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Image: Getty Images Archaeologists in Turkey have unearthed a remarkably preserved 1,600-year-old Roman wine production site beneath the ruins of an ancient mountain castle. The discovery, made near the village of Oymakli in southeastern Turkey’s Kahta district, sheds light on the scale and sophistication of winemaking in the late Roman period. The site includes grape-crushing installations, cisterns, and grinding stones, all remarkably intact after more than a millennium. Experts believe the complex once operated as a large-scale industrial winery, serving both local residents and the nearby Kahta Castle, an important stronghold during the Kingdom of Commagene.Unearthing the ancient vineyardThe excavation, led by the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism, began after archaeologists discovered fragments of stone and pottery believed to be of historical value. The site spans nearly 37 acres and lies in a mountainous region overlooking the Euphrates River valley.Researchers found sever..

AdvertisementInterest ratesBusinessBanking & FinanceBreaking | Hong Kong follows US in quarter-point interest rate cut to reduce loans cost for borrowersHalf-point cut in six weeks further eases the funding costs for businesses and mortgage borrowers
Reading Time:3 minutesWhy you can trust SCMPEnoch YiuPublished: 7:00am, 30 Oct 2025Hong Kong’s de facto central bank cut the base interest rate for the second time in six weeks, further reducing the cost of funding to help reboot the city’s businesses and reduce the burden on mortgage borrowers.
AdvertisementThe Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) cut the base rate by a quarter point to 4.25 per cent on Thursday, hours after the US Federal Reserve pared its target rate by the same margin to a range of 3.75 per cent to 4 per cent during the seventh meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) this year. The new base rate is the lowest for Hong Kong since November 2022.Together with a quarter-point rate cut in September, central banks..

AdvertisementHong Kong healthcare and hospitalsHong KongHealth & EnvironmentApplications for Hong Kong’s expanded medical fee waiver to open on MondayPatients with appointments scheduled for January or February at public hospitals can submit required income and asset proofs from Monday
Reading Time:3 minutesWhy you can trust SCMPFiona SunPublished: 7:00am, 30 Oct 2025An expanded medical fee waiver mechanism under public healthcare reforms in Hong Kong will open for applications from patients on Monday, months before the new policy takes effect next year.
AdvertisementThe Hospital Authority said that patients with appointments scheduled for January or February at public hospitals could submit the required proof of income and assets to apply for the fee reduction starting from Monday.
Those eligible for the waiver would be issued a certificate before their appointment, it said.
Applications can be submitted to the medical social services units at public hospitals and clinics, and the int..

President Donald Trump claimed during a press briefing aboard Air Force One on October 27, 2025 that he had taken an “IQ test” at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and achieved a perfect score, challenging Democratic Representatives Jasmine Crockett and Alexandria Ocasio‑Cortez to take the same exam.In reality, the question test appears to have been the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA)—a brief screening tool for early cognitive decline, not an intelligence (IQ) test, according to People. The discrepancy between what was claimed and what experts say the test measures raises questions about transparency, health communication, and political messaging. What Trump said and how he framed itTrump described the test as “very hard” and suggested it was akin to an aptitude or cognitive exam:“They have Jasmine Crockett, a low IQ person. AOC is low IQ… You give her an IQ test, have her pass, like, the exams that I decided to take when I was at Walter Reed… I took- Those are very har..

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, affirmed the company’s commitment to staying in California after resolving a regulatory dispute with California Attorney General Rob Bonta. In a post on X, Altman said the company had spoken with the Attorney General two weeks earlier and made clear it would not follow other tech firms that threaten to relocate when facing scrutiny. The agreement clears the path for OpenAI’s restructuring into a public-benefit corporation and enables Microsoft to move ahead with a 27% ownership stake, marking a major step in the company’s governance evolution.OpenAI’s deal with CaliforniaOpenAI’s transformation from a non-profit organisation into a public-benefit corporation has required careful scrutiny from regulators. The company was originally founded to ensure that artificial intelligence would be developed safely and for the benefit of humanity, without commercial motives dominating its mission. As OpenAI expanded into building powerful AI systems like ChatGPT, the scal..

AdvertisementUS-China trade warUSDiplomacySurvey reveals more than half of Americans want more friendly engagement with ChinaA study by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs also found that a majority of Americans are against higher tariffs on Chinese imports
Reading Time:3 minutesWhy you can trust SCMPMark Magnierin New YorkPublished: 7:03am, 29 Oct 2025More than half of Americans say the United States should cooperate and engage with China, according to a survey released on Tuesday, a sharp increase from the 40 per cent recorded in 2024.
AdvertisementThe results released by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs also found that a majority of Americans are against higher tariffs on Chinese imports.“Americans’ views of China are beginning to improve after several years of sharp declines,” said Craig Kafura, the council’s director of public opinion and US foreign policy and author of the study. “The big swings on how the US should approach China, in a very broad sense, were really intere..

AdvertisementCrime in Hong KongHong KongLaw and CrimeHongkongers put on investigator’s hat in new ICAC anti-corruption simulationParticipants to experience different stages of ICAC probe during three-hour activity, including evidence gathering, arrest, facial recognition and interviews
Reading Time:2 minutesWhy you can trust SCMPLeopold ChenPublished: 7:00am, 29 Oct 2025Hong Kong’s anti-corruption watchdog has launched an immersive programme that lets residents and tourists experience first-hand how graft-busters work.
AdvertisementThe Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) said its public engagement project, dubbed “Operation 303”, would open for public registration on Wednesday.During the three-hour activity, participants will be guided by ICAC officers to investigate a simulated corruption case involving a construction project.
Participants will experience different stages of an ICAC investigation, including evidence gathering, arrest, facial recognition and interviews.
“T..

Image Via Instagram FaZe Clan has officially made history by signing its first-ever female member, Cinna, a move that marks a groundbreaking moment in one of esports’ most influential organizations. The announcement sent shockwaves through the gaming community, with fans and creators celebrating the long-awaited step toward diversity and inclusion in the competitive gaming world. Cinna’s induction signals both change and progress for the next generation of content creators.Who is Cinna? The FaZe Clan creator making waves in gaming and streamingCinna, known online as @cinnabrit, is a content creator, streamer, and rising gaming personality whose charm and humor have earned her a loyal following across multiple platforms. Before joining FaZe, she built her name through entertaining content, ranging from gaming streams to lifestyle videos. Her ability to blend comedy, relatability, and skill has made her one of the most promising young voices in online entertainment.Originally gaining tra..

Smallville star Allison Mack to speak publicly for the first time about NXIVM s*x cult in new CBC podcast series (Image via Getty) Allison Mack, the former Smallville actress who played Chloe Sullivan from 2001 to 2011, is finally ready to talk about her life inside the NXIVM sex cult. The 42-year-old was one of the top leaders under cult founder Keith Raniere, who is serving a 120-year prison sentence. Mack was arrested in 2018, pleaded guilty in 2019 to racketeering charges for helping recruit women, and was released from prison in July 2023 after serving 21 months. She will now tell her story in her own voice for the first time in a new podcast.Why did Allison Mack join Keith Raniere’s NXIVM s*x cult?Allison Mack first joined NXIVM in 2006 after attending a women’s program called Jness. She slowly became close to Keith Raniere and rose to second-in-command of a secret group inside NXIVM known as DOS. That group was presented to women as a female empowerment club, but in reality it i..

AdvertisementArtificial intelligenceTechTech TrendsChinese start-up MiniMax launches record-breaking AI model, challenges Google DeepMindMiniMax M2 has achieved an unprecedented score for an open model on Artificial Analysis’s overall intelligence index
Reading Time:2 minutesWhy you can trust SCMPVincent ChowPublished: 7:00am, 28 Oct 2025MiniMax, a leading Chinese artificial intelligence start-up, released on Monday the M2, which ranks as the world’s leading open model on a prominent leaderboard.AdvertisementMiniMax M2 achieved an unprecedented score for an open model on Artificial Analysis’s overall intelligence index, placing it among the top five models globally. It surpassed Google DeepMind’s Gemini 2.5 Pro, released in June, and sat below leading models from US companies OpenAI, Anthropic and xAI.
With 200 billion parameters, MiniMax M2 adopts the Mixture-of-Experts architecture, which has significantly enhanced the efficiency of Chinese AI models over the past year.
The model act..