Hong Kong authorities have suspended the main contractor and lift subcontractor working on Queen Mary Hospital’s new clinical block from public works tenders after serious defects left most lifts unreliable and delayed the launch of services. The Architectural Services Department said in a social media post late on Friday that the contractors’ poor performance had been recorded in assessment reports. It added that they would be required to bear the full cost of remedial works and could face...

China has “strongly condemned” Japanese leaders for visiting the controversial Yasukuni Shrine and making an offering on the 81st anniversary of Japan’s announcement of surrender in World War II. Beijing lodged a formal protest after Japanese defence chief Shinjiro Koizumi visited the shrine on Saturday. China and many other countries in Asia view the site as a symbol of Japanese militarism. Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi did not visit the site in person but she sent a ritual offering to...

Hongkongers should exercise extreme caution in guarding their personal data, especially during online shopping and membership sign-ups, the city’s privacy watchdog has said after privacy complaints jumped more than 60 per cent year on year in the first half of 2026. Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data Ada Chung Lai-ling said on Saturday that residents’ personal data had become a valuable, tradeable commodity in the age of technology. The Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data...

Hong Kong’s fintech hub Cyberport has added 66,000 square metres of space in its fifth-phase expansion and filled half of its offices with tenants including mainland Chinese tech companies, according to its chairman. Simon Chan Sai-ming also said on Saturday that Cyberport was positioning itself as a key driver in Hong Kong’s inaugural five-year plan by pushing artificial intelligence (AI) development as a pillar industry, expanding talent training and improving cross-border data governance. He...

Russia is confounding expectations that its influence in the Middle East would drastically decline after the downfall of Syria’s Assad regime in 2024. At the time, Moscow operated about 100 military facilities in the war-torn country, following its intervention in the Syrian civil conflict from 2015 to prop up then president Bashar al-Assad in alliance with Iran and its regional proxies. When Assad was forced to flee to Moscow, and control of most of Syria was seized by Islamist rebels led by...

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung proposed talks with North Korea to formally end the long-running Korean war, as Pyongyang deepens ties with Russia while asserting its status as an “irreversible” nuclear state. The two Koreas remain technically at war because their 1950-53 conflict, triggered by a North Korean attack, ended with an armistice rather than a peace treaty. Lee made the proposal in his speech at a ceremony marking the anniversary of Korea’s liberation from Japan’s 1910–45...

Hong Kong’s lush forests are teeming with more wildlife ranging from birds arriving from neighbouring regions to newly discovered reptile and insect species, experts have found, as they urge authorities to devise a conservation list to protect vulnerable local species. The call by the city’s conservationists to formulate a “red list” – a long-awaited measure since 2014 – coincided with National Ecology Day on Saturday. Gary Ades, head of fauna conservation at Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden...