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Vietnam has introduced a raft of incentives to encourage couples to have more children as the Southeast Asian nation seeks to reverse a fast-declining fertility rate. Gone is the country’s long-standing two-child policy, scrapped last year. In its place is a new population law, which took effect on July 1, offering a suite of sweeteners designed to nudge Vietnamese couples towards larger families....
China’s semiconductor equipment industry is heading into the first-half earnings season under intense scrutiny, as a broad stock rally turns one of the tech sector’s least visible niches into a crowded investor trade. The rally has swept across makers of etching, thin-film deposition, cleaning and testing machines, among others, reflecting bets that China’s next round of chip spending will benefit...
China’s crude oil demand is expected to peak this year, according to executives from the country’s largest oil firm, a scenario set to further reshape the global energy market following the Strait of Hormuz crisis. The world’s top oil importer would record slowing demand as reductions in the use of transport fuel outweighed gains in petrochemical demand, said Zhang Changbao, vice-president of Chin...
Hong Kong jailed activist Joshua Wong Chi-fung has indicated he will plead guilty to conspiring with a fugitive former lawmaker to collude with foreign forces six years ago. The High Court has scheduled a plea and sentencing hearing for the 29-year-old on September 2, according to the judiciary’s website on Tuesday, signalling his intention to admit the charge, which carries a maximum penalty of l...
Democratic Party leaders on Monday called on Graham Platner to withdraw as their nominee to run against Republican US Senator Susan Collins of Maine, after media reports that a woman accused him of forcibly having sex with her nearly five years ago. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, who heads the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, said in a ...
A video showing a Chinese tourist berating hotel staff in Malaysia for not flying China’s flag has gone viral after viewers pointed out the flags belonged to the nations competing in the Fifa World Cup finals. The man, who was reportedly in Kuala Lumpur on business, confronted a staff member at his hotel’s breakfast restaurant after noticing flags from dozens of countries but not China’s. In the ...
No further action was necessary by Singapore’s parliament against Workers’ Party (WP) politicians Sylvia Lim and Faisal Manap over their lying under oath, as the case fell outside a legal time bar, Leader of the House Indranee Rajah said on Tuesday. “Had the timelines been different, I would have proposed a different course of action,” she told parliament while delivering a ministerial statement o...
Hong Kong police have arrested a 74-year-old minibus driver on suspicion of dangerous driving after he allegedly ran over a 90-year-old man crossing a road in Kwai Chung. Police said the accident was reported at about 7.24am on Tuesday on 188 Hing Fong Road. The driver, surnamed Yan, was driving a public light bus towards Kwai Fong when he allegedly struck the elderly pedestrian, surnamed Leung, w...
Cuba on Monday suffered its third nationwide power outage since the start of the year, causing mounting despair in the face of an energy collapse precipitated by a US fuel blockade. The communist island was already struggling to keep the lights on before US President Donald Trump in January cut off its oil supplies, depleting the dwindling supply of fuel for its power plants. Union Electrica (UNE)...
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. US touts regional ‘balance’ in missile sale to Singapore. What does it mean? Washington has recently approved a proposed US$22.3 million sale of additional Hellfire missi...
Hong Kong’s Primary Six students received their secondary school results on Tuesday after years of hard work, with many elated and some already deciding what subject to major in at university or considering pathways to studying overseas. Tears of joy and relief filled the school hall at Yaumati Catholic Primary School (Hoi Wang Road) as students and parents received their long-awaited secondary sc...
Japan is facing mounting calls to decide whether its long-frozen development aid to Myanmar should stay that way, as rights advocates warn that any resumption could ease pressure on a regime accused of widespread abuses. The decision is a delicate one for Tokyo, which has tried to retain influence in Myanmar without appearing to legitimise the junta that seized power in 2021 – all while watching C...
Landslides, floods, strong rainstorms and tornadoes have led to multiple deaths across China, with meteorologists warning the country faces “complex” disaster prevention challenges this year. The annual flood season, which officially began on July 1, would be affected by global warming and El Nino, they said. President Xi Jinping ordered “all-out” emergency rescue and relief efforts, medical treat...
Landslides, floods, strong rainstorms and tornadoes have led to multiple deaths across China, with people still missing as meteorologists warn the country faces “complex” disaster prevention challenges this year. The annual flood season, which officially began on July 1, would be affected by global warming and El Nino, they said. President Xi Jinping has instructed that “all-out efforts” must be m...
Landslides, floods, strong rainstorms and tornadoes have led to multiple deaths across China, with people still missing as meteorologists warn the country faces “complex” disaster prevention challenges this year. The annual flood season, which officially began on July 1, will be affected by global warming and El Nino, they said. President Xi Jinping has instructed that “all-out efforts” must be ma...
Landslides, floods, strong rainstorms and tornadoes have led to multiple deaths across China, with people still missing as meteorologists warn the country faces “complex” disaster prevention challenges this year. The annual flood season, which officially began on July 1, will be affected by global warming and El Nino, they said. President Xi Jinping has instructed that “all-out efforts” must be ma...
Eight people have died and one remains missing after rainstorms and tornadoes hit central China, while rescue parties in the south are continuing to evacuate residents amid flood warnings. Meteorologists warn that China faces “complex” flood prevention challenges this year, with heavy rain, typhoons, flooding and other geological disasters happening across the country. Parts of the central provinc...
Singapore is the world’s most expensive city for luxury spending for a fourth consecutive year, as prices on items such as watches and jewellery surge around the globe. Zurich climbed to second place, edging out London, while Monaco entered the top three for the first time since the survey began in 2020, according to an annual report by Swiss wealth manager Julius Baer Group. Hong Kong and London ...
Singapore is the world’s most expensive city for luxury spending for a fourth consecutive year, as prices on items such as watches and jewellery surge around the globe. Zurich climbed to second place, edging out London, while Monaco entered the top three for the first time since the survey began in 2020, according to an annual report by Swiss wealth manager Julius Baer Group. Hong Kong and London ...
Hong Kong’s high-quality economic development will be guided by its first five-year blueprint and the coming policy address, with artificial intelligence (AI) as the “central plank”, the city’s leader has said. Speaking at the South China Morning Post’s China Conference 2026 on Tuesday, Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu also said Hong Kong’s “one country, two systems” advantages and commitment to i...
A third tanker was hit in the Strait of Hormuz in the past 24 hours, British maritime security agency UKMTO reported on Tuesday, after Qatar blamed Iran for an attack on one of its ships. “UKMTO has received a report of a further incident involving a tanker transiting the Strait of Hormuz. The tanker was struck by an unknown Uncrewed Aerial Vehicle (UAV) and has sustained minor structural damage. ...
An “unknown projectile” struck and caused a fire on an oil tanker off the coast of Oman near the Strait of Hormuz on Monday, British maritime security agency UKMTO said. The incident occurred near one of the world’s most important energy shipping routes, despite a ceasefire between the United States and Iran and ongoing efforts to secure a lasting peace agreement. The United Kingdom Maritime Trade...
Shares of Kuaishou Technology fell more than 6 per cent on Tuesday morning after Tencent Holdings slashed its stake in the short-video platform by selling 273 million Class B shares, just days after leading a US$3 billion financing round for Kuaishou’s artificial intelligence video unit, Kling AI. The divestment will reduce Tencent’s shareholding in Kuaishou to 9.37 per cent from 15.68 per cent, m...
A man scaled the 140-metre-high (460 foot) tower of a cantilever bridge in the Australian city of Melbourne on Tuesday and painted a giant cartoon bird on it, disrupting morning commuter traffic. The man demanded a peanut butter sandwich be delivered by drone before he would come down, causing a stand-off with police and closing a lane on the Bolte Bridge. “A man has scaled the bridge and rema...
The South China Morning Post will host its China Conference in Kazakhstan’s capital in September, following a high-level Hong Kong delegation led by the city’s leader to Central Asia last month, marking the first such event organised by a local media outlet in the region. Announcing the move at the SCMP China Conference 2026 on Tuesday, publisher Tammy Tam said the event in Astana would enable par...
At Carousell’s Singapore office, a red tunnel greets employees with the company’s mission to “make second-hand the first choice” – a slogan its leaders say is moving closer to reality as the platform for buying and selling used goods recorded its first positive adjusted operating profit. The Singapore-headquartered company, last valued at US$1.1 billion in 2021, said on Tuesday it had achieved pos...
New Zealand’s flood-prone homes are outperforming the rest of the country’s moribund housing market, as buyers chase lower prices and shrug off climate risks. Properties facing the highest flood risk have gained 26.1 per cent in value since January 2020, compared with 19.8 per cent for homes with no exposure, property consultancy Cotality said in Wellington on Tuesday. Discounts of as much as NZ$1...
China’s innovation ecosystem has witnessed a resurgence, minting 67 new unicorn start-ups in the first half of 2026 – the biggest increase in almost five years – as AI and robotics kick off a new investment cycle. The growth translates into an average of one new unicorn – private companies valued at US$1 billion or more – in less than every three days and was the highest since the second half of 2...
The Furious, Hong Kong’s latest action flick, is crushing it on Rotten Tomatoes and has garnered critical acclaim abroad – proof of what human-centric filmmaking can still deliver in today’s market. But before we rush to hail the return of Hong Kong cinema, a new breed of drama factory is quietly generating content at a velocity no human team could ever match. In mainland China, micro dramas gener...
Lynas Rare Earths said on Tuesday it had signed a partnership deal with South Korea’s JS Link to develop a magnet factory in Malaysia. The Australian rare-earths producer will also supply materials to JS Link’s magnet factory in South Korea and the planned factory in Malaysia until January 2038. The partnership follows a magnet manufacturing deal between the two companies last year. Under the lat...
