This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMPs journalism by subscribing. A judge-led panel investigating Hong Kongs deadliest fire in decades has resumed its public inquiry after a six-week break to hear expert evidence on the cause of the blaze that killed 168 people last year. The ...

The market capitalisation of Hong Kong-listed artificial intelligence pioneer Zhipu AI surpassed HK$1 trillion (US$128 billion) on Monday, fuelled by investor optimism as the company goes head-to-head with its American rivals. Shares of Zhipu, which trades under the name Knowledge Atlas Technology, skyrocketed as much as 42 per cent on Monday morning to a ...

The US-Iran talks in Switzerland have led to the lifting of the blockade and the release of frozen assets for Iran, Tehran said, but the real test remains deconfliction in Lebanon. Tireless Pakistani and Qatari mediation has delivered major progress to end Lebanon War, Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi said in a social media post on Monday. Oil ...

Last week, Xia Baolong, Beijings point man on Hong Kong and Macau affairs, made a two-day trip to the city to review the Hong Kong governments progress across many areas. Everything seems to have been orchestrated with precision. Ahead of Xias arrival, the government launched its two-month public consultation on the citys first five-year plan. The day after ...

Australian police seized a record 2.7 tonnes of cocaine hidden in plastic tubs buried underground on the outskirts of Sydney, detectives said on Monday. It was the largest cocaine haul in Australian history, a joint organised crime investigation force said in a statement. Police allege a Sydney-based organised crime group arranged for a foreign vessel to ...

A Chinese woman developed rashes and itching after applying extreme sun protection measures, including wearing a sunscreen product that covers her whole face. The woman from eastern Chinas Jiangsu province was recently reported to have developed red and itchy skin while travelling. She applied sun cream before wearing a hat and mask that covers her whole ...

As Hong Kong marks the 29th anniversary of its return to Chinese rule on July 1, the South China Morning Post talks to the citys senior officials about the administrations achievements so far and what may lie ahead. More mainland Chinese investors could gain access to a broader range of products in Hong Kong under a review by authorities, the finance chief ...

Canada is deploying two frigates and a submarine to the worlds largest multinational naval exercise this week, in what analysts describe as both a display of Indo-Pacific seriousness and a pointed rebuttal to Washingtons freeriding charge. HMCS Ottawa, HMCS Regina and submarine HMCS Corner Brook are slated to join the biennial Rim of the Pacific Exercise ...

As Hong Kong marks the 29th anniversary of its return to Chinese rule on July 1, the South China Morning Post talks to the citys senior officials about the administrations achievements so far and what may lie ahead. Authorities are expected to roll out measures to strengthen Hong Kongs role as an offshore Chinese yuan hub next month, the finance chief has ...

Nie Huihua, a professor of economics at Renmin University, discusses how an effective understanding of Chinas development requires a shift from Western-centric frameworks to an integrated perspective that recognises how formal institutions, informal grass-roots mechanisms and cultural collectivism couple to create a self-consistent and adaptive governance ...

China-Asean relations are usually described in two ways. One emphasises danger: the South China Sea, US-China rivalry, military pressure and risk of Southeast Asia being pulled into Chinas orbit. The other emphasises opportunity: trade, infrastructure, investment, supply chains and shared growth. Both are true. Neither is enough. I recently joined a study ...

US claims that an individual with ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) tried to join the Iran teams flight to the United States on Saturday are fabricated and entirely baseless allegations, the countrys football federation (FFIRI) has said. Markwayne Mullin, the US Homeland Security Secretary, told Fox News on Sunday that someone under the ...

Ramiro Valdes, one of Fidel Castros earliest collaborators who was lauded at home as a hero of the Cuban revolution, has died at the age of 94, President Miguel Diaz-Canel said on social media on Sunday. The president did not provide a cause of death. A top government official for decades after Castros rebels came to power in 1959, Valdes held the honorary ...

Thousands of Czechs rallied in the capital on Sunday to condemn a plan by the government led by populist Prime Minister Andrej Babis to overhaul funding for public broadcasters that is considered dangerous for their independence. The protesters gathered in front of the Czech public television offices in Prague, Czech Republic, to voice their support for the ...

Irans chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf warned the United States on Sunday against making threats at the Islamic republic, vowing that our armed forces are ready to respond. Dont they think that if their threats had any effect, they would not have reached todays state of desperation? We do not take American threats into account, said Parliament ...

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmeds Prosperity Party (PP) won a landslide victory in legislative polls held June 1, the election commission said on Sunday, giving it almost 90 per cent of the seats. Abiy has led Ethiopia since 2018, and is increasingly criticised for growing authoritarianism, in contrast to his early years when he won the Nobel Peace Prize ...

A severe heatwave gripped much of Europe on Sunday, with temperatures nearing 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit), prompting nationwide warnings, transport disruption and signs of strain on wildlife and at tourist hotspots. The heat surge on June 21, the summer solstice in the northern hemisphere and typically the start of the three hottest months ...

Telling a Harbin Z-20 and a Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk apart can be challenging the two helicopters look almost identical and their dimensions are very similar. The striking resemblance underscores Chinas decades-long effort to close the technological gap with the United States and Russia in the important aviation sector of helicopters. Yet, there are ...

Hong Kong police have arrested an elderly man and his son for allegedly assaulting public officers after they threw a parking ticket at two traffic wardens in Tuen Mun, the South China Morning Post has learned. A source said on Sunday that police arrested the 61-year-old man and his 31-year-old son outside cooked food stalls in Sam Shing at 11.40 am. ...

Bolivia began showing signs of returning to normalcy on Sunday, a day after President Rodrigo Paz declared a state of emergency to resolve a 50-day social crisis that had blocked the nations main highways. Early on Sunday, the Legislative Assembly overwhelmingly approved Pazs decree, which aimed to restore transit and supply essential goods after protesting ...

Chen Weiqiang, a tenured professor of mechanical and biomedical engineering at New York University (NYU), has joined the school of biomedical engineering at Nanjing University as a distinguished professor. Professor Chen has long been deeply engaged in top overseas universities, achieving remarkable results in cutting-edge fields such as cellular ...

A 54-year-old Hong Kong man died after reportedly losing control of an electric bike and falling from an unloading platform in Yuen Long early on Sunday, with the incident only discovered more than five hours later. Police received a report at 9.21am that a man was lying unconscious on Tong Yan San Tsuen Road. Officers arrived at the scene and found the ...

Taiwans main opposition Kuomintang (KMT) has hit out at the islands government for launching investigations into five agricultural groups over participation in a mainland forum. Taiwans Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) referred the five groups to the Ministry of Agriculture for investigation after they were accused of signing cooperation deals at the Straits ...

Al Jazeera on Sunday rejected Israeli accusations that one of its journalists, killed in Gaza a day earlier, was a Hamas operative, as family and colleagues mourned the cameraman in the Palestinian territory. The Qatar-based network said in a statement that it condemns the Israeli occupation armys baseless accusations, which seek to justify its crimes ...