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News - South China Morning Post

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Hong Kong businessman Jason Poon, 5 others arrested...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/03/19

Hong Kong businessman Jason Poon Chuk-hung, his wife and four others have been arrested on suspicion of defrauding an enterprise financing scheme out of HK$6 million (US$765,500) during the Covid-19 pandemic, the South China Morning Post has learned. A source confirmed to the SCMP on Thursday that construction businessman Poon, 56, and his 54-year-old wife were among six people arrested the day before for conspiracy to defraud. Police intelligence suggested a surgical mask manufacturer had...

Philippine police thwart Roblox-linked school...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/03/19

Philippine police have foiled a school shooting and rescued seven students radicalised by “foreigners” online to stage an attack in Laguna province near Manila, amid growing calls for stronger parental safeguards against digital threats. Officers rounded up the suspects – five boys and two girls, aged 12 to 17 – on February 2 after receiving a tip-off about an alleged plot they intended to carry out a fortnight later, the Philippine Star reported. The teens, who were turned over to social...

Why tiny atomic clocks may hold the key to China...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/03/19

Timing is everything in modern warfare, where even a nanosecond’s delay can make the difference between hitting or missing a target in a coordinated drone or missile attack. China may now have taken a major step forward in this field with the mass production of the world’s smallest atomic clock – something the researchers behind it say could transform drone warfare, underwater navigation and battlefield communication. Developed by a research team led by Professor Chen Jiehua from Wuhan...

AI version of late actor Val Kilmer to co-star in new...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/03/19

Actor Val Kilmer will posthumously ⁠appear in what ⁠First Line Films calls a ⁠first-ever performance enabled by generative artificial intelligence in the upcoming film As Deep as the Grave, the production company announced on Wednesday. Kilmer, best known for roles in Top Gun, The Doors and Batman Forever, had originally been cast ‌as Father Fintan - a Catholic priest and Native American spiritualist - but was unable to work on set due to complications stemming from throat cancer. He was 65

FBI ‘investigating’ top US security official who...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/03/19

The FBI is investigating whether Joseph Kent, who resigned his position as a top counterterrorism official this week in protest of the Iran war, improperly shared classified information, a person familiar with the matter said Wednesday.The investigation precedes Kent’s resignation Tuesday from his role as director of the US government’s National Counterterrorism Centre, said the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing FBI inquiry. But it comes as the Justice

Japan gets tough against teachers’ sexual misconduct,...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/03/19

Japan’s education ministry has launched a campaign to fight sexual misconduct involving teachers and revised regulations against voyeurism in the wake of seven male educators arrested last year for taking inappropriate videos of students and sharing them on social media. A law aimed at preventing sexual misconduct in the nation’s schools went into effect in 2022, but revisions were introduced as a result of the offences. The ministry intends to update teachers on the rules, including

China’s global tech push

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/03/19

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‘Unprecedented in spread’: UK races to contain deadly...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/03/19

Britain will ⁠roll out meningitis vaccines to students at a university in southeast England after an “unprecedented” outbreak of the disease killed two people while the number of new cases jumped to 20. The UK Health Security Agency said all those affected were young people. A 21-year-old student at the University of Kent and a teenage student at a school in ‌the town of Faversham have died. Six of the nine confirmed cases are group B (MenB), the agency added. It was also aware of a baby with

World’s ‘happiest’ places revealed as social media...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/03/19

Heavy social media use contributes to a stark decline in well-being among young people, with the effects particularly worrying in teenage girls in English-speaking countries and western Europe according to the World Happiness Report 2026 published on Thursday. The annual report, published by the Wellbeing Research Centre at the University of Oxford, also found that Finland is the happiest land in the world for the ninth year in a row, with other Nordic countries such as Iceland, Denmark,

How China opened the door to creating a direct rival...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/03/19

China’s recent changes to the rules governing its global payment system could pave the way for turning it into a genuine alternative to Western networks, according to a new report. Beijing now appears to be moving towards building the Cross-border Interbank Payment System (CIPS) into a global platform compliant with multicurrency settlements and other foreign payment channels, said the study led by Ju Jiandong, a chair professor at Tsinghua University’s PBC School of Finance. Beijing recently...

Middle East banks eye Hong Kong as ‘safe haven’ amid...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/03/19

Middle East banks and wealthy investors are poised to increase their investments in Hong Kong amid geopolitical tensions to diversify their risk and capture growing opportunities in Asia, according to the head of InvestHK, the government agency tasked with attracting foreign investment. A couple of Middle East banks were in the process of setting up offices in Hong Kong with the help of InvestHK, said Alpha Lau Hai-suen, its director general. These additions would strengthen the city’s ties

Why North Korea’s Kim expects the US to come ‘cap in...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/03/19

North Korea fired a volley of ballistic missiles on Saturday, just as US officials were in Seoul exploring ways to reopen talks with the regime that launched them. But Kim Jong-un is not waiting by the phone. Instead, analysts say North Korea’s supreme leader has set terms that leave little room for negotiation, with a calendar that leaves even less room for a summit. US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Michael DeSombre touched down in Seoul last week and met

Here’s what an executive-led government really means...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/03/19

In my experience, most people misunderstand the concept of “separation of powers”, and so I would not be at all surprised if most people also misunderstand the term “executive-led government”. In the case of separation of powers, the confusion usually arises from the use of the word “separation”. It connotes a meaning of absolute independence or alienation. A better word would have been “division”. The concept of separation of powers focuses on the division of power in a government and how

Cigarette may have sparked Tai Po fire, public...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/03/19

This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing. The first of a series of public evidential hearings into a fire that engulfed a residential complex in Hong Kong and killed at least 168 people begins on Thursday, nearly four months after the disaster. Ordered by the city’s leader and overseen by a judge-led independent committee, the hearings are meant to “clarify the relevant facts through oral

China’s PLA reveals AI-assisted aerial refuelling...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/03/19

The People’s Liberation Army has announced a new AI-assisted task dispatch system for China’s aerial refuelling tankers, days after a US military tanker crashed in the Middle East. According to the official PLA Daily, the Chinese air force has streamlined its aerial refuelling operations with a smart artificial intelligence (AI) system to improve efficiency and safety. The report on Monday came just days after a US Air Force Boeing KC-135 “Stratotanker” aerial refuelling tanker crashed in...

Chinese man lives for 8 years with chopstick stuck in...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/03/19

A man in China who had a 12cm-long metal chopstick lodged in his throat for eight years recently had surgery to remove the object. The man, surnamed Wang, underwent the surgery at Dalian Municipal Central Hospital in northeastern Liaoning province in early March. His experience has shocked internet users, the Daxiang News reported. Eight years ago, Wang swallowed the chopstick by accident while eating and drinking alcohol. At the time he felt pain but did not have any breathing

Call for review over how Hong Kong manages wild boars...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/03/19

Animal rights groups have urged Hong Kong authorities to review their culling strategy for wild boars and to install animal bridges and other measures to reduce human-wildlife conflict in urban areas after incidents involving wild boars and a buffalo. They warned that as urban expansion, particularly the Northern Metropolis project, cleared large tracts of land and further eroded wildlife habitat, poor city planning would worsen the situation, endangering more animals. On Tuesday, authorities...

Pop Mart’s Labubu headed to big screen in...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/03/19

Chinese toymaker Pop Mart and Sony Pictures Entertainment announced on Thursday a feature film starring Labubu, the company’s most popular character. Analysts said the film was a strategic move to extend Labubu’s intellectual property (IP) value and support medium-term growth, following the trajectory of global icons like Barbie and Hello Kitty. The film, still in early development, would be a mix of live action and computer-generated imagery, Pop Mart said in a statement. Lung Ka-sing, the...

Mexico invites Spain’s king to World Cup in sign of thaw

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/03/18

Spain’s King Felipe VI has been invited to the 2026 World Cup in Mexico by President Claudia Sheinbaum, the royal palace said on Wednesday, signalling a thaw in relations between the two countries. Diplomatic relations have been strained since 2019, when the Mexican government demanded that the Spanish crown apologise for the abuses committed during the conquest and subsequent colonisation of the Americas in the 16th century. Sheinbaum excluded the king from her inauguration in October 2024...

Hong Kong follows Federal Reserve to keep base rate...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/03/18

Hong Kong’s monetary authority kept its base rate unchanged after a similar move by the US Federal Reserve, as analysts said that the Middle East conflict has added to the uncertainty over the pace of rate cuts this year. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) maintained the city’s base rate at 4 per cent on Thursday. Hours earlier, the Fed also kept its target rate in the range of 3.5 per cent to 3.75 per cent, after the second meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) this...

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