Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr used his 2026 State of the Nation Address (Sona) on Monday to promise relief from taxes, electricity charges and high rice prices, while pledging to pursue corruption cases linked to a flood-control scandal that has battered his administration. But while analysts said the one-and-a-half-hour speech addressed issues Filipinos had expected Marcos to confront, they questioned how the government could afford the handouts and why he announced no austerity or...

Despite their strikingly different approaches to developing and deploying artificial intelligence, one aspect is common across China and the United States: data and computing centres are proliferating in both countries, especially in remote locations. While the US is seeing residents and localities fight back against plans for data centres in their backyards, regional officials in China are embracing them. In fact, in China there is a nationwide scramble for such facilities – considered the...

Hong Kong’s banking sector is still in the early stages of preparing for cybersecurity risks posed by quantum computing, the city’s de facto central bank said on Monday as it unveiled a new benchmark to track the industry’s readiness. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) launched its first Quantum Preparedness Index (QPI), which gave the sector a score of 2.3 out of 10, indicating that most banks are still building the foundations for a transition to the quantum era. The index, based on a...

The number of wild boars in Hong Kong has declined by more than half in the four years since authorities adopted a capture-and-kill policy, with HK$105.6 million (US$13.46 million) spent over the same period. A Legislative Council study published on Monday found that the number of boars culled since 2021 rose elevenfold to 723 last year under the new policy. Over the same period, the number of injuries from boar attacks declined by 80 percent. In the research brief seen by the South China...

A High Court judge will retire early this week after he was found to have committed plagiarism in his judgements at least five times over the past three years. High Court Judge Wilson Chan. Photo: Judiciary. High Court Judge Wilson Chan tendered his retirement at the request of Chief Justice Andrew Cheung. It will come into effect on Friday, the judiciary said on Monday. Chan, 64, received a “serious reprimand” last week for committing plagiarism in his judgement in a 2024 trial over a company shares dispute. It was at least the third known instance of “judicial copying” following two earlier instances in 2023. In a statement on Monday, Chief Justice Cheung said “judicial copying strikes at the very core” of the fundamental requirement for judges to adjudicate cases independently. “A judge must exercise an independent judicial mind in carefully considering and resolving the issues raised and in determining the disputes before the court,” Cheung said. “The exercise of independent judicial judgment, which lies at the heart of the adjudicative process, is principally reflected in the reasons and judgments delivered by the judge,” he added. Cheung said Chan’s instances of plagiarism had led to a number of appeals and orders for retrial, straining the court’s resources and undermining public confidence in the judiciary. He warned judges at all levels of Hong Kong’s courts to avoid any form of judicial copying, adding that training in judgement writing will be strengthened where appropriate. Chief Justice Andrew Cheung speaks at the Ceremonial Opening of Legal Year 2023. File photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP. Monday’s announcement means that Chan will retire almost six years before he is set to hit the retirement age for a High Court judge. Hong Kong amended rules in 2019 to extend a High Court judge’s retirement age from 65 to 70. String of instances In the latest instance of plagiarism, Chan was found to have copied large parts of the defence’s opening and closing arguments in a HK$40 million shares dispute between Koo Ming-kown, the founder of digital products company Nam Tai Electronics, and Koo’s former brother-in-law. Koo lost the case initially but won an appeal this month, with the Court of Appeal finding that 95 per cent of Chan’s judgement was plagiarised. The case was ordered to be retried before another judge. Chan, who presided over the early proceedings of the 47 democrats’ national security case, has been caught in the act at least four times before. The Court of Appeal found Chan had plagiarised during two separate cases in 2025, according to local media outlet The Witness. In 2023, he was also found to have copied the majority of the plaintiff’s written submission in his judgement after the defendant lodged an appeal in a trademark dispute case involving two pharmaceutical brands. That same year, Chan was also found to have plagiarised in a case concerning real estate giant Great Eagle Holdings. The defendant, who lost the case, filed an appeal accusing Chan of lifting large parts of the plaintiff’s submissions. In both 2023 incidents, the Court of Appeal ordered the cases to undergo retrials by different judges.

A Hong Kong court will rule in September on the alleged illegal firing of a former Wall Street Journal reporter, who was dismissed shortly after she took up a leadership role at a press union. Selina Cheng at the Eastern Magistrates’ Court. File photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP. Selina Cheng initiated a private prosecution against Dow Jones Publishing, the parent company of her former employer WSJ, for her alleged unlawful dismissal in July 2024, after she was elected chair of the Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA). The court heard closing submissions on Monday as the trial entered its 12th day at the Eastern Magistrates’ Courts. Both parties argued over whether either Cheng’s then-supervisor at WSJ, or a human resources director at Dow Jones, represented the company. The court previously heard that Deborah Ball, WSJ’s Asia editor and Cheng’s supervisor at the time, told Cheng that her intention to stand for office at the HKJA was “not compatible” with her employment with the newspaper. Kerene Ko, a human resources director at Dow Jones at the time, later informed Cheng by email that she “did not seek, and will not receive the company’s approval to pursue this role [HKJA’s chair],” the court had heard. Senior Counsel Nigel Kat, representing Cheng, said on Monday that an employee enjoys “far-reaching protection” from the city’s Employment Ordinance, which prohibits employers from preventing, deterring, or firing a worker for union activities. Both Ball and Ko were “duly authorised” by Dow Jones and acted on behalf of the company, Kat told the court. Wall Street Journal Corporate Headquarters in New York. File photo: John Wisniewski, via Flickr CC2.0. Senior Counsel Benson Tsoi, representing Dow Jones, argued that the prosecution had not proven that Ball and Ko were indeed instructed by the “directing mind and will” of the company in their communications with Cheng. “If anything has been proven in this case, it would be against the individuals,” Tsoi told the court. The prosecution failed to prove the company did commit the offence, he added. Principal Magistrate David Cheung adjourned the case until September 10 for a verdict. The court previously heard that Cheng, who covered the Chinese electric vehicle industry, was fired in July 2024 on the grounds of redundancy, as the WSJ relocated its centre of reporting in Asia from Hong Kong to Singapore. Gordon Fairclough, the WSJ’s world coverage chief, flew to Hong Kong to inform Cheng of her termination in person. Cheng accused Dow Jones of one count of “doing an act calculated to prevent or deter” her becoming a HKJA officer, and a second charge of terminating her employment over her union participation, under the city’s Employment Ordinance. Under the ordinance, an employer could be fined up to HK$100,000 for each of the offences if found guilty.

China to legislate on preschool education

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