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Israel adds US$10 billion to its war chest with...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/03/30

Israel’s parliament approved the country’s 2026 budget early Monday, providing for a significant increase in military spending as the country remains engaged in wars on multiple fronts. Lawmakers passed the budget with 62 votes in favour and 55 against. The vote averted an automatic government collapse and snap election that would have followed failure to pass the budget by March’s end, under Israeli law. The proposed total expenditure budget for 2026 amounts to around 850 billion Israeli...

Observatory cancels amber rainstorm warning at 11am...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/03/30

This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing. The Hong Kong Observatory has cancelled an amber rainstorm warning after heavy rains across the city. The warning was issued at 10am on Monday and cancelled an hour later. An amber rainstorm warning indicates heavy and persistent rain exceeding 30mm (1.2 inches) an hour falling over Hong Kong. “An area of intense thundery showers is affecting the vicinity

‘Lighthouses in space’: the Chinese jam-proof...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/03/30

Chinese researchers say they have built an 11-satellite network for a jam-resistant, high-accuracy optical navigation system, designed to provide positioning where GPS is unavailable or disrupted, from self-driving cars and drones to deep-space missions. Optical navigation has also been used in the ongoing US-Israeli war with Iran, helping drones developed by companies such as Asio Technologies and General Atomics operate in environments where GPS signals are jammed. While positioning systems...

What makes Yuanjie – a Chinese optical chip star and...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/03/30

Yuanjie Semiconductor Technology, a Chinese maker of laser chips for optical communications, has emerged as one of the mainland exchanges’ biggest beneficiaries of the artificial intelligence infrastructure boom – with its shares rising nearly ninefold over the past year as it pursues a Hong Kong listing. The Shaanxi-based integrated device manufacturer, whose shares closed at 1,100 yuan on Friday, now ranks second by share price among mainland-listed companies, trailing only Kweichow Moutai

New constitutional affairs chief Janice Tse to lead...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/03/30

The newly appointed Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Janice Tse Siu-wa will prioritise formulating Hong Kong’s first five-year plan, the city’s leader has said, citing her rich experience in government as a key strength. “She is the best candidate among all as she has a solid foundation in working and communicating with the civil servants, and the network she established with the Legislative Council will be good for pressing ahead with the five-year plan,” Chief Executive

Northern Metropolis data hub may surpass MTR Corp as...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/03/30

A planned supercomputing hub in Hong Kong’s Northern Metropolis could overtake the MTR Corporation rail operator as the city’s single largest electricity consumer, prompting a green group and experts to call for setting energy efficiency standards to limit the sector’s carbon emissions. According to The Green Earth’s estimates, the new project – set to begin operating in 2029 – could increase the industry’s annual carbon emissions by about 70 per cent compared with current levels. Experts

Hong Kong-listed Insilico Medicine signs AI drug...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/03/30

Insilico Medicine has signed a potential multibillion-dollar deal with Eli Lilly to license out an early-stage drug pipeline and provide its artificial intelligence platform services in research and development collaborations. Under the agreement announced on Monday, US-headquartered, Hong Kong-listed Insilico will receive an upfront payment of US$115 million. The deal could have a total value of around US$2.75 billion tied to development, regulatory and commercial milestones, plus tiered...

Australian police killer shot dead after 7-month manhunt

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/03/30

Australian police said on Monday that they shot dead a fugitive gunman wanted for killing two officers, ending a seven-month manhunt for one of the country’s most-wanted criminals. Desmond Freeman fled into dense bushland in August last year after shooting and killing two police officers on a rural property in Victoria state. For the past seven months, hundreds of police have pursued Freeman through the region’s rugged terrain, pouring resources into one of Australia’s largest-ever

China woman spends US$1,700 to enrol dog in school...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/03/30

A young Chinese woman has spent an eye-watering 12,000 yuan (US$1,700) to enrol her six-month-old Samoyed in a dog kindergarten due to her busy work schedule. The woman opted for a package that includes personality testing, behaviour training, social activities and even a school bus for pickup and drop-off. The woman, who uses the pseudonym Taotao, was born in the 1990s, and is based in Shanghai. She said that due to a lack of time to provide enough companionship, she enrolled her

Hong Kong on ‘yellow alert’, Kadoorie says, as Middle...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/03/30

The conflict in the Middle East has triggered a global energy crisis that serves as a “yellow warning” for Hong Kong, which so far has escaped the severe impact seen elsewhere, tycoon Michael Kadoorie has said. “At this point, I think we’re very lucky. Now we touched on the story of fuel. It may impact us. It does already send a warning light,” the CLP Group chairman said. “So you have your traffic lights red, yellow and green. Well, we’re yellow. We’re not at red, but we have to think ahead

Sketching a recovery: China’s art market puts...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/03/30

China’s art market is showing tentative signs of recovery despite economic pressures, according to UBS, which cited rising participation from the next generation of wealthy families. “We have been seeing a rebound, with more trips for auctions and purchases [in China],” said Amy Lo Choi-wan, chairman of UBS Global Wealth Management Asia and CEO of UBS Hong Kong, in an exclusive interview with the South China Morning Post. “So I am optimistic.” Despite a prolonged property downturn and weak...

Hong Kong can draw on Art March’s success by keeping...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/03/30

Last week, a friend and I chatted about our children’s favourite art pieces after happening upon an auction house’s exhibition in a building in the heart of Hong Kong’s business district. We both recalled stopping to look at Yayoi Kusama’s Mount Fuji prints. “I pass by the space twice every day,” my friend said. She told me that my son’s pick – a piece by Sam Francis – was a new installation, replacing what had been a display of handbags. How often do we pause to notice art, or enjoy life in...

Why revived China-Philippine talks won’t lead to...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/03/30

Maritime tensions between China and the Philippines are likely to persist despite Manila’s call for energy cooperation, Chinese observers said after revived diplomatic talks on the weekend. Senior diplomats from the two countries met in the Chinese city of Quanzhou on Friday and Saturday for two rounds of talks, covering a range of issues from oil and gas cooperation in the South China Sea to renewable energy and coastguard communication. The foreign ministry consultations were held for the...

War on Iran is about to make clothes more expensive....

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/03/30

Planning to update your wardrobe this summer? Industry insiders have some advice: do it soon. By the time autumn collections hit the racks, the aftershocks of war on Iran may have quietly picked your pocket. Clothing manufacturers and industry analysts are warning consumers to budget for price increases of 10 to 15 per cent as South Asia’s US$50 billion garment export industry reels from a cascade of war-driven shocks. Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz has choked natural gas supplies to...

Hong Kong restaurateurs revamp traditional dining as...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/03/29

Hong Kong’s traditional Chinese dining landscape is undergoing a structural overhaul, with a leading restaurant operator pivoting to experiential dining and smaller footprints amid a wave of closures and residents heading across the border for shopping and dining. Traditional dim sum and Chinese restaurants have been closing across the city, including three Star Seafood Restaurant branches in districts such as Wong Tai Sin, and the 35-year-old Metropol Restaurant in Admiralty. Martin Lee,

US to allow Russian oil tanker to reach Cuba in...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/03/29

US President Donald ⁠Trump signalled he was reversing course on blocking oil shipments to Cuba on Sunday, saying he had “no problem” with any country sending in crude as a Russian tanker neared a Cuban port with a badly needed shipment. A sanctioned Russian vessel, part of the country’s “shadow fleet”, was just off the coast of eastern Cuba on Sunday, according to ship tracking data, and was expected to reach port on Monday, ‌a lifeline for the country’s economy that has nearly ground to a

Li Ka-shing’s CK Life unit eyes China fast track for...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/03/29

CK Life Sciences, a unit of Li Ka-shing-backed CK Group, plans to bring its cancer vaccine candidates to mainland China through a “fast track” channel as Beijing moves to accelerate early-stage drug development. “We are planning to run investigator-initiated trials [IITs], hopefully, in the next year,” CK Life Sciences’ vice-president and chief scientific officer Dr Melvin Toh Kean-meng said in a recent interview. His comments came as CK Life Sciences set up Sequencio Therapeutics in Hong

European countries appeal to Israel to abandon plans...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/03/29

Four European countries have called on Israel to abandon a bill seeking to revive the death penalty for people convicted of acts of terrorism, a measure opponents say would target only Palestinians. In a joint statement on Sunday ahead of an anticipated final vote in the Knesset on Monday, foreign ministers from France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom expressed their “deep concern” about the bill. “The death penalty is an inhumane and degrading form of punishment without any deterring...

Why Kenneth Rogoff thinks China’s yuan will be a...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/03/29

Professor Kenneth Rogoff of Harvard University has repeatedly warned that the US dollar is approaching a crisis of legitimacy. Having written extensively on the global recession in the late 2000s, Rogoff has turned his focus to the US currency’s increasingly unstable place at the top of the world’s financial hierarchy. A former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund and a chess grandmaster, he published Our Dollar, Your Problem in May last year. In this interview, Rogoff

UK’s PM Starmer to host industry leaders for Middle...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/03/29

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will on Monday convene senior government and military officials alongside energy, shipping, finance and insurance sector leaders to discuss the Middle East war, his office said late on Sunday. The round table meeting in Downing Street will examine the impact of Iran’s effective closure of the vital Strait of Hormuz, which has driven up oil prices and costs in various sectors around the world. Participants will include representatives from energy giants

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