Hundreds of customers affected as Hong Kong yoga chain Hotstone abruptly closes
The abrupt closure of a Hong Kong yoga chain has dealt losses to hundreds of members, with some customers claiming the company lured them into buying discount packages as recently as the past few days. A resident who identified herself as Chan told the South China Morning Post on Thursday that she received the closure notice from Hotstone Yoga’s WhatsApp number just an hour before her scheduled class at the Kwun Tong studio the night before. According to the notice issued by law firm Cheung &...
Hong Kong to close deals with firms from strategic sectors in months: Paul Chan
A handful of leading firms from emerging industries are expected to receive preferential policy packages and set up operations in Hong Kong within the “next couple of months”, the city’s finance chief has said, as part of efforts to attract investment. In an exclusive interview with the South China Morning Post, Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po provided an update on the city’s drive to draw international and national brands and strategic enterprises to set up business in Hong Kong through...
China-US dialogue will ease concerns, but competition will remain, Paul Chan says
Competition between China and the US will persist, but increased dialogue between the two economic superpowers will provide greater global certainty and ease geopolitical concerns, with Hong Kong positioned to play a unique role, the city’s financial secretary has told the South China Morning Post. In a wide-ranging interview, Paul Chan Mo-po said more communication and dialogue between the two nations would be “good for everyone”, as Chinese President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart, Donald...
Alibaba unveils ‘pragmatic’ AI road map to drive monetisation, infrastructure efficiency
The artificial intelligence road map presented at its flagship Apsara Conference this week showcased a pragmatic pivot by Chinese tech giant Alibaba Group Holding, offering a clearer path to monetisation despite a sharp escalation in capital expenditure, analysts said. The conference, which ran from Tuesday to Thursday under the theme “Intelligence goes beyond”, highlighted “Alibaba’s disciplined execution across its full-stack AI ecosystem”, said Cathy Chan, an analyst at CCB International. She...
Hong Kong to welcome 1.29 million mainland Chinese visitors for National Day break
Hong Kong is expected to welcome about 1.29 million mainland Chinese travellers over the National Day “golden week” break, with city authorities planning to step up crowd management and tighten supervision of tour agencies and retail outlets. Chief Secretary Eric Chan Kwok-ki, Hong Kong’s No 2 official, chaired a meeting with various government departments on Wednesday to discuss preparations for the holiday on the mainland, which spans October 1 to 7. On top of the expected influx of about 1.29...
Houthis push for control of Yemen’s highlands
• Trump speaks with Yemen’s president, doesn’t pledge military support • NYT says US president reversed decision on air strikes on Houthis DUBAI: Houthi fighters were pushing to seize strategic heights in Yemen on Monday to cut off the Red Sea coast from remaining areas held by Saudi-backed forces, after a report that President Donald Trump had called off US strikes on the group at the last minute. US President Trump spoke by phone with Yemeni President Rashad al-Alimi on Sunday, four people familiar with the matter said, discussing the advances of the Houthis around a vital global waterway. Alimi requested US support for his Saudi-backed government in its fight against the Houthis, who this month took key areas along the Bab al-Mandab strait in a lightning offensive. Two of the sources, one Yemeni and one Western, said Trump had made no direct pledge of military support during the call. The White House and Yemen’s information minister did not immediately respond to requests for comment. On the other hand, a lightning advance by the Houthis this month has extended the wider Middle East conflict to a new theatre. Strategic heights Five Yemeni military sources told Reuters that the Houthis were now seeking to seize strategic heights, known as the Kahboub Mountains, in two provinces, Taiz and Lahij, which separate the Red Sea coast from the government-held south. Fighting has centred on the outskirts of the remote mountain Al-Wazi’iyah district in Taiz province, and Ras al-Ara along the Indian Ocean coast between the mouth of the Red Sea that the fighters captured last week and the government’s base in Aden. The Houthis aim to secure the rear of their forces around the Bab al-Mandab Strait leading into the Red Sea by taking control of the heights, which would allow them to open new fronts, according to the sources. That would help protect exposed positions the Houthis captured during their advance around Dhubab on the Red Sea and on Perim Island in the strait. The Houthis, who have controlled Yemen’s capital since 2014, seized the country’s Red Sea coast this month in a lightning advance that routed forces of an internationally recognised Yemeni government, which is backed by Saudi Arabia and based in the south. Saudi plea The New York Times reported that President Trump has changed his strategy on Yemen several times, torn between Saudi pressure to strike the Iran-backed Houthis and the risk of opening another front in the Middle East war. It said Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman called Trump on Sunday “to implore him, again, to step in to help blunt the rapidly advancing group”. Trump had told his advisers the day before that he opposed strikes but changed his mind after the call and “told the Pentagon to prepare for air strikes against the Houthis”, the newspaper reported, citing anonymous administration officials. However, he appeared to have reversed his decision again by midday Sunday, it said. Trump’s decision to pull back from striking the Houthis came as “commanders had approved target lists, troops were loading bombs onto US warplanes selected for the missions and the wave of attacks was just about to begin”, the Times said, citing two people briefed on the operation. US news platform Axios said Trump had already refused a Saudi request to strike the Houthis last week. Fox News reported on Sunday that Trump had said the Houthis have agreed not to hit US targets. Published in Dawn, September 22nd, 2026
US clears way for $24.3 billion military aircraft sale to Saudi ArabiaK-pop’s Bang Chan donates to help rebuild after Bhotekoshi flood
Kathmandu, September 20 Bang Chan, a member of the K-pop group Stray Kids, has donated 200 million won (about $144,295). JYP Entertainment announced on Saturday that the funds will go toward rehabilitation care in South Korea and recovery efforts following the devastating flood in Nepal. Bang Chan donated 100 million won each to Seoul Rehabilitation […] The post K-pop’s Bang Chan donates to help rebuild after Bhotekoshi flood appeared first on OnlineKhabar English News.
K-pop’s Bang Chan donates to help rebuild after Bhotekoshi flood‘Hastaneler hastalar için var, halbuki bugün ihtiyacımız sağlığı geliştirmek’
Dünyanın en prestijli üniversitelerinden Harvard’ın T. H. Chan Halk Sağlığı Okulu’nun eğitim ve inovasyondan sorumlu dekanı Rıfat Atun oldu. Küresel sağlık bilimleri profesörü Atun’la Türkiye ve ABD’nin sağlık sistemlerini, kanser, Alzheimer gibi hastalıklarda bilimin geldiği noktayı ve Mağusa’dan Boston’a uzanan hikâyesini konuştuk.
‘Hastaneler hastalar için var, halbuki bugün ihtiyacımız sağlığı geliştirmek’Fuel relief scheme revised; SMS charges scrapped
ISLAMABAD: The government on Saturday announced major changes to the Prime Minister’s Fuel Relief Scheme, including abolition of SMS charges, to facilitate beneficiaries, particularly motorcycle, rickshaw and Qingqi users. Addressing a media briefing, Minister for IT and Telecommunication Shaza Fatima Khawaja said the Rs500 per-token limit for two- and three-wheelers had been abolished. Also, she said, eligible two- and three-wheeler users could obtain four tokens per month, with each token carrying a relief amount of Rs500. For example, if two litres of petrol cost Rs780, the beneficiary would pay Rs280 after applying the Rs500 relief token, she explained. She said another major change was the abolition of SMS charges across the board under the scheme. SMS had been made free for everyone, whether they owned an 800cc vehicle or a two- or three-wheeler, she said. Five-litre limit per token abolished; two- and three-wheeler users allowed four Rs500 relief tokens a month According to her, more than 1.75 million registrations had been completed under the scheme by 3pm on Saturday, while around 1.5m tokens had been generated. Redemption of fuel tokens Meanwhile, the National Steering Committee on Fuel Subsidy, led by Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar, approved redemption of fuel tokens through SMS for stations located in areas without internet connectivity. It asked Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan and the provinces to furnish lists of such stations so that they could be brought onto the scheme without delay. Registration continues nationwide through SMS to 9771. The meeting was attended by the ministers for petroleum, economic affairs, information and IT & telecommunications; SBP deputy governor, Ogra chairman; Pakistan Digital Authority chairman; petroleum secretary; ICT chief commissioner; additional chief secretaries of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa; and senior officials from AJK, GB and Balochistan. Published in Dawn, September 20th, 2026
Hong Kong police arrest 3, seize HK$23 million of Ice in Fanling bust
Police have arrested three people and broken up a large-scale drug production factory in northern Hong Kong, seizing HK$23 million (US$3 million) worth of suspected methamphetamine, or Ice. The force said on Saturday that two men and a woman, aged 49 to 56, were arrested on Thursday night. Police in Fanling first intercepted one of the men, who was holding a two-way permit, a document issued by mainland Chinese authorities allowing residents to travel to Hong Kong. Senior Inspector Chan Lik-ho...
Man arrested over alleged HK$2.8 million Hong Kong school admission scamMore than 35 woman come forward in case against fake 49ers player accused of fraud
The FBI says Daejon Love and his alleged accomplice, Taylor Chan, defrauded women they met on dating apps out of $1.3m At least 35 additional women have come forward with fraud allegations against Daejon Love, the man accused last month of masquerading as a San Francisco 49ers player and wealthy investor, the FBI announced on Friday. Federal authorities had previously said Love conned more than two dozen women, many of whom he met on dating apps, out of $1.3m. Love, 35, and alleged accomplice Taylor Chan, 18, who posed as his financial adviser, were arrested in August and have been charged with wire fraud. Continue reading...
Artificial audacity
AMID a rising tide of warnings about the grave risks posed by unregulated artificial intelligence, including from leading figures in the American tech industry, the leader of an increasingly unfree world is typically insouciant. “The only control or ‘guardrails’ that AI needs,” Donald Trump declared in a Truth Social post this week, “is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT, and the USA has that, in spades!” Surely, that was an unnecessary reminder. After all, hardly anyone could be unaware of what that super-intelligence in the glittering Oval Office hath wrought, and perhaps the incorrigible optimists among us can still cling to the vague hope that his efforts will succeed in dismantling the American empire without irreparably damaging all life on earth. “Concerning AI, when, in the History of Business, did anyone see the Leaders of an Industry call for Regulation that, strongly implemented, will drive them into oblivion and bankruptcy?” the same high-IQ personality wonders in a longer post. As a six-times veteran, Trump knows a thing or two about bankruptcies but, either through ignorance or malice, misinterprets the existential worries of Anthropic and OpenAI executives, whose concerns may well be selfish rather than selflessly humanitarian. They have witnessed how AI ‘agents’ can ‘decide’ to pursue goals that involve no human agency, and even worked out strategies for deceiving their ‘controllers’. It should come as no surprise that the self-proclaimed ‘Hoax Buster’ compares the concerns over AI to the barely audible worries about global heating, regardless of the mounting evidence from Nepal to Europe. “The people that say AI is going to destroy the World, and that Data Centres are bad for your neighbourhood, are the same people that said, just a short time ago, that the World would be extinguished by ‘Climate Change’. That HOAX never worked out for them, and now they are on to the next one… .” AI’s use as a military tactic indicates its destructive powers. Climate change has been wreaking havoc worldwide for a long time, but almost as soon as Trump returned to the White House, most fossil fuel firms abandoned all pretence of leaning towards green ventures and embraced the ‘drill, baby, drill’ imperative. Perhaps the only country that has noticeably gone greener since the Trumpian blockages in the Strait of Hormuz is China, where the use of oil has substantially diminished. China is also a clear contender for supremacy in the AI race, which is one of the main reasons why constraints on advancement are anathema to the US cold warriors. The developers in China are also concerned about the future. Beijing has dismissed Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei’s warning that “a Chinese lead in AI would pose a grave danger for the US and the world” as “fearmongering”. China has widely deployed AI in functions ranging from mass surveillance to manufacturing, but at least Xi Jinping openly acknowledges the need for AI to “always remain under human control”. China’s state security minister, Chen Yixin, has noted the risks of “hostile forces” waging a “cognitive war” that would threaten “our political security, institutional security and ideological security”. It is perhaps somewhat ironic that China, with its open-source AI models, is more willing than the US to pursue internationally agreed constraints on the pursuit of a technology that potentially offers innumerable benefits to humankind in a wide range of spheres, but is also capable of eradicating humanity. Its deployment as a military option from Israel and the US to Russia and Ukraine is an indicator of its destructive capacity. Were AI agents to conclude that human beings were merely standing in the way of their autonomously conceived goals, it might seem logical to eliminate the impediment. And given the extent to which we, knowingly or otherwise, rely on technology for our survival, that aim wouldn’t be all that hard to accomplish. Israel has already demonstrated that, albeit with human agency at the helm. The dismissal of the documentary NAZA, which scored an unprecedented standing ovation and a Special Jury Prize in Venice last week, as a “blood libel”, is a typical Nazi-like response. What might be seen as critical mass for AI comes at a time when global politics are in disarray. Like all emerging technologies in previous centuries, the human value of AI depends on how it is deployed. It can serve as a tremendously useful tool, provided its destructive capacities are constrained. But what are the chances of that in a realm where Trump and his acolytes rule the roost? Long before the advent of the internet, there were warnings from prescient scientists. Losing all hope could be premature. But, frequently through human existence, hoping for the best and preparing for the worst has been the least disastrous option. Let’s stick with it for the time being. mahir.dawn@gmail.com Published in Dawn, September 16th, 2026
Trump opposes slowing down AI development amid competition with ChinaHong Kong finance chief urges Cathay to keep fares attractive, add routes
Hong Kong’s finance chief has called on Cathay Pacific Airways to offer attractive fares and expand its route network, as China’s national development plan reinforces the city’s status as a global aviation hub. Speaking at Cathay’s 80th anniversary celebration on Tuesday, Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po described the flag carrier as more than just a transport provider, calling it an ambassador for Hong Kong that reinforced the city’s status as a global aviation hub and “superconnector”. Chan...
Hong Kong finance chief urges Cathay to keep fares attractive, add routesHong Kong to deepen ties with Global South and Middle East, finance chief says
Hong Kong will deepen ties with emerging economies worldwide, expanding connections with the Middle East and belt and road countries, from finance to innovation and technology, according to the finance chief. Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po also said the city aims to build “networked and institutionalised” connectivity with the Global South – a broad term for developing less-industrialised countries, primarily located in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Belt and road countries are nations...
‘His heart was always with Hong Kong’: tributes pour in for Tung Chee-hwa
Tung Chee-hwa, Hong Kong’s first leader following its return to Chinese sovereignty, has been remembered as a “kind-hearted man” who mentored others and even inspired some to take up public office. As tributes poured in for Tung, who died on Tuesday at age 89, people who worked closely with him shared touching anecdotes about the man they said cared deeply about Hong Kong’s issues even in the years after he stepped down as chief executive in 2005. Bernard Charnwut Chan, chairman of the West...
‘There are trade-offs’: how Hong Kong patients can use telemedicine wisely
In the fourth instalment of a five-part Health Matters wellness series on Hong Kong’s growing wellness trends, Lo Hoi-ying examines how telehealth is reshaping access to care, as practitioners warn it cannot fully replace in-person diagnosis. Hong Kong housewife Chan Ket-yee, nearly 60, has battled severe eczema on her neck and underarms for decades. Splitting her time between the United Kingdom and the city, Chan saw a dramatic improvement after visiting a Hong Kong public dermatologist, whose...
US mid-terms begin with chaos over mail-voting crackdown
WASHINGTON: America’s midterm elections opened on Friday in a fog of confusion over mail voting, with ballots already going out as President Donald Trump presses courts to let him impose sweeping new restrictions on how they are handled. North Carolina became the first state authorised to begin sending out ballots, formally launching an election season that culminates on Nov 3 and will determine control of Congress for the final two years of Trump’s term. Yet voters and election officials still do not know what rules may govern millions of mail ballots, as Trump asks the Supreme Court to revive curbs blocked by a federal judge and as states scramble to prepare for changes that could come after voting has begun. The dispute has been compounded by whistleblower allegations that a new Postal Service verification system was rushed, inadequately tested and could delay or even disqualify entire batches of ballots because of a single barcode problem. A federal judge on Friday extended her previous temporary block on Trump’s plan, a day after warning that hurried changes could cause widespread disruption. “We’re not playing an intellectual puzzle game,” Judge Indira Talwani reportedly told a lawyer defending the restrictions, in remarks widely picked up by US media. “We’re talking about people’s right to vote.” The Trump administration is expected to appeal to the Supreme Court against Talwani’s new order, which extends her previous block. Rules in limbo Trump’s March executive order would require states to provide the US Postal Service with lists of eligible mail voters through a new federal portal. Ballot envelopes would also need individual barcodes and other design features, with USPS empowered to refuse mailings that fail to meet its requirements. The administration says the rules are meant to protect election integrity, although it has produced no evidence of significant fraud through mail voting. Trump has repeatedly denounced the practice as corrupt while using it himself — including to vote in Florida’s Republican primary just last month. The uncertainty comes on top of a voting system that already differs dramatically from state to state. Some automatically send ballots to registered voters, others require voters to request them, while identification requirements, return deadlines and rules for counting late-arriving ballots vary across the country. Election officials now face the additional prospect of federal requirements changing while voting is already underway. “The states set the time, place and manner of elections in this country, not the president,” Marc Elias, the founder of voting rights platform Democracy Docket, said on his YouTube show. “In fact, the Congress can override the states in many instances, but in no instance can the president. The president is given no power over federal elections.” North Carolina officials said Friday’s mailings would proceed normally and that the state has no plans to use the federal portal at the center of the dispute. But time is rapidly running out for any nationwide overhaul. ‘Rushed, chaotic’ Friday marks 60 days before Election Day — the deadline Trump’s order itself envisioned for states to submit voter information — while another 18 states are expected to begin distributing ballots roughly 45 days before Nov 3. That leaves little room for officials to redesign envelopes, update computer systems, train workers and upload voter data if the courts suddenly allow the restrictions to take effect. Concerns intensified this week after an anonymous USPS whistleblower alleged that the ballot portal had been developed through a “rushed, chaotic, and fundamentally flawed” process. The official warned that under a proposed “zero-percent failure” policy, one barcode that fails to scan or match could result in an entire batch containing thousands of ballots being rejected until it is checked again. USPS said no mandatory verification procedures were being performed and that election officials would initially use its portal only voluntarily. The fight — alongside disputes over partisan redistricting in around a dozen states — comes with high political stakes. Republicans hold narrow congressional majorities, but Democrats are favored to capture the House as Trump’s approval ratings remain weak and voters voice frustration over living costs and the continuing war with Iran. A new Cornell University forecast gives Democrats an eight-in-10 chance of taking the chamber, projecting a roughly 226-209 majority. Published in Dawn, September 6th, 2026
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