Eurovision, the live song contest that has launched the likes of Abba, Celine Dion and Olivia Newton-John onto the world stage, is set to make its Asia debut in Bangkok this weekend, with a coterie of singers from South Korea and Bangladesh to Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. Organisers of the 11-country contest are hoping to tap Asia’s thriving fan culture and love of music – and at the same time sidestep some of the gaffes and geopolitical controversies that have made the European event an...

We have selected seven stories from the SCMP’s coverage of Asia over the past week that resonated with our readers and shed light on topical issues. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. Nvidia scandal, China chip claims put Singapore firm Megaspeed under scrutiny A little-known Singapore-registered company is embroiled in a mounting love scandal surrounding Nvidia chief Jensen Huang and US allegations of Chinese espionage. 2. Diploma dispute fuels...

Singapore on Tuesday launched a gold storage service for foreign central banks and other financial institutions, as it seeks to bolster its position as a major precious metals trading hub. The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said the facility, housed in the city state’s national currency vault, could store 500 tonnes of gold but could expand that as demand grows. The service will provide foreign central banks, international financial institutions and sovereign entities “with a secure...

[The content of this article has been produced by our advertising partner.] Huawei brought together nearly 100 industry experts and ecosystem partners at the HDD (Huawei Developer Day) HarmonyOS Ecosystem Executive Summit in Hong Kong on November 9, 2026, as regional enterprises increasingly collaborate to meet the surging demand for seamless outbound travel and lifestyle experiences across the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA). Held under the theme "Open Innovation · Mutual...

Flash floods during a Deepavali picnic in Malaysia have killed a man and left seven others missing, as authorities evacuated hundreds from flood-prone areas in Selangor and Perak states amid a strengthening monsoon season. The shifting monsoon winds also triggered a surge in thunderstorms across the country, helping clear out a months-long curtain of transboundary haze. Local officials said they found the body of the victim, identified as V. Vijayan, at around 1.30am on Tuesday at a bridge about...

Two mainland Chinese chip suppliers made sharply divergent trading debuts in Hong Kong on Tuesday after raising a combined HK$2.2 billion (US$280 million), underscoring investors’ selective appetite for semiconductor stocks despite a pickup in new listings. Suzhou Denglin Technology, the week’s largest listing, closed 7.7 per cent lower at HK$213 after raising HK$1.4 billion in its initial public offering (IPO). The graphics processing unit maker priced its shares at HK$231 – the bottom of its...

Vietnam’s To Lam is expected to use his visit to Japan this week to expand trade and investment options with Tokyo, especially in technology, amid continued uncertainty surrounding America’s future policy direction. After talks with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi in Tokyo on Monday, the two leaders pledged to speed up public-private cooperation on critical minerals, with a joint statement calling economic security a top priority in bilateral relations and promising deeper cooperation on...

The armed group’s treatment of the Rohingya amounts to crimes against humanity – but because it is driving them into Bangladesh, the ICC has the power to act.

A Chinese man was referred to prosecutors on Monday for allegedly disrupting a major mobile carrier’s services in Tokyo’s Ginza shopping district with a rogue cell tower device, with police investigating possible links to a phishing scheme using illegal radio signals. Yu Hai, 31, an unemployed resident of Tokyo’s Kita ward, was arrested on Saturday allegedly in the act of operating a base station without a licence, using the device from a car parked on a Ginza street to emit radio signals to...

Prices for Nvidia graphics processing units (GPUs) are falling in China’s largest electronics market, as traders shrug off the frenzy of market speculation over tightening export controls in the wake of the US midterm elections and the Jensen Huang affair. The US chip giant’s top-of-the-range GeForce RTX 5090 graphics card surged in price last month at Shenzhen’s Huaqiangbei market, but that was mostly driven by rumours that Nvidia was going to halt production to focus on high-end enterprise...

WuXi AppTec’s shares jumped on Tuesday after the Pentagon removed the company from a list of entities allegedly linked to the Chinese military, marking a win for the biotech service giant and raising hopes among other mainland firms challenging US blacklists. The US deputy secretary of defence decided to delist WuXi AppTec from its list of “Chinese military companies”, according to a notice published on the Federal Register on Tuesday. WuXi AppTec surged more than 6 per cent at the open in Hong...

Royal connections and religious commonalities have laid the foundation of a warm relationship between the two kingdoms.

A cruise ship left stranded in Southeast Asia after its US-based operator ran out of money has been arrested in Singapore, the Maritime and Port Authority (MPA) said on Monday. The Odyssey, meant to take passengers on a continuous voyage around the world, was arrested after arriving on Sunday from Cambodia, where around 200 guests were told to disembark. “The vessel has been placed under arrest pursuant to a court order,” MPA said in a statement, without giving further details. “The crew on...

For Sunny He, a 32-year-old Shanghai resident, this year’s Singles’ Day shopping season culminated in a single, high-value purchase: a 12,000-yuan (US$1,797) iPhone 18 Pro Max, sweetened by a 300-yuan voucher on Alibaba Group Holding’s Tmall marketplace. “For me, Double 11 definitely isn’t as lively as before because I have less spare cash than in previous years,” He said. “Even so, I’ll take advantage of this chance for products that I couldn’t bear to buy at full price, like a new...

While some tropes like zombies are universally scary, other sources of terror require specific cultural knowledge to inspire dread – something Wyn Panichpakdee realised while watching both Thai and international players test his studio’s latest video game. In Kumarn: The Wandering Spirit, players encounter phi nang rum, menacing dancing spirit dolls from Thai folklore. Wyn said Thai players instantly recognised the dolls and braced themselves for something horrifying, while foreign players...

An investigation into Megaspeed, a Singapore company that was buying advanced Nvidia A.I. chips, was transferred to the Justice Department after a top Nvidia executive reached out to Commerce Department officials.

Nasdaq is preparing to extend trading in US equities on its exchange to nearly 23 hours a day from next month, a landmark shift that will bring Wall Street into real-time competition with Asian markets. The expansion, slated for launch on December 6, introduces an overnight window running from 9pm to 4am Eastern Time. During US winter time, that corresponds to 10am to 5pm in Hong Kong and Beijing, directly overlapping with normal trading hours across China. The US Securities and Exchange...

For Jason Wang, a media operator based in Zhengzhou in central China’s Henan province, switching his long-held investment strategy of buying gold to tech-themed funds was a bittersweet decision. The 28-year-old retail investor, who has no idea about tech company fundamentals, started buying tech funds – focused on China’s semiconductors, robotics and similar sectors – at the end of last year amid a bull run that lasted until the middle of this year. Watching returns on his semiconductor funds...

At the Fortune Southeast Asia 500 Summit in Ho Chi Minh City on November 3, a discussion of regional connectivity explored how goods move across borders. I came away thinking about what stays behind. When production moves to Vietnam, how much of the ability to produce moves with it? Vietnam has set itself an extraordinary ambition. Its five-year plan, approved in April, targets average annual gross domestic product growth of at least 10 per cent from 2026 to 2030. Developing Vietnamese suppliers...

The controversy has intensified scrutiny of Mr. Huang’s ties to Beijing and sparked mixed reactions across Asia, where he is widely popular.