 trillion, an increase of 2.9 per cent from 2024, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) think tank said in its annual report o...
Daniel Gros is the director of the Institute for European Policymaking at Bocconi University. Previously, he served as an adviser to the European Parliament, collaborated with the European Commission as economic adviser to the Delors Committee, which developed plans for the euro, and worked at the International Monetary Fund. In this interview, Gros examines the structural tensions shaping EU-Chin...
Geopolitics, at its core, examines how geography shapes international politics, power distribution and security dynamics. One enduring idea is geographer Halford Mackinder’s “heartland” theory, which situates Eurasia as the central arena of global power competition. In 1904, Mackinder argued that the vast land mass of Europe and Asia – what he called the “world island” – contained a pivotal core, ...
The Italian government has extradited to the United States a Chinese man wanted by authorities there on hacking charges that include stealing Covid-19 medical research, a person with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters. The source declined to say when Xu Zewei was flown out of Italy, saying only that he was already in the United States. The move follows a ruling by a top Italian court e...
The Italian government has decided to extradite a Chinese man wanted by US authorities on hacking charges that include stealing Covid-19 medical research, a person with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters. The government’s decision, which was first reported by Bloomberg, follows a ruling by an Italian court earlier this month which said Xu Zewei could be extradited. A representativ...
The Italian government has decided to extradite a Chinese man wanted by US authorities on hacking charges that include stealing Covid-19 medical research, a person with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters. The government’s decision, which was first reported by Bloomberg, follows a ruling by an Italian court earlier this month which said Xu Zewei could be extradited. A representativ...
The Italian government has decided to extradite a Chinese man wanted by US authorities on hacking charges that include stealing Covid-19 medical research, a person with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters. The government’s decision, which was first reported by Bloomberg, follows a ruling by an Italian court earlier this month which said Xu Zewei could be extradited. A representativ...
The state visit by Britain’s King Charles to the US would take place as planned, Buckingham Palace said on Sunday, following a shooting at a Washington media gala. The incident late on Saturday at the annual dinner of the White House Correspondents’ Association came less than 48 hours before Charles and Queen Camilla begin a four-day state visit to the United States. The palace said Charles was “g...
