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Syria to select post-Assad parliamentary members in...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/10/05

Syria will select members of its first post-Assad parliament on Sunday in a process criticised as undemocratic, with a third of the members appointed by interim leader Ahmed al-Sharaa. The assembly’s formation is set to consolidate the power of Sharaa, whose Islamist forces led a coalition that toppled long-time ruler Bashar al-Assad in December after more than 13 years of civil war and five decades of one-family rule. According to the organising committee, more than 1,500 candidates – just

Hong Kong shipper Wah Kwong joins push for greener...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/10/05

Hong Kong shipping firm Wah Kwong Maritime Transport has teamed up with a European partner to build shoreside power-supply projects in China and North Asia to capture opportunities from tightening emission regulations at ports. Wah Kwong last month formed a 50-50 joint venture with NatPower Marine, a developer of maritime energy-transition projects that is part of Luxembourg-based renewable energy firm NatPower Group. The venture aims to form partnerships to build and operate grid-connected...

Hong Kong man rescued after falling into sea from...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/10/05

A man was rescued after falling into the sea from a yacht in Hong Kong on Saturday evening after becoming intoxicated during a party on board while a No 3 signal was in effect for Typhoon Matmo. Police received a report that a man had fallen into the sea at 10.08pm on Saturday near Sam Ka Tsuen pier in Lei Yue Mun. The 45-year-old, surnamed Lau, was rescued by firefighters and rushed to United Christian Hospital in Kwun Tong for treatment. He was unconscious at the time. According to the

China’s gold fever: record prices spark excitement...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/10/05

With gold prices dancing near a never-before-seen US$3,900 an ounce, Chinese investors and consumers are finding themselves caught up in a whirlwind of excitement and trepidation – frustrated by missed opportunities, wary of the record-high rally, and scrambling to decide whether to buy, sell or hold their glittering assets. After topping US$3,800 an ounce for the first time last week in a surprise surge that has continued this week, gold is keeping market participants on their toes. Yue, a...

Hong Kong lowers storm warning to T1, but more than...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/10/05

This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing. More than 100 flights were expected to be disrupted in Hong Kong on Sunday due to Typhoon Matmo, with up to 27 potentially cancelled, according to the Airport Authority. The Observatory downgraded the No 3 typhoon warning to the No 1 standby signal at 3.40pm on Sunday as Matmo moved away from the city. “With Matmo departing, the weather will improve over

Spirit of Hong Kong Awards: innovator uses AI to help...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/10/05

Hong Kong innovator Lamia Sreya Rahman has led the way in creating an AI-powered wearable device to ensure people with visual impairments, such as her father and neighbours, can navigate the world with dignity. Rahman, co-founder of AI start-up Seekr, said most assistive devices for the visually impaired focused on technology over dignity. “I spoke to people with visual impairment, and they told me clearly they dislike carrying around or wearing bulky devices that make them feel stigmatised,”...

AI safety isn’t a barrier to innovation, it’s the key...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/10/05

Debates are raging around the world about how artificial intelligence should be developed. Some are calling for strengthened guardrails to guarantee the powerful technology is developed safely, while others argue that doing so would risk kneecapping a fast-moving industry. But that is a false dichotomy, according to Jack Jiang, an innovation and information management professor at Hong Kong University (HKU) Business School. He said AI safety and development are two sides of the same coin

All-round approach needed as Hong Kong classrooms...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/10/05

Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu’s latest policy address may prove to be a watershed moment for Hong Kong’s education system. Among several measures, one stands out as transformative: the decision to raise the cap on non-local students from 40 per cent to 50 per cent of the student body. This is more than a technical adjustment. It signals Hong Kong’s intent to position itself as an international education hub, opening its classrooms to the world. This is an extraordinary turn for a city that...

Nets v Suns in Macau: tracing the NBA’s rise, fall...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/10/05

Hongkonger Wilson Tsang Wai-shun began following basketball in secondary school, a time when the National Basketball Association (NBA) experienced one of its fastest expansions, acquiring both fortune and fame with fans. While much of that was down to the likes of global superstar Michael Jordan, in China, the sport had by then been popular for decades. But then NBA commissioner David Stern’s initial 1987-88 agreement to broadcast games on China Central Television, around the time Jordan was...

China slams toys featuring Japan’s notorious WWII...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/10/05

A social media account run by China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has strongly criticised the production and sale of toys depicting Japan’s World War II biological warfare unit, accusing them of promoting a distorted version of history. “On issues of national sentiment and historical justice, there is no room for opportunism or ambiguity,” the account named Junzhengping said in a post on Thursday. It was referring to several building block sets sold on Chinese e-commerce platforms that

China girl falls and lands on awning, rescued by...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/10/05

A four-year-old girl miraculously survived a 20-storey fall from a residential building thanks to a heroic neighbour six floors below who grabbed her before pulling her to safety. On September 16, Wu Yumei, a mother of two living on the 14th floor of a residential block in Lengshuijiang, Loudi, Hunan province in central China, was preparing dinner when she suddenly heard a loud noise outside her window. Wu discovered a young girl, estimated to be four years old, trapped on the 13th floor

China’s AI research prowess is proof of global...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/10/05

The belief that China is a country only good at adopting technologies at scale has been a “misperception”, according to the author of The New Geography of Innovation, a recently published book that maps the rise of new tech powers around the world excluding the US. “The geography of innovation is shifting”, the book, which came out in July, concluded. Covering tech start-ups across China, the UK, Singapore and Canada, among other countries, author Mehran Gul said China today “is the only...

Trump to send National Guard to Illinois, as he puts...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/10/04

US President Donald Trump authorised 300 National Guard troops for deployment to Illinois, over the objection of state officials, as part of his campaign to use state troops to aid federal officers conducting immigration arrests. “President Trump will not turn a blind eye to the lawlessness plaguing American cities,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said on Saturday. The order signals an escalation in the administration’s focus on Chicago, where Immigration and Customs Enforcement...

Lithuania’s Vilnius airport reopens after suspension...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/10/04

Lithuania reopened to air traffic at its largest and busiest Vilnius airport early on Sunday after several hours of flight suspensions and diversions over balloons possibly flying in its airspace, the airport’s operator said. European aviation has repeatedly been thrown into chaos in recent weeks by drone sightings and air incursions, including at airports in Copenhagen and Munich. Air traffic at Vilnius was restored at 4.50am local time (9.50am Hong Kong time) on Sunday after a decision was...

US retreat from UN may create ‘tremendous...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/10/04

After a week-long gathering of leaders at the UN General Assembly in New York, its president struck a positive tone on Monday. Annalena Baerbock, the former German foreign minister, said there was a collective will to “choose the right path at the crossroads”. “If high-level week is any indication, this house is fulfilling that purpose – the United Nations is still relevant,” she said. But 23 years after Kofi Annan spoke of the UN’s “fork in the road”, when he was secretary general, the...

Israeli strikes kills dozens in Gaza despite Trump’s...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/10/04

Dozens were killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza on Saturday, local health officials said, despite a demand from US President Donald Trump for Israel to stop bombing in response to a declaration by Hamas that it was ready to free hostages under his plan to end the two-year-old war. With ceasefire talks due to begin in Egypt in the coming week, Trump said on Saturday on social media that Israel had agreed to an “initial withdrawal line” inside Gaza and that “when Hamas confirms, the Ceasefire

Chinese military’s new underwater unmanned systems...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/10/04

A Chinese military journal has described the People’s Liberation Army’s latest underwater unmanned systems as “disruptive” and highlighted their intelligent capabilities. According to Ordnance Industry Science Technology, the unmanned submersibles showcased during the large-scale military parade held in Beijing on September 3 possessed “zero-radius turning manoeuvrability”, enabling them to “operate with ease in complex maritime environments”. An author writing in the journal’s latest issue...

China’s J-16 expelled 2 foreign stealth fighter jets...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/10/04

China has disclosed an incident last year in which one of its J-16 aircraft locked onto and expelled two unnamed foreign stealth fighter jets of a type that has not appeared near the country’s coastal waters since. State broadcaster CCTV on Friday aired an interview with Li Chao, a pilot from the People’s Liberation Army’s Western Theatre Command, who recounted the event that happened during a coastal training exercise last year. Without naming any country, Li said the foreign forces had

Hong Kong set for cheaper, fresher hairy crabs as...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/10/04

Hongkongers will be able to enjoy cheaper, fresher hairy crabs following the resumption of direct imports of the seasonal delicacy from mainland China after six years, with sellers and industry representatives expecting a jump in demand and sales. The Environment and Ecology Bureau said on Saturday that more directly imported hairy crabs were expected to enter Hong Kong soon after the first two batches of 300kg in total had been shipped to the city from Jiangsu province, home to some of the...

Czech Republic’s ‘Trumpist’ ex-PM wins election,...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/10/04

The party of billionaire ex-premier Andrej Babis topped the Czech general election on Saturday with 97 per cent of the vote counted, according to official results. His ANO (Yes) party, campaigning on pledges of welfare and halting military aid to Ukraine, scored 35.2 per cent of the vote in a country of 10.9 million people. The Together grouping of outgoing Prime Minister Petr Fiala came second with 22.9 per cent, ahead of its coalition partner STAN with 11.1 per cent. A total of six parties...

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