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News - South China Morning Post

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Mentally ill woman spends 2 days in Hong Kong flat...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/05/18

A woman with a chronic illness has been found dead in a Hong Kong public housing flat where her uninjured adult daughter, who suffers from mental illness, had been staying with her for at least two days. Police received a report at about 1.50pm on Monday from a 42-year-old woman who said she could not reach her 66-year-old mother and 34-year-old younger sister, who lived in Fu Ying House, Fu Cheong Estate, Sham Shui Po. The report was made after she visited the flat but received no response

US, Nigeria carry out more strikes on IS, at least 20...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/05/18

The US ⁠Africa Command (Africom) said on Monday ⁠it had carried out additional air strikes against Islamic State targets in northeastern Nigeria on Sunday, in coordination with the Nigerian government, as joint operations against militant groups intensify. Nigeria’s ‌Defence Headquarters said the latest strikes were conducted in the Metele area of Borno State, following intelligence that fighters had converged there. Multiple air strikes killed more than 20 Islamic State West Africa Province...

CXMT’s blowout earnings outlook fuels rally in...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/05/18

Chinese memory chip stocks rallied on Monday after ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) disclosed sharply stronger first-quarter results and an upbeat first-half outlook in its updated listing prospectus, as the global memory shortage boosts China’s semiconductor supply chain. GigaDevice, a chip designer and CXMT shareholder, rose 6.57 per cent on Monday to close at 400 yuan per share, taking its gain over the past month to more than 40 per cent. In Hong Kong, GigaDevice shares rose 8 per cent

China arrests 16 in drone hacking cases, vowing...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/05/18

Chinese police have announced the arrests of 16 people suspected of hacking drone systems and vowed a nationwide crackdown on illegal drone use. China’s Ministry of Public Security released details on 10 cases on Monday to warn the public about illegal drone use. The suspects were arrested between January and March. It came as part of a nationwide “Clean Skies” campaign launched by the ministry in December to combat the illegal use of drones. The ministry said that in these cases, suspects

Kenya protesters block roads in public transport...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/05/18

Protests erupted in Kenya’s capital Nairobi on Monday as a nationwide public transport strike kicked off in protest at rising fuel prices. Commuters were stranded in various suburbs and the city centre remained deserted as motorists with private vehicles opted to stay home as protesters burned tyres on major roads. The Kenya Association of Private Schools had advised its members to assess and determine the safety of learners going to school, and most schools opted for online learning. Kenya’s...

Evergrande liquidators seek US$8.4 billion from PwC...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/05/18

The liquidators of China Evergrande Group are seeking 57 billion yuan (US$8.4 billion) from three PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) entities in one of the largest corporate lawsuit claims in Hong Kong, arguing the firm’s global coordinating arm assumed responsibility for audits linked to the collapsed developer’s accounting scandal. Evergrande’s liquidators, Tiffany Wong and Eddie Middleton of Alvarez & Marsal, were pursuing the claim against PwC International, PwC Hong Kong and PwC China jointly,...

4 plead guilty to rioting during 2019 PolyU siege in...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/05/18

Four young men have pleaded guilty to rioting during the police siege of a university at the height of the 2019 anti-government protests in Hong Kong, with a defence lawyer saying in mitigation that one of them later developed post-traumatic stress disorder after being tortured in “KK Park” – a notorious scam compound in Myanmar. The District Court on Monday heard guilty pleas from Cheung Chung-yiu, Cheung Chin-ming, Chan Chun-hei and Chan Yuen-ming, who were aged between 16 and 27 at the

Modi’s grand tour: India links up with UAE, Europe to...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/05/18

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s whirlwind visit to the United Arab Emirates on Friday – the opening leg of a five-nation tour that will also take him through the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway and Italy – arrived at what analysts characterise as a moment of acute strategic opportunity. With oil prices spiralling amid the fallout from the US-Israel war on Iran and the Middle East’s diplomatic landscape shifting beneath everyone’s feet, Modi brought with him not just diplomatic pleasantries

Chinese man, 78, lives in supermarket despite owning...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/05/18

A flat-owning Shanghai grandpa who lives in a supermarket to avoid loneliness gave his home to a nanny he met at the shop in the face of his son’s disapproval. Qiangming, 78, has been living in the staff entrance of the supermarket in Shanghai for nearly a decade. He sleeps on a mat, rests in the supermarket’s dining area during the day and carries 50,000 yuan (US$7,400) cash in his pocket, plus a DV recorder. He describes himself as a drifter, not a beggar. The 20sqm flat he owns nearby is...

Baidu says AI now primary business driver despite 2%...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/05/18

Baidu has reached a historic milestone as its artificial intelligence businesses surged to become its primary revenue driver in the first quarter, despite a 2 per cent dip in overall income, the Chinese tech giant said on Monday. The company’s AI-related businesses, including AI cloud, AI applications and AI marketing services, saw revenue grow to 13.6 billion yuan (US$2 billion), a 49 per cent year-on-year increase. “AI-powered business exceeded half of Baidu’s general revenue for the first...

LGBTQ carnival axed for second year in a row after...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/05/18

Hong Kong’s largest annual LGBTQ carnival has been cancelled for the second year in a row after failing to secure a venue and the relevant event licences, according to its organiser. Pink Dot HK announced on Monday that it was forced to cancel this year’s festival after property manager Link Reit pulled its offer to rent two venues to the advocacy group. The event was scheduled to be held at Stanley Plaza and Murray House on June 14, after Link Reit earlier pledged its support and

Why Iran’s choice of Beijing envoy signals an...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/05/18

Iran has signalled “unprecedented” commitment to its ties with China by appointing a veteran of peace talks with the US as its emissary to Beijing, a move experts said also underscored China’s rise as a “third space” where Middle East powers could quietly negotiate. Tehran has made Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, speaker of the country’s parliament, its special envoy to oversee the country’s relationship with China, according to a Sunday report by Iran’s semi-official Tasnim News Agency. His...

Hong Kong earmarks additional HK$5 billion for...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/05/18

Hong Kong authorities have allocated HK$5 billion (US$638 million) in funding for efforts to safeguard national security, bringing the total amount earmarked for this purpose to HK$18 billion over the past five years, an official document has revealed. The South China Morning Post’s check on the government’s general revenue expenditure accounts for the financial year ending in March 2026, showed a non-recurrent expenditure of HK$5 billion earmarked for a “special fund to meet the expenditure

Why Beijing is outraged over Taiwan’s Lai honouring...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/05/18

Beijing has strongly criticised Taiwanese leader William Lai Ching-te for paying tribute to a figure from Japan’s colonial era in Taiwan. In a commentary published on Sunday, Communist Party mouthpiece the People’s Daily accused Lai, from Taiwan’s independence-leaning ruling Democratic Progressive Party, of “forgetting his ancestors” and reaching a new low in “ingratiating himself with Japan”. The denunciation followed Lai’s attendance at a memorial service on May 8 in the city of Tainan,...

South Korea stifling Samsung workers’ US$400,000...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/05/18

In South Korea, the clock is ticking on what threatens to become the most consequential labour dispute in recent history – and Seoul is running out of patience. With 50,000 workers at Samsung Electronics poised to walk off the job on Thursday in an 18-day strike, the government of President Lee Jae Myung finds itself cornered by a crisis it cannot afford to mishandle, with up to 100 trillion won (US$66.7 billion) in projected economic damage on the line, plus the potential disruption to

Xi-Trump summit outcomes

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/05/18

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Silent spread of rare and deadly Ebola strain exposes...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/05/18

A rare Ebola outbreak that may have circulated undetected in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo for several weeks has exposed the difficulty of detecting deadly viruses in regions where malaria, typhoid and other fever-causing illnesses were common and health systems were stretched thin. About 350 suspected cases and 91 deaths have been reported in northeastern DR Congo, the country’s health minister Roger Kamba said on Sunday, while neighbouring Uganda has confirmed two infections,...

As Malaysia’s election ‘war drums’ beat, is Anwar’s...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/05/18

Chances of Malaysia’s Anwar Ibrahim winning a fresh mandate look increasingly fraught, according to experts, as the unravelling of his coalition government gathered pace over the weekend amid threats of all-out war between allies and the defection of former stalwarts to a rival party. Anwar has presided over a period of relative political stability since his appointment as prime minister in November 2022 by then king Sultan Abdullah Ahmad Shah, on condition that he included both allies and...

Forget cellular data: China’s telecoms giants are...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/05/18

For years, mobile carriers have billed users by the gigabyte. Now, China’s telecoms giants are seeking to monetise the artificial intelligence boom by introducing a new unit of measurement to monthly bills: the AI token. On Sunday, China Telecom unveiled nationwide, token-based pricing packages aimed at a range of customers – from casual users to developers and businesses – according to information listed on the company’s app. Consumer packages, tailored for everyday tasks, start at 9.9 yuan...

Hong Kong’s CUHK aims to bring AI to life with...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/05/18

The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) has opened the city’s first full-stack interactive robotics lab, partnering with 24 tech firms, mostly from mainland China, to train talent and develop humanoid robots over the next five years. The Hong Kong Embodied AI Lab, established by CUHK’s Hong Kong Centre for Logistics Robotics under the government’s InnoHK initiative, has already introduced upgraded versions of the city’s first locally developed artificial intelligence (AI)-powered robotic

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