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Securing health insurance for her autistic son in Hong Kong proved distressing for homemaker Sarah*. The 50-year-old said she approached several insurance companies over about three months, but none could assure her that her son, now 18, would be eligible for cover because of his condition. Sarah added that the uncertainty and frustration made her hesitant to apply, fearing a rejection by a major ...
Two Chinese football fans were carjacked shortly after arriving in Mexico to watch the World Cup. The Chinese embassy said one suspect had been arrested while the two victims had returned to China on Friday after less than 48 hours in the country. State news agency Xinhua reported on Saturday that the two men, identified only by their surnames Wang and Li, had landed at Mexico City International A...
Two big issues are bubbling up over Hong Kong’s army of foreign domestic helpers. The whole community will have to sit down and decide how to address them. The first is the availability of places for helpers to congregate safely and freely on their days off without putting too much stress on public facilities, other residents and tourists. The second is figuring out how to provide an acceptable wo...
Filipino domestic workers in Hong Kong have launched a month-long fundraising campaign to support families affected by the recent 7.8 magnitude earthquake in their home country’s south, with organisers saying food, drinking water and medicine are among the most urgent needs. Representatives from the Abra Tingguian Ilocano Society were collecting donations at various locations, including outside Ci...
Hong Kong’s older office assets and their struggling landlords could face more challenges as the wider adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) by firms in the city leads companies to relocate to newer buildings that better support their requirements, according to real estate consultancy Knight Frank. AI is poised to usher in more changes in Hong Kong’s commercial office space, and landlords may h...
The sudden viral rise of India’s Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), a satirical movement seeking to push young Indians from online protest into politics, has fuelled speculation that it could mark the start of broader youth-led unrest, similar to the uprisings that shook Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal. But while political analysts say the party reflects a deep undercurrent of anger among young Indians,...
An 18-year-old boy in central China knelt and kowtowed to his adoptive mother after completing the gaokao, thanking her for years of devotion that helped fund his medical treatment. From June 7 to 9, more than 12.9 million candidates sat China’s fiercely competitive national college entrance examination, or gaokao. Among them was Lele, from Xiangyang in Hubei province. Outside the exam venue, his ...
In April, a family from the United Arab Emirates – four adults, three children and a nanny – spent about 300,000 yuan (US$44,228) on a seven-day educational and business tour to China. The trip was nearly cancelled as the Iran war repeatedly disrupted their flights and travel plans, but they eventually arrived in Shanghai. “Their willingness to make the trip was unwavering,” said Lilian Liu at Mid...
The drowning of two university basketball players in the Philippines has raised concerns about the extreme training conditions and pressures surrounding student athletes in the country’s highly commercialised collegiate sports industry. Incoming rookie player Rene Baterbonia, 19, and Nigerian student-athlete Divine Adili, 21, died on Monday during a school-sanctioned “team-building activity” in Di...
Hong Kong’s first astronaut is expected to chat with residents from the lofty heights of the Tiangong space station in the next two months, the city’s technology minister has said. Secretary for Innovation, Technology and Industry Sun Dong also said on Sunday that the city could formulate a new strategy to better align with the country’s aerospace development. “I hope that within the next month or...
Hong Kong’s first five-year plan will map out concrete paths to address the city’s shortcomings and magnify socio-economic benefits, including how artificial intelligence can create quality jobs, the financial chief has said a day ahead of the public consultation on the blueprint. Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po said on Sunday that the key task for the blueprint would be the upgrading and tran...
Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu has said Hong Kong’s Northern Metropolis will adopt a multi-focused strategy to drive advances in technology, industry and education, while helping the city overcome its bottleneck in talent attraction. Lee also said that the megaproject would need early success stories to attract mainland Chinese and international investors, with the Hetao cooperation zone set to ...
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi pushed for stronger cross-border transport and trade ties during a visit to Mongolia over the weekend as Beijing sought to anchor the country’s newly formed government within its economic orbit. “China’s policy towards Mongolia maintains stability and continuity, and has always placed the development of bilateral relations in an important position in its neighbourh...
South Korean first lady Kim Hea-kyung remains largely out of the spotlight one year into President Lee Jae Myung’s administration, adopting a low-key public role that contrasts sharply with the high-profile approach of her predecessor, Kim Keon-hee. Kim Hea-kyung has limited her public appearances and stayed away from political issues – a strategy political observers describe as prudent, given tha...
A four-month-old baby has died after being discovered unconscious at a home in Hong Kong, prompting police to open an investigation. The force said on Sunday that it received a report from the boy’s father at 7.15am, who said the baby had fallen unconscious in bed at their flat in Tin Shui Wai’s Tin Chung Court. The baby was rushed to Tin Shui Wai Hospital but was later certified dead. Police said...
In the contest for influence in Southeast Asia, the United States and China agree on one thing: the region is indispensable. Yet beneath the flurry of high-level summits lies a quieter divergence in how each cultivates knowledge about the region. The US is hollowing out the university-based programmes that have long trained its students in Southeast Asian languages, history and politics. China, co...
Western allies believe Iran has most likely added new-build Russian weapons to its inventory and reconstituted large swathes of its missile arsenal during the eight-week ceasefire, giving the Islamic Republic the firepower to strike back at nearly full strength if hostilities resume. Tehran has about three-quarters of the munitions it had before the war and can easily build it up further, accordin...
Hong Kong authorities have hit out at The Washington Post for making “groundless allegations” about amendments to the city’s home-grown national security law in an editorial piece, while stressing that foreign businesses have no cause for concern. The rebuttal issued by a government spokesman late on Saturday night followed a commentary from the American newspaper, titled “Hong Kong’s nightmare ge...
Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu has pledged to push for “further reforms” despite geopolitical risks in the final year of his current term, citing how he had steered Hong Kong through a sustained period of economic growth since taking over in 2022. Noting how the economy had rebounded strongly, the city leader also said that Hong Kong’s first five-year plan would secure policy continuity while ma...
The Chinese legal system is grappling with a surge of artificial intelligence cases, but experts have warned that the lack of a unified legislative framework is hampering efforts to tackle the problem. In a recent landmark case, a court in the eastern city of Hangzhou ruled against a tech company that had fired one of its workers after he refused to accept a demotion and pay cut, with the company ...
It was a gesture that was equal parts diplomacy and theatre: Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul coaxing a melody out of a traditional Vietnamese t’rung xylophone at a Hanoi state banquet on Monday. The real music, however, had been made in the meeting rooms. Two days of talks between Anutin and his Vietnamese hosts produced a pledge to nearly double bilateral trade to US$25 billion within fou...
Donald Trump celebrates his 80th birthday in a typically forceful style on Sunday, as the oldest US president ever to take office holds a bloody cage match on the White House lawn. The unprecedented “UFC Freedom 250” event will see 14 Ultimate Fighting Championship stars beat each other to a pulp in a giant arena called The Claw. Costing US$60 million, it is linked to this year’s festivities for t...
What began as an internal personnel dispute at the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation has evolved into an increasingly bitter and publicly fought battle that is engulfing the former Taiwanese leader whose political legacy it is meant to preserve. Allegations of financial misconduct at Ma’s foundation have spiralled into criminal complaints, publicly traded accusations among long-time allies and an unpreceden...
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s latest message of reassurance to Russian President Vladimir Putin, coming shortly after Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Pyongyang, constitutes a form of strategic hedging, according to observers. The letter suggested that Pyongyang-Moscow ties were evolving beyond a largely transactional relationship into a firm military alliance, even as North Korea sough...
The recent enactment of a subsidiary legislation in Hong Kong regarding the appropriate procedure to be followed in cases of non-national security offences involving national security considerations not surprisingly spurred some to revisit the chief executive’s power, granted under the national security law in 2020, to issue a certificate as to whether an act involves issues of national security. ...
Hong Kong is determined to expand into new markets while consolidating ties with traditional partners and “will not give up any markets” despite geopolitical pressures, the city leader has said. In an interview with the South China Morning Post reviewing his past four years in office, Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu said the United States remained an important market for Hong Kong despite volatil...
A Shanghai man who wanted to gain weight spent 10,000 yuan (US$1,500) on online health products he thought would do the job only to end up losing 6.5kg in a month. The man, surnamed Liu, has trended on mainland social media after his experience was reported by the Shanghai Morning Post. Liu, a truck driver, who is 1.78m tall and weighs 63kg, always thought he was too thin. In March, he saw the soc...
A Shanghai man who wanted to gain weight spent 10,000 yuan (US$1,500) on online health products he thought would do the job only to end up losing 6.5kg in a month. The man, surnamed Liu, has trended on mainland social media after his experience was reported by the Shanghai Morning Post. Liu, a truck driver, who is 1.78m tall and weighs 53kg, always thought he was too thin. In March, he saw the soc...
Indonesia sits at the confluence of the world’s busiest sea lanes. Its coastline stretches nearly 55,000km (34,000 miles) and its waters encompass the Malacca and Lombok straits, chokepoints through which trillions of US dollars in global trade pass annually. Yet for years the nation’s navy has lacked the subsurface awareness to monitor, let alone counter, what moves beneath the waves. Japan inten...
Geely Auto, which is locked in a fierce battle for dominance against BYD in China’s crowded automotive market, has pledged to purge excess capacity through an asset restructuring while ramping up its go-global drive with an eye on greater international competitiveness. Chairman Li Shufu said during the Chongqing Auto Show on Friday that the Hong Kong-listed carmaker would assess the oversupply of ...
