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This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing. Four officers from Hong Kong’s fire department are testifying on Wednesday before an independent committee investigating the Wang Fuk Court fire, as hearings enter their 17th day. The conflagration, which broke out on November 26 last year amid a major renovati...
This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing. Four officers from Hong Kong’s fire department are testifying on Wednesday before an independent committee investigating the Wang Fuk Court fire, as hearings enter their 17th day. The conflagration, which broke out on November 26 last year amid a major renovati...
Half of Taiwanese not only doubt the US would send troops to defend Taiwan in the event of a cross-strait conflict but also question whether American weapons would prove effective, a poll this week has revealed. The results highlighted mounting scepticism on the island over Washington’s security guarantees, according to the survey released on Monday by the Taipei-based Democracy Foundation. The po...
Far-flung Pacific nations are reeling from the impact of a global fuel crisis as authorities scramble to manage energy supplies while families must grapple with fuel curbs and higher costs for food and access to healthcare. Global oil supplies are running down as the US-Israeli war with Iran disrupts traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, which typically carries about 20 per cent of the world’s ...
A year ago, after more than a decade in the United Kingdom and several years in the United States – including time working for the United Nations in New York City – I returned to Asia and arrived in Hong Kong expecting it to also be a leading hub for international relations. Hong Kong is often described as a “superconnector” between China and the world. Yet in one crucial domain – the study and pr...
Contemporary Amperex Technology Ltd (CATL), the world’s largest electric vehicle (EV) battery producer, has unveiled its upgraded technologies – including lighter battery packs and faster charging modes – which are expected to accelerate the global automotive industry’s electrification drive. The company, which holds more than a 40 per cent share of the global market, aimed to set a healthy tone f...
Contemporary Amperex Technology Ltd (CATL), the world’s largest electric vehicle (EV) battery producer, has unveiled its upgraded technologies – including lighter battery packs and faster charging mode – which are expected to accelerate the global automotive industry’s electrification drive. The company, which holds more than a 40 per cent share of the global market, aimed to set a healthy tone fo...
Contemporary Amperex Technology Limited (CATL), the world’s largest electric vehicle (EV) battery producer, has unveiled its upgraded technologies – including lighter battery packs and faster charging mode – which are expected to accelerate the global automotive industry’s electrification drive. The company, which holds more than a 40 per cent share of the global market, aimed to set a healthy ton...
The world breathed a sigh of relief as US President Donald Trump announced he would extend the ceasefire with Iran, but uncertainty remains in the Middle East over how the US-Israeli war will end. These are the main takeaways from what happened overnight. Last-minute extension Trump indefinitely extended the ceasefire with Iran hours before it was due to expire, at the request of Pakistan. But he ...
The world breathed a sigh of relief as US President Donald Trump announced he would extend the ceasefire with Iran, but uncertainty remains in the Middle East over how the US-Israeli war will end. These are the main takeaways from what happened overnight. A welcome TACO Trump indefinitely extended the ceasefire with Iran hours before it was due to expire, at the request of Pakistan. But he said th...
A Japanese prefecture is paying its singles to use dating apps as the country grapples with record-low birth rates. Kochi prefecture announced on April 10 that it would subsidise private matchmaking app fees for its young residents, according to a Sankei News report. Residents aged between 20 and 39 will get a subsidy of up to 20,000 yen (US$125) for the 2026 financial year to use apps that have r...
While people in modern times send new year greetings easily on social network apps, in ancient times it was a much more complicated ritual. In China, the origin of delivering new year greeting cards can be traced back to the Han dynasty (206 BC-AD 220). During that time, people began making name cards, writing their name, age, hometown, official position, personal statement on long bamboo or wood ...
A senior New Zealand minister has sparked outrage by deriding a planned free-trade deal with India as a “butter chicken tsunami”. Wellington is poised to sign a free-trade agreement with India in New Delhi next week. The New Zealand government has hailed it as a “once in a generation” deal that will give its businesses access to the world’s most populated country’s vast domestic market. But its ru...
Fraudsters have duped students studying abroad out of up to HK$1.5 million (US$191,531) each by accusing them of money laundering and luring them to Hong Kong to buy gold for bogus law-enforcement investigations, prompting a police warning. At least nine victims aged between 19 and 26, who are studying in the United Kingdom, Australia and other countries, have recently fallen prey to such cross-bo...
Fraudsters have duped students studying abroad out of up to HK$1.5 million (US$191,531) each by accusing them of money laundering and luring them to Hong Kong to buy gold for bogus law-enforcement investigations, prompting a police warning. At least nine victims aged between 19 and 26, who are studying in the United Kingdom, Australia and other countries, have recently fallen prey to such cross-bo...
Indonesia’s increase in prices for some non-subsidised fuel products could push more households towards subsidised fuel grades, economists have warned, raising the risk of tighter supplies and added pressure on a state budget already trying to contain politically sensitive energy costs. The move by state energy company Pertamina underscores the government’s balancing act: allowing market-priced fu...
Indonesia’s increase in prices for some non-subsidised fuel products could push more households towards subsidised fuel grades, economists have warned, raising the risk of tighter supplies and added pressure on a state budget already trying to contain politically sensitive energy costs. The move by state energy company Pertamina underscores the government’s balancing act: allowing market-priced fu...
China’s shipyards are emerging as beneficiaries from the US-Israeli war on Iran, securing new orders as crude transport bottlenecks worsen and global demand for large oil tankers rises. With the United States and Iran effectively blockading the Strait of Hormuz – a chokepoint that handles about a quarter of the world’s seaborne oil – shipping companies are racing to expand capacity, particularly i...
US President Donald Trump and many of his leading Christian supporters and top Republicans are taking part this week in a marathon reading of the Bible in an America 250-themed event billed as encouraging a “return to the spiritual foundation that has shaped our country”. The America Reads the Bible event – with each participant reading a passage aloud – is being live-streamed from the Museum of t...
A Chinese university student has been charged with unauthorised photography of US military aircraft in Nebraska during a road trip through several states, which included a stop at an air force base in South Dakota. Tianrui Liang, who is studying in Glasgow, was arrested at New York’s John F Kennedy International Airport on April 7 as he attempted to return to Scotland, court documents filed in the...
A Chinese university student has been charged with unauthorised photography of US military aircraft in Nebraska during a road trip through several states, which included a stop at an air force base in South Dakota. Tianrui Liang, who is studying in Glasgow, was arrested at New York’s John F Kennedy International Airport on April 7 as he attempted to return to Scotland, court documents filed in the...
The Philippines is trying to gradually establish “stable foundations” for its relations with China before tackling tougher problems such as the long-running South China Sea dispute, according to the country’s ambassador to Beijing. “We need a new equilibrium in our relations with China. Both sides [have agreed] to take incremental or baby steps towards that,” Jaime FlorCruz told the South China Mo...
The United States House Select Committee on China recently released a report on artificial intelligence. Titled “Buy What It Can, Steal What It Must: China’s Campaign to Acquire Frontier AI Capabilities”, it captures a hardening view in Washington that Beijing’s artificial intelligence rise is closely tied to both market access and security concerns. Whether fully substantiated or not, such belief...
China’s next-generation “drone-carrier” amphibious assault ship is en route to the South China Sea for critical sea trials, the military announced on Tuesday, in the same waters where the US, the Philippines and Japan are conducting large-scale joint military exercises and the aircraft carrier Liaoning is apparently sailing to. “The Sichuan, our country’s first Type 076 amphibious assault ship, ha...
China’s next-generation “drone-carrier” amphibious assault ship is en route to the South China Sea for critical sea trials, China’s military announced Tuesday, in the same waters where the US, the Philippines and Japan are conducting large-scale joint military exercises and the aircraft carrier Liaoning is apparently sailing to. “The Sichuan, our country’s first Type 076 amphibious assault ship, h...
A Canadian who was detained in China for nearly three years warned that Prime Minister Mark Carney’s electric vehicle deal risks creating a strategic dependency that the Asian superpower can exploit for political coercion. Michael Kovrig, a former diplomat who was imprisoned from 2018 to 2021, said on Tuesday that the agreement would lead to unfair competition and the erosion of Canada’s industria...
A Democratic lawmaker resigned on Tuesday, becoming the third member of the US House of Representatives to step down in just over a week as a wave of ethics scandals engulfs Congress. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick of Florida announced her immediate resignation ahead of a scheduled disciplinary hearing by the House Ethics Committee, which had been weighing potential sanctions over a string of campaign...
Prosecutors in the rape retrial of disgraced US movie mogul Harvey Weinstein told Tuesday how he wielded his power to prey on then-aspiring actress Jessica Mann. Weinstein, a central figure of abuse allegations that spurred the #MeToo movement, appeared at the New York courtroom in a wheelchair due to ill health. He is being retried on a count of third-degree rape against Mann that allegedly happe...
The Israeli military on Tuesday said two soldiers would receive 30 days of military detention and be removed from combat duty over the destruction of a statue of Jesus Christ in southern Lebanon. The decision comes after widespread condemnation of a photo shared online showing an Israeli soldier using a sledgehammer to strike the head of a statue of a crucified Jesus that had fallen off a cross. T...
Federal Reserve chief nominee Kevin Warsh called for “regime change” at the US central bank, including a new approach for controlling inflation and a communications overhaul that may discourage his colleagues from saying too much about the direction of monetary policy. Warsh’s comments during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Banking Committee left key questions about his nomination unr...
