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News - South China Morning Post

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Search continues in frigid Atlantic for 6 crew after...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/31

There was no mayday call from the commercial fishing vessel Lily Jean as it navigated the frigid Atlantic Ocean on Friday morning on its way home to Gloucester, Massachusetts, America’s oldest fishing port. The US Coast Guard was notified by the boat’s beacon that alerts when it hits the water. When rescuers arrived they found one person dead, floating in the water, along with a debris field and an empty lifeboat. Six people remain missing. The fate of the Lily Jean, a 22-metre (72-foot)

Hong Kong must keep cash buffer amid complicated...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/31

Hong Kong must maintain cash reserves to cope with geopolitical shocks and support long-term growth, even with a surplus expected in the government’s operating account this year, the financial secretary has said. Paul Chan Mo-po also said on Saturday that the city’s economy outperformed forecasts last year, lifted by strong exports to Southeast Asia and a booming financial market. On Friday, the government announced a surplus of HK$43.9 billion (US$5.6 billion) in its operating account, which...

China’s factory activity contracts in January on weak...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/31

China’s factory activity faltered in January as weak domestic demand dragged down production at the start of the new ‍year, an official survey showed on Saturday. The official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) dropped to 49.3 in January, from 50.1 in December, below the 50-mark separating growth from contraction. It missed a forecast of 50 in a Reuters poll of analysts. Sub-indexes of new orders and new export orders also saw declines, respectively, down to 49.2 from 50.8 ⁠in December and 47.8...

In 2006: Egypt bus tragedy leaves 14 Hong Kong...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/31

This story was published in the South China Morning Post on February 1, 2006 14 Hong Kong tourists die in Egypt crash by Staff Reporters Fourteen Hong Kong tourists died on Tuesday (January 31, 2006) when their speeding coach ran off a highway in southern Egypt and rolled over. The crash, one of the worst involving Hong Kong tourists, also left 30 injured, including the Egyptian driver. The Jetour Holiday group of 43 tourists, plus guides, were heading from the Red Sea resort of...

US defence strategy omission raises alarm in Taiwan...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/31

Taiwan’s absence from the United States’ newly released 2026 National Defence Strategy has fuelled fresh debate on the island over whether Washington is deliberately sidestepping Taiwan as it prioritises bigger interests with Beijing. The omission is in sharp contrast with earlier editions of the Pentagon’s quadrennial flagship strategy, which had explicitly referred to Beijing’s pressure on Taiwan and pledged support for the island’s asymmetric defence. The 2022 iteration mentioned the

Blooming good: where to find cherry blossoms in Hong...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/31

As spring approaches and temperatures begin to climb, Hong Kong’s cherry blossoms are preparing to burst into full bloom. Within the next week or two, Hongkongers can enjoy this spectacle without leaving the city. The South China Morning Post lists the best spots in the city to enjoy cherry blossoms and how to get there. 1. How to catch cherry blossoms near Hong Kong airport? The cherry blossom garden run by the Airport Authority has expanded with 39 new trees, bringing the total to

US approves US$16 billion arms sale to Israel, Saudi...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/31

The Trump administration has approved a massive new series of arms sales to Israel totalling US$6.67 billion and to Saudi Arabia worth US$9 billion. The State Department announced the sales to America’s allies in the Middle East late on Friday as tensions rise in the region over the possibility of US military strikes on Iran. They were made public after the department notified Congress of its approval of the sales earlier in the day. The sales also come as President Donald Trump pushes ahead...

How hair-raising prices for memory chips could take...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/31

In the world’s biggest wholesale electronics marketplace in the bustling Huaqiangbei district of the southern Chinese metropolis of Shenzhen, memory is the new gold. On a Tuesday in January, a merchant surnamed Ye held up a list of prices that looked more appropriate for luxury goods than humble computer parts. A pair of 32-gigabyte, 6000-megahertz Double Data Rate 5 (DDR5) memory sticks was priced at 6,878 yuan (US$990) – having shot up nearly fivefold since September. “In my over 10 years

As the US dollar weakens, all that glitters is gold

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/31

This year started with a bang – from the United States’ intervention in Venezuela and the investigation opened against US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell to US President Donald Trump’s renewed claims on Greenland and the potential for US action following instability in Iran. Amid these crises, gold prices are now over US$5,500 per ounce, up over 27 per cent from the price on January 1. This comes after the price of gold jumped by 65 per cent in 2025 after soaring by 27 per cent in...

Venezuela proposes to free hundreds of prisoners,...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/31

Venezuela’s interim president Delcy Rodriguez ‌on Friday announced a proposed “amnesty law” for hundreds of prisoners in the country, and said the infamous Helicoide detention centre in the capital Caracas, which rights groups have long denounced as the site of prisoner abuse, would be converted into a centre for sport and social services. “May it be a law that serves to heal the wounds left by political confrontation, violence and extremism. May it serve to restore justice in our country and...

‘Rampant like a pandemic’: why Hongkongers struggle...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/31

Hongkonger Chan Shuk-wah feels exhausted by the constant ringing of her phone. On any given weekday, nearly all of the calls lighting up her phone are from unknown numbers – as many as a dozen each day, mostly selling health checks or pushing loan applications. The relentless calls have disrupted her professional life as a logistics company manager and as the only child of two elderly parents, both approaching 80. “These cold calls are just rampant, like a pandemic. I’m exhausted because I

As Canada and UK hit refresh on China ties, is this...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/31

In the first few weeks of this year alone, the leaders of two of the five “eyes” in the world’s oldest intelligence-sharing alliance signalled they were ready to rethink their relationship with China. First came Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and then this week it was the turn of his British counterpart, Keir Starmer. And in both cases, the visits have prompted warnings from US President Donald Trump. As Western economies grapple with the unpredictability and at times hostility of the

China recruiter slammed for telling candidate no...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/31

A recruiter from a major state-owned insurance company sparked controversy by telling a job candidate that they did not deserve weekends off because they only held a bachelor’s degree. The incident came to public attention on January 18, when a jobseeker from Urumqi, in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region of northwestern China, revealed details of the interview online. The applicant said that a recruiter on the job platform Boss Zhipin, a publicly listed Chinese company specialising in

Quadriplegic man in China runs a smart farm with just...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/31

Li Xia suffers from an incurable genetic disease that has left him paralysed from the neck down.Yet the 36-year-old has overcome the odds by setting up a mini farm that he cultivates from inside his home in China.

As Thailand election looms, voters seek national...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/31

It was a policy meant to ignite a golden age of infrastructure development and put Thailand at the heart of Southeast Asia’s trade and investment for decades to come. Three years – and three prime ministers – after it was first proposed, a multibillion-dollar “landbridge” across Thailand’s southern neck to slash transport times between Asia’s main shipping lanes has now hit a dead end, entangled in the kingdom’s intractable political crisis. As Thais prepare to vote on February 8 for yet

US man escapes execution for dumping girl, 5, to be...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/30

The man who dumped a five-year-old girl in the Everglades – leaving her to be killed by alligators – had his life spared by a jury on Friday afternoon in a Miami-Dade courtroom. Harrel Braddy, 76, sat quietly when the verdict was read, briefly putting down his head before looking up at the ceiling. His eyes appeared to water. Braddy hugged his lawyers as the jury walked out of the courtroom. The girl’s mother, who testified about the horrific details of Braddy’s attack, was not in the...

US likely averts major government shutdown by...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/30

The US is poised to avoid a major shutdown after senators agreed on Friday to separate a controversial bill funding the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from a package that also includes funding for the State Department and the Pentagon. The House, which is out of session this week, will still need to approve the package before it can be signed into law, meaning that there will be at least a brief funding lapse after current funding expires on Friday. But the chamber is expected to move

How will China respond as US expands foreign ship...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/30

China is expected to look for ways to protect its maritime interests in the face of increasingly assertive efforts by the United States to seize foreign ships it accuses of breaching sanctions on countries such as Iran and Venezuela. In November, a cargo ship travelling to Iran from China was reportedly raided by a US special operations team in the Indian Ocean near Sri Lanka and its cargo of dual military-civilian use goods confiscated. It was the first known US interception of outbound

Ex-Google engineer Ding Linwei convicted of stealing...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/30

Former Google software engineer Ding Linwei was convicted by a federal jury in San Francisco ‌on Thursday of stealing AI trade secrets from the US tech ‍giant to benefit two Chinese companies he was secretly working for, the US Department of Justice said on Thursday. Ding, a 38-year-old Chinese national, was found guilty after an 11-day trial ⁠of seven counts of economic espionage and seven counts of theft of trade secrets for stealing thousands of pages of confidential information. Each...

When in doubt, EU leaders dig an even bigger hole

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/30

Three news items caught my eye over the past few days. The European Union is finally ready to totally ban the import of Russian natural gas. (You mean they have still been buying Russian gas?) The new National Defence Strategy put out by the Pentagon says the United States will de-prioritise Europe – which must address its own regional security needs – and focus on deterring China. And former German chancellor Gerhard Schröder wrote a piece in a newspaper that ended up drawing a lot of flak

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