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Malaysia will formally invite Myanmar leader Minh Aung Hlaing to visit Kuala Lumpur to discuss efforts to repatriate nearly 200,000 refugees from the war-torn nation that Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim says have placed a heavy social and economic burden on his country. Refugees from Myanmar, particularly ethnic Rohingya, have faced worsening hostility in recent months in Malaysia, where they are acc...
In talks with his Iranian counterpart in Beijing on Wednesday, China’s foreign minister reaffirmed Beijing’s support for Tehran, called for a political settlement to the country’s conflict with the US and warned that regional tensions must not further spill over into Yemen. Wang Yi also urged the earliest possible reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. Abbas Araghchi’s trip to China, his second since ...
Hong Kong will introduce themed tourism routes showcasing the city’s most recognisable filming locations and explore upgrading Victoria Park’s Centre Court to host higher-level tennis tournaments, as authorities seek to significantly increase the sector’s economic contribution under the city’s first five-year development plan. The 2026-30 blueprint aims to raise the tourism industry’s value added ...
The first building in the 1,000-hectare (2,472-acre) university town project in the Northern Metropolis will be completed by the end of this year, Hong Kong’s leader has said, revealing that the flagship tower is called Loop Academy One. Announcing Hong Kong’s first five-year plan on Wednesday, Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu also revealed the official names of the three Northern Metropolis devel...
A plenary session at a Beijing security conference turned into a heated exchange on Wednesday, when a senior Iranian defence official and a Saudi think tank chief traded accusations over the conflict in the Middle East. In the city where just a few years ago Iran and Saudi Arabia signed a peace deal, Prince Turki al-Faisal, chairman of the Saudi think tank the King Faisal Centre for Research and I...
Hong Kong will introduce various tax incentives for new finance and technology industries to attract businesses and reinforce the city’s role as a leading financial hub, the city leader has announced in his policy address. Tax concessions to draw intellectual property (IP) businesses and selected industries to the city were among the new measures Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu announced on Wedne...
About 10 artificial intelligence (AI) and biotech companies will be the first to access cross-border data flows under a new pilot scheme, securing an early edge over roughly 100 other firms set up in Hong Kong’s flagship tech hub at the border. Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu revealed on Wednesday during the final policy address of his term that more than 100 innovation and technology firms have ...
Chinese artificial intelligence developer Z.ai has raised its year-end annual recurring revenue (ARR) outlook by 25 per cent to US$3 billion, as the firm indicated its fresh US$5 billion war chest had helped clear its computing capacity bottlenecks for the time being. The updated ARR projection, up from a previous estimate of about US$2.4 billion, was disclosed during an investor call on Wednesday...
China is increasingly expected to push for a trade agreement binding a wide swathe of the Pacific Rim, including the US, when it hosts a forum of major Asia-Pacific economies in November, but a real deal may be hard to secure as Washington is likely to resist, according to analysts. The anticipated push for the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP), covering all 21 members of the Asia-Pacifi...
A former director of a state-owned museum at the centre of a rare high-profile art scandal was sentenced to three years in prison, Chinese state media said on Wednesday. Xu Huping was found to have abused his position at the Nanjing Museum in eastern Jiangsu province and taken bribes, including money and property, for helping others secure projects and business collaborations. He was sentenced to ...
Australia is set to introduce sweeping changes to its immigration policy by barring international students from bringing dependants, in a bid to ease housing pressures and fend off a growing political challenge from the far-right. Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke will announce the measures at the National Press Club in Canberra on Thursday, outlining plans to trim net overseas migration from 300,0...
Hong Kong’s leader has pledged to overhaul the city’s building maintenance regime and improve emergency response as part of the government’s response to last year’s fatal Tai Po fire, while authorities study criminalising bid-rigging and plan to submit a proposal later this year. The measures were outlined in Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu’s policy address on Wednesday, amid pressure on the gove...
I attended this year’s Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok and took part in a dialogue on technological development. There, I had a deep discussion with Maxim Oreshkin, Russia’s deputy chief of the presidential executive office, who co-chairs the country’s national AI headquarters. I left Vladivostok with a broader impression: Russia increasingly sees its Far East as a place to build a new versi...
Hong Kong will create an “AI city brain” system to strengthen its response to extreme weather events, major incidents and public order management, while creating the role of artificial intelligence commissioner to tackle emerging challenges. While the city’s first five-year plan set out a vision to advance technology development, Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu outlined seven key areas of AI risk...
China is bracing for a potential massive sell-off of a high-profile artificial intelligence chip stock on Thursday, when a lock-up period affecting 14 million shares in MetaX Integrated Circuits is set to expire. Analysts expect MetaX to face “significant selling pressure” when the restricted shares are released for trading, after the expiry of a similar lock-up period for shares in fellow AI chip...
Hong Kong authorities have rolled out 11 new initiatives to encourage residents to have children, including an expanded cash bonus scheme and a reduced down payment for subsidised housing for parents with newborns. In the latest policy address delivered on Wednesday, Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu announced that the HK$20,000 (US$2,550) newborn bonus scheme, expiring on October 24, would be exte...
Hong Kong authorities have rolled out 11 new initiatives to encourage residents to have children, including an expanded cash bonus scheme and a reduced down payment for subsidised housing for parents with newborns. In the latest policy address delivered on Wednesday, Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu announced that the HK$20,000 (US$2,550) newborn bonus scheme, expiring on October 24, would be exte...
Hong Kong will introduce a pilot scheme next year to bring in foreign domestic carers to look after older residents as part of a broader package of measures announced in the policy address to deal with an ageing population. Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu said in his address on Wednesday that the government would admit carers under a scheme modelled on the city’s existing foreign domestic helper ...
Hong Kong aims to boost the share of zero-carbon energy in its electricity generation fuel mix to 30 per cent by 2030, up from the current 28 per cent – one of four binding environmental protection targets set out in the city’s first five-year plan on Wednesday. The binding goal aligns with existing climate protection strategies that target a zero-carbon energy share of between 60 and 70 per cent ...
Donald Trump’s proposal to give adult Americans US$5,000 if Republicans win November’s midterm elections has drawn an unusual accusation from India: that the US president is borrowing from the country’s welfare-heavy political playbook. Speaking days after Trump floated the US$5,000 proposal on September 9, Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar told an event held by India’s main oppositi...
With just a week to go until Chinese President Xi Jinping heads to Washington for his first state visit in more than a decade, Chinese Defence Minister Dong Jun opted for the diplomatic path in his address to China’s premier security conference on Wednesday. Speaking at the annual Xiangshan Forum in Beijing, Dong took veiled swipes at Washington and its allies but – unlike last year – appeared to ...
The Hong Kong Jockey Club has said it will funnel HK$3 billion to support the construction of a Life and Health Academic Research Building at the city’s new Northern Metropolis University Town. During his policy address on Wednesday, Hong Kong leader John Lee Ka-chiu announced the creation of an integrated teaching and scientific research building in the Northern Metropolis. In a statement issued ...
The Hong Kong Jockey Club has said it will funnel HK$3 billion to support the construction of a Life and Health Academic Research Building at the city’s new Northern Metropolis University Town. During his Policy Address on Wednesday, Hong Kong leader John Lee Ka-chiu announced the creation of an integrated teaching and scientific research building in the Northern Metropolis. In a statement issued ...
Chinese online travel platform Trip.com has turned heads by launching its most expensive offering to date: a space flight package costing at least 5.1 million yuan (US$759,900). The six-day trip includes several days of preflight training followed by a 90-minute suborbital flight operated by US-based provider Virgin Galactic, which takes off from Las Cruces, New Mexico. The first four days are dev...
The United Nations can count on China’s support, the UN’s peacekeeping chief said in Beijing as he flagged the body’s financial strains – due in large part to Washington’s funding squeeze. Speaking at the Xiangshan Forum in Beijing on Wednesday, UN undersecretary general for peace operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix said the international system was under severe strain and the UN urgently needed to ada...
Hong Kong aims to reduce the risk of premature deaths from some major chronic diseases to 6.9 per cent by 2030 by investing heavily in primary healthcare and prevention, authorities have said. Delivering the annual policy address and first five-year plan, Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu on Wednesday also unveiled plans to develop the city’s first integrated ambulatory care hospital at the Queen E...
Forest and peatland fires raging across Indonesia are threatening to become more than an environmental emergency, with analysts warning that the thickening haze could weigh on economic activity, strain public health and test confidence in the nation’s fledgling carbon market. Indonesia is no stranger to forest and peat fires, but this year’s super El Nino has helped make it the country’s most inte...
Former Kosovo president Hashim Thaci was found guilty of war crimes including murder, torture and illegal detention by the Kosovo war crimes tribunal on Wednesday. Thaci, 58, was sentenced to 25 years in prison for crimes committed as top commander of the ethnic Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) during the territory’s violent break from Serbia in the 1990s. The tribunal said he was guilty of...
A US military honour guard held a rehearsal at the White House as Washington fine-tuned diplomatic protocols and preparations for Chinese President Xi Jinping’s expected visit to the United States next week. A video clip posted on social media by Fox News correspondent Lucas Tomlinson on Tuesday afternoon Washington time showed service members from various military branches dressed in ceremonial u...
A third-generation member of a long-established Hong Kong developer family has bought a HK$98.8 million (US$12.6 million) luxury flat in Mid-Levels, weeks after the family sold a long-held North Point property, highlighting a broader market trend of capital shifting across real estate sectors. John Lai Sung-ziang agreed to buy a high-floor unit at Estoril Court on August 31, Land Registry records ...
