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A major Malaysian blockchain conference has dropped Siew Pui Yi, an influencer previously known for adult content, as the headline DJ for its official after-party after the country’s digital economy agency withdrew support. The uproar tapped into a familiar cultural fault line in Muslim-majority Malaysia, putting the country’s push to promote itself as a regional technology and crypto hub in tensi...
The Philippines is targeting to recruit more coders, engineers and cybersecurity specialists into the military, as Manila confronts a battlefield increasingly shaped by software, networks and artificial intelligence. Philippine Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jnr on Saturday ordered the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to expand a programme that allows civilian professionals with specialis...
The Philippines is targeting to recruit more coders, engineers and cybersecurity specialists into the military, as Manila confronts a battlefield increasingly shaped by software, networks and artificial intelligence. Philippine Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jnr on Saturday ordered the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to expand a programme that allows civilian professionals with specialis...
Malaysia’s Negeri Sembilan state heads to the polls on Saturday, but a growing portion of its young workers – and their votes – are based elsewhere. Leaving home was never Ammar Idlan Hassan’s long-term plan, but better pay and stronger career prospects eventually drew the 27-year-old project engineer away from Seremban, the state capital. He now lives in Gelang Patah, a border town in Johor, from...
An American company found itself under attack by American artificial intelligence systems. Its unlikely rescuer was a Chinese AI model. It sounds like a Hollywood science fiction film. It’s not. During an internal test, advanced OpenAI models bypassed network restrictions, gained access to the internet and launched autonomous cyberattacks on open-source platform Hugging Face. As engineers rushed t...
A Hong Kong man known on the internet as “Mr Ho” has died, a week after receiving a two-month prison sentence for stabbing his wife. A source told the South China Morning Post on Tuesday that Ho Huen, 79, had died in a public hospital a day earlier. Ronson Chan Ron-sing, former chairman of the Hong Kong Journalists Association, also said on social media that Ho had died, citing people close to the...
A Hong Kong man known on the internet as “Mr Ho” has died, a week after receiving a two-month prison sentence for stabbing his wife. A source told the South China Morning Post on Tuesday that Ho Huen, 79, had died in a public hospital a day earlier. Ronson Chan Ron-sing, former chairman of the Hong Kong Journalists Association, also said on social media that Ho had died, citing people close to the...
A top Hong Kong transport official has pledged to step up efforts to help the city’s premium taxi fleets recruit drivers, conceding that the number of vehicles on the road remains about one-third below target a year after the scheme was launched. As the five taxi fleets offering premium service marked a year of operations in July, the government said on Tuesday that more than 2,000 fleet taxis and...
The world’s largest known rare earth deposit in northern China could contain far more resources underground than currently reported, according to a leading Chinese geologist. Containing 100 million tonnes of rare earth reserves, the Bayan Obo mine in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region has served as the backbone of China’s rare earth industry for decades. According to Yang Li, a Peking University...
Hong Kong’s push to draw Southeast Asian companies and markets into its financing orbit has scored a milestone, with the Malaysian government preparing to list a US$1.5 billion Islamic bond in the international financial centre later this week. The dual listing – sold on Bursa Malaysia and Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX) – marks the first concrete result of a visit to Kuala Lumpur led by S...
A 7.1-magnitude earthquake shook Japan’s southern main island of Kyushu on Tuesday, leaving several people dead and dozens of others injured or missing after part of a shopping centre and a huge chimney at a paper factory collapsed, officials said. A tsunami advisory was issued but quickly lifted. At least five people, including two who were found without vital signs at the mall late on Tuesday, w...
A 7.1-magnitude earthquake shook Japan’s southern main island of Kyushu on Tuesday, leaving several people dead and dozens of others injured or missing after part of a shopping centre and a huge chimney at a paper factory collapsed, officials said. A tsunami advisory was issued but quickly lifted. At least three people, including two who were found without vital signs at the mall late on Tuesday, ...
Emergency responders searched early on Wednesday for people feared trapped in a shopping centre in Japan after a major earthquake toppled buildings, sparked fires and reportedly killed one person and injured more than 100. Private broadcaster TBS reported that a “considerable number” of people were feared dead inside the shopping centre in the town of Kashima after the fire brigade said the second...
A 7.1-magnitude earthquake hit Japan’s southern Kumamoto prefecture on Tuesday, knocking out power to thousands of homes, rupturing roads and leaving some trapped and others presumed dead inside a partially collapsed shopping centre. Speaking to reporters from her office in Tokyo, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said authorities were still assessing the full extent of the damage in the area...
A 7.1-magnitude earthquake hit Japan’s southern Kumamoto prefecture on Tuesday, knocking out power to thousands of homes, rupturing roads and leaving some trapped and others presumed dead inside a partially collapsed shopping centre. Speaking to reporters at her office in Tokyo, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said authorities were still assessing the full extent of the damage in the area, ...
A major earthquake collapsed buildings and sparked fires in Japan’s southwest, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said on Tuesday, with broadcaster NHK noting that at least 50 people were taken to hospital. Television footage on NHK showed several blazes, damaged bridges, a derailed cargo train and cracked roads after the tremor on Kyushu island. The broadcaster reported at least 12 collapsed houses. T...
A strong 7.1-magnitude earthquake hit southern Japan on Tuesday, the Japan Meteorological Agency said, issuing a tsunami alert. The tremor also measured at the highest possible level seven on Japan’s own Shindo scale of shaking, the agency said. More to come …
China has shipped a record number of electric vehicles (EVs) overseas from a Shanghai terminal, carried by a new generation of China-built car carrier ships – the latest instance of the country’s products taking on an even larger role in global supply chains. The Malta-flagged Glovis Nova, a newly delivered vehicle carrier built in China, loaded 7,738 new energy vehicles at Shanghai’s South Port T...
The owner of a Hong Kong private tutorial centre that ceased operations has been jailed for six years and four months for molesting five boys on the premises and filming some of the offences. The High Court on Tuesday sentenced Yu Hey-tsit for the “despicable and repulsive” acts he committed at the Prime Solid Learning Education Centre in Mei Foo Sun Chuen against the five minors, when they were b...
The owner of a Hong Kong private tutorial centre that ceased operations has been jailed for six years and four months for molesting five boys on the premises and filming some of the offences. The High Court on Tuesday sentenced Yu Hey-tsit for the “despicable and repulsive” acts he committed at the Prime Solid Learning Education Centre in Mei Foo Sun Chuen against the five minors, when they were b...
Hong Kong lawmakers have called on city leader John Lee Ka-chiu to revamp the public complaint hotline using Beijing’s AI-assisted model, fast track the Northern Metropolis and strengthen executive-legislative ties during a first-of-its-kind closed-door dialogue. The session on Tuesday marked the first time the new slate of lawmakers were given the opportunity to put questions directly to the chie...
Hong Kong authorities should revamp their public inquiry hotline to better handle residents’ complaints by learning from Beijing’s model, lawmakers have told the chief executive at the first “rules-free and warm-hearted” closed-door dialogue session. While the current Legislative Council term marks the first since the 1997 handover not to hold any formal question and answer session with a city lea...
Hong Kong authorities should revamp their public inquiry hotline to better handle residents’ complaints by learning from Beijing’s model, lawmakers have told the chief executive at the first “rules-free and warm-hearted” closed-door dialogue session. While the current Legislative Council term marks the first since the 1997 handover not to hold any formal question and answer session with a city lea...
India has been spared the worst of Washington’s latest tariff action, but analysts say much work still needs to be done to secure a long-awaited US trade deal despite the lower-than-expected levy. The Trump administration’s fresh round of tariffs, unveiled last week, targeted 60 economies it accuses of failing to curb imports made with forced labour. As late as last month, India was being threaten...
Myanmar’s military-backed parliament approved a law on Tuesday that authorises capital punishment for those who detain or violently coerce victims into working in online scam centres, the speaker said. The “Anti-Online Scam Bill” was passed after MPs approved changes to a draft bill at a combined meeting of the lower and upper houses Tuesday morning in the capital Naypyidaw, Union Parliament Speak...
A woman in eastern China who was catching cicadas one evening with her husband accidentally fell into a sewage manhole, while the spouse, worried about her safety, immediately climbed into the shaft to keep her company. The couple were successfully rescued by firefighters shortly afterwards, the Dazhong Daily reported. The incident unfolded in Dongying, Shandong province, on July 15 when the coupl...
Holding a by-election to fill a seat vacated by former lawmaker William Wong Kam-fai after he resigned over a drink-driving arrest is a lower priority than preparing three important polls over the next 18 months, Hong Kong’s leader has said. Weighing in on the issue for the first time nearly a month after Wong’s resignation, Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu stressed that electoral authorities need...
A wildfire in southwest France grew so powerful that its smoke column became a thunderstorm, generating lightning that struck the ground and ignited new fires beyond the original blaze, French officials said. Put another way, that means the inferno was no longer simply being propelled by the weather. It was making its own. The thundercloud also produced violent, erratic winds capable of driving th...
The first tonne-class long-distance unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) suitable for multiple civil purposes to be built to airworthiness standards in China – Yitong UAV System’s TP200 – completed its maiden flight on Sunday. According to a Science and Technology Daily report on Monday, the TP200 – designed to handle maritime patrols, island supply and land surveying – can stay in the air for 24 hours a...
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. Indonesia’s plan for a rival to Singapore starts to take shape Indonesia wants to build a financial centre to rival Singapore, Hong Kong or Dubai, but analysts say the rea...
