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Pakistan-Taliban showdown risks becoming a protracted...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/28

Pakistan and Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities are locked in a widening tit-for-tat confrontation that neither side seems willing to defuse, analysts said, warning the exchanges risked settling into a prolonged conflict along one of Asia’s most volatile borders. Islamabad has vowed to keep striking military targets inside Afghanistan until the Taliban takes action against the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and other militant groups Pakistan says operate from Afghan soil. Pakistani warplanes...

Israel launches ‘preemptive’ strike against Iran,...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/28

Israel launched a “preemptive” strike against Iran on Saturday morning “to remove threats to Israel,” the Israeli Defence Ministry said in a statement.Sirens were sounded across Israel to warn the public to prepare for the possibility of an Iranian missile attack on Israel. More to follow...

Meet Habibi – the Chinese AI uniting 20 Arabic...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/28

Chinese researchers have released the world’s first open-source text-to-speech (TTS) model that unifies more than 20 Arabic dialects in an AI framework, a move poised to expand China’s technological influence in the Middle East, according to analysts. Led by Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s X-LANCE Lab – one of China’s top audiovisual and language processing research entities – the model is named Habibi, meaning “my dear” in Arabic. In presenting their findings, the research team spearheaded

India’s AI superpower dream lands US$200 billion –...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/28

As tech titans and world leaders descended on New Delhi for the India AI Impact Summit in February, Prime Minister Narendra Modi set out his ambition for the country to become a major global power in artificial intelligence – a technology currently dominated by the United States and China. “My vision is that India should be among the top three AI superpowers globally, not just in the consumption of AI but in creation,” Modi told Asian News International in an interview about the summit. Top

Quirky China: panda won’t return phone, talented...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/28

A panda in China which would not let go of a mobile phone a tourist accidentally dropped into his enclosure has been dubbed a ‘smartphone addict’ by online observers. On February 22, a visitor accidentally dropped their mobile phone while filming the giant panda, Qingling, at the Dujiangyan Panda Base in southwestern China’s Sichuan province. The three-year-old panda grabbed the phone as if it were his new toy. He played around with it and even held it in a way that looked like he was taking

No Exchange Fund transfers planned in next 5 years,...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/28

Hong Kong does not plan to get another transfer from its Exchange Fund in the next five years, the finance chief has said, citing a new medium-range forecast explaining why the rare move will not be repeated. Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po elaborated on his fiscal plan on Saturday, after his budget announcement to withdraw HK$150 billion (US$19.2 billion) from the government’s main investment arm and de facto sovereign wealth fund sparked concerns about the city’s financial

Plane carrying money crashes in Bolivia, killing 15...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/28

A cargo plane carrying money crashed on Friday near Bolivia’s capital, damaging about a dozen vehicles on the highway, scattering bills on the ground and leaving at least 15 people dead and others injured, an official said. Defence Minister Marcelo Salinas said the Hercules C-130 plane was transporting newly printed Bolivian currency when it “landed and veered off the runway” at an airport in El Alto, a city near the capital of La Paz, before ending up in a nearby field. Firefighters managed

US government seeks delay on tariff refund court...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/28

The Trump administration is seeking to delay court proceedings over whether it must refund importers billions of dollars in tariffs recently struck down by the US Supreme Court, marking a contentious start to the next phase of the legal fight. The government wants to wait as long as four months before reviving litigation before the US Court of International Trade on the refund question, according to a filing by the Justice Department late Friday. “Complexity in the future counsels

Cutting-edge Chinese gene-editing technique raises...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/28

Chinese scientists have used a cutting-edge gene-editing tool to correct a DNA mutation responsible for cognitive and behavioural problems – a move that could eventually lead to the development of new autism therapies. In lab tests, mice that had been engineered to have the mutation showed a striking change in their behaviour, such as the way they interacted with other mice, after being given an injection to introduce the edited genes. The Shanghai-based research team is looking for ways to...

Commercial EV use needs boost after car owner tax...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/28

Hong Kong environmental groups have urged the government to focus on accelerating the commercial use of electric vehicles and enhancing green infrastructure, after scrapping a tax concession scheme for private cars that has cost HK$30 billion over the past decade. Green groups said on Friday that they supported the government’s decision to end the first registration tax (FRT) concessions for private electric cars, including the “One-for-One Replacement Scheme”. The move was announced by...

Operation Santa Claus: Hong Kong children find joy...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/28

Corporate volunteers from Hong Kong’s Chinachem Group joined children with special educational needs for a mochi-making workshop held ahead of Chinese New Year, as part of the company’s annual charity campaign. The workshop, held in partnership with the charity TREATS, brought participants together to make traditional festive food. TREATS is among the beneficiaries of Operation Santa Claus (OSC), an annual fundraising campaign jointly organised by the South China Morning Post and RTHK. Amy

UN rights chief slams violence against women, calls...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/28

The UN rights chief on Friday decried mounting threats to women’s rights worldwide, highlighting rampant femicide and horrific abuse exposed in cases like that of US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Addressing the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Volker Turk denounced “social systems that silence women and girls” allowing powerful men to abuse them with impunity. “Violence against women, including femicide, is a global emergency,” the High Commissioner for Human Rights told the

Afghanistan’s Taliban open to talks with Pakistan as...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/28

Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers said on Friday they were willing to negotiate after Pakistan ⁠bombed their forces in major cities and said the allies-turned-foes were in “open war”. Pakistan struck the Afghan capital Kabul, the city of Kandahar, where Taliban leaders were based, and other towns, a Taliban spokesman said. The attacks were its first directly targeting Afghanistan’s government over allegations it harbours militants seeking to overthrow the Islamabad government. Taliban spokesman...

Man claiming to have Aids arrested after hijacking...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/28

A man who claims to have Aids has been arrested after hijacking a bus in Hong Kong and causing it to crash, the South China Morning Post has learned. A source said the 28-year-old mainland Chinese man, surnamed Miao, had blood stains on his hands when he was apprehended. The man also incoherently spoke in Chinese and appeared dazed, according to the insider. The 54-year-old Citybus driver, surnamed Choi, made a report to police at 6.45pm on Friday after upper-deck passengers told him that

The big cornerstone comeback: what’s driving...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/28

Until last year, Fidelity International’s most significant cornerstone commitments on the Hong Kong initial public offering (IPO) market dated back to 2021, when Chinese short-video platform Kuaishou Technology raised US$5.4 billion and healthcare firm Medlive Technology completed a US$543.4 million listing. Then for the next four years, the asset manager went quiet. Late last year it returned to Chinese assets in force. It backed gold miner Zijin Gold International’s US$3.2 billion listing

China’s pivot from GDP obsession sparks cadre...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/28

Ahead of China’s annual legislative meetings – typically a window into Beijing’s top-level policy agenda – this is the second entry in a series examining the complex economic recalibration driving China’s growth philosophy and its wide-ranging implications for local governments, financial investors and private enterprises. Beijing’s campaign to purge the bureaucracy of a growth-at-all-costs mindset has caught some local officials off guard, triggering a mix of confusion and contradictory...

Breakthrough or hype? How WeRide aims to steer past...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/28

WeRide, one of China’s big three robotaxi companies, has cut research and development (R&D) costs by “millions” of US dollars by using artificial intelligence to train its fleet in virtual worlds, its CEO said. While rivals had also developed AI models simulating the physical world, WeRide’s efforts stood out as it was using its world model Genesis to support its global expansion strategy, said Tony Han. “It’s the first real marriage between physical AI and generative AI,” Han told the South...

Central Asia’s plan to bypass Russia and Iran?...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/28

Central Asia has long been someone else’s crossroads. Squeezed between an overbearing Russia to the north and an increasingly unstable Iran to the west, the region’s landlocked ex-Soviet republics have settled on a different solution: send railways south, through Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, all the way to the Arabian Sea. Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan – Central Asia’s two largest economies – have in recent months struck preliminary multilateral agreements for the construction of two...

After celebrating its surplus, Hong Kong must work on...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/28

Following a challenging cycle, Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po has delivered a budget returning Hong Kong to the black. After consecutive operating deficits, the operating account has returned to profit. Simultaneously, the consolidated account records a HK$2.9 billion (US$370.6 million) surplus for 2025/26, signalling stability. This turnaround is driven largely by a buoyant stock market and a stabilising property sector, reviving stamp duty revenues and investment income. This provides...

Denmark warns of interference from Russia, US in its...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/28

Denmark’s intelligence services have warned that foreign powers may seek to interfere in the country’s March 24 general election, singling out Russia as the primary threat but also flagging the US and China as potential sources of influence. In a statement published on Friday night, the Danish Security and Intelligence Service said it was “highly likely” that Denmark was a prioritised target for Russian influence activities due to the Nordic nation’s support for Ukraine. It also cited rising...

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