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Ukraine and Russia meet in Geneva as Trump piles new...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/17

Negotiators from Ukraine and Russia met for the first of two days of US-mediated peace talks in Geneva on Tuesday, with US President Donald Trump pressing Kyiv to act fast to reach a deal. Trump is urging Moscow and Kyiv to reach a deal to end Europe’s biggest war since 1945, though Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has complained that his country is facing the greatest pressure to make concessions. Ukraine’s lead negotiator Rustem Umerov said ahead of the talks that the two sides would...

Texas sues TP-Link, alleging Chinese government...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/17

⁠Texas has sued TP-Link Systems for allegedly marketing its networking devices deceptively and allowing Beijing to access American consumers’ devices, the state attorney general said on Tuesday. “Despite its ‌claims of privacy and security, TP-Link’s products have been used by [China’s] state-sponsored hacking entities to launch multiple cyberattack operations against the United States,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a press release announcing the lawsuit. “With nearly all of ⁠its...

Hasan Piker talks about his controversial China trip...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/17

Hasan Piker knew his first trip to China would provoke backlash. What he did not expect was how quickly the debate would collapse into a binary: propaganda or patriotism. The live-streamer, and one of the most influential political commentators on the left among young Americans, travelled to China last year and live-streamed his experiences to over 3 million followers across platforms, including Twitch and YouTube. Clips of his visit circulated widely, some carried by Chinese state-linked...

Israel planning first Jerusalem border expansion into...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/17

Israeli NGOs have raised the alarm over a settlement plan signed by the government which they say would mark the first expansion of Jerusalem’s borders into the occupied West Bank since 1967. Israel has occupied East Jerusalem since 1967 and later annexed it in a move not recognised by the international community. Palestinians view East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state. The proposal was published in early this month as international outrage mounts over creeping measures aimed at...

Large section of ceiling plunges into Hong Kong...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/17

The owners’ committee of a Hong Kong private housing estate has said it is “very concerned” after a large section of the ceiling collapsed into an indoor swimming pool, while the MTR Corporation, which manages the property, said a “detailed investigation” was under way to identify the cause. In a notice issued to residents of Lake Silver in Ma On Shan, the estate’s customer service centre said it had been notified by the clubhouse contractor that “material” had fallen from the ceiling of the...

Sri Lanka ends parliamentary pensions to prune perks...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/17

Sri Lanka’s parliament abolished pensions for all legislators and their widows on Tuesday, in line with a government pledge to prune the perks of politicians. “When people see the quality of debate and what members say in this House, they don’t think MPs deserve a pension,” Justice Minister Harsana Nanayakkara told parliament as it voted to stop pensions with immediate effect. The leftist government of President Anura Kumara Dissanayake repealed the 49-year-old Parliamentary Pensions Act just...

Everything we know about China’s mysterious,...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/17

China’s Nantianmen Project – translated as Southern Celestial Gate – has captured widespread attention as a blend of science fiction storytelling and hi-tech military speculation. Launched in 2017 by a subsidiary of the state-owned Aviation Industry Corporation of China (Avic), the project originated as an aviation-themed sci-fi intellectual property (IP) rather than an active weapons development programme. At its core, the project serves as a creative vehicle to showcase more than 100...

Power restored after 4-hour outage plunges 760 Hong...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/16

Electricity has been restored after a four-hour outage at a residential high-rise in a Kwai Chung housing estate, caused by a suspected water leak that triggered a power trip ahead of Lunar New Year’s Eve.The city’s biggest electricity company, CLP Power, said that at around 9.13pm on Sunday, a suspected equipment fault at Ha Kwai House in the Kwai Chung Estate disrupted supply to about 760 households. The power trip lasted four hours and electricity was restored at 1.30am on Monday. CLP

Hong Kong set for warmest Lunar New Year’s Eve on...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/16

This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing. Hong Kong could experience its warmest Lunar New Year’s Eve since records began in 1884, with temperatures expected to reach 28 degrees Celsius (82.4 Fahrenheit) on Monday. The Hong Kong Observatory said temperatures on Monday were expected to range between 22 and 28 degrees. The previous record for the warmest Lunar New Year’s Eve was 27.8 degrees in

Can Hong Kong’s 4.8 million MPF members repeat record...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/16

The Year of the Horse is set to bring volatility for the investments of Hong Kong’s 4.8 million Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF) members, following a record-breaking Year of the Snake that ended on Monday, according to analysts. The next zodiac year, which begins on Tuesday, is the seventh in the Chinese lunar calendar’s 12-year cycle, each represented by an animal. The Year of the Snake delivered estimated earnings of HK$251.6 billion (US$32 billion), the highest on record since the MPF was...

India’s solar power push misses targets as red tape,...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/16

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s push to accelerate the roll-out of rooftop solar power is falling short of targets despite heavy subsidies due to loan delays and limited support from state utilities, vendors and analysts say. The shortfalls represent the latest challenge to India’s efforts to nearly double clean energy capacity to 500 gigawatts by 2030, and come as the government plans to suspend clean energy tendering targets amid a mounting backlog of awarded projects yet to be...

Government must reflect on its failures as we enter...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/16

We are ready to head into the Year of the Horse. But, before we do, let’s take stock of what the Year of the Snake brought Hong Kong. Some say the Year of the Snake is all about change and not meant to be comfortable. For Hong Kong, the past year has been a difficult one of shedding skin, baring our vulnerabilities for all to see. Just weeks into the Year of the Snake, Beijing’s point man on Hong Kong and Macau affairs, Xia Baolong, made inspection visits, reinforcing the central government’s...

Chinese man wins iPhone at company’s party, finds...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/16

A Chinese man experienced an emotional roller coaster as he discovered the latest iPhone model he won at his company’s year-end party turned out to be just tiles. The man, known as Jiang Jiang, said his firm played the prank by announcing him as the winner of its year-end party’s grand prize, an iPhone 17 Pro Max. Jiang, from southern China’s Guangdong province, was ecstatic to receive the prize and decided to wait until he got home to open the box and surprise his wife. According to a video

Hundreds of Malaysians rally to demand arrest of...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/16

Hundreds of black-clad Malaysians gathered in the capital on Sunday, calling for the arrest of anti-corruption chief Azam Baki after reports alleged he had improper shareholdings and that abuse of power took place in the commission he leads. The crowd of mainly young people waved black flags and placards as they assembled outside a shopping centre in the heart of Kuala Lumpur, with a major road temporarily shut to accommodate the demonstration. “We are gathering because the dignity of the law...

Epstein funded AI pioneer, helped him get HK$8.9...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/16

Jeffrey Epstein committed at least US$113,000 to American scholar Ben Goertzel – known for popularising the term “artificial general intelligence” – to help him secure at least HK$8.9 million in Hong Kong government grants at a top city university, a South China Morning Post investigation has found. The almost two-decade relationship between Epstein and computer scientist Goertzel, who previously built artificial intelligence (AI) architecture at Polytechnic University (PolyU), was disclosed

Indonesia’s US$1.67 billion China-backed dam is in...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/16

After deadly floods and landslides swept through Sumatra last year, Indonesia’s government has moved to revoke permits blamed for damaging forests – ensnaring a flagship China-backed hydropower project and rattling investor confidence in one of Southeast Asia’s fastest-growing renewable energy markets. The decision, unveiled last month by President Prabowo Subianto’s administration, has been welcomed by environmental groups as a long-awaited show of teeth. But it has also raised questions

Epstein donated to Harvard student group for years...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/15

Long after Jeffrey Epstein was known as a convicted sex offender, he was also a top contributor to an elite cluster of groups founded by Harvard University students. For years, he was able to fill a table with “girls” at an annual gala that featured celebrities, billionaires and cultural luminaries. Annual donations of at least US$50,000 to the Hasty Pudding Institute of 1770 – a non-profit umbrella for a social club, theatre troupe and a cappella singers – qualified him as a “Guardian of the...

New think tank launched to bridge talent gap in Hong...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/15

A group of scholars, professionals and former government officials has formed a new think tank in Hong Kong that aims to fill what it calls a talent gap in the shrinking field of local studies. The newly established Hong Kong Future Economy Institute also pledged to conduct studies on housing planning, population policy and impact assessments of policymaking. Michael Bolin Wong, founding director of the institute and an assistant professor at the University of Hong Kong’s (HKU) business

US forces board another tanker in Indian Ocean after...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/15

US military forces boarded another sanctioned tanker in the Indian Ocean after tracking the vessel from the Caribbean Sea in an effort to target illicit oil connected to Venezuela, the Pentagon said on Sunday. Venezuela had faced US sanctions on its oil for several years, relying on a shadow fleet of falsely flagged tankers to smuggle crude into global supply chains. US President Donald Trump ordered a quarantine of sanctioned tankers in December to pressure then-President Nicolas Maduro

Iran’s top diplomat to attend ‘indirect’ talks with...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/15

Iran’s top diplomat was travelling on Sunday from Tehran to Geneva, where the second round of nuclear negotiations with the US will take place, Iranian state media reported. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and his delegation left for the Swiss city after the first round of indirect talks took place in Oman last week. Oman will mediate the talks in Geneva, the IRNA state-run news agency reported on its Telegram channel. Similar talks last year broke down after Israel launched what became a

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