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News - South China Morning Post

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Dior, Louis Vuitton ditch China’s malls for shopping...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/21

Stand-alone flagship stores with distinctive architectural facades, long prevalent in global metropolises like Tokyo, Seoul and New York, are gradually gaining traction in China, as the country’s retail landscape undergoes a broader shift from enclosed malls towards open-air and street-facing formats. More luxury brands are setting up such flagships in places like Beijing’s Taikoo Li Sanlitun North, a trendy open-air commercial block developed and operated by Hong Kong’s Swire...

Trump at ‘risk of becoming the deep state’ after...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/21

Extensive redactions and the limited number of documents released related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein angered some Republicans and did little to defuse a scandal threatening the party ahead of the 2026 midterm election. The Trump administration touted this week’s release of a cache of Epstein-related files as a show of transparency, but a handful of Republican lawmakers and right-wing media figures joined Democrats in ‍blasting Friday’s disclosures as inadequate and possibly in...

Japan imposes new ground rules as concerns grow over...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/21

Japan is expressing renewed concerns about foreign nationals buying land and property across the country, with growing alarm over the acquisition of property close to “sensitive sites” as well as overseas investors causing prices to spike beyond the reach of many Japanese. A survey conducted by the Cabinet Office identified 113,827 property transactions in the year that started on April 1, 2024, in areas within 1km (0.6 miles) of a designated “critical facility”, such as a military base for...

West must face the facts of Jimmy Lai’s trial and...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/21

On December 15, Jimmy Lai Chee-ying was found guilty on two charges of conspiring to collude with external forces and a charge of conspiracy to publish seditious materials by the High Court of Hong Kong. The verdict was welcomed in the city and, as expected, prompted another round of outcries from some Western countries. As Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, I feel obliged to set the record straight...

Fate of 600 goats in the balance as deadline nears to...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/21

Cheung Siu-ling struggles to fight back tears whenever she looks at the 600 goats she has kept for years at a farm near Hong Kong’s border. By the end of January next year, the herd will either have to be relocated or put down. The owner, who is in her fifties, has kept goats for more than two decades, and will have to move them out of their current home, a two-storey shed in Hung Shui Kiu, to make way for the Northern Metropolis megaproject. “I’ve tried so hard to find a new place that fits...

Chinese company gifts renovated flats to employees...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/21

A Chinese company has generated widespread envy among netizens after its boss unveiled a plan to distribute 18 flats as an incentive for employee retention, allowing staff to obtain property after just five years with the company. Recently, a job posting shared by a company executive revealed that employees who remain with the firm for five years would qualify for a complimentary flat, igniting fervent discussions across social media platforms. The company, Zhejiang Guosheng Automotive...

China speeds up armour steel production by 30% as US...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/21

China has boosted its armour steel production speed by 30 per cent with continuous investment in tech upgrades, while a major American steelmaker that provided military-grade steel for tanks, ships and mine-resistant vehicles ceased operation for financial reasons. Chinese military supplier Inner Mongolia First Machinery Group said it had solved key technical challenges to allow large-scale production of high-performance armour steel, which has been deployed for manufacturing tanks and

Worship to witch hunts: how South Korea’s fandoms...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/21

In the space of a single week in early December, three household names in South Korean entertainment abruptly retreated from the spotlight. Actor Cho Jin-woong announced his sudden retirement on December 6 after decades-old reports resurfaced online about his brief stint in juvenile detention. Two days later, television host and comedian Park Na-rae suspended her broadcast appearances following claims she had mistreated staff and received unauthorised medical treatments. And fellow comedian

Brown shooting: will homeless man who helped FBI find...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/20

Public calls are growing for the FBI to give its promised US$50,000 reward to a homeless man who provided information essential to leading authorities to the gunman they say killed two Brown University students and an MIT professor. Authorities say they received a tip from an anonymous source on Tuesday about a Reddit post on the Providence subreddit, according to a law enforcement affidavit from the Rhode Island Attorney General’s Office. That post eventually led investigators to a New...

China packs a patent punch in the race to build...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/20

China has pulled far ahead in the race to build humanoid robots, issuing five times as many related patents as the United States over the past five years, Morgan Stanley said in its latest Robot Almanac. In “Robot Almanac, Volume 3: Humanoids & Industrial Robots”, released on Tuesday as part of a six-volume series, Morgan Stanley said China recorded 7,705 humanoid patents over the past five years, compared with 1,561 in the US. Japan ranked next with 1,102, followed by the World Intellectual...

At least 16 files gone from Epstein release site,...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/20

At least 16 files disappeared from the Justice Department’s public webpage for documents related to Jeffrey Epstein, including a photograph showing US President Donald Trump – less than a day after they were posted, with no explanation from the government and no notice to the public. The missing files, which were available on Friday and no longer accessible by Saturday, included images of paintings depicting nude women, and one showing a series of photographs along a credenza and in

Pentagon’s Taiwan war games reflect US anxiety over...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/20

A recently leaked Pentagon report has projected heavy US losses should it intervene in a Taiwan conflict, highlighting Washington’s growing anxiety over Beijing’s rapidly improving capabilities, according to defence experts. In a classified assessment known as the Overmatch brief, the Pentagon has catalogued the People’s Liberation Army’s ability to destroy American fighter planes, large ships and satellites and identified the US military’s supply chain choke points, according to a December 8...

Epstein victims angry over gaps and censorship in...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/20

Victims of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein on Saturday expressed anger after a long-awaited cache of records from cases against him were released with many pages blacked out and photos censored. The trove of material released by the US Justice Department included photographs of former president Bill Clinton and other luminaries in Epstein’s wealthy social circle including Mick Jagger and Michael Jackson. But blackouts across many of the documents – combined with tight control over the...

Zelensky says only US can persuade Russia to end...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/20

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday called on the United States to put more pressure on Russia to end the war, as diplomats converged on Miami for fresh talks. Zelensky also said that Washington had proposed the first face-to-face negotiations between Ukraine and Russia in half a year, but later expressed scepticism that that would help. Zelensky said that only the United States was capable of persuading Russia to end the war, and he called on Washington to increase pressure on...

Venezuela slams ‘international piracy’ after US...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/20

The United States has seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela in international waters, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem confirmed on Saturday, a move that comes ‍just days after US President Donald Trump announced a “blockade” of all sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela. It is the second time in recent weeks that the US has gone after a tanker near Venezuela amid a large US military build-up in the region. “The United States will continue to pursue the illicit...

German engineer becomes first wheelchair user to...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/20

A paraplegic engineer from Germany blasted off on a dream-come-true rocket ride with five other passengers on Saturday, leaving her wheelchair behind to float in space while beholding Earth from on high. Severely injured in a mountain bike accident seven years ago, Michaela Benthaus became the first wheelchair user in space, launching from West Texas with Jeff Bezos’ company Blue Origin. She was accompanied by a retired SpaceX executive also born in Germany, Hans Koenigsmann, who helped

Passenger flung from car as 3 arrested after...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/20

Police have arrested three men in northern Hong Kong following a dramatic high-speed car chase, with dashcam footage posted online showing one suspect falling out of the vehicle during the pursuit. The car driver and his two passengers were arrested in Sheung Shui in the New Territories for a number of alleged offences including drug-related ones, a source said on Saturday. The chase began shortly after the car driver crashed into a vehicle parked at San Cheung Street in Sheung Shui at about

Democrats bet on ‘betrayal’ in rural heartland as...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/20

It has been a turbulent year for the fraught US-China relationship. In the fifth part of a series looking back at the events of 2025, we examine how Trump’s strained relationship with farmers in America’s rural heartland may impact the 2026 midterm elections. As a bruising 2025 draws to a close for America’s Democratic Party, the caucus is spotlighting mounting challenges facing farmers in the country’s rural heartland. In a series of mini-documentaries released late this year, the lush green...

Worried residents demand halt to renovation plan...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/20

Worried residents of a Hong Kong housing estate are demanding a halt to a planned renovation project following last month’s deadly fire at nearby Wang Fuk Court in Tai Po after a man arrested earlier was linked to its consultant for the scheme. Wang Fuk Court was undergoing renovations when the inferno swept through seven of its eight scaffolding-clad residential buildings, killing 161 and leading to the arrest of 23 people in connection with the blaze. Tensions were high at a homeowners’...

31 Malaysians rescued from Myanmar job scam centre...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/20

A group of 31 Malaysians, victims of a job scam syndicate in Myawaddy, Myanmar, have been successfully repatriated following a high-level diplomatic operation, the Malay language daily Sinar Harian reported.They arrived at the Bukit Kayu Hitam immigration complex near the Thai-Malaysian border at 6.50pm on Saturday. Upon arrival, they were immediately handed over to the Royal Malaysia Police for further investigation into the syndicate’s operations. While the victims’ identities were

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