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News - South China Morning Post

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Bus driver killed, 16 injured in 2 separate crashes...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/09

A bus driver has been killed and 16 others have been injured in two separate crashes involving eight vehicles within two hours on Hong Kong’s San Tin Highway. Police said on Thursday that an accident involving two cars and a taxi occurred on the side of the highway headed to Sheung Shui at 9.51pm the previous day. Eight people suffered minor injuries and were sent to North District Hospital in Sheung Shui. In another accident on the same highway, a 49-year-old public light bus driver was

Gingle Wang’s rise to the top, apps that help fight...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/09

We have selected five Trending in China stories from the past seven days that resonated with our readers. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. How Gingle Wang went from clueless novice to one of Taiwan’s top young actresses For an actress often hailed by the Taiwanese press as the “box office guarantee” of her generation, Gingle Wang Ching began her career with a startling lack of vocabulary: she had no idea what the word “action” meant on a film...

China’s Unitree to debut cheapest humanoid robot...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/09

Unitree Robotics, one of China’s largest robot makers, will debut the R1, its cheapest humanoid model, on the international market via Alibaba Group Holding’s AliExpress marketplace next week, according to two sources familiar with the matter on Thursday. The launch would cover major overseas markets including North America, Europe, Japan and Singapore, one of the sources said. The product would later be available on other channels, the second person said. The R1, launched in mainland China

Why North Korea’s Kim may shake hands with Trump...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/09

North Korea’s recent string of weapons tests, including cluster munitions, marks its renewed show of military strength ahead of the US-China summit next month, even as Beijing may become a go-between to ease tensions on the Korean peninsula. Analysts say the summit could be an opportunity for China to arrange for subsequent talks between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump. On Thursday, Pyongyang said tests conducted over the previous two days involved a

More Chinese banks claw back bonuses, cut salaries...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/09

Several major Chinese banks have clawed back staff bonuses or cut salaries amid a sluggish economic recovery and Beijing’s ongoing scrutiny of the financial sector. In their annual reports, an increasing number of lenders, ranging from state-owned institutions to commercial banks, are disclosing the amount of performance-based compensation reclaimed from their employees last year. State-owned Bank of China recovered 47.18 million yuan (US$6.9 million) from 4,630 individuals in 2025, according

Cook jailed for 11 months over selling account used...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/09

A Hong Kong man has been jailed for 11 months and fined HK$4,500 (US$574) for selling his digital wallet so it could be used by a crime syndicate to receive HK$25,500 defrauded from donors who believed the money would be used to help victims of the Tai Po fire. West Kowloon Court heard on Thursday that Cham Shu-shing, a 32-year-old cook, had sold his Alipay account to an unknown group of scammers last year for HK$3,800, knowing it would be used for illegal purposes. A police investigation...

10,000 suspected fake football jerseys seized in...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/09

Hong Kong customs has seized about 10,000 suspected counterfeit football jerseys and other unlicensed goods worth an estimated HK$64 million (US$8 million) ahead of the World Cup finals in June. During the 19-day operation code-named “Dawnbreaker”, conducted by the Customs and Excise Department, three people aged 25 to 56 were also arrested on suspicion of violating the Trade Descriptions Ordinance. Officers established 37 cases between March 9 and 27 involved cross-boundary transshipment and...

Philippines expands South China Sea footprint with...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/09

The Philippine Coast Guard unveiled on Thursday its first dedicated command centre in the Spratly island chain, a flashpoint in the disputed South China Sea that has been the site of repeated confrontations with Chinese vessels. The headquarters of a newly established coastguard district, formerly overseen from neighbouring Palawan, will cover an area of about 68,000 sq km (26,000 sq miles). A journalist travelling to the new command centre on Thitu Island, known as Pagasa in the Philippines,...

Quirky China: haunted house auctioned 3 times, lift...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/09

China never fails to deliver strange, funny and almost unbelievable viral stories. Today, the SCMP offers a glimpse into some recent quirky moments, from a “haunted” flat that keeps getting resold, to a lift that stops at only one floor and a sushi conveyor belt hijacked by a “Mickey” mouse. Ghostly dwelling On April 1, a flat in Chengdu, Sichuan province in southwestern China, where there had been an unnatural death, was listed for auction for the third time, with bidding set to begin on

Trump warns ‘shooting’ could start again as fragile...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/09

⁠US President ⁠Donald Trump said on Wednesday ⁠its military ships and aircraft will remain around Iran and threatened that the US will start “shooting” again unless Tehran fully complies with the deal reached ‌with Washington. “All U.S. Ships, Aircraft, and Military Personnel, with additional Ammunition, Weaponry … will remain in place in, and around, Iran, until such time as the REAL AGREEMENT reached is fully complied with,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform. “If ⁠for any reason it is...

Xi: senior officers must ‘stay pure’ to meet Chinese...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/09

With the countdown on in earnest to the PLA’s centenary next year, President Xi Jinping has urged the corruption-battered top ranks of the military to refine their ideological purity to give the armed forces a “brand new look”. Xi told senior People’s Liberation Army officers on Wednesday to maintain resolute political loyalty to the Communist Party and said that any thought or action driven by self-interest or corruption was “fundamentally against the party’s nature and purpose”, state media...

Government rejects proposal by residents to rebuild...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/09

Hong Kong authorities have ruled out on-site partial redevelopment of the Tai Po housing complex destroyed in a deadly blaze, turning down a detailed proposal submitted by 400 displaced residents to build new flats on the land. The Housing Bureau said on Wednesday evening that rebuilding the fire-hit blocks of Wang Fuk Court on its original site would take too long and was fraught with uncertainties. “In situ redevelopment is not the most suitable option,” a bureau spokesman told the South

Hong Kong receives 90 reports of people stuck in...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/09

A technical fault in the interconnection between Hong Kong’s two power providers caused a brief voltage dip on Thursday, disrupting operations in hospitals where some equipment had to be reset and resulting in about 90 reports of people trapped in lifts within a 30-minute window. The Hospital Authority said on Thursday that the voltage dip had affected some hospitals on Hong Kong Island, requiring system resets for several medical devices. “Each hospital immediately inspected its electrical...

Is one of America’s top AI-robot scholars about to...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/09

China looks set to claim another coup in its mission to build AI talent, with one of the world’s top scholars in artificial intelligence for robots listed among PhD supervisors at a Shanghai university. Su Hao, who holds two doctorates – one in mathematics and one in computer science – has appeared on Fudan University’s faculty list as a professor in electronic information specialising in AI. The list, published on March 31, names 322 PhD supervisors appointed this year. Previously, Su was a...

Volkswagen tests China’s appetite for locally...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/09

German automotive giant Volkswagen will launch three new electric vehicle (EV) models in mainland China over the next two weeks, developed using technology from Chinese firms. The move comes at a time when international marques are struggling on the mainland amid fierce competition in the world’s largest car market. As the largest foreign carmaker in China, Volkswagen previously said that it would integrate Germany’s high manufacturing standards with technology developed by Chinese firms. “We...

Hong Kong to roll out subsidies, fee waivers for...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/09

Hong Kong will roll out short-term subsidies and fee waivers to ease pressures on the transport sector grappling with oil price fluctuations, the South China Morning Post has learned. A government insider said on Thursday the support was expected to be introduced as part of relief measures under a task force set to be established in response to the Middle East conflict and the global energy crisis. The news followed a meeting among senior officials in the morning, during which they discussed...

Antisocial media: Meta, Google liable in landmark...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/09

I’ve yet to meet a parent who wished their child had more screen time. Though just how far the problem can go was laid bare in the recent case of KGM against Meta and Google in a US court. The 20-year-old plaintiff, KGM, sued the owners of Instagram and YouTube, claiming that her extensive use of those platforms was driven by a deliberate use of addictive design features and damaged her mental health. KGM said she had been using YouTube since she was six and Instagram since she was nine,...

Israel hammers Lebanon with strikes, killing and...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/09

Israeli strikes hit busy commercial and residential areas in central Beirut without warning on Wednesday, hours after a ceasefire was announced in the US-Israeli war with Iran. A total of 254 people were killed and over 1,100 ‌wounded across Lebanon, the country’s civil defence service said. The highest toll was in Beirut, where 91 people were killed. The health ministry gave a toll of 182 dead across the country and said it was not a final figure. All up, it was the deadliest day in the

Mining revolution: China’s 500-tonne ‘underground...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/09

The fearsome-sounding “Gangtie Jiliang” is designed to do what no machine has ever done before: delve straight down, kilometre after kilometre, into the heart of the Earth. Translated to English as “steel backbone”, Gangtie Jiliang is billed as the world’s first boring machine capable of excavating full-face shafts to depths exceeding 1,000 metres (3,280 feet) in hard rock. Weighing about 500 tonnes and measuring 8.1 metres wide, the machine looks less like mining equipment and more like an...

China woman, 89, climbs from 27th to 21st floor of...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/09

A brave 89-year-old grandmother climbed from the 27th to the 21st floor on her building’s outer wall after accidentally locking herself in, shocking many people online. The woman in Beijing was spotted stuck outside a residential building’s 26th floor on an afternoon on April 1. A cleaner and a security guard heard her faint sounds from downstairs, looked up and saw her grabbing tightly to the rails that protect air conditioners on the outer wall. They immediately called the police and

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