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Hong Kong’s competition watchdog aims to submit proposals to criminalise bid-rigging as early as September, paving the way for the government to table legislative amendments by the end of the year, following the city’s deadliest fire in decades. Senior Counsel Jat Sew-tong, who assumed the role of chairman of the Competition Commission last month, said on Friday that the watchdog would also launch...
The artificial intelligence frenzy has made Zhongji Innolight, a supplier of optical modules to US hyperscalers, the biggest constituent of China’s stock benchmark, highlighting AI’s profound impact on the world’s second-largest equity market. The northern Shandong province-based company had a 5 per cent weighting on the CSI 300 Index on Friday, making it the largest of the 300 most valuable stock...
Brunei’s Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah has named one of his youngest sons as foreign minister in a major cabinet reshuffle – largely seen as a move to prepare for the next generation of leaders in the oil-rich kingdom. As the 10th child and fourth son of the sultan, Prince Abdul Mateen is down the line of succession, but his matinee idol looks have earned him more than 3 million followers on Instagram, ...
A 24-year-old Chinese woman keeps managing to shine on stage despite wearing a patch and a mask after she lost an eye and her left upper jaw to cancer. Han Yifei, from eastern China’s Jiangsu province, has moved many people online and garnered over 7,000 followers on a social media platform with her beautiful ballroom dancing. In videos she uploaded, she always wears an eye patch and sometimes a m...
Peru’s duelling presidential hopefuls made a final pitch to voters on Thursday, capping a bruising and razor-tight race dominated by anger over rising crime and political instability. Conservative Keiko Fujimori and leftist Roberto Sanchez staged rival events in Lima ahead of Sunday’s vote, with ardent flag-waving supporters arguing their “communist” or “dictator” opponents would bring the country...
The threat by the US to impose additional tariffs on imports from India over forced labour supply-chain concerns is a “pressure” tactic deployed by Washington to drive a harder bargain in its trade talks with New Delhi, according to analysts. Following a Section 301 unfair trade practices investigation, the Trump administration proposed that products from India, China, Japan, South Korea, Brazil a...
Chinese scientists have created the world’s first superfast memory for quantum computers, solving a critical data-reading bottleneck and paving the way for big-data challenges such as drug discovery and detecting fraudulent financial activities. Quantum computers are expected to solve complex problems at speeds unattainable by traditional computers, and they need an efficient way to access classic...
King Charles’ disgraced younger brother Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor held leases for 10 properties, three of which he sublet, while the monarch pays rent for the former prince’s daughters’ palace homes, a report by the UK’s spending watchdog said. In the most detailed review ever of royal property arrangements, the National Audit Office (NAO) report on Friday showed some leases were based on comm...
Hong Kong’s biggest international school group has rolled out a “through-train” arrangement, linking all its kindergartens to its primary schools from September next year and guaranteeing pupils a place all the way to secondary graduation. The English Schools Foundation (ESF) said on Friday that starting next academic year, all its kindergartens would, for the first time, be directly linked to ESF...
We have selected seven stories from this week’s news across Hong Kong, mainland China, the wider Asia region and beyond that resonated with our readers and shed light on topical issues. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. Trump ‘personally called for China’s help’ to end Ukraine war in summit with Xi US President Donald Trump personally urged President X...
Hong Kong’s food hygiene authorities have prosecuted a popular butcher shop in Kwun Tong after a viral video and a subsequent inspection found rats running over pig carcasses, as well as cracked ceilings and stained floors. A spokesman for the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) said staff were deployed to inspect the shop on Hip Wo Street after a clip circulated on social media showi...
Hong Kong’s food hygiene authorities have prosecuted a popular butcher shop in Kwun Tong after a viral video and a subsequent inspection found rats running over pig carcasses, as well as cracked ceilings and stained floors. A spokesman for the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department said staff were deployed to inspect a shop on Hip Wo Street after a clip circulated on social media showing rats r...
Hong Kong’s food hygiene authorities have prosecuted a popular grocery shop in Kwun Tong after a viral video and a subsequent inspection found rats running over pig carcasses, as well as cracked ceilings and stained floors. A spokesman for the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department said staff were deployed to inspect a shop on Hip Wo Street after a clip circulated on social media showing rats r...
Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham has confirmed for the first time his intention to challenge Keir Starmer to be Britain’s prime minister, drawing immediate criticism from the premier who vowed not to walk away from the job. “If I get your support, I would seek to represent you at the highest possible level and give this constituency maximum power and influence,” Burnham said in an episode of ...
Homes in New Zealand’s capital were flooded with faeces and sanitary products on Friday after an overnight storm blocked waste water pipes, the city’s utilities company said. Wellington Water said the waste water overflow in the picturesque suburb of Island Bay was the result of a blocked main. It said five properties were affected by the overflow and its crews were working to remove the faeces an...
Following the first confirmation of screwworm, a flesh-eating parasite, on a US farm in decades, federal and state officials have fanned out in South Texas, where a calf was found infested this week. US Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said on Thursday no other infestations of cattle or other animals have been detected around the confirmed case. The case in La Pryor, Texas, was a blow to US c...
A revision to Malaysia’s public university admissions rules has reopened one of the multicultural country’s most sensitive political debates: how far its national education system should accommodate Chinese-language schooling. Malaysia’s government on May 15 said students from Chinese independent secondary schools could apply to public universities through specified pathways using the Unified Exam...
Hong Kong is embracing its growing role on the international stage in vital sectors driving global prosperity – a message highlighted at an annual gathering of international industry leaders, corporate executives and local policymakers who back the city’s upward momentum. The Global Prosperity Summit 2026 (GPS 2026) showcased high-stakes international dialogue over two days in Hong Kong last month...
German airline Lufthansa said several employees were injured on Thursday after the nose gear of a Boeing jet collapsed while the aircraft was parked at a gate at Frankfurt Airport. Only crew members and ground staff were on board the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner when the front tip of the plane crashed to the ground ahead of passenger boarding for a scheduled flight to Los Angeles. The flight was later ...
Chinese President Xi Jinping will visit North Korea next Monday and Tuesday in a show of the two countries’ strong/enduring ties. The trip will be Xi’s second to North Korea. The Chinese president visited in 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic shut border crossings between the countries for years. Beijing and Pyongyang are cautiously rebuilding ties after years of relative isolation due to the p...
Asia-Pacific is expected to drive global retail sales over the next five years, even as the Middle East conflict is hurting consumer confidence, according to business analysts. The war could continue to weigh on consumer and business sentiment for now due to higher energy prices and supply chain disruption, Anand Ramanathan, Deloitte Asia-Pacific’s retail and consumer products sector leader, said ...
Few things age faster than a business plan built for a world that no longer exists. That may be the most important lesson from the saga of 11 Skies, the vast retail, entertainment and commercial complex beside Hong Kong International Airport that now appears destined for a dramatic reset. Reports that the Airport Authority could take majority control of the project from its private developer have ...
South Korea’s Ministry of Justice on Tuesday sought to defuse criticism over a 1.2 billion won (US$779,162) plan to install air conditioning in prisons, clarifying the equipment will cool corridors, not inmates’ cells. The ministry framed the installation as a minimal measure to protect vulnerable inmates and correctional officers from extreme heat, while online critics condemned the taxpayer-fund...
A Chinese shipbuilder has unveiled a blueprint for a massive, nuclear-powered floating island that will serve as a container transfer terminal and a charging station for vessels. The floating terminal will be powered by advanced molten salt reactors that use liquefied salt as both a fuel and coolant. These reactors can store vast amounts of thermal energy and cool without the need for water. Jiang...
A Chinese pancake seller in the US has announced plans to run for mayor within three years, despite past controversy over an arrest. Tang, 31, was born to a rural family in Sichuan, southwestern China, and left school after secondary education. He is the son of a security guard and a cleaner. After working in sales and the car industry, he moved to the US in 2022, with little English, first taking...
On a recent stormy Sunday, domestic helpers on their weekly day off were seen hastily erecting tents and laying out plastic sheets under footbridges and inside transport hubs in Hong Kong’s Tsuen Wan district as they sought refuge from the downpour. Dozens of tents were pitched around the pillars of the footbridges, while other groups crowded onto narrow concrete platforms inside a bus terminus. M...
The recent deaths of two men from crocodile attacks in North Sumatra have put a spotlight on Indonesia’s record as the country with the world’s highest number of such killings annually, raising questions over whether habitat destruction is pushing people and wildlife into increasingly dangerous contact. Environmental groups said the deaths reflected a wider pattern across the archipelago, where lo...
A US citizen who lived and worked for state media in China for several years pleaded guilty on Thursday to acting as a foreign agent for Beijing after allegedly collecting US$100,000 in return for collecting intelligence in the US on “American targets” and American politicians. According to court documents, Thomas Weir Pauken II worked at the “direction and control” of Chinese officials linked to ...
US President Donald Trump on Thursday indicated that he would not nominate mortgage regulator Bill Pulte to be the nation’s intelligence chief once his temporary appointment expires early next year. His comments follow a backlash against Pulte’s appointment as acting director of national intelligence from Democrats and some key senators of his Republican Party over the Trump loyalist’s lack of...
President Donald Trump on Thursday announced plans to add a potential “Trump promenade” to the iconic Lincoln Memorial, in his latest grandiose bid to leave his mark on the US capital. Trump said the walkway would link the huge marble monument, built to commemorate Civil War-era president Abraham Lincoln, to the nearby Potomac River. “They want to call it the Trump Promenade,” Trump told reporters...
