65 m. ago Hilton to launch new brands in China as it seeks to expand presence to more than 300 cities

Global hotel chain operator Hilton plans to introduce new brands to mainland China, aiming to meet evolving lifestyle demands amid its rapid expansion in the world’s second-largest economy. Qian Jin, president of Hilton Greater China and Mongolia, said in an interview this week that the US hospitality group remained bullish on the mainland’s market, where Gen Z consumers and millennials’ pursuit of cultural and personal enrichment created a new growth engine for international hotel brands. “From...

Politics

65 m. ago Hilton to launch new brands in China, eyes presence in 320 cities

Global hotel chain operator Hilton plans to introduce new brands to mainland China, aiming to meet evolving lifestyle demands amid its rapid expansion in the world’s second-largest economy. Qian Jin, president of Hilton Greater China and Mongolia, said in an interview this week that the US hospitality group remained bullish on the mainland’s market, where Gen Z consumers and millennials’ pursuit of cultural and personal enrichment created a new growth engine for international hotel brands. “From...

Politics

7 h. ago Cruz leads Senate push to hold China accountable for Beijing church crackdown

Cruz leads Senate push to hold China accountable for Beijing church crackdown  Fox News

Politics

17 h. ago Baidu, public transport firm PostBus to launch robotaxis in Switzerland

Chinese internet search and artificial intelligence giant Baidu is teaming up with Swiss public transport operator PostBus to bring robotaxi services to Switzerland. Beijing-based Baidu and PostBus, a subsidiary of national postal service Swiss Post, said in a joint statement on Wednesday that the two companies expected to start testing their on-demand smart mobility service, AmiGo, in the eastern region of Switzerland by December and scale up trials next year. AmiGo will deploy Baidu’s Apollo...

Economics

17 h. ago 37,000 workers imported into Hong Kong since start of labour scheme in 2023

Hong Kong has imported more than 37,000 workers since the government’s introduction of a labour scheme two years ago, while a construction union has announced a wage freeze for most of the major trades in the industry. The Labour and Welfare Bureau on Wednesday revealed that it had received applications to import more than 62,000 workers in the catering and hospitality industries since the Enhanced Supplementary Labour Scheme was launched in 2023. Between September 4, 2023, and September 30 this...

Politics

20 h. ago Sixfold surge in flu outbreaks at Hong Kong schools as 13 severe cases reported

Hong Kong schools have reported a more than sixfold surge in influenza outbreaks since the start of the academic year compared with the winter flu season earlier this year, with 13 children hospitalised since September. The government renewed its calls on Wednesday for children to receive flu jabs after another three severe paediatric cases were reported on consecutive days. The Centre for Health Protection said the latest severe case involved an 11-year-old girl who had previously been in good...

Science

23 h. ago New Chinese drone spotted flying for the first time. Is it a next

A new Chinese stealth flying-wing drone, possibly a next-generation bomber, has been spotted flying for the first time. A video of the large stealth “cranked kite” drone, unofficially dubbed the GJ-X, has circulated on Chinese social media since October 19. It appeared to be the same aircraft – or one with a very similar design – captured in satellite imagery taken in August at China’s Malan airbase in Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, according to a report by The War Zone earlier this week. The...

Events

27 h. ago Why South Korea’s Gen Z are falling prey to the scam gangs of Southeast Asia

A growing number of young South Koreans are vanishing into Southeast Asia’s criminal underworld, lured by the promise of high-paying jobs – only to end up trafficked, tortured or killed. Many, fleeing a stagnant labour market at home, are being deceived by transnational crime syndicates into running online scams and illegal gambling operations. Others join willingly in search of easy money. But all eventually find themselves exploited, victims of criminal enterprises that span the lawless border...

Events

37 h. ago Hong Kong drones hunt illegal filling stations, diesel worth HK$6 million seized

Hong Kong has started deploying drones to detect illegal refuelling stations in the city, with the Fire Services Department having seized diesel worth more than HK$6 million (US$772,362) in the past month during a crackdown on 23 locations. Bradan Kwok Chi-kwan, divisional officer for dangerous goods enforcement, said the department introduced drones to help uncover illicit operations last month and conducted 41 flights. “When our drone squad detects suspicious activity, it alerts task force...

Events

38 h. ago China’s Unitree builds course for students to learn how to train robot dogs

Unitree Robotics has launched an education platform for students to train robot dogs and understand how they operate based on the start-up’s Go2 system, as adoption of these quadruped machines expands from enthusiasts to mainstream consumers. According to its social media post on Tuesday, Unitree has developed an in-person training course with ready-to-use tools that would enable students to learn the operation, maintenance and applications of a quadruped robot – specifically, the company’s...

Politics

62 h. ago ‘Stolen too soon’: Nepal mourns hero hostage returned from Gaza after ceasefire

Nepal’s interim prime minister on Monday draped a national flag over the coffin of returned Gaza hostage Bipin Joshi, released under the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. “Bipin is a son of all Nepali mothers,” Sushila Karki said at a ceremony held at the airport in Kathmandu, after his body was flown back to the capital from Tel Aviv. “The name Bipin will be immortal, no one can forget him for his bravery and the hardships he had to face.” Joshi, an agriculture student who was 22 when...

Events

63 h. ago China’s Unitree Robotics unveils latest humanoid ahead of US$7 billion IPO

Unitree Robotics has teased a new humanoid model in a short video on its social media channels, its most humanlike model to date. In the video, the H2 model performed a series of dexterous dance moves – including perfectly executed pirouettes and arabesques – and sported a strikingly human face modelled in silver with well-defined eyes, lips and nose. Standing at 180cm – the tallest humanoid robot the company has yet developed – and weighing 70kg, the H2 featured the tagline: “Destiny Awakening...

Economics

65 h. ago From Fortnite to Alexa, Amazon’s AWS outage causes global outage

Amazon’s cloud services unit AWS was hit by an outage on Monday, causing connectivity issues for many companies around the world and disrupting services for several popular websites and apps, including Fortnite and Snapchat. “We can confirm increased error rates and latencies for multiple AWS Services in the US-EAST-1 Region,” AWS said in an update on its status page. AI start-up Perplexity, cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase and trading app Robinhood attributed the outages to AWS. “Perplexity is...

Politics

65 h. ago From Fortnite to Alexa, Amazon’s AWS disruption causes global outage

Amazon’s cloud services unit AWS was hit by an outage on Monday, causing connectivity issues for many companies around the world and disrupting services for several popular websites and apps, including Fortnite and Snapchat. “We can confirm increased error rates and latencies for multiple AWS Services in the US-EAST-1 Region,” AWS said in an update on its status page. AI start-up Perplexity, cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase and trading app Robinhood attributed the outages to AWS. “Perplexity is...

Politics

68 h. ago China’s Akeso gets share boost as data shows cancer drug’s benefits

Shares of Chinese drug firm Akeso – likened by some Western media outlets to artificial intelligence start-up DeepSeek – rose after the company unveiled clinical-trial data showing that its lung-cancer drug outperformed a highly effective existing treatment. The data showed that ivonescimab had “a decisive and strong positive outcome with both significant and clinically meaningful benefits”, Akeso said in a filing with the Hong Kong stock exchange on Monday. The drug, used along with...

Events

68 h. ago Hong Kong, Elior Group in land talks for Asia’s first aircraft parts centre

City authorities are in talks with a leading French aeronautical services company about the allocation of land to develop Hong Kong into Asia’s first aircraft parts processing and trading centre, with the firm set to start training classes in two months. Daniel Derichebourg, chairman and CEO of France-based Elior Group, said the company was still in talks with the government about solutions that would work best to help Hong Kong grow as a centre for aircraft parts dismantling, recycling and...

Politics

68 h. ago Apple’s new iPhone 17 outsells previous generation by 14% in US, China

Apple’s latest generation of iPhones is off to a faster start than usual, with its most basic model surging in popularity in the US and China. The iPhone 17 series outsold the iPhone 16 range by 14 per cent over their respective first 10 days on sale in the US and China, according to Counterpoint Research. The data, giving the first quantified indication of consumer response in Apple’s top two markets, shows the standard iPhone 17 is in much higher demand than the corresponding US$799 model last...

Politics

3 d. ago Dozens arrested in China amid escalating crackdown on Christian churches

Dozens arrested in China amid escalating crackdown on Christian churches  Fox News

Events

3 d. ago Opinion | Trump’s Crackdown on Chinese Students Ignores a Startling New Reality

Opinion | Trump’s Crackdown on Chinese Students Ignores a Startling New Reality  The New York Times

Politics

4 d. ago Hong Kong police bust vice ring exploiting minors, arrest 18

Hong Kong police have dismantled a local vice syndicate allegedly led by an 18-year-old woman, which exploited underage girls for sex services, arresting 58 people in two crackdowns. Yim Wan-ha, Kowloon West chief inspector of police, said on Saturday that the force recently apprehended 23 people in a crackdown on the local syndicate suspected of recruiting teenage girls for prostitution through online social platforms and youth hang-out spots with the lure of quick money. “Core members befriend...

Events