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South Korea jails US YouTuber Johnny Somali for...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/15

An American YouTuber who caused outrage for filming himself kissing a statue commemorating Korean wartime sex slaves has been sentenced to six months in prison, a court in Seoul said on Wednesday. Johnny Somali, 25, gained notoriety several years ago for recording himself doing a series of provocative stunts in South Korea and Japan, and streaming them on platforms such as YouTube and Twitch. South Korean authorities indicted Somali, whose real name is Ramsey Khalid Ismael, in 2024 on public...

South Korea’s Kim Keon-hee ignores Yoon in frosty...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/15

For the first time in nine months, former South Korean president Yoon Suk-yeol finally saw his wife again on Tuesday. He was the defendant. She was the witness. She barely looked at him. The reunion, their first since his arrest following a failed martial law declaration that ended his presidency, lasted all of 30 minutes. The couple made eye contact only once. Yoon looked visibly thinner, his face gaunt and marked with age spots, his once-dark hair now almost entirely silver. Kim Keon-hee

Number of Hong Kong secondary students with mental...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/15

The number of secondary school students diagnosed with mental illness in Hong Kong has doubled over the last five academic years, with the increase potentially under-reported due to reluctance among some pupils and parents to disclose health information, education authorities have said. The data aligns with a trend recorded by the Health Bureau showing a growing number of people aged 15 to 24 being treated in psychiatric departments at public hospitals. In this age group, the number of

Chinese rocket force scientist Major General Feng...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/15

Major General Feng Yufang, a leading missile scientist with the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Rocket Force, died on Monday at the age of 63, according to state media and the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE). The official CAE website confirmed that Feng, one of its academicians, died on April 13. Although it did not give a cause of death, an article by state media outlet China Daily on Tuesday stated that he died of illness. With a career spanning nearly 40 years in military equipment...

‘Show patriotism through concrete actions,’ Xia...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/15

Beijing’s point man on Hong Kong affairs has urged businesspeople to serve as the “main force” driving the city’s economic development by investing in innovation and the Northern Metropolis project, calling on them to demonstrate their patriotism through “concrete actions”. Xia Baolong, director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, also argued that people with “ulterior motives” had politicised the deadly Tai Po fire to stir up social unrest, urging residents to remain vigilant against...

Britain’s King Charles to charm Trump on state visit...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/15

Britain’s King Charles will have tea and a private meeting with ⁠President Donald Trump during his US state visit later this month, as the UK government hopes his “soft power” can heal a damaging rift between the allies caused by the Iran war. The monarch and his wife Queen Camilla head across the Atlantic on April 27, a four-day trip ostensibly to mark the 250th anniversary of US independence from Britain but one that now has far greater significance amid a growing spat between Trump and

Hormuz blockade: shipping industry slams transit fees...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/15

The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) has denounced proposed tolls in the Strait of Hormuz as a worrisome step in the wrong direction, while noting that several thousand stranded seafarers remain the international shipping community’s foremost concern. “Freedom of navigation has to be one of the pillars of free trade, and it would be a retrograde step – a really bad step,” said John Denholm, chair designate of the ICS, referring to the idea of charging vessels to transit the oil...

Tai Po probe: woman trapped in blaze died after 999...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/15

This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing. A judge-led panel investigating the causes of Hong Kong’s deadliest fire in decades, which killed 168 people in Tai Po, began its 12th day of evidential hearings on Wednesday. Representatives from the Fire Services Department and police testified before the independent committee tasked with investigating the causes of the Wang Fuk Court blaze and systemic...

US military says 4 killed in fourth ‘drug boat’...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/15

The US military said on Tuesday that four people had been killed in a strike on another alleged drug-trafficking boat, the fourth such deadly attack in as many days. US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) said in a post on X that the strike – just as the previous three – occurred in the eastern Pacific Ocean. It posted aerial video on social media showing a vessel bobbing in the water before being struck by a projectile and exploding. The four new fatalities raise the total death toll of the...

Malaysian police recall overflowing cash, gems in...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/15

Jewellery and cash worth hundreds of millions of ringgit were found in overfilled luggage bags stored in a luxury condominium in Kuala Lumpur during a raid linked to the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) investigation, the High Court heard. The police had found 71 luggage bags, a plastic box and more than 200 boxes during the operation at Pavilion Residences on May 17, 2018. Former Commercial Crime Investigation Department (CCID) director Amar Singh Ishar Singh testified that the sheer

Zhang Kai: why I left Yale for China at the peak of...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/15

Not all scientists are willing to share why they returned to China. Most remain tight-lipped about their reasons for returning home and their specific experiences because of political or other non-scientific reasons. Professor Zhang Kai is an exception. Zhang, who worked for many years in Cambridge, England, and Yale University in the United States, is one of the world’s top and most influential cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) scientists while harbouring further ambitious goals. “The first...

Jailed witness reveals Duterte plotted to oust...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/15

Former Philippine leader Rodrigo Duterte discussed removing President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr from office and even considered assassination if a supposed power-sharing deal fell apart, a jailed witness told a House impeachment hearing into Vice-President Sara Duterte-Carpio. Ramil Madriaga, a self-described political organiser, intelligence operative and bagman who said he had once been close to Duterte-Carpio, made the sensational allegations before the House Committee on Justice on Tuesday

KMT chief shows way forward to avoid blind...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/15

Taiwan’s political pendulum is reversing. The government led by Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) William Lai Ching-te is increasingly discredited, not least for selling out the jewel of its semiconductor industry to the United States under pressure from President Donald Trump. The Legislative Yuan is controlled by the opposition led by the Kuomintang (KMT). Party politics is now institutionalised into a sustained confrontation between the island’s presidency and its legislature. Now,

China AI robot restaurant analyses diners’ faces,...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/15

Several restaurants in eastern China are using artificial intelligence (AI) robots to cook as many as 100 dishes to cut costs, sparking a heated discussion on social media. In Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, at least three such eateries have been operating for months, Zhejiang TV reported. One of them, 24 Jieqi Robot Restaurant in the Xihu district uses eight robots which handle ordering, serving, cleaning and cooking. They have shared 60 per cent of the total workload of kitchen workers, the...

Call to check tech trends when drafting policies...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/15

Hong Kong authorities should consider the impact of technological developments when drafting policies, observers have said, noting the government’s decision to halt plans for basketball betting reflected a lack of thorough discussion. Their remarks on Tuesday followed the government announcing the suspension over concerns about new “prediction market” gambling while warning that it was illegal for Hongkongers to bet on sports events on such trading platforms. An amendment bill to the Betting...

How PayMe’s 3.3 million users and Hong Kong firms...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/15

For Hong Kong’s 3.3 million PayMe users, everyday transactions such as buying coffee or splitting bills with friends could soon involve stablecoins, with HSBC preparing to introduce the digital currency in the second half of this year. That comes after HSBC Holdings, together with a Standard Chartered-led joint venture, became the first to obtain a stablecoin issuer licence from the Hong Kong Monetary Authority on Friday, marking a breakthrough in the city’s digital finance development. HSBC,...

Japan’s Narita Airport expansion revives row over...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/15

The operator of Japan’s Narita International Airport is considering compulsory acquisition of farmers’ land to complete a planned third runway, recalling the forced land purchases that led to violent clashes between riot police and local residents when the airport was built in the 1960s. Narita International Airport Corp (NAA) has been able to secure 88.4 per cent of the land it requires to finish the extension of the existing 2,500-metre second runway at the airport and construct a new...

Which countries are most vulnerable as US imposes its...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/15

As the US imposes its own blockade on shipping through the Strait of Hormuz following the collapse of talks with Iran at the weekend, we take a look at how major economies in Asia and Europe could be affected by further restrictions on passage through one of the world’s most critical choke points for energy supplies. Who is most vulnerable in this energy crisis? According to a recent report by Japanese investment bank Nomura, the regions most exposed to the tensions in the Persian Gulf are

Chinese robotics firms focus on quadrupeds as major...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/14

Chinese robotics companies are increasingly banking on quadruped robots as major revenue drivers, a trend highlighted by AgiBot’s recent decision to spin out its four-legged robotics unit into a new subsidiary called AgiQuad, and Amap’s coming launch of a quadruped model. The move by AgiBot was intended to drive large-scale growth so that the unit would not “live in the shadow of the humanoid robot giant”, Qiu Heng, chief operating officer of the new subsidiary, said at a media briefing last...

Is the US trying to pressure China with Hormuz blockade?

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/14

The US naval blockade of Iranian ports is not a tactic to force China to pressure Iran into a peace deal, according to analysts. Rather, the US aimed to end the war through showing its maritime supremacy over the world’s most vital energy chokepoint, they argued. Washington began to enforce the blockade on Monday, drawing threats of retaliation from Tehran. It remains unclear how fully the blockade can be enforced. The US Navy currently has at least 15 ships in the region, including an

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