In only a few years, the surveillance start-up Flock has installed more than 100,000 licence plate reader cameras across the United States. But a grass-roots movement upset over privacy concerns is fighting back – even going so far as systematically vandalising the equipment. The first time he decided to trash one of the cameras, a self-styled vigilante wearing all black and known as Nomark, says he was “super nervous”. Now, after disabling about 30 of the devices near his home in the...

When a shot rang out at the Debsirin Nonthaburi School on the outskirts of Bangkok on Friday morning, 14-year-old Khim and her classmates peered over a balcony to see if the noise had come from a construction site. But more loud bangs followed, until a teacher ushered them all into a classroom, checked a messaging group and confirmed to the now terrified students: there was an active shooter in their building. “I heard multiple gunshots and felt like ‌we weren’t going to survive,” Khim, who...

Hong Kong’s Northern Metropolis will provide an opportunity to diversify the housing ladder for young people, the city’s leader has said, while also pledging to create a more conducive environment for the cultural sector to build a globally recognised “Hong Kong brand”. “The government has been diversifying the housing ladder,” Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu said at the second town hall meeting, which was held at Kowloon Tong Government Primary School on Sunday. “The Northern Metropolis gives...

“Women hold up half the sky.” This iconic quote attributed to Mao Zedong has been central to Beijing’s messaging about gender equality for decades. It was not just a slogan. After the founding of the People’s Republic in 1949, the Communist Party passed a Marriage Law that banned arranged marriages, abolished foot-binding and encouraged women to enter education and the workplace. But the party’s stance on where women belong has shifted over the decades, according to a new study. To gauge the...

Young Malaysians are reporting worsening illnesses, heat-related health problems and disruptions to basic services as climate change intensifies, raising questions over whether the country’s adaptation policies can protect future generations. Unicef Malaysia’s National Youth Climate Change Survey 2025, released in July, found that climate change was no longer only an environmental challenge but an immediate public health and economic issue. The survey gathered responses from 1,420 young people...

Hong Kong’s first five-year plan will be judged not by how many initiatives it assembles. Instead, it will be judged by whether it explains where the city intends to be by 2030 and how it will get there. The consultation document covers the expected ground. It includes the Northern Metropolis; Hong Kong’s roles as an international financial, trade, maritime and aviation centre; integration with the Greater Bay Area and supporting the Belt and Road Initiative; and social priorities such as...

A man from southern China travelled 3,000 kilometres to search for his pen pal from 24 years ago, stirring nostalgia among many for their own youth pen pals. Li Zhicong, around 40, hails from the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region and has been working in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, for over a decade. Recently, he journeyed 3,000 km to Inner Mongolia in northern China to find his pen pal “Ice Rain,” who wrote him a letter 24 years ago. In 2002, when he was a third-year junior secondary school...