It looked like a rock concert: hundreds of the world’s rich and powerful stood in a massive line for a precious seat to hear US President Donald Trump deliver his speech in the Swiss ski resort of Davos. After a two-hour wait, the doors to the World Economic Forum’s congress hall closed to the disappointment of many who had to scramble for spots in four overflow rooms to watch him on television screens. The exclusive crowd included executives of top companies, academics and politicians – even...

Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) on Wednesday restarted its first nuclear reactor since the 2011 Fukushima disaster, with the utility’s safety measures set to be closely watched as it seeks to turn around its business amid ongoing clean-up efforts from the accident. Tepco brought back online the No 6 reactor at the seven-unit Kashiwazaki-Kariwa complex in Niigata Prefecture, northwest of Tokyo – the world’s largest nuclear power plant by output when fully operational – making it the 15th...

Competition between the United States and China could help drive global progress, but only if both powers exercise restraint in sensitive areas such as nuclear technology and artificial intelligence, Singapore President Tharman Shanmugaratnam has said. Speaking at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos on Wednesday, Tharman stressed that broad innovation benefits could come from rivalry between the two superpowers. He added that innovations born of competition could lead to...

Chinese and US negotiators are expected to discuss stepping up trade in AI chips and farm products, as well as what to do later this year when their hard-fought 2025 truce expires – all before President Donald Trump visits China for the first time in his current term, analysts said on Wednesday. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent suggested on Tuesday that the pieces were in place for an April summit in Beijing between Trump and President Xi Jinping, as announced by the US leader in late...

A large piece of metal found ‌near the site of a high-speed train crash in Spain may be the missing chunk of undercarriage that investigators ‍have been searching for to find the cause of the accident, a source and experts said on Wednesday. The crash, one of Europe’s biggest, happened on Sunday night near the southern town of Adamuz in a remote hilly area, killing at least 42 people. Inaki Barron, the head of Spain’s railway accident investigating body CIAF, said on Monday that the...

Hong Kong delegates to China’s top political advisory body are a “steadfast patriotic force” and make an important contribution to the city’s long-term prosperity and stability, Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu has said. The city leader praised the delegates of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) on Wednesday as he hosted Jiang Zuojun, vice-chairman of the body’s 14th National Committee, at Government House. The meeting took place less than two months before the fourth...

A Hong Kong court has ordered the buildings authorities to reconsider the licence renewal application of a construction company linked to five workplace deaths across three accidents, ruling that officials failed to provide adequate reasons for their refusal. The High Court’s Madam Justice Yvonne Cheng Wai-sum ruled in favour of Aggressive Construction on Wednesday, although she emphasised the court was not responsible for determining whether the rejection was justified or if the company...

Frontier research lab MiroMind, a subsidiary of the China-founded multinational firm Shanda Group, has asked some of its staff in Shanghai to relocate to Singapore, according to people with knowledge of the matter, raising comparisons to artificial intelligence start-up Manus’ pull-out from China last year. Those actions came amid Sunday’s reorganisation announcement by Shanda and Singapore-based MiroMind, which said its research on artificial general intelligence (AGI) and fundamental...

Nato members must collectively protect the Arctic from growing Chinese and Russian influence, the chief of the security alliance said on Wednesday, while sidestepping the issue of Washington’s controversial bid to acquire Greenland. Speaking at an event during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Wednesday, Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte said the transatlantic security alliance was crucial not only for the defence of Europe, but also for the US, which required a “safe Arctic, a...

Police in Indian Kashmir have asked at least three journalists working in the region to sign a pledge vowing ‌not to “disturb peace” in the region, two of them told Reuters on Wednesday. A third ‍journalist, an assistant editor with the Indian Express newspaper, was summoned to a police station in Srinagar, the capital of the federal territory, but did not sign the pledge, the newspaper said in a report published on Wednesday. India has imposed ⁠several restrictions in the troubled...

This live blog has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing. Get faster notifications on the latest updates by downloading our app. US President Donald Trump tackled a slew of hot geopolitical topics at the World Economic Forum on Wednesday in a sometimes rambling speech that overran by almost 30 minutes. Trump, who complained that he had not received enough recognition for his achievements in world peace, said...

The United States could be at risk of falling behind China in the technology race unless it halts the “wholesale onslaught” on scientific research programmes taking place under US President Donald Trump, according to the Nobel Prize-winning economist Joel Mokyr. The American-Israeli scholar, who shared the 2025 prize for economics, said “all areas that are at the cutting edge of science” in the US were “suffering” under the current administration, which appeared to be “against any kind of...

US envoy Steve Witkoff said he and Jared Kushner will travel to Russia on Thursday for talks with President Vladimir Putin on the latest proposals for a peace plan to end the war in Ukraine. “The Russians have invited us to come and that’s a significant statement from them,” Witkoff said in an interview with Bloomberg Television at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Wednesday. “Jared and I will leave Thursday night and arrive in Moscow late at night.” US President Donald Trump remains “focused...

Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific Airways and its budget arm carried more than 36 million passengers in 2025, up 27 per cent from the previous year, on the back of growth in tourist numbers. Cathay Group said on Wednesday that the number of passengers handled by its premium carrier grew by 26.5 per cent to 28.87 million last year, while the figure for HK Express rose by 29.7 per cent to 7.91 million. The company said the growth in passenger numbers was related to a “significant expansion in passenger...

Hong Kong has allocated land within its Northern Metropolis to build venues for elite fencing, other sports and recreation, with observers saying the initiative must balance top-level athlete training with convenient access for residents. In a written reply to lawmaker Kenneth Fok Kai-kong on Wednesday, Secretary for Culture, Sports and Tourism Rosanna Law Shuk-pui confirmed that the government had earmarked strategic sites in the Northern Metropolis specifically for top-tier fencing training...

China ramped up its exports to Africa last year, widening its trade surplus with the continent by 64.5 per cent to a record US$102 billion, according to Chinese customs figures. The jump in the trade gap – up from US$62 billion the previous year – was driven by a 25.8 per cent surge in Chinese exports to the continent to US$225 billion, far outpacing the 5.4 per cent growth in African shipments to China to US$123 billion, according to the latest data from China’s General Administration of...

Blanket draped over her shoulders and a bandage on her cheek, Ana Garcia issued a desperate plea: she needed help finding her dog, Boro. Hours earlier, 26-year-old Garcia and her pregnant sister had been travelling with Boro by high-speed train from Malaga, their hometown in southern Spain, to capital Madrid. The tail of their train car jumped the rails for reasons that remain unclear, then was smashed into by a train coming in the opposite direction that tumbled down an adjacent slope. At least...

Indonesian police have dismantled an alleged baby trafficking ring that used social media to sell newborns in Medan after neighbours reported suspicious activity at a rented house. Medan police chief Jean Calvijn Simanjuntak said nine people had been arrested and three others were being sought, according to a report by The Jakarta Post on Tuesday. The suspects were believed to have sold at least two babies for between 9 million and 25 million rupiah (US$530 to US$1,475) each and were preparing...

Asia’s economies may unintentionally benefit from the United States’ confrontational foreign policy across several continents, even as analysts warn of near-term volatile commodity prices. President Donald Trump has said the US wants to seize control of Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark, amid tensions between Washington and the European Union over his intention. It comes after the US captured Venezuela’s leader, Nicolas Maduro, and said it would take control of the South American...

A Palestinian baby died from hypothermia on Tuesday in the Gaza Strip, underscoring the grim humanitarian conditions in the territory as world leaders were gathering at a Swiss resort where US President Donald Trump’s Gaza ceasefire plan is high on the agenda. Shaza Abu Jarad’s family found the 3-month-old on Tuesday morning in their tent in the Daraj neighbourhood of Gaza City. “She was freezing, and dead,” the baby’s father, Mohamed Abu Jarad, who spoke by phone after a funeral, said. “She...

The world is witnessing the biggest infrastructure buildout in history, with the foundation for an artificial intelligence system evolving quickly, according to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. “We are now a few hundred billion dollars into it,” he said at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos on Wednesday, adding that trillions of dollars of infrastructure still had to be built. Huang described the AI industry as a “five-layered cake” – energy at the bottom, followed by chips, cloud infrastructure,...

A Hong Kong judge has said his decision to order the winding-up of bakery chain Taipan’s parent company is due to there being “no reliable evidence” that the business can settle its outstanding rent of more than HK$2 million (US$256,500). In a written judgment released on Tuesday, Deputy Judge Gary Lam Chin-ching of the High Court said Vast Luck Company Limited had twice failed to pay its debts, resulting in a breach of what the business earlier stated in court. The winding-up order was handed...

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) issued requirements on Wednesday for banks to improve their services for elderly customers, as the proportion of the city’s population over the age of 65 increases rapidly. Banks will be required to upgrade their apps to meet the needs of elderly customers, improve branch facilities and ensure that staff members provide appropriate advice on investments, insurance and pension products. “As Hong Kong faces an ageing population, we expect more elderly...

The municipal government of Shanghai will open “free-to-fly” zones in the city for drones from February 1, as part of streamlined regulations designed to support the country’s development of a low-altitude economy. According to Shanghai’s new guidelines for civil unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), consumer drones will be allowed to fly in certain “suitable airspace” in the city without prior declaration, provided these devices are registered. These include UAVs categorised as micro, light and...

Sun Hung Kai Properties (SHKP), Hong Kong’s largest developer by market capitalisation, sold out another batch of flats at its Sierra Sea project in the New Territories, the city’s largest residential project in two and a half decades. All 218 units launched on Wednesday found buyers, according to property agents. The developer previously sold out two rounds in the project this year: 213 flats on January 10 and 229 flats on Saturday. Following the enthusiastic response, SHKP will hold a preview...

China could learn from Ukraine about using drones to launch modified small and micro aerial bombs, a leading Chinese weapons expert said. Cai Yi, chief scientist of China North Industries Group Corporation (Norinco), said in an interview earlier this month that aerial bomb strikes by Ukrainian drones provided “a valuable example for observing drone warfare”. China could draw inspiration from Ukraine’s experience in developing small drone-borne bombs, Cai added in the interview, which appeared in...

A Shanghai mother who forced her daughter to crawl on her knees on a cold night has been accused of abusive parenting. The unidentified woman meted out the punishment in their residential compound at 9pm on January 6. Passers-by who tried to intervene were berated by the mother. A witness, surnamed Xu, said the girl stood up when she reached the compound’s entrance gate. Xu said the mother complained that her family was heavily in debt after buying a flat to provide a better education for her...

Five Singaporeans are among 55 people booked for littering in Johor Bahru since January 1, as Malaysia steps up enforcement under newly gazetted rules that send offenders to court rather than allowing on-the-spot settlements. Johor Solid Waste Management and Public Cleansing Corporation (SWCorp) director Zainal Fitri Ahmad said the Singaporeans had offered a range of excuses when caught, including claims that they were picking up rubbish rather than discarding it. “One said they were not...

Larry Fink, the interim co-chief of the World Economic Forum (WEF), is openly musing about a venue change for the flagship event that would take the annual January meeting outside Switzerland. “You should also see WEF start doing something new: showing up – and listening – in the places where the modern world is actually built,” he wrote on LinkedIn. “Davos, yes. But also places like Detroit and Dublin – and cities like Jakarta and Buenos Aires.” The Blackrock chief executive officer...

Hong Kong authorities are partnering with technology experts, professionals and educators to develop a highly intelligent AI platform tailored to the needs of the city’s schools, Secretary for Education Christine Choi Yuk-lin has said. Choi told the Legislative Council on Wednesday that authorities were exploring launching a large language model (LLM) relating to the academic curriculum of Hong Kong’s schools. She was responding to lawmaker Tang Fei, who asked whether the Education Bureau could...

Beijing’s recent call to balance trade and investment as part of a push for more sustainable growth reflects a gradual shift towards greater overseas localisation of Chinese supply chains, analysts said, as the country grapples with simmering frictions amid a record trade surplus. “Commercial authorities at all levels ... should guide the reasonable and orderly cross-border layout of industrial and supply chains, promote integrated development of trade and investment... and effectively...

China aims to make breakthroughs in artificial intelligence chips, accelerate 6G development and establish key benchmarks for humanoid robotics, as the country kicks off its new five-year plan prioritising innovation as a key driver of economic growth. To promote the development of the AI industry, the government was targeting breakthroughs in core technologies such as training chips and heterogeneous computing, officials from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said at a...

One of two domestic helpers in Hong Kong earlier arrested for allegedly abusing two small children faces a holding charge of ill-treatment after one of the boys, a four-month-old infant, was hospitalised with a brain haemorrhage and injuries consistent with shaken baby syndrome. Chief Inspector Tam Ching-shan of the Tai Po district crime unit said on Wednesday that the two helpers, aged 28 and 45, worked in the same household as the infant and his 16-month-old brother, who was also found with...

Singapore’s Prime Minister Lawrence Wong on Wednesday accepted the Workers’ Party’s (WP) rejection of his invitation to nominate a replacement for the Leader of the Opposition (LO) role, saying that it would be left vacant. In a statement hours after the WP turned down the offer, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said: “The office of the LO will therefore remain vacant until such time that the WP is ready to nominate someone to take on this responsibility.” The PMO agreed that the leader of the...

The UK approved China’s controversial plan to build a mega-embassy in London, a move that probably paves the way for Keir Starmer to make the first trip to Beijing by a British prime minister since 2018. The decision, following three delays, moves China closer to constructing the roughly 65,000 square metre (700,000 sq ft) embassy at the site of the former Royal Mint near the Tower of London. Local residents may challenge the decision in court. Starmer is set to visit Beijing and Shanghai from...

The United States on Tuesday announced the approval of a US$2.3 billion sale of P-8A maritime patrol aircraft, torpedoes and related equipment to Singapore. “The proposed sale will improve Singapore’s capability to meet current and future threats by providing a credible maritime force capable of deterring adversaries,” the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) said in a statement. It will “enhance the foreign policy and national security objectives of the United States by improving the...

This month, a telling scene unfolded in Addis Ababa. The African Union and China held their ninth strategic dialogue in the Ethiopian capital and launched the 2026 China-Africa Year of People-to-People Exchanges, framing the agenda around modernisation, connectivity and industrialisation rather than bloc politics. The moment captures what many smaller states are doing in today’s fractured world: choosing workable partnership over performative rivalry. The loudest conversations in global politics...

Shanghai’s tax authority fined an operating entity of PDD Holdings, the US-listed e-commerce company that runs leading retail platforms Pinduoduo and Temu, citing its failure to comply with local tax requirements, according to a Wednesday report from state news agency Xinhua. Shanghai Xunmeng Information Technology, a PDD subsidiary which operates Pinduoduo, failed to report necessary information concerning its platform operators and employees for the third quarter of 2025, the city’s tax...

A sweeping shake-up on when Malaysian children can start school and how they are assessed has sparked fresh anxiety among parents, many of whom fear an “optional” earlier entry would fuel a de facto race, while schools may struggle with space and staffing. Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said on Tuesday that children would be allowed to enter Year One of primary school at age six from 2027, a year earlier than the current norm, alongside a new standardised assessment framework known as the Malaysia...

At first glance, South Korea’s Incheon International Airport appears every bit the image of global glamour. Trains to the airport, which serves more than 70 million passengers a year, are filled with travellers – and with flight attendants commuting to work in full uniform. Even in freezing weather, they can be seen wearing thin jackets and low shoes that leave their ankles exposed. The sight has become a familiar part of the airport’s daily rhythm. Behind the scenes, however, lies a less...

Media groups have urged Malaysia’s government to clamp down on acts of intimidation and violence by its officials, after a journalist was allegedly assaulted by the chief executive of a government-linked company over a question asked at a news conference. The incident has sharpened scrutiny of press freedom in the country, coming days after another journalist was detained under a colonial-era Sedition Act for asking a “sensitive question” at a public forum. In the latest case, the chief...

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is betting that her strong public approval ratings will translate into a decisive majority in next month’s elections, but her bid could face a challenge from surging right-wing factions and a newly formed political party. A failure to secure a majority in the parliament’s lower house would severely undermine Takaichi’s ability to steer a tougher course on China. But irrespective of the election outcome, repairing relations with China would take well beyond...

Southeast Asian countries invited to join Donald Trump’s proposed “Board of Peace” should think carefully before entering what looks like a “more exclusive version” of the United Nations Security Council with the US president in ultimate control, analysts caution. Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam are among about 60 countries that have reportedly received invitations, alongside South Korea and India. The initiative, presented by Trump as a new international body to promote global...

A South Korean court sentenced former prime minister Han Duck-soo to 23 years in prison on Wednesday for aiding and abetting a declaration of martial law that briefly suspended civilian rule. The defendant “disregarded his duty and responsibility as prime minister until the very end”, said Judge Lee Jin-gwan of the Seoul Central District Court. “We sentence the defendant to 23 years in prison.” The sentence is eight years longer than prosecutors’ demand. The 76-year-old career technocrat was...

A former flight attendant for a Canadian airline posed as a commercial pilot and as a current flight attendant to obtain hundreds of free flights from US airlines, authorities said. Dallas Pokornik, 33, of Toronto, was arrested in Panama after being indicted on wire fraud charges in federal court in Hawaii last October. He pleaded not guilty Tuesday following his extradition. According to court documents, Pokornik was a flight attendant for a Toronto-based airline from 2017 to 2019, then used...

A group of Chinese aunties led an impromptu qigong lesson at Cairo Airport, captivating fellow passengers and earning applause. On January 9, a Chinese tour group in Egypt was waiting for their flight to Aswan when the flight was delayed for more than five hours. Some middle-aged women, known in China as aunties, in the group, united by their love of dancing and travel, decided to pass the time and relieve fatigue with Baduanjin qigong. An auntie surnamed Chen told the mainland media outlet...

China should leverage its massive buying power to boost imports settled in yuan and shift towards a more balanced trade structure, to accelerate the currency’s global use, according to a former central bank adviser. The proposal signals a potential opportunity for the yuan’s internationalisation, years after Beijing kicked off the process in 2009 by allowing selected exporters to be paid in the Chinese currency. “China is the world’s largest goods exporter, but the yuan’s international standing...

The separate moves by three Southeast Asian countries to block the AI chatbot Grok over sexually explicit deepfake images are “emergency brakes” that analysts say may avert immediate harm, but they fall short of coordination at the regional level needed to curb the risks of manipulated artificial intelligence. On Friday, the Philippines said it was restricting access to Grok, following similar steps by Malaysia and Indonesia, after users complained that doctored sexual images of women and minors...

Hong Kong authorities could expand background checks on authorised persons in construction projects to cover company directors, the development chief has said, as the government moves to plug policy loopholes exposed by the Tai Po inferno. Secretary for Development Bernadette Linn Hon-ho indicated the possible policy direction on Wednesday, after experts said earlier this month that government proposals to strengthen the city’s maintenance regime did not go far enough to address long-standing...

Chile’s right-wing president-elect Jose Antonio Kast on Tuesday named two ex-lawyers of former dictator Augusto Pinochet to lead the ministries of defence and human rights when he takes office in March. Kast will be sworn in on March 11 as the first far-right head of state in Chile since the exit of Pinochet, whose brutal regime left deep scars on the South American nation. Pinochet led a dictatorship from 1973 to 1990 that left more than 3,200 dead or missing, and tortured or imprisoned tens of...