Hainan chicken rice, known for its tender, poached chicken and fragrant rice flavoured with chicken stock, is one of the many great Asian comfort foods. Paired with a trio of chilli, ginger and soy dipping sauces, every bite offers a customisable balance of rich, nostalgic flavours.
The original dish hails from Hainan, a Chinese island province, where traditionally it is made with local Wenchang chicken. The dish evolved as Hainanese natives emigrated to Southeast Asia, with Vietnam’s com ga...
We are only 78 races and eight meetings into the 2026-27 season, but there are already signs that Nichola Yuen Hang-yiu could threaten a record that most thought would never be broken.
Back in 2020-21, Jerry Chau Chun-lok posted the most wins by an apprentice in a single season, slamming home 58 winners at a strike rate of 12 per cent.
Before that remarkable season, the record was held by Matthew Chadwick, who recorded 43 wins back in 2008-09, which shows just how imperious Chau was that...
South Korea said on Monday that a recent border blast that seriously wounded two of its soldiers was caused by mines planted by North Korea.
North Korea, which has been fortifying its border with South Korea since April 2024, deployed up to 7,000 workers to install mines and fences this year, with some 50 incidents of crossing the border, according to a briefing on Monday by the South’s military.
The two Koreas are still technically at war after their 1950-53 war ended in an armistice rather...
India has sold its Akash air-defence missile system to Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, giving it a foothold in Central Asia as it seeks to become a major global arms exporter.
Defence Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh confirmed the latest sales on Thursday last week, hinting at interest from elsewhere as he called the Akash “one of our success stories”.
Developed by India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation, the Akash is a home-grown, short-range surface-to-air missile system that can hit...
Adrian Cheng Chi-kong, former heir apparent to Hong Kong’s New World Development (NWD), is expanding his K11 cultural retail business in mainland China, launching a venture of his own as his family’s property group grapples with heavy debt.
Xiamen K11 Select, developed by Cheng’s K11 by AC Group along with state-owned Xiamen Rail Transit Group in the city in the southeastern province of Fujian, has attracted more than 2 million visits since its opening on September 22, with sales rising 32 per...
Formula 1’s governing body has promised a full investigation into a software bug that caused chaos and forced the start of Sunday’s Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia to be aborted with drivers feeling like they were in battery-powered cars made of Lego.
Ferrari’s seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton and Red Bull’s four-time champion and eventual race winner Max Verstappen were among several affected by the glitch on a formation lap after torrential rain and a long delay at Malaysia’s steamy...
Chad Lowe’s family confirmed the tragic news of his 13-year-old daughter Fiona’s passing in a statement shared with People on September 29. “We are deeply heartbroken by the loss of our beloved Fiona,” the Emmy-winning actor’s family said.
“Her passing is devastating for our entire family and we ask for prayers and privacy at this time,” the statement continued. It also included contact information for a Suicide & Crisis Lifeline in the US.
While Lowe’s family did not provide a cause of death,...
Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) has granted a banking licence to Bakai Bank, marking the first Central Asian bank to set up in Hong Kong amid closer ties in the economy and trade flows between China and the region, according to a statement on Monday.
Bakai Bank, one of the largest lenders in Kyrgyzstan, will operate as a restricted licence bank in Hong Kong. It will be the 17th restricted licence bank in Hong Kong.
Under the licence, it can take deposits of at least HK$500,000 (US$63,776)...
The 2026 Nobel Prize season opened on Monday with the Medicine Prize being awarded to three scientists working on the mechanisms the brain uses to switch on, or off, the activity of individual nerve cells.
Karl Deisseroth, 54, Peter Hegemann, 71, and Georg Nagel, 73, have carried out research into light-gated ion channels and optogenetics. They are based at universities in Germany and the United States.
The Nobel committee lauded their work, writing on social media that the method “is now being...
An 86-year-old grandmother in China has become a social media sensation for operating a coffee shop for over a decade – a business she took over from her son in 2015, despite having no experience with coffee at the time.
Zhao Qiying, affectionately known as the “Coffee Grandma,” revealed that the shop, located in downtown Qingdao in eastern China’s Shandong province, was nearly bankrupt due to her son’s lack of business acumen, according to the Peninsular Metropolis News.
At that time, Zhao was...
Built to hunt tanks and support ground troops, the People’s Liberation Army’s main attack helicopter is increasingly being prepared for operations at sea.
Crews of the Z-10 are training to fly from ships – a shift that could give Beijing extra firepower in an amphibious assault on Taiwan.
Manufactured by AVIC subsidiary the Changhe Aircraft Industries Corporation, the Z-10 entered service with the PLA Army in late 2010. It began documented shipboard trials in 2014, when Chinese navy imagery...
During a whirlwind September press tour in Thailand, Josie Ho Chiu-yee cuts a glamorous figure at the centre of the Bangkok International Film Festival, where she even receives a royal souvenir from Thailand’s Princess Ubolratana Rajakanya Sirivadhana Barnavadi, a prominent patron of Thai cinema.
But what Ho, a daughter of the late Macau casino magnate Stanley Ho Hung-sun, has come to promote is much darker and grittier: her latest feature, The Mage.
As both lead actress of the...
Eight more companies from countries belonging to Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative have applied to list in Hong Kong, the city’s trade promotion chief has revealed.
Frederick Ma Si-hang, chairman of the Trade Development Council, also said on Monday the city’s economy would benefit from improving China-US ties.
Speaking on the sidelines of the Global Youth Powerhouse Summit, Ma said interest in Hong Kong’s capital markets from Central Asia had surged after a high-level delegation led by Chief...
Hong Kong lawmakers have backed the government’s proposed tax incentives for large innovative companies, but many said on Monday that the planned five-year concession period is too short to attract major firms to establish headquarters or expand operations in the city.
Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu in his policy address last month said the government planned to submit a bill introducing preferential profits tax rates of either 5 per cent or 8.25 per cent, which was half of the city’s standard...
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced early elections Monday after his government suffered a bruising legislative defeat last week on emergency measures related to the country’s housing crisis.
The vote will be held on November 29.
In recent weeks, Spaniards have demanded solutions from the government over housing affordability, holding protests in cities across the country after public outrage grew over the televised eviction of an 87-year-old woman in Madrid last month.
Right-wing...
Southeast Asian governments are learning some hard truths about the data centre boom they spent years working to attract, analysts say – it promises jobs, digital infrastructure and a foothold in the AI economy, but the rapid buildout is also straining power grids, land and regulatory systems.
“There is this enthusiasm to attract investments, but now it raises the question: at what cost and at what speed?” said policy researcher Mark Manantan, a research fellow for the Centre for Global Security...
For decades, China’s property sector was defined by spectacular scale: farmland transformed into suburbs, skylines rising across regional hubs and, more recently, the prominent unravelling of heavily indebted developers. Yet beneath those dramatic changes, a far quieter and more consequential transformation is taking shape.
Official figures published by the National Bureau of Statistics in September reveal that secondary market home transactions have surpassed new residential builds in volume....
A reported plan to station US defence personnel inside Taiwan’s military headquarters would take cooperation from external help into the heart of defence planning, potentially angering Beijing while raising questions over Taipei’s policymaking autonomy and military secrecy.
According to Taiwanese media reports at the weekend, the Pentagon plans to send one official from the Office of the Under Secretary of Defence for Policy and one expert from the Institute for Defence Analyses (IDA) to work on...
Britain’s disgraced former prince, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, has launched a High Court challenge “to quash search warrants” obtained by police ahead of his arrest earlier this year, the judiciary has confirmed.
The London court was set to hold a private hearing on Thursday, the judiciary said in a statement on Monday, as King Charles’ brother challenged Thames Valley Police over searches of his former and current homes on royal estates.
The force arrested the 66-year-old on his birthday on...
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The 11th Belt and Road Summit, which took place in Wan Chai on 9-10 September, brought together more than 6,200 top officials, business leaders and senior professionals from 70-plus B&R countries and regions to explore opportunities for further cooperation and partnerships.
Co-organised by the HKSAR Government and the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC), the signature event gave attendees the chance to...
Chinese doctors have performed an unprecedented surgery to save an unborn child who developed a fast-growing tumour.
A medical team from Shenzhen and Hong Kong recently completed a challenging, precise removal of a foetal chest tumour while the baby was still in the womb, offering new hope to families facing similarly dire prognoses.
Jointly performed by doctors from Shenzhen Baoan Women’s and Children’s Hospital and the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the procedure was detailed and published...
The mother of slain Hong Kong socialite Abby Choi Tin-fung has accused her former in-laws of living off her family’s wealth without contributing anything to her grandchildren.
Cheung Yin-fa testified in the High Court on Monday about the relationship between her daughter, ex-son-in-law Alex Kwong Kong-chi, and his family in the years leading up to the influencer’s slaying in February 2023.
Kwong, 31, his father Kwong Kau, 68, and elder brother Anthony Kwong Kong-kit, 35, are standing trial after...
Malaysia was aflush with Formula One fever this weekend, rekindling talk of permanently bringing the race back to the Southeast Asian nation after a long hiatus – despite days of traffic chaos that left thousands of fans stranded for hours.
More than 260,000 people flocked to Sepang International Circuit in Selangor state for the Bahrain Grand Prix, which was originally meant to be held in April but had to be postponed and relocated away from the Persian Gulf island nation due to security...
Taipei’s top diplomat is in Arizona this week to open a de facto consulate and tour the state’s semiconductor corridor, even as US President Donald Trump has just wrapped up the pageantry of a state visit for President Xi Jinping.
Lin Chia-lung, Taiwan’s foreign minister, arrived in Phoenix late on Saturday for a three-day visit that highlights the deepening economic ties between Washington and Taipei.
His visit will not include stops in Washington or meetings with anyone at the State...
Pierre Ng Pang-chi is keen to maintain his spot at the top of the trainers’ championship when he unleashes an eight-strong team at Happy Valley on Wednesday night, headlined by hat-trick seeker Prestige Always.
A noted fast beginner in his campaigns, including in 2023-24 when he finished runner-up in the championship, Ng has struck early with nine wins from the first eight meetings to sit one ahead of Cody Mo Wai-kit and Manfred Man Ka-leung.
The 43-year-old has high hopes for his Valley squad...
US chip giant Qualcomm has agreed to pay to licence and acquire patents from China’s Huawei Technologies for the first time as part of a “multi-year, broad patent licence agreement” covering 5G, computing and artificial intelligence.
The deal involved cross-licensing between both firms’ patent portfolios, the Shenzhen-based firm said in a statement on Monday, adding that it included Qualcomm’s purchase of specific Huawei US patents across compute, AI, networking and other technologies.
The...
Midway through the Asian Games, China’s sports minister felt the need to issue a rallying cry despite the country again overwhelmingly dominating proceedings.
A week into competition, the delegation had already racked up 125 gold medals, won more swimming titles than ever before and were so far clear of the rest that one American press outlet half-jokingly suggested changing the name to the China Games.
In the final reckoning on Sunday, China’s tally was as follows: 169 gold, 89 silver and 83...
Private equity firms are moving to plug a commercial real estate funding gap as traditional banks pull back, with one fund filing to launch Hong Kong’s first listed property debt vehicle.
Gaw Capital, a Hong Kong-based real estate private equity fund which managed US$35.6 billion in assets as of late 2025, filed to list its Gaw Capital Real Estate Private Debt OFC on Friday, seeking to become the first property-focused private debt fund on the Hong Kong stock exchange’s main board.
The fund has...
Hong Kong’s Kai Tak Hospital launched its first phase of operations, treating nearly 300 patients at its family medicine centre on Monday morning, with the daily number projected to reach 1,800 by the end of the year.
While some patients expressed satisfaction about the service, lawmakers called for more frequent connecting transport services and better publicity on transit options.
Positioned to become Hong Kong’s largest public hospital once fully operational, Kai Tak Hospital opened its...
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1. ‘No brainer’: growing trend of Chinese tourists booking business-class flights
2. US to deploy NMESIS anti-ship system on Japanese island closest to Taiwan
3. Chinese art takes long march home from US museums
4. Malaysia offers Chinese buyers Singapore’s comfort at prices lower than Thailand
5....
A former South Korean lawmaker has called for the abolition of the military exemption system granted to outstanding national athletes, arguing that military service should not be used as an incentive for achievements in sports or the arts.
Yoo Seong-min’s remarks came amid controversy over comments made by members of South Korea’s men’s football team, who recently won its fourth consecutive Asian Games title, regarding the military benefits they received.
South Korea defeated host Japan 1-0 on...
There is a cross on the roof, stained glass windows and a choir loft upstairs, but this whitewashed three-level building near Sunset Boulevard in Silver Lake, Los Angeles, is no longer a house of worship.
It is the Hotel Lucile, a 25-room boutique lodging that opened in September 2026 with a restaurant and bar in the high-ceilinged sanctuary where church-goers once gathered. This opening follows more than a decade of controversy and transformation, including a community debate, bankruptcy and...
Hong Kong has unveiled a four-step artificial intelligence (AI) “talent ladder” strategy to counter entry-level job shock and foster industry leaders, viewing the technology as a “catalyst, not a threat”.
Permanent Secretary for Innovation, Technology and Industry Kevin Choi Kit-ming warned on Monday that the “entry-level shock” was real because AI performed well in many routine tasks that once made up a graduate’s first job, such as basic coding and first-line customer service.
Speaking at the...
DFI Retail, the food and beverage unit of Hong Kong-headquartered conglomerate Jardine Matheson, is looking to sell its mall at The Peak, one of the city’s wealthiest neighbourhoods.
The entire commercial portion of the Dairy Farm Guildford Road Shopping Centre will be sold via a public tender closing at noon on November 19, according to sole agent CBRE.
The property is near The Peak campus of the German Swiss International School. The mall consists of a two-storey retail podium with a gross...
UK fund house Schroders will increase investment and headcount in Hong Kong after being acquired by US asset manager Nuveen, according to Schroders’ global CEO.
“Hong Kong is a critical interface for mainland China through schemes like Wealth Management Connect,” Richard Oldfield said in an online interview with the South China Morning Post on Friday. The scheme, launched in 2021, allows investors in the Greater Bay Area to buy wealth-management products across borders.
Underpinning Schroders’...
Two Italian brands – Miu Miu, Prada’s sister label, and Valentino, the Rome-based haute couture house – were the headliners of day seven of Paris Fashion Week.
Here’s the lowdown on the two shows.
Miuccia Prada is giving her Miu Miu customers what they want for spring/summer 2027. Everything that has made Miu Miu such a success story – from preppy staples like pleated tartan skirts to athleisure essentials like track pants – was in the show.
Most looks paired wardrobe classics, such as V-neck...
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Last month, Hong Kong had been promoting its role as a financing and professional services hub for Belt and Road Initiative expansion. Tanzania offers a useful reminder that signing deals is only the beginning.
More than 6,000 participants attended Hong Kong’s Belt and Road...
Samoa’s prime minister apologised on Monday after video surfaced showing him saying “Heil Hitler” and making a Nazi gesture.
Prime Minister La’auli Leuatea Schmidt said the footage was from a family gathering almost 20 years old and was never meant to see the light of day.
“The footage shows me using the words ‘Heil Hitler’ and participating in a gesture associated with Nazi Germany in a private family gathering – not intended for the public,” he said in a statement.
“Whatever the context or...
Hong Kong’s largest public hospital, built on the former airport site in Kai Tak, will begin its first phase of operation on Monday after more than a decade of planning and preparation.
The South China Morning Post looks at the new hospital’s key features and what its opening means for the city’s healthcare development.
1. What makes Kai Tak Hospital special?
With a gross floor area of about 500,000 square metres and 2,400 beds, Kai Tak Hospital will be Hong Kong’s largest public hospital. It...
India is taking a more direct role in efforts to end the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, engaging both sides on issues including shipping and reducing hostilities, Minister of External Affairs S. Jaishankar has said.
Speaking at a security conference over the weekend, Jaishankar said India in recent months has become “a little bit more involved beyond advocacy”.
The comments point to a more active role for New Delhi after years of taking a cautious approach to the war, in part because of...
Chinese scientists have built a small, stable co-production plant that uses one system to extract hydrogen and fresh water from seawater, while also recovering uranium and bromine and improving electricity use efficiency by about 15 per cent.
The team, led by Deng Dehui and Liu Yanting from the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, improved on an existing technology that is both costly and power hungry, according to a paper in the peer-reviewed journal Nature...
Joséphine de Beauharnais, Empress of France from 1804 to 1810 during her marriage to Emperor Napoleon I, remains one of the most iconic figures in French history. A byword for style, she became known for her patronage of the arts and her exquisite taste, surrounding herself with creative people and helping to shape their work. An innovator who redefined the artistic preferences of her era, she established the wildly influential empire style of architecture and decorative arts, using her own...
Ivy has a way of making itself at home. It climbs, curls and spreads with little regard for where it is supposed to stop, taking over walls and trees with its fast-growing natural architecture. For Frédéric Boucheron, that freedom was precisely the attraction. Of all the plants that appeared in his jewellery, ivy became one of the most persistent – a fitting symbol for a jeweller who was drawn to nature in its less orderly forms.
The motif entered the Boucheron archives in 1870 and, by the end...
In February 2023, the budget shopping platform Temu announced itself on the world stage in the brashest way possible: becoming one of the youngest ever brands to buy a Super Bowl advertising spot.
“Download the Temu app and shop like a billionaire,” a voice proclaimed in the 30-second commercial, as a woman danced on screen and ordered a series of outlandishly cheap items: from a US$8.99 dress to a US$4.99 wig.
The commercial – which aired twice during the game, costing Temu an estimated US$14...
Over 1,700 parents, students and educators attended the International Schools Festival – Hong Kong Island 2026. Held at Hong Kong Ocean Park Marriott Hotel on September 19, it featured 46 schools and education advisers, and offered families guidance on admissions, curricula, university applications and future education planning.
Across five parent talks and 10 school-led information sessions, speakers returned to one central message: education should not be driven by fear or the pursuit of a...
Housewife May and her three children were overjoyed last September when they moved into a 200 sq ft subdivided flat in Kwai Tsing, a Hong Kong district with one of the city’s lowest average monthly household incomes.
For years, the 50-year-old single parent had lived in a squatter hut with her son and two daughters, where they had to climb hundreds of stairs daily. They later moved into a 100 sq ft subdivided flat before securing their current place.
Located on the 15th floor of a lift-equipped...
An elderly man in central China, who has spent the past 21 years making ends meet as a scavenger, experienced a remarkable stroke of luck when he discovered that his pension fund contained over 420,000 yuan (US$63,000).
In late September, the 71-year-old man, surnamed Ru, received a bank card linked to his pension account, which revealed a balance of 424,204 yuan, as reported by Changde Daily.
Completely unaware of his entitlement to pensions over the decades, Ru sobbed as he spoke to the media:...
One of Hong Kong’s top high schools made the mistake of apparently banning Cantonese from graduation videos. Only English and Mandarin were permitted, according to “language standards” issued to Form Six students. The guidelines said that if Cantonese was detected in video submissions, the audio would have to be muted and sound effects redone.
A post on the matter quickly went viral last month, a backlash erupted and the authorities stepped in. Good Hope School acted swiftly, activating its...
A Laotian citizen deported by the United States to eSwatini under Donald Trump administration’s immigration crackdown was released from a maximum-security prison in the African nation on Sunday after being held there for more than a year, his lawyer said.
Phone Chomsavanh was among five immigrants deported to eSwatini – where he has no ties – in July 2025, in the early days of the Trump administration’s secretive and highly contentious third-country deportation programme.
Chomsavanh’s US-based...
The University of Hong Kong (HKU) is looking to secure more laboratory space in the Northern Metropolis university town to expand its research capacity and attract talent, its new vice-president for research has said.
Professor Anderson Shum Ho-cheung, who took up the vice presidency in August, also called for more government funding, saying grant applications took time and returns on investment could be slow.
Shum said the university’s research development would align with the government’s...
FBI Director Kash Patel is engaged to his country singer girlfriend, Alexis Wilkins, the pair announced in a post to X on Sunday evening.
Wilkins, 27, posted a black-and-white photo of herself standing with Patel, 46, flashing her hand in front of them to show off her ring with the caption: “Went and got the law involved”. The two have been dating since before Patel took over as head of the FBI in 2025, when she attended his swearing in.
The country singer and political commentator released her...
Malaysians delight in visiting family and friends, so much so that these visits made up 44 per cent of domestic travel.
They enjoy seeing their loved ones even more than shopping (21.6 per cent) and holidaying (13 per cent), as shown in the latest numbers from the Statistics Department on domestic tourism in the second quarter of this year.
The 44 per cent recorded is even higher than last year’s trend in domestic tourism where “visiting relatives and friends remained the primary purpose of...
In 2020, Hélène Poulit-Duquesne, CEO of Boucheron, made a bold move in the very traditional world of high jewellery.
High jewellery – or haute joaillerie in French – is a very niche segment of the jewellery industry, akin to haute couture in fashion. Think one-of-a-kind creations made with the most precious metals and rarest stones, often requiring years of handiwork.
Founded in 1858 and the first jeweller to be based in Paris’ Place Vendôme, Boucheron is known for its unique approach to the...
Neighbouring China and Vietnam, two manufacturing giants, are building out railways, adding flights and boosting cargo links to leverage their geographic proximity for another boost in trade and tourism that will help both weather pressure from the US.
The two countries set aside political disputes last year to step up economic ties, and analysts said they were now improving both the quality and quantity of transport links.
“Overall, I see the China-Vietnam connectivity story moving from...
Beijing has tightened scrutiny of quantitative trading funds in recent months amid fears they add to market instability. Yet a leading investor believes the future is bright for China’s quant funds, as they are “necessary for a developed economy”.
Seth Huang, the head of Aris Capital, said quant funds had such a clear advantage over retail investors on China’s capital markets that the situation could be described as “a war with some using machine guns and others butcher knives”.
Quant funds have...
The Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) said that a near 20 per cent jump in revenue, strong viewership figures and a slew of world records proved the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games were a success, despite logistical problems plaguing the multi-sport showpiece.
The Games saw a catalogue of mishaps, from athletes bused to the wrong venues to the North Korean national anthem being played for the South Korean hockey team.
There were not enough beds for the more than 17,000 athletes and officials, a larger...
The Hong Kong Cricket Sixes is set for a “quantum leap forward” after headliners India announced a squad for this year’s tournament composed almost exclusively of players who competed in the 2026 Indian Premier League.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar, a veteran of 229 international appearances, will captain a side that also features his Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) teammate, and fellow reigning Indian Premier League (IPL) champion, Krunal Pandya, as well as the former India all-format bowler Thangarasu...
Malaysia’s Anwar Ibrahim is expected to roll out a populist budget on Friday aimed at placating voter concerns over the cost of living and access to essential services, experts say, as the prime minister seeks to shore up support ahead of a general election that could be called as soon as next year.
Anwar’s coalition government is under mounting pressure amid a deepening feud with Umno. The Malay nationalist party, a key partner in Anwar’s administration, has demanded a snap poll after defeating...
Hong Kong refrained from setting overly rigid economic indicators in its first five-year plan to avoid fuelling concerns that it was moving towards a planned economy, according to the city’s constitutional affairs minister.
The current priority should be hitting targets instead of dwelling on accountability mechanisms for potential shortcomings, Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Janice Tse Siu-wa said.
Tse also emphasised the government’s efforts to explore administrative...
This is the 99th instalment in a series on dementia, including the research into its causes and treatment, advice for carers and stories of hope.
Will using hormone replacement therapy (HRT) preserve a woman’s brain health and protect her from dementia or not? The debate continues.
Various studies have looked at the effects of menopause and hormone treatment on the brain – and dementia risk.
Some have suggested that HRT has no impact on brain health in older women, and that it has a neutral...