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Hong Kong’s property deals exceed 7,000 for the sixth...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/02

Hong Kong’s property transactions crossed 7,000 for the sixth consecutive month in March – the first time in four years that monthly volumes stayed above this level – amid rising demand, according to estimates compiled by leading real estate agencies. The value of transactions for offices, shops, new and second-hand homes, industrial spaces and car parking slots amounted to nearly HK$64 billion (US$8.16 billion), according to separate estimates by Centaline Property Agency and Ricacorp...

Tai Po fire hearing: ISS property management firm may...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/02

This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing. An independent committee investigating the cause of Hong Kong’s deadliest inferno in decades is expected to conclude its first round of evidential hearings on Thursday, with the role of the property management firm at blaze-hit Wang Fuk Court under scrutiny. Lam Man-yan, technical officer with ISS EastPoint - the property manager of the Tai Po housing

Malaysia’s Anwar warns against ‘sabotage, hatred’...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/02

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim called on enforcement agencies to step up action against what his government sees as false claims about fuel and electricity prices as it seeks to shore up public confidence amid a global energy crunch.The communications regulator has identified 96 posts of misleading content circulating on social media, he said. Anwar urged authorities, including police and the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission, to take action against those spreading

US lifts sanctions on Venezuela’s acting President...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/02

The United States on Wednesday lifted sanctions on Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodriguez, according to an Office of Foreign Assets Control entry on the Treasury Department website. The newly announced sanctions relief is the latest US recognition of Rodriguez as a legitimate authority in Venezuela ever since the US military captured her predecessor, Nicolas Maduro, and his wife on January 3 in Venezuela’s capital, Caracas. The pair have since been taken to New York to face drug...

Will coming changes to HK$2 transport scheme hurt...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/02

John Hau, a 66-year-old Hongkonger, was frustrated by the government’s decision to revamp the HK$2 (26 US cents) transport subsidy scheme. The discount allowed him to pay just HK$4 to make the round-trip rail commute from his home in Sham Shui Po in Kowloon to Wan Chai on Hong Kong Island, where he works as a security guard at a hotel. From Friday, he will need to pay an extra HK$1.20, an amount that does not bother him financially but emotionally. “The impact on my finances is not

The ‘split’ legal profession in Hong Kong

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/02

A major feature of Hong Kong’s legal profession is the division between barristers and solicitors. Barristers specialise in court work and legal advice relating to litigation, and can generally only be engaged through a solicitor. Solicitors provide a broader range of legal services, covering both contentious and non-contentious matters. Some solicitors also focus on courtroom advocacy and are accredited as solicitor-advocates. The “split” profession is not common to all legal systems. In

Hong Kong’s next 5 years must take city from...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/02

Hong Kong is preparing its own medium-term development blueprint alongside China’s coming 15th five-year plan, which officials have described as a “golden strategic period” for the city. This is more than a procedural shift. For the first time, Hong Kong is attempting to align its policy cycle in advance with national planning priorities, yet alignment on its own is not a strategy. The more pressing question is whether the city can define a role that is distinct, necessary and difficult to...

Controlled escalation? Trump hails ‘victories’ in...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/02

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday declared the US‑Israel war against Iran had delivered “decisive, overwhelming victories”, even as he signalled that key military objectives were still “nearing completion” and that further strikes could inflict heavy damage on targets in the country. “We are going to hit them extremely hard. Over the next two to three weeks, we are going to bring them back to the stone ages, where they belong. In the meantime, discussions are ongoing,” he said in a...

China woman clings to truck to follow husband; man...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/02

A woman in China who suspected her husband of infidelity clung to the back of his truck to follow him until being found by the police. A traffic police officer in Bachu county in Xinjiang, northwestern China, stopped a small-sized truck one evening at the end of March after noticing a woman hanging herself outside the trailer of the vehicle without any protective equipment, the Xinjiang Legal Daily reported. The truck driver, surnamed Yu, was surprised to see that the woman, who is his wife,

Tsunami warning for Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/02

An earthquake ⁠of magnitude 7.4 struck ⁠the Northern Maluku Sea off ⁠Indonesia’s historic spice island of Ternate on Thursday, the United States Geological Survey said, triggering a tsunami warning for neighbouring Southeast Asian nations. There were no immediate reports of injuries, though the agency reported aftershocks of magnitude ‌as high as 5, and Indonesia called tsunami warnings for areas in its provinces of North Maluku and North Sulawesi. Regional governments in some cities, such as...

Is it time to call an end to Hong Kong’s boar war?

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/02

Shortly before the evening rush hour recently, chaos erupted at Hong Kong’s Wu Kai Sha MTR station when a wild boar stormed through the concourse. The animal, about 1.2 metres long and weighing around 40kg, knocked down an elderly man. The charging boar left a trail of blood on the station floor, injuring three other residents in a frenzied dash towards a nearby bus terminus and housing estates. “I saw it rampaging at the bus terminus while residents followed, snapping photos,” a woman

Why Japan’s advanced fighter project may get Canadian...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/02

Japan could get a boost in its push for a next-generation fighter jet if Canada joins a multinational consortium backing the aircraft’s development, as Tokyo aims to narrow the gap with China’s fast-modernising air force. The Canadian government said it intended to take part in the Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP), currently involving Japan, the United Kingdom and Italy, the Asahi newspaper reported on Tuesday. Japan is planning to replace its ageing F-2 fleet with a sixth-generation

How to take down a US F-35 over Iran? Chinese...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/02

A striking phenomenon is emerging from China as the Middle East conflict presses on: technically skilled civilians are volunteering their expertise online to help Iran counter US military might, without seeking payment or official backing. The trend was vividly illustrated on March 14, when a detailed tutorial on taking down America’s F-35 appeared on Chinese social media and went viral. Created by the account “Laohu Talks World” and subtitled in Persian, the video meticulously explained how...

US embarks on world’s first crewed moon mission in...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/01

Four astronauts blasted off on Wednesday for a trip around the moon, marking humankind’s deepest venture into space in an odyssey that aims to launch the US into a new era of interstellar exploration. Carrying three Americans and one Canadian, a 32-storey rocket rose from Nasa’s Kennedy Space Centre, where tens of thousands gathered to witness the dawn of this new era. Crowds also jammed the surrounding roads and beaches, reminiscent of the Apollo moonshots in the 1960s and ’70s. The mission,...

DNA links serial killer Ted Bundy to unsolved murder...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/01

Utah officials announced on Wednesday that they were ⁠closing a five-decade-old ⁠case after finding “definitive proof” that American ⁠serial killer Ted Bundy killed a 17-year-old Utah girl. The girl, Laura Ann Aime, went missing on the night of October 31, 1974, after leaving a party alone to make a purchase from a convenience store, the ‌Utah County Sheriff’s Office said. Her body was found by two college students on Thanksgiving Day that year, according to authorities, who added that her

Eyes on Chinese airline regulator as it seeks...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/01

Chinese airlines are mulling the introduction of higher fuel surcharges, as authorities strive to balance the impact of surging oil prices with the need to preserve airline margins and at the same time avoid dampening consumer demand. Although a formal announcement from the national regulator is pending, at least two domestic airlines released notices on Wednesday about plans for sixfold surcharge increases, after another airline rescinded a similar notice on Tuesday. According to notices put...

Reinflate the property sector? No, China wants an...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/01

For years, China’s embattled real estate sector has been framed as a terminal drag on the economy – a deflating bubble that policymakers are unwilling to rescue but unable to ignore. That framing misses what is happening. The absence of a large bailout is not so much a sign of the leadership’s indifference as a deliberate choice. It points to something more consequential than short-term market stabilisation: a systemic effort to redesign the sector’s role in the macroeconomy. The old

China targeted in US birthright citizenship debate,...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/01

China has emerged as a focal point in the debate over US birthright citizenship, as the nation’s Supreme Court appeared sceptical of oral arguments on Wednesday in a landmark case driven by President Donald Trump’s push to restrict the practice. Birthright citizenship “has spawned a sprawling industry of birth tourism”, said Solicitor General D. John Sauer, Trump’s top litigator, in his opening remarks before the highest court in the country. “Uncounted thousands of foreigners from

Iran’s president sends message to Americans in...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/01

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian criticised the US war against his country in an open letter to the people of the United States on Wednesday, calling it an absurd operation that is costly for their nation. “Today, the world stands at a crossroads,” the president wrote in his message. “Continuing along the path of confrontation is more costly and futile than ever before.” While Iran had seen many aggressors throughout its history, “All that remains of them are tarnished names in history,

Russia says it has taken full control of Ukraine’s...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/04/01

⁠The Russian defence ministry said on Wednesday that its ⁠forces had taken full control of the Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine, suggesting they had wrested control of a small sliver of land which had remained beyond their reach since 2022. Reuters could not independently verify the ‌battlefield report and a Ukrainian military spokesman said there had been no battlefield changes in the area in the last six months. More than 99 per cent of Luhansk, one of four Ukrainian regions Russia claimed

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