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Louvre crisis: why jewel heist, staff unrest push...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/17

The ongoing strike at the Louvre is no longer just a labour dispute. It has become a test of how securely, credibly and competently the world’s most visited museum is being run. Behind the walkout are not only frayed labour relations, but a building itself under strain, with crumbling parts of the ageing former palace now deemed unsafe. At the heart of the crisis lies a deeper rupture: a US$102 million jewel heist that exposed security failures at the core of the institution and transformed...

Wealthy Chinese appear to shun Trump’s ‘gold card’...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/17

When US President Donald Trump first proposed his “gold card” programme earlier this year, offering permanent residency to the super rich, Beijing-based emigration consultant Jack Jing received unsolicited inquiries from seven high-net-worth families.But that initial enthusiasm quickly waned after the application details were released last week. None of his clients plan to apply in the near term, said Jing, general manager of the migration service provider WellTrend, who has decades of...

Hong Kong scraps New Year’s Eve fireworks, moves...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/17

Hong Kong will cancel its New Year’s Eve fireworks display at Victoria Harbour following the deadly inferno in Tai Po last month. The Hong Kong Tourism Board on Wednesday said that its New Year countdown would instead be held at the Chater Road pedestrian zone in Central. “Through this event, the [board] hopes to convey positive energy, care and blessings of peace to both locals and visitors, and to welcome a hopeful new year together,” it said in a statement. It did not give a reason for...

What does future hold for Brazil, US in China’s...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/17

China, the world’s top soybean consumer, faces a complex balancing act when securing supplies. With 90 per cent of market demand met by imports, Brazil and the United States remain its top suppliers, but intensifying efforts to promote self-sufficiency are seeking to reduce reliance on imports. From price swings and quality traits to strategic roles in the market, soybeans from the three countries tell different stories about China’s quest for stability and security that can be broken down

University of Hong Kong professor loses key role over...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/17

A prominent population expert from the University of Hong Kong has stepped down as an associate faculty dean and asked to retract a paper after the institution ruled it contained references to non-existent publications generated by AI. Professor Paul Yip Siu-fai of the department of social work and social administration had stepped down from his associate deanship at the faculty of social sciences and withdrawn his membership from research committees of the faculty and the university, HKU

Hong Kong fire: chairman, former head of Wang Fuk...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/17

Hong Kong’s anti-corruption watchdog has arrested the current and former chairmen of the Wang Fuk Court owners’ corporation as part of an investigation into renovation works linked to the city’s deadliest fire in decades, the Post has learned. The owners’ corporation has come under heavy scrutiny after the contractors it chose were found to have covered the estate buildings with substandard protective nets and foam boards, which are believed to be the cause of the unusually fast spread of

Warner Bros rejects Paramount’s ‘inferior’ US$108...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/17

Warner Bros Discovery on Wednesday rejected a hostile takeover bid by Paramount launched last week to thwart plans by streaming giant Netflix to acquire the Hollywood giant and owner of CNN. The Warner Bros board said it found Paramount’s offer “inferior” to the merger agreement with Netflix. It added that the Paramount bid “once again fails to address key concerns that we have consistently communicated … throughout our extensive engagement and review of their six previous proposals”. “We are...

AMD chief Lisa Su commits to ‘deeper’ China...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/17

Lisa Su, chair and chief executive of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), on Wednesday met the Chinese minister of industry and information technology (MIIT), where she affirmed the US chipmaker’s “commitment to deepening its investments” in China, the ministry said. On her second day of a China trip, Su exchanged views with MIIT head Li Lecheng on “strengthening cooperation in the digital economy and artificial intelligence sectors”, according to a statement issued by MIIT on Wednesday. Su

How will Jimmy Lai’s conviction affect China-UK ties...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/17

The conviction of former media tycoon Jimmy Lai Chee-ying in a high-profile Hong Kong trial has drawn sharp reactions in London, casting uncertainty over thawing Sino-British ties before Keir Starmer visits China. Although the outcome of Lai’s 156-day national security trial was widely expected, observers say it poses a significant test for the Labour government’s balancing act on China, which could narrow the space for engagement even if its immediate impact on bilateral relations is...

ByteDance pushes frequent updates to Doubao AI as...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/17

ByteDance’s Doubao AI phone – a limited-run handset built with ZTE’s Nubia brand – remained in hot demand and continued to receive frequent software updates, even as the device drew scrutiny over privacy and data security after its debut in early December. ZTE’s online store briefly reopened applications on Tuesday for an “F code” – a so-called “friend code” – that granted priority access to buy the 3,499-yuan (US$497) handset. Marketed as a “technology preview edition”, the device carried a...

Hong Kong dental drive serves 10,000 teens and poor,...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/17

More than 10,000 teenagers and underprivileged Hongkongers have benefited from subsidised dental care programmes launched earlier this year, with about 1,500 street sleepers set to be included from next month. The Department of Health on Wednesday said its community dental support programme would be expanded to reach more people in need and provide advanced treatments such as bridge or crown removal and denture fitting. Since its launch in May, the scheme has provided free or affordable

PLA division’s new leaders, lessons from 2025 trade...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/17

Catch up on some of SCMP’s biggest China stories of the day. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. PLA division overseeing Taiwan sees newcomers in charge The Chinese military’s Eastern Theatre Command, the division that oversees Taiwan and that has been hit hard in Beijing’s anti-graft campaign, appears to be presided over by two officers who joined the division only recently. 2. Senior US and Chinese defence officials continue ‘military-to-military’...

Chinese city sues Missouri for US$50 billion in...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/17

China’s top science academy is among three parties suing Missouri for roughly US$50 billion for alleged damage to reputation and economic losses from the US state’s legal action over the Covid-19 pandemic. Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway said on Tuesday that her office was notified last week of the civil lawsuit filed in the Wuhan Intermediate People’s Court. According to court documents, the case was brought by the municipal government of Wuhan, where Covid-19 was first detected,...

Tencent restructures AI operations, promotes...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/17

Tencent Holdings has initiated a major restructuring at its artificial intelligence group with the promotion of recent high-profile recruit Vinces Yao Shunyu, a former researcher at OpenAI. Without mentioning his Chinese name, Shenzhen-based Tencent’s announcement on Wednesday came with a photo of Yao. He was tasked to lead the company’s new AI infrastructure efforts, including the development of large language models (LLMs). Yao’s official position is chief AI scientist under the CEO’s

Hong Kong to offer 9,783 new subsidised flats from...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/17

Hong Kong housing authorities will sell more than 9,700 new subsidised flats sized at least 280 sq ft under two separate schemes next year at prices as low as HK$1.5 million (US$193,000), the Post has learned. Insiders said on Wednesday that the Housing Authority, the city’s main public housing provider, would offer 9,783 new subsidised flats for sale under the Home Ownership Scheme (HOS) and the Green Form Subsidised Home Ownership Scheme (GSH). Scott Leung Man-kwong, a member of the...

For Trump, the only communists to really dislike are...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/17

The new US national security strategy says a great deal about how the government imagines its foreign policy in the next few years but tells us just as much about communism and the US president’s view of it. Donald Trump has long had an unusual relationship with communism, in that he does not seem especially concerned by it. Yes, it’s true he does denounce “communists”, “socialists”, “radicals” and “the far left”, but he is rarely speaking about communist regimes opposed to US interests...

Chinese University of Hong Kong to offer free autism...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/17

The Chinese University of Hong Kong will offer free autism screening for 200 young children with suspected symptoms under a pilot project using a newly developed tool that tests stool samples and can provide results as quickly as one week later. Researchers at the university said on Wednesday that they and a spin-off company, MicroSigX, would start screening children between the ages of 18 months and four years from January next year. Professor Ng Siew Chien, an associate dean at the...

PLA’s Fujian aircraft carrier transits Taiwan Strait...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/17

The Fujian, mainland China’s newest and most advanced aircraft carrier, has made its first transit of the Taiwan Strait since its commissioning, with Taipei keeping a close eye on its movements. Taiwan’s defence ministry said on Wednesday that while the carrier, Beijing’s third, passed through the waterway, it appeared to be heading back to a Shanghai shipyard for repairs. The ministry also released a surveillance photograph of the Fujian, reportedly captured by F-16 fighter jets, showing no...

Xpeng CEO dismisses AI bubble fears, predicts robots...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/17

He Xiaopeng, co-founder and CEO of Chinese electric vehicle (EV) maker Xpeng, is not concerned about a bubble in the artificial intelligence sector and believes autonomous cars will outperform human drivers sometime soon. Sharing his thoughts on Weibo, the billionaire entrepreneur tried to allay public concerns about an overheated AI industry, adding that he foresaw vast opportunities ahead. “Any technological revolution will inevitably see bubbles in some aspects during a certain period of...

Hong Kong gym’s CCTV by doorless toilet among 200...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/17

A Hong Kong fitness chain was cautioned by the city’s privacy watchdog after it installed a CCTV camera facing a men’s bathroom missing a door, one of about 200 complaints involving video surveillance this year. The Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data on Wednesday also revealed that it had received 1,166 inquiries of the same nature over the same period, prompting it to issue guidelines on CCTV usage in October. About 80 per cent of the complaints were related to disputes...

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