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US factory output hits one-year high as manufacturing...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/18

US factory production increased by the most in nearly a year in January, offering hope for a manufacturing sector that has been squeezed by import tariffs and high interest rates. Manufacturing output rose 0.6 per cent last month, the largest gain since February 2025, after being unchanged in December, the Federal Reserve said on Wednesday. Economists had earlier forecast production for the sector, which accounts for 10.1 per cent of the economy, would rise 0.4 per cent. Output in December

Japan travel warning after Hongkonger beaten with...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/18

A Hongkonger has been beaten on the head with a beer bottle while visiting Sapporo, prompting the Chinese consulate in the Japanese city to again warn against travel to the country amid frayed bilateral ties. The consulate said the attack occurred at a restaurant in the early hours of Wednesday and that Japanese police had arrested a suspect at the scene. “The [consulate] has made representations to the local police, requiring the police to seriously hold the perpetrators accountable in...

China widens anti-corruption net to catch...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/18

Beijing has quietly tightened restrictions on officials with family members overseas in the past year as part of a sweeping anti-corruption drive, according to sources. Three people familiar with the situation said inspections had been carried out since early last year within government bodies and state-owned enterprises to scrutinise the overseas connections of top officials and executives. In the past, such inspections have sought to identify “naked officials” – those whose spouses and...

Russia demands ‘concrete’ proof that it poisoned...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/18

Russia is demanding that European countries who accused Moscow of poisoning Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny with a dart frog toxin provide concrete data to support their allegation, according to Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova. Britain, France, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands said on Saturday that analyses of samples from Navalny’s body had confirmed the presence of epibatidine, a toxin found in poison dart frogs in South America and not found naturally in Russia. They said

Chinese coastguard reveals growing reliance on drones...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/18

A Lunar New Year post from the Chinese coastguard on Wednesday provided a rare glimpse at how aerial drones have become essential to daily training and operations near a hotly contested South China Sea reef. The social media post was meant to show officers on the coastguard vessel Wanshan, or China Coast Guard 3301, guarding the disputed Scarborough Shoal, known as Huangyan Island in China, during the Lunar New Year holiday. But the details of their daily training revealed how aerial drones

China targets foreign tourists for Lunar New Year...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/18

China is gearing up to harness the extended Lunar New Year holiday to attract more spending by international tourists, as the country looks to shake off a recent economic slowdown and pivot towards consumption-driven growth. In a rare joint initiative by nine central government departments, Beijing announced plans earlier this month to turn the holiday – which this year began on Sunday and runs through February 23 – into a “consumption feast that links regions and engages everyone”. The move...

Why Europe must accept blame for erosion of the...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/18

At the opening of the Munich Security Conference this year, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz warned that the rules-based international order is eroding before our eyes. His remarks echoed the conference’s annual report, which painted a picture of fragmentation and disorder. His remarks also echoed a growing anxiety across Europe: that the system built after 1945 is eroding under the weight of geopolitical rivalry, economic coercion and military confrontation. However, to many observers,

12 killed in China’s second deadly Lunar New Year...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/18

Twelve people were killed in an explosion at a firework shop in Hubei in central China on Wednesday, just days after eight people died in a similar incident in a nearby province. The accident happened just before 2.30pm on the second day of Lunar New Year in Zhengji township in the city of Xiangyang, state news agency Xinhua reported. The report added that the subsequent fire spread across the premises and was put out within an hour. An investigation into the cause is under way. The explosion...

Footbridge linking Hong Kong’s Central Pier with IFC...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/18

The pedestrian footbridge linking Hong Kong’s Central Pier with the International Financial Centre (IFC) will be demolished and replaced by a temporary one, with Wednesday marking its last day open to the public. A new temporary passageway, located near the current footbridge, will be open for use on Thursday, according to Henderson Land Development. On Wednesday, some residents came to take a final look at the old bridge before its closure. Lukas Mok, 25, was among those snapping photos to...

Moonshot AI targets US$12 billion valuation as...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/18

Moonshot AI, the Chinese start-up behind the powerful Kimi artificial intelligence models, has added at least another US$700 million to its war chest after launching another funding round that could value it at up to US$12 billion. The new round, which comes just over a month after its last one, could almost triple Moonshot’s previous valuation of US$4.3 billion amid exploding investor interest in China’s AI enterprises. It was jointly led by existing investors including Alibaba Group

Hong Kong’s Lunar New Year fireworks dazzle as...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/18

Hong Kong’s visitor numbers on the first two days of Lunar New Year are at least 8 per cent higher than in 2025, with Wednesday’s fireworks display boosting momentum further as tens of thousands of spectators lined both sides of Victoria Harbour for the show. The huge crowd gasped in awe as the 23-minute spectacle to celebrate the Year of the Horse lit up the night skies above Victoria Harbour with 31,888 shells, including pyrotechnics forming the shapes of gold ingots and horseshoes. Chief...

Hong Kong’s sports minister regrets comments about...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/18

Hong Kong’s sports minister has expressed regret over her social media post about the former coach of the men’s football team made after their stinging loss to Singapore in an Asian Cup qualifying match last year, vowing to be “more careful” with her comments. Speaking on a radio show on Tuesday evening, Secretary for Culture, Sports and Tourism Rosanna Law Shuk-pui said her comments about Ashley Westwood were made from the standpoint of a fan rather than a government official. At the time,

Hong Kong bus driver alleged to have deliberately...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/18

A Hong Kong court has granted bail to a driver suspected to have deliberately crashed his coach on the Shenzhen Bay Bridge, injuring 17 passengers, with the magistrate urging the man’s family to “pay extra attention” to his condition. Lee Kai-po, 63, appeared before West Kowloon Court on a charge of dangerous driving causing grievous bodily harm on Wednesday. Bail was set at HK$50,000 (US$6,370). As part of his bail conditions, Lee was told to hand in his driving licence and ordered not to

Ukraine-Russia talks in Geneva wrap up in 2 hours...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/18

Ukrainian and Russian negotiators concluded a second day of US-mediated talks in Geneva on Wednesday, though neither side signalled they were any closer to ending Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II. The talks wrapped up after just two hours, much shorter than the six hours of meetings on Tuesday, according to the head of Russia’s delegation. Neither side elaborated on what they discussed or whether they had agreed on anything, but both signalled the discussions had been

Robotics firms see backlog in orders after humanoids...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/18

Consumer interest in robots has surged in China since several leading models appeared on stage at Monday’s Spring Festival Gala, with delivery dates pushed as far back as late April. This development follows the featuring of robots from four domestic firms – Unitree Robotics, Magiclab, Galbot and Noetix – at the event after they signed partnerships reportedly worth around 100 million yuan (US$14 million). One of the biggest beneficiaries was Hangzhou-based Unitree, whose G1 humanoid robots...

Why an open-source sci-fi novel by China’s tech geeks...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/18

Years before China’s DeepSeek stunned the world with its powerful open-source AI model, Chinese tech geeks began experimenting with the openness ethos through a collaboratively written open-source novel, still going strong after nearly two decades. With millions of words spanning nearly 3,000 chapters, The Morning Star of Linggao has been crowd-written by thousands of contributors – mostly tech geeks, engineers, military enthusiasts and STEM professionals – who insert themselves as characters

Hong Kong court grants bail to British man filmed...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/18

A court has granted bail to an unemployed British national who was seen wrecking self-check-in kiosks at Hong Kong International Airport in a viral video this week. Youcef Bennoui, 35, was charged with criminal damage and possession of a Part 1 poison on Wednesday, after the video on social media showed him pushing over several self-check-in kiosks in the departure hall and repeatedly striking them with a stanchion. Bennoui was arrested on Monday morning and had been held in police

Child deaths in Indonesia spark plea to address...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/18

The deaths of three children by suspected suicide in recent weeks have shocked Indonesia, with child protection advocates saying they should serve as a “wake-up call” for the nation to pay more attention to young people’s well-being and mental health, particularly in remote and disadvantaged areas.In one case, reports that a child had asked for money for basic school supplies shortly before his death raised questions about whether state welfare programmes were reaching families most in need,...

US actor Shia LaBeouf arrested for battery after...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/18

US actor Shia LaBeouf’s Mardi Gras celebrations in New Orleans allegedly took a violent turn on Tuesday morning, landing him in hospital and facing charges of battery. The New Orleans Police Department confirmed that officers arrested the Megalopolis and Honey Boy actor, 39, at 12.45am in the city’s famed French Quarter. He was charged with two counts of simple battery for allegedly assaulting two men. A representative for the Transformers star did not immediately respond to a request for...

Trump’s claim of Chinese and Russian ships near...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/18

A former president of Iceland has rejected US President Donald Trump’s claim that nearby Greenland was surrounded by Chinese and Russian vessels, saying it was “not supported by facts”. In an interview on the sidelines of last weekend’s Munich Security Conference, Olafur Ragnar Grimsson, who was Iceland’s president from 1996 to 2016, said there were “no Russian and Chinese ships in the waters of Greenland”. Trump said last month that the US “needed Greenland” – a Danish territory – “from the...

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