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Hong Kong posts strongest quarterly economic growth in almost 5 years at 5.9%
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Hong Kong posts strongest quarterly economic growth in almost 5 years at 5.9%

Robust exports and resilient domestic consumer spending drive growth despite Middle East tensions and rising energy costs Hong Kong has recorded its fastest economic growth in nearly five years in the first quarter, at 5.9 per cent, driven by strong exports and private consumption despite ongoing unrest in the Middle East. The first-quarter growth exceeded the year-on-year increase of 4 per cent recorded in the fourth quarter of last year, according to advance estimates released by the Census and Statistics Department on Tuesday. The 5.9 per cent rise was also the strongest since the 7.6 per cent growth seen in the second quarter of 2021. A government spokesman said the economic outlook remained positive, supported by strong global demand for artificial intelligence-related electronics, sustained growth in visitor arrivals and robust cross-boundary financial activity. “Relatively solid business and consumer sentiment is expected to continue supporting domestic demand,” he said.

20% of Hongkongers feel ‘lonely’, with 520,000 self-isolating, survey finds
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20% of Hongkongers feel ‘lonely’, with 520,000 self-isolating, survey finds

Social welfare charity survey highlights unspoken isolation, with many unwilling to confide in family, friends or even AI chatbots One in five people in Hong Kong feels “lonely”, with about 520,000 self-isolating and unwilling to confide in family, friends or even AI chatbots, a survey has found. The Hong Kong Family Welfare Society on Tuesday released the survey results, which also showed the city’s family well-being index at 6.09, slightly up from 6.06 in 2024. The NGO conducted the survey between January and February, randomly polling 2,112 residents aged 18 and above who lived with family members. The findings showed that 19.8 per cent of respondents, or about one in five, were classified as “lonely”. This was higher than the World Health Organization’s global rate of around 16 per cent, or one in six people experiencing loneliness worldwide. “The figure is worse than the World Health Organization’s general rate, as we have roughly one in five people classified as lonely,” said Teresa Cheung Wing-shan, a senior manager at the NGO.

‘Phantom birth’ scam spooks Thailand as hundreds of babies get fake citizenship
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‘Phantom birth’ scam spooks Thailand as hundreds of babies get fake citizenship

Police believe that some Chinese cyber scammers are using these false registrations to launder money through firms they can fully control Babies born to Chinese parents have been registered at addresses that no longer exist or to households without children. Local men have also been paid – or unwittingly used – to be named as fathers on birth certificates so that the babies automatically become Thai citizens. Police from a task force set up to probe the widening scandal believe that some of the false registrations may be linked to Chinese cyber scammers seeking to launder money through companies they can fully control. “It started from a small point in the north, expanded gradually, and has now reached Bangkok,” he told reporters on Thursday. “There are still thousands more cases. We already have a good picture of these networks and their operations. We believe they will stop using the old methods and try to find new ones – but it won’t be as easy as before.”

Takaichi signs Australia deals to boost Japan’s energy security
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Takaichi signs Australia deals to boost Japan’s energy security

Japan and Australia agreed to step up collaboration in areas including critical minerals, defence and energy security, tackling China’s dominance of rare earths and fuel-supply disruptions caused by the Iran war. “Australia and Japan are taking action to protect our economies from future economic shocks and uncertainty,” Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in a statement after meeting his Japanese counterpart, Sanae Takaichi, in Canberra. “By working together, we will achieve more...

China targets top spot in supercomputing with fully domestic, CPU-only machine
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China targets top spot in supercomputing with fully domestic, CPU-only machine

Lingsheng or LineShine, built from home-grown CPUs, is designed to surpass America’s El Capitan, the world’s fastest supercomputer Known as Lingsheng or LineShine, it is designed to reach 2 exaflops – or two quintillion calculations per second – edging past the 1.8-exaflop El Capitan, the current record holder at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. Unlike other exascale supercomputers, which rely on graphics processing units (GPUs), LineShine will run entirely on central processing units (CPUs). AI rush turns everyday data storage into ‘digital gold’ for Hong Kong consumers It uses 47,000 CPUs across 92 compute cabinets, according to its chief designer Lu Yutong from the National Supercomputing Centre in Shenzhen, China’s southern tech hub. Huang Xiaohui, the centre’s deputy director, told a conference in Shenzhen on April 24 that LineShine had achieved full-stack independence, from underlying hardware to core software, as a fully domestic supercomputer. “By the end of 2025, we completed full system deployment and activation, with sustained performance exceeding 2 exaflops.

China unveils driverless mining truck that can ‘crab-walk’ across rough terrain
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China unveils driverless mining truck that can ‘crab-walk’ across rough terrain

The Shuanglin K7 is the world’s first mining truck capable of moving sideways and pivoting on the spot, allowing it to work in narrow pits Despite a kerb weight of nearly 100 tonnes, this advanced model boasts exceptional manoeuvrability – it can move sideways and pivot on the spot, allowing it to operate in narrow pits and across complex, sloped roadways. At the same time, it offers the hauling capacity and power required for continuous, round-the-clock operation, according to an April 19 report by state-owned newspaper Science and Technology Daily. The vehicle, measuring over five metres (16.4 feet) tall and wide and 13.79 metres long, was unveiled in Shanghai on April 18. Named the “Shuanglin K7”, it was developed through a collaboration between the Shuanglin Group – a Shanghai-based automotive components manufacturer – and Tsinghua University. Traditional mining trucks take a long time to turn around in tight loading areas, a manoeuvre that often creates blind-spot risks. In contrast, the K7 can perform demanding moves such as lateral translation and on-the-spot turns. This is made possible by a technology known as a distributed electric drive-by-wire corner module.

More than 240 Wang Fuk Court homeowners petition administrator to hold meeting
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More than 240 Wang Fuk Court homeowners petition administrator to hold meeting

More than 12 per cent of households sign petition and say they will take legal action if Hop On Management fails to hold meeting within 45 days More than 240 owners representing over 12 per cent of households at Hong Kong’s fire-ravaged Wang Fuk Court petitioned the government-appointed administrator in late April to hold an extraordinary general meeting, saying they might seek legal action if the request was ignored. The owners said in a statement on Tuesday that they would consider applying to the Lands Tribunal if Hop On Management Company failed to hold the meeting within 45 days in accordance with the Building Management Ordinance. “We request the administrator to convene a meeting, with government representatives invited and media coverage allowed, at a venue with a capacity of over 1,000 on a Saturday or Sunday,” it said. “The petition has listed owners’ information and signatures as required by the law and is legally valid. It involves 247 owners, accounting for 12.45 per cent of all units in the estate, which far exceeds the legal threshold of at least five per cent.

Hong Kong ‘block trade king’ exploited bank lapse to make HK$1.7 million, court told
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Hong Kong ‘block trade king’ exploited bank lapse to make HK$1.7 million, court told

Prosecutors allege Simon Sadler and Daniel La Rocca used confidential information about planned block trade to sell more than 1.7 million Esprit shares A prominent hedge fund manager took advantage of a bank’s “wholesale collective failure” to prevent illicit trading, making HK$1.7 million in a single day by using confidential information to sell shares in a Hong Kong fashion house nine years ago, prosecutors alleged on Tuesday. British-born investor Simon Sadler is on trial at the District Court alongside the now-defunct Segantii Capital Management and former employee Daniel Anthony La Rocca Jnr over alleged insider dealing in the shares of Hong Kong-listed Esprit on June 14, 2017. Once dubbed Asia’s “block trade king”, Sadler founded Segantii in 2007, building the Hong Kong investment firm into one of the region’s largest hedge funds, with nearly US$5 billion in assets in its heyday. Opening their case on Monday, prosecutors argued that Sadler and La Rocca sold more than 1.7 million Esprit shares that day and took short positions after learning that a major shareholder planned to offload its entire stake.

South Korea rebuffs Trump’s ‘Project Freedom’ call after Hormuz ship fire
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South Korea rebuffs Trump’s ‘Project Freedom’ call after Hormuz ship fire

When a South Korean cargo ship exploded and caught fire in the Strait of Hormuz late on Monday, Donald Trump wasted no time declaring what he thought it meant. “Perhaps it’s time for South Korea to come and join the mission!” the US president wrote on his social media platform Truth Social, invoking the incident as fresh justification for Seoul to send naval forces to the embattled waterway. Seoul’s answer, for now, has been a polite but firm no – or at least, not yet. The explosion occurred...

Japan army unit’s gun-toting AI-generated elephant logo gets trampled by critics
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Japan army unit’s gun-toting AI-generated elephant logo gets trampled by critics

Officers created the logo using ChatGPT based on the ‘elephant’, ‘cool’, ‘blue flame’, and ‘mammoth’ keywords, a media report says A Japanese infantry unit has withdrawn a new patch designed by artificial intelligence after it was criticised for being immature, “aggressive” and out of step with the public image of the country’s Self-Defence Forces (SDF). The 1st Infantry Regiment’s patch was unveiled on April 29 and features an elephant in a helmet and other combat gear, holding a machine gun across its chest. The elephant has chains across its shoulders and a human skull apparently attached to its chest, with blue flames emerging from one eye. Elephants have featured in previous logos for the regiment, which was raised in January 1962 and is based at Camp Nerima in Tokyo. The design was meant to be used on unit T-shirts, badges and other items to “boost team morale and elevate the sense of belonging”, the unit said in a now-deleted social media post. The public backlash was so fierce, however, that the military announced a few days later that it had withdrawn the design.

China unveils new naval defence systems as drones change nature of war at sea
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China unveils new naval defence systems as drones change nature of war at sea

The PLA has been working to improve its defences after the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East highlighted the threat of anti-ship drones The Chinese navy has unveiled a new anti-drone air defence system, according to state broadcaster CCTV. The CCTV report on Monday said a “finalisation test” – which certifies that a weapon system’s design meets all operational requirements – had been successfully carried out in the Bohai Sea. In effect, this means that it has been given the official green light for mass production and deployment. During the test, the system intercepted multiple drones conducting “high-difficulty” ultra-low-altitude and stealth attacks in a “realistic” combat simulation, the report said. “These manoeuvres were designed to comprehensively test the weapon system’s interception capabilities under complex electromagnetic environments and ultra-low-altitude penetration conditions,” it added.

Deadly hantavirus may have spread between humans on luxury cruise, but risk is low: WHO
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Deadly hantavirus may have spread between humans on luxury cruise, but risk is low: WHO

The MV Hondius will be sailing to Spain’s Canary Islands, where the 150 people on board will be examined, cared for and sent home The World Health Organization said on Tuesday that it suspects some rare human-to-human transmission of the deadly hantavirus took place between very close contacts on board a luxury cruise ship hit by seven confirmed or suspected cases. Human-to-human transmission is not common, and the UN health agency reiterated that the risk to the wider public was low from a disease typically spread from contact with infected rodents. A Dutch couple and a German national have died, while a British national was evacuated from the ship and is in intensive care in South Africa, officials ‌said. Two crew members require urgent medical care, the Dutch-flagged MV Hondius ship’s operator, Oceanwide Expeditions, said. Another person on board with a suspected case has only reported a mild fever. The Dutch foreign ministry said it was preparing the medical evacuation of three people to the Netherlands from the ship currently moored off Cabo Verde, formerly known as Cape Verde.