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News - South China Morning Post

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MTR Corp unveils HK$300 million wheelset centre,...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/23

Hong Kong’s MTR Corporation has unveiled its first wheelset maintenance centre, set to open in the coming months, cutting the time for the labour-intensive process from more than three days to 10 hours. The rail giant said on Thursday that the new HK$300 million (US$38.3 million) Integrated Wheelset Maintenance Centre, located at the Ho Man Tin siding, would be capable of processing 1,500 wheelsets annually through automation. The capacity is designed to meet growing service demands on the

Tencent unveils first flagship AI model with former...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/23

Tencent Holdings has released a new flagship artificial intelligence model, the first since former OpenAI researcher Yao Shunyu joined the Chinese tech giant to lead its foundational AI development efforts. The Shenzhen-based company said on Thursday that the open-source HY3 preview was its most powerful model yet, on par with leading Chinese models, while still lagging top US models from the likes of OpenAI and Google DeepMind. Notably, the model is relatively small with only 295 billion...

Can Chinese scientists bring Nasa’s ‘space spider’...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/23

For years, Nasa funded a project called SpiderFab – a spider-like robot that would crawl through orbit, weaving solar power stations and giant antennas from spools of carbon fibre – creating structures too large for any rocket to carry whole. Although SpiderFab never ended up in space, scientists from the Shenyang Institute of Automation in northern China say they have built the key technologies to reach a similar goal. The team first made the building blocks from a carbon-fibre composite,...

‘Innate kindness’ of Chinese people moves British...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/23

A 74-year-old British grandmother who set off on a solo trip to China received an unexpected outpouring of support from Chinese netizens who took turns to guide her on her journey. The heartwarming story began with Xiao Yue, a senior university student from Hezhou in Guangxi Province, southern China, who first met the British grandmother while volunteering in Phuket. The woman, Gill, 74, has travelled to 72 countries on her own and has also volunteered in many countries before. Recently, Xiao...

AI-driven Hong Kong stock inflows from mainland China...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/23

Mainland Chinese investors have slowed their purchases of Hong Kong-listed shares this year after last year’s record inflows, as more artificial intelligence investment opportunities have emerged in mainland markets, according to BNP Paribas. Southbound inflows via the Stock Connect cross-border system have reached about US$30 billion so far this year, a slower pace than 2025, when they hit US$180 billion for the full year, according to the French bank. The deceleration reflected changing

UN leadership race takes centre stage with first...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/23

The race to become the next leader of the United Nations moved into a higher gear with the four declared candidates facing hours of questions over two days. Top among them: can the UN be made effective again? Rafael Grossi, an Argentine diplomat who heads the International Atomic Energy Agency, struck a downbeat note about the global body’s future during his interview replace Secretary General Antonio Guterres. “This election, or selection, process is so consequential, and this is because we

Euro, yuan unlikely to match US dollar as global...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/23

Daniel Gros is the director of the Institute for European Policymaking at Bocconi University. Previously, he served as an adviser to the European Parliament, collaborated with the European Commission as economic adviser to the Delors Committee, which developed plans for the euro, and worked at the International Monetary Fund. In this interview, Gros examines the structural tensions shaping EU-China economic ties, draws lessons from the euro’s experience to analyse the yuan’s...

Deaths of CIA agents in Mexico spark sovereignty row...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/23

The death of US officials following an operation to dismantle a drug lab in northern Mexico is escalating tensions with Washington, as President Claudia Sheinbaum insists her government was unaware of their involvement. At a news conference, Sheinbaum said Mexican security officials involved in the operation were never told about the presence of foreigners, which she described as a clear breach of security protocols. A person familiar with the matter confirmed that the two US nationals worked...

Alibaba opens Qwen app to outside partners with China...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/23

Alibaba Group Holding has struck its first external partnership for its flagship consumer artificial intelligence app, linking it with China Eastern Airlines in a move that pushes its agentic capabilities beyond the company’s own ecosystem and into real-world services. The company said the fresh collaboration allowed users of the Qwen app to manage the full flight booking process – from search and ticket purchase to seat selection and check-in – within a single natural-language chat

Tai Po probe: no emergency alert sent over fears of...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/23

This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing. The role of Hong Kong’s fire service remained under the spotlight on the 18th day of evidential hearings held by an independent committee investigating the catastrophic blaze at Tai Po’s Wang Fuk Court. Three officers from the Fire Services Department testified on Thursday before the judge-led panel. Four of their colleagues gave accounts the previous day

Film on Manila hostage crisis sparks debate over...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/23

A Hong Kong film adapted from the 2010 Manila hostage crisis, which led to the deaths of eight Hongkongers, has stirred online debate, with some questioning whether it could cause “secondary trauma” and others saying it offers lessons from the past. Titled Beyond Hostage Crisis, the film was released in Malaysia in April and is set to open in Hong Kong on May 28. Information about the 90-minute film starring newly crowned Hong Kong Film Awards best actress Fish Liew Chi-yu is available on the...

‘Lifetime of memories’: emotional survivors return to...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/23

Emotional residents have returned to the most severely damaged tower of Hong Kong’s fire-ravaged Wang Fuk Court, holding back tears as they recount harrowing escapes and call for more time to revisit their homes. Some survivors managed to retrieve precious belongings from the reopened blocks on Thursday, including a framed wedding photo and cats’ ashes, as about 600 families from the ill-fated estate requested second visits to their flats. Deputy Chief Secretary for Administration Cheuk...

China’s Canton Fair defies global trends as overseas...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/23

Shortly after the doors opened each day at the ongoing Canton Fair, every corner of the robotics and drone halls quickly filled to capacity, while the new energy pavilion remained densely packed with overseas buyers. Foreign buyers moved slowly between booths, live streaming their encounters with new tech products to social media, queuing to try out the latest devices and in some cases, purchasing samples on the spot at the event, which started last Wednesday. The scenes reflect a broader

Being annoying is not just an annoyance, it’s...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/23

The law of tort, from its Latin and Old French origin meaning “wrong”, saw a major development in Hong Kong at the beginning of this year. After years of debate in the lower courts, Hong Kong’s top court has made it clear that, with Sir Elly Kadoorie & Sons Limited v Samantha Jane Bradley [2026] HKCFA 2, harassment is now a recognised tort under common law. While it is described as a development, this was the last step of a recognition that was more than a decade in the making. The first High...

Hong Kong’s education hub cannot be a one-market wonder

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/23

The numbers tell a revealing story. The city’s eight publicly funded universities, once primarily judged by academic output and global rankings, are now generating record income from knowledge transfer. Patents, licensing deals, industry partnerships. These are not side activities. They are becoming core business lines. Universities are no longer just custodians of knowledge. They are active market participants, packaging and monetising it. Around them, an ecosystem is forming. Student

China’s dark compute power could be 6,000 times...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/23

China has reported a staggering amount of domestic artificial intelligence power, pointing to what some experts say could be a “dark pool” of compute thousands of times larger than its public reports suggest. According to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), China has achieved 1,882 exaflops – short for exa floating-point operations per second – which translates to 1,882 quintillion, or billion billion, calculations per second. The figure is more than 6,000 times higher...

China live-streams expose minors undergoing harsh...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/23

Chinese teenagers dressed in camouflage uniforms express gratitude in front of cameras at a youth correction centre, but the off-camera reality tells a completely different story. According to a Chinese state media report they are beaten or sexually assaulted, leading to calls for better supervision and monitoring of such institutions. Such schools accept teenagers who are rebellious, weary of studying, addicted to playing electronic games, or suffer from depression. The institutions

Iran latest: Trump has ‘no time frame’ to end war as...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/23

All eyes are on the Strait of Hormuz as the world waits for a new round of US-Iran peace deal talks to ease the global energy crisis, while the extended ceasefire announced by US President Donald Trump remains up in the air. These are the main takeaways from what happened overnight. Peace talks? It remains unclear when the two sides will return to the negotiating table. Trump on Wednesday said there was “no time frame” for when the war on Iran might come to an end. During an interview with

Travel scheme could allow Hong Kong, Macau yachts to...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/23

A long-awaited cross-border solo travel scheme will allow yachts from Macau and Hong Kong to easily sail to about six designated ports in the western waters off the Greater Bay Area, with the policy to be finalised as early as this summer, the South China Morning Post has learned. A Guangdong provincial government document, seen by the SCMP, also showed several routes that were recommended for leisure, such as the waters off Castle Peak Bay, the Pearl River Delta and Fan Lau Kok of the Lantau...

Billionaire Justin Sun sues Trump family crypto venture

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/22

Entrepreneur Justin Sun filed a lawsuit on Wednesday accusing a Trump family-backed cryptocurrency platform of fraud and alleging he was blocked from withdrawing his assets. In a San Francisco federal court filing reviewed by Agence France-Presse, the Chinese-born crypto billionaire and former Trump ally claims to have bought US$45 million worth of WLFI, an electronic currency launched by World Liberty Financial in October 2024. To thank him for the investment – at a time when WLFI was...

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