Finance news

Hong Kong’s own drug regulator pushes ahead with hiring, seeks WHO recognition

As Hong Kong marks the 29th anniversary of its return to Chinese rule on July 1, the South China Morning Post talks to the city’s senior officials about the administration’s achievements so far and what may lie ahead. Hong Kong is on a global talent hunt for its own drug approval body which is expected to be launched by the fourth quarter of this year as the city bids to achieve its international biomedical hub ambitions, the city’s health minister has revealed. In an exclusive interview with...

Tokyo warehouse district emerges as testing ground for self-driving tech

India's small and mid-cap stocks draw growth-hunting investors

North Korea’s border build-up opens a Seoul-UN Command rift

A public row between Seoul and the US-led United Nations Command (UNC) has revealed a fresh fault line over how the two interpret North Korea’s recent border fortification activities. South Korea views its arch-rival’s actions as a violation of the 1953 Korean war armistice agreement. The UNC does not. The dispute follows a separate disagreement over which authority should govern access to the demilitarised zone (DMZ), while analysts say differences also persist between Seoul and Washington over

The $7 Trillion AI Boom Is Running Out of Power

Forget the chips. Forget the code. The most expensive, in-demand commodity in the entire $3-trillion AI revolution is not a patented algorithm or a new Nvidia GPU. It's power. Specifically, a secure, high-voltage connection to the electrical grid that can deliver $100-500 million worth of juice to a new data center. Right now, the largest, richest companies on Earth—Google, Microsoft, Amazon—are in an unprecedented global land rush for energy. They are competing with small cities, massive manufa

Highly dangerous disease: More than 300 dead from Ebola in Congo

The number of Ebola cases in the Central African country continues to rise. More than a thousand people have been confirmed to have been infected with the virus.

US Supreme Court paves way for Trump’s mass deportation of Haitians and Syrians

The US Supreme Court on Thursday backed a Trump administration move to strip deportation protections from some 350,000 Haitians and 6,000 Syrians living in the United States. The conservative-dominated court, in a 6-3 ruling, said the Department of Homeland Security’s decision to end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitian and Syrian immigrants was not subject to judicial review. TPS protects its holders from deportation and is granted to people deemed to be in danger if they return home...

Strait of Hormuz: Tehran: Hormuz passage only safe on Iranian routes

The first passages through the Strait of Hormuz had barely begun again when a ship was attacked off Oman. Did it try to bypass routes set by Iran? Tehran seems angry.

I will receive a larger amount as a gift

Hi everyone, I currently live in Switzerland (with Swiss citizenship) and recently found out that my grandmother - who comes from a non-EU country - would like to give me a large amount of money. The money originally came from my grandfather, who saved it all his life and left it to my grandmother after his death. Since she is now at an age where she probably won't be with us much longer, she would like to give me this gift

IPO: OpenAI leans towards postponing IPO to 2027, according to report

According to a newspaper report, advisors are said to have warned Sam Altman to wait before making his IPO debut. Alternatively, he could deviate from the required assessment.

FedEx Freight takes a step forward in its independent journey. Here's why we like the stock

FedEx Freight had plenty of encouraging things to say on its first earnings call as a standalone company.

IPO Connect pitched as Hong Kong’s next move to boost finance hub role. But hurdles loom

Hong Kong is seizing every opportunity to consolidate its role as a global financial centre, leveraging unique advantages and national strategies. This piece, the second in a miniseries focusing on the city’s financial industry ahead of the handover anniversary, explores the likelihood of an “IPO Connect” that could inject much-needed liquidity into the market and deepen international investors’ access to top-tier China assets. At every summer’s Lujiazui Forum, attended by China’s top financial.

ON Semiconductor strikes $7 billion deal for Synaptics in physical AI push

ON Semiconductor said the deal bumps up its total addressable market by $30 billion, to $243 billion by 2030.

+++ Football World Cup 2026 +++: “Too much freestyle” – What bothered Nagelsmann during the World Cup defeat

DFB team loses last World Cup group game against Ecuador +++ Ittrich and Wagner – 1-0 by Sané shouldn't have counted +++ Undav again Joker against Ecuador +++ The news blog.

Venezuela earthquakes draw aid from governments that cut ties with Caracas

Venezuela received offers of rescue teams and humanitarian aid from across the Americas on Thursday, including from right-wing governments that had broken off diplomatic relations with Caracas less than two years ago, after two earthquakes killed at least 188 people. The quakes, of magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 and 39 seconds apart, struck the north of the country on Wednesday evening and were the strongest to hit Venezuela in more than a century. Interim President Delcy Rodriguez declared a nationwide.

As Social Security faces trust fund depletion, some Washington lawmakers call for taxing high earners

High earners may only contribute Social Security payroll taxes for part of the year. As the program faces funding woes, some lawmakers say that should change.

A world rejecting OPEC controls could usher in oil below $50 a barrel

Iraq’s hint that it could exit OPEC is yet another source of potential tumult for the global oil market in 2026.

UK’s King Charles breaks tradition to reveal US$17 million tax bill

King Charles will not live at Buckingham ⁠Palace after its 10-year refurbishment finishes next year, royal officials said on Thursday, ending nearly two centuries of the central London landmark serving as the British monarch’s primary residence. Officials at the same time disclosed the king paid £12.9 million (US$17.04 million) in tax in 2024/25 – the first time the figure has been made public – placing him among Britain’s ‌top 100 taxpayers. Members of the royal family have promised greater...

HKEX pushes deeper into index business as AI reshapes Hong Kong market

Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX) is expanding into the index business with plans to launch more proprietary benchmarks and related investment products, as traditional market gauges have lagged regional peers during the artificial intelligence-driven technology rally. The operator of Hong Kong’s stock exchange will debut the first exchange-traded fund (ETF) tracking its HKEX Tech 100 Index on Friday. The index, launched on December 9, tracks the 100 largest technology companies listed in..

Is the US banning drones from China until it can make better ones itself?

As the United States marks the 250th anniversary of its founding, it confronts a new world order dominated by its relationship with China. In this wide-ranging series, we examine the pressure points and possibilities in those ties, from hard tech to soft power. Here, Khushboo Razdan separates the signals from the noise in the US debate over drones. Whether responding to a wildfire or searching for a missing person, Battalion Chief William Marsiglio of Chesterfield, Virginia, relies on one tool..

Colombia's Cocaine Trade Now Outearns Its Oil Exports

Drug lords in Colombia are making more money from cocaine than the government is making from crude oil sales, a report from a Colombian university has found. At $16.5 billion for 2024, cocaine revenues surpassed oil export revenues, which stood at around $15 billion that year, UPI reported, citing the research from EAFIT University. Oil export revenues, however, remain Colombia’s largest export revenue generator, the research showed. Together with coal exports, oil exceeds the illicit trade in c

‘I have full guardianship’: My son has special needs. If I buy him a condo, will that hurt his benefits?

“Another option would be for me to purchase the condo myself and have him pay me rent.”

EU pitches Brazil a ‘more beneficial’ rare earths deal than US or China

The European Union is offering Brazil a “more beneficial” partnership on critical minerals than the United States or China, the bloc’s international partnerships commissioner said on Thursday, promising investment in domestic refining and technology as Brussels works to cut its dependence on Chinese supply chains. European Commissioner for International Partnerships Jozef Sikela made the case during a week-long visit to Brazil that included a stop on Saturday at a rare earth research and...

The S&P 500 is at a critical crossroads. A break lower could signal more losses ahead.

The S&P 500 on Thursday finished right on the cusp of a critical support line that, if broken, could portend more losses for stocks in the coming days and weeks.

Why Hong Kong’s bilingualism is uniquely indispensable in the AI era

Last week, while preparing a lecture on the visual culture of the Global South, I caught Google’s Gemini in a double hallucination. Cross-referencing a historical event between English and Chinese data sets, I found the English AI to be authoritative but inventing citations. In Chinese, the fabrications vanished but so did global context, replaced by an insular perspective. Disturbingly, the system cloaked Chinese content in English citations, creating a deceptive authenticity that made the...

China to roll out nursing care insurance nationwide as population ages

Toshiba's lost crown jewels: Kioxia, US nuclear power soar in AI era

The myth of a China-Russia axis

Upscale Japan sake brand looks to boost exports to Taiwan, Hong Kong

Abandoned Sony tech gives rise to new startups by ex-employees