A group of tourists who pulled out the hair of a tiger at a zoo in China, thinking it would ward off evil spirits, have sparked outrage online. On June 8, a viral video showed several visitors at a zoo in Liaoning province, northeastern China, pulling hair from the big cats belly and tail through a metal fence. The incident took place in a special zone ...

Goku Technologies, a Shanghai-based quantitative trading fund, is expanding its ambitions beyond finance, looking to artificial intelligence (AI) as a means to overcome challenges faced by humanity, according to CEO Wang Xiao. In an interview with the Post, Wang said the firms AI initiatives were driven by a vision that transcended short-term commercial ...

Newly elected South Korean President Lee Jae-myung has signalled a desire to ease tensions with North Korea, halting propaganda loudspeaker broadcasts along the border, and he has turned to China for support. In a 30-minute phone call with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday, six days after taking office, Lee urged China to play a constructive role in ...

Hong Kong travel agencies have launched cheaper outbound group tours this summer, driven by increased flight capacity amid a shift in tourists preference away from Japan due to increased earthquake concerns. Several tour operators have reported that prices for their summer group tours are either lower or have remained stable, adding that popular ...

The spotlight is back on the so-called Squad minilateral grouping of nations aimed at countering Chinas influence in the Asia-Pacific, after US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth hailed the bloc as the most strategically positioned to manifest deterrence. Observers, however, are mixed on such a stance, pointing to Washingtons transactional approach and ...

This live blog has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMPs journalism by subscribing. Get faster notifications on the latest updates by downloading our app. For the first time in more than three decades, the United States is holding a major military parade in the nations capital on Saturday fulfilling ...

Hong Kong authorities should appeal against the light penalties imposed on two property owners for erecting illegal structures at their luxury Redhill Peninsula homes, experts have said, warning that the fines are not hefty enough to deter offenders. The specialists weighed in after the two property owners were told to pay more than HK$110,000 (US$14,015) ...

He Jiankui looked a little tired and worn as he contemplated his future. With no home and no institution to host his research, the 41-year-old biophysicist and self-proclaimed pioneer of gene editing was weighing up what to do next while staying at an upmarket hotel in Beijing late last month. He, who caused a global uproar in 2018 with his announcement of ...

Hong Kongs coordination office for the National Games is studying whether to adopt a real-name system for tickets at prices ranging from a few dozen Hong Kong dollars up to about HK$500 (US$64). Yeung Tak-keung, head of the National Games Coordination Office, said on Saturday that tickets would be sold from August on a unified platform for events to be held ...

Canadas new government will invest more in mining at a time when the countrys economy and manufacturing sector are facing challenges related to Chinas curbs on rare earth exports, Bill Morneau, former Canadian finance minister, told the Post. One of the challenges for Canada is that we will need to increase our own mining, Morneau, who was in office between ...

China has become the second country in the world to advance invasive brain-computer interface technology to a human trial, state broadcaster CCTV reported on Saturday. The trial is on a 37-year-old man who had to have all of his limbs amputated after a high-voltage electrical accident more than a decade ago. In March, researchers implanted a device roughly ...

For two decades, it was popular for many Chinese families to send their children on study tours overseas most often to the United States during the summer. The programmes generally involved summer camps jointly organised by American universities and language institutions, as well as visits to colleges, museums and tourist attractions. In 2019, before the ...

More than a decade after Club Bboss was closed, a new nightspot has launched on the same site where the once-glamorous establishment operated for 28 years, with the goal of attracting tourists and young revellers eager for a glimpse of Hong Kongs 1980s clubbing heyday. The new spot known as Big Boss Generation (BBG) opened for business on Saturday in the ...

During thorny human rights talks with China on Friday, the European Union voiced concerns about what it called a deterioration of fundamental freedoms in the country. The EU cited government interference in the succession plan for the Dalai Lama, an ongoing crackdown in Hong Kong, and jailed Uygur and Tibetan activists as examples in its statement on the ...

A group of school pupils in China have moved internet users by supporting an electric bicycle and picking up lunchboxes left scattered on the road after a food delivery worker crashed while working. The touching scene was filmed by a camera worn on the chest of delivery man Dong Ziheng while he was riding the electric bike in an alley in Xingtai, northern ...

Chinese President Xi Jinping urged the ruling Communist Party to learn from the legacy of early party figure Chen Yun a pioneer of Chinas economic planning in remarks on Friday to commemorate the 120th anniversary of the late statesmans birth. Xi called on the party to have unwavering confidence when facing chaotic and complex turbulence, and to ...

Hong Kong corporate governance activist David Webb has been appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire for his nearly three decades of contributions to the city, with the Briton saying he felt touched by the many tributes during his final battle. The former investment banker posted on his Webb-site platform on Saturday that he was delighted the ...

Hong Kongs Urban Renewal Authority will examine whether legislation should be introduced requiring landlords to create periodic maintenance plans for their blocks and ensure sufficient funds for the work. The study would also cover the possibility of creating a new statutory body to supervise building restoration and maintenance, according to the authoritys ...

Hong Kong pop diva and actress Karen Mok Man-wai bought a luxury unit in the Mid-Levels district for HK$85 million (US$10.8 million), as the citys celebrities, tycoons and other wealthy investors continue to pick up plum properties that are selling for a song. According to the Land Registry, a 2,153 sq ft three-bedroom flat at Dynasty Court on Old Peak Road ...

Hong Kong police have arrested a 15-year-old teenager after her father reported she was smoking an e-cigarette containing space oil at home with her classmate, who is wanted by the force, the Post has learned. A source said on Saturday the classmate, who was also 15, brought an e-cigarette, which she claimed contained the anaesthetic etomidate, to the girls ...

Hong Kong restaurants may start testing alternatives to certain single-use plastics for items such as food containers in the next two months, the environment minister has said, as the government gauges the business sectors feedback before implementing a ban. Secretary for Environment and Ecology Tse Chin-wan on Saturday gave the update on the second phase ...

As India embarks on its path to self-sufficiency in modern weapons production to shore up its defence clout, its military inventory may have already surpassed arch rival Pakistans, but still lags behind China. The drive is marked by New Delhis latest bid to acquire the Rs 30,000 crore (US$3.6 billion) Indigenous Quick Reaction Surface-to-Air Missile (QRSAM) ...

Fashionable, frivolous or downright foolish? Which of these words best describes the trend in markets toward derivatives, cryptocurrencies, digital assets and tokens as supplements or alternatives to traditional finance? Where is this great paper chase leading? For one thing, it is likely to be causing a flight into gold. But unless gold is remonetised and ...

A top natural scenic spot in central China has come under the spotlight for hiring people to pose as savages for tourists, and paying them 500 yuan (US$70) a day to do so. Since Shennongjia National Nature Reserve in Hubei province began recruiting on June 7 about 10,000 people have applied for the job, the scenic zones management company told the Beijing ...

A major space science cooperation project between China and Brazil is entering its last pre-commission stages, with the departure of what will be an Olympic pool-sized telescope from the northern Chinese port of Tianjin on Monday. The main structure of the radio telescope is expected to arrive in the hilly hinterland of Paraba state on the Brazilian east ...