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The People’s Liberation Army used a drone to deliver cases of cash and gold bars in a field during a “wartime financial support” drill apparently simulating a Taiwan operation, according to a state media report. A multi-rotor drone was used to drop the camouflage cases at designated locations during the exercise conducted by the PLA Eastern Theatre Command, national newspaper Defence Times said la...
Chinese tech giant Baidu on Tuesday posted a 4 per cent year-on-year decline in second-quarter revenue, as continued weakness in advertising outweighed growth in its artificial intelligence cloud operations, highlighting intensifying competition in China’s tech sector. Revenue for the three months ended June reached 31.3 billion yuan (US$4.62 billion), slightly missing the 31.6 billion yuan consen...
Chinese tech giant Baidu on Tuesday posted a 4 per cent year-on-year decline in second-quarter revenue, as continued weakness in advertising outweighed growth in its artificial intelligence cloud operations, highlighting intensifying competition in China’s tech sector. Revenue for the three months ended June reached 31.3 billion yuan (US$4.62 billion), slightly missing the 31.6 billion yuan consen...
Hong Kong recorded fewer than 30,000 births annually for the first time on record, a 15.6 per cent year-on-year decline, even as its population rose by 0.3 per cent to more than 7.5 million by mid-2026. Provisional data released by the Census and Statistics Department (CSD) on Tuesday showed that the city recorded 29,700 births between mid-2025 and mid-2026, down 15.6 per cent from the 35,200 reco...
Hong Kong’s population rose slightly by 0.3 per cent year on year to more than 7.5 million by mid-2026 but the number of babies born fell by 15.6 per cent to below 30,000 for the first time on record, despite government incentives to boost the birth rate. The government on Tuesday attributed the slight population increase to “various measures for talent attraction and labour importation” that cont...
A Russian attack on a village in the Kharkiv region of northeast Ukraine killed 10 people, Kyiv said on Tuesday, vowing to respond. The strike comes amid a surge in civilian deaths in the four-and-a-half-year war. Russian forces “carried out a rocket strike on Pechenihy”, a village around 40km (25 miles) from the Russian border, Kharkiv regional governor Oleg Synegubov said on social media. “Accor...
Russian President Vladimir Putin is set to host Myanmar’s Min Aung Hlaing on Tuesday, as the Southeast Asian leader seeks an economic reboot for his war-ravaged country and fresh supplies of fertiliser, oil and weapons. A pariah to much of the West over his 2021 coup and role as army chief during the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya Muslim minority, Min Aung Hlaing has nonetheless found friends in...
Peace prospects in the Middle East faded, with US President Donald Trump ruling out a renewed ceasefire deal with Iran and more fighting breaking out in Lebanon. Trump said “no” when asked whether he wanted a new Iran accord to replace a 60-day agreement that expired on Monday. “They want to make a deal, but they’re not going to make the kind of deal that I feel is necessary,” he told reporters at...
After years of concern over students using artificial intelligence to cut corners, Singapore’s universities are embracing the technology, driven not just by changes in the classroom but by pressure to prepare graduates for an economy that increasingly prizes AI literacy. But analysts say educators still face the challenge of ensuring students use AI to sharpen their critical thinking rather than r...
Chinese President Xi Jinping led the party elite to pay a final tribute to former premier Zhu Rongji who was cremated on Tuesday as national flags were lowered to half mast. Zhu, who died of an illness in Beijing last Wednesday aged 97, served as premier from 1998 to 2003 and is regarded as the chief engineer of the country’s economic reform. He played a pivotal role in transitioning China towards...
Hong Kong customs has arrested 10 people and seized suspected cannabis buds worth an estimated HK$56 million (US$7 million) in a month-long operation targeting a syndicate accused of smuggling the drug from Southeast Asia to Europe and Africa via the city. Code-named Fire Mesh, the operation ran from July 13 to August 17 and resulted in the seizure of about 240kg (529lbs) of cannabis buds, the Cus...
When the Hong Kong stock exchange launched five-year China government bond futures on August 3, it did more than simply expand the city’s derivatives product suite. As the only China government bond futures in the offshore market, the contract deserves attention as it finally gives international investors an exchange-traded tool to hedge against yuan interest rate exposure, strengthening Hong Kong...
This article was first published on August 18, 1961. Hong Kong declared infected area Authorities adopt strict measures against cholera Stringent health measures to protect Hong Kong have been taken following the confirmation yesterday (August 17, 1961) of four cases of cholera and the declaration of the Colony as an infected area. There have been two deaths from the disease and another suspect ha...
Hong Kong’s offshore yuan bond market has seen another record-breaking deal – the largest single issuance by a Chinese state-owned enterprise – underscoring the growing appeal of the city’s dim sum bond market. State Grid Corporation of China raised 14.9 billion yuan (US$2.2 billion) through offshore yuan-denominated bonds, known as dim sum bonds, according to a statement on Monday from Bank of Ch...
Men in military fatigues identical to those worn by Japan’s Ground Self-Defence Forces (SDF) are reportedly prowling evacuated communities in Kumamoto prefecture to loot abandoned homes and businesses in the aftermath of last month’s earthquake. An official at the prefectural government confirmed media reports of “fake SDF personnel” attempting to enter properties in affected areas, although she s...
Aboard his boat moored along the Strait of Hormuz, Iranian fisherman Mohammad Amin mended a torn fishing net after a long day in waters that have long sustained his livelihood, but are now shadowed by the threat of death. It has been less than a month since the 47-year-old resumed his routine of waking before dawn, heading out to sea and returning hours later with the day’s catch – a routine he ha...
Thailand’s justice minister pledged on Tuesday to review pardon criteria following backlash over the release of an 85-year-old drug trafficker who served less than a decade of a life prison sentence. Laota Saenlee, a former anti-communist guerrilla turned drug runner linked to powerful Myanmar drug kingpins, was arrested by undercover officers in 2016 for selling crystal meth in the Golden Triangl...
A Hong Kong court has sentenced a man to 22 years in prison for repeatedly raping his daughter since she was 13, with the judge saying the penalty could not make up for the ordeal the victim suffered and calling it one of the worst sexual assault cases involving a biological father that he had ever seen. High Court judge Eric Kwok Tung-ming on Tuesday handed down the sentence to the 48-year-old de...
A Hong Kong court has sentenced a man to 22 years in prison for repeatedly raping his daughter since she was 13, with the judge saying the penalty could not make up for the ordeal the victim suffered, and that it was one of the worst sexual assault cases involving a biological father he had ever seen. High Court judge Eric Kwok Tung-ming on Tuesday handed down the sentence to the 48-year-old defen...
Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown’s securing of another term, despite a dispute with New Zealand over his government’s deals with China, suggests voters are more focused on the cost of living than geopolitical concerns, analysts have said. Brown’s Cook Islands Party is on track to win a fifth consecutive term in government. According to preliminary results from last week’s general election, t...
US President Donald Trump cited India’s election system as a model for the US, bringing the world’s largest democracy into a contentious American debate over voter access and election security. Trump said the identification requirements make elections secure and pressed Congress to pass the SAVE America Act, which would require proof of citizenship to register for federal elections and photo ident...
A decision has yet to be made on whether Malaysian authorities will file an extradition request for a local pilot arrested in Indonesia, according to Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail. Saifuddin said on Tuesday that investigations should be concluded first. “Let the Narcotics Crime Investigation Department (NCID) complete their investigations first and decide the next step forward, including...
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. How Southeast Asia’s monarchies stay relevant in a volatile region The kings in Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia and Brunei have to be attuned to societal or economic changes...
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. How Southeast Asia’s monarchies stay relevant in a volatile region The kings in Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia and Brunei have to be attuned to societal or economic changes...
A preacher and prominent conservative commentator has drawn backlash in Malaysia after questioning why a banner for a traditional Chinese festival was not written in Malay, the country’s national language. Ridhuan Tee Abdullah, an ethnic Chinese Muslim convert known for provocative commentary on race and religion, was criticised by social media users and a Selangor politician for casting a routine...
A top naval software expert, whose work helped warships to process battlefield information and support combat decisions, has vanished from the Chinese Academy of Engineering’s online membership list. Zhao Xiaozhe, 63, a vice-admiral in the PLA Navy, once headed the Central Military Commission’s top science and technology body, helping to shape research priorities across China’s armed forces. He is...
Chinese commercial banks recorded a rare, modest uptick in net interest margin (NIM) in the second quarter of 2026, marking the sector’s first quarterly expansion in the profitability indicator since 2022, even as underlying loan demand remained weak. Average NIM for commercial banks edged up 1 basis point to 1.41 per cent in the June quarter, from 1.40 per cent in the first quarter, according to ...
Hong Kong’s labour minister has said authorities aim to complete a revamp of the city’s heat-stress warning system by the end of this month, following criticism that the alert level was not increased during record-breaking temperatures. Secretary for Labour and Welfare Chris Sun Yuk-han said on Tuesday that changes to the Heat Stress at Work Warning system would require thorough preparatory work a...
