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Indonesia has sought to assuage security concerns ahead of its 81st Independence Day as it vows to fight misinformation about potential disorder in its capital marring the celebrations, saying the situation is “fully under control”. Some shopping centres and office complexes in Jakarta installed additional safety barriers on their premises last week, sparking wild speculation of possible unrest su...
China should let its currency appreciate gradually to safeguard against foreign protectionist moves and boost spending to support domestic demand to meet its economic growth targets, according to Goldman Sachs economists. Data in the first half of 2026 continued to paint a picture of a bifurcated Chinese economy – with weak domestic demand and strong exports – which has led to a renewed debate ove...
China should let its currency appreciate gradually to safeguard against foreign protectionist moves and boost spending to support domestic demand to meet its economic growth targets, according to Goldman Sachs economists. Data in the first half of 2026 continued to paint a picture of a bifurcated Chinese economy – with weak domestic demand and strong exports – which has led to a renewed debate ove...
Hong Kong police will merge the Tin Sum division into the Sha Tin and Ma On Shan ones from August 30 to improve operational efficiency amid population changes and infrastructure development. A briefing was held at Ma On Shan police station on Thursday morning for members of the Sha Tin district Council, the Fight Crime Committee and area committees, as well as representatives of government departm...
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi on Thursday failed to explicitly pledge that Japan will maintain its non-nuclear principles, simply saying the government “is upholding” the long-held policy, as the country marked the 81st anniversary of the US atomic bombing of Hiroshima. At a press conference after a memorial ceremony in the western Japanese city, Takaichi said Japan will promote “realisti...
CLP Holdings, one of Hong Kong’s two power utility giants, has posted a HK$5.73 billion (US$730.49 million) underlying profit in the first half of 2026, a 9.7 per cent year-on-year rise, driven by growth in its local regulated business, while its chairman said the company would invest to boost the electricity supply in the Northern Metropolis megadevelopment. Including one-off gains, mainly from t...
China and Russia are becoming more ambitious in their military cooperation, with a joint patrol around Japan sending a message to Tokyo and the United States, according to analysts. Three Chinese naval vessels and a Russian Navy corvette left Qingdao in China on July 13, passing through the western Pacific Ocean, the Sea of Okhotsk and the Sea of Japan, also known as the East Sea, as part of a 17-...
The recent joint patrol between China and Russia around the Japanese archipelago showed how the nations’ military cooperation was becoming “progressively more ambitious”, analysts said. The Japanese defence ministry revealed on Tuesday that three Chinese naval vessels – Type 055 and Type 052D missile destroyers alongside a Type 903 support ship – were spotted moving southwest through the Korea Str...
The United States is staring a historic “strategic defeat” in the face five months after launching the Iran war at Israel’s behest, according to Middle East observers. The Islamic Republic is unlikely to fully relinquish its new-found hegemony over the Strait of Hormuz, despite US President Donald Trump’s rhetorical mix of daily ultimatums and optimism about a deal, they say. Doing so would be giv...
The United States is staring a historic “strategic defeat” in the face five months after launching the Iran war at Israel’s behest, according to Middle East observers. The Islamic Republic is unlikely to fully relinquish its new-found hegemony over the Strait of Hormuz, despite US President Donald Trump’s rhetorical mix of daily ultimatums and optimism about a deal, they say. Doing so would be giv...
Passengers travelling between Hung Hom and Tuen Mun faced delays of 25 to 30 minutes on Thursday afternoon after a signalling fault at Kam Sheung Road station, Hong Kong’s rail operator said. The MTR Corporation said at around 2.23pm on Thursday that the glitch had been repaired and train services on the Tuen Ma line were “gradually returning to normal”. At around 1pm, the MTR said it was repairin...
A shift to technology stocks by China’s most seasoned fund managers has backfired, with the unwinding of AI plays taking a toll on the performances of their products. Funds run by some star managers with a value-investing approach all recorded declines in net asset values last month after they switched to chipmakers and the manufacturers of optical transceivers and out of long-held consumer bets i...
Four hundred years before modern interactive design became a trend, a remarkable ceramic crab was already captivating audiences in ancient China. Placed inside a porcelain cup, this ingenious creature would float and dance to life the moment wine was poured, transforming a simple drink into a mesmerising and joyful spectacle. Between 2018 and 2022, archaeologists unearthed the cup in the ruins of ...
When Russia fires a ballistic missile at Ukraine, air-defence systems have only minutes – sometimes seconds – to detect and intercept the deadly threat. The lack of time has left Kyiv and other cities increasingly exposed to devastating attacks by the missiles that come down so fast and so steeply that Ukraine says only the US-made Patriot defence system can stop them. But Ukraine says it has too ...
Hong Kong police found the body of a man in waters off Stonecutters Island on Thursday morning and believed he had drowned while swimming. The force received a report at 8.24am that a person was floating in the water about 20 metres from a pier near Stonecutters Island in Tsing Yi. Emergency personnel recovered the man from the sea, but he was pronounced dead at the scene. No identification docume...
DeepSeek announced on Thursday a “significant” price hike, amid surging global demand for a new ultra-cheap model, which sparked debate over how the Chinese AI start-up has delivered powerful performance at rock-bottom prices. DeepSeek would raise overall pricing for its application programming interface (API) services “in the near future”, with specific plans to be advised later, the Hangzhou-bas...
The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) will revamp its mandatory education courses for all undergraduates to include national and global perspectives and focus on innovation, entrepreneurship and sustainability. The initiative was announced on Thursday as part of the university’s new five-year strategic plan, which charts its direction and development from 2026 to 2030. It is the first five-ye...
The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) will revamp a mandatory undergraduate programme to incorporate national education materials with a global perspective, as well as focus on innovation, entrepreneurship and sustainability. The initiative was announced on Thursday as part of the university’s new five-year strategic plan, which charts its direction and development from 2026 to 2030. It is th...
The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), the city’s second oldest university, has said it will reform its mandatory General Education programme for undergraduates by integrating national education with a global perspective, as well as concepts of innovation, entrepreneurship and sustainability, into its curriculum. The intiative was announced on Thursday as part of the university’s new five-yea...
The UK’s new foreign secretary, Ed Miliband, was confronted with his past criticism of “racist” Donald Trump as he held talks in Washington with his US counterpart Marco Rubio. Miliband ignored questions about whether he still thought the president was an “idiot, a racist and a misogynist” as he met with the US top diplomat. Miliband was invited to the US capital by Rubio after their recent first ...
Hong Kong police have arrested 25 people, some as young as 13, in a crackdown on a loan shark syndicate that charged victims annual interest rates of up to 282 per cent. Police said on Thursday that the crime ring had extended a total of HK$200 million (US$25.5 million) in loans to about 2,000 residents over the past year, with at least HK$8 million in criminal proceeds funnelled into the core mem...
“Ozempic face” could spawn the next K-beauty craze. South Korean biotech L&C Bio plans to launch an injectable skin booster made from donated human fat to restore lost facial volume, betting demand for cosmetic fixes tied to blockbuster weight-loss drugs will drive its next phase of growth. L&C – which pioneered the use of donated human tissue in K-beauty skin boosters – developed the technology a...
The director of a factory supplying drones to the Russian military was badly wounded and his driver was killed when the car they were in exploded, news reports said on Wednesday. The state Tass and RIA Novosti agencies said that Vladimir Tkachuk was hospitalised in grave condition following the explosion late Tuesday in Bolshoy Istok just outside Yekaterinburg, 1,400km (about 870 miles) east of Mo...
The director of a factory supplying drones to the Russian military was badly wounded and his driver was killed when the car they were in exploded, news reports said on Wednesday. The state Tass and RIA Novosti agencies said that Vladimir Tkachuk was hospitalised in grave condition following the explosion late Tuesday in Bolshoy Istok just outside Yekaterinburg, 1,400km (about 870 miles) east of Mo...
Hong Kong’s securities regulator has put a spotlight on highly concentrated shareholding this year, a move interpreted by market analysts as a warning about sharp price swings on small-cap stocks. As of August, the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) had mentioned 13 cases of high shareholding concentration on the Hong Kong stock exchange, compared with 15 for the whole of last year. The figur...
Following in the footprints of its ambitious Great Green Wall, China is leaning into a solar-powered pivot as part of its decades-long effort to tackle desertification in the arid north. The expanding Great Solar Wall initiative, centred in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, could help to power China’s economic hubs as the country accelerates its transition away from fossil fuels. Transforming ...
Condolences have flooded social media in response to the death of Hong Kong’s Peter Lai Bei-dak, with long-time collaborator and entertainer Sam Hui Koon-kit paying tribute to the legendary lyricist with a handwritten letter. Comments flooded social media as people expressed gratitude for Lai’s contributions, calling him a “grandmaster” and a “legendary genius”. Veteran musician and actor Hui shar...
Legendary Hong Kong lyricist Peter Lai Bei-dak, who wrote the lyrics to a string of hits for the city’s Cantopop stars in the 1980s, has died at the age of 76, triggering an outpouring of condolences from fans of “The Lyrical Maverick”. Sports commentator Eric Chung Chi-kwong, a close friend of Lai, announced his death on Wednesday. He told the media that Lai had moved into a nursing home earlier ...
A near-miss on Tuesday involving an All Nippon Airways (ANA) plane coming dangerously close to another jet while approaching Tokyo’s Haneda Airport from Shanghai has thrown aviation safety back into focus – particularly, anti-collision technology and protocols – according to industry professionals based in China. While the intervention of one jet’s traffic collision avoidance system (TCAS) prevent...
My 18-year-old summer intern is very scared of me. She spent the entire week watching me sit in front of my computer, in complete silence, motionless except for the occasional click of the mouse to move to the next electronic document, and barely breathing. She told me this could not be further from what she imagined a barrister’s life to be. And there was one thing she was particularly puzzled by...
