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Two Hong Kong men have been arrested on suspicion of illegally streaming overseas football matches at a restaurant. It marks the first time local authorities have made arrests following new communication rights granted to copyright owners last year. The Hong Kong Customs and Excise Department raided a restaurant in Tung Chung on Sunday night, after […]

Jailed media tycoon Jimmy Lai has denied that he instructed staff of his now-shuttered Apple Daily newspaper to urge the West to impose sanctions on Hong Kong, his national security trial has heard. The 76-year-old tycoon continued to give evidence on Monday in front of handpicked judges. He faces two counts of conspiracy to collude […]

Hong Kong national security cases will be barred from being heard remotely under a bill to introduce court proceedings with real-time remote communication link-ups. Gazetted by the government on Friday, the Courts (Remote Hearing) Bill will also exclude criminal trials and juvenile court proceedings from remote hearings. The first reading of the bill at the […]

Beijing is ramping up scrutiny of “common” disputes such as those involving marriages and property, the justice ministry said, as the public reels from a recent string of deadly attacks. China has witnessed a spate of violent incidents in recent months — from mass stabbings to car rammings — a rare development for a country […]

A final round of talks on a treaty to end plastic pollution opened on Monday, with the diplomat chairing the difficult negotiations urging nations to “meet an existential challenge.” The meeting opens just hours after a chaotic end to the COP29 climate talks in Baku, which agreed to a boost in climate funding that developing […]

A Hong Kong lawmaker has called plans to mandate voluntary work for people on government welfare a “half-punitive” scheme, saying most welfare recipients have personal reasons why they are not working. Speaking to HKFP on Monday, social welfare lawmaker Tik Chi-yuen said that not many subsidy recipients are “lazy.” Many may not be able to […]

Two men have been arrested on suspicion of flying drones in a restricted zone where a Chinese army assault vessel was docked during a five-day visit. A 35-year-old man surnamed Wong, and a 18-year-old man surnamed Yeung, were apprehended at the China Merchants Wharf near Kennedy Town on Friday and Saturday. They were suspected of […]

By Nick Perry, Laurent Thomet and Shaun Tandon The world approved a bitterly negotiated climate deal Sunday but poorer nations most at the mercy of worsening disasters dismissed a US$300 billion a year pledge from wealthy historic polluters as insultingly low. After two exhausting weeks of chaotic bargaining and sleepless nights, nearly 200 nations banged […]

By Robert Godden Many of the world’s largest financial institutions have made bold promises to promote responsible investing and combat human trafficking. Yet behind these commitments lies exploitation much closer to home, literally.  In the Asian financial hubs of Hong Kong and Singapore, where many of these institutions have offices, migrant domestic workers – often […]

Hong Kong’s largest national security case came to a close on Tuesday as 45 prominent pro-democracy advocates were jailed for up to 10 years over taking part in a conspiracy to commit subversion. The offence centred on an unofficial primary election held in July 2020 that aimed to help them win a controlling majority in […]

By Amber Wang A Chinese film set during the Covid-19 pandemic won the top prizes in Taiwan’s prestigious Golden Horse Awards, which saw the highest number of entries from China in recent years despite political tensions. Beijing banned its entertainers from joining Golden Horse — dubbed the Chinese-language “Oscars” — in 2019 after a Taiwanese […]

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said Saturday that his company will balance legal compliance and technological advances under the incoming administration of Donald Trump, and nothing will stop the global advancement of artificial intelligence. The US chipmaking giant this week reported record high quarterly revenue on the back of strong AI chip demand, though investors are […]

Civil servants are to get a new set of guidelines next year, according to Secretary for Security Chris Tang, which will show them how to safeguard national security in their daily duties. Announcing this interesting project in the Legislative Council, Tang said the exercise would “change the mentality and mindset of our colleagues, to embed […]

By Jiaxin Lu Rowdy cheers spilled from a Hong Kong banquet hall hosting a mass wedding party, as one of the 20 elderly couples renewing their vows coquettishly shared a strawberry marshmallow mouth-to-mouth. Dressed to impress, the brides and grooms — mostly in their 70s — were in high spirits as they took part in […]

Forty-five of Hong Kong’s most prominent pro-democracy figures were jailed for conspiring to subvert state power on Tuesday as the city’s largest national security case came to a close. Among those sentenced to up to a decade behind bars over their roles in an unofficial election primary held in July 2020, which aimed to help […]

Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai has testified at his national security trial that urging other countries to speak up for the city’s pro-democracy movement does not amount to seeking foreign interference. The 76-year-old, who wore a green sweater and a suit jacket, stands accused of two counts of taking part in a “conspiracy to collude […]

The trial of eight people who were allegedly involved in three bomb plots in early 2020 has begun, with seven of them facing the same charge that saw a man sentenced to almost 24 years in prison days ago. The defendants – Ho Cheuk-wai, Lee Ka-pan, Ng Tsz-lok, Cheung Ka-chun, Yeung Yi-sze, Cheung Cheuk-ki, Ho […]

Taiwan President Lai Ching-te will visit three Pacific island nation allies from the end of this month in his first overseas trip since taking office, the presidential office said Friday. Presidential spokeswoman Karen Kuo said Lai will visit the Marshall Islands, Palau and Tuvalu — the only Pacific island nations among Taiwan’s 12 remaining allies […]

Almost seven out of 10 Hong Kong companies experienced cyberattacks in the past year, the city’s privacy watchdog has found after a survey revealed that firms’ cybersecurity readiness still stood at “basic” levels. The index, which evaluates companies’ policy and risk assessment, technology control, process control, and human awareness building, increased by 5.8 points from […]

China on Thursday blamed Washington’s support for Taiwan for the failure of the two countries’ defence ministers to meet this week, after US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin called Beijing’s no-show “unfortunate”. Multiple US media reported this week that Austin had hoped to meet his Chinese counterpart Dong Jun at a regional summit in Laos as […]

A woman has been arrested on suspicion of throwing a bottle of red paint at the Hong Kong government headquarters. A 46-year-old woman was arrested on Thursday for alleged criminal damage in connection with red paint found splashed on a flower bed and pedestrian path at the Central Government Offices (CGO) in Tamar, Admiralty. According […]

Almost one in five calls to Hong Kong’s 999 emergency number were diverted to a recorded message last year, a greater percentage than five years previously, according to police data obtained by HKFP. In 2023, 610,945 emergency calls out of 3,139,814 received – or 19.5 per cent – were re-routed to a bilingual recorded announcement, […]

Detained media mogul Jimmy Lai wanted to “explain” the thinking behind protesters’ storming of the legislature in 2019 through his newspaper Apple Daily to ensure the movement’s survival, the tycoon’s national security trial has heard. Lai, whose defence questioning expected to take 15 days, took the stand for the second day on Thursday. Under defence […]

Hong Kong police have arrested 65 people including several Japanese sex workers and porn stars in an joint operation with authorities in Singapore, Japan, and Macau against a cross-border vice syndicate. The force said on Thursday that five men and 60 women, aged 17 to 64, had been arrested in a three-day operation targeting a […]