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Junta leader declared winner of Guinea’s presidential...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/31

Junta leader General Mamady Doumbouya was declared the winner of Guinea’s presidential election held over the weekend, according to incomplete results released late on Tuesday, the country’s first election since a 2021 coup. Doumbouya won 86.72 per cent of the votes counted so far, according to the General Directorate of Elections. Ahead of the vote on Sunday, analysts had predicted that a weakened opposition would result in Doumbouya’s win. The election was widely seen as a means to

Beijing shipping leader joins Hong Kong liaison...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/31

Beijing has appointed a top executive of a state-owned shipping giant – which is eyeing a major stake in Hong Kong conglomerate CK Hutchison’s stalled global ports sale – as a deputy director at its liaison office in the city. Executive vice-president Zhang Yong from Cosco Shipping Group will replace deputy director Qi Bin, who was appointed last November, according to the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security’s announcement on Wednesday. The liaison office’s website was updated on

China’s DRAM giant CXMT plans US$4.2 billion IPO on...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/31

CXMT Corporation, parent of Chinese memory chip giant ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT), aims to raise 29.5 billion yuan (US$4.2 billion) from an initial public offering in Shanghai to fund technology upgrades, as Beijing presses ahead with its drive for tech self-reliance amid geopolitical tensions. The Shanghai Stock Exchange received CXMT’s application for a listing on the Nasdaq-style Star Market, a filing on the bourse’s website showed on Tuesday night. This marks a critical step

Hong Kong to step up inspections as new smoking bans...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/31

Hong Kong authorities will ramp up inspections at bus stops and tourist spots starting on Thursday, when new rules banning smoking while queuing or near designated facilities take effect. Some residents told the Post on Wednesday that they were aware of the new measures, while a number of visitors in Tsim Sha Tsui who were less informed also said they would comply. Tobacco and Alcohol Control Office head Manny Lam Man-chung said that authorities would step up inspections with the aim of...

China’s factory activity breaks 8-month contraction,...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/31

China’s factory activity returned to expansionary territory in December – beating market expectations to end an eight-month contraction – but analysts said it might be premature to view the rebound as a sign of sustained stabilisation. The manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) stood at 50.1 in December, up from 49.2 the previous month, according to data released on Wednesday by the National Bureau of Statistics. The reading exceeded a projection of 49.6 from economists polled by the...

China builds a record-breaking hypergravity machine...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/31

China is set to break its own record in hypergravity research with a colossal new centrifuge that can spin multi-tonne samples at unmatched intensities. The machine, known as CHIEF1900, was built by Shanghai Electric Nuclear Power Group and shipped to Zhejiang University in eastern China on December 22 for installation. Once up and running, it will allow researchers to compress space and time, recreating catastrophic events such as dam failures and earthquakes inside a laboratory, according

Airbus scores major win in China with orders for 145...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/31

European aviation giant Airbus won another two major orders from Chinese clients for a total of 90 A320neo aircraft on Tuesday, just a day after receiving orders for 55 passenger jets of the same model from two other Chinese airlines. The orders came weeks after Airbus’ CEO accompanied French President Emmanuel Macron on a state visit to China and mark a big win for the European manufacturer over its American competitor Boeing in one of the world’s biggest aviation markets. Air China,

X-rays free, A&E to cost more: the Post breaks down...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/31

Hong Kong will overhaul public hospital fees from January 1 to ensure the sustainable development of its healthcare system amid challenges from an ageing population. Authorities estimate the increased fees could generate an additional HK$3 billion (US$385 million) a year, with the extra revenue earmarked to support patients facing financial hardship or critical illnesses. The government also plans to gradually reduce the public healthcare subsidy rate from 97.6 per cent to 90 per cent by...

Xi renews call to boost grain output after trade war...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/31

President Xi Jinping has issued a mandate to expand grain production as China moves to shield its food supply from global volatility, calling for renewed efforts to modernise agriculture and rural areas over the coming year. Speaking at a two-day work conference in Beijing that ended on Tuesday, Xi urged a “no-relaxation” approach to grain output and called for higher overall production capacity and efficiency by integrating high-quality land, seeds, machinery and farming techniques. “We must...

Be a potato: the lesson of the resilient staple...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/31

As families and friends gather to bid farewell to a turbulent 2025, the unassuming potato will, no matter where you live, almost certainly find its place on the dinner table. Domesticated nearly 10,000 years ago in Peru, it did not voyage beyond the Americas until the 16th century. Yet no vegetable has played a more significant role in human history and politics than this humble tuber. Dubbed the calorie king, potatoes produce more calories and nutrients per unit of land than any other major...

China mum jailed for accidentally killing daughter...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/31

A mother in southern China has been handed a legal punishment after she accidentally killed her daughter while performing an “exorcism” ritual on her. According to a recent report by Shenzhen Municipal People’s Procuratorate, a court in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, gave the mother, surnamed Li, a three-year jail term suspended for four years in July. Li and her two daughters had been obsessed with superstitious practices that involved telepathy and medication. They had been constantly having...

Low-income patients call for more help as steeper...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/31

Hong Kong’s public hospitals will raise a range of charges from January 1, while anxious lower-income patients who face higher bills but do not qualify under new fee waiver thresholds are calling for more government help. From Thursday, patients will need to pay more in general, but the safety net will also be widened to support the neediest, with an annual HK$10,000 cap on medical fees introduced and the current fee waiver scheme expanded to cover an extra 1.1 million people. However, some...

US Nato envoy casts doubt on Russian claim Ukraine...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/30

US ambassador to Nato Matthew Whitaker cast doubt on Tuesday on Russia’s accusation that Ukraine attacked President Vladimir ‌Putin’s residence, saying he wants to see US intelligence on the incident. “It is ‍unclear whether it actually happened,” Whitaker told Fox Business’ Varney & Co chat show in an interview about an alleged incident which Ukraine has denied. “It seems to me a little indelicate to be this close at a peace deal, Ukraine really ⁠wanting to get a peace deal done, and then to

China-founded Tripo AI updates 3D content creation...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/30

China-founded start-up Tripo AI on Tuesday launched a major update to its flagship platform, renamed Tripo Studio 1.0, that speeds up artificial intelligence-driven 3D content creation by up to 200 per cent compared with its previous version, as the company’s international user community continues to expand. A pioneer in large-scale, general-purpose 3D models, Tripo AI’s user base has more than doubled to 6.5 million from 3 million in August, company founder and CEO Simon Song Yachen told the...

Students join protests in Iran as economic hardship...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/30

Iranian students staged street protests in Tehran on Tuesday, a day after the capital’s shopkeepers demonstrated against economic hardship and won a message of understanding from the president. According to Ilna, a news agency associated with Iran’s labour movement, protests erupted at 10 universities across the country, including seven in Tehran that are among the country’s most prestigious. Protests also broke out at the technology university in the central city of Isfahan and institutions

‘No fixed cultural identity’: new Chinese-American...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/30

American novelists Ken Liu and Rebecca F. Kuang were the undisputed stars of the annual Singapore Writers Festival last month. Their sessions were packed to capacity, with audiences eager to hear their thoughts on artificial intelligence, education, and even Singaporean cuisine. Days before the 10-day festival, which started on November 7, the leaders of China and the United States held key talks in Busan, South Korea, sending conciliatory signals amid an intense geopolitical rivalry. Yet in...

US envoy backs ‘free, open’ Indo-Pacific at Quad...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/30

In a pointed display of diplomatic unity, the ambassadors of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) nations – the United States, Australia, India, and Japan – convened in Beijing on Tuesday, just as the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) conducted live-fire exercises during its large-scale military drills around Taiwan. “The Quad is a force for good, working to maintain a free and open Indo-Pacific. It is always great to meet with the Quad Ambassadors here in Beijing,” said US Ambassador to...

Tatiana Schlossberg, journalist and JFK’s...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/30

American environmental journalist Tatiana Schlossberg, the granddaughter of late president John F. Kennedy, has died from cancer at the age of 35, her family announced on Tuesday. “Our beautiful Tatiana passed away this morning. She will always be in our hearts,” the family wrote in a statement posted on the JFK Library Foundation’s Instagram account. Schlossberg, a science and climate reporter for The New York Times, wrote movingly about her diagnosis with acute myeloid leukaemia in an essay...

France’s president to skip Brigitte Bardot’s funeral...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/30

France’s three-time presidential candidate, Marine Le Pen, is to attend the funeral next week of 1950s and 1960s film star Brigitte Bardot, a member of her team said on Tuesday. President Emmanuel Macron – who on Sunday hailed Bardot as a “legend” – would however not attend her funeral, a source in his office said. Bardot, who died aged 91 on Sunday, drew criticism in her later years for her anti-immigration views and for supporting the far-right. She was several times convicted in court for...

Oil tankers still arriving in Venezuela despite US...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/30

At least two oil tankers have made their way to Venezuela in recent days and others are navigating towards the country, a sign of ‍state-run oil and natural gas company PDVSA’s effort to expand floating storage and keep selling crude even as a US blockade has reduced exports to a minimum. US President Donald Trump this month announced a blockade of all sanctioned vessels going in or out of Venezuelan waters as part of a strategy to pressure Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. The US move has...

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