It has been a turbulent year for the fraught US-China relationship. In a new series, we look back at the events of 2025, starting with the geopolitical struggle between the two rival superpowers. In a year marked by domestic crises and global turmoil, Washington and Beijing are set to end 2025 with a fragile truce after they stepped back from the brink of ...

The son of Hollywood actor and filmmaker Rob Reiner has been charged with the murder of his parents after they were found dead in their home over the weekend, the Los Angeles Police Department said on Monday. Nick Reiner, 32, who has struggled with substance abuse, was arrested on Sunday night and is being held in prison with no bail, the police department ...

Constructed around 256 BC, Dujiangyan is the worlds oldest irrigation system that is still in use today. Long before the invention of gunpowder, the system was using natural topographic and hydrological features to divert water from the Min River for irrigation and flood control without the use of dams. To this day, the ecological engineering feat irrigates ...

The US has agreed to provide unspecified security guarantees to Ukraine as part of a peace deal to end Russias nearly four-year war, and more talks are likely this weekend, US officials said on Monday following the latest discussions with President Volodymyr Zelensky in Berlin. The officials said talks with US President Donald Trumps envoys, Steve Witkoff ...

Russia has propelled the world into an age of uncertainty and the UK is now operating in a space between peace and war, Britains new MI6 spy chief said on Monday. Lets be in no doubt. Our world is more dangerous and contested now than it has been for decades, Blaise Metreweli, the first woman to lead the MI6 Secret Intelligence Service, warned. Conflict is ...

Economy Secretary Marcelo Ebrard on Monday defended Mexicos decision to impose new tariffs on imports from China and other Asian countries, describing the move as a necessary step to protect hundreds of thousands of domestic jobs rather than a provocation to any trading partner. The tariff package, approved by Congress last week, will take effect on January ...

Federal authorities on Monday announced the arrests of four alleged members of an extremist group who are suspected of planning coordinated bombing attacks on New Years Eve across Southern California. Attorney General Pam Bondi confirmed the FBI has foiled a bomb plot targeting multiple targets, including immigration agents and vehicles, in Los Angeles and ...

Former Hong Kong media boss Jimmy Lai Chee-ying has been found guilty on all three charges after a landmark national security trial, nearly five years after he was first denied bail following his arrest. The 78-year-old businessman turned opposition activist, who founded the now-defunct Apple Daily tabloid, was convicted on Monday of two charges of ...

Hong Kongs High Court found former media boss Jimmy Lai Chee-ying guilty on all charges in his national security trial on Monday, ruling that he had used his tabloid newspaper and international connections to push for foreign intervention and sanctions against the local and central governments. In open proceedings watched by a packed gallery of spectators ...

[The content of this article has been produced by our advertising partner.] Artificial intelligence (AI) is redefining the future-ready talent landscape, creating an urgent need for skills that blend technical fluency with critical and creative thinking. This shift calls for classrooms that move beyond traditional instruction toward skills-based learning, ...

A wave of drastic, irresponsible aid cuts this year has inflicted unnecessary pain on refugees, who are being vilified while their suffering is exploited by traffickers and politicians, the United Nations said on Monday. Outgoing UN refugees chief Filippo Grandi said this year had been a perfect storm of successive crises for the worlds forcibly displaced ...

Punk group Pussy Riot was declared an extremist organisation by a Russian court on Monday. The ruling, by Moscows Tverskoy District Court, effectively outlaws the group from operating in Russia and puts anyone linked with the group at risk of criminal prosecution. The feminist protest group first catapulted to notoriety in 2012, when its members performed a ...

Jimmy Lai Chee-yings guilty verdict in the former media boss landmark national security trial in Hong Kong has become a political flashpoint between China and its Western opponents, as they demand his immediate release while Beijing strongly rejects their interference. But while the High Courts ruling on Monday could send the businessman-turned-opposition ...

Former Hong Kong media boss Jimmy Lai Chee-yings rabid hatred of the Communist Party of China has led him down a thorny path, according to the judges who found him guilty on three counts of national security offences. The 855-page full judgment released on Monday started with the rags-to-riches success story of Lai, but was overshadowed by criticism, ...

Hong Kongs 50,000-seat Kai Tak Stadium has been ranked the worlds No 3 in ticket sales in 2025, despite its debut nine months ago, with its operator saying the ranking cements the citys status as Asian events capital. According to data compiled by Pollstar, a US-based trade publication for the concert and live music industry, Kai Tak Stadium also ranked No ...

Bangladeshs interim government said it would fly a leader of the 2024 uprising, a candidate in coming elections, for treatment in Singapore after an assassination attempt that left him critically wounded. Masked attackers shot student leader Sharif Osman Hadi on Friday as he left a mosque in the capital Dhaka, wounding him in the ear. The shooting took ...

Chinas latest long-endurance stealth unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), the CH-7, has completed its maiden flight, further expanding Beijings rapidly growing arsenal of autonomous weapons. State broadcaster CCTV said on Monday that Chinas new high-altitude, high-speed, long-endurance CH-7 had recently completed its first flight. The drone offered long ...

Floods triggered by torrential rains have killed at least 37 people in the Moroccan coastal city of Safi, the Interior Ministry said on Monday. Authorities said heavy rain and flash floods overnight inundated about 70 homes and businesses and swept away 10 vehicles. The Interior Ministry reported 14 people hospitalised. Climate change has made weather ...

A landmark ruling of Jimmy Lai Chee-yings marathon trial has revealed how the former media boss used his personal ties with foreign political figures to solicit intervention before and after the national security law took effect five years ago. In an 857-page judgment handed down on Monday, three High Court judges ruled that Lai intended to tap his vast ...

Catch up on some of SCMPs biggest China stories of the day. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. Tokyo spells out part position on Taiwan in bid to ease tension with Beijing The Japanese government has spelled out its position on Taiwan although only in part based on the 1972 document that normalised diplomatic ...

At a sprawling industrial complex in the Inner Mongolian city of Baotou, workers feed bag after bag of rare earth additives into roaring furnaces, turning ordinary steel into a high-performance alloy worth twice as much. This is the front line of a technological leap being powered by Chinas dominance in critical minerals and its strategic industrial policy. ...

Huawei Technologies latest Mate 80 series smartphones are powered by an upgraded in-house chip after its foundry partner made improvements to the 7-nanometre node process despite US export restrictions on advanced technology, according to a new report. The Kirin 9030, the processor behind Huaweis Mate 80 Pro Max, was manufactured by Chinas top foundry ...

From cash handouts to reimbursed procedures, local governments across China are throwing money at in vitro fertilisation and related fertility treatments in a bid to coax couples into having children. But some experts warn that the hi-tech push ignores the low-tech reality: raising a family is simply too expensive, and fertility subsidies cannot reverse ...

Indonesia will revoke more than 20 forestry permits across the country, the forestry minister said on Monday, after deadly floods and landslides devastated parts of the northwestern island of Sumatra. Environmentalists and experts have pointed to the role forest loss played in flash flooding and landslides that this month killed more than 1,000 people and ...

The global air travel market has bounced back to pre-pandemic levels, with the industry upbeat about 2026 and the Asia-Pacific region expected to lead worldwide traffic growth, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said on Monday. Load factors in Asia-Pacific were projected to hit an all-time regional high of 84.4 per cent next year, according ...