SCMP World

Iran attacks naval drone near Hormuz after US strikes 3 oil tankers

Iran said on Sunday that its forces attacked a US naval drone trying to enter the Strait of Hormuz, hours after targeting ships in retaliation for American stri...

4 days ago

Fatal cycling accidents in Hong Kong more than double in first half of 2026

Fatal cycling accidents in Hong Kong more than doubled in the first half of 2026 compared with a year earlier, with nine deaths recorded, as police point to cyc...

4 days ago

Chinese military university urged to revise AI course to ‘educate for war’

China’s military researchers have proposed a redesigned “AI principles and practice course” for graduate students with “educating for war” at its centre, embedd...

4 days ago

US denies it tried to influence Malaysia’s political leadership in 2014

The US rejected a claim by Malaysia’s opposition Islamist party that Washington once sought to influence the country’s choice of political leadership, calling t...

4 days ago

Calls for Hong Kong anti-stalking law after man acquitted of following teen girl

Lawmakers and a government adviser have called for anti-stalking legislation to close a loophole that makes prosecuting repeated harassment difficult in Hong Ko...

4 days ago

Young Malaysians brew goal for traditional tuak drink to become national success

At Raffly Langi’s family longhouse in Sarawak, on Malaysian Borneo, the tuak rice wine did not come in a branded bottle or a tasting flight. His aunt has brewed...

4 days ago

Filipino-Americans rattled by Trump’s migrant-chasing ‘xenophobia’ games

The recent release of classic arcade games on the White House website, which allow players to deport migrants and build a border wall, has stoked more fear and...

4 days ago

72-year-old hiker dies after collapsing on challenging Hong Kong trail

An elderly man has died after collapsing while hiking on a scenic yet notoriously challenging hill in southern Hong Kong. Police received a report at 9.13am on...

4 days ago

Tesla to exhibit Cybercab robotaxi in China: can it spark buzz amid slow sales?

Tesla is facing weaker sales in China this year, but the American electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer is looking to generate a buzz in its second-largest market...

4 days ago

Red tape, high cost: can Hong Kong’s new yacht scheme chart a smoother course?

Retired harbour pilot Alex Yu Chi-leung sailed his 50-foot wooden yacht, Bowline, from Causeway Bay in Hong Kong to Dongao Island in Zhuhai under a new cross-bo...

4 days ago

China begins mining iron from tailings, low-grade ore that can meet its demand for decades

China has launched a world-first industrial-scale facility to extract iron from previously discarded mine tailings and ultra-low-grade ore, turning waste into a...

4 days ago

Signalling fault disrupts Hong Kong high-speed rail service, delaying 15 trains

At least 15 high-speed cross-border train services were delayed in Hong Kong after a signalling fault prompted a 45-minute disruption of northbound journeys on...

4 days ago

Junior Chinese customs officer killed in mudslide just 4 days into job deeply moves public

The tragic death of a junior Chinese customs officer on the Sino-Nepal border, who had only been in her position for four days before being killed in a catastro...

4 days ago

Hired, then what? Malaysia’s deaf workers push past entry-level jobs

Yap Yee Lin has been serving espresso at a Starbucks in Malaysia since 2012, longer than many of his colleagues have worked anywhere. But it was only last year,...

4 days ago

Elderly riders bear brunt of rising New York City subway attacks

Attacks on elderly straphangers are fuelling a spike in felony assaults within the New York City subway system, according to New York Police Department’s transi...

4 days ago

In an era of extreme summers, it’s time to look beyond air conditioning

The Labour Department recently upgraded its Heat Stress at Work Warning system, making it easier for higher-tier alerts to be sent out, so that employers and wo...

4 days ago

Why Chelsea football shirts are making Hong Kong fans nervous about crypto laws

English Premier League football club Chelsea’s lucrative new front-of-shirt sponsorship deal with a stablecoin issuer has left Hong Kong fans and retailers conc...

4 days ago

Viral Jennie clip tests limits of South Korea’s AI deepfake laws

For a few seconds during Blackpink member Jennie’s headline set at Tokyo’s Summer Sonic festival last month, it looked like something had come undone. She turne...

4 days ago

Argentina threatens to sanction oil projects around Falkland Islands

Argentina has announced that it will investigate and sanction oil companies working near the Falkland Islands without authorisation, after President Javier Mile...

4 days ago

UK’s Prince William to represent King Charles at funeral of Norway’s King Harald

Britain’s Prince William will attend the funeral of Norway’s late King Harald next week in place of his father King Charles, Buckingham Palace said on Saturday....

4 days ago

German rocket reaches space as Europe enters satellite launch race

German start-up Isar Aerospace on Saturday launched its first rocket into space from a site in Arctic Norway, bringing Europe closer to offering satellite fligh...

4 days ago

Gen Z is turning filial piety into a career path

Hong Kong has always had a simple answer to what young people should do with their lives: study hard, get a job, work harder, buy a flat and eventually complain...

4 days ago

At least 22 dead, several injured, in fire at DR Congo wedding reception

A fire at a wedding party in Democratic Republic of Congo’s capital Kinshasa left at least 22 people dead, the regional mayor said on Saturday. Several others w...

4 days ago

Commemoration held for late Serb war criminal Ratko Mladic

A commemoration was held on Saturday in Belgrade for war criminal Ratko Mladic two days ahead of his burial, attended by dozens of former military staff, family...

4 days ago

Competitors dig deep at Hungarian gravedigging contest

A gravedigging contest in a Hungarian cemetery may sound like the opening line of a comedy sketch. It proved to be anything but as 38 competitors grabbed picks...

4 days ago

Egypt sentences TV presenter, 11 others to death in drugs case

An Egyptian court sentenced a well-known television presenter and 11 others to death for manufacturing and trafficking narcotics in a sprawling drugs case, offi...

4 days ago

2 pilots killed after Greek air force plane crashes at annual air show

A Greek air force plane crashed at an air show north of Athens on Saturday, killing the two pilots, officials said, as thousands of people attended the event. A...

4 days ago

US ambassador calls violent Israeli settlers ‘terrorists’ after weeks of West Bank unrest

The United States ambassador to Israel condemned Israeli settler violence in the occupied West Bank again on Saturday, calling the behaviour an “act of terror”...

4 days ago

US strikes 3 Iranian oil tankers after warships targeted, military says

US Central Command (CENTCOM) said it hit three Iranian oil tankers on Saturday, including one off the coast of Kharg Island adjoining Iran’s major oil export hu...

4 days ago

Hong Kong’s first astronaut Lai Ka-ying to give live lecture from space

Hong Kong’s first astronaut Lai Ka-ying and her two fellow Shenzhou-23 crew members will deliver a live lecture from space for students and teachers in the city...

4 days ago

How Asian shipyards in Japan, Korea and Philippines keep US warships battle ready

After being stranded in the South China Sea following a power failure in July, the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Benfold was towed to Subic Bay in the Phili...

4 days ago

UK government condemns masked anti-immigrant protesters blocking Dover port

Dozens of masked anti-immigration protesters blocked roads leading to Britain’s busiest ferry port on Saturday, clogging traffic and disrupting travellers and c...

4 days ago

China launches plan for 3D satellite network to monitor sun and cosmic explosions

China has started an international project to build a three-dimensional satellite network between Earth and the moon that will track solar activity and study so...

4 days ago

How can future doctors blend clinical rigour with AI fluency and empathy?

Medical experts have stressed that Hong Kong’s next generation of healthcare professionals must combine clinical rigour with emotional resilience, an open-minde...

4 days ago

Taiwan remains Asia’s ‘most dangerous’ issue, former Singaporean diplomat warns

Asia is still shackled by “mental colonisation” despite accounting for over half the global population, a former UN Security Council president has said, while w...

4 days ago

Chinese-German team builds ultra-sensitive ‘floating compass’ to hunt dark matter

Chinese researchers have developed a table-top magnetic sensor that operates at room temperature and can spot magnetic signals a billion times fainter than the...

4 days ago

Curiosity beats perfect statements, UK elite universities tell Hong Kong students

Elite British universities are prioritising authentic curiosity and academic resilience over rigid test prep and “perfect personal statements”, top admissions o...

4 days ago

US envoys Witkoff, Kushner arrive in Kyiv after talks to Putin in Moscow

US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner arrived in Kyiv on Sunday in their first official visit to Ukraine as part of a renewed push for peace after Russia’s...

4 days ago

China will never allow any country in this world to achieve AI dominance: Victor Gao

China will thwart US ambitions for global artificial intelligence (AI) dominance, the vice-president of the Centre for China and Globalisation has said, while w...

4 days ago

‘There are trade-offs’: how Hong Kong patients can use telemedicine wisely

In the fourth instalment of a five-part Health Matters wellness series on Hong Kong’s growing wellness trends, Lo Hoi-ying examines how telehealth is reshaping...

4 days ago

Hong Kong to propel belt and road market expansion, finance chief says

Hong Kong will step up support for belt and road enterprises seeking to expand into new markets and tap regional growth, reinforcing its role as a pivotal busin...

4 days ago

Chinese food vendor sparks ‘camera bullying’ debate after vloggers portray her as ‘evil granny’

A 92-year-old snack vendor from southwestern China has sparked a debate over online exploitation after vloggers deliberately provoked her to produce sensational...

4 days ago

Study that argued China’s solar policy hurt birds may have miscounted 2 billion egrets

A study in one of the world’s top scientific journals that concluded China’s policy-driven solar energy expansion was harming bird diversity has come under fire...

4 days ago

World’s most powerful lightning-chasing satellite joins China-Nepal flood relief efforts

China is using the world’s most powerful geostationary weather satellite to track severe thunderstorms over Nepal and deliver real-time intelligence as the two...

4 days ago

Why China’s shrinking population may be a blessing, not a curse

There is little in common between Daron Acemoglu and Xi Jinping. As a strong advocate of the Western model of liberal democracy, Acemoglu, co-recipient of the 2...

4 days ago

Which overseas property markets will be the winners and losers if Fed raises US rates?

Comments by US Federal Reserve chairman Kevin Warsh at its annual economic policy symposium in Jackson Hole last month have reinforced expectations of an impend...

4 days ago

Indonesia’s Anak Krakatoa volcano erupts, disrupting flights at 6 airports

Indonesia halted operations at its main international airport outside Jakarta on Sunday after ash spewed from the Anak Krakatoa volcano more than 150km (93 mile...

4 days ago

5-year plan to boost livelihoods, policy address to set out concrete measures: John Lee

Hong Kong’s leader has pledged to improve residents’ livelihoods through long-term strategies in the city’s first five-year plan, with concrete measures to be s...

4 days ago

Hong Kong open to classifying heatstroke as an occupational disease: labour chief

Hong Kong authorities are open to classifying heatstroke as an occupational disease, the city’s labour chief has said, acknowledging that the recently revamped...

4 days ago