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Executive Council convenor and Legislative Council member Regina Ip recently asked Secretary for Justice Paul Lam questions that highlighted the government’s repeated loss of court cases focusing on the recognition of same-sex marriage. Ip asked why the government “insisted on lodging appeals despite considering that the cases would have a low success rate.” Put more bluntly, […]

Train stations and airports across China saw the biggest peak in travellers on Saturday ahead of the Lunar New Year, as millions of people returned home to spend the holidays with their families in an annual migration that is expected to be a record. The Chinese New Year, the Year of the Snake, begins Wednesday. […]

Cheung’s life has turned upside down since he survived a serious injury at work almost two years ago. He lost his health, then his savings, his family, and eventually his home. All the while, he has not received the compensation he is entitled to under Hong Kong’s labour law. In March 2023, Cheung – who […]

By Holmes Chan and Yan Zhao Tourists in Hong Kong are flocking to the 300-year-old village of Kuk Po, whose decaying mansions and reed fields offer a respite from the city’s famously frenetic pace. The seaside village was once home to Hakka people from southern China but was mostly abandoned in recent decades, even as […]

By Shaun Tandon US Secretary of State Marco Rubio clashed with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi over Taiwan on Friday, with Donald Trump’s top diplomat denouncing Beijing’s “coercive” moves. Rubio, a longtime China hawk, spoke with Wang for the first time by telephone at the end of his first week in office, which he began […]

To celebrate the Year of the Snake, and mark the 26th year of its snake rescue efforts, Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden has launched an art and education exhibition “Side by Side in Harmony: Snakes, Nature and Us.” The exhibition, which will run until March 3, takes visitors through the farm and its forests, where […]

For the past four months, Noelyn Patricio Arzaga’s bedroom has been bigger than any provided by a previous employer – not that square metres are a consolation. The 40-year-old is staying at a church because she was fired last August after deciding to undergo chemotherapy for breast cancer, against her former employer’s wishes. Since then, […]

By Juan José Rodríguez US President Donald Trump’s threat to seize the Panama Canal over alleged undue Chinese influence may really be aimed at limiting Beijing’s growing diplomatic and economic presence in Latin America, experts say. Actually using force to take the interoceanic waterway, which carries five percent of world maritime trade and 40 percent […]

Jailed media tycoon Jimmy Lai’s email exchanges with US officials in 2020 showed the group discussed potential targets of US sanctions before Beijing imposed a national security law on Hong Kong, the tycoon’s national security trial has heard. Lai, 77, told the court on Friday that he only had a “vague” understanding of the Magnitsky […]

Hong Kong’s transport minister has likened Greater Bay Airlines to an infant that needs assistance learning to walk, after the low-cost carrier cancelled 128 flights scheduled for February and March. Talking to the press during a media luncheon on Thursday, Chan said the incident reflected the carrier’s strategy as a budget airline, its flight scheduling, […]

Children as young as eight may soon be able to enter licensed billiards halls, the government has announced, saying it hoped to promote the development of the sport in Hong Kong. “Licensed billiard establishments which meet relevant requirements for relaxing the entry restrictions for youth” will be eligible to apply, “so as to facilitate more […]

US President Donald Trump said he would “rather not” impose tariffs on China, after repeated pledges on the campaign trail to hit America’s biggest economic rival with hefty import levies. Asked in an interview with Fox News if he could make a deal with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Taiwan and trade, Trump replied: “I […]

The Brazilian diplomat who will chair the next UN climate summit on Thursday praised China as an example in the fight against climate change while admonishing rich countries for shirking their responsibilities. Andre Correa do Lago, who will preside over the first climate conference in the Amazon rainforest in November, praised China’s “extraordinary progress” on […]

The new chairperson of the Hong Kong Bar Association (HKBA) has expressed optimism that new foreign judges would join the city’s top court, even after five left last year, including one who said Hong Kong was “slowly becoming an totalitarian state.” José-Antonio Maurellet was elected the new chairperson of the HKBA on Thursday. Addressing reporters […]

Three men have been jailed for up to five years and three months after pleading guilty to rioting during a mob attack in Yuen Long in 2019. Handing down the sentences on Thursday, local media reported that District Judge Adriana Noelle Tse Ching said the Yuen Long mob attacks, a watershed moment during the 2019 protests, […]

Hong Kong’s privacy watchdog received two complaints last year about journalists who were harassed, with one case transferred to the police for follow up. Ada Chung, the head of the Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data (PCPD), said in Cantonese at a press conference on Tuesday: “We referred one case to the police […]

Hong Kong police have arrested 21 people allegedly linked to a syndicate led by gang members who recruited domestic workers to launder more than HK$70 million via virtual bank accounts. Police raided multiple employment agencies and residential units on Tuesday and Wednesday, arresting nine Hongkongers and 12 women from the Philippines and Indonesia for allegedly […]

By Watsamon Tri-yasakda Scores of same-sex and transgender couples married in Thailand on Thursday as the kingdom’s equal marriage law went into effect, with two high-profile gay actors among the first to do so. In matching beige suits, Apiwat “Porsch” Apiwatsayree, 49 — who was in tears — and Sappanyoo “Arm” Panatkool, 38, were handed […]

China said Thursday it had lodged “solemn representations” with Afghanistan’s Taliban government over the killing of a Chinese mine worker in an attack claimed by the Islamic State group. “The Chinese side urgently lodged solemn representations with the Afghan side, demanding that (they) thoroughly investigate and punish the perpetrators,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said. […]

Hong Kong national security police have taken two employees of a polling organisation in for questioning to assist with an investigation, local media have reported. According to local media reports, the pair taken for questioning on Thursday worked for the Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute (PORI). The move followed a series of police interrogations […]

Hong Kong’s transport chief has demanded Greater Bay Airlines submit a report to the government after the cancellation of 128 flights in February and March, affecting around 5,500 passengers. Mable Chan, the secretary for transport and logistics, said on Wednesday afternoon that the air carrier should investigate the cause of the cancellations and submit a […]

Hong Kong’s public housing providers have been issued a list of recommendations to enhance their efforts to counter abuses of government-subsidised housing, as authorities seek to reduce public housing waiting times by evicting “well-off tenants.” In a statement announcing the completion of an investigation into the government’s push to combat abuses of limited public housing […]

Former lawmaker Lam Cheuk-ting’s identity as a public figure should not affect his sentence for a rioting conviction relating to a mob attack in Yuen Long in 2019, his lawyer has said in pleading for a shorter jail term for Lam. At the District Court on Wednesday, defence counsel Catherine Wong asked district judge Stanley […]

Thai authorities denied Wednesday there was an immediate plan to send back to China 48 Uyghurs held in the country’s detention centres, after UN experts warned the group could face torture if they return. The Uyghurs fled China — which has been accused of grave human rights abuses in the Xinjiang region against Uyghurs — […]