PODCAST

News - South China Morning Post

All the latest breaking news from Hong Kong, China and around the world

All Episodes

China tutoring school’s promotion links civil service...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/10

A Chinese civil service exam tutoring company has sparked controversy by claiming that they can help clients pass the test and then demand an additional 200,000 yuan (US$29,000) in bride price. On December 28, a netizen posted a video claiming that a civil service exam tutoring institution in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, northern China, had used a controversial banner to promote its business. The Inner Mongolia branch of Beijing Chongzheng Education Consulting Co., Ltd., was established in October...

Housing anxiety impeding Hong Kong fire trauma...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/10

Anxiety over housing has hindered the psychological healing of residents affected by the deadly Tai Po fire, mental health professionals have said, as Hong Kong authorities begin polling flat owners on their preferences for long-term resettlement. The inferno that broke out on November 26 at Tai Po’s Wang Fuk Court claimed 161 lives, injured 79, and displaced almost 5,000 residents, most of whom are now living in hotels, youth hostels or transitional housing. The government said on Friday

Trump says protest-hit Iran in ‘big trouble’, again...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/09

US President Donald Trump said on Friday that Iran, faced with major protests, was in “big trouble” and again warned he could order military strikes. “Iran’s in big trouble. It looks to me that the people are taking over certain cities that nobody thought were really possible just a few weeks ago,” Trump said. Protests have taken place across Iran for 13 days in a movement sparked by anger over the rising cost of living that is now marked by calls for the end of the clerical system that has...

US government abandons plan to blacklist Chinese-made...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/09

The US Commerce Department has revoked a plan to slap restrictions on Chinese drones, originally proposed to address national security concerns, the latest example of the Donald Trump administration avoiding actions that might fuel tensions ahead of a planned summit between Trump and President Xi Jinping this spring. “This decision underscores President Trump’s desire to sustain the trade framework that he and President Xi approved this past October and ensure a cordial meeting between the

How PLA could use ‘decapitation’ strike to counter...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/09

Taiwan’s asymmetric warfare plan – also known as the “porcupine” strategy – could pose a significant threat to a PLA campaign against the island, a mainland Chinese military magazine has warned. But the People’s Liberation Army could counter that strategy with an American-style “decapitation” strike, according to the article in the November issue of Naval and Merchant Ships. It analysed how the porcupine strategy played out in Taiwan’s annual military exercise in July – known as Han Kuang –...

Northern Metropolis can combine best of central...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/09

The Northern Metropolis is in the news almost every day. The big policy focus for the administration, it is determining a new future for Hong Kong. Part of the New Territories, which were dubbed “a land between” in the 1980s, the area was once little more than a rural leftover between urban Hong Kong and the mainland, where Shenzhen’s paddy fields could be seen from a Lok Ma Chau hill. China’s opening-up policies saw Deng Xiaoping promoting Shenzhen in the 1990s. Suddenly, a world-class,...

Video shot by ICE agent as he killed Minnesota woman...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/09

The White House on Friday reposted on social media a new video taken ‌from the cellphone of the immigration officer who fatally shot a Minnesota woman in her car this week, adding to the documentation of an incident that has sparked days of nationwide protests. The 47-second video shows 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good ‍telling the officer, “That’s fine, dude, I’m not mad at you,” moments before he opens fire after Good puts the car in gear in an apparent effort to pull back into the street. The...

Trump says Colombia’s Petro to visit US, in abrupt...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/09

US President Donald Trump said on Friday that Colombian President Gustavo Petro, a leftist his administration has long belittled, will visit the White House next month as he voiced optimism for ties. Trump just days ago had threatened Petro in the wake of the US attack that removed Venezuela’s leader, but Trump appeared to have a change of heart after the two spoke by telephone on Wednesday. “I look forward to having a meeting with Gustavo Petro, the President of Colombia, in the White House,...

Swiss bar owner put in pre-trial detention over...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/09

Switzerland held a national day of mourning on Friday for the 40 people who died in an Alpine bar fire during a New Year’s Eve celebration, as prosecutors requested that one of the managers be placed in pre-trial detention. Valais region’s chief prosecutor Beatrice Pilloud said in a statement the detention of the man was needed to avoid a “risk of flight”. The man’s wife and co-manager will remain free under judicial supervision, the statement said. A Swiss business register lists French

Online predator ‘White Tiger’ on trial in Germany...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/09

A German juvenile court started the so-called “White Tiger” trial on Friday in which a man is accused of multiple sadistic online crimes including coercing a 13-year-old to take his own life. The 21-year-old German-Iranian defendant was attacked on Thursday by other detainees shouting “White Tiger” while he was being transferred for the trial, his lawyer Christiane Yueksel told reporters outside the courtroom in Hamburg. The defendant has been only partially identified as Shahriar J, in line...

Trump says will get Greenland ‘easy way’ or ‘hard...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/09

US President Donald Trump ramped up his rhetoric over Greenland on Friday, saying he was willing to secure the territory “the hard way” if authorities were unwilling to cut a deal for the US to take over the island. “I would like to make a deal, you know, the easy way. But if we don’t do it the easy way, we’re going to do it the hard way,” Trump told reporters Friday at the White House. While Trump has long mused about making Greenland a part of the US, claiming the Danish territory as a...

Hong Kong hospital A&E department visits fall 12%...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/09

Visits to accident and emergency (A&E) departments at Hong Kong’s public hospitals have dropped by nearly 12 per cent since a new pricing regime took effect, while the number of people benefiting from fee waivers has tripled. The Hospital Authority said on Friday that in the first week after the new fees regime was implemented on New Year’s Day it had seen a “significant decrease” in average daily A&E attendance, while more low-income families and underprivileged groups were being...

Argentina repays US emergency loan, boosting Trump’s...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/09

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced on Friday that Argentina has fully repaid an emergency currency loan that generated “tens of millions” in profit for American taxpayers while stabilising a key regional ally. In a social media post, Bessent praised Argentinian President Javier Milei’s economic reforms and said the successful intervention showed that US President Donald Trump’s “Peace Through Economic Strength” policy was at work in Latin America. Argentina faced a severe liquidity...

Trump-Xi diplomacy put to test thanks to tit-for-tat...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/09

In 2025, even as US President Donald Trump sought to stabilise trade ties with Beijing, two Republican-led states were moving in the opposite direction, securing nearly US$50 billion in federal lawsuits for what they say was economic damage caused by China’s deliberate stripping of US hospitals and businesses of essential Covid-19 supplies. Using a new reading of the “commercial activity” exception to a 50-year-old US law that generally blocks lawsuits against foreign governments, a federal...

Hourly services at first automated Hong Kong public...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/09

Hourly services at Hong Kong’s first automated public car park have partially resumed following a suspension of operations for an urgent system update just two days after its debut. In a reply to the Post, the Architectural Services Department said on Friday that hourly parking services for larger vehicles had resumed at noon, while those for private cars would begin again shortly. The department said it was aware of the instability of the car parking system on Tong Yin Street in Tseung Kwan

Trump ‘cancelled’ second attacks on Venezuela after...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/09

US President Donald Trump said on Friday he called off a second wave of attacks on Venezuela after the government, whose leftist president was removed by Washington, began releasing prisoners. Trump made the comments as he prepared to meet major oil corporations that he said will invest at least US$100 billion in Venezuela, which has the world’s largest oil reserves. Trump was implicitly making clear he is ready again to use force to get his way in Venezuela, which he has vowed to force to...

El Nino could cost Hong Kong US$300 billion and...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/09

Extreme weather brought about by the El Nino phenomenon could cost Hong Kong as much as US$300 billion over the 21st century, according to a joint study by local and Singapore universities. The study also painted a bleak picture for public health, finding that Hongkongers born during the two strong El Nino events in 1982-83 and 1997-98 could have their life expectancy reduced by five to seven months. Led by Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University in collaboration with City University...

US job growth slows amid AI boom and tariff caution,...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/09

US job growth slowed more than expected in December amid business caution about hiring because of import tariffs and rising artificial intelligence ‌investment, but the unemployment rate dipped to 4.4 per cent, supporting expectations the Federal Reserve would leave interest rates unchanged ‍this month. Nonfarm payrolls increased by 50,000 jobs last month after rising by a downwardly revised 56,000 in November, the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) said on Friday. Economists...

The great chip leap: China’s semiconductor equipment...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/09

China’s drive for chip manufacturing equipment self-sufficiency advanced so rapidly in 2025 that even the country’s planners were caught by surprise, as the ratio of domestically developed semiconductor equipment surged to 35 per cent by the year’s end, up from 25 per cent in 2024. The ratio was higher than Beijing’s target of 30 per cent, set in early 2025 to encourage China’s semiconductor industry to favour local suppliers over US rivals such as Applied Materials, Lam Research and KLA,...

US House lawmakers abandon bid to bring back...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/09

Following months of opposition from the Asian-American community, US House lawmakers on Thursday removed a provision from a bill aimed at restarting the China Initiative, a programme that unfairly targeted Chinese-American researchers. Last September, the proposal to “direct the re-establishment of the China Initiative” was included as a measure to “counter China and maintain America’s competitive edge” in the financial year 2026 appropriations bill approved by the House Committee on...

21,911 results