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SCMP

We have put together stories from our coverage last weekend to help you stay informed about news across Asia and beyond. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing.
1. Flights and rail services resume across eastern China as Typhoon Bavi weakens

Rail and air services began returning to normal across large areas of eastern China on Sunday as Typhoon Bavi weakened and moved inland, away from some of the country’s largest cities.
2. What happened before Chinese scientist Wang Danhao took his life in the US?

The ashes of Chinese researcher Wang Danhao have been returned to his home in China, nearly four months after he died by suicide following questioning by US law enforcement.
3. Filipino workers in Hong Kong allegedly recruited as surrogates for overseas couples
The Philippine consulate in Hong Kong is investigating allegations that domestic helpers are being recruited in the city to become surrogate mothers for couples in other countries for up to 1 million pesos (US$16,220).
4. China woman graduates from Tsinghua University 17 years after photo there with dad

A young woman from southeastern China who once posed with her father outside Tsinghua University as a child has fulfilled a long-held dream by graduating from the elite Beijing institution.
5. China’s reusable rocket feat lights up the web: is SpaceX set to lose its crown?

China’s landmark recovery of a reusable rocket has ignited heated debate on social media, with reactions ranging from awe at the rapid pace of Chinese space development to speculation over a more intense space race with the United States.


Filipino helpers as surrogates, Chinese scientist’s death in US: 5 weekend reads you missed

10 scientists and experts who have left the US and UK for China so far in 2026

China sets July 4 precedent with US; Cathay plane triggers Nato alert: SCMP’s 7 highlights

Charlene Choi’s rise to stardom; how to make a girl fall in love: 7 Lifestyle highlights

SCMP Highlights

Workers have been urged to warn relatives back home and in Hong Kong about the surrogacy issue. Photo: Getty Images

A woman walks past a vehicle knocked over by winds from Typhoon Bavi in Wenling, in China’s eastern Zhejiang province on July 12, 2026. Photo: AFP

Wang Danhao had secured a faculty position at the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei, his alma mater, and was planning to fly back to China in May, according to a source. Photo: Handout

Seventeen years after being photographed on her father’s back outside Tsinghua University, a young woman recreated the exact moment in her graduation gown. Photo: SCMP composite/yzwb.net

A drone photo shows the capturing of the returned first stage of the Long March-10B carrier rocket on a seaborne platform via a net-capture system, near Wenchang in southern China’s Hainan province on July 10. Photo: Xinhua via AP

Some of the scientists and experts who left the West for China in 2026 (from left to right): Peipei Chen, Dai Liang and Zhang Kai. Photo: Handout

Omar Yaghi receives the Nobel Prize in Stockholm in December. Photo: Getty Images

Jiang Jianfeng says the decision to return to his home country is a “natural choice”. Photo: Handout

Ling Haibin is a former Empire Innovation Professor at Stony Brook University in New York and IEEE Fellow. Photo: Handout

Zhu Ziqiang, who has joined Hong Kong Polytechnic University as chair professor of electrical machines and control systems. Photo: Handout

Wombs for hire: the painful price of Asia’s baby trade

Media attend a press briefing where Thai police showed pictures of surrogate babies in 2014, the year before Thailand banned commercial surrogacy. Photo: AP

Newborn babies in hospital. Surrogate mothers in Southeast Asia can be paid up to US$15,000 to help strangers become parents. Photo: Shutterstock

A woman kisses her baby in Banteay Meanchey province, Cambodia, last year. Commercial surrogacy is illegal in Cambodia, Thailand and Laos. Photo: Reuters

Vehicles drive past the main police station in Pattaya, Thailand. Two Chinese nationals suspected of running an illegal surrogacy business were detained in the seaside city earlier this month. Photo: dpa

A man uses his mobile phone as he walks past portraits of babies used as advertisement for a fertility clinic in Bangkok. Photo: EPA

A 26-year-old Ukrainian going through her second surrogacy for a Chinese couple holds her belly in 2020. Russia and Ukraine became global surrogacy hubs after Southeast Asia clamped down on the trade. Photo: AFP

Thai surrogate mother Pattaramon Chanbua holds her baby Gammy, born with Down’s syndrome, at a hospital in Chonburi province in 2014. Photo: AFP

China’s auto shipments to EU surge, but could be near their peak: European analysts

Chinese-made cars are seen on a dock before being loaded onto a ship for export in Suzhou port, in China's eastern Jiangsu province, on July 7, 2026. Photo: AFP

News

World

From Typhoon Bavi hitting eastern China to Wang Danhao’s death in the US, here are five stories you may have missed over the weekend


From Typhoon Bavi hitting eastern China to Wang Danhao’s death in the US, here are five stories you may have missed over the weekend.


Filipino helpers as surrogates, Chinese scientist’s death in US: 5 weekend reads you missed

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}From Typhoon Bavi hitting eastern China to Wang Danhao’s death in the US, here are five stories you may have missed over the weekend

1. Flights and rail services resume across eastern China as Typhoon Bavi weakens

From Typhoon Bavi hitting eastern China to Wang Danhao’s death in the US, here are five stories you may have missed over the weekend