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1. Xi Jinping meets Taiwan opposition leader Cheng Li-wun in Beijing

   Communist Party chief Xi Jinping met Cheng Li-wun, chairwoman of Taiwan’s main opposition party, the Kuomintang (KMT), in Beijing on Friday. Their meeting marked the first time a sitting KMT chairperson had met with the Communist Party leadership since November 2016, when then-KMT chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu visited the mainland. Cheng has described her six-day trip, which began on Tuesday in...

2. Why Japanese firm’s tie-up with Ukrainian drone maker sparks concerns in Russia

   Russia’s protest over a proposed investment by a Japanese company in a Ukrainian drone maker signals its concern that Tokyo may be supporting closer cooperation with Kyiv’s defence sector and planning to lift a long-standing ban on weapon exports, according to an international relations expert. On Wednesday, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko registered Moscow’s protest in a meeting...

3. Israel plans talks with Lebanon as violence imperils Iran ceasefire

   In a potential boost to Middle East ceasefire efforts, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday that he authorised direct negotiations with Lebanon “as soon as possible” aimed at disarming Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants and establishing relations between the neighbours. Israel and Lebanon have technically been at war since Israel was established in 1948, and Netanyahu later...

4. Tai Po probe: fire department to propose law changes, tougher penalties to boost safety

   This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing. An independent committee examining the causes of Hong Kong’s deadliest blaze in decades held its 10th day of evidential hearings on Friday. The Fire Services Department’s handling of shutdown notices for the fire safety systems of the devastated Tai Po...

5. Asian economies face ‘formidable test’ as Middle East conflict drags on: ADB

   Economic growth across Asia is likely to slow even if oil prices stabilise in the coming months, as the impact of war in the Middle East ripples through industries from manufacturing to tourism, according to the Asian Development Bank. The US and Israeli war on Iran is projected to halt developing Asia’s economic upswing, with the region’s gross domestic product expansion seen moderating to 5.1...

6. ‘No offensive role’ for Australia as clock ticks towards first US-Iran talks since war

   US Vice-President J.D. Vance will travel to Islamabad for the first round of talks on Saturday morning local time with Iran to end the war in the Middle East, according to the White House. The US Secret Service has already arrived in the Pakistani capital to make security arrangements ahead of his visit, which marks the most significant face-to-face, high-level US–Iran contact since 1979. The...

7. Alibaba’s Qwen family captures over 50% of global open-source downloads, report finds

   Alibaba Cloud captured more than 50 per cent of global open-source model downloads as of March following the release of its Qwen 3.5 model series, a new report has found. The finding underscores the dominance of Chinese models in the global open-source artificial intelligence landscape, though some US companies including OpenAI and Nvidia are also making early gains. Qwen reached nearly 1...

8. Solid-state battery firms in China and US line up IPOs as oil prices lift EV appeal

   Three solid-state battery developers across China and the US are moving towards initial public offerings (IPOs), as geopolitical tensions and elevated oil prices fuel demand for more energy-efficient technologies. Qingtao (Kunshan) Energy Development Group became the latest to join the queue, filing for a Hong Kong listing on April 8. Earlier, Beijing WeLion New Energy began the pre-listing...

9. Why Trump’s Hormuz rebuke won’t derail South Korea’s ‘very strong’ alliance with US

   US President Donald Trump’s public rebuke of South Korea for refusing to send warships to the Strait of Hormuz is an uncomfortable moment for a 70-year alliance, piling fresh pressure on a Seoul government already uneasy about Washington’s appetite for confrontation in the Middle East. But analysts believe the relationship can withstand the strain, pointing to deep institutional ties between the...

10. Can a ‘community with a shared future’ prevail over zero-sum rivalry?

    With the coming summit between Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump back on schedule for May, the two leaders present two starkly different paths for the world: one defined by a “community with a shared future” and the other driven by unpredictable impulses of rivalry and division. While Trump postponed the April summit to engage Xi without the distractions of the war he...