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News - South China Morning Post

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US military laser tech and cartel drones stir...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/12

For a few hours on Wednesday, the sleepy airport of El Paso, Texas, became a sudden flashpoint for confusion. Late Tuesday night, the Federal Aviation Administration issued a terse notice to pilots that airspace in the area would close - for an unprecedented 10 days - due to “special security reasons”. And then almost as suddenly, the FAA lifted the restrictions on Wednesday morning. Conflicting accounts of what prompted the action in the first place quickly emerged. Trump administration...

Hong Kong’s ‘Queen of Votes’ ran one of the cheapest...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/12

Hong Kong’s “Queen of Votes” Christine Fong Kwok-shan ran one of the most cost-effective campaigns in the Legislative Council election, spending an average of just HK$20 per vote, the South China Morning Post has found. An SCMP review of the election spending declarations by 32 candidates who contested directly elected seats also found that some candidates spent up to 10 times more than others in terms of average cost per vote, with Jeffrey Chan Chun-hung from local think tank the PoD

Is Indonesia’s tourist visa scheme vulnerable to...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/12

The arrest of nearly 40 Indian nationals in Bali for allegedly running an online gambling operation has renewed concern about Indonesia’s tourist visa regime, which analysts warn is vulnerable to abuse by foreign criminal groups posing as travellers. The case highlights the scale of Indonesia’s struggle against online gambling, an industry that authorities say continues to generate billions of rupiah in transactions each month despite repeated crackdowns. Bali police said the suspects entered...

‘The Trump factor’: why China may benefit as...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/12

As the global financial landscape shifts and policy uncertainty grows in the United States, China is likely to emerge as an increasingly attractive destination for foreign investors seeking to diversify away from dollar-denominated assets, according to a veteran Singaporean investor. US President Donald Trump’s push for a weaker dollar, together with recent volatility in gold, silver and cryptocurrencies, has prompted a reassessment of traditional safe havens, positioning China as a potential...

1 runner resuscitated, more hospitalised during 2006...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/12

This article was first published on February 13, 2006. By Andy Cheng and Alvin Sallay Pollution takes its toll on marathon Twenty-two people were sent to hospital yesterday, two remaining in critical condition last night (February 12, 2006), after taking part in Hong Kong’s biggest marathon amid the worst air pollution since September. Many of the record 40,000 runners complained the “choking air affected their performance in the 10th annual Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon,

Malaysian minister slams rude staff hindering...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/12

Some public and private sector employees need a change of attitude if Visit Malaysia 2026 (VM2026) is to succeed, according to Tiong King Sing. The tourism, arts and culture minister said he has received numerous complaints from both foreign and domestic tourists about the rudeness they faced when making inquiries. “Some officers think they have a lot of power. But when people don’t understand certain issues, we must explain,” Tiong said when launching the Mesra Malaysia campaign in KL

How Hong Kong law deals with the complicated matter...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/12

One of the rewarding aspects about practice at the Hong Kong Bar is that one gets to learn many new things. Conducting litigation well involves delving deep into the relevant facts. We therefore get to learn about different industries and different trust or corporate structures all the time. By the same token, doing divorce cases often requires us to study the background to a divorce, and how a family has conducted itself in the lead-up to the breakdown of a marriage. There is some truth in...

One-size-fits-all retirement age for civil servants...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/12

Hong Kong’s pressing demographic challenges demand tailored, well-considered civil service policies. However, the proposal put forward in recent Legislative Council debates on population policy to raise the retirement age for all civil servants to 65 offers no viable solution to these issues. This one-size-fits-all approach overlooks the civil service’s flexible retirement frameworks and works against the government’s goals of streamlining and modernising the public sector. It risks

World-leading computational biology pioneer Bao...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/12

After 30 years in the United States, world-leading computational biologist Bao Zhirong has taken up a full-time position at the Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech) in Shenzhen. Bao, who pioneered imaging technologies that allow scientists to track the behaviour of individual cells in real time as organs form and diseases emerge, has been a chair professor at SUSTech’s life sciences school since January, according to his new faculty profile. He was previously at New York’s...

Chinese man loses US$130,000 on lottery tickets, sues...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/12

A man in China, who spent 900,000 yuan (US$130,000) on losing lottery tickets in a single month, has sued the sales agent and the lottery management centre, demanding they return his wager with interest. The case has captivated mainland social media after the Baohe District People’s Court of Hefei, central Anhui province, rejected the man’s request earlier this month. According to a report by Anhui Business News, the man, surnamed He, who lives in Hefei, bought numerous tickets in September

Social workers struggle with stress, ‘indefinite’...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/12

Government social workers supporting survivors of Hong Kong’s deadly Tai Po fire are struggling to manage their “indefinite” duties, with poor communication about new initiatives compounding the stress of their already heavy caseloads. Several social workers, including a union leader, told the South China Morning Post that they needed clarity from authorities on their roles and duties to better manage public expectations and ensure relevant agencies, such as the Housing Bureau, could help...

Is Japan’s new opposition alliance already ‘dead in...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/12

Japan’s fledgling opposition alliance is scrambling to regroup after a bruising election defeat that has left its future in doubt, raising broader questions about whether the country can sustain a credible parliamentary counterweight to the long-dominant Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). The Centrist Reform Alliance (CRA) is set to elect a new leader on Friday, just days after voters delivered a resounding blow in Sunday’s House of Representatives poll, prompting the resignation of its joint...

Dawson’s Creek star James Van Der Beek dead at 48

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/11

James Van Der Beek, the star of 1990s ⁠teen drama Dawson’s Creek, died ⁠on Wednesday at the age of ⁠48 after a battle with cancer, his wife announced on social media. “Our beloved James David Van Der Beek passed peacefully this morning. He met his final days with courage, faith, and grace,” his wife, Kimberly, said. Fans and fellow ‌actors shared tributes on social media, recalling the influence he had on their lives and careers. “While James’ legacy will always live on, this is a huge loss

Trump faces rare pushback within his party over...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/11

President Donald Trump faced noteworthy pushback over his signature tariff policy in the US Congress this week as his popularity slipped and more lawmakers in his party appeared willing to risk his wrath. While the pushback is unlikely to result in any immediate concrete change to his aggressive tariff policy, which has roiled markets and upended global supply chains, it represents a striking challenge for a president who has lashed out at critics and otherwise maintained an iron grip on his...

China vows to ‘do what it can’ as US blockade leaves...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/11

China will support Cuba “in the best way possible” as the island grapples with an energy crisis following tougher measures imposed by US President Donald Trump’s administration, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson confirmed on Wednesday. Speaking at a regular press briefing in Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said China “will do what it can” to assist Havana and again condemned what he described as “inhumane actions that deprive the Cuban people of their right to survival

Canadian school shooter identified as 18-year-old...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/11

The suspect ⁠in a deadly school shooting in western Canada was an 18-year-old with mental health issues ⁠who killed her mother and stepbrother before attacking her former school, police said on Wednesday, but investigators did not offer a motive for one of the worst mass slaughters in Canadian history. The killer, who police identified as Jesse Van Rootselaar, died by suicide after the shooting on Tuesday in Tumbler Ridge, a remote community of 2,400 people in the Pacific province of British...

Bully vs sovereignty: how Manila and Beijing are...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/11

The South China Sea continues to act as a lightning rod for competing claims among regional powers. In the final of a three-part series, Fan Chen investigates how Beijing is responding to the wake-up call on what is needed to win the narrative battle. For previous articles, click here and here. A video shared by the Philippine coastguard gained wide attention in December. It showed a ship from its Chinese counterpart deploying water cannon towards a smaller vessel, but the footage was used to...

China confirms it is talking to US about Trump visit...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/11

China has confirmed that discussions were under way about US President Donald Trump’s planned visit in April, when sources said the two sides were expected to extend their current trade truce by up to one year. Lin Jian, a foreign ministry spokesman, said President Xi Jinping had repeated an invitation to Trump to visit when the pair spoke by phone last week. “The two sides are in communication on this,” Lin added, stressing the importance of talks between the two heads of state. The two

How Takaichi’s landslide victory will reshape...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/11

Japan’s House of Representatives election on February 8 delivered more than a decisive result. It produced a domestic political configuration with direct and lasting consequences for Sino-Japanese relations. The scale of the Liberal Democratic Party’s (LDP) victory under Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has altered both Tokyo’s internal balance of power and the incentives shaping Japan’s strategic posture towards China. The LDP secured 316 seats in the election, surpassing the two-thirds

China’s Zhipu AI launches new major model GLM-5 in...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/11

Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) company Zhipu AI has launched its latest flagship model, the GLM-5, with a leap in coding capabilities amid a heated race among Chinese tech firms to roll out major new models ahead of the Spring Festival holiday. Zhipu AI, known internationally as Z.ai, said that the GLM-5 represented a shift in AI development from “vibe coding” to “agentic engineering” – AI-automated coding at a larger scale – thanks to its latest model’s enhanced performance. The

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