Friday

This is our CHK's news wrap podcast, bringing you the biggest stories from Hong Kong. Lawmakers have passed the basic housing units bill on Friday, making it mandatory for owners of subdivided flats to register their properties and meet relevant standards, Sophie Hoy with our top story. The requirements include a minimum floor area of 8 square meters, a separate toilet, and at least one window for each unit. Home owners can register their units starting in March. subdivided flat owners who complete the registration within one year will be granted a grace period of 36 months to carry out ratification and apply for accreditation, giving them a total of 48 months. Secretary for Housing Winnie Ho said, as landlords have four years to bring their flats up to the required standard, this would prevent units being taken off the markets at once and causing rents to spike. Rans have always been closely tied to market supply and demand. If more public housing advocates have more reasonable housing options, the demand for subdivided flats will fall. Therefore it is expected that once the regulatory regime is rolled out, subdivided flats will have limited room to increase significantly. The $3,000 accreditation fee for each unit will be reduced or waived if home owners complete the alteration and ratification work by the end of the grace period in February 2030. Ms. Ho added that the government will ensure that subdivided flat tenants will not lose out on a place to stay due to the new law. This will be done by allocating other resources like transitional housing units in a flexible manner and helping them look for homes in the private market. Hong Kong home prices rose in August for a third consecutive month to the highest level so far this year. Just Chloe Fung reports and analysts expect the upward trend to continue following the latest interest rate cut by the US Federal Reserve. Data released by the rating and evaluation department showed that a widely watched official index of secondary home prices stood at 288.5 in August. That was 0.1% higher than in July, but 1.2% lower compared to a year ago. Taking the first 8 months of the year as a whole, home prices declined 0.2%. While prices for small and medium-sized units rose 0.1% on a monthly basis, those for larger units rose 0.2%. At a quark, executive director of evaluation and advisory services at the CBRE Hong Kong said the recent policy address did not introduce any relaxation measures for the mass market. But he remained cautiously optimistic that the property sector will eventually bottom out and see a steady recovery in transaction volumes next year. Major local banks lowered their prime lending rates by 12.5 basis points. After the US Federal Reserve reduced its benchmark rate by 25 basis points last week. That was a favorable factor according to Mr. Quark, who said the lower borrowing costs will encourage more buyers to enter the residential property market, which in turn could see prices rise. He said another factor that will boost sentiment in the property market is a boom in the local stock market. The city's official rental index meanwhile rose for a nice consecutive months and stood at 198.7% for August. That was 1.1% higher on a monthly basis and 1.8% higher on the year. Taking the first 8 months of the year as a hoe, home rents have risen by 3.2%. Police safe financial losses through cybersecurity offenses in the first 7 months of 2025 rose almost a fifth from the same period last year, although the number of technology crimes fell slightly. Frank Young reports. Officers warn people that their online presence made them vulnerable to cyber attacks that have become more elaborate, bringing actual risks to the public and business operations. Superintendents Rachel Hoi of the Forces Cybersecurity and Technology Crime Bureau said alleged offenders have turned to high-value targets. The hackers would have much information surrounding the potential victims, and then they can send the phishing messages to them. And then they can also apply the AI or defactology easily. We can see quite a lot of ransomware cases that we can find trace of AI. Because behind the code, we can find that they are using AI to do the check, but for negotiation for higher amount. The force recorded 19,080 cases of cyber crimes in the first 7 months of this year, down 0.9% from the same period in 2024. The incidents led to losses of more than $3.6 billion, marking a year-on-year increase of 18.4%. For cyber hacking alone, monetary losses amounted to $39.4 million, representing a tenfold increase. The most expensive case was a financial institution, losing $26 million. Under an operation, the force took down and cleared problematic command and control servers, botnets, and phishing sites, while seizing over 1,500 gigabytes of data for investigation and analysis. Following the over 39,800 cyber security threats recorded from the operation, around 80% of them were phishing sites. Police set 89 internet service providers were asked to take remedial measures to pluck cyber security loopholes. A task group on the city's third medical school is looking into the financial aspects of the proposals submitted by three universities, according to the health secretary. Low-chung mouths at the final recommendation will be submitted to the Chief Executive by the end of the year. The health secretary told RTHK that the task group has already reviewed proposals submitted by Baptist University, Polytechnic University, and the University of Science and Technology. Professor Low-chung mouths at separate meetings have been held with representatives from the three universities which are trying to set up Hong Kong's third medical school. He said the financial services and the Treasury Bureau is now looking into the financial sustainability and cost effectiveness of their proposals. The three proposals I would say are very different. Different not only in their curriculum design and the staff recruitment, student recruitment etc. But also in terms of the capital requirement as well as the financial proposal, financial aspect of the model. So you know some of this, the financial implication is rather low, but on the other hand there is a proposal which is much more costly. So we have to look at the details before we will make the final recommendation to the Chief Executive. Professor Low-chung said the group has high expectations for the new school. He noted that the medical schools at Chinese University and the University of Hong Kong are ranked inside the top 25 globally. The minister emphasized that all three medical schools have to adopt a same standard in training medical professionals. The government says it hopes that a new public body on Hong Kong's AI development will attract an annual income of around $300 million from 2028, the third year of its establishment. This came as the legislature's Finance Committee approved $1 billion for establishing the AI Research and Development Institute. The body is expected to use up the funding injection in five years. Digital Policy Commissioner Tony Wong says the goal is for the body to be self-financing later. It could be AI projects to support a public administration, patent registration, including private sharing with the market. The Institute will also be able to provide a consultant, advisory services, business matching services for the trade. They will also be able to perform assessment and cybersecurity trials for the private sector. Minister Wong says officials plan to have a head count of 50 with a CEO earning more than $4 million a year. Around a quarter of the staff will be researchers who will be paid more than $1 million each. The Chief Executive and Council has approved the financial arrangements for developing a smart and green mass transit system in Kitech. Six stops have been proposed, including Kitech Station Square and Kitech Sports Park. The government plans to award tenders for three sites earmarked for the project next year, and aims to have the network up and running in 2031. The government estimates that more than 8 million people will travel in and out of Hong Kong during the upcoming National Day Golden Week holiday, which runs from October 1st to the 8th, Wendy Wong reports. The immigration department expects around 8.76 million people, including Hong Kong residents and visitors, to pass through the city's land, sea and air checkpoints. Of these, around 7.52 million are expected to use land boundary control points. The department predicts that the BCS Day for Outbound Travel will be October 4th, with around 660,000 people leaving the city, while the BCS Day for Arrivals will be October 1st, with around 610,000 people coming in. The BCS's control points are expected to be low-wool, Lockmark, Chow and Shenzhen Bay. The department advised travelers to plan a hit, avoid traveling during peak periods, and pay attention to radio and TV broadcasts for updates on traffic conditions. at the control points. The Inter-Departmental Working Group on Festival Arrangements, led by the Chief Secretary, said officials will liaise closely with them England counterparts to ensure a smooth passenger flow. Police have pledged to deploy sufficient manpower to manage the hundreds of thousands of people, expected to flock to both sides of the Victoria Harbor for the National Day fireworks. Frank Jung has details. Ho-Jin-Hin, acting superintendent of the Enforcement and Control Division of Traffic, Kalun West, said the number of people watching the 23-minute display on October 1st could be as many as last year. According to our past experience, the last event, the number of people on both sides of the harbor had reached around 290,000 people during the last national fireworks display. So we expect we'll have to handle a similar size of crowd this time as well. "I can assure that the police will have sufficient manpower and will adopt the most appropriate crowd management measure to ensure the public can enjoy the event in a safe and auditing manner." Mr. Ho did not reveal the number of officers to be deployed for the event. Parts of the city near fireworks viewing spots on both sides of the harbor will be closed off before the fireworks display starts at APM. The area around Golden Bohenia Square will be closed at 4pm, while road closures on certain parts of Hong Kong island will begin from 6.30pm. On the Kalun side, road closures will start from 5pm in Chim Sa Tre and the West Kalun Cultural District. To facilitate cross-border travel, there will be a temporary bus stop next to the West Kalun terminus for the high-speed rail to carry visitors to Huang Gang and Shenzhen Bay. In stock market news, healthcare shares took a beating after the United States targeted pharmaceuticals in a new round of tariffs. The move unnerved investors, with Hong Kong stocks recording their first weekly loss this month. The Hang Seng Index fell 1.4% to 26,128 points. mainland markets also retreated with the Shanghai Composite Index losing 0.6%, and the Shenzhen Component Index closing 1.8% lower. Education Chief Christine Choi said officials had thought about suspending school for a third day because of super-tiphon regasa, but decided not to. Damon Pang reports. All classes were suspended on Tuesday and Wednesday. On Wednesday night, the government announced that classes for primary and secondary schools would resume on Thursday. Education Secretary Christine Choi explained the decision process on a commercial radio program. Firstly, we gathered information from other government departments, including on road and flooding conditions in different districts. Another thing was the situation of school campuses. Once we had the information, we felt there was basically no problem with resuming school it was safe. Ms. Choi said around 30 schools had asked for the class suspension to continue into Thursday, because their campuses were ready. Around a dozen other schools, meanwhile, asked to be allowed to conduct classes online out of safety concerns. The Education Minister noted that classes have been much affected due to adverse weather this summer, and that's why officials wanted to resume classes as soon as possible, so long as conditions permitted. She was asked why classes were cancelled for the whole of Tuesday, as the observatory issued a gale or storm signal number 8 only at 2.20pm on that day. Ms. Choi said the safety of pupils is always the top priority in the decision-making process. She noted that it would be difficult for parents to pick up their children in the middle of the day, and that this would have added to the burden on the transport network. Of the 30 schools that requested a third day of class suspension, all but two returned to normal today. The government has been urged to designate beaches, harbor friends, and low-lying areas as restricted zones during extreme weather to prevent storm chasing. Before the arrival of Raghasa this week, the government repeatedly warned people against going out to watch the waves, but some ignored the advice and put themselves in danger. DAB Lomaker at Whitlund said Macao has effective deterrence, which Hong Kong could adopt. He spoke to Matthew Hong. Currently, in Hong Kong, we do not have such legislation or laws that restrict people, or personnel to enter restricted areas, or some dangerous areas during the storm or extreme weather. We could learn from Taiwan, Shenzhen, or Macao. They have regulations regarding extreme weather. During extreme weather, they would vaccinate areas to be restricted areas, so that when people enter the restricted area, they will be punished. In light of increasing extreme weather events, any suggestions to the government to enhance pre-disaster proactive measures? How could technology assist these precautionary process? We recommend that the government to expand the flood-sensor network and also the AI prediction system, and integrating them with the observatory data to achieve real-time flood forecasting. This would allow for pre-emptive evacuation preparation in low-lying areas. Also, the Legislative Council had previously approved funding for stormwater drainage system in preventive works, expected to be completed by 20-28 or earlier. In a short term, I believe that temporary measures are necessary, such as adding floodgates, retaining walls, road gullies, and installing water barriers along the river banks. The government has worked through the night to return the city to normality after Raghasa Dept. Hong Kong. How do you see the coordination and efficiency of the recovery work? The government's advance planning and all the government's stuff who have stayed at their duties during and after the storm, sanitation workers and also caring team volunteers across districts play crucial and indispensable roles. Also, many residents praised that the government's deployment and early warning efforts in response to this typhoon is very good, and stating that the life and property were fully protected and allowing them to escape or survive from disaster. Police have arrested two women for allegedly taking a child storm chasing in Southern District when Raghasa skirted the city. Hundreds of thousands of people have been evacuated in the Philippines with at least four people confirmed dead as a severe tropical storm lash to country. As Asam Khan reports, the storm comes just days after a super typhoon battered the far north of the country. Residents in Manila took precautions by moving into makeshift shelters as severe tropical storm buloi, known locally as Oppong, barrelled closer, some people in the Philippine capital were evacuated from high flood risk areas. We are better to be safe here before the river rises. We live just by the corner of the river, and it would be difficult when the water rises. When the floods from the river surges, the flood waters reach up to the third floor of our homes, and we would not be able to leave. I have three children and I don't want anything to happen to them. It's better to be ready and safe. The storm swept west across the central Philippines at sustained speeds of 110 kilometers per hour. Civil defense officials in southern Luzond, Begold region, said some 400,000 people have been evacuated as walls collapsed and trees were uprooted by buloi. Authorities warn that more people may be evacuated because of the sheer number of houses that have been destroyed and are blocking roads. Videos shared on social media showed people using boats or trudging through waste deep water to navigate flooded streets in the Vesaya Islands off the central Philippines. In the far north of the country, thousands still remain displaced in the aftermath of super typhoon ragasa. The storm killed at least nine people as it skirted the Philippines earlier this week and roared towards Hong Kong, where the number 10 signal was enforced for nearly 11 hours on Wednesday. The Philippines is hit by an average of 20 storms and typhoons each year, putting millions of people in disaster prone areas at risk. The Hong Kong Observatory says severe tropical storm buloi poses a limited threat to the SAR, but the weekend will be windy. U.S. President Donald Trump says he will not allow Israel to annex the occupied West Bank. It will not happen, he said, after meeting Arab leaders who are also concerned about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. A growing number of countries recognizing Palestinian statehood has alarmed Israel, triggering fears that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu might respond by annexing the West Bank to wreck a two-state solution. Italy and Spain, meanwhile, are providing navy protection to 50 civilian boats which were targeted by drones off the coast of Greece. Environmentalist Greta Thunberg is among the activists and the flotilla that is trying to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza. We are continuing our journey towards Gaza to deliver humanitarian aid to a population that has been systematically starved. That's a continuation of decades and decades of suffocating oppression, apartheid and occupation. There are over 2 million people who are living trapped under a seat who are being systematically starved by Israel. And we are doing our bare minimum and stepping up when our governments are not fulfilling their legal obligations to act, prevent a genocide. The United Nations has urged countries to provide funds so an agency that helps Palestinian refugees can keep operating. Felipe Lazarini, who heads UNRA, warned that without financial and political support, its work will soon be crippled. He said the situation is particularly bad in Gaza were more than 65,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks. a man-made famine. What's going on in Gaza is absolutely unbearable. We had a week ago, last week, the Commission of Inquiry, which came to its conclusion, describing it as a genocide, it added, in fact, its conclusion to many other, I would say, corners or NGOs, including Israeli NGOs, who basically concluded to the same. And it is true that Gaza, today, people are experiencing hell in all its possible facets. It's quite common now today to hear in Gaza that people just dream to be able to properly die rather than to go through this suffering. The U.S. Justice Department has filed criminal charges against former FBI director James Comey in a move seen by another attack by U.S. President Donald Trump on his opponents. Mr. Comey is accused of making false statements and obstructing justice in connection with his investigation into whether Moscow helped Mr. Trump win the 2016 election. The president has claimed that the rival Democrats were behind what he called the Russia hoax. Mr. Comey faces up to five years in prison, if convicted. In a defiant video message, he declared his innocence. My family and I have known for years that there are costs to standing up to Donald Trump. But we couldn't imagine ourselves living any other way. We will not live on our knees. And you shouldn't either. I love dearly, recently said that fear is the tool of a tyrant, and she's right. But I'm not afraid. Mr. Trump said he has nothing to do with the indictment against the former FBI chief whom he sat during his first term. But the president described Mr. Comey as one of the worst human beings the U.S. has ever known. U.S. President Donald Trump has announced a new raft of tariffs, hitting branded drugs, trucks, and furniture. It's the harshest trade policy moved by the U.S. president since last April's reciprocal tariffs on U.S. trading partners. From next month there will be 100% tariffs on pharmaceutical drugs, 50% on kitchen cabinets and bathroom fanaties, 30% on upholstered furniture, and 25% on heavy trucks. Writing on social media, Mr. Trump said the pharmaceutical tariffs would not apply to companies building U.S. manufacturing plants. According to the U.S. International Trade Commission, 60% of all furniture sold in 2022 were imports, most of which were from Asia. Mr. Trump also signed an executive order declaring that his plan to sell TikTok's U.S. operations to American and global investors meets legal requirement. According to a 2024 law, the short video app will be banned unless its Chinese owners sell it. Mr. Trump has delayed enforcing the law until mid-December, as he tries to line up investors and win approval from Beijing. "I had a very good talk with President Xi and let respect for him. Hopefully he has a let respect for me too. And we talked about TikTok and other things, but we talked about TikTok and he gave us to go ahead. You know, it's run by American investors and American companies. Great ones, great investors, the biggest, you don't get bigger, I don't imagine." China says it hopes the United States will provide an open and fair treatment for TikTok. A climate scientist has hailed China's latest pledge to cut emissions as one of the most significant steps taken in response to the climate crisis. In a video address to the United Nations Climate Summit, President Xi Jinping announced plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 7 to 10% by 2035. Professor Benjamin Horton, Dean of City University School of Energy and Environment, spoke to Frank Young. "It's one of the most significant step forwards that we've made to solve the climate crisis, perhaps since the Paris Agreement in 2015. This is because China is the single biggest emitter. The emissions that China have are so large that if it reduces its emissions, it has a significant impact on global emissions, and therefore it can have a significant impact on the climate that impacts every single person on planet Earth. So China over the last decade or so has made pledges to reduce emissions and meet carbon neutrality, and that's a very, very good sign for climate science." China earlier also pledged to be carbon neutral by 2060. How would you think this shorter-term target of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 7 to 10% contribute to achieving carbon neutrality in China? "If you're going to achieve carbon neutrality, you have to start reducing your emissions. So you have to start somewhere." So scientific community is very, very pleased to see that China is taking a lead on climate change and that can be in contrast geopolitically to what's happening in the United States. And it indicates to me that there is a closer alignment between science and policy in China and Hong Kong than there is between science and policy in the United States. But we need to do more. I mean, as we have seen with the super-tie phone that hit Hong Kong, Taiwan, and mainland China, that climate change is accelerating. So as we move through the next decade or so, we need to see further reductions globally and China has to take the lead in this. It's now 26 minutes past six. Sports is next. Good evening. I'm Tom McElendon, tennis first and second-seat co-cogoth of the United States has opened her title defense at the China Open in Beijing, with a straight-sets victory over Russia Camilla Rakimova. The American won a tight first-sets 6-4 before taking the second-six love to move into the round of 32. In another US-Russian contest, American Sofia Kenan defeated Polina Kudumatova also in straight sets. It wasn't a good day for the Russians with sixth-seat Andrei Ruble bow-and-bowing out in the men's round of 32. He lost to Italian Flavio Caballi, 7-6-6-3. Moving on to football and Aston Villa have notched their first win of the season, with a 1-0 victory over Italian side Bologna in the Europa League. But it was a different story for Scottish Giants Rangers, who felt a Belgian club gank. Todd Harling has the story. Despite failing to win any of their first five matches in the Premier League, Villa were the pre-tournament favourites for the Europa League. Taking on Bologna at home, Villa took the lead after 13 minutes, after Captain John McIntyne fired into the bottom corner from the edge of the area. That would be all the attacking they needed, as they held on for a 1-0 win. Elsewhere, Scottish Giants Rangers felt a Belgian side gank in Glasgow. Rangers were put on the back foot after Muhammad Dio Monday was given a red card, just before the break for a wild challenge. Gank took advantage, 10 minutes into the second half, when former Celtic striker Oki-on-Gew scored the only goal of the match. Meanwhile, Lio notched a 2-1 victory over Norwegian side brand. Leon were 1-0 winners away to Utrecht, Stuttgart beat Celtic Vego 2-1, while Porto were 1-0 winners away to RB Salzburg. In golf, Rory McAroy says Team Europe will be playing for history at the Ryder Cup, which teases off in New York tonight. As the most experienced player at the tournament, the Northern Irishman says he's taken on the leadership mantle for the holders against Team USA. McAroy was the youngest member of the European team during their dramatic Ryder Cup win in Illinois 13 years ago. You know, basically since 2012, you look at the results of the Ryder Cup, the home team is won every time, but they also have won convincingly. You know, it's been pretty one-sided either way. So whatever team, whether that's Europe or America, that is the one to break that duck, I think, is, honestly, is going to go down as one of the best teams in Ryder Cup history. And we are here, and we are playing for history, and we're playing for the players that came before us. And that's the sport. Thanks, Tom, and before we go, the weather forecast for tonight and tomorrow, mainly cloudy one or two showers tonight and tomorrow morning, the minimum temperature will be around 28 degrees in a day, hot with sunny periods, and the maximum temperature growing up to around 32 degrees. Looking ahead, a few showers in the following couple of days, and still windy with swalls on Sunday. Mainly fine midweek next week right now, and the observatory 30 degrees Celsius with the relative humidity, standing at 77%. Thanks for listening to The News Rev Podcast from RCHK.