A Vietnamese national deported to South Sudan by Donald Trumps administration under its controversial third-country deportation programme was repatriated to Vietnam on Friday after spending more than a year in detention. South Sudans Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced the repatriation of 44-year-old Tuan Phan at a press briefing on Friday. We are ...

Hong Kongs pet funeral service providers have urged the government to allow animal ashes to be placed alongside those of their owners, citing a growing demand for such arrangements amid a rapidly expanding afterlife market for furry friends. Petmento, part of local group Sage laGreen Funeral Services, said it had been asking the government to relax ...

The Chinese embassy in the UK has called on the British government to stop its acts of slander and suppression after a court jailed two men linked to the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in London for up to 10 years for spying on activists. Bill Yuen Chung-biu, an office manager at the office, was sentenced on Thursday to eight years behind bars for ...

Arsenio Butil Jnr fell to his knees and began to pray when last weeks deadly 7.8-magnitude earthquake began shaking his home on the coast of the southern Philippines. When he opened his eyes, he saw a once-familiar shoreline changing in real time, with swathes of previously submerged coral suddenly pushing above the waterline. The June 8 quake, driven by a ...

A social media post by London Mayor Sadiq Khan calling his city and Singapore global powerhouses has ignited scrutiny of both places, with critics arguing that they are worlds apart. Khan, who was in Singapore this week, posted a picture of himself standing in front of the Marina Bay skyline on Sunday with the caption: This is what it looks like when two ...

A Chinese man whose dating of a woman consisted of a five-minute video call before marrying her within three days regretted what he had done just nine days later. The 32-year-old man, surnamed Gu, who is from the eastern province of Zhejiang and is a single child, blamed parental pressure for his rash decision. He spent 200 yuan (US$30) to register with a ...

A defence fair in Beijing has shown portable laser weapons that can be carried by a single soldier to shoot down drones, realising a vision that was once the domain of science fiction. The Lijian series, meaning sharp swords, developed by Chinese defence supplier Harbin Xinguang Optic-Electronics Technology, was displayed at the Defence Information ...

Australia has supplied the Philippine coastguard with a new batch of aerial and underwater drones that could significantly enhance Manilas capability to monitor activities in the disputed South China Sea. The systems would help the coastguard gather evidence and enhance deterrence across the contested waters, including areas within the Philippines exclusive ...

A fire that broke out at a primary school in Tokyo on Friday, injuring eight pupils and two teachers before being extinguished, authorities said. The fire was reported around 11am, according to the local fire department. It started in a room next to the music room on the top floor of Takinogawa Dai-san Elementary School in the Kita area of the Japanese ...

Lebanon said 18 people were killed on Friday in Israeli air strikes in the south, while Israels military reported its first soldiers killed there since the sealing of a US-Iran deal to halt the Middle East war, including in Lebanon. Israel had said it was striking Hezbollah targets overnight and into the morning, while the Iran-backed militant group said it ...

As Chinas relationship with African countries has deepened, the countrys influence is spreading into more areas. In the first of a series of articles, Jevans Nyabiage explores how a drive to expand Chinese language education in Africa is being stymied by a shortage of teachers. For years, Chinese language training in Africa has been provided mainly through ...

A mainland Chinese research vessel has conducted a marine environmental survey in waters east of Taiwan, the latest sign of Beijings bid to reinforce its jurisdictional claims in the area following Japanese-Philippine maritime boundary talks. The survey, which ran from Tuesday to Thursday, was conducted by the Ministry of Natural Resources East China Sea ...

Hong Kong actor and singer Eason Chan bought a HK$182.53 million (US$23.29 million) property in the citys Southern district, according to official records, joining a list of the rich and famous who have recently snapped up luxury homes. Chan, whose full name on the official record was Chan Yick Shun Eason, purchased the home in Shouson Hill in a deal ...

The Group of Seven nations this week agreed to pare their reliance on China for vital raw materials, while European leaders struggled to reach a consensus on how to respond to a flood of low-cost Chinese imports. No single country should supply more than 60 per cent of the G7 nations rare earths and permanent magnets by 2030, their leaders agreed during a ...

This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMPs journalism by subscribing. Hong Kong once again enjoyed a few sunny spells on Tuen Ng Festival, just a day after the city issued its top-tier black rainstorm warning twice only hours apart, as some hiking experts warned outdoor enthusiasts to be ...

Filipinos are losing faith in the news faster than audiences elsewhere, as analysts attribute the decline in confidence to years of attacks on the Philippine media industry and the growing reach of influence operations on social media. Only 28 per cent of Filipinos said they trusted news most of the time, down from 38 per cent in 2025, according to the ...

The sportswear brand Lululemon has apologised and withdrawn its latest marketing video in China because of a controversy surrounding a big Japanese drum and the Great Wall. The video was designed to promote a yoga-themed event the brand held on the world-renowned historic site in suburban Beijing on May 30. The activity, which was supposed to salute Chinese ...

Hong Kongs welfare minister has defended the governments earlier decision to drop the poverty line as an indicator for allocating assistance, saying it was a limited statistical concept that failed to identify needy groups beyond those with low income, such as carers. A day after the government unveiled a new 21-indicator framework to identify vulnerable ...

Visitors to the Acropolis can now see the Parthenons western side looking whole for the first time in about 220 years. Officially unveiled Thursday, restorers have slotted two new marble blocks into long-empty gaps high on the temples western end the view visitors see when they first enter the ancient monument in Athens. The 25-century-old monument ...

We have selected seven stories from this weeks news across Hong Kong, mainland China, the wider Asia region and beyond 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. Iran and US sign peace deal, Strait of Hormuz to immediately reopen: Pakistan Iran and the US ...

European Union national leaders have asked Brussels to come up with new trade instruments to deal with the economic threat posed by China, following a rare summit debate about Beijing late on Thursday night. After a two-hour discussion, the EUs executive branch was told to engage with China to try to fix the persistent trade problems, according to a ...

Drumming, powerful paddling and the cheers of thousands of competitors and revellers electrified Hong Kongs shores on Friday as dragon boat races went ahead during the Tuen Ng Festival despite unsettled weather. Just a day after a black rainstorm warning was issued twice, competitors and spectators were in high spirits. Beaches and waterfront areas across ...

Ghost nets and plastic pollution plague Indonesias Anambas Islands, harming marine life and exposing the gap between regional pledges and enforcement. This environmental crisis is further worsened by rapidly surging growth-driven consumption, campaigners say. Devina Mariskova, head of Yayasan Anambas, said the nets are often thrown from vessels off the ...

Malaysian police arrested 58 people and seized more than half a million ringgit (US124,000) in illicit proceeds in a World Cup gambling sweep as authorities in Southeast Asia crack down on illegal football betting during the tournament. Malaysia, where unlicensed betting is a criminal offence, has been bracing for a rise in illegal sports wagers, with the ...

Foreign trawlers slip into waters off the Malaysian state of Terengganu under cover of darkness, local fishermen say, working near Pulau Redang and Pulau Bidong before leaving by dawn to avoid detection. The incursions have become a recurring problem for fishermen along the eastern coast of Peninsular Malaysia, where the South China Sea separates Malaysia ...