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Thief broke into the first shop on Carnarvon Road in Tsim Sha Tsui before gaining access to neighbouring property, police say

Two tailor shops in Hong Kong’s Tsim Sha Tsui were broken into on Monday morning, with around HK$3 million (US$382,170) worth of cash and gold stolen.

Police received a call at 10.14am from an employee of a shop at 2 Carnarvon Road, saying that the door had been forced open and property was missing.

Upon arrival, officers discovered that the neighbouring shop had also been broken into.

“We think the burglar got the key from inside 2 Carnarvon Road to enter the shop on 1A,” a police spokesman said.

The Post has learned that the two shops share the same owner.

Officers have tallied losses of about HK$3 million, comprising stolen cash, bullion and 36 gold chains.

His death, barely a week after 15 students were killed in a bus crash, has led to renewed criticism of Malaysia’s poor safety record

Malaysian roads are some of the world’s most dangerous, with one person dying every two hours according to official statistics between March last year and March this year.

On Sunday, Works Minister Alexander Nanta Linggi said state authorities would immediately fix the damaged stretch of road where the cyclist had died, promising “comprehensive repairs” to a zone that “poses a risk to road users”.

The cyclist’s death has amplified public criticism of the poor state of Malaysian roads and the danger posed by overloaded and speeding heavy vehicles that routinely flout speed limits and weight restrictions.

Sales will start at the end of this month instead of in July, founder and CEO Lei Jun says

“We are making the preparations, and [will] see you at the end of June,” he said.

The accelerated launch follows Xiaomi’s efforts to ramp up capacity amid the fanfare surrounding the car. Deliveries of the premium SUV were expected to begin in July. Xiaomi would not comment on pricing or delivery dates.

On May 27, Xiaomi president Lu Weibing said that the number of inquiries about the YU7’s presale greatly exceeded those for the company’s first model, the SU7, ahead of its debut in March 2024. The SU7 sedan, which competes with Tesla’s Model 3, was an immediate hit, securing more than 70,000 orders in the month after its official launch.

On June 1, Lu said on his Weibo account that Xiaomi was revving up mass production of the YU7.

Speculation has been rife over a potential listing by the company, which was spun off from Ant Group last year as part of a restructuring

Speculation has been rife over a potential listing by Ant International, which is registered in Singapore. In the report, the company emphasised its “new corporate identity”, describing its mission as “to make it easy to do business anywhere, bringing small and beautiful changes to the world”.

Ant Group is an affiliate of Alibaba Group Holding, owner of the South China Morning Post.

How Hangzhou’s ‘Six Little Dragons’ built a new Chinese tech hub

Annual study by major recruitment agency Randstad surveyed more than 170,000 people globally, including 2,599 in Hong Kong

The primary motivation for Hongkongers who have quit their jobs or are considering resigning is the desire to improve their work-life balance, a recent survey has found, with the proportion rising 5.9 percentage points year on year.

The annual study, commissioned by major recruitment agency Randstad, surveyed more than 170,000 people globally, including 2,599 in Hong Kong, through online interviews.

Among the Hong Kong respondents, 40 per cent were millennials, born between 1981 and 1996, and 20 per cent belonged to Generation Z, born after 1997.

According to the results, 38.3 per cent of residents said that “improving work-life balance” had been one of the motivations for quitting their jobs, up from 32.4 per cent last year.

Other top reasons cited included “pay does not meet rising cost of living”, which was picked by 27.3 per cent of respondents, while 25.2 per cent linked their departure to receiving “an offer I could not refuse”.

Benjamin Elms, managing director at Randstad Hong Kong, said the definition of work-life balance had evolved significantly over the past couple of years.

“What began as a desire to work from home has quickly expanded to include autonomy in managing priorities, having reasonable workloads, clear direction from leadership and good relationships with managers and colleagues,” Elms said.

Pair found guilty of agreeing to arrange boat to Macau for Alex Kwong after socialite’s murder in 2023

Kowloon City Court on Monday found that Lam Shun, 44, and Irene Pun Hau-yin, 31, had entered into an agreement to arrange a boat to Macau for a person named “Alex” to evade criminal sanctions, even though there was insufficient evidence to show they knew the suspect was Choi’s former partner, Alex Kwong Kong-chi.

“This court finds it difficult to imagine why a person who has not committed an offence and is not wanted by police would have to leave Hong Kong for Macau urgently at all costs,” Magistrate Philip Chan Chee-fai said.

Kwong, 30, was wanted by police on suspicion of murder after Choi’s dismembered remains were discovered in a Tai Po village house on February 24, 2023. She was 28.

Lam and Pun, who said she was unemployed, were accused of planning the illegal boat journey under the guise of holding a junk party at sea after learning that an individual named “Alex” was urgently seeking to leave Hong Kong without being intercepted by the authorities.

The court heard the pair had discussed over the phone with a Macau resident identified as “Ivy”, who was not charged in the case, about a boat rental request she had made on behalf of her “friend” Alex.

Five new markets record year-on-year growth of 21 per cent on average in May

Hong Kong welcomed over 4 million visitors in May, a 20 per cent year-on-year increase, with an industry leader urging authorities to relax entry rules for Vietnamese and Indian tourists to attract more people from new markets.

More than 3.1 million of last month’s visitors were from mainland China, a 19 per cent rise from last year, according to provisional figures released by the Tourism Board on Monday.

The number of non-mainland tourists also increased by 24 per cent from May last year to 955,345. Of these, 56.2 per cent were short-haul visitors.

Five new markets – Gulf Cooperation Council countries, India, Vietnam, Russia and the Netherlands – averaged 21 per cent year-on-year growth, to 74,746 arrivals, in May.

The board said that last month’s increase was due to the Labour Day “golden week” holiday, which ran from May 1 to 5 on the mainland, alongside a range of citywide activities including large-scale concerts, meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibition events.

More than 20 million visitors arrived in Hong Kong between January and May, a 12 per cent year-on-year increase.

Delhi-bound plane returns safely to Hong Kong after pilot suspects technical issue less than 30 minutes into flight

Hong Kong aviation authorities have told Air India to submit a report after one of its Boeing 787-8 Dreamliners departing the city on Monday had to return when the pilot suspected a technical issue less than half an hour into the flight.

The Airport Authority said that passenger flight AI315 bound for New Delhi turned back to Hong Kong and requested a “local standby” at around 1pm, before landing safely at about 1.15pm.

The standby term refers to a situation where an aircraft approaching an airport is known or suspected to have developed a defect, but the issue does not pose a significant difficulty in making a safe landing.

Air India said the pilot suspected there was a technical issue and decided to take safety precautions and return to Hong Kong. “The flight landed safely at Hong Kong and is undergoing checks as a matter of abundant precaution,” a spokeswoman said.

The airline has recently been embroiled in one of the world’s worst aviation disasters in decades. An Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner crashed minutes after taking off from the western Indian city of Ahmedabad last Thursday, killing more than 200 people.

The Civil Aviation Department (CAD) said it arranged for Monday’s flight to land at Hong Kong International Airport after receiving a request to return due to a “technical reason” at 12.38pm.

Tengku Muhammad Taufik urges region to diversify and scale up its energy portfolio, as oil prices surge amid geopolitical turmoil

War between Israel and Iran is adding to a “polycrisis” of threats to global energy security, the chief of Malaysian oil major Petronas has warned, as tariffs and geopolitical turmoil drive up prices.

Global oil prices have surged since Friday when Israel launched strikes inside Iran, which retaliated with missiles and drones and has threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz – through which a fifth of the world’s oil supply flows.

Malaysian state oil company Petronas has already reacted to the global economic gloom, slashing a tenth of its almost 50,000 workforce, saying the company will not exist in 10 years otherwise.

Speaking at a Kuala Lumpur conference on Monday, Petronas Group CEO Tengku Muhammad Taufik noted that the global oil price had seen the largest price surge since 2022 in anticipation of a supply shock from the Israel-Iran war.

“These seismic shifts of global conflicts, technological revelations and climate change [are] what Petronas has described as polycrisis,” Taufik said, adding that this was exacerbated by the projected population of the Asia-Pacific region that would rise to 5.2 billion in 2050.

The region must diversify and scale up its energy portfolio, he said, stressing that energy was no longer the exclusive domain of oil and gas firms.

Thai company, incorporated in Singapore, clears major regulatory hurdle with publication of its Post Hearing Information Pack

On Sunday, the Thai drink maker cleared a major regulatory hurdle with the publication of its Post Hearing Information Pack by the Hong Kong stock exchange.

IFBH had planned to list in Singapore, where it is incorporated, but withdrew its IPO plans in July 2024, citing a desire to “focus its resources on the [Hong Kong] stock exchange” and take advantage of the city’s strong investment connectivity with mainland China.

One key link is the Stock Connect programme, a conduit through which international investors can access China’s onshore stock market, while their counterparts on the mainland trade Hong Kong-listed equities. Hong Kong’s stock market was also much larger, with a market capitalisation of US$6.33 trillion as of June 15, compared with Singapore at US$483 billion, according to Bloomberg’s data.

“We aim to solidify our market penetration and presence in China, while extending our reach into Australia, the Americas and Southeast Asia,” IFBH said.

Last year, the company commanded a 34 per cent share of the coconut-water market in mainland China as well as a 60 per cent share in Hong Kong.