The Hong Kong government on Friday welcomed the Trump administration’s decision to allow a national emergency declaration concerning the city to expire, a potentially significant reversal of US policy imposed after Beijing enacted the national security law in 2020. The declaration, which underpinned Washington’s decision to end Hong Kong’s preferential treatment in areas including trade and export controls, expired this week after US President Donald Trump did not renew it for another year. The...

An administrative “honour system” that relied on Hong Kong’s private sector to regulate itself created oversight loopholes and left obvious fire hazards at the Wang Fuk Court housing estate unchecked before last year’s inferno, legal counsel for an independent committee investigating the disaster has said. In the final session of 30 days of public hearings, Victor Dawes SC said on Friday that the contractor and consultant behind the estate’s HK$336 million renovation project deserved the...

The legal team for an independent committee examining the cause of Hong Kong’s deadly Tai Po fire has recommended that authorities gradually phase out bamboo scaffolding in favour of metal replacements, among other proposals ranging from legislative reform to measures to curb bid-rigging. The suggestions were outlined in 627 pages of closing submissions from the committee’s lawyers on Friday, concluding hearings that started in March to examine the Wang Fuk Court fire. The blaze last November...

Britain’s charities regulator is looking into concerns about an Amnesty International report that branded a women’s centre for sexual violence victims founded by Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling as “anti-rights”. The bestselling writer, who has been at the forefront of the debate about gender identity and has previously denounced trans activism, leading to accusations of transphobia, on Friday said she was angry at the label. “I’m often tickled by press articles asserting that I’m furious about...

Negeri Sembilan’s bid to turn itself into Malaysia’s next hi-tech industrial hub is heading into an unusual political stress test, as a royal dispute spills into a snap election on August 1. The vote matters not because existing semiconductor and aerospace projects are expected to flee but because it could slow future commitments, reshape the state’s policy environment and sharpen wider uncertainty over the prospect of a snap national poll, analysts say. Long regarded as an affordable base for...

US President Donald Trump launched a sharp attack on China late on Thursday (Washington time), accusing Beijing of interfering in US elections in a move that has strained a fragile thaw in ties and cast doubt on future high-level engagements. In a prime-time address from the White House that lasted nearly 30 minutes, Trump accused China of orchestrating “what is believed to be the largest compromise of election data in history”. He claimed Beijing stole 220 million US voter files, including...

Andy Burnham vowed Friday to “give hope” back to the British people as he was confirmed as the ruling Labour Party’s new leader, set to be the next UK prime minister. “People and places … have been waiting too long for politics to let them hope again … We’re going to give them hope back,” he vowed at a special party conference. “I am for us, for all of us,” he told cheering delegates. Burnham takes over from Keir Starmer, who resigned last month after months of political turmoil, scandal and...