Putin says Russian navy can carry out ‘unpreventable strike’ if needed

The Russian navy can detect any enemy and launch an "unpreventable strike" if needed, President Vladimir Putin said on Sunday (July 25), weeks after a UK warship angered Moscow by passing the Crimea peninsula. "We are capable of detecting any underwater, above-water, airborne enemy and, if required, carry out an unpreventable strike against it," Putin said...

Bubble burst: New Zealand suspends quarantine-free travel with Australia

Passengers arrive from New Zealand after the Trans-Tasman travel bubble opened overnight, following an extended border closure due to the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) outbreak, at Sydney Airport in Sydney, Australia, on Oct 16, 2020.Reuters New Zealand will pause its quarantine-free travel arrangement with Australia for at least eight weeks starting Friday (July 23) night, Prime Minister Jacinda...

Philippines to bar travel from Malaysia, Thailand to curb Delta’s spread

Passengers, mostly Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW) queue at the departure area of Ninoy Aquino International Airport amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Pasay, Metro Manila, Philippines, on June 1, 2021.Reuters The Philippines will ban travellers coming from Malaysia and Thailand, as well as tighten restrictions in the Manila area, in a bid to prevent the...

China floods: Good Samaritans show flood-hit Zhengzhou residents kindness

A handout photo. People take shelter in a cinema in Zhengzhou.South China Morning Post Business owners and residents in the city of Zhengzhou, which has been hit by severe flooding, have given a helping hand to those affected by the natural disaster. The extreme weather in Zhengzhou and neighbouring areas has left at least 33 people dead...

Malaysia’s Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul on the ‘Bendera Putih’ campaign, job losses and standing for election

Malaysia’s Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz.Twitter/tzafrul_aziz Malaysia ’s Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz spoke to the South China Morning Post on a wide range of issues concerning the National Recovery Plan, a four-phase road map for the country to progressively reopen its economy by the end of the year. While Malaysia’s heaving health care system...

Govt announces $1.1b Covid-19 relief package for companies and workers

A $1.1 billion support package that includes enhanced wage subsidies under the Jobs Support Scheme (JSS), and rental relief, more support for drivers of taxis and private-hire vehicles and a new relief fund for market and hawker centre stallholders will be rolled out to cushion businesses and workers from the impact of harsher Covid-19 restrictions. JSS support will...

All aboard the hyperloop: How your commute could be changing

Josh Giegel, co-founder and CEO of Virgin Hyperloop, walks next to a hyperloop tube at the company's hyperloop facility near Las Vegas, Nevada, May 5, 2021.Reuters Think about the future of transportation, and you might envision the old animated show The Jetsons, with everyone flying around in personal spaceships. Not only did that never happen, but we are...

After finding her video on Pornhub, Chinese woman creates app for survivors

Unsplash It was a sunny spring afternoon last year when Tisiphone, 25, received a phone call from a male friend that turned her life upside down. "He told me that I was on Pornhub. Of course, my first reaction was that it must be a mistake. How could it be me?" said the Chinese woman, who asked...

Chinese crackdown on online fraud forces citizens to leave Myanmar’s ‘Little China’

At a hotel in Wa State, near the Myanmar-China border, Chinese national Li Jiajie is growing increasingly desperate by the day. The 24-year-old has been surviving on his savings since last month when he quit his job as an assistant chef after Chinese security officials instructed all citizens to leave northeast Myanmar . But Li is uncertain...

Myanmar funeral services overwhelmed as Covid-19 toll mounts

Hundreds more bodies than usual are being taken for funerals every day in junta-ruled Myanmar as a new wave of Covid-19 sweeps through the country, services transporting the bodies and arranging ceremonies said. The accounts from different parts of Myanmar point to the daily death tolls being higher than those given by the health ministry, which...