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Hong Kong ranked fourth for ‘post-Covid air transit...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/04

Hong Kong ranked fourth in a university study on air transit connectivity at 16 aviation hubs across the Asia-Pacific in 2023. Researchers from the National Taiwan Ocean University’s transport science department also said Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou experienced declines in connectivity following the Covid-19 pandemic. The paper, published in the Asian Journal of Shipping and Logistics in early December, assessed the competitive positions of 16 major hub airports in the region before and...

Singer among 3 held as HK$7.7 million drugs seized...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/04

Hong Kong police have arrested three people, including a local singer, after seizing drugs with a market value of HK$7.7 million (US$988,118) from a village house in Yuen Long on Saturday. Sources identified the singer as Kris Law Kai-chung, 35, who made his debut in 2015 and rose to fame in 2018 on ViuTV’s reality show “Good Night Show – King Maker”. During the show, Law competed with contestants who went on to become stars in the Cantopop band Mirror. Senior Inspector Chow Ka-yun said on...

Rights group says 16 dead in Iran protests,...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/04

At least 16 people have been killed ‌during a week of unrest in Iran, rights groups said on Sunday, as protests over soaring inflation spread across the country, prompting violent clashes between demonstrators and security forces. Deaths and arrests have been reported throughout the week both by state media and rights groups, though the numbers have differed. Reporters have not been able to verify the figures independently. The protests are the biggest in three years and while smaller than

Hongkonger who allegedly posed as officer held over...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/04

Hong Kong police have arrested a 50-year-old man who allegedly posed as a government officer and stole HK$20,000 (US$2,570) from unsuspecting elderly residents in three separate burglaries. Police on Sunday said they had arrested the man, surnamed Chan, in Ta Kwu Ling on Saturday in connection with three burglaries that occurred in December in Cheung Sha Wan, Sham Shui Po and Tuen Mun. The force said that between December 25 and 29, three residents reported that a man who posed as an officer...

US removal of Maduro has potential to reshape global...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/04

The United States’ seizure of Venezuela’s president, Nicolas Maduro, has the potential to reshape the global oil market, as America gains effective control over a country with the world’s largest proven oil reserves, analysts said. While crude prices may rise marginally in the short term, the move could boost long-term supplies and tighten the US’ grip over the oil market at a time when its position was starting to look more vulnerable, they said. “Once the US gains control of the country,...

Will Beijing look to US capture of Venezuela’s Maduro...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/04

The US capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro will be closely studied by Beijing, which has signalled its ability to target Taiwan’s leadership in the latest PLA exercises near the island, according to analysts. The operation – carried out on Saturday by the US Army’s elite Delta Force, the military’s top special missions unit – was described by Chinese analysts as a “textbook” strike with high precision and minimal casualties. “The planning and execution were highly refined,” said Fu...

Suspicious bets on Maduro’s removal raise eyebrows as...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/04

A new user on the prediction market Polymarket has attracted attention after winning hundreds of thousands of dollars on bets that appeared to predict the United States’ seizure of Venezuela’s leader, Nicolas Maduro. The anonymous user set up an account on the platform eight days ago and then placed a series of wagers worth nearly US$34,000 before the assault, which had raked in profits of more than US$409,000 by Sunday afternoon, Polymarket data showed. The wagers included predictions that...

Hong Kong fire-displaced residents told to leave...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/04

Residents left homeless by Hong Kong’s deadliest fire in decades have been told to vacate their emergency accommodation at youth hostels by the end of this month so the facilities can resume their normal operations. The Home and Youth Affairs Bureau on Sunday said affected residents could move to transitional housing, while property owners could use the government’s HK$150,000 (US$19,249) annual subsidy to rent flats elsewhere. It added that discretion could be exercised in cases where they

Hong Kong records 72% jump in mainland Chinese...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/04

Hong Kong welcomed nearly 660,000 mainland Chinese visitors over the new year countdown and the subsequent three-day holiday across the border, a 72 per cent increase from the same period a year ago. Sector representatives said the surge was a boost for the hotel sector but brought limited benefits for retailers. Data released by the Immigration Department on Sunday showed 659,090 mainland visitors entered Hong Kong between New Year’s Eve and Saturday, accounting for 79 per cent of the total...

US ‘kill line’ shocks Chinese social media as...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/04

A series of social media posts highlighting the economic insecurity facing ordinary Americans has triggered an intense debate in China about social problems in the United States and shattered some long-held perceptions. Many of the posts from influencers described the vulnerabilities as a “kill line”, a term used by Chinese video gamers to describe the health threshold below which a character can be instantly defeated. The term has now been repurposed to describe a financial and social

Passengers made 30 million trips in 2025 with Hong...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/04

Passengers made more than 30 million trips using Hong Kong’s cross-border high-speed rail link last year, with the figure representing a 17 per cent increase from 2024 and setting a record. The MTR Corporation also revealed on Sunday that the West Kowloon rail terminus set a new single-day ridership record on December 27, when the number of passenger trips reached about 140,000. The company also described last year’s usage figure as a “record high”, while noting that cumulative patronage

‘I thought of pushing wife out window’: Hong Kong...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/04

When a Hong Kong resident surnamed Chow opened his front door at Shek Kip Mei Estate on Sunday, he was met by a dense wall of black soot. “[The smoke] was cutting my throat and nose, and my eyes won’t stop tearing,” said the man in his forties as he recounted the harrowing struggle with his wife and dogs, after a fire broke out a few doors away from his home, leaving one man dead and eight injured. As the fire erupted in a cluttered flat on the 21st floor of Mei Yue House on Sunday morning,...

‘Straddle the middle ground’: Europe’s hard choice...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/04

US military strikes and forced regime change in Venezuela have left European countries in a diplomatic bind, as they distance themselves from Washington’s actions while hesitating to criticise them outright. The world reacted with shock after the Trump administration launched “Operation Absolute Resolve” to capture Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores, and transported them to the United States for detention at a New York facility. China has strongly condemned the US

War in Sudan: drone strikes cut power supply in...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/04

The power supply was cut on Sunday following drone strikes in the Sudanese city of El-Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan state, the national electricity company said, as fighting raged in the oil-rich southern region. For more than two years, Sudan has been gripped by a war between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), with Kordofan the latest battleground after the RSF launched an offensive to seize the strategic region. “El-Obeid power station ... was attacked by

China mum shares toddler’s recovery from...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/04

A mother in China who helped her toddler daughter through rehabilitation to fix a malformed hip has trended on social media, attracting more than a million likes. According to a report by the China News Service, the little girl, nicknamed Tiantian, began the treatment last year at the age of one when she was diagnosed with dysplasia of the hip (DDH). In September, her problem was almost completely cured and her walking posture was quite normal, her mother’s videos on social media

Portugal’s 11 presidential candidates debate...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/04

A record number of 11 candidates in Portugal’s coming presidential election kicked off their campaigns on Sunday. The official two-week campaign period preceding the January 18 election will see the contenders competing to capture voters’ support. However, the broad field makes it unlikely that any candidate will capture more than 50 per cent of the vote, leaving the two top candidates to compete in a run-off ballot on February 8. Among the front runners, according to recent opinion polls,

How Hong Kong can work with Hainan to ease entry to...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/04

Previously, I put forward the argument that Hong Kong’s relevance in China’s opening up lies less in guarding its gateway role and more in developing new forms of partnership. Since then, Hainan has set up distinct island-wide customs operations from December 18. This is a turning point – one that invites Hong Kong to think not only about how to cooperate, but how to co-design the next phase of China’s engagement with the world. Hainan’s transformation is ambitious. Around 6,600 types of

Nobel Prize jurist Thomas Mikael Oliveberg joins top...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/04

After working in Europe for 35 years, Mikael Oliveberg, a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (RSAS) and a judge of the Nobel Prize for chemistry, has taken a full-time position at the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University in China. Oliveberg has left Stockholm University after nearly two decades as a tenured professor with its Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics. He was welcomed to his new post by Li Lang, Guangxi Medical University’s vice-president, at a...

Korean professors fined for taking tests for students...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/04

Four teaching staff at a university in South Korea have been fined for taking exams for students to boost test scores in an attempt to keep their department from being shut down. On December 22, the Gwangju District Court in Gwangju city in the southern part of the country fined three professors and a teaching assistant between 1.5 million and 6 million won (US$1,000 and US$4,000) for “obstructing academic operations”. The name of the university where they work was not revealed in a report

China urges US to immediately release Maduro, ‘stop...

News - South China Morning Post ·

2026/01/04

China has expressed “serious concern” over the US capture and forcible removal of the Venezuelan leader, calling on Washington to ensure the personal safety of Nicolas Maduro and his wife and “release them immediately”. The United States launched military attacks on Venezuela on Saturday, capturing President Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. They were detained in New York after being flown out of Caracas. Hours after the operation, President Donald Trump said the US would run Venezuela until...

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