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Japan wife records husband’s 520 affairs, turns...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/14

A wife in Japan whose husband has had a shocking 520 affairs has turned her difficult life raising a son with an extremely rare illness alone into a comic. Her move has inspired many single mothers to find strength and courage. According to the Japanese magazine Shukan Bunshun, housewife Nemu Kusano married her husband after being introduced to him by a friend. Believing the husband was “serious and shy”, Kusano trusted him completely, thinking he would never betray her. Their son was...

Hong Kong’s John Lee to visit Beijing on Monday for...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/14

Hong Kong’s leader will head to Beijing on Monday for his annual duty visit and meet with state leaders, less than a month after the city’s deadliest fire in decades. Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu will be in the capital for the duty visit from Monday to Wednesday, briefing leaders on Hong Kong’s economic, social and political situation, the city government said. Authorities on Sunday did not specify which leaders Lee would meet, but he is expected to hold talks with Chinese President Xi...

China tourism: cold spots are hot tickets as southern...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/14

With temperatures falling and holidays approaching, ski resorts across northern China are experiencing a surge in visitors from the south, a trend that is cheering airlines as well as resort operators including Malaysia-based Genting Group. Since the ski season opened on November 15, the Changbai Beautiful China Resort in the northeast province of Jilin, a complex owned by China Green Development Group, has welcomed more than 110,000 visitors, marking a nearly 40 per cent year-on-year

12 injured in traffic accident involving Hong Kong...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/14

Twelve people were injured on Sunday morning when a taxi and two minibuses were involved in a collision in Hong Kong. Police said they received a report at 9am about the traffic accident involving two green-topped minibuses and the taxi at 109 Pok Fu Lam Road, near the University of Hong Kong. The injured, comprising nine women and three men, were taken to the nearby Queen Mary Hospital. Video clips posted online show one of the minibuses colliding with the taxi in front, before being struck...

Is the US pushing South Korea to the fore in...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/14

Mounting US pressure on allies to bolster the first island chain’s defence in the western Pacific Ocean is raising concerns about South Korea’s possible but reluctant involvement in a conflict over Taiwan, analysts have said. In its recently released National Security Strategy (NSS), US President Donald Trump’s administration highlighted the importance of a “favourable conventional military balance” as an “essential component of strategic competition”, focusing on deterring conflict over

Vote to disband Hong Kong’s Democratic Party looms as...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/14

For years, Winfield Chong Wing-fai, an executive committee member of Hong Kong’s Democratic Party and long-term advocate against bid-rigging, has juggled countless invitations from residents to attend meetings of owners’ corporations, so homeowners can seek his advice on building maintenance projects. The number and frequency of those invitations increased exponentially after last month’s deadly fire at Tai Po’s Wang Fuk Court, which revealed the secrets of a murky and rapacious building...

Southeast Asia barely features in America’s new...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/14

Washington’s latest national security blueprint may be one of its most consequential in years, yet it barely mentions Southeast Asia. Analysts say that absence speaks volumes, signalling a narrowing of American priorities that risks turning the region into a “bargaining chip” in the US-China rivalry. The National Security Strategy published by the White House on December 4 presents the Trump administration’s vision for restoring “American economic independence”, alongside preventing conflict

Soft power – hard work: can China harness social...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/14

Mary Roettger was just one of millions of Americans seeking a social media life raft when she warily logged onto China’s RedNote platform for the first time in January. As fears loomed over a threatened US ban on TikTok, the Florida writer braced for a clumsy, spam-filled experience full of “negative people”. Instead, she was struck by a starkly different culture. Roettger was “blown away with the amount of tenderness and excitement” of the online community suddenly before her. “That was

China’s growing young billionaire class masks...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/14

While China continues to produce many young self-made billionaires, showcasing its economic dynamism, observers have urged the creation of a more supportive environment, saying that innovation is still being held back. About 98 per cent of the super-rich in mainland China, with assets valued at US$1 billion or more, are relatively young first-generation entrepreneurs, reflecting the vitality and wealth-creation power of its economy, Swiss bank UBS said in a recent report. However, Beijing’s...

Europe fears hidden Russian threat in Trump-backed...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/14

European officials are growing concerned that an emerging US-brokered peace deal in Ukraine could be exploited by Russia, paving the way for a reinvasion of territory in the war-battered nation’s eastern Donbas region. The fear, a main sticking point in recent talks, is that the US plan for a demilitarised zone would give the Kremlin cover to deploy covert forces in the contested area, according to people familiar with the matter. The Kremlin might then use hybrid tactics, including so-called...

Operation Santa Claus helps Hong Kong domestic...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/14

Two non-governmental organisations serving Hong Kong’s community of about 400,000 domestic helpers, mostly women from the Philippines and Indonesia, have joined forces to train some of them as community leaders to support their peers. Many NGOs can lack the resources and capacity to help individual workers, who work long hours far from home and face a variety of challenges. But Uplifters and EmpowerU have collaborated to create a programme that supports domestic workers in helping each other...

Virtual reality and the Nanking massacre: where does...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/14

In October, as Simon Li finished speaking at an international conference about embracing technological innovation in education, several Chinese history educators approached him with a potent, pressing question: could a virtual reality (VR) project about the 1937 Nanking massacre become the next pedagogical frontier? Li, executive director of the Hong Kong Holocaust and Tolerance Centre, recalled it as an electrifying moment. “They were genuinely energised, saying that such a programme could

Age just a number for Singapore Slinger Lim,...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/14

A year after Luke Littler became the youngest winner of the PDC World Darts Championship, 71-year-old Paul Lim became the oldest winner of a match in the tournament’s history. Roared on by the usual raucous Alexandra Palace crowd on Saturday, the Singapore veteran stunned Dutch-born Swede Jeffrey de Graaf, winning 3-1. Lim, who famously thew the first world championship nine-darter way back in 1990, eclipsed the mark set by Northern Irishman John MaGowan who beat Chris Mason in December 2008,...

Japan’s proposal to ‘speedily draft’ anti-spy laws...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/14

The Japanese government’s plans to tighten espionage and secrecy legislation have been welcomed as a necessary bulwark at a time of deepening national security concerns, although analysts fear that any revisions will be too broad and could be used to stifle free speech and media freedom. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, a long-time proponent of tightening rules on espionage and secrecy, was already formulating policies before she took office in October. On November 26, Takaichi told a Diet

Frank Gehry’s vision for Hong Kong’s arts hub was an...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/14

I often wonder whether my architectural career peaked in 2006 – not because I had already accomplished a lot or designed my masterpiece – but because that was the year I resigned from Gehry Partners. As exciting as it was to return to Hong Kong, I left the world’s most famous architectural practice wondering if I would ever collaborate on projects as high-profile, emotionally striking and complicated as those I had worked on in my five formative years there. Considered by some the original...

Destroyed homes, cancelled events: Hong Kong counts...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/14

Hong Kong continues to count the economic losses from the city’s deadliest fire in decades, with the disaster having destroyed 1,736 flats at Tai Po’s Wang Fuk Court, turned residents’ valuables into ashes and triggered the cancellation of banquets and mega-events. Economists and industry leaders estimate the losses could run into billions of Hong Kong dollars, with the total market value of the flats alone amounting to an estimated HK$5 billion (US$642.3 million). Last month’s blaze killed

China engineer fired for taking loo breaks of an hour...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/14

An engineer in eastern China has been fired for taking frequent bathroom breaks that lasted longer than an hour despite his claims that he was suffering from haemorrhoids. The man, surnamed Li from Jiangsu province, was let go for taking 14 bathroom breaks, the longest of which lasted four hours, in a month between April and May 2024. The case was reported by the Shanghai Federation of Trade Unions recently after the man took the company to court for illegal termination of an employment...

Why South Koreans are falling out of love with K-pop:...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/14

From sold-out stadium tours in the US, Europe and Asia to history-making Grammy nominations, K-pop has never stood taller on the global stage. Yet within South Korea, many say the music they once called their own now feels made for someone else. For fans like 21-year-old university student Lee Ye-jin, that shift hits every time she turns on the radio or scrolls through new releases on her phone. Lee has been a member of “Light” – the official fan club of popular boy band Highlight – since

Suspect arrested in US after 2 students shot dead at...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/13

A suspect in Saturday’s shooting at Brown University that left two people dead and nine injured has been arrested after an extensive manhunt, NBC said. The shooting occurred in a classroom on Saturday, on the second day of final exams for the fall semester at the Ivy League institution, which has a student population of about 11,000. Surveillance footage released by authorities showed the alleged shooter walking away from the Providence, Rhode Island, campus. In the brief clip, the person

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