Beijing has promoted General Zhang Shengmin, the key player in the recent anti-corruption fight that cut deep into the military’s top leadership, to its top decision-making body, the Politburo. More to follow...

What are Southeast Asian nations doing to help the United States tackle its challenges? A reporter with the American right-wing organisation Turning Point USA put the question bluntly to US President Donald Trump’s defence chief this week in the Philippines. As US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth pitched closer naval ties and maritime security cooperation at a gathering of defence ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) and other regional powers, the question injected...

A police officer has denied failing to properly label DNA samples taken from slain Hong Kong socialite Abby Choi Tin-fung’s ex-husband after his arrest more than three years ago. Testifying in the High Court on Thursday, Sergeant Lam Chun also denied using excessive force to subdue Alex Kwong Kong-chi as he was about to flee Hong Kong via the Tung Chung Development Pier on February 25, 2023. Lam, who was a detective constable at the time, said Kwong sustained a 2cm-by-2cm abrasion on his right...

This live article is freely available to our registered users. Please log in or create an account. The Hong Kong government has released a deeply scathing report by an independent committee probing the city’s deadliest blaze in decades, with Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu holding a press conference alongside top officials to outline the administration’s consequent actions and systemic reforms. Sources earlier said that at least one senior official would take the rap for the tragedy as part of...

Some 70 per cent of Hong Kong’s subdivided flats have been registered under a grace period system that will give landlords three years to ensure their properties meet minimum living standards laid out by a new law implemented eight months ago. A subdivided unit in Tsim Sha Tsui. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP. Secretary for Housing Winnie Ho told the city’s legislature on Wednesday that around 75,000 of the city’s 110,000 subdivided flats have been registered with the authorities since the new regulatory regime came into effect in March. The legislation gives landlords a one-year window to register their properties, ending on February 28 next year, after which a three-year grace period will kick in. They will then have to get their subdivided units up to standard — or convert them back into traditional flats — by February 28, 2030. Under the new regime, landlords must register their properties regardless of whether they intend to keep running the flats as subdivided units. Ho also said that the Housing Bureau, which she leads, has received applications for 250 subdivided flats to be certified as having met minimum living standards set out by the new law. Minimum standards “Most of such applications were received in recent months, indicating that the market is familiarising with the minimum standards and accelerating the pace of alteration works,” Ho said. The new law stipulates government-set living standards including a floor space of at least 86 square feet and a ceiling height of 2.3 metres, as well as a window and an individual toilet. A subdivided unit in Jordan run by Rent to Rent Innovation, on February 14, 2025. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP. Meanwhile, 53 subdivided units have been granted certification to operate legally as “Basic Housing Units (BHU)” after meeting those standards, Ho told the legislature on Wednesday. “These successful cases demonstrate that the minimum standards are practicable and feasible, and the market is willing to proactively comply with the BHU regime for compliant operation in the long run,” Ho said. She also said that the bureau will not take “immediate and indiscriminate” enforcement actions after the grace period expires. “Instead, a pragmatic, people-oriented and risk-based approach will be adopted when pressing ahead with enforcement actions in a reasonable, compassionate and orderly manner,” she said. It was announced on Thursday that Ho will be stepping down as housing minister over the Wang Fuk Court fire last year which killed 168 people. Deputy Financial Secretary Michael Wong, who currently leads the government’s task force on long-term resettlement for survivors of the blaze, will be appointed as acting housing minister following Ho’s departure.

Pakistan briefly closed its airspace to Taiwanese cargo and passenger flights, Taiwan said on Thursday, suspecting China of being behind the unprecedented move. An EVA Air Airbus A330-300 in the Bad Badtz-Maru Travel Fun livery. Photo: Wikicommons. “We suspect definitely China was behind this,” Deputy Foreign Minister Chen Ming-chi told AFP after confirming that Pakistan had closed and reopened its airspace to Taiwanese airlines. China Airlines and EVA Air, which are both based in Taiwan, normally fly over Pakistan on their Asia-Europe route. Last weekend, however, they began rerouting their Europe-bound flights further south over the Gulf or further north over Russia, AFP analysis of flight tracking data shows. Some Taiwanese flights have resumed flying over Pakistan, according to the latest data. “China Airlines and EVA received a notice from the Pakistan authorities that they will lift the ban, but only temporarily… till the end of the winter,” Chen said. Neither airline would confirm that Pakistan had closed or reopened its airspace when contacted by AFP. “We condemn Pakistan, and if China is behind this, I think that is a very bad practice to use its leverage over the countries in the Global South to do that,” Chen said. “I think that gets in the way of the safety of the passengers and the smooth operation of the global supply chain.” Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif told Bloomberg News on Wednesday that the airspace was closed in adherence with Beijing’s “One China policy”. China’s foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun told reporters on Thursday that “as far as we are aware, there are no obstacles for residents of the Taiwan region to travel internationally”. ‘Isolate Taiwan’ China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and opposes the self-governed island’s participation in international organisations and exchanges with other countries. Chen said it was the first time a country had closed its airspace to Taiwanese commercial flights. In April, the Seychelles, Mauritius and Madagascar revoked overflight permits for Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te’s flight to Eswatini, Taipei’s only African ally, forcing him to postpone the trip. Taiwan president Lai Ching-te (centre) visiting Eswatini on May 2, 2026. Photo: Wang Yu Ching/Office of the President, via Flickr. At the time, Taiwan blamed “intense pressure” from China for the revocation. “China now learned that this could be an effective way to block our airspace access and therefore sort of further isolate Taiwan,” Chen said. “We see this is the discovery that they can weaponise the airspace assets.” Taiwan does not have formal diplomatic ties with Pakistan, which has close relations with China. Chen said “many like-minded” countries had assisted Taiwan over the airspace closure. “We are afraid that this might be a practice that spreads to other Global South countries,” Chen said. “I think that is a major concern for not only for Taiwan, but also for other countries in the region and beyond.” Pakistan and China have maintained close diplomatic and strategic relations for decades, often describing their partnership as an “all-weather friendship” that is “higher than the Himalayas, deeper than the oceans, sweeter than honey and stronger than steel”. China is Pakistan’s largest trading partner and a major investor, particularly through the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), and has poured tens of billions of dollars into funding massive transport, energy and infrastructure projects.

The massive blaze at Wang Fuk Court in November 2025 was the deadliest the city had seen in decades.

Jonathan Head is in Cebu, reporting from outside the home where Markle last resided.

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