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Pakistan to play in T20 World Cup but will boycott...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/02

Pakistan’s government says the national cricket team will be allowed to take part in the coming T20 World Cup but must boycott its group game against arch-rival India. India and Sri Lanka are co-hosts for the 20-team tournament, which starts on Saturday. Pakistan will play all its games in Sri Lanka – including any in the knockout stage – because of political tensions with India. The two teams are scheduled to meet in a Group A game in Colombo on February 15 in what is often a tournament...

Seat belt U-turn in Hong Kong another case of...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/02

People generally don’t like change. But if you have ever had to take the worst seat on a bus – lower deck, last row, middle seat – then you would have probably put on the seat belt to avoid being catapulted down the aisle should the driver slam on the brakes. And if you’re on the upper deck and the only available seats are in the front row, then again, you would buckle up, to avoid going through the window in an accident. A responsible person would wear a seat belt when sitting anywhere in

China girl, 7, cares for dad alone as he fights heart...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/02

A seven-year-old girl in northeastern China who single-handedly took care of her sick father in hospital has melted the hearts of millions of internet users. San Mengru attracted considerable attention online after a man, surnamed Pei, who was caring for his own father in the bed next to the girl’s father, released a video about her on January 18, the local news outlet Kanqi News reported. The girl’s father, who is in his 40s, was admitted to the Qiqihaer No 1 People’s Hospital in

Japanese researchers unmask hidden bias against...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/02

Voters are less likely to support female politicians when they are wearing face masks, while there was no such effect for their male counterparts, according to a study by a Japanese university research team. The findings, published last month ahead of Sunday’s general election, underscored the differences in how the public perceived politicians following the Covid-19 pandemic, when wearing masks became more common for politicians across the world. “Differences in how masked faces are

55% plunge in new hires as Hong Kong graduates face...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/02

University graduates in Hong Kong are facing the gloomiest employment market since 2021, with the number of available jobs plunging by 55 per cent in 2025 and the average salary of new hires increasing by only 0.5 per cent year on year. A veteran human resources consultant attributed the sharp fall in entry-level jobs, which require significant investment and mentorship, to the rise of artificial intelligence and the uncertain economic outlook. According to data from the Joint Institution Job...

Trade war, global instability push de-dollarisation...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/02

Interest in de-dollarisation has spiked in Chinese academic and policy circles, as Beijing grows increasingly wary of the United States’ potential to weaponise its currency. The surge has been most visible in the volume of research. A search by the South China Morning Post on China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), one of the country’s largest academic research databases, showed the number of papers on the subject more than doubled from 2023 to 2025 compared with the preceding three...

Fundraising hauls show RNC vastly outpacing Democrats...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/01

The Republican National Committee has vastly outpaced Democrats in the crush for cash ahead of the midterm elections, holding a nearly US$100 million advantage at the close of 2025, according to year-end filings to the Federal Election Commission (FEC). As Democrats have struggled in the Trump era, the RNC tallied $172 million raised in 2025, with US$95 million cash on hand at year’s end. In contrast, the Democratic National Committee posted US$145 million for the year, with US$14 million on...

K-pop Demon Hunters song Golden earns first K-pop Grammy

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/01

The 68th annual Grammy Awards are taking place on Sunday at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, and spirits were high from the jump after a few back-to-back, history-making moments. “Golden” from K-Pop Demon Hunters won best song written for visual media, marking the first time a K-pop act has won a Grammy. The songwriters delivered their acceptance speech in both English and Korean, highlighting the song’s bilingual appeal. Best music film went to the documentary Music by John Williams,

Lawrence Lau on why China must ‘work smarter’ and how...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/01

Lawrence J. Lau is a Hong Kong economist specialising in economic development and East Asian economies. He was a professor of economics at Stanford University before serving as vice-chancellor and president of the Chinese University of Hong Kong until 2010. Lau has held the Ralph and Claire Landau Professor of Economics chair at the university since 2007. This interview first appeared in SCMP Plus. For other interviews in the Open Questions series, click here. What is your take on China’s

US-China rivalry: great powers that don’t make things...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/01

As global trade fragments and tariffs return, economic power is increasingly defined not by financial scale alone, but by productive strength. At the World Economic Forum in Davos last month, leaders spoke openly about a harsher world order. Chinese Vice-Premier He Lifeng warned that trade wars have no winners. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called for a new security architecture amid rising protectionism. French President Emmanuel Macron described a world becoming more...

It’s ‘raining Iguanas’ in Florida as record cold snap...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/01

Iguanas stunned by cold temperatures dropped from trees in usually balmy Florida on Sunday as icy conditions blasted southern US states, dumping nearly a half metre of snow in some areas and whipping up high winds that caused traffic chaos. The heaviest snows were reported in North Carolina - a state that rarely sees snow other than in its highest elevations. The city of Lexington saw 40cm (16 inches), and Faust in the state’s Walnut Mountains got 56cm (22 inches). State Governor Josh Stein...

Trump hopeful of deal after Iran’s top leader warns...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/01

US President Donald Trump on Sunday said he was hopeful of agreeing a deal with Iran after the country’s supreme leader warned that any US attack on the Islamic republic would trigger a regional war. Following the Iranian authorities’ deadly response to anti-government protests that peaked last month, Trump has threatened military action and ordered the dispatch of an aircraft carrier group to the Middle East. Iranian Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Sunday likened the recent protests

Screenwriter of Oscar-nominated Iranian film arrested...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/01

One of the Oscar-nominated screenwriters of the Iranian drama It Was Just an Accident has been arrested in Tehran just weeks before the Academy Awards. Representatives for the film on Sunday said Mehdi Mahmoudian was arrested on Saturday. No details on the charges against Mahmoudian were available but his arrest came just days after Mahmoudian and 16 others signed a statement condemning Islamic Republic leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the regime’s violent crackdown on demonstrators. Two

Russian drone strike on bus in Ukraine kills 12...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/01

A Russian drone strike on a bus carrying miners ‌killed at least 12 people, Ukrainian officials said on Sunday, hours after President Volodymyr Zelensky announced new peace talks amid uncertainty over a Russian suspension ‍of attacks on energy infrastructure. First Deputy Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said the strike in the southeastern Dnipropetrovsk region was a “cynical and targeted” attack on energy workers. Their employer DTEK said the victims were finishing a shift. Kyiv is under US...

Child detained by ICE in raid returns to Minnesota...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/01

Five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father have returned to their home in a Minneapolis suburb after ‍being detained by US immigration officers and held at a detention facility in Texas, a lawmaker said on Sunday. A federal judge on Saturday ordered the release of Adrian Conejo Arias and his son, whom immigration officers detained during a Minnesota raid. US Congressman Joaquin Castro, a Texas Democrat, wrote in ⁠a social media post that he picked them up on Saturday night at the

US partial government shutdown likely until at least...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/01

US House ‍Speaker Mike Johnson said on Sunday he believes he has the Republican votes to end a partial government shutdown within days and that the chamber will debate Immigration and Customs Enforcement reforms for two weeks after that. “I’m confident that we’ll do it at ⁠least by Tuesday. We have a logistical challenge of getting everyone in town,” Johnson said on NBC’s Meet the Press. Transport problems are persisting following a snowstorm that affected travel in the southeastern US. The...

Former UK ambassador quits Labour Party after latest...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/01

Former British ambassador to Washington Peter Mandelson quit the Labour Party Sunday, seeking to avoid causing it “further embarrassment” after newly released US documents revived scrutiny of his connection to late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Mandelson, 72, who was sacked as Britain’s ambassador to the United States last year over his ties to Epstein, allegedly received several payments from Epstein in the early 2000s, according to documents released on Friday by the US Department of

Nigerian army kills top Boko Haram commander, 10...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/01

The Nigerian army said on Sunday it killed a top commander of Boko Haram and 10 members of the Islamic extremist group in a night raid in the northeastern part of the country. Abu Khalid, a commander of Boko Haram in the Sambisa Forest in Borno state, was a key figure within “the terrorist hierarchy, coordinating operations and logistics in the Sambisa axis,” army spokesman Sani Uba said in a statement. The soldiers attacked the Boko Haram militants on Saturday night in the Kodunga area of

62% of Hong Kong Zoomers fear they can’t compete with...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/01

More than 60 per cent of Hong Kong Zoomers fear they cannot compete with rapidly advancing AI in the workplace, a survey has found. The survey by the Chinese YMCA of Hong Kong also showed about 30 per cent of respondents did not know how to use artificial intelligence (AI) tools, while only 11.5 per cent considered themselves “very familiar” with the technology. The young members’ council under the Chinese YMCA interviewed 1,178 Hongkongers aged between 15 and 30 – commonly known as

Japan’s Takaichi seeks mandate, improved majority...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/02/01

Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party, led by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, has extended its lead from last week in a new poll on the race ahead of the February 8 election, with 36.1 per cent backing the party, up 6.9 percentage points, the survey showed on Sunday. The Centrist Reform Alliance, a new major opposition force, was second with 13.9 per cent, up 2.0 points. At the single-constituency level, the survey conducted over two days from Saturday showed that 44.0 per cent would vote

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