Tuesday, April 23, 2024
The weather in Hong Kong is cloudy with showers, sometimes heavy rain and squall thunderstorms. The maximum temperature is about 27 degrees. Moderate southerly winds. The weather will remain unstable in the coming days, with occasional showers and thunderstorms.
Hong Kong news
● The first phase of the legislation to control disposable plastic tableware and products will come into effect on the 22nd, with a six-month adaptation period. Some large restaurant chains have recently introduced measures to no longer provide disposable plastic tableware for takeaways, and customers can add $1 to buy disposable environmentally friendly tableware. Some members of the public have pointed out that it is inconvenient to carry reusable tableware on weekdays, and in order to avoid cleaning, they will choose disposable tableware. Some members of the public also said that they bought takeaway to eat at home, considering environmental protection and did not buy additional tableware, and they may change to dine-in when eating out in the future.
●The Department of Justice and the Ministry of Justice of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on 22 August to strengthen co-operation between the two places on dispute avoidance and resolution. The signing ceremony was held at the Hong Kong Legal Hub and was co-signed by the Secretary for Justice, Mr Anthony Lam, SC, and the Minister of Justice of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Dr Waleed Mohammed Alsmani. It is expected that the enhanced co-operation between the two places under the MoU will bring benefits to both sides.
● Liu Yunhai, member of the Party Committee and second-level inspector of the Guangdong Supervision Bureau of the State Administration of Financial Supervision and Administration, revealed yesterday that a total of 32 mainland banks have participated in the cross-boundary wealth management connect pilot so far, achieving full coverage of cities in the Greater Bay Area. He also pointed out that about 73,400 individual investors participated in the pilot, involving 15.283 billion yuan (RMB, the same below) of cross-border remittance of relevant funds, and the balance of the market value of investment products purchased was 5.839 billion yuan.
●HA representatives participated in a two-day recruitment event organised by the HKSAR Government in London and Manchester on 20 and 21 April UK time, with about 300 medical students and medical practitioners attending in person or online. The delegation, which included representatives from the Hospital Authority, the medical schools of the two universities in Hong Kong and the Department of Health, collaborated with the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in London and the Hong Kong Medical Association of the United Kingdom to promote the pathways, registration arrangements and specialist training and development of overseas medical talents in Hong Kong.
● According to data released by the police, there were more than 3,100 online account robbery cases between August and December last year, with a loss of more than 65 million yuan. In the first three months of this year, there was another upward trend, from 99 cases in January to 558 cases in March, an increase of 4.5 times, and the amount of losses also rose from 3.3 million yuan to 11.6 million yuan, of which 9 out of 9 cases occurred on the WhatsApp platform.
● In the past two weeks, the Police and Immigration Department officers jointly launched an operation codenamed "Shelling" to combat illegal prostitution activities, during which a total of 51 persons were arrested. During the operation, a large quantity of evidence such as condoms, mouthwash and lubricants was seized, and most of the arrested persons were prosecuted and some were handed over to the Immigration Department for follow-up.
● Regarding the transformation of petrol stations into fast charging stations or petrol power stations, Secretary for Environment and Ecology Tse Chin-wan said at the meeting of the Legislative Council Panel on Environmental Affairs on the afternoon of the 22nd that about 7 and a half of the newly registered private cars in Hong Kong in the first two months of this year are electric vehicles, which need the support of adequate charging infrastructure. The Government should plan for the future development of more than 180 petrol filling stations and LPG filling stations in Hong Kong as early as possible to ensure that land resources are used appropriately. It is expected that about 100 or more chargers will be available at existing petrol filling stations in the financial year 2024-25.
● Voter registration for 2024 will begin on the 22nd. The Registration and Electoral Office appeals to eligible individuals or bodies who have not yet been registered as electors/voters of geographical constituencies, functional constituencies and/or Election Committee subsectors to submit applications for registration on or before the statutory deadline of June 2 for their registration particulars to be included in the final registers of electors/voters to be published in September this year.
● TV Broadcasting (511, also known as TVB) yesterday announced its quarterly operating data, reiterating its expectation that the group will achieve a significant positive EBITDA for the full year. In addition, based on the current business momentum, it is expected to record profit attributable to shareholders for the six-month period ended December 31, excluding special one-off items. Stimulated by the news, TV broadcasting closed at 3.14 yuan yesterday, up 6.4%. TVB explained that the increase was partly due to the maintenance of Jade's high prime-time TV advertising unit price and the repatriation of blue-chip corporate advertisers who had not advertised on the Group's channels for some time.
●WeChat Pay HK and WeChat Pay have been successfully connected to Hong Kong Tramways, Star Ferry, Citybus and New Lantau Bus to further expand the coverage of transport payments in Hong Kong. When passengers take buses, MTR and trams, if they use WeChat Pay HK to pay for their trips, they can simply open the App and click on "Ride Code" or search for the WeChat Mini Program "Ride Code", select the corresponding QR code for buses, MTR or trams, and scan it with the camera above the meter. If passengers use "WeChat Pay" to pay, they can search for the "ride code" of the WeChat mini program, and then open the QR code and put it at the toll collector to scan.
synthesis
● According to the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin announced that at the invitation of Wang Yi, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Minister of Foreign Affairs, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit China from April 24 to 26.
● According to the Ministry of Emergency Management of the People's Republic of China, recently, most of Guangdong Province has experienced heavy rain to heavy rain, and local heavy rain, and the National Defense General has upgraded the four-level emergency response for flood control in Guangdong Province to the third level. On April 22, the Office of the National Disaster Prevention, Mitigation and Relief Committee and the Ministry of Emergency Management, together with the State Food and Material Reserves Administration, allocated 6,000 folding beds, 6,000 towels and quilts, 3,000 family emergency kits and other central disaster relief materials to Guangdong Province in accordance with the impact of the disaster and the needs of local disaster relief work, and fully supported Guangdong to do a good job in the relocation and resettlement of the affected people.
● According to Xinhua News Agency, Liu Suzhen, a survivor of the Nanjing Massacre, died on April 21 at the age of 93. At the time of the Nanjing Massacre in 1937, Liu Suzhen was only 6 years old when she was burned in her right arm by the Japanese army with boiling water. Up to now, there are only 35 living survivors of the Nanjing Massacre registered by the Nanjing Association for Assistance to the Victims of the Japanese Invasion of China.
● According to Zhongxin Jingwei news, some third-party platforms have launched train ticket payment and ticket grabbing services, selling products such as "acceleration packages", claiming that they can buy tickets first. In this regard, a 12306 customer service said that the railway department did not authorize any third-party software to purchase tickets, and if there are no tickets on the official website, there are no tickets on the third-party platform. The customer service said that the ticket-grabbing function provided by the third-party platform to the user is equivalent to the passenger entrusting the information to the third-party platform, and the third-party platform takes the passenger's information to 12306 for standby.
● According to Xinhua News Agency, as an important platform for the market-oriented allocation of factors, the total annual transaction volume of the mainland property rights market will reach 25.38 trillion yuan in 2023, a year-on-year increase of 12.79%, and the transaction scale will grow steadily, hitting a record high.
●The China Earthquake Network officially determined: A 6.2-magnitude earthquake occurred in Hualien County, Taiwan at 2:32 today, with an epicenter depth of 10 kilometers. Previously, a 6.3-magnitude earthquake occurred in the sea area of Hualien County, Taiwan at 2:26, with an epicenter depth of 10 kilometers.
international
● According to Chinanews.com, on the 21st local time, Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya announced on social media that the Turkish police had arrested 36 suspects associated with the extremist organization "Islamic State". In 2013, Turkey declared the Islamic State a terrorist organization. Earlier, the group carried out a number of bombing attacks in Turkey, killing and injuring dozens of people.
● According to Chinanews.com, the Russian Ministry of Defense reported on the 21st that Russian air defense systems shot down 194 Ukrainian drones in the past day, as well as 8 "Hippocampus" and "Hurricane" rockets. According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, the Russian army destroyed a MiG-29 aircraft, a command post, a radar to detect air targets, and an S-300PS air defense missile system of the Ukrainian Air Force within 24 hours. Over the past 24 hours, the Ukrainian army has lost up to 1,000 servicemen.
● According to Yonhap News Agency, a survey released by South Korean polling agency Realmeter on April 22 showed that South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol's approval rate for his governance performance was 32.3%, a new low in nearly 19 months. According to the report, from April 15 to 19, Realmeter conducted the survey among 2,509 voters over the age of 18 across South Korea. The results showed that Yoon Suk-yeol's approval rating for his administration fell by 0.3 percentage points from the previous week to 32.3%, hitting a new low since the first week of October 2022 (32%). The negative rating increased by 0.7 percentage points to 64.3%.