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‘Pets are meant to be spoiled’: Hong Kong cat owners spend big at feline expo
SCMP

‘Pets are meant to be spoiled’: Hong Kong cat owners spend big at feline expo

With 14 cats and a dog at home, Hong Kong couple Mr and Mrs Cheung spend more than HK$10,000 (US$1,275) a month on their beloved pets. “Pets are meant to be spoiled rotten,” said Mrs Cheung, a pet groomer in her thirties who visited the cat expo in Wan Chai on Sunday with her husband and four Maine Coon cats. The cats were dressed up and carried in a HK$4,000 stroller made in Japan. She said the f...

‘Discouraged’ at university, maths star Wang Hong spurs Chinese education debate
SCMP

‘Discouraged’ at university, maths star Wang Hong spurs Chinese education debate

Many young students in China have been inspired by the achievement of Wang Hong, the first Chinese woman to receive the Fields Medal – the world’s most prestigious prize in mathematics. But it is the 35-year-old’s candid remarks about feeling “discouraged” in her early years at an elite Chinese university that appear to have struck the deepest chord. Those comments have set off a broader debate ab...

5 dead in Indonesia ferry fire, 41 missing
SCMP

5 dead in Indonesia ferry fire, 41 missing

An Indonesian ferry caught fire at sea on Sunday, killing five people and leaving another 41 missing after some jumped overboard, search and rescue officials said. A total of 225 people on the vessel were rescued, said the regional Surabaya Search and Rescue Agency, which provided the latest figures in an afternoon update. Some passengers jumped into the sea and were picked up by a nearby ship, ac...

Rains fail to deter Chiikawa fans and big spenders after roundabout cancellation
SCMP

Rains fail to deter Chiikawa fans and big spenders after roundabout cancellation

The return of an exhibition featuring popular Japanese manga series Chiikawa to Hong Kong drew crowds and big spenders on a rainy Sunday afternoon, even though the organiser cancelled a much-anticipated roundabout due to safety reasons. While some fans expressed disappointment over the halted rides at the K11 Musea promenade on the Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront, others welcomed the alternative arrangem...

How retirees can win against rising healthcare cost in Hong Kong

How retirees can win against rising healthcare cost in Hong Kong

SCMP

Retiree Philip Kong says he realised Hong Kong’s healthcare system needed a wake-up call when he discovered that receiving treatment for his prostate condition in neighbouring Shenzhen could potentially cut his medical bill by nearly 90 per cent. The 75-year-old was diagnosed with an enlarged prostate earlier this year and set to pay HK$210,000 (US$26,780) for a scheduled surgery at Hong Kong Sana...

How can retirees win against rising healthcare cost in Hong Kong

How can retirees win against rising healthcare cost in Hong Kong

SCMP

Retiree Philip Kong says he realised Hong Kong’s healthcare system needed a wake-up call when he discovered that receiving treatment for his prostate condition in neighbouring Shenzhen could potentially cut his medical bill by nearly 90 per cent. The 75-year-old was diagnosed with an enlarged prostate earlier this year and set to pay HK$210,000 (US$26,780) for a scheduled surgery at Hong Kong Sana...

How can retirees ease the pain of rising healthcare costs in Kong Hong?

How can retirees ease the pain of rising healthcare costs in Kong Hong?

SCMP

Retiree Philip Kong says he realised Hong Kong’s healthcare system needed a wake-up call when he discovered that receiving treatment for his prostate condition in neighbouring Shenzhen could potentially cut his medical bill by nearly 90 per cent. The 75-year-old was diagnosed with an enlarged prostate earlier this year and set to pay HK$210,000 (US$26,780) for a scheduled surgery at Hong Kong Sana...

How can Hong Kong retirees ease the pain of rising healthcare costs?

How can Hong Kong retirees ease the pain of rising healthcare costs?

SCMP

Retiree Philip Kong says he realised Hong Kong’s healthcare system needed a wake-up call when he discovered that receiving treatment for his prostate condition in neighbouring Shenzhen could potentially cut his medical bill by nearly 90 per cent. The 75-year-old was diagnosed with an enlarged prostate earlier this year and set to pay HK$210,000 (US$26,780) for a scheduled surgery at Hong Kong Sana...

7 face arrest after Inner Mongolia fatal blast report exposes string of failings

7 face arrest after Inner Mongolia fatal blast report exposes string of failings

SCMP

A series of failures, including poor maintenance, design and oversight, have been blamed for a deadly explosion at an industrial plant in Baotou in China’s Inner Mongolia region earlier this year. In an official report released on Sunday, the Inner Mongolian emergency management department said the blast at the Baotou Steel Group’s plant that killed 10 people and injured 84 was the result of a lea...

Climate crisis: Hungary closes nuclear power plant, Greece wildfires spread

Climate crisis: Hungary closes nuclear power plant, Greece wildfires spread

SCMP

Hungary is fully shutting down its sole nuclear power plant for the first time due to the record low levels of the Danube River, straining energy supplies and posing a major test for the economy and new Prime Minister Péter Magyar. One of the two reactors still operating at the Paks plant was shut down early on Sunday, with the final one powering down later in the day, according to Magyar. He cite...

Beijing warns Manila of ‘powerful’ South China Sea toolbox ready for ‘head-on blow’

Beijing warns Manila of ‘powerful’ South China Sea toolbox ready for ‘head-on blow’

SCMP

Beijing had a “rich and powerful” toolkit to use against those who “make waves” in the South China Sea, China’s military mouthpiece warned on Sunday, following efforts by Manila to map out its claim to a disputed shoal. The PLA Daily warning came a day after the Chinese military mounted joint naval and air drills near Scarborough Shoal, a contested group of low-lying rocky islets known as Huangyan...

Mainland transit gives Hongkongers option for Europe trips amid Middle East war

Mainland transit gives Hongkongers option for Europe trips amid Middle East war

SCMP

Transiting through mainland China for long-haul destinations from Hong Kong has become an alternative to stopping off in the Middle East amid safety concerns brought about by the US-Israel war on Iran, the city’s travel agents have said. Alex Lee Chun-ting, general manager of Miramar Travel, told the South China Morning Post that the war in the Middle East had initially reduced interest in long-ha...

Mainland transit offers alternative for Europe trips amid Middle East war

Mainland transit offers alternative for Europe trips amid Middle East war

SCMP

Transiting through mainland China for long-haul destinations from Hong Kong has become an alternative to stopping off in the Middle East amid safety concerns brought about by the US-Israel war on Iran, the city’s travel agents have said. Alex Lee Chun-ting, general manager of Miramar Travel, told the South China Morning Post that the war in the Middle East had initially reduced interest in long-ha...

Kowloon Walled City action film sequel’s gritty, nostalgic set draws residents

Kowloon Walled City action film sequel’s gritty, nostalgic set draws residents

SCMP

Tucked in a corner of a hi-tech industrial estate in Yuen Long, a cluster of cluttered flats has been designed to evoke a gritty Hong Kong slum. It is the main set for the sequel to the nostalgic blockbuster film Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In. The set, constructed on an empty factory site at Yuen Long InnoPark, recreates the iconic Kowloon Walled City, featuring details such as a banner hang...

Rosewood Hotel Group to press on with clubhouse takeover as opposition escalates

Rosewood Hotel Group to press on with clubhouse takeover as opposition escalates

SCMP

Rosewood Hotel Group in Hong Kong will press ahead with a controversial plan to change operations at a clubhouse in Central on August 8, despite escalating opposition from a group of members, the South China Morning Post has learned. Sources said recently the hotelier’s Carlyle & Co private club would take over the operations of the Town Club in Central from sports entity, Hong Kong Golf & Tennis ...

Why Hong Kong’s elites must become risk-takers again

Why Hong Kong’s elites must become risk-takers again

SCMP

Hong Kong is drafting its first‑ever five‑year plan, a historic blueprint to chart long‑term development. Much has been said about reforms and paradigm shifts, but far less attention has been paid to the true architects of this journey: Hong Kong’s elites. Their choices will determine whether the city reinvents itself as an innovation hub or slides into stagnation. For decades, Hong Kong’s movers ...

Is Turkey putting pressure on China in Africa’s infrastructure market?

Is Turkey putting pressure on China in Africa’s infrastructure market?

SCMP

Two years after Kenya’s deal with India’s Adani Group to modernise Jomo Kenyatta International Airport collapsed, the state-owned China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) has won a US$1.2 billion contract to do just that. The same pattern played out when France’s Vinci lost a major highway deal in Kenya and CRBC took over as developer alongside another Chinese firm. Under the original 30-year conc...

From gendered sacrifice to ancient politics: DNA lifts shroud on early Chinese civilisation

From gendered sacrifice to ancient politics: DNA lifts shroud on early Chinese civilisation

SCMP

Thousands of years ago, a handful of burgeoning civilisations were forming the earliest cultures of what would evolve into China. Among these peoples were the Shimao, who constructed majestic walls that were mistakenly believed to be part of the Great Wall of China until jade artefacts were discovered, dating the infrastructure to be much older. The Shimao inhabited Shaanxi, in central China, betw...

3 more suspects arrested over murder of businessman in Hong Kong bar fight

3 more suspects arrested over murder of businessman in Hong Kong bar fight

SCMP

Hong Kong police have arrested three more suspects in connection with the death of a 32-year-old entrepreneur in a bar fight on July 26. The arrests were made as part of an investigation into the murder of Issac Yeung at an upstairs bar on Cameron Road in Tsim Sha Tsui. Police have already arrested six men and three women, aged 24 to 46, in connection with the case. The force said on Sunday that t...

Ukraine strikes kill 9 in Russia, Moscow says, another Wildberries warehouse hit

Ukraine strikes kill 9 in Russia, Moscow says, another Wildberries warehouse hit

SCMP

Ukraine attacked multiple regions of Russia on Sunday, killing at least nine people, while Russian attacks on Ukraine killed at least five, according to officials in both countries. Some of the strikes hit hundreds of kilometres from the front line, according to authorities. Both Moscow and Kyiv have upped attacks on each other in recent months, as US-led talks aimed at ending the conflict remain ...

Ukraine strikes kill 8 in Russia, Moscow says, another Wildberries warehouse hit

Ukraine strikes kill 8 in Russia, Moscow says, another Wildberries warehouse hit

SCMP

Ukraine attacked multiple regions of Russia on Sunday, killing at least eight people, Russian officials said. Some of the strikes hit hundreds of kilometres from the front line, according to authorities. Both Moscow and Kyiv have upped attacks on each other in recent months, as US-led talks aimed at ending the conflict remain largely frozen. Kyiv, which denies targeting civilians, says the strikes...

Ukraine strikes kill 8 in Russia, Moscow says, hit another Wildberries warehouse

Ukraine strikes kill 8 in Russia, Moscow says, hit another Wildberries warehouse

SCMP

Ukraine attacked multiple regions of Russia on Sunday, killing at least eight people, Russian officials said. Some of the strikes hit hundreds of kilometres from the front line, according to authorities. Both Moscow and Kyiv have upped attacks on each other in recent months, as US-led talks aimed at ending the conflict remain largely frozen. Kyiv, which denies targeting civilians, says the strikes...

Ukrainian drone strikes kill 2 in Russia, hit another Wildberries warehouse

Ukrainian drone strikes kill 2 in Russia, hit another Wildberries warehouse

SCMP

Ukrainian drone strikes killed at ⁠least two people in ⁠Russian regions along the ⁠Volga River overnight, hitting targets including a warehouse belonging to Wildberries, Russia’s largest online retailer, regional officials said on Sunday. Russia’s Defence Ministry said it had downed ‌635 Ukrainian drones during the night. Kyiv’s drones attacked a Wildberries warehouse in the Samara region, around ...

CUHK earmarks Pak Shek Kok site for new medical building and 10th college

CUHK earmarks Pak Shek Kok site for new medical building and 10th college

SCMP

The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) will construct a new medical building and its 10th constituent college near the city’s technology hub in Pak Shek Kok to boost research capabilities, aligning with government plans to improve transport connectivity in the area. Dennis Lo Yuk-ming, CUHK president, said on Sunday that high housing costs remained a key weakness for the city’s scientific rese...

China floods: large parts of country remain on alert as Gansu province death toll rises

China floods: large parts of country remain on alert as Gansu province death toll rises

SCMP

China increased the death toll caused by flash flooding in the northwestern province of Gansu last week as large parts of the country continued to battle the impact of heavy rainfall and swollen rivers. On Sunday, the state news agency Xinhua said the death toll in Gansu’s Weiyuan county had risen from 10 to 25, adding that the flash floods which struck last Sunday had also injured a further 23 pe...

Sri Lanka deploys troops to contain deadly riot at overcrowded Mahara Prison

Sri Lanka deploys troops to contain deadly riot at overcrowded Mahara Prison

SCMP

Sri Lanka deployed hundreds of troops and elite commandos on Sunday to contain riots at an overcrowded prison in which an inmate was killed and six others wounded, police said. Deputy police inspector-general Sanjeewa Medawatte said the situation was under control after inmates destroyed multiple buildings on Saturday inside Mahara Prison, just outside the capital Colombo. “We got reinforcements f...

Filipino housekeepers mop up growing demand across Japan

Filipino housekeepers mop up growing demand across Japan

SCMP

Housekeeping services employing Filipino staff have gained in popularity amid growing demand in Japan for such domestic support, with one provider seeing their workforce roughly double over the past decade. Since the Japanese government began allowing foreign nationals to provide housekeeping services in national strategic special zones in 2016, workers from the Philippines have been a top choice ...

Call to suspend water sports when amber alert in force after triathlete, 59, dies

Call to suspend water sports when amber alert in force after triathlete, 59, dies

SCMP

A 59-year-old swimmer in a Hong Kong triathlon who went missing during an amber rainstorm has been found dead, prompting an expert to urge that such events be suspended when the relevant warning is in force, citing increasingly unpredictable extreme weather. Police told the South China Morning Post that Fire Services Department officers found the man at around 3.17pm on Sunday. He was sent to Alic...

Triathlete, 59, who started swimming during amber rainstorm warning found dead

Triathlete, 59, who started swimming during amber rainstorm warning found dead

SCMP

A 59-year-old participant in a Hong Kong triathlon who went missing during the swimming leg amid an amber rainstorm warning on Sunday was found dead after hours of rescue efforts. Police told the South China Morning Post that Fire Services Department officers found the man at around 3.17pm. He was sent to Alice Ho Miu Ling Nethersole Hospital in Tai Po, where he was pronounced dead at 3.33pm. The ...