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US singer marries sultan, Singaporean Chinese ‘least...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/20

Catch up on some of SCMP’s trendiest stories this year. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. 79-year-old influencer lost 30kg and has bone density of a 20-year-old. How? Joan MacDonald is an unlikely influencer. At nearly 80 years of age, she has garnered 2 million followers on Instagram since she began posting on the platform almost a decade ago. During that time, she has transformed her life and her health. Now she helps others to embrace ageing

Will Taiwan’s decentralised military model raise more...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/20

Taiwan’s military has stepped up training in decentralised command and control, aiming to ensure frontline units can operate independently in the event of a sudden attack from Beijing. The shift comes as defence and intelligence officials warn lawmakers that mainland China has significantly expanded its ability to pivot from military exercises to actual combat. This expansion raised the risk that a crisis in the Taiwan Strait could escalate with little warning and overwhelm traditional

Taiwan intervention may just spell the end of the West

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/20

The horrors of war are so seared into the minds of people that the resultant images in their heads can bias them to picture future conflicts as being like previous ones. The more tragic and terrible the past conflicts, the stronger this bias tends to be. Hollywood films play a big part in such image-making, but some experts themselves may also be so biased, especially if they are of the older generation. When Americans say their country may be heading towards a civil war, many likely still

Despite political tensions, Japanese sushi chain...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/20

Japan’s Sushiro, the world’s largest conveyor-belt sushi chain, debuted in Shanghai in early December 2025, to much fanfare. People have been queuing hours for a table, with some resorting to buying tickets from scalpers. The popularity of the Osaka-based restaurant chain appears to have not been affected by the recent diplomatic row between China and Japan. The latest spat has led to mass cancellations of tour groups to Japan and Japanese performances in China.

Australia’s Albanese faces fierce battle over gun...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/20

When a gunman murdered 35 people in Tasmania in 1996, Australia’s political leaders united to implement some of the West’s toughest gun laws. Nearly three decades later, after 15 people were killed at a Jewish festival at Bondi Beach, consensus is more elusive. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s call for tighter gun controls is meeting resistance from ascendant right-wing populists and some mainstream conservatives, revealing a more polarised landscape that contrasts with Australia’s response

Why are Hongkongers waiting so long under Canada’s...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/20

Hongkonger Cecilia moved to Canada in 2023, believing it to be the cheapest and easiest way for her to get permanent residency overseas. The 32-year-old, who asked to be referred to by her first name due to privacy concerns, was part of an emigration wave that saw tens of thousands of Hongkongers leave the city in recent years. She expected to wait only six months after filing her permanent residency application in April last year, based on the experience of a friend who moved in 2021. But

Chinese man sues fiancée for US$7,000 in gifts,...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/20

A “petty” Chinese man has faced online scorn after he sued his fiancée to get back all the money he had spent on her because she “ate too much”. A court hearing involving the ex-couple went viral on social media after it was reported on December 9. According to the Chinese media outlet Zonglan News, the man, surnamed He, sued his girlfriend, surnamed Wang, to secure the return of a 20,000-yuan (US$2,800) initial bride price payment his family had made to her family. He also demanded that Wang...

Rivals, rain and rising costs: Thailand’s tourism...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/20

As the windows rattled from distant explosions, British tourist Brian* sat sleepless in a dim hotel room in Thailand’s Trat province, waiting out a curfew he had not known existed. With artillery ringing out from across the border with Cambodia, his dreams of reaching the island of Koh Kood seemed to dissolve into the darkness. “The police said the road was closed and I’d have to find accommodation overnight,” Brian told This Week in Asia, offering only his first name. “I heard explosions all...

Patent cliffhanger: will China biotech throw Big...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/20

If pharmaceutical drug patents are an hourglass turned over on the day of approval – with the approaching loss of exclusivity known in the industry as the “patent cliff” – then Big Pharma is currently watching the final grains of sand slipping through the neck of the glass. At the bottom of the hourglass awaits an unforgiving world of generic and biosimilar competition. Between 2025 and 2030, the patent cliff is set to be one of the biggest since 2010 by revenue at risk, according to...

Epstein files release highlights Clinton, makes scant...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/19

The US Justice Department released thousands of heavily redacted documents related to the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein on Friday that made scant reference to President Donald Trump but extensively featured Democratic former president Bill Clinton. The absence of references to Trump was notable given that pictures and documents related to him have trickled out of previous Epstein releases for years. Trump’s name appeared in flight manifests listing passengers on...

US strikes at Isis fighters in Syria after 3...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/19

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth on Friday announced the start of an operation to “eliminate Isis fighters, infrastructure and weapons sites” in Syria following the deaths of three US citizens.“This is not the beginning of a war – it is a declaration of vengeance. The United States of America, under President Trump’s leadership, will never hesitate and never relent to defend our people,” he said on social media. Two Iowa National Guard members and a US civilian interpreter were killed on...

China’s humanoid arms race: start-ups debut robots...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/19

China’s robotics industry is turning into a humanoid arms race as start-ups – fresh from big funding rounds – are rolling out new robots in a bid to beat tech giants to real-world deployment. Beijing-based Noetix Robotics this week unveiled Hobbs W1, a service humanoid with a lifelike female face, a black bob and dexterous hands, as a new wave of venture-backed companies pushes into increasingly humanlike designs. Noetix billed Hobbs W1 as its most humanlike robot to date. The humanoid pairs

Rubio swaps hawk for diplomat in year-end pivot on China

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/19

In a wide-ranging, two-hour year-end briefing on Friday, Washington’s top diplomat Marco Rubio offered pragmatic remarks on China, signalling a tonal shift in the administration’s approach towards Beijing amid broader “America first” priorities for 2026. While detailing a recalibration of US foreign policy, Rubio’s comments on China marked a notable evolution from both his own legislative history and the rhetoric of the previous administration. Rubio, the US secretary of state who also serves

Rubio says won’t force deal on Ukraine as Europeans...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/19

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday promised not to force Ukraine into any agreement to end Russia’s invasion as European allies joined fresh talks in Miami. The weekend talks come as Russian President Vladimir Putin in an annual news conference vowed to press ahead with his military offensive in Ukraine, hailing battlefield gains nearly four years into his war. US President Donald Trump’s envoys have pressed a plan in which the United States would offer security guarantees to

China shoppers swap boutiques for bargains, fuelling...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/19

At a shopping centre in Shenzhen’s coastal business district, a store’s entrance feels more like a security checkpoint than a retail gateway. Customers check their bags, don white silk gloves, and pass through a gate. Beyond the checkpoint, which also seems incongruent with the outer facade resembling a typical multi-brand fashion shop, lies a 2,000-square-metre (21,527-sq-ft) showroom. Inside, luxury handbags are not displayed under artful lighting. Instead, they are tightly arranged in...

Protection of vulnerable workers must be part of...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/19

Given the breakneck speed of technological and commercial developments across the world, China is perhaps one of only a few sovereign states with a comprehensive strategy on both artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics. The Chinese state philosophy in AI development is anchored in diffusion, as opposed to maximising the cutting-edge performance of select generative or reasoning models. While American and European investors are lured by the prospects of superintelligent and humanoid robots,...

Brown University shooting: how right-wing...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/19

Officials in the US state of Rhode Island have denounced misinformation that they said complicated their multi-day search for the gunman who killed two students and wounded others at Brown University. Law enforcement identified the suspect as Claudio Neves Valente, 48, a Portuguese national who attended the Ivy League institution decades ago. They said he acted alone and was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in a New Hampshire storage unit. But throughout the week, anonymous and...

Rome to charge tourists to get close to famed Trevi...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/19

Tourists who want to get close to Rome’s Trevi Fountain will soon have to pay a €2 (US$2.34) fee, the city ‌mayor said on Friday, as authorities look to profit more handsomely from Italy’s ‍many attractions. Mayor Roberto Gualtieri told reporters the new payment system would start on February 1, adding that the measure was expected to raise €6.5 million (US$7.6 million) a year. “Two euros isn’t very much … and it will lead to ⁠less chaotic tourist flows,” Gualtieri said, stressing that

US lawmakers urge Pentagon to add DeepSeek, Xiaomi to...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/19

Nine Republican lawmakers, including several congressional committee chairs, sent a letter this week urging US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth to add more than a dozen Chinese technology firms to the Pentagon’s list of companies alleged to have links to the Chinese military. The letter, released on Friday after US President Donald Trump signed a US$900 billion military spending bill restricting US investments into Chinese tech, asks the Pentagon chief to place AI firm DeepSeek, smartphone

Knife attacker kills 3 after smoke bombing Taiwan metro

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/19

Notably safe Taiwan was rocked on Friday evening after an attacker exploded smoke or petrol bombs in the subway, stabbed several people, including at least three to death, and injured several others before killing himself when he jumped off a building in an apparent effort to escape, according to news reports. Police are investigating the motive. According to news agencies, the suspect, identified as a 27-year-old man named Cheng Wen, attacked Taipei residents in the metro subway system...

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