Hong Kong district councillor Peggy Wong Pik-kiu has resigned from office and several other community roles citing health reasons, following mounting controversy over her team’s alleged proxy-vote collection before last year’s fatal Wang Fuk Court inferno. Wong, a directly elected district councillor for the Tai Po South constituency, also stepped down from her duties as a member of the Tai Po South Area Committee and captain of the Tai Po Kwong Fuk and Plover Cove sub-district care teams. The...
A 44-year-old woman in Hong Kong has been arrested on suspicion of child abuse after dashcam footage appeared to show her shoving a boy into a roadside railing. A police force spokesman said on Saturday that the woman was arrested on Friday afternoon in Western district after a widely circulated dashcam video drew the force’s attention. In the video seen by the South China Morning Post, the woman gets out of a private car at a section of Wan Chai Road near Burrows Street, with a boy following...
A government-hosted Mid-Autumn Festival light show at a nullah in Hong Kong has sparked widespread online criticism, with revellers complaining of foul smells and poor execution. Social media was awash with criticism on Saturday, just hours after the opening night of the two-day “Yuen Long Flood Barrier and Nullah Improvement Scheme – Mid-Autumn Light Show” organised by the Drainage Services Department. The event was billed as an inaugural initiative to transform the Yuen Long Nullah into a...
Two people have died and another four are missing after a residential building collapsed following an explosion in a tourist area of central Athens, a Greek fire brigade official said on Saturday. The blast on Friday destroyed a two-storey building in Plaka, near some of Athens’ most visited sites including the Acropolis and the Temple of Zeus, injuring three people, damaging nearby houses, shops and cars, and sending rubble and broken glass as far as three blocks away. Emergency crews in...
A Chinese doctoral graduate in medicine left her promising hospital job to embrace a “less meritocratic” lifestyle as a part-time freelancer. Liu Zihan, 31, delivers food, performs at a pub, sells breakfast, and explores a variety of part-time jobs that captivate her interests while providing for her living expenses. Before leaving her full-time employment in February, Liu served as a psychiatrist and postdoctoral researcher at a Grade 3A hospital in Zhuhai, in southern China’s Guangdong...
Just a month after Saudi Arabia signed a regional mutual defence deal with Pakistan and Turkey, attacks by Yemen’s Houthis against the kingdom’s energy infrastructure and military sites are testing the pact’s limits. At a hastily convened meeting of the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement in Riyadh on Friday, military chiefs of the three parties reaffirmed their commitment to collective defence, according to the Saudi Press Agency. The agency said the talks focused on “intelligence cooperation,...
Entire Bangkok neighbourhoods were inundated on Saturday as the city government declared a flood disaster after the worst rains in years overwhelmed the Thai capital, submerging roads, cars and forcing thousands to leave their homes. Bangkok is flood-prone, especially during the monsoon season, but waters rarely linger for long. Nonetheless, the city’s drainage is notoriously ill-equipped to handle storm bursts as it struggles to cope with waters that have reached at least two feet (60cm) and...
First ladies Peng Liyuan and Melania Trump opened a new front in US-China exchanges this week, with their unusually frequent and spontaneous interactions putting a more personal face on ties during the presidential summit in Washington. The pair charted a parallel path of soft power diplomacy – sharing conversations, cultural outings and moments of apparent warmth during a visit otherwise shadowed by trade tensions, and artificial intelligence and other strategic issues. According to US-China...
Hikers flocking to a popular geological attraction in Hong Kong’s Sai Kung over the Mid-Autumn Festival weekend have called for real-time displays showing when time slots are available under a trial registration system. A day after the large influx of visitors, the High Island Geo Trail’s Po Pin Chau section continued to draw lines of visitors on Saturday morning – the second day of an extended weekend in mainland China. While hikers who pre-booked a slot under a newly introduced trial...
China’s technology companies face a question that no pricing strategy can answer: what will their success do to their trading partners? In Europe, that question has become politically urgent. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen warns of a “second China shock”, linking persistent trade imbalances to the erosion of Europe’s industrial base. Europe’s dispute carries a broader warning: affordable products can coexist with deep anxiety over the loss of productive capability. If...
Hong Kong police are investigating a case of voyeurism after three suspected pinhole cameras were found in the changing rooms of a 24/7 Fitness branch in Sha Tin. The force said on Saturday that officers were alerted at 5.11pm on Friday to a suspected pinhole camera attached with black tape to the false ceiling of a changing room at the gym on Lek Yuen Street. Upon searching, officers discovered three suspected pinhole cameras across three of the gym’s changing rooms, according to police. The...
EnerVenue, a start-up co-founded by Full Vision Capital, the family office of Hong Kong tycoon Peter Lee Ka-kit, has begun manufacturing a new battery it expects to challenge existing energy-storage technologies dominated by mainland Chinese players, amid surging global demand for green energy. The California-based company can now produce 250 megawatt-hours (MWh) of nickel-hydrogen batteries annually at its factory in Changzhou, in eastern China’s Jiangsu province, and plans to raise capacity to...
Hong Kong’s development minister has promised a public account of her bureau’s oversight of the Queen Mary Hospital lift saga, while stopping short of saying whether a new accountability system for department heads would be invoked. Nearly two weeks after Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu tasked the Development Bureau with submitting a report within a month, Secretary for Development Bernadette Linn Hon-ho said she would get to the bottom of the defective works at the hospital, which left 24 of...
As AI becomes an increasingly important part of China’s economic transformation, economists and industry leaders are raising concerns about two potential risks: inflated valuations for humanoid robotics companies and the technology widening the wealth gap between rich and poor. Daniel Zhang, managing partner of FirstLight Capital and former chairman and CEO of Alibaba Group Holding, said the sharp fall in some Chinese humanoid robotics stocks reflected expectations that had become...
Hong Kong’s finance chief has predicted a positive market response to the Xi-Trump summit, saying the mitigation of geopolitical uncertainties will bolster investor confidence. Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po made his prediction on a radio programme on Saturday, a day after Chinese President Xi Jinping wrapped up a three-day visit to Washington to meet with his US counterpart Donald Trump, with promises of more talks despite limited deliverables. “I believe the market will have a positive...
For over two decades, Pakistan has waged countless counterterrorism campaigns against Taliban and Baloch insurgents in its western regions bordering Afghanistan and Iran, yet remains mired in a cycle of violence it cannot break. Scores of soldiers, policemen and civilians are killed every month in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and southwestern Balochistan provinces, where near-daily attacks on security personnel, government officials and other prominent figures are carried out by...
Taiwan’s transfer of a former coastguard vessel to the Philippines has triggered a dual controversy – raising concerns over the interests of Taiwanese fishermen and prompting strong criticism from Beijing. The matter centres on a 61-metre (200-foot) retired cutter handed over to the Philippine Coast Guard through a non-governmental organisation on Monday, as Taipei and Manila expand practical maritime cooperation despite the absence of formal diplomatic ties. Beijing’s Taiwan Affairs Office...
China and the United States have struck a new deal on coal and agreed to open a communication channel on “super intelligence” incidents, according to the White House. The commitments were outlined in a fact sheet on Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Washington this week. It said China had agreed to import at least 10 million tonnes of coal from the United States next year and again in 2028. The statement also said the two sides would “continue to work on” US concerns about China’s exports...
OpenAI acknowledged on Friday that its artificial intelligence tools had posted images from ChatGPT users onto online sites without the company’s knowledge, the latest example of AI agents operating outside their bounds. The company also confirmed a New York Times report that its tools had accessed websites of US federal agencies, saying they retrieved only publicly available information. Links to the 53 uploaded images were not publicly listed and were accidentally posted on image-hosting...
We have put together stories from our coverage of Peng Liyuan during the Xi-Trump summit. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. China’s first lady Peng Liyuan projects glamour and soft power on world stage China’s first lady Peng Liyuan is again stepping into the international limelight as she travels to Washington with President Xi Jinping this week. 2. Peng Liyuan and Melania Trump renew acquaintance as Xi arrives in US Chinese first lady Peng Liyuan...