Hong Kong sweltered through its warmest October on record, as an extremely strong El Nino, a weak northeast monsoon and a persistent anticyclone aloft over southern China combined to drive temperatures to unprecedented levels, the weather forecaster has said. The Hong Kong Observatory forecaster said on Sunday that the mean maximum temperature for October was 30.5 degrees Celsius (86.9 Fahrenheit), the mean temperature 27.6 degrees and the mean minimum 25.8 degrees – all the highest for any...

The 2026 Global Governance Forum in Xiongan, Hebei province, wrapped up on October 25. Against a backdrop of acute strains on multilateralism and a widening global governance deficit, the forum galvanised a shared sense of urgency across the international community for reform and solidarity. More than a century ago, Karl Marx noted that, “Philosophers have hitherto only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it.” That insight strikes at the very heart of today’s global...

India’s new high-altitude combat tank was designed to go where its heavier armoured fighting vehicles cannot: the thin mountain air, narrow roads and small bridges along its disputed border with China. In its base configuration, the Zorawar weighs some 25 tonnes – light enough to be flown all the way to the Line of Actual Control – but a push to make it strong enough to withstand high-calibre autocannon fire could add an extra seven tonnes to that loadout. Reports of renewed stand-offs between...

Beijing has stepped up its maritime presence around Taiwan, deploying coastguard patrols from the island’s eastern approaches to waters near Quemoy and remote Dongsha Island. Chinese coastguard spokesman Jiang Lue said on Saturday that a formation led by the vessel Hushi carried out routine law enforcement patrols east of Taiwan to reinforce administrative control and safeguard maritime navigation. “Since October, the Hushi task group has been strengthening control over the relevant waters to...

The Trump administration’s online accounts are circulating images of a pumpkin carved with a sombrero design and a fake Halloween-themed background around a black man apparently accused of food assistance fraud, in social media posts slammed by critics as inflammatory rhetoric. Only days before the midterm election, the posts coincide with the government’s sweeping campaign to show its aggressive immigration enforcement and highlight efforts to crack down on fraud to save taxpayers money when...

Malaysian Transport Minister Anthony Loke Siew Fook has dismissed a recent claim on social media that students were forced to serve alcohol at an old boys’ association reunion and centenary dinner, calling the allegations a politically motivated attack against him. The DAP secretary general, who is also a former student of St Paul’s Institution, claimed the individual who allegedly uploaded the post had been looking for every possible opportunity to attack him. “In the social media post, the...

The Hong Kong government’s reforms to crack down on bid-rigging are intended to bring about a “revolutionary overhaul” of the city’s building maintenance ecosystem, the justice minister has said. Three days after the government unveiled a range of measures in response to an independent committee report on the Tai Po fire, Secretary for Justice Paul Lam Ting-kwok said on Sunday the proposed legislative amendments aimed to raise standards and strengthen oversight. “The market currently offers too...