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It turns out it isn’t just office jobs people should be worried about AI taking, some athletes might want to watch their backs too. In a scene that could have come from the Terminator film franchise, two robots battled it out in an MMA fight in Shenzhen this week, leaving social media users stunned and one of the two combatants without a head. Dubbed the robot version of the UFC, the Ultimate Robo...
A Hongkonger has died in a traffic accident in New Zealand, marking at least the second fatal crash involving city residents in the country this year. The Chinese consulate in Queenstown on Thursday said that a “serious traffic accident” had occurred a day earlier along Crown Range Road near the South Island city in which a Hongkonger died. “Our consulate is deeply saddened by the loss and has act...
Hong Kong authorities plan to invite ride-hailing platforms to apply for operator licences as early as next month and will begin approving them in batches from the end of November, the city’s transport minister has said. Secretary for Transport and Logistics Mable Chan laid down the timeline on Thursday as lawmakers completed the negative vetting process to approve the subsidiary legislation for t...
Hong Kong authorities plan to invite ride-hailing platforms to apply for operator licences as early as next month and will begin approving them in batches from the end of November, the city’s transport minister has said. Secretary for Transport and Logistics Mable Chan laid down the timeline on Thursday as lawmakers completed the negative vetting process to approve the subsidiary legislation for t...
This article was first published on July 17, 1986. Cafe de Coral the live wire in quiet market by John Mulcahy Fast-food counter Cafe de Coral hit the boards yesterday (July 16, 1986), trading up to $1.35 and recording the biggest volume of the day. Although 16.6 million Cafe de Coral shares traded, at a total value of $22.08 million, this was about all the excitement the market could muster, as i...
A boom in China’s new drug research and development is driving laboratory monkey prices back to coronavirus pandemic-era highs, forcing some researchers to halt their studies. According to Guo Xiangyu, a scientist at Jinan University in Guangzhou whose research focuses on developing non-human primate models for major brain diseases, laboratory monkey prices have risen steadily since Chinese New Ye...
A group of Chinese travellers in South Korea successfully brought a runaway coach under control after the driver lost consciousness while driving, triggering heated discussions online. On Chinese social media, several passengers shared what they experienced on the limousine to Incheon International Airport in the afternoon of July 11. As the coach with 10 to 20 passengers headed towards the expres...
The US will begin charging 25 per cent tariff on imports of certain goods from Brazil following an investigation alleging that the country engaged in unfair trade practices. The year-long inquiry “found a number of Brazil’s practices to be unreasonable and discriminatory, restricting the competitive position of American farmers, workers, innovators, and exporters,” the Office of the US Trade Repre...
The UN warned on Thursday that more than 500 people were feared dead following reports of two large shipwrecks off Myanmar since late June. The UN’s International Organization for Migration and its refugee agency UNHCR voiced alarm in a joint statement at reports “that two boats carrying more than 500 people may have capsized off the coast of Myanmar in recent days”. Preliminary information indica...
Africa’s exports to China have surged since Beijing expanded its zero-tariff policy across the continent in May, as customs data showed signs of emerging trade links in a range of new sectors alongside traditional categories such as critical minerals. China’s imports from Africa soared by 21.1 per cent and 40.2 per cent year on year in May and June, respectively – outpacing the overall growth in C...
Authorities should step up promotion of the new crossing arrangements at the upgraded Huanggang Port checkpoint between Hong Kong and Shenzhen, while ensuring the site has sufficient parking for buses, a lawmaker and a transport sector veteran have said. They issued the call a day after the government tabled the Huanggang Port Hong Kong Port Area Bill to the Legislative Council to provide the lega...
Wall Street investment bank Goldman Sachs has cast a vote of confidence in Hong Kong’s financial future by reaffirming its “buy rating” on Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX), as Beijing ramps up policy support to cement the city’s status as an international financial centre. “We see multiple tailwinds to ADT [average daily turnover] and revenue growth” in the second half of this year, analyst...
Wall Street investment bank Goldman Sachs has cast a vote of confidence in Hong Kong’s financial future by reaffirming its buy rating on Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX), as Beijing ramps up policy support to cement the city’s status as an international financial centre. “We see multiple tailwinds to ADT [average daily turnover] and revenue growth” in the second half of this year, analysts ...
Jia Qianqian, daughter of internationally acclaimed writer Jia Pingwa, has become the latest high-profile figure in Chinese academia to fall from grace after a university investigation confirmed allegations of plagiarism. In a statement on Wednesday, Northwest University said its months-long investigation found that nine of Jia’s published papers contained plagiarised material. The university had ...
Detainees at a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in Texas told two rights groups they were beaten by guards, denied medical care and prevented from contacting family and lawyers, according to a report issued on Wednesday. The report, issued by Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union, spans dozens of pages and is based on 80 interviews HRW conducted with d...
A growing number of mainland Chinese institutional fund managers have built up stakes in Hong Kong-listed biotechnology stocks over the past month, drawn by attractive valuations amid a surge in cross-border licensing deals in the sector. China’s largest mutual fund manager, E Fund Management, has taken a 7 per cent stake in gene-editing biotechnology firm Biocytogen Pharmaceuticals, buying additi...
An independent committee investigating Hong Kong’s deadliest fire in decades will hear concluding remarks from the government on Thursday as the final round of hearings on the tragedy continues. The legal representative for nine residents of the fire-ravaged Wang Fuk Court housing estate in Tai Po will also deliver a concluding statement before the judge-led panel on the second last session of the...
An independent committee investigating Hong Kong’s deadliest fire in decades will hear concluding remarks from the government on Thursday as the final round of hearings on the tragedy continues. The legal representative for nine residents of the fire-ravaged Wang Fuk Court housing estate in Tai Po will also deliver a concluding statement before the judge-led panel on the second last session of the...
An independent committee investigating Hong Kong’s deadliest fire in decades will hear concluding remarks from the government on Thursday as the final round of hearings on the tragedy continues. The legal representative for nine residents of the fire-ravaged Wang Fuk Court housing estate in Tai Po will also deliver a concluding statement before the judge-led panel on the second last session of the...
Hong Kong’s introduction of pet-friendly dining in designated restaurants has drawn significant public criticism, leading some lawmakers to call for tighter vetting of licences. Since the scheme began on July 9, the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department has received about 20 complaints as of Wednesday. The department earlier said most complaints involved minor issues such as leash length and s...
For generations, jeepneys – brightly painted minibuses that are among the Philippines’ cheapest and most used forms of public transport – have run on diesel, but recent fuel shocks are forcing thousands of small operators and drivers to weigh volatile prices against the debt needed to go electric. Diesel prices spiked anew by nearly 5 pesos this week, as renewed tensions in the Gulf threatened to ...
From rare earth elements to commercial drones, Washington has become all too familiar with the strongest weapons in Beijing’s manufacturing arsenal – the materials and products where China holds a strategic advantage in production, extraction or any other link in the supply chain. After those near-monopolies provided Chinese policymakers considerable leverage in last year’s trade dispute, US think...
Every four years, billions of football fans spend a month arguing about offside decisions, whether Ronaldo or Messi is a grass-grazing horned mammal, and whether football is finally “coming home”. For nations, however, the Fifa World Cup is far more than football. Beyond the national pride that comes with simply qualifying, the tournament offers an unparalleled opportunity to capture the world’s a...
In the first half of this year, leisure travel within China exploded. As the summer travel season builds towards the Mid-Autumn Festival and the “golden week” that follows National Day on October 1, domestic travel has emerged as one of China’s most important, if underappreciated, drivers of consumption and growth. During the extended Chinese New Year holiday, travel and consumer spending boomed. ...
The Hong Kong Investment Corporation (HKIC) recorded a major jump in investment income during its second year of operation, as it expanded its role as the city’s “patient capital” engine driving local economic development. The wholly state-owned investment firm generated about HK$6.46 billion (US$824 million) in investment income in 2025, a stunning 175 per cent year-on-year increase, according to...
After vanishing from a market near her home 35 years ago, a woman in southern China has finally been reunited with her birth family. However, injuries found on her face and the failure of nearby broadcast appeals to reach her parents fuelled online speculation about how she disappeared. Zhong Fenglin, 37, once lived near a market in Nanning, Guangxi, where her parents sold ginger and garlic. In 19...
Every year, summer rains cause flooding in China. They also bring high-stakes work for officials. Once an evacuation order goes out, local governments have long checked on families by calling them on the phone. Xie Yunshi, an official in the suburbs of the Chinese capital, told Beijing Daily that when waters rose in the past, his department would organise a dozen people to call every single family...
US lawmakers are pushing for more scrutiny of Chinese investment in pharmaceuticals and biotechnology, as Washington’s strategic competition with Beijing expands beyond semiconductors and artificial intelligence into the healthcare sector. Bipartisan US senators on Wednesday unveiled legislation aimed at increasing transparency around foreign influence in the pharmaceutical industry, amid growing ...
Hong Kong suspended classes on Thursday morning after the city’s weather forecaster issued a red rainstorm warning, which was lowered to amber in less than two hours. The red warning was raised at 7.40am. It was then replaced by the amber signal at 9.25am that was cancelled at 10.20am. The Education Bureau said students attending morning and whole-day schools were not required to go to class while...
