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In Munich, the US urges ‘collective strength’ among...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/15

Chinese military activities – and the need to respond to them – were framed as a major driver of cooperation between US allies in the Indo-Pacific and Europe during this year’s Munich Security Conference (MSC). It comes as Washington pushes its allies to spend more on their own defence and in the collective defence of the “first island chain” to deter potential war with China. Speaking at the conference on Saturday, Elbridge Colby, US undersecretary of defence for policy, said that while...

China’s tech companies vie for attention on CCTV’s...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/15

Chinese tech companies are competing to make their mark during the Spring Festival Gala presented by state-run broadcaster CCTV, a variety show and annual spectacle that provides a rare nationwide marketing opportunity, like the Super Bowl in the US, and is also an unmistakable signal of political alignment with Beijing’s industrial priorities. This year, ByteDance’s cloud computing arm, Volcano Engine, secured an “exclusive AI cloud partnership” with the gala, scheduled for Monday, taking

FBI says DNA recovered from discarded glove near...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/15

A glove containing DNA found about 3km from the house of Today show host Savannah Guthrie’s mother appears to match those worn by a masked person outside her front door in Tucson the night she vanished, the FBI said on Sunday. The glove, found in a field near the side of the road, was sent off for DNA testing. The Federal Bureau of Investigation said in a statement on Sunday that it received preliminary results on Saturday and is awaiting official confirmation. Nancy Guthrie, 84, was last

Over 1,000 agents leave Minnesota as immigration...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/15

White House border tsar Tom Homan said on Sunday that more than 1,000 immigration agents have left Minnesota’s Twin Cities area and hundreds more will depart in the days ahead as part of the Trump administration’s drawdown of its immigration enforcement surge. A “small” security force will stay for a short period to protect remaining immigration agents and will respond “when our agents are out and they get surrounded by agitators and things got out of control”, Homan told CBS’ Face the

Israel will begin contentious West Bank land...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/15

Israel will begin a contentious land regulation process in a large part of the occupied West Bank, which could result in Israel gaining control over wide swathes of the area for future development, according to a government decision on Sunday. It paves the way for the resumption of “settlement of land title” processes, which had been frozen in the West Bank since the Middle East war in 1967. It means that when Israel begins the land registration process for a certain area, anyone with a claim

Rubio says US not disputing report of Navalny’s fatal...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/15

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Sunday that Washington is “not disputing” a report by five European countries that imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was fatally poisoned with a rare frog “toxin”. Rubio said the report released on Saturday by Britain, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden was “very troubling”. Britain, which has outright blamed Russia for Navalny’s death, said it was considering new sanctions on Moscow as a result. Navalny, a staunch critic of...

Abuse survivor Pelicot says mindsets need to change...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/15

Mindsets need to change in the fight against sexual violence, according to Gisele Pelicot, who was repeatedly drugged, abused and offered to strangers for rape by her then husband over nearly 10 years. “I believe this can only be achieved through education and through respect and empathy for one another,” the 73-year-old French woman told the news portal of German public broadcaster ZDF in an interview published on Sunday. “We must continue this fight. We must not relent.” In 2024, Pelicot’s...

Did Hong Kong souvenir shop tread on IP rights with...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/15

A souvenir shop in Hong Kong has taken down lettering from its viral wall featuring designs nearly identical to MTR station signage amid concerns over possible trademark and copyright infringement. The MTR Corporation on Sunday declined to say whether the move by the Causeway Bay store was done at its request. The company “attaches great importance to the protection of intellectual property, which is safeguarded under the law of Hong Kong, and we shall act accordingly in the event of

UK’s Larry the cat, 19, marks 15 years, 6 PMs, as...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/15

Larry the cat is marking 15 years as the UK’s chief mouse catcher at the prime minister’s residence at 10 Downing Street, having served six prime ministers there. During his tenure, the 19-year-old tabby, officially known as the chief mouser to the Cabinet Office, has captured the hearts of the British public because of his frequent appearances outside the prime minister’s front door in central London. Larry was adopted from Battersea Dogs and Cats Home in February 2011, and was originally...

Early flower blooms in warm weather add to sellers’...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/15

Unusually warm weather in Hong Kong has forced flower sellers at Lunar New Year fairs to contend with premature blooms while also navigating a retail landscape where heavy foot traffic masked a tightening of local purse strings. On Sunday, the Observatory recorded a maximum temperature of 26.9 degrees Celsius (80.4 Fahrenheit) at its headquarters in Tsim Sha Tsui, matching the record set in 2010 for the same day in the lunar calendar. “Winter has become like summer, which is not a good...

Why Chinese navy still trails the US in high-stakes...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/15

China’s navy still lacks the advanced underwater equipment and operational readiness needed to effectively conduct salvage operations in the event of a carrier-based aircraft crash, a military magazine tied to the country’s largest state-owned shipbuilder has warned. According to an analysis published this month, Beijing risks exposing sensitive military technology if a carrier-borne aircraft crashes and the PLA Navy fails to secure or salvage the wreckage before rival forces reach the...

Israeli air strikes kill 11 in Gaza, say Palestinian...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/15

Israel fired air strikes across the Gaza Strip on Sunday, killing at least 11 Palestinians, Palestinian officials said, in what the military called a response to ceasefire violations by Palestinian militant group Hamas. Gaza doctors said an Israeli air strike on a tent encampment housing displaced families killed at least four people, while health officials said another strike killed five in Khan Younis in the south ‌and another person was shot dead in the north. Air strikes also targeted

As transatlantic divorce plays out in Munich, China...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/15

At a Munich Security Conference drinks reception last week, a seasoned Chinese delegate who has been coming to Bavaria for more than a decade said China had long felt like an observer on the periphery. China was mentioned mainly to be blamed, they said – but things flipped last year when, instead of taking Beijing to task, US Vice-President J.D. Vance targeted Europe. Later in the weekend, the event’s CEO Benedikt Franke praised the China Centre for Globalisation – a Beijing think tank – for...

EU ‘not ready’ to give Ukraine date for membership,...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/15

European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on Sunday she felt that EU governments were not ready to give Ukraine a date for membership despite a demand to do so from ‌President Volodymyr Zelensky. Zelensky repeated on Saturday that he needed a date as part of security guarantees for a final peace package with Russia. “My feeling is that the member states are not ready to give a concrete date,” Kallas told a panel at the Munich Security Conference. “There’s a lot of work to be...

Hong Kong’s success debunks the false binary of...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/15

As a long-time observer of Hong Kong affairs – and someone who cares deeply about the city – I have often felt that external debates about Hong Kong have been louder than careful assessments of how the city is actually evolving. Since the implementation of the national security law, discussion of Hong Kong has often become polarised. Less attention has been paid to outcomes and observable change. From where I stand, however, a clear shift is under way: the city has moved from prolonged...

UK doctor who led gender healthcare review says...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/15

The British expert who led a review into children’s gender healthcare says young people have been “weaponised” and misled about the realities of transitioning by social media. Hilary Cass, a doctor, whose review of National Health Service (NHS) gender care for under-18s led to sweeping changes including a ban on puberty blockers, welcomed the draft published by Britain’s Department for Education earlier this week but accepted it is impossible for it to be “completely foolproof”. Baroness Cass...

Hong Kong cyclist dies after crashing into kerb on...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/15

A cyclist has died after crashing into a kerb on Bride’s Pool Road, a notorious accident black spot, in Hong Kong’s Tai Po district on Sunday morning. Police said the 49-year-old rider sustained a head injury and lost consciousness after hitting the kerb on the road, near Wang Chung Stream, around 10.30am. He was rushed to Alice Ho Miu Ling Nethersole Hospital but was declared dead at 11.36am. A source said the victim had set off from Yuen Long at about 7.30am with five fellow cyclists,

China allows visa-free entry to British, Canadian...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/15

China has announced visa-free entry for Canadian and British nationals, leaving the United States as the only Five Eyes nation without this privilege. The new policy takes effect on Tuesday and will remain in place until the end of the year, according to the Chinese foreign ministry. Tuesday also marks the start of the Lunar New Year or Spring Festival, China’s biggest annual celebration marked by large-scale travel and family reunions. Announcing the move on Sunday, the ministry said

Could the US unlock China’s rare earths grip with AI...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/15

The route to challenging China’s supremacy in rare earth minerals lies in using artificial intelligence (AI) and quantum computing to create synthetic substitutes or alloys, according to a prominent American expert in AI. Jack Hidary, CEO of SandboxAQ, an AI and quantum technology Alphabet spin-off, said these technologies could cut the time required to secure critical materials to just a few years. This could bypass the traditional 10 to 20 years needed to bring a new mine online while also...

Russia seized 12 eastern Ukraine villages so far in...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/15

Russia’s army chief Valery Gerasimov visited Moscow’s troops in Ukraine and said the Kremlin’s forces seized a dozen eastern villages in February, the defence ministry said on Sunday. Gerasimov’s visit comes days before US-mediated talks with Kyiv in Geneva on ending almost four years of war and ahead of the fourth anniversary of Moscow’s full-scale offensive against Ukraine. “In two weeks of February, despite severe winter conditions, combined forces and military units of the joint task

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