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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...

Trump Justice Department releases partial set of...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/19

US President Donald Trump’s Justice Department on Friday released only a partial set of documents related to its investigation into convicted sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein, an issue that has sparked the first major split between Trump’s Make America Great Again support base since he returned to office. The department was compelled by Congress to make the documents public after lawmakers passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act on November 19, a measure that required the

Shein avoids France site ban after removing illegal...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/19

A French court on Friday rejected the state’s request to suspend Shein’s site in France as “disproportionate” after the e-commerce giant removed illicit products sold on its platform. French authorities had requested the ultra-fast-fashion giant’s site be blocked for three months after weapons, banned medications and childlike sex dolls were found on the platform. The authorities asked that the Chinese online platform only be reopened if it applied strict new measures to prevent a repeat of

Coldplay kiss cam woman tells her side of the viral...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/19

Satan owns a Bernedoodle. A great big fluffy one that likes to sit in Satan’s lap. That’s if by “Satan” you mean Kristin Cabot, aka the woman from the Coldplay kiss cam scandal, who just gave her first interview about the ever-so-brief moment in mid-July that entertained the internet – and trashed her life completely. The video was an instant classic for those attending the concert: “Ohhh, look at these two,” singer Chris Martin said as the band’s kiss cam spotlighted her wrapped in the arms

China’s rebuilding of Micronesian airport runway...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/19

The rebuilding of a World War II-era airfield in Micronesia with the help of Chinese companies has raised alarm in the United States, with US defence analysts warning about Beijing’s growing footprint in the strategic western Pacific.Cleo Paskal, a non-resident senior fellow at the Washington-based Foundation for Defence of Democracies, posted a video on social media last week showing an airport runway being rebuilt on Woleai, a remote 4.5 sq km atoll in Micronesia’s Yap state. “Chinese

Robbery suspect flees Hong Kong hospital barefoot,...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/19

A robbery suspect escaped police custody barefoot while being escorted for an X-ray scan at a hospital in Hong Kong, but he was rearrested hours later after stealing from a cabby while taxi hopping, the Post has learned. The 35-year-old suspect, surnamed Lam, was receiving stomach cancer treatment at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Jordan at around 11am on Friday when he escaped. He was escorted to get an X-ray scan by two police officers, both with around 20 years of experience in the force,

UN declares Gaza famine over, but ‘situation remains...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/19

A famine declared in Gaza in August is now over thanks to improved access for humanitarian aid, the United Nations said on Friday, but warned the food situation in the Palestinian territory remained dire. More than 70 per cent of the population were living in makeshift shelters, it said, with hunger exacerbated by winter floods and an increasing risk of hypothermia as temperatures plummet. Although a ceasefire between Israel and militant group Hamas that took effect in October has partially...

Malaysian cook’s toddler abuse at Singapore preschool...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/19

Three former members of a Singapore preschool’s senior management admitted on Friday to covering up the offences of a cook who molested toddlers at the preschool where they all worked. The cook, 61-year-old Teo Guan Huat, had molested three toddlers during naptime over seven months in 2023. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to more than nine years’ jail last month. The three members of senior management were the 59-year-old executive director, 61-year-old principal and 49-year-old...

China’s Sugon unveils new AI infrastructure to rival...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/19

Chinese supercomputer maker Sugon has launched an advanced artificial intelligence infrastructure for data centres that is expected to rival similar high-performance platforms from Nvidia and Huawei Technologies. Beijing-based Sugon, listed in Shanghai as Dawning Information Industry, on Thursday unveiled its scaleX platform at an event in Kunshan, a city in eastern Jiangsu province. The company claimed that it was China’s first 10,000-card AI supercluster, designed to deliver in excess of 5...

TikTok seals US deal but core algorithm could still...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/19

TikTok may have dodged a US ban but unresolved questions about its algorithm could remain a source of tension in the broader US-China relationship, according to analysts. ByteDance, the parent company of the social media site, signed a binding agreement this week to divest its US entity into a joint venture controlled by a consortium of American investors, ending years of legal and political uncertainties. TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew said in an internal memo on Thursday that the deal effectively...

TikTok reaches new US deal; China’s answer to...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/19

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. TikTok reaches deal on new US venture with American investor group In a landmark move that ends years of legal and political uncertainty, TikTok CEO Chew Shou Zi informed employees that the company has signed a binding agreement to divest its US entity into a joint venture controlled by a consortium of American investors. 2. Chinese team builds optical

US defence policy act overstates ‘China threat’,...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/19

Beijing on Friday accused Washington of using its new US defence policy act to hype up the so-called China threat and interfere in its internal affairs. It also urged Washington to view their relationship “rationally” and refrain from enforcing negative China-related provisions. The latest National Defence Authorisation Act (NDAA), signed into law by President Donald Trump on Thursday, restricts US outbound investment in Chinese technology and curbs federal contracts with Chinese

Anwar’s coalition revives Malaysian Chinese school...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/19

As Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s administration swings from one setback to another, his ruling coalition has turned to familiar talking points to regain the support of the country’s ethnic minorities. In the wake of a devastating defeat in the Sabah state election last month, members of Anwar’s ruling Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition have renewed a push for government recognition of school leaving certificates issued by private Chinese high schools. The call, however, has driven a

Foreign ship gets penalty for illegally using...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/19

China has issued a penalty to a foreign vessel for illegally using Starlink – SpaceX’s satellite-based internet service – within Chinese waters in the first case of its kind, according to local media. The vessel, which was not identified, was found with a “micro rectangular antenna” installed on its top deck during a routine inspection by maritime law enforcement officers at Ningbo port in Zhejiang province, state-run Ningbo Daily reported on Wednesday. The Ningbo Maritime Safety

India’s parliament approves divisive rural jobs...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2025/12/19

India’s parliament pushed through an overhaul of a rural employment scheme on Friday despite an opposition walkout and a session that stretched well past midnight. The Developed India Employment Guarantee and Sustenance Mission bill will supersede a decades-old rural jobs scheme for millions of the country’s poorest. It replaces the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, a defining legacy of the previous left-leaning Congress government, which was in power from 2004 to

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