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South Korean carmaker Hyundai Motor and the union representing its workers have reached a tentative deal on wages and bonuses, both sides said on Tuesday after a rare full-day strike. Around 40,000 employees of a roughly 73,000-strong domestic workforce at the country’s largest carmaker walked off the job on Friday, according to union figures, in the first such action for a decade. The union said ...
Xiaomi’s long-term push into proprietary silicon is laying the groundwork for complex artificial intelligence workloads on smartphones and cars, analysts say, as the Chinese tech giant doubles down on self-developed chips despite an earnings slump and soaring component costs. On Monday it unveiled its flagship Xring O3 3-nanometre AI processor for smartphones, which is scheduled to debut in Septem...
Xiaomi’s long-term push into proprietary silicon is laying the groundwork for complex artificial intelligence workloads on smartphones and cars, analysts say, as the Chinese tech giant doubles down on self-developed chips despite an earnings slump and soaring component costs. On Monday it unveiled its flagship Xring O3 3-nanometre AI processor for smartphones, which is scheduled to debut in Septem...
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. Islamic university sacks professor who claimed Malays could fly A Malaysian Islamic university has formally distanced itself from an academic whose viral claims about anci...
For months, Masoumeh Zakeri has endlessly replayed the last night she spent with her nine-year-old daughter before she was killed in a strike on her school during the opening hours of the US-Israel war with Iran. Motahreh excitedly talked about coming holidays, planned weddings and the clothes she wanted to buy. She had a Ramadan pre-fast meal shortly before dawn and then Zakeri tucked her into be...
The US has proposed a new US$103,265 fee for H-1B visa petitions – a move that could ramp up the cost of hiring skilled foreign workers, with Chinese and Indian professionals particularly hard hit. It comes at a sensitive time for US-China relations, with visas already a long-running source of friction and Beijing stepping up efforts to attract global tech talent as competition intensifies between...
The US has proposed a new US$103,265 fee for H-1B visa petitions – a move that could ramp up the cost of hiring skilled foreign workers, with Chinese and Indian professionals particularly hard hit. It comes at a sensitive time for US-China relations, with visas already a long-running source of friction and Beijing stepping up efforts to attract global tech talent as competition intensifies between...
The US has proposed a new US$103,265 fee for H-1B visa petitions – a move that could ramp up the cost of hiring skilled foreign workers, with Chinese and Indian professionals particularly hard hit. It comes at a sensitive time for US-China relations, with visas already a long-running source of friction and Beijing stepping up efforts to attract global tech talent as competition intensifies between...
Fuelled by the bubble tea boom in recent years and an intensely competitive market, financial investors have shown growing interest in major brands, shifting their playbook from early-stage bets and initial public offering (IPO) subscriptions to full equity buyouts. Growth of mid to high single digits was now forecast for the sector in China, down from double-digit growth in previous years, analys...
Beijing could soon hold carmakers legally responsible for traffic violations when autonomous driving systems are in use, marking an important step towards clearing regulatory hurdles to wider commercialisation. The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, China’s top legislature, is set to review an amended Road Traffic Safety Law on Tuesday. For the first time, the document was set t...
As massive forest and land fires burn across parts of Indonesia, sending haze towards neighbouring Malaysia, President Prabowo Subianto has vowed firm action against big corporations found responsible – reviving a long-running test of whether Jakarta can punish those behind the blazes and finally break the cycle. “We will go after them if they are proven guilty. We will penalise them according to ...
As massive forest and land fires burn across parts of Indonesia, sending haze towards neighbouring Malaysia, President Prabowo Subianto has vowed firm action against big corporations found responsible – reviving a long-running test of whether Jakarta can punish those behind the blazes and finally break the cycle. “We will go after them if they are proven guilty. We will penalise them according to ...
China’s top legislature has reviewed a draft law aimed at combating cross-border corruption as part of Beijing’s latest efforts to expand its anti-graft legal framework beyond borders. On Tuesday, the draft Anti-Cross-Border Corruption Law was submitted for its first reading during the 24th session of the Standing Committee of the 14th National People’s Congress (NPC), which runs until Friday. The...
The Japan Monkey Centre, a primate zoo in central Japan known for its winter tradition of monkeys warming themselves by bonfires, will close from mid-October to renovate ageing facilities before reopening in several years. Home to about 700 monkeys of around 50 species, the facility in Inuyama, Aichi prefecture, will open only on weekends and holidays from September, and close its gates from Octob...
About 60 people were evacuated and a 98-year-old woman was taken to hospital after a fire broke out in a flat in Hong Kong on Tuesday. Police said they received multiple reports of the blaze at 488 Hennessy Road in Causeway Bay at 10.59am and that the fire was extinguished by 11.27am. The 58 people evacuated comprised 25 women and 17 men from the building, plus another 11 men and five women from a...
Hong Kong should make safety design a part of all building development plans and address the culture of rushing work at construction sites, industry leaders have said after the city recorded 15 fatal industrial accidents earlier this year. Their calls followed the warning by Construction Industry Council chairman Thomas Ho On-sing on Monday that the number of such accidents was on the rise despite...
Record-breaking cross-border deals helped make some formerly loss-making Chinese biotech companies profitable in the first half of the year, but multinational drugmakers are now signalling plans to tighten deal budgets. Analysts said deals with global partners had overtaken initial public offerings and pre-IPO fundraising as the main funding option for cash-starved Chinese biotech firms wanting to...
Record-breaking cross-border deals helped make some formerly loss-making Chinese biotech companies profitable in the first half of the year, but multinational drugmakers are now signalling plans to tighten deal budgets. Analysts said deals with global partners had overtaken initial public offerings and pre-IPO fundraising as the main funding option for cash-starved Chinese biotech firms wanting to...
Residents of Section 9 in Kota Damansara thought they knew what was coming to the vacant land opposite their homes. The site, beside a community forest in the Malaysian township, was expected to become a high street retail development. Instead, they learned that Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ) had received an application for two three-storey data centre blocks – part of the vast physical infrast...
Guo Yanliang, a champion debater who honed his argumentation skills in international contests and on online variety shows, has left one of Europe’s top quantum laboratories to set up his own research group in Beijing. Guo, 33, says he sees scientific research as a debate between different opinions, which made him more compatible with China than Europe. This year, he returned to China to take a pos...
From switching ingredients to staggering price increases, Philippine companies are rethinking strategies to cover rising costs without losing customers squeezed by inflation and a weak peso. The Philippines is now grappling with the second-weakest growth and fastest inflation among Southeast Asia’s economies after a corruption scandal weighed on confidence and the Iran war stoked consumer prices. ...
A woman from central China undertook a fasting regimen for half a month and lost 20kg, but ultimately suffered from a serious brain disorder from which she may never fully recover. The 31-year-old woman from Henan province, who wishes to remain anonymous, was recently reported by local media to have developed walking difficulties and memory deterioration after consuming nothing but water for 15 co...
Feel strongly about these letters, or any other aspects of the news? Share your views by emailing us your Letter to the Editor at letters@scmp.com or filling in this Google form. Submissions should not exceed 400 words. Public debate over Hong Kong’s recent heatwave has rightly focused on protecting frontline workers. However, one group remains largely absent from the discussion: site managers and...
At least 47 people were killed and 22 more injured in an overnight gang raid on a neighbourhood overlooking Haiti’s capital of Port-au-Prince, the UN said on Monday, prompting anger over the lack of protection from repeated deadly attacks. The United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti said estimates could still change. The hillside community of Kenscoff, in a strategic position overlooking routes...
This article was first published on August 26, 1976. Tragedy hits Sau Mau Ping At least seven people, including four children, were killed by the landslide that hit Sau Mau Ping Estate yesterday (August 25, 1976). Yesterday’s disaster was only a few blocks away from a slope which slipped on June 18, 1972, killing 67 people. Fire Services teams, assisted by the Army, spent the night under search li...
The number of theft cases in homes jumped by about 25 per cent in the first half of 2026, even as Singapore’s overall physical crime situation remained stable. There were 459 thefts in dwelling cases at residential premises in the first six months of the year, up 25.1 per cent from 367 cases over the same period in 2025, according to the Singapore police’s midyear crime brief for 2026. Theft in dw...
The number of theft cases in homes jumped by about 25 per cent in the first half of 2026, even as Singapore’s overall physical crime situation remained stable. There were 459 thefts in dwelling cases at residential premises in the first six months of the year, up 25.1 per cent from 367 cases over the same period in 2025, according to the Singapore police’s midyear crime brief for 2026. Theft in dw...
China is building a global network of gold vaults and accelerating central bank reserve buying as part of efforts to promote the yuan’s role in international trade, according to an S&P Global Ratings report on Tuesday. Firms such as Zijin Mining – China’s largest gold processor – and Shandong Gold Mining were also expected to expand “faster than most of their global peers” after Beijing reclassifi...
China is building a global network of gold vaults and accelerating central bank reserve buying as part of efforts to promote the yuan’s role in international trade, according to an S&P Global Ratings report on Tuesday. Chinese gold miners, such as the mainland’s largest gold processor Zijin Mining, and Shandong Gold Mining, were also expected to expand “faster than most of their global peers” afte...
