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Yoon’s ex-aides in ‘disbelief’ over South Korean...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/24

Two former senior aides to South Korea’s ex-president Yoon Suk-yeol have testified in court that Yoon pressed ahead with a plan to impose martial law despite objections from cabinet members and top officials, with their statements offering a rare insight into the events that led to the short-lived decree. Testimony by former National Security Office chief Shin Won-sik and former presidential chief of staff Chung Jin-suk on Monday shed new light on Yoon’s thinking behind his martial law...

China, Russia clash with US at UN meeting over...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/23

China accused the United States at the United Nations on Tuesday of violating international law and destabilising the Caribbean region, as Washington defended its seizure of Venezuelan oil tankers and vowed to intensify pressure on President Nicolas Maduro’s government. Speaking at an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council requested by Venezuela and backed by China and Russia, Beijing said US actions carried out under the banner of counter-narcotics enforcement amounted to unilateral...

US Supreme Court blocks Trump’s National Guard...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/23

The US Supreme Court refused on Tuesday to let Donald Trump send National Guard troops to the Chicago area ‌as the Republican president expands the use of the military for domestic purposes in a growing number of Democratic-led jurisdictions, a policy critics call an effort to punish adversaries and stifle dissent. The justices let stand for ‍now a judge’s order blocking the deployment of hundreds of National Guard troops in a legal challenge brought by Illinois officials and local leaders.

China’s AgiBot targets US$142 million revenue as...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/23

AgiBot, one of the fastest-growing robotics start-ups in China, has set its sights on exceeding 1 billion yuan (US$142 million) in revenue for 2025, as the industry accelerates the commercialisation and large-scale deployment of humanoid robots. AgiBot was expected to ship a total of 5,000 humanoid robots in 2025, chairman and CEO Deng Taihua said in a company event on Monday. AgiBot’s output and sales targets, which the start-up confirmed on Tuesday, were expected to maintain “multi-fold”...

‘60 Minutes’ story on Trump immigration crackdown...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/23

A news segment about the Trump administration’s immigration policy that was abruptly pulled from 60 Minutes was mistakenly aired on a television app after the last-minute decision not to air it touched off a public debate about journalistic independence. The segment featured interviews with migrants who were sent to a notorious El Salvador prison called the Terrorism Confinement Centre, or CECOT, under US President Donald Trump’s aggressive crackdown on immigration. The story was pulled from...

Will US-led ‘Pax Silica’ shore up minerals supply...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/23

In its push to secure supplies of critical minerals, the Donald Trump administration has increasingly looked abroad to reduce vulnerabilities in supply chains that underpin many of the world’s most advanced technologies. From China to the Democratic Republic of Congo to Ukraine, key strands of US foreign policy in recent months have centred on access to these materials – a group of roughly 60 minerals that the US Geological Survey considers vital to national and economic security, including

Can Beijing count on Taiwan’s KMT to advance...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/23

All eyes are on how Beijing’s “Chinese dream” of eventual Taiwan reunification will unfold at a time when the leader of the United States – Taipei’s top international backer – appears less likely to intervene in case of a cross-strait conflict. In the second of a three-part series, Amber Wang looks at the challenges facing the new Kuomintang leader. Read the first part here. There have been seven chairs of the Kuomintang, Taiwan’s main opposition party, since President Xi Jinping took the top...

US and China must get serious about AI risk

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/23

In November 2024, US president Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping made their first substantive joint statement about the national security risks posed by artificial intelligence (AI). Specifically, they noted that both the United States and China believe in “the need to maintain human control over the decision to use nuclear weapons”. That may sound like diplomatic low-hanging fruit, since it would be hard to find a reasonable person willing to argue that we should hand control over...

Libya military chief and 7 others killed in jet crash...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/23

A private jet carrying Libya’s military chief, four other officers and three crew members crashed on Tuesday after take-off from Turkey’s capital, Ankara, killing everyone on board. Libyan officials said the cause of the crash was a technical malfunction on the plane. The Libyan delegation was in Ankara for high-level defence talks aimed at boosting military cooperation between the two countries, Turkish officials said. Libyan Prime Minister Abdul-Hamid Dbeibah confirmed the death of General...

Trump flew on Epstein jet 8 times in the 1990s,...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/23

US President Donald Trump flew on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s private jet “many more ‌times than previously has been reported,” according to an email from a New York prosecutor that forms part of a new batch of documents about Epstein released Tuesday by the US Justice Department. In an ‍email dated January 7, 2020, the unidentified prosecutor wrote that flight records showed Trump had flown on Epstein’s private jet eight times during the 1990s. Among those were at least four...

UN says Myanmar junta using ‘brutal violence’ to...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/23

The UN said on Tuesday that Myanmar’s junta was using violence and intimidation to force people to vote in coming military-controlled elections, while armed opposition groups were using similar tactics to keep people away. “The military authorities in Myanmar must stop using brutal violence to compel people to vote and stop arresting people for expressing any dissenting views,” United Nations rights chief Volker Turk said in a statement. Myanmar’s junta is set to preside over voting starting...

2 men found guilty of UK plot to kill hundreds in ...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/23

Two men were found guilty on Tuesday of plotting to kill hundreds in an Islamic State-inspired gun rampage against the Jewish community in England, a planned attack investigators say shows the resurgent risk posed by the militant group. Police and prosecutors said Walid Saadaoui, 38, and Amar Hussein, 52, who went on trial a week after an unrelated deadly attack on a synagogue in the nearby northwest city of Manchester in October, were Islamic extremists who wanted to use automatic firearms

US labels Chinese chips an economic threat, but...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/23

In a new trade move against China’s semiconductor industry, the US Trade Representative Office said it had determined that Beijing’s drive for dominance in the sector is “unreasonable and discriminatory” and poses a direct threat to US commerce. In a formal notice of action filed with the Federal Register, the agency said the US is implementing a tariff action on a wide range of Chinese semiconductors, with an initial rate of 0 per cent. The rate is set to rise in 18 months, on June 23, 2027,

New section of Hong Kong’s Central Kowloon Bypass to...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/21

Hong Kong’s long-awaited Yau Ma Tei section of the Central Kowloon Bypass opened on Sunday, with eight bus routes – including three new ones – to begin operating on Monday, cutting peak-hour travel time between West and East Kowloon from 30 minutes to just five.Speaking at the opening ceremony, Secretary for Transport and Logistics Mable Chan hailed the project as a triumph of engineering and a testament to the “Hong Kong Spirit”, despite the immense complexity of the construction

Malaysia’s LGBTQ community lives in fear as raids...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/21

In Chow Kit, a crowded district of Kuala Lumpur forever caught between progress and prejudice, Amy* moves quietly through narrow alleys – a transgender outreach worker tending to lives the city prefers not to see. Her evenings begin with small rituals: a backpack filled with condoms, test kits and pamphlets; a quick text to let her friends know that she is safe. Then, when she steps out, much of her work happens in passing conversations – careful not to draw too much attention. “The girls

North Korea warns ‘mankind will face great disaster’...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/21

North Korea said on Sunday that Japan’s nuclear ambitions “must be prevented at any cost” after a Tokyo official reportedly suggested the country should possess atomic weapons. Pyongyang’s reaction came after the unnamed official in the prime minister’s office was quoted by Kyodo News on Thursday as saying: “I think we should possess nuclear weapons.” The official was reported to have been involved in devising Japan’s security policy. The Kyodo report also quoted the source as saying: “In the...

Hong Kong and Singapore landlords embrace flex...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/21

Landlords in Hong Kong and Singapore are expected to continue allocating space to flexible office operators as multinational corporations reshape the sector’s risk profile and fuel long-term demand, according to industry experts. A major driver behind this shift is the rapid change in who uses flexible workspaces. Global companies now represented 41 per cent of Asia-Pacific flex office users, the highest proportion worldwide and nearly triple North America’s 14 per cent, according to Piers...

China eases visa rules for India, tapping into...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/21

Beijing and New Delhi have taken another step towards normalising economic ties after a five-year rift, as China moves to introduce a simplified visa process for Indian nationals that could help it tap India’s fast-growing travel market. The Chinese embassy in New Delhi said earlier this month that Indian citizens would be able to apply for visas online from December 22, sparing them time-consuming initial in-person visits to the embassy or other consular offices in the country. The move

From Labubu to blockbuster films, was 2025 the year...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/21

Catch up on some of SCMP’s biggest stories about China’s soft power this year. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. Labubu, soft power of a stealthy ‘ugly-cute’ sort, takes on America The Chinese-made dolls, a playful global megahit, give Beijing an opportunity to make inroads into deep US distrust. 2. ‘Huge shift’: why learning Mandarin is losing its appeal in the West Available figures suggest enthusiasm for learning Mandarin abroad is waning after...

In eastern China, ancient ruins are pushing back the...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/21

Chinese archaeologists unearthing the ruins of the earliest known settlement in the Yangtze River Delta say water management may have been the origin of ancient “cities” in the area. Researchers began large-scale excavations of the Doushan site in Wuxi in the eastern province of Jiangsu in July last year, dating the city to about 6,000 years ago. Previously, the oldest urban site in the delta area was the Liangzhu culture site near Hangzhou in Zhejiang province, dating back about 5,300...

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