Semua Kabar

Parents agree to Think International School’s proposal to give back half of debentures initially and the rest next January

A Hong Kong international primary school which is ceasing operations will give back half of the due debentures soon while honouring the other half next January in a proposal that parents have accepted, the Post has learned.

The proposal by Think International School followed its abrupt announcement last week that it would cease operations at the end of July and arrange meetings with parents at its campus on Saturday and Monday.

One father who attended Monday’s meeting said that the school offered to return half of the debenture initially while its affiliated preschool, Think International Kindergarten, would subsidise the cost of the closure.

He said about 15 parents who attended the meetings on Saturday and Monday all agreed on the school’s proposal.

“It is better to get something now than end up getting nothing,” said the father, whose child graduated from the school in 2022.

“There is no guarantee [that they will return the remaining half]. They can shut down the kindergarten tomorrow, and we cannot do anything about it. But that is a risk that we have to take.”

New framework offers recommendations to reduce foreign holdings of US debt – a sum estimated to grow by trillions if spending bill is passed

With the US Senate voting to move an updated version of US President Donald Trump’s sweeping budget legislation – the “One Big, Beautiful Bill Act” – forward in the legislative process, the controversial bill now comes closer to becoming law.

It has also brought the country’s mounting debt back into the spotlight. Rife with spending increases, tax cuts and no additional revenue sources to compensate, the bill has been estimated to add US$3.3 trillion to the nation’s debt over the next decade; a deficit that stands at about US$36.2 trillion.

In response to renewed concerns over US debt, a nascent framework on how to rebalance deficits away from foreign holders – the “Pennsylvania Plan” – has also received attention.

Here, we provide an update on the latest developments in the saga of the “One Big, Beautiful Bill” and its relationship to the recommendations made in the “Pennsylvania Plan”.

The US Senate agreed to hear debate on the bill in a narrow 51–49 decision after a long weekend session, following another close party-line approval from the House of Representatives last month.

Heightened US chip export controls have prompted Chinese AI and chip companies to collaborate

Sophgo’s SC11 FP300 compute card successfully passed verification, showing stable and effective performance in executing the reasoning tasks of DeepSeek’s R1 model in tests conducted by the China Telecommunication Technology Labs (CTTL), the company said in a statement on Monday.

A compute card is a compact module that integrates a processor, memory and other essential components needed for computing tasks, often used in applications like AI.

CTTL is a research laboratory under the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, an organisation affiliated with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

The verification marked a milestone for Sophgo, affirming that its compute card supported domestic AI models in alignment with Beijing’s initiative to bolster its leading AI systems, such as the DeepSeek models, with self-developed infrastructure, the chipmaker said.

The Subic–Clark–Manila–Batangas Railway will be almost triple the length and more expensive than the initial China-backed proposal

On Friday, the US embassy in Manila said Washington would kick-start the project by funding technical help through the US Trade and Development Agency (USTDA), though it did not specify the amount.

“The railway is envisioned to be the backbone of the Luzon Economic Corridor, which will accelerate critical infrastructure investment and drive economic transformation in the Philippines,” the USTDA said.

Thomas Hardy, the agency’s acting director, said the project underscored the “vital role” of the US-Philippines alliance in keeping the Indo-Pacific “free and open”, and would help create “an essential trading route that will mutually benefit American and Philippine citizens”.

A high-level special committee will be formed to ensure sufficient measures are in place to prevent the incident from recurring

Police said there was also no evidence of negligence or conspiracy to cause the disaster that decimated parts of the middle-class enclave of Putra Heights in Selangor state and sent more than 100 people to hospital with smoke inhalation and burns.

Federal safety experts said the explosion happened in an area where the soil was waterlogged and “very soft”, causing long-term stress lines to form within the pipe from the constant movement under pressure. That led to an eventual break at the weld, which was its weakest point.

“The unstable soil surrounding the pipe was the main reason for the failure,” Husdin Che Amat, director for petroleum safety at the Department of Occupational Safety and Health, told a news conference on Monday.

Towering inferno erupts on outskirts of Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur

The gas pipeline, operated by national energy giant Petronas, was used to deliver natural gas from its refinery in Kerteh district in northern Terengganu state to clients in the peninsula and all the way to neighbouring Singapore in the south.

New equipment to be used by frontline officers across all districts for evidence collection and safety

Sea patrol officers from Hong Kong’s Marine Department will start using body cameras from Tuesday to help them perform their duties more effectively.

Frontline officers of the harbour patrol section across all districts would be fully equipped with the devices to help in investigations, evidence collection and documenting maritime conditions during major events at sea for safety purposes, a department spokesman said on Monday.

Other government departments that have equipped frontline officers with body cameras include police, the Correctional Services Department and hawker control teams under the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department.

Between January and June, the Marine Department conducted a field trial in the waters around Victoria Harbour to assess the effectiveness of the cameras.

The evaluation showed that the use of body video devices significantly improved both the accuracy and quality of evidence collection, offering practical insights for future investigations, the department added.

To support the roll-out, guidelines have been drawn up. Officers are required to wear uniforms and mount the cameras in a clearly visible position while on duty.

Communist Party’s inner circle reviews proposal to ensure coordinating groups don’t overstep their authority

The rules were reviewed by the party’s top echelon, the 24-member Politburo, on Monday in a meeting chaired by President Xi Jinping, state news agency Xinhua reported.

The report did not spell out the regulations but did say they were meant to standardise the policy coordination and review process at the top.

The rules were also designed to ensure these bodies coordinated with other bureaucratic departments without overstepping their authority.

“[The rules] are of great significance for giving full play to the top-level design, overall coordination, overall promotion and supervision of the implementation of major work,” the report said.

China’s Communist Party wraps up policy meeting amid growing uncertainties

The regulations largely apply to the various “central commissions” and “party leading groups” that have been established during Xi’s tenure under the Central Committee, a party inner circle with about 300 members.

The package will ‘allow the group more flexibility to better manage its expected ongoing business and financial needs,’ NWD says

Adrian Cheng Chi-kong, the third generation scion of New World Development (NWD), has left the company after the Hong Kong developer successfully refinanced its debt and concluded months of negotiations that pulled it back from the brink of default.

Cheng resigned as non-executive director of NWD, effective July 1, to “devote more time to public services and other personal commitments,” according to a filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange.

Earlier, NWD said it successfully obtained HK$88.2 billion (US$11.3 billion) in refinancing, including multiple tranches of bank loans with varying maturities, with June 30, 2028, being the earliest.

The package would “allow the group more flexibility to better manage its expected ongoing business and financial needs,” the statement said. “The new bank facility and the aligned bank facilities have terms, including financial covenants and security interests granted over certain of the group’s assets.”

CEO Echo Huang Shaomei said the successful refinancing “is a testament to the confidence” placed in the company’s operations, adding that the group’s financial strategy prioritises reducing debt and improving cash flow.

As Washington’s deadline looms, Beijing warns nations not to cut deals that hurt its interests – but how will it respond if ignored?

Beijing has renewed its warning to other countries not to strike deals with the United States on terms that come at China’s expense – ahead of Washington’s looming deadline to conclude tariff negotiations with most of its trade partners.

Chinese officials are concerned that nations from Europe to Southeast Asia may enter into trade agreements with the US that divert supply chains, reduce bilateral trade with China or compel governments to exit Beijing-led projects, analysts said on Monday.

“The first important one is not to shift the supply chain,” said Liang Yan, professor of economics at Willamette University. “There’s a possibility that other countries would disengage from China.”

On April 2, the Trump administration imposed sweeping global tariffs – dubbing it “Liberation Day” – only to suspend most of the duties for 90 days to allow for talks.

Canada may be heading for a reality check after trying to take on both of its biggest trading partners at the same time

The Canadian government appears to be caught between “a rock and a hard place” after trying to introduce tough measures targeting both American and Chinese companies last week, analysts said.

Ottawa raised eyebrows by ordering a high-profile Chinese company to cease operations in the country due to national security concerns on Friday – the same day that US President Donald Trump announced he was breaking off trade negotiations with Canada over its proposed digital services tax.

“It’s always a risky choice to mess up relations with your biggest trade partners – Canada did with two,” said Xu Tianchen, senior China economist at the Economist Intelligence Unit. “If the US and China decide to play hardball with Canada, then it will be in trouble.”

Trump said he was terminating all trade talks with America’s northern neighbour on Friday, describing Canada as “a very difficult country to trade with” and blaming the breakdown on Canada’s digital services tax, which would impact American technology giants.