All coverage of Hong Kong, ranked by recency.
Online claims that archaeologists have identified the source of mercury in the mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang – China’s first emperor, who unified the country more than 2,000 years ago – have revived interest in ancient cinnabar sites in northwestern China’s Shaanxi province. The claims, which sent related hashtags trending on social media late last month, centred on three sites in Xunyang where ar...
Reggie Manlapig, 46, has been driving jeepneys for nearly 25 years and has weathered rising fuel prices – but with costs spiking amid the global energy crunch, he is now wrestling bigger demons. “The impact has been huge. Before, in a 16-hour shift of driving, I could take home 400 to 500 pesos [US$6.30 to US$8] – now there’s a big cut to that income,” said Manlapig, who plies a two-hour daily ...
As education sector demand supports Hong Kong’s Grade A office leasing activity, analysts said infrastructure that will serve the Northern Metropolis could decide whether schools and universities move their administrative and other services to this potential new centre of the city. “Over the medium to long term, the Northern Metropolis could be a viable option for institutions seeking to expand...
Three dog owners have lost their appeal against the government’s decision to classify their pets as “fighting dogs,” designations that were made as authorities tightened regulations following fatal dog attacks in August. Bao Bao and Baku outside the Animal Management and Animal Welfare Building Complex on September 30, 2026. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP. The Dogs and Cats Classification Board, an advis...
Not long after he entered secondary school, Hong Kong youth Jason* was bullied by an older student with triad links. He was relieved when another senior stepped in to protect him. He helped Jason take revenge on the bully, then recruited him into a syndicate. Without undergoing any initiation ritual, Jason paid his protector a red packet to become an informal triad member. Later on, he discover...
United States Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said on Thursday that there is no timeline yet for implementing the US-China Board of Trade, one of the key economic outcomes of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s state visit to Washington last week. Speaking on the sidelines of the Group of 20 Trade Ministers’ meeting in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Greer said the tariff reductions under the mechanism we...
Two giant pandas arrived in the US following Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Washington, continuing a decades-old tradition in which the beloved fuzzy ambassadors have become symbols of China’s ties with countries around the world. Zoo Atlanta announced the arrival of giant pandas Ping Ping and Fu Shuang on Sunday, saying it was “overjoyed” to welcome the pair after the zoo’s previous 2...
The farewell to former chief executive Tung Chee-hwa was moving because it marked the passing of a figure who stood at the beginning of a wholly new chapter for Hong Kong, a city to which he devoted so much of himself. For many, Tung will always be associated with the formidable demands of the early years after the return to the motherland – the Asian financial crisis, the bursting of the prope...
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday reiterated Moscow’s long-held position that Russia is not planning to attack European countries but will respond to aggression with “all weapons” in its arsenal. In remarks at a foreign policy forum, Putin accused the West and Europe of escalating tensions by talking about preparing for a war with Moscow in the coming years, conducting military drill...
US President Donald Trump said on Thursday that Tehran was likely to be involved in an attack by a pilot on a flydubai flight to Israel and that Iran would be “hit very hard” if it was. The co-pilot allegedly assaulted the captain before passengers managed to save the plane from crashing. Israel’s prime minister said the man had undergone “Islamist radical indoctrination”. “I would say the answ...
Chinese President Xi Jinping has left Washington, but he still has a place at the White House. At least two, in fact. Two different photographs of Xi with US President Donald Trump feature on its walls: a handshake image that Trump showed his guest during last week’s state visit, and another beside a Palm Room doorway showing the presidents standing side by side. Journalist Jacqueline Alemany s...
Canada will fast track the approval process for a new proposed crude oil export pipeline to its west coast that could generate over C$20 billion (US$14 billion) a year in GDP, Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Thursday. The pipeline, which was announced in July, is a crucial part of Carney’s bid to diversify the economy away from the United States and help lessen the effect of US President Do...
British counterterrorism police investigating a suspected plot involving an airbase used by the US to target Iran said on Thursday they had arrested a dual UK-Iranian national on suspicion of preparing terrorist acts. In an incident which triggered a huge police response, raised alarm among Western allies, and remains largely unexplained, five British men in their 20s were arrested on Sunda...
[The content of this article has been produced by our advertising partner.] Artificial intelligence has rapidly evolved from an emerging technology into a cornerstone of Hong Kong's economic transformation strategy. Under the Government's AI+ initiative, further reinforced by the First Five-Year Plan for Economic and Social Development of the HKSAR (2026-2030), the city is stepping up efforts t...
A protest by French secondary school students over overcrowded classrooms, teacher shortages and crumbling facilities deepened on Thursday, with fires set outside schools and blockades in several cities. More than 160 schools were shut down on Thursday, while university students joined the protests in Paris and Marseille. The movement in the lycees, which students aged 15 to 18 attend for their...
The number of people applying for US unemployment benefits dipped last week to the lowest level since mid-July as lay-offs remain low and most American workers enjoy job security. The Labor Department said on Thursday that initial jobless claims ticked down to 197,000 from a revised 198,000 the week before. The four-week average of claims, which smooths out week-to-week volatility, dropped by 2...
A potential conflict in the Taiwan Strait could see crossfire exchanged between two mobile rocket systems: the US-made High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (Himars), and its mainland Chinese counterpart, the PHL-16, also known as the PCL-191. Taiwan is set to receive all 29 Himars systems from its initial orders by the end of this year, with another 82 systems approved for purchase in a follow...
We have selected seven of the most interesting and important news stories covering US-China relations from the past few weeks. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. Trade, Taiwan and ‘strategic stability’: key Xi-Trump takeaways overall Here are the key takeaways from Chinese President Xi Jinping’s whirlwind 43-hour trip to the United States, his first ...
We have selected seven of the most interesting and important news stories covering Latin American relations from the past few weeks. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. China pledges to ‘firmly support’ Cuba as US escalates pressure on Havana China will stand by Cuba in defending its sovereignty and resisting outside interference, foreign ministry spo...
As Beijing and Washington take tentative steps to keep a military crisis from erupting, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth is reshaping the top ranks of the American military while facing questions about his own future at the Pentagon. Hegseth told junior officers and sergeants on Wednesday that the military had already cut its generals and admirals by 10 per cent and planned to cut another 10 p...
In April last year, Brussels launched an obscure “import surveillance task force” to track the impact of US President Donald Trump’s trade war with China on the EU economy. The bloc was concerned that Chinese shipments bound for the United States would be diverted to Europe at lower prices, imperilling local manufacturers. Eighteen months on, the European Union is on the cusp of its own trade w...
Investigators worked on Thursday to determine why an Omani pilot stabbed the captain of a flight to Israel, causing the plane to plummet dangerously before others on board landed it in Saudi Arabia. Passengers on the FlyDubai plane – which was carrying 174 people, mostly Israelis, from the United Arab Emirates to Tel Aviv – have described how the bloodied Indian captain managed to open the cock...
Thousands of Hongkongers, domestic helpers and tourists have taken advantage of the extended lantern show in Victoria Park as the National Day “golden week” holiday began in mainland China. Many people arrived early at sunset on Thursday to avoid the huge crowds that had previously gathered for the International Lantern Spectacular, organised by the Hong Kong Tourism Board, which has attracted ...
Washington is “not too far away” from a production line for its F-47 sixth-generation fighter, a senior US Air Force official has said, as China presses ahead with flight-testing two different next-generation combat aircraft of its own. During a virtual event hosted by the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies on Monday, Brigadier General Timothy Helfrich, the service’s portfolio acquisition...
When the US Space Force announced on September 14 that “the US has on-orbit space control weapons capable of defending the Joint Force against hostile adversary action”, I thought of Isaac Newton’s well-known declaration that he could not calculate the madness of people. This is the first time a country has admitted to deploying weapons in space. Today, the orbits are congested and contested wi...
Anti-South Asian hate in the United States has spiked since Donald Trump returned to the Oval Office for a second term, with racist, dehumanising and xenophobic slurs and narratives proliferating across both mainstream and fringe social media platforms, a US-based report has revealed. The report, titled “The Rising Tide of Anti-South Asian Hate in the United States”, by the Washington-based Cen...
People have been trying to fend off mosquitoes for thousands of years – using methods ranging from physical barriers to chemical insecticides – but a Chinese start-up is now taking pre-orders on a hi-tech solution that uses lidar detection and lasers to zap them out of the air. Photon Matrix Lab, based in Changzhou, in eastern China’s Jiangsu province, said it expected initial monthly productio...
US President Donald Trump’s unilateral announcement of a “colossal” South Korean investment package has prompted Seoul to clarify that the deal is far from finalised, laying bare stark differences between the allies over the terms of their trade agreement, observers have said. On Wednesday, Trump announced that South Korea would invest in the construction of a natural gas-fired power plant in T...
Revellers packed promenades along Victoria Harbour to watch a 23-minute National Day fireworks display that illuminated Hong Kong’s skyline on Thursday night with cascading ribbons of light, red hearts and smiley faces. At the Wan Chai Ferry Pier, crowds clapped and cheered in awe, raising their arms to capture the spectacle on their phones. Fanny Yao, 34, travelled with her family from Fujian ...
Five days after Chinese President Xi Jinping left Washington, the US State Department marked the 77th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China with a greeting short enough to fit on a calling card. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s congratulatory statement landed on Wednesday, a few hours before dawn on National Day in Beijing. It made no mention of Xi’s visit, the trade understandings r...
While China’s iconic silk embroidery is world-renowned for its exquisite detail and painterly effects, an even more meticulous traditional technique surpasses it. Originating in Dongtai, located in eastern China’s Jiangsu province, during the Tang dynasty (618–907), hair embroidery relies on the incredibly fragile medium of human hair. With a rich history spanning over 1,000 years, a single int...
Hongkongers flocked across the border on National Day for grocery shopping, massages and trendy 60cm-long egg tarts, citing lower prices and a wider variety of leisure activities. Immigration Department figures showed that 238,112 residents had left Hong Kong by 9pm on Thursday, while the city had welcomed 269,567 mainland Chinese visitors. At the Lok Ma Chau spur line control point, crowds of ...
Indonesia’s President Prabowo Subianto replaced his foreign minister with a career diplomat on Thursday, in his second change to a top post in his cabinet in less than three weeks. Prabowo in a cabinet reshuffle named as foreign minister, the ministry’s former permanent representative to the United Nations in New York, with the outgoing Sugiono appointed Human Development minister. The appoin...
Indonesia’s President Prabowo Subianto is replacing Listyo Sigit Prabowo as the country’s police chief with the head of the National Narcotics Agency, Suyudi Ario Seto, amid reports of police transgressions under Listyo’s watch in recent years. Chairman of the House Commission on Legal Affairs Habiburokhman confirmed on Thursday morning that the house had received a presidential letter dismissi...
Japan is increasingly tapping into Ukraine’s war experience against Russia as a valuable source of intelligence on military technologies that could strengthen its defensive and offensive capabilities. A visit to Kyiv this week by senior ruling Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker and former Japanese defence minister Itsunori Onodera demonstrates this interest, analysts say, against the backdrop of...
The abrupt closure of a Hong Kong yoga chain has dealt losses to hundreds of members, with some customers claiming the company lured them into buying discount packages as recently as the past few days. A resident who identified herself as Chan told the South China Morning Post on Thursday that she received the closure notice from Hotstone Yoga’s WhatsApp number just an hour before her scheduled...
Hong Kong can attract more global biotech investments if the city builds up a new healthcare financial model, according to AstraZeneca, a Cambridge-based multinational pharmaceutical giant. While global drug makers have been doubling down on investments in mainland China in recent years, AstraZeneca brought over 60 clinical trials to the city and invested over HK$200 million (US$25.5 million) o...
Hongkongers have come out in droves to take advantage of widespread restaurant and transport perks on National Day, while visitors have said the offers are a happy surprise. Businesses rolled out bargains and freebies to celebrate the 77th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, which falls on October 1, ranging from restaurant discounts to free MTR rides. Residents were ...
More than 400 hikers visited one of Hong Kong’s best-known geological attractions on Thursday morning as some tourists chose outdoor activities on the first day of the National Day “golden week”. Some visitors also arrived at Po Pin Chau – where the city’s first countryside real-name reservation system was introduced in late August to manage crowd sizes – ahead of their afternoon booking slots ...
Just under a third of Singaporeans, or 31.4 per cent, believe that nuclear energy promises a clean power source with the greatest potential in the city state, representing the highest acceptance rate in Southeast Asia, a new study has found. The approval rate represented an 11.1 per cent increase from 2024, the Southeast Asia Climate Outlook 2026 Survey found, even as solar energy continued to ...
Russia’s new class of jet-powered drones rip across the night sky in Kyiv at hundreds of kilometres per hour, leaving Ukrainian air-defence units only moments to intercept them. It’s rarely enough time. With many of the drones getting through to the capital, defence manufacturers are scrambling to develop a new generation of interceptors to counter the deadly threat. They are building their own...
For Ajay Kumar Chutani, whose family has run a sari shop in the north Indian market town of Karnal since the 1970s, the months after the monsoon are always his busiest. During these cool weeks, he sells enough lengths of silk and embroidered cotton to tide him over the leaner seasons, as farming families prepare for weddings and the frenetic festival season. This year, after erratic rains throu...
A new embodied AI model known as Maxwell – developed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Artificial Intelligence for Industries – has shot to first place on the Meta-World benchmark for robot physical tasks. Maxwell scored 91.9 – the highest ever recorded on the simulation benchmark. Meta-World was set up by researchers from Stanford University, UC Berkeley and other institutions t...
Hong Kong’s health minister has warned that the city will need to “bear the consequences” of exaggerating concerns over the employment prospects of nurses, as such remarks could deter new blood from joining the profession. “I do not want recent comments, such as claims that ‘[nursing] graduation equals unemployment’, to dampen the interest of our younger generation in joining the nursing profes...
Chinese automotive groups have cause to celebrate their go-global strategy amid breakneck export growth in recent years, with deliveries in 2026 expected to beat expectations already buoyed by an international energy shock caused by conflict in the Middle East. Leading carmakers from BYD to Chery Automobile have doubled down on overseas expansion, with some evolving into powerful contenders in ...
The Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) has expressed concern over reports of high “no-show” rates among medical officers assigned to permanent postings in Sabah and Sarawak. The medical body urged the government to take action by reverting to a percentage-based allowance and introducing incentives to attract and retain healthcare workers in East Malaysia. MMA president Sivanaesan Letchumanan p...
An Indian pilot’s extraordinary bravery during an apparent mid-air hijack attempt has ignited a wave of national pride, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailing the pilot as a hero for saving 174 lives on a flydubai plane – adding a dramatic chapter to a career that began almost by chance. Captain Smit Machchhar was critically injured after taking the brunt of a knife attack on Wednesday, but ...
China’s ruling Communist Party is marking 90 years since the end of the Long March with exhibitions, tours, film and television productions as it tries to mobilise the nation to contribute to its vision for the future. Ahead of the October 22 anniversary, commemorative activities are under way to promote the history of the Long March and revive its “spirit”. The Long March was an epic retreat b...
Hong Kong police have arrested a foreign man at a bar in Yau Ma Tei on suspicion of possessing an imitation firearm. The 36-year-old Australian was arrested a second time on Wednesday night for criminal damage after he allegedly vandalised the detention facility while in police custody. Police were first alerted at 10.14pm on Wednesday when a passer-by reported a person behaving suspiciously ne...
Danish jewellery maker Pandora opened a US$150 million factory in Ho Chi Minh City on Thursday, its largest manufacturing facility and its first production site outside Thailand as it bids to diversify its manufacturing footprint and bolster supply-chain resilience. The Vietnam factory, Pandora’s fourth worldwide, will increase the company’s overall manufacturing capacity by around 50 per cent ...
Chief Executive John Lee hailed the city’s first Five-Year Plan at a celebration on Thursday marking the 77th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. Chief Executive John Lee at the Wan Chai Exhibition Centre on October 1, 2026. Photo: GovHK. Following a flag-raising ceremony at Golden Bauhinia Square, Lee told attendees at Wan Chai’s Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition C...
Two power outages hit Hong Kong’s Ho Man Tin, the first lasting more than four hours overnight into Thursday, disrupting hotel operations and about 1,000 households. CLP Power, which supplies electricity to Kowloon and the New Territories, said equipment near Waterloo Road in Kowloon first malfunctioned at 11.18pm on Wednesday, affecting about 1,000 customers. “After CLP Power’s engineering per...
Tennessee officials were unable to put Christa Pike to death on Wednesday for a 1995 murder after administering two doses of a lethal drug. A death penalty expert said it was an unprecedented failure, and Tennessee’s governor halted the remaining execution for the rest of the year. Pike, 50, was alive and loudly snoring after the attempted lethal injection and taken by ambulance from the prison...
Hong Kong’s inaugural five-year plan highlighted its DNA as an international city while emphasising the market economy, the chief executive has said. Speaking at a National Day reception on Thursday, Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu said the city needed a blueprint with strategic vision amid the rapidly changing geopolitical landscape and accelerated growth of artificial intelligence, as he hig...
A Chinese civilian research vessel has spent more than a week conducting operations in waters off the Philippines’ Batanes Islands, an area that has become a new geopolitical battleground as Beijing ramps up pressure against Manila-Tokyo delimitation efforts. Data recorded via the vessel’s Automatic Identification System (AIS) for September, tracked by MarineTraffic, revealed that the Jia Hai K...
Huawei Technologies is making rapid progress in rolling out a new breed of advanced chip based on its self-developed Tau Scaling Law, with the Chinese company set to adopt the processors across the newly released Mate 90 smartphone series. The roll-out marks another step forward in the Chinese tech giant’s push to overcome stringent US export curbs, which has seen Huawei rewire its smartphone b...
Ross Surace is preparing to raise the price of a coffee by 50 Australian cents and a panini by A$1 (US$0.70) when the country bans credit card surcharge fees starting on Thursday. The co-owner of Lennox Street Deli in Melbourne’s Moonee Ponds neighbourhood said bank-imposed card fees already cost his business more than A$1,000 (US$690) a week, even after the cafe recoups some of the expense by ...
Switzerland’s glaciers, which are disproportionately impacted by climate change, have lost nearly 20 per cent of their mass in five years, experts said on Thursday, with 2026 registering the second biggest melt on record. Swiss glaciers saw 5.5 per cent of their volume melt away this year, the Glacier Monitoring in Switzerland (GLAMOS) network found in a new study, published after a record hot ...
Researchers have identified a potential source of uranium in a long-explored mining district in the southern Philippines, as Manila moves to establish nuclear power and expand its critical minerals industry. The discovery, which could provide uranium for the nuclear fuel cycle if further exploration confirms its viability, was made in the Larap-Paracale mining district in Camarines Norte provin...
A growing number of young Chinese women are paying for romantic photo shoots with male models, seeking a brief taste of love through a novel form of emotional companionship. This trend has gained significant traction on mainland social media, with customers spending up to 8,000 yuan (US$1,200) for an hour-long session featuring couple-style poses, including hand-holding, embraces, staged kisses...
