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News - South China Morning Post

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What happens in Hong Kong’s top court, hidden in...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/08

People who passed by Hong Kong’s Christmas Town attraction at Statue Square Gardens in Central over the past month or so may have noticed that one of the buildings onto which cascading festive animations were projected was slightly more historic than the others. That building, which is a declared monument, houses the Court of Final Appeal (the “Court”). The Court is the final appellate court within Hong Kong’s judicial system. After the High Court and the Court of Appeal, it provides a second...

How China’s history links military strength to...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/08

For China’s leadership, the most urgent lesson of modern military power comes not from a foreign manual but from its own history books. Its catastrophic defeat by Japan in 1895, born of internal corruption, forms the invisible backdrop to every Chinese showcase of modern hardware. The recent live-fire drill around Taiwan code-named Justice Mission 2025 – a forceful display of Beijing’s resolve to achieve reunification and deter any challenge to its core interests – was no exception. To

Netflix launches in Hong Kong in 2016 – from the SCMP...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/08

This article was first published on January 8, 2016 By Nikki Sun and Ben Westcott Netflix enters HK pay TV market with bargain offers Internet streaming pioneer Netflix has rolled out its over-the-top (OTT) service in Hong Kong for as low as HK$63 a month hoping to making inroads into the city’s pay TV market. Hong Kong is among 130 new markets – which exclude the mainland - in which the company rolled out the service yesterday (January 7, 2016), taking the total to 190 countries. OTT...

DeepSeek to customise namesake chatbot for Italian...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/08

Chinese artificial intelligence firm DeepSeek has agreed to launch the first country-specific version of its namesake chatbot, while tackling the problem of “hallucinations” in its AI models to meet the requirements of regulators in Italy. DeepSeek assented to the package of commitments after a months-long negotiation with the Italian Competition Authority, known as the AGCM, which had earlier accused the Hangzhou-based start-up of not sufficiently warning users in the country about the risk

‘Hold on tight’: China woman wins 22 pig-catching...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/08

A woman from rural China has astonished netizens by taking part in 26 pig-catching competitions in a single year, successfully catching 22 pigs with her bare hands, including one that weighed 73kg. The woman’s fear was revealed during a recent rural fun sports event in Majiang county, Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture in Guizhou province, southern China. Wen Fengqin, 31, attracted attention after she successfully caught a 38kg pig in a pig-catching competition and took it...

Privacy risks to early users of PayMe mobile wallet...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/08

Hong Kong’s privacy watchdog is investigating risks to early users of HSBC’s popular PayMe mobile app after the Post discovered some remain unaware their personal details may have been exposed. The Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data (PCPD) told the Post on Monday that the compliance review would “look into all relevant issues, including the vulnerability of legacy users and the need for in-app prompts”. The watchdog said the bank must ensure the highest level of privacy...

Chinese drug makers strike a record US$136 billion in...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/08

Chinese drug makers’ licensing deals more than doubled in 2025 from a year earlier to a record high, propelled by dozens of multibillion-dollar agreements between Hong Kong and mainland China-listed firms and global pharmaceutical giants. Last year, 157 out-licensing deals worth US$135.7 billion were signed, compared with 94 transactions worth US$51.9 billion in 2024, state media reported, citing data released by the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA), China’s drugs regulator,

Trump calls for US$1.5 trillion in military spending,...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/07

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday proposed setting US military spending at US$1.5 trillion in 2027, citing “troubled and dangerous times”. Trump called for the massive surge in spending days after he ordered a US military operation to capture Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro and spirit him out of the country to face drug trafficking charges in the United States. US forces continue to mass in the Caribbean Sea. The 2026 military budget was set at US$901 billion. The United States was

China Vanke offshore bondholders face near wipeout in...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/07

Offshore bondholders of distressed developer China Vanke could face near-total losses in a worst-case scenario, according to Barclays, underscoring the deepening risks in mainland China’s property sector. In a base-case scenario, bondholders may recover just 10.1 per cent of what they were owed, roughly half what already deeply distressed market prices suggested, the British bank said in a report. However, in a worst-case scenario, assuming lower proceeds from onshore assets and netting out...

Trump pulls US out of dozens of international...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/07

The Trump administration will withdraw from dozens of international organisations, including the UN’s population agency and the UN treaty that establishes international climate negotiations, as the US further retreats from global cooperation. US President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed an executive order suspending US support for 66 organisations, agencies and commissions following his instructions for his administration to review participation in and funding for all international...

Korean peninsula arms race is heating up. How will...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/07

As the new year unfolds, China finds itself grappling with strategic pressures fuelled by two US treaty allies at its doorstep – Japan and South Korea. In the second of a two-part series, Seong Hyeon Choi looks at how competing pressures in the Korean peninsula may complicate China’s security calculus. Read the first part here.In 2025, there was a major shift in China’s security environment relating to the Korean peninsula, as the North grew more open in its push for nuclear weapons and the...

As denuclearisation stalls, China will shape...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/07

At the recent South Korea-China summit, both sides agreed to improve dialogue, rebuild trust and promote regional peace and stability, marking a first step towards a normalisation of relations. While the Beijing meeting produced no concrete agreement for peace on the Korean peninsula, it reaffirmed the peninsula’s stability and peace as a common interest – paving the way for cooperation. The prolonged stalemate over North Korea’s nuclear programme is no longer just a diplomatic impasse. The...

Lawyer for Rob Reiner’s son Nick withdraws, delaying...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/07

The high-profile private lawyer for Nick Reiner was granted a request to be removed from his case Wednesday, but later told reporters that according to California law his client is not guilty of murder in the killing of his parents, Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner. “Circumstances beyond our control and more importantly circumstances beyond Nick’s control have dictated that, sadly, it’s made it impossible to continue our representation of Nick,” lawyer Alan Jackson said as he stood with

Trump plots to buy Greenland, as Nato ally Denmark...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/07

US President Donald Trump is considering making an offer to buy Greenland, the White House said on Wednesday, despite the island’s people and controlling power Denmark making clear they are not interested. Trump has repeatedly refused to rule out force to seize the strategic Arctic island, prompting shock and anger from Denmark and other long-standing European allies of the United States. After a request from Copenhagen, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he would soon hold discussions

BYD’s win, Tesla’s defeat, Ford’s pivot: gap widens ...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/07

After years of competing head-to-head with China in electric vehicles, the United States is now widely seen as falling behind – a reality increasingly acknowledged even within Detroit. When asked about the topic recently on a podcast, US carmaker Ford’s own CEO said: “There’s no real competition from Tesla, GM or Ford with what we’ve seen from China. It is completely dominating the EV landscape globally and more outside China.” For much of the past decade, the global electric vehicle market

ICE agent shoots US woman dead during Minneapolis...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/07

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed a Minneapolis motorist on Wednesday during the Trump administration’s latest immigration crackdown on a major American city – a shooting that federal officials claimed was an act of self-defence but that the city’s mayor described as “reckless” and unnecessary. The shooting happened in a residential neighbourhood south of downtown Minneapolis, just a few blocks from some of the oldest immigrant markets in the area and 1.6km (a

US won’t rule out pressuring Venezuela to curb China,...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/07

The White House on Wednesday stopped short of denying reports that the United States has urged Venezuela to cut ties with adversaries such as China, Russia and Iran, but emphasised Washington’s determination to maintain “American dominance” in the western hemisphere and all decisions made by Caracas will be “dictated” by the US. During a media briefing, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt cited frequent leaks coming out of classified briefings and stated she would “not confirm or deny or get

Canada’s Carney to meet Xi in China, as Trump tariffs...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/07

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney will make an official visit to China next week as his government tries to rebuild relations with the Asian superpower and reduce Canada’s economic reliance on the US. Carney is set to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping during the visit and will have discussions on trade, energy, agriculture and international security, his office said Wednesday. It will be the first trip to China by a Canadian prime minister in nearly a decade, after a diplomatic row was...

AI deepfakes flood social media after dramatic US...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/07

From AI deepfakes to recycled, outdated images, a surge of visual misinformation has inundated social media platforms after US forces seized Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro in a stunning raid on his Caracas home.Collectively racking up millions of views, the fake or misleading posts underscore a new digital reality in which hyperrealistic misinformation competes for attention with – and often drowns out – authentic images and videos following major news events. Soon after Maduro’s capture,...

Will Donald Trump’s threats to Greenland help bring...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/07

Donald Trump’s renewed threats to take over Greenland could pose a direct challenge to China’s ambitions in the Arctic, but some observers say it may also open the door to increased cooperation with Europe. Following the abduction of Venezuela’s former leader Nicolas Maduro, the White House swiftly turned its attention towards the self-governing Danish territory, adding that “of course, utilising the US military is always an option at the commander-in-chief’s disposal”. On Sunday, the US...

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