Scorched earth: Iran’s revenge against Trump will be devastating

Hong Kong’s strong performance in a leading regional university league table – with five institutions among Asia’s top 10 – is the result of sustained government investment and clear policy direction, the city’s No 2 official has said, as a global alliance of 23 universities eyes the Northern Metropolis for collaboration opportunities. Addressing leaders from more than 50 top universities across five continents at the World Class University Presidents Forum on Wednesday, Chief Secretary Eric...

DeepSeek is committed to open-source artificial intelligence to accelerate the arrival of artificial general intelligence (AGI), even if it heightens safety risks, a company engineer says, defying growing safety concerns from the US and scrutiny in China over whether the strategy poses national security risks. Speaking on Tuesday on an AI panel at the World Internet Conference (WIC) in Wuzhen, DeepSeek engineer Gao Xi said open-source development promoted shared innovations and technical...

A prominent patients’ rights advocate and lawyer has resigned from Hong Kong’s medical watchdog to represent the father of Chau Tin-yu at an inquest into her death, after she spent four years in a vegetative state following an alleged medical blunder. Alex Lam Chi-yau, chairman of Hong Kong Patients’ Voices and a lay member of the Medical Council, submitted his resignation to council chairwoman Professor Grace Tang Wai-king on Wednesday amid concerns about a conflict of interest. His resignation...

Follow the SCMP’s live coverage here In the wake of Democrats’ sweeping victory in congressional elections, Asian countries are weighing how their ties with the US will shift under a lame-duck Trump administration. Observers expect the “blue wave” midterm results will push the Trump administration to heighten pressure on Washington’s Asian allies for greater US investment and increased defence cost-sharing. In South Korea, analysts have predicted that managing relations with Washington will...

Customers flooded social media sites to report confusion after receiving missed calls from people they said they hadn’t even phoned.

Hong Kong’s education minister has shot down a suggestion to turn the final stretch of undergraduate degree programmes into an internship period to boost employability, amid a fall in entry-level jobs due to the rise of artificial intelligence (AI). Secretary for Education Christine Choi Yuk-lin said on Wednesday that university courses should not be changed solely to meet manpower needs or be based on single indicators such as labour market supply and demand data. She was responding to lawmaker...

The installation of anti-ram bollards costing HK$5 million (US$637,230) has begun at a busy crossing in Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay to prevent vehicles from mounting crowded pavements, sparking debate over whether the safety barriers justify the price tag. By Wednesday afternoon, workers had installed four fixed bollards along the pavement outside the landmark Sogo department store, while construction continued on the ground behind temporary barriers. Officials said the bollards and crash barriers...

Serial sex offender Dennis McKenna could be free from jail within two weeks.

Hongkongers will be able to create advance medical directives electronically on the city’s eHealth record platform as early as next year, setting out which life-sustaining treatments they do not wish to receive when terminally ill, authorities have said. In a written reply to lawmakers on Wednesday, Secretary for Labour and Welfare Chris Sun Yuk-han said the electronic service for advance medical directives, which currently exist in paper form only, would be rolled out “in phases”. He said that...

The decision by a global law institute to open its first overseas office in Hong Kong reflects the city’s importance as a forum for legal international exchange, bolstered by its common law system and close ties to mainland China, a former justice minister has said. Teresa Cheng Yeuk-wah, secretary general of the International Organisation for Mediation (IOMed) and a former secretary for justice, said on Wednesday that the opening of the regional office of the International Institute for the...

Hong Kong’s first luxury expo is more than a showcase, offering international brands opportunities to find partners and develop business, the city’s finance chief has said, while exhibitors noted that bringing different sectors under one roof could help them reach new customers. The inaugural Festival of Connoisseurs, organised by Informa Markets, is the first exhibition supported by the government’s HK$100 million (US$12.7 million) initiative to attract high-quality, large-scale international...

Two truck drivers have died in a catastrophic crash on the Great Eastern Highway west of Perth.