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Trump’s White House revises India trade deal,...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/11

The White House revised its fact sheet on the US-India trade agreement to adjust language around agricultural goods, adding to confusion about the deal already raised by farmer groups. In a revised statement, the US removed a reference to pulses – a staple food in India that includes lentils and chickpeas – and changed some phrasing around India’s offer to buy more American goods. An earlier version on Monday released by the White House said India would “eliminate or reduce tariffs” on a wide...

Cold shoulder? China and EU in diplomatic stand-off...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/11

As a flurry of European leaders flock to China, a different diplomatic dynamic has taken shape in Brussels, exposing deep-seated problems in the relationship between the EU and China. Several sources described a deliberate slowing of high-level appointments with Chinese diplomats in the Belgian capital – an effort to reciprocate the lack of access EU diplomats receive in Beijing. In the Chinese capital, the EU ambassador, Jorge Toledo, has been effectively frozen out of meetings with relevant...

China official dies after horse riding accident while...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/11

The death in a horse riding accident of a Chinese government official while filming to promote the beauty of a local area has sparked heated online discussions about the phenomenon of “official influencers”. On January 11, He Jiaolong fell from a horse while filming for an agricultural e-commerce programme in the Bortala Mongolian Autonomous Prefecture in Xinjiang, northwestern China, and suffered a severe head injury. She was rushed to hospital but died from her injuries on January 14. She

Vote recount calls grow in Thailand amid claims of...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/11

Allegations of irregularities in Thailand’s election – including vote-buying, uncounted ballots and tallies greater than the names on electoral lists – have gathered momentum, increasing the pressure on polling authorities to hold recounts. Protests across the country have been aimed squarely at the Election Commission (EC). While any potential recounts are unlikely to change the overall result of Sunday’s election, they threaten to slow the formation of a new government. Sunday’s vote saw...

Australia presses Israel’s Herzog for criminal...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/11

Australia is demanding criminal charges over a 2024 Israeli air strike on an aid convoy in Gaza that killed seven people, including an Australian aid worker, the country’s prime minister said on Wednesday in a case that has drawn sweeping condemnation and strained relations between the two countries. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he conveyed the request to visiting Israeli President Isaac Herzog during a meeting earlier in the day. Australian Zomi Frankcom was one of four World Central...

China, India find common cause in push for multipolar...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/11

India and China opened a new round of strategic dialogue as US tariffs on their exports spur the two Asian giants to broaden global trade ties and move beyond past disputes. Both countries “uphold the strategic perception that China and India are cooperative partners instead of rivals”, China’s foreign ministry said in a statement after Tuesday’s meeting in New Delhi between Executive Vice-Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu and Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri. “China and India should deepen

As Asia faces falling birth rates, AI’s rise...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/11

As Asia grapples with falling birth rates, analysts warn that the rise of artificial intelligence may be making the problem worse, putting pressure on workers to upgrade their skills and posing a distraction to families after office hours. Fertility rates across the region have fallen to some of the lowest levels in the world, well below the generally accepted replacement rate of 2.1 children per woman needed to keep a population stable over time. This decline largely stems from financial...

Hong Kong fugitive’s father guilty of trying to cash...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/11

The father of a wanted Hong Kong activist has been convicted under the city’s domestic national security law for trying to cash out an insurance policy worth more than HK$88,000 in his daughter’s name. West Kowloon Court on Wednesday convicted Kwok Yin-sang of attempting to deal with the financial assets of US-based activist Anna Kwok Fung-yee, despite knowing authorities had classified her as an absconder under the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance. The defendant, 69, is the first

South Koreans swap ancestral rites for Japan getaways...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/11

For many South Korean families, traditional holiday gatherings may be getting smaller this Lunar New Year, but suitcases are getting bigger. More than half of flight searches this holiday are for Japan, signalling a sharp shift away from the domestic travel boom that defined the holiday last year. Flight search data from Skyscanner shows Japan accounts for 51.6 per cent of all Lunar New Year holiday queries by South Korean travellers, with Fukuoka leading at 23.3 per cent, followed closely by...

After solar panels and EVs, is overcapacity coming...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/11

As we get ready for the Year of the Horse, preparations for the Spring Festival Gala, the most important event on China’s television calendar, are well under way. Most viewers will see choreography, spectacle and national pride – as well as humanoid robots. Policymakers and markets, however, should see something else: a carefully staged signal of how China’s political economy is positioning for the next cycle of industrial overcapacity – and its global consequences. The gala has become a...

China sends envoy to Libya after embassy shuttered...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/11

China has appointed a new ambassador to Libya after its embassy in Tripoli reopened in November, more than a decade after it was shuttered over security concerns. Ma Xueliang’s appointment was confirmed when he met Libyan charge d’affaires Khaled al-Sayeh in Beijing on January 27 in his new capacity before he left for Tripoli, according to the state-owned Libyan News Agency. China had closed its embassy in Tripoli in 2014 and moved its diplomatic mission to Tunisia because of the security...

Viral assault video in Singapore prompts Philippines...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/11

The Philippines is considering legal action against a man accused of assaulting a Filipino woman at a shopping centre in Singapore after a video of the incident went viral online. Footage circulated on social media shows the suspect accosting the woman before kicking her as both lose balance and fall to the ground. He quickly springs up and delivers another kick to the woman’s face. Shocked onlookers rush to intervene, with one of them hurling a shopping basket at the man. It was unclear if

Captain pleads not guilty to damaging Baltic Sea gas...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/11

The captain of a Hong Kong-flagged container ship has denied responsibility for severing a critical Baltic Sea gas pipeline linking Estonia and Finland three years ago. Wan Wenguo, 43, from mainland China, pleaded not guilty at Eastern Court on Wednesday to one count of criminal damage relating to the severed section of the 77km (47.8-mile) Balticconnector, a natural gas pipeline that supplies Finland, and to a nearby telecommunications cable linking Finland and Estonia. The damage allegedly...

Time called on happy hour as French wine and spirit...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/11

French wine and spirits exporters saw their worst results since the Covid-19 pandemic last year, as companies were buffeted by stormy trade relations between China and the US, two of the industry’s biggest overseas markets. “It’s weighing on everyone’s morale,” said Gabriel Picard, president of the French Federation of Wine and Spirit Exporters (FEVS), during a press conference in Paris on Tuesday where he presented the annual figures. France exported a total of €14.3 billion (117.5 billion...

Hong Kong may set limit of 2 dogs per diner under new...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/11

Hong Kong authorities are considering allowing a maximum of two dogs per diner into restaurants licensed under a new pet-friendly policy, with the permits possibly being granted only to larger premises at the outset. A day after authorities told lawmakers that they had no intention of setting limits on the number of dogs per customer allowed into restaurants, Secretary for Environment and Ecology Tse Chin-wan said on Wednesday that the government was reconsidering the matter after receiving...

Capital injection: China backs AI drug makers in...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/11

China’s state-backed investors are stepping up funding for artificial intelligence-driven drug developers as Beijing pushes for technological self-reliance, with at least one company already advancing an AI-designed therapy into late-stage clinical trials. Hangzhou-based METiS TechBio, founded in 2020, raised 400 million yuan (US$57.9 million) in series D financing in August last year, led by the Beijing Medical and Health Industry Investment Fund and the Daxing Industrial Investment Fund –

China exit of top German lingerie brand shows women...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/11

German lingerie brand Triumph, which left the mainland Chinese market recently, has ignited a social media discussion about the rising trend of women opting for comfort instead of beauty when it comes to underwear. December 31, 2025, marked the last day of the 139-year-old lingerie brand’s time in mainland China. It announced its withdrawal in November and closed all its bricks-and-mortar and online shops within a month. Many people believe the exit resulted from the brand’s failure to keep

Man dies after being thrown from taxi in crash near...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/11

A passenger who was not wearing a seat belt died after being ejected from a taxi that collided with a highway maintenance vehicle en route to the Hong Kong airport, the South China Morning Post has learned. Police said they received a report at 9.46am on Wednesday from a cabby who claimed his New Territories taxi had collided with a road-maintenance shadow vehicle while travelling along the North Lantau Highway towards Hong Kong International Airport at a stretch of road opposite Citygate in...

Colombia’s president says he escaped assassination...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/11

Colombian President Gustavo Petro said on Tuesday he had escaped an assassination attempt hours earlier, after months of warnings about an alleged plot by drug traffickers to target him. On Monday night, Petro’s helicopter was unable to land at his destination on the Caribbean coast because of fears that unspecified people “were going to shoot” at it, he said. “We headed out to open sea for four hours and I arrived somewhere we weren’t supposed to go, escaping from being killed,” Petro said in

WuXi Biologics earnings jump as ‘follow and win the...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/11

WuXi Biologics expects a sharp rise in full-year earnings for 2025, forecasting a 46.3 per cent increase in profit as it secures more projects across the drug development value chain, from discovery through to manufacturing. In a positive profit alert filed with the Hong Kong stock exchange on Wednesday, the company said profit attributable to equity shareholders would reach about 4.91 billion yuan (US$710 million), while revenue is set to climb 16.7 per cent to 21.79 billion yuan. Shares

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