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Indonesia’s president is keen to replicate the neighbouring city state’s triumphs, but analysts warn that deeper reforms will be needed

Prabowo, who spent part of his childhood in Singapore “when it was still a British colony”, spoke openly of his admiration for the city state’s transformation and its founding leadership.

“To be very frank, I’ve always admired the success of Singapore and especially the success of the early leaders of Singapore, their leadership, statesmanship,” he said at a joint press conference with Wong on Monday.

The conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza are among the most dangerous moments in the world’s security, Ban tells Hong Kong forum

A former UN secretary general has called for an overhaul of the United Nations to better confront global challenges as “some powerful nations” seek to undermine the institution.

“The illegal Russian war against Ukraine and the horrific war in Gaza represent one of the most dangerous moments for global security, and challenges to multilateralism, in decades,” Ban told the Fullerton Forum hosted by the University of Hong Kong’s Centre on Contemporary China and the World (CCCW).

Ban said that various global crises, including these conflicts, pandemics and climate change, “have shown how we are all interconnected”.

“They also make it clear that we need multilateral responses,” he added, according to the speech published by the CCCW.

In his speech, Ban thanked China for its role in implementing the Paris Climate Agreement and for its efforts to combat climate change.

Ban, who is now deputy chair of The Elders, a human rights group composed of international statesmen founded by late South African president Nelson Mandela, took direct aim at US President Donald Trump, saying the shift towards unilateralism had been “bolstered by the advent of Trumpism” in the United States.

Minister Rosanna Law says coliseum had in past given priority to sports events, but venue must be repositioned to maximise value after Kai Tak park opening

Hong Kong Coliseum in Hung Hom will be repositioned to hold more concerts following the launch of Kai Tak Sports Park, the city’s tourism chief has said.

Secretary for Culture, Sports and Tourism Rosanna Law Shuk-pui also revealed on Saturday the government would reserve some venues for long-running performances and Cantonese opera to ensure groups that staged quality performances had a chance to rent venues for shows.

Law said Hong Kong Coliseum could be repositioned following the official opening of Kai Tak Arena at Kai Tak Sports Park in March.

“With the opening of Kai Tak Sports Park, Hong Kong’s sports and entertainment experience has been elevated to an unprecedented level,” she said in a speech at a wealth management summit.

“Volleyball, handball, fencing, table tennis and other sports being held at Kai Tak Arena have been well received by athletes and the audience, so we have room to adjust the positioning of Hong Kong Coliseum, which is of the same size.”

Kai Tak Arena can seat 10,000 people, while Hong Kong Coliseum can hold 12,500.

Chinese suitcase-sized device delivers faster data updates and improved stability using simpler technology, tests show

“The Lianli satellite mission showed that using the OpenHarmony real-time operating system significantly improved the satellite’s response speed and reliability,” Yu Xiaozhou, the paper’s lead author and a professor at Dalian University of Technology, told Chinese media in May.

As the first microsatellite to carry the OpenHarmony RTOS, Lianli also ran on a domestically produced chip, “achieving a fully home-grown hardware-software solution in the field, and offering a new option for spacecraft operating systems worldwide”, according to Chinese media reports.

Following the Lianli mission, Yu and colleagues proposed national technical standards to guide how OpenHarmony is used in small satellites – a step intended to encourage broader adoption, which is already taking place across both commercial and research satellite missions in China.

Some construction workers have complained about being sacked or having their workdays slashed due to imported hires, union chairman says

Hong Kong catering and construction unions have called for a review of the labour import scheme amid high jobless rates in the sectors, with some local employees complaining about being replaced or forced to work fewer days after cheaper staff from outside the city were recruited.

Chau Sze-kit, chairman of the Hong Kong Construction Industry Employees General Union, said on Saturday the unemployment rate of the construction sector was at 6.7 per cent, attributing the figure to fewer local private projects.

He said that although the policy of importing workers might not directly affect the unemployment rate, the scheme still led to fewer job opportunities for local staff.

Chau added he had received complaints from some labourers about being sacked by their employers or having their workdays slashed because of the recruitment of imported staff.

He called on the government to be more targeted in importing labour for specific occupations in short supply.

“[Jobless rates] have continued to rise. Do we still need to import workers? I think it should be more targeted. The workers should only be imported where there is such a need,” he told a radio programme.

Olympic gold medallist tells national security forum more understanding of identity needed and she wants to ‘learn more’ about China

The fencing star also urged young Hongkongers on Saturday to understand their identity, as she shared her experience of studying international relations at Stanford University in the US during a forum commemorating the fifth anniversary of the Beijing-imposed national security law.

“My biggest takeaway is that Americans do not understand China, but even worse, I realise I do not understand it either. I need to learn more,” the 31-year-old told a panel.

“As I represent Hong Kong, China, I should understand my identity and not disgrace anyone.”

She said the city had the support of its motherland, citing her experience of being treated by a therapist from the national team when the Hong Kong team lacked resources.

Kong added that the city’s athletes enjoyed privileges when training on the mainland, such as being treated to the best quality meals usually reserved for top-tier national sportspeople.

She also said Hong Kong athletes could bypass qualifiers to secure their spots in the National Games.

City should seize upon stability created by national security law to implement more aggressive policies to transform economy, experts say

Hong Kong should maintain its international connectivity and attract talent to speed up its economic transformation, analysts and figures from the commerce sector have said, as they hailed the enactment of the national security law for improving the business environment.

Some political analysts also called on government officials to take bolder steps and adopt new thinking, taking advantage of the social stability and order brought by the security law Beijing imposed on the city in 2020.

Their suggestions came after the director of the State Council’s Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, Xia Baolong, said the implementation of the law was a “watershed” for the financial hub that brought order after chaos.

But Xia, who made the remarks at a forum on Saturday marking the anniversary of the implementation of the national security law, also warned against complacency, calling for unity to support the government and urging the administration to come up with innovative governance concepts to enhance effectiveness.

Political scientist Hung Wing-lok of the School of Governance and Policy Science at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said: “Hong Kong should seize the opportunity to attract more foreign talent to speed up its economic transformation.

“As tensions between China and the United States remain high, Hong Kong should continue to keep its international connectivity to maintain its status as a global financial hub.

The billionaire Tesla chief, after leaving Trump administration, has suggested founding a third political party. But would it succeed?

Convinced that his vision for the future of artificial intelligence was superior to that of OpenAI head Sam Altman and former Google chief executive Larry Page, Elon Musk cut ties with Page and parted ways with OpenAI, which he helped found in 2015.

In the heat of the dispute, he floated the idea earlier this month of forming a third party to fix what he sees as a broken electoral system.

“Is it time to create a new political party in America that actually represents the 80% in the middle?” he asked his 230 million followers on X, the social media platform he owns. Around 80 per cent of respondents voted yes.

Musk reacted by sharing a potential name: “the American Party”.

But does the tech titan really have a future in politics? In a 2023 biography by Walter Isaacson, Musk himself admitted that he had a “habit of biting off more than I can chew”. His younger brother Kimbal, who sits on the boards of Tesla and SpaceX, both Musk companies, described his sibling as a “drama magnet”.

A leader in industries capable of determining a nation’s future economic success, Musk in the past year seemed determined to inject drama into politics, both in the US and abroad.

The major general’s observer role at the Red Flag Alaska exercise may be a sign that the US will step up training and support for the island

The appearance of a senior Taiwanese officer at a military exercise in Alaska has attracted widespread attention on the island, where many see it as a signal that there may be closer defence cooperation with the United States in the future.

Analysts said the move also suggested the US would stick to its security commitments despite US President Donald Trump’s transactional approach towards Washington’s allies in the region.

The exercise, Red Flag Alaska 25-2, is one of the US Air Force’s largest annual air combat drills designed to sharpen coordination between regional allies.

This year’s edition, conducted over two weeks from June 12, brings together 1,500 personnel and 70 aircraft from the US, Japan, South Korea, the Philippines and other countries.

Taiwan did not take part in the drills, but Major General Wu Chia-hsing, head of the air force’s flight training division, joined the exercise as an observer.

A photograph released by the Pentagon-supported Defence Visual Information Distribution Service (DVIDS) showed Wu in a suite standing alongside uniformed senior officers in front of two F-22 stealth fighters and a C-17 transport aircraft at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska.

Hong Kong’s meagre old age allowance and social security assistance force many of the city’s elderly to continue working to make ends meet

Elderly, alone and barely getting by: the plight of Hong Kong’s most underprivileged seniors

Auntie Ha left her village in mainland China and moved to Hong Kong to join her son and his family. But not long after, they emigrated and left her alone in the city.

To support herself, she got a job as a cleaner and she rents a subdivided flat in Sham Shui Po, Hong Kong’s poorest neighbourhood.

Although in her 70s, Auntie Ha is unable to retire, because Hong Kong’s basic old age allowance and social assistance are not enough for her to live on.

Her story is one example of the lack of support and services for elderly people in the city, who live alone and must continue to work just to get by.