Hong Kong property transactions surged to a four-month high in April, while the value and volume of home sales hit their highest level in 24 months, according to the latest official data, underscoring the resilience of the city’s real estate sector amid uncertainties over interest rates and the US-Israel war on Iran. A total of 8,692 transactions across homes, offices, shops, car parking spots and industrial spaces were concluded last month, up 12.3 per cent from March’s 7,737 deals, according...

Indonesia is moving to reshape its ride-hailing industry from the inside, with officials saying the state has acquired stakes in app companies as President Prabowo Subianto seeks to raise drivers’ earnings and rein in commission fees. The move could mark a significant shift in one of Southeast Asia’s biggest on-demand economies, where millions of drivers for platforms such as Gojek and Grab have become a highly visible labour force and, analysts say, a potent political bloc. Last week, Prabowo...

South Korea’s first home-grown combat aircraft, the KF-21, still has a “long way to go” competing globally against products from the US, Europe and China, analysts say, as the fighter jet is finally rolled out. In March, Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) officially unveiled the first production unit of the KF-21 Boramae, making South Korea the eighth country to join an elite group capable of indigenously developing advanced supersonic combat aircraft. The roll-out marked the start of mass...

Four years after Shanghai’s harsh citywide lockdown, there are signs the city’s expatriate population – which thinned significantly during the pandemic – is starting to rebound, though with a notably different demographic profile. The sound of English, Korean and French is once again often heard drifting through the plane-tree-lined streets of Shanghai’s former French Concession – widely seen as the heart of the city’s international community. And local residents point to a gradual, though...

On a small island off eastern China, a group of mothers is rewriting the rules of work and family life. Known as the “Female Knights”, this determined band of women has turned food delivery into a path to financial independence and self-empowerment. Qushan Island, in Zhoushan, Zhejiang province, has a population of around 55,000. Its main industries are fishing and stone mining, and access to the outside world requires a two-hour ferry ride. While most men work at sea or in the city, many women...

Sweden’s government said on Tuesday it would push forward with a plan to form a new spy agency targeting overseas threats, part of a wider reset prompted by Russia’s war in Ukraine. The new agency would be called Sweden’s foreign intelligence service (UND) and would start operations in January 2027, Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard told a press conference. “During the ongoing war in Ukraine, it has become very clear that an information advantage and the ability to rapidly and...

Researchers at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) say they have developed a world-first nasal spray that delivers neurotherapeutic powder directly to the brain as first aid for ischemic stroke patients, with clinical trials expected by 2030. The treatment is intended for initial use by paramedics, before being rolled out to high-risk groups in care facilities and eventually the general public through pharmacies. It was developed by the Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine at HKU and the university’s...