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One in three Hong Kong kindergarten pupils spends at least an hour a day on social media, with more than 80 per cent of parent-child disputes linked to excessive screen time, a survey has found. The Hong Kong Institute of Family Education released the findings on Wednesday showing recreational screen time rose sharply with age, with 60 per cent of junior form students and 66.6 per cent of high sch...
Hong Kong’s securities market regulator has defended a HK$1 billion (US$128 million) settlement with an accounting firm at the centre of an auditing scandal involving developer China Evergrande Group, saying it has unfettered powers to enforce discipline and a duty to protect the interests of independent investors. In a judicial review hearing on Wednesday, lawyers for the Securities and Futures C...
The Pakistani government challenged on Wednesday a Supreme Court order to move jailed former prime minister Imran Khan to a private hospital, a petition filed with the court showed. The move could dash the hopes of Khan’s party and family, who have been calling for him to be given access to healthcare and visitation rights, and also spark public discontent over the treatment of the hugely popular...
At China’s annual World Robot Conference (WRC) that kicked off on Wednesday, the hall was filled with humanoid robots wowing visitors with feats of dexterity: from playing table tennis to performing drum solos. These eye-catching displays have helped China’s robotics industry win global attention – and raise huge amounts of capital – over the past couple of years. But at this year’s summit, the ov...
Taiwan’s first test of a locally developed satellite launch vehicle failed on Wednesday after the rocket veered off course, terrifying nearby villagers who mistook it for an incoming missile. The rocket was launched at around 6am local time from the Jiupeng missile testing base in southern Pingtung county. The base is operated by the government-backed National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and T...
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky fired one of his most senior officials on Wednesday as corruption investigators named a deputy head of the presidential office among the suspects in a money-laundering case. The stunning developments came a day after Ukraine’s recently fired defence minister demanded national elections, despite Russia’s more than four-year-old invasion. Zelensky has maintaine...
Ukrainian anti-corruption agencies announced on Wednesday that they were investigating senior officials in President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office, a day after the country’s recently fired defence minister called for national elections despite the ongoing fight against Russia’s invasion. The political drama was an unwelcome distraction for Zelensky as Ukraine’s war with its bigger neighbour stretche...
Malaysia faces a growing risk of miscalculation near its state of Sabah as US-China rivalry drives more military activities into the waters around Borneo, its defence minister has warned, bolstering the government’s push for higher spending on its armed forces. The concern is particularly acute for Malaysia, a South China Sea claimant that has long sought to keep close economic ties with China whi...
The Hong Kong Observatory has said it will consider issuing the No 1 standby typhoon signal over the weekend, as it tracks a low-pressure system that could approach the city and bring stormy weather. The forecaster said on Wednesday that the area of low pressure over the northern part of the South China Sea was moving westward and edging closer to the southern section of the mainland Chinese provi...
The Hong Kong Observatory has said it will consider issuing the No 1 standby typhoon signal over the weekend, as it tracks a low-pressure system that could approach the city and bring stormy weather. The forecaster said on Wednesday that the area of low pressure over the northern part of the South China Sea was moving westward and edging closer to the southern section of the mainland Chinese provi...
China has approved the construction of a marine environmental observation station to monitor an area that includes the disputed Scarborough Shoal, a persistent flashpoint in tensions with the Philippines in the South China Sea. The Zhongsha Islands Marine Ecological and Environmental Field Observation and Research Station, proposed by the South China Sea Institute of Oceanology (SCSIO) of the Chin...
Qatar Airways has set up its new regional cargo office in Hong Kong, with the city’s transport minister using the occasion to reveal a local airline would soon announce a relaunch of direct flights to Central Asia. Secretary for Transport and Logistics Mable Chan dropped the hint, but did not name the airline, when she attended the opening ceremony for Qatar Airways’ regional cargo office and witn...
On paper, the small rooms inside the flats in Din Daeng, a district in Bangkok, were packed with foreign children. A total of 64 foreign children had been registered as occupants in one flat alone – an implausible listing that authorities say has exposed a wider fraud in Thailand’s house-registration system. The children were not found living there. Their names, investigators say, have been fraudu...
Prudential Hong Kong has agreed to lease headquarters space at Swire Properties’ One Taikoo Place and One Island East, marking a notable expansion of its office footprint in the city, according to the developer. Under the agreement, the insurer will occupy a total of 83,000 sq ft across the two buildings, “reinforcing the company’s commitment to Hong Kong and Taikoo Place as its long-term headquar...
Prudential Hong Kong has agreed to lease headquarters space at Swire Properties’ One Taikoo Place and One Island East, marking a notable expansion of its office footprint in the city, according to the developer. Under the agreement, the insurer will occupy a total of 83,000 sq ft across the two buildings, “reinforcing the company’s commitment to Hong Kong and Taikoo Place as its long-term headquar...
Iran’s armed forces warned Gulf countries against assisting the US military on Wednesday, hours after the United Arab Emirates announced it was severing economic ties with Tehran following new attacks on shipping. The Gulf is dotted with US military installations, including in the UAE, which said on Tuesday that Iran had fired two ballistic missiles at vessels off its coast. Despite a recent lull ...
Hong Kong customs officers have arrested two staff members from a local company operating under the Opatra London brand following controversy over aggressive sales tactics, as the UK headquarters further distanced itself from the firm. The financial and administration managers – a Hong Kong man, 42, and a woman, 25, respectively – were detained on Wednesday, Senior Investigator Leung Ka‑ho of cust...
Hong Kong customs officers have arrested two staff members from the local operations of Opatra London, a beauty chain embroiled in controversy over aggressive sales tactics, the South China Morning Post has learned. The financial and administration managers — a man and a woman respectively — were detained on Wednesday, according to an insider familiar with the investigation, marking the first arre...
Hong Kong customs officers have arrested two staff members from Opatra London, a local beauty chain embroiled in controversy over aggressive sales tactics, the South China Morning Post has learned. The employees were detained on Wednesday, according to an insider familiar with the investigation, marking the first arrests linked to the chain accused of deploying high-pressure sales tactics targetin...
Schools in Thailand conducted active shooter drills on Wednesday, as authorities moved to strengthen security measures two weeks after a 14-year-old opened fire at a school and killed at least eight people. At the Surasamontree School in Bangkok, students took part in a “run, hide, fight” exercise, with a police officer dressed in black and acting as a mock attacker, armed with a handgun and a...
Some Chinese women are investing thousands of yuan (equivalent to several hundred US dollars) to learn how to heal from the scars inflicted by narcissistic partners, recognise their behaviours, and even counter them. On Chinese social media, multiple coaches offer guidance to those struggling with “people with NPD” (narcissistic personality disorder) in their intimate relationships. NPD has become...
With Chinese President Xi Jinping’s planned visit to the United States just weeks away, Washington and Beijing are still struggling to arrange a hoped-for dialogue on artificial intelligence, with the venue, participants and scope of the talks yet to be settled. Two sources familiar with the discussions said Washington had yet to decide which part of the US government should take the lead. The two...
Read more: https://sc.mp/841640 Bangladesh has launched a women-only “Pink Bus” service in Dhaka staffed entirely by female drivers and conductors. Created to provide a safe, dedicated transit option for women, the programme is operating 14 buses. Ten started running in the capital Dhaka on Tuesday and on Wednesday the cities of Chittagong and Bogra each received two new lines.
Public registration for Hong Kong’s flagship annual cycling event will open on Thursday, with more than 6,500 places available across two non-competitive rides scheduled for October 11. This year’s Hong Kong Cyclothon, hosted by the Hong Kong Tourism Board, will feature a new extended 56km (34.8 miles) non-competitive ride on a “Five Tunnels, Three Bridges” route. The new route will take participa...
China-based LandSpace successfully launched a Zhuque-3 rocket and recovered its first stage, a breakthrough in the nation’s efforts to develop reusable boosters that can slash the cost of space launches. The first stage of the 66-metre (217-foot) rocket touched down in Minqin County, Gansu province, northwest China, on Wednesday after an eight-minute flight that delivered a Honghu-3 internet satel...
Thailand is ready to shift its approach to a slow-burn insurgency in its Muslim-majority deep south and revitalise a peace process, Bangkok’s chief negotiator has said, as violence simmers in one of Southeast Asia’s longest-running conflicts. Any such move could mark a return to addressing the political roots of a conflict that has killed more than 7,800 people since 2004, when the latest round of...
Goldman Sachs has remained upbeat about offshore wealth management despite concerns over Beijing’s tighter scrutiny of cross-border money flows. The Wall Street investment bank forecast wealth fee income at Standard Chartered and HSBC to grow 30 per cent and 13 per cent, respectively, in 2026, while projecting 16 to 25 per cent growth for Singapore banks. “We continue to believe offshore wealth al...
Goldman Sachs has remained upbeat about offshore wealth management despite concerns over Beijing’s tighter scrutiny of cross-border money flows. The Wall Street investment bank forecast wealth fee income at Standard Chartered and HSBC to grow 30 per cent and 13 per cent, respectively, in 2026, while projecting 16 to 25 per cent growth for Singapore banks. “We continue to believe offshore wealth al...
Despite July’s sharp sell-off in global semiconductor shares, driven by concerns over AI-linked profitability, artificial intelligence and chips remained China’s most preferred investment themes in August, while more investors moved to hedge tech exposure, according to a survey by BofA Global Research. The findings come from the August edition of the Asia Fund Manager Survey, for which Bank of Ame...
Macau has unveiled a sweeping five-year strategic blueprint to break its long-standing dependence on casino revenues by pivoting towards modern financial services, digital currency adoption and deeper economic integration with mainland China. Under its third five-year plan for economic and social development, released on Tuesday, the gambling hub aims to boost the added value of non-gaming industr...
