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Budget carrier HK Express has cancelled six flights that were scheduled to operate between Hong Kong and Okinawa on Monday and Tuesday as Typhoon Jangmi approaches Japan’s southernmost islands. The airline said in an updated announcement on Saturday afternoon that special ticket arrangements for typhoon-affected flights were in place. “We have notified all affected passengers of the flight changes...
Budget carrier HK Express has cancelled six flights operating between Hong Kong and Okinawa on Monday and Tuesday as Typhoon Jangmi approaches Japan’s southernmost islands. The airline said in an updated announcement on Saturday afternoon that special ticket arrangements for typhoon-affected flights were in place. “We have notified all affected passengers of the flight changes and are providing th...
The excitement around SpaceX, fuelled by the targeted US$1.8 trillion valuation for its initial public offering and its promising Starship rocket development, has revived a familiar claim: that SpaceX is on course to dominate the space market. Commercially, that view is understandable. SpaceX conducts more space launches than anyone and at very competitive costs, its Starlink satellite internet co...
MiniMax Group, the Chinese artificial intelligence model company, has officially kicked off plans to sell shares in mainland China. This offers onshore investors access to AI players beyond chipmakers and completes a dual-listing status in addition to Hong Kong. The Shanghai-headquartered company signed an agreement with Citic Securities on Friday, hiring the brokerage to help prepare for a sale o...
Members of Asean might have conflicting claims in the South China Sea but mutual trust exists in the bloc, Philippine defence chief Gilberto Teodoro Jnr said on Sunday, singling out Beijing as the biggest obstacle to a code of conduct in the disputed waterway. Teodoro delivered strong words for China in the final panel of the Shangri-La Dialogue security forum in Singapore, taking aim at Manila’s ...
A Chinese woman said she was nearly killed by a fishing line while riding past a crowded bridge, sparking safety concerns online. The woman surnamed Wang, from Hangzhou, eastern China’s Zhejiang province, shared her hair-raising experience on the night of May 23. She and her friend were riding electric bikes on a bicycle lane of the Fuxing bridge in the city, when a fishing line suddenly wrapped a...
Hong Kong could welcome the astronauts of the Shenzhou-23 mission, including the city’s history-making payload specialist, as early as the first half of next year, the technology chief has said. Secretary for Innovation, Technology and Industry Sun Dong also said on Sunday that the government would establish a new space manufacturing research centre under InnoHK by this year, focusing on using 3D ...
Malaysia’s Defence Minister Mohamed Khaled Nordin slammed the international community’s “muted” response on Sunday at a security forum over Norway’s decision to scrap a missile deal with Kuala Lumpur. In a charged speech at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, Khaled said the “deafening silence” on Oslo’s cancellation of the agreement sent a message that certain countries were “simply above scrut...
Hong Kong’s largest non-profit organisation, the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals, will give HK$30,000 (US$3,827) to residents displaced by the deadly Tai Po fire who agree to transfer ownership of their flats to the government, its chief executive has said. Albert Su Yau-on also revealed on Sunday that more than 1,000 inquiries had been received regarding the group’s legal aid scheme for Wang Fuk Cour...
Hong Kong’s largest non-profit organisation, the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals, will offer a HK$30,000 (US$3,827) relocation allowance to victims of the deadly Tai Po fire who agree to transfer ownership of their properties to the government, its chief executive has said, with the scheme expected to benefit about 1,000 households. Albert So Yau-on also noted on Sunday that more than 1,000 inquiries ...
Hong Kong is actively considering launching a new offshore renminbi venture fund to channel capital into cutting-edge technology and emerging industries, while supporting yuan internationalisation, the city’s finance chief has said. The initiative aligns with the nation’s 15th five-year plan, which guides development from 2026 to 2030 and calls on Hong Kong to enhance its role as an international ...
Japan’s defence minister has rejected suggestions that his country is reviving its militaristic past, telling a regional security conference that changes to its defence strategy would allow it to play a new cooperative role. Shinjiro Koizumi also used his speech at the Shangri-La Dialogue on Sunday to state that Tokyo opposed “unilateral changes to the status quo by force or coercion”, a comment b...
“I cannot come to you,” Katie Williams was told, seconds after her Grab driver had accepted her request for a ride in Canggu. “I cannot come to you. You need to come meet me.” Williams, an Australian tourist in her mid-thirties, explained through the app that her elderly parents struggled to walk very far in the hot Bali sun. The driver’s reply was blunt: “It’s too dangerous. I cannot come.” After...
When Scottish doctor Alexander Fleming accidentally discovered the first antibiotic in 1928, he changed the course of history, extending global life expectancy by decades and saving millions of lives on the battlefield and beyond. But humanity’s dependence on his discovery has fuelled a modern crisis: antimicrobial resistance, or AMR. Decades of overuse and misuse of the drug have allowed “superbu...
Organisers of South Korea’s renowned Yeoju Ceramic Festival have apologised after Chinese-made ceramic products were distributed as giveaway prizes at an event intended to promote the country’s pottery heritage, sparking public backlash and online criticism. The controversy emerged after a social media user said on Tuesday that a miniature moon jar received through a festival promotional event car...
In Cotonou, Benin’s largest city and economic capital located on the southern Atlantic coast, construction crews are busy building major projects, stretching from large-scale port upgrades to the asphalt-paving of the commercial hub’s main roads. At the Autonomous Port of Cotonou, China Harbour Engineering Company is advancing Terminal 5, a project that involves reclaiming land from the sea and bu...
Alibaba Group and Uefa are bringing the Chinese giant’s 360-degree replay technology to football, after signing an exclusive six-year deal covering several major tournaments in Europe. The partnership, which has been widely reported in state media, will see the sport’s regional governing body join the International Olympic Committee and NBA China, among others, in working with Qwen, Alibaba’s arti...
Hong Kong’s student housing sector is entering a new phase as larger institutional-style deals emerge from the city’s distressed commercial property market, signalling that professional investors are cautiously returning after years of falling asset values. Investors and analysts said the market was moving beyond the smaller hotel conversions that dominated the past two years, with more sizeable t...
AI is getting expensive – and companies are starting to rethink their embrace of the disruptive technology. Playing by a well-worn Silicon Valley playbook, artificial intelligence companies charged rock-bottom prices to hook customers after ChatGPT burst onto the scene. Kevin Simback of start-up incubator Delphi Labs calls it the era of “subsidised intelligence” – meaning investors were basically ...
As artificial intelligence strains the physical limits of existing data centres, scientists and investors are turning to the ultimate speed limit of the universe for the next computing frontier: light. For Mi Lei, founder of CAS Star, a venture capital firm born out of the state-run Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), the sudden global fascination with photonics is less a surprise than a delayed va...
India has signed a deal with Vietnam under which it will supply BrahMos missiles which it has jointly developed with Russia and is in “final stages” for a similar deal with Indonesia, India’s Defence Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh said on Saturday. India has a strong commitment to Asean nations, Singh said, without disclosing more details of the deals related to BrahMos. Singh was speaking a...
Hongkonger Susan Tam, 70, used to wake in the middle of the night, desperate for relief from an unbearable, relentless itch caused by her cancer medication. Tam, diagnosed with lung cancer a few months ago, tried applying regular moisturiser to soothe severe skin rashes, but in vain. She also used aqueous cream, a staple from her time working in a care home for the elderly, and even turned to hot ...
Washington’s plans to work with allies on warship design and construction face steep opposition at home, but analysts warn that the US must outsource shipbuilding to South Korea and Japan if it wants to close its gap in fleet size with China. The US budget submission for the next financial year includes US$1.85 billion for a study on outsourcing parts of the design and construction of frigates and...
Mass media commonly portrays Southeast Asia as an exciting, adventure-fuelled and culturally rich region – if often an exoticised one – for inhabitants and visitors alike. The final section of the ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute’s State of Southeast Asia 2026 Survey, based on respondents’ “relocation preference and travel choices”, adds to the already abundant evidence of the “soft power” of regiona...
South Korea and the United States are heading into talks in Seoul next week with different priorities over the implementation of last year’s summit agreement, with President Lee Jae Myung pushing for the supply of nuclear-powered submarines and Washington seeking progress on a major investment pledge by the Lee administration. US approval on the use of nuclear fuel for South Korea’s submarines is ...
Hong Kong families in the United Kingdom and Canada are facing deep uncertainty due to shifting immigration policies and the rising cost of living, and some are looking for alternative destinations to settle. Property agents said Spain’s Non-Lucrative Visa (NLV), designed for retirees and anyone who can support themselves without employment, had become one of their top choices. The NLV provides a ...
Across East Asia, societies are becoming richer, healthier and more educated, yet fewer people feel able or willing to have families and raise children. Low fertility plagues high-income societies, particularly in East Asia, where the total fertility rate (TFR) has fallen below one birth per woman, well under the replacement level of 2.1 births. While many countries have dedicated considerable res...
New Zealand does not have the fiscal headroom to increase defence spending to the levels the US might expect, Finance Minister Nicola Willis said. US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth told delegates at an Asia security forum in Singapore on Saturday that New Zealand’s target of raising defence spending to 2 per cent of the economy is not enough and was an example of “freeloading”. He hinted that nati...
The mystique of Central Asia and its deepening business ties with mainland China have prompted more Hongkongers to choose the region for holidays, according to travel agency heads. They were also optimistic that Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu’s high-level visit to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan this week would further promote Central Asia, encouraging residents to step off the beaten path and explore...
A woman in eastern China has been left unable to sleep with her eyes shut and is constantly crying because of a bungled double eyelid operation she underwent six years ago. The woman, surnamed Wang, drew wide attention on mainland social media after she shared her legal disputes with the cosmetic clinic in late May. In June 2020, Wang went to Meixi Cosmetic Surgery Clinic in Suzhou, Jiangsu provin...
