For decades, moving Benin’s cotton harvest from the north of the country to its southern ports was a slow, difficult journey along unpaved roads. Benin is Africa’s largest cotton producer, but it lacked the infrastructure needed to connect its northern cotton-growing belt to the coast and processing
Within a week of its release, Netflix’s new Korean drama Teach You a Lesson, directed by Hong Jong-chan, topped the platform’s global non-English rankings for the week of June 1 to 7. Adapted from the popular webtoon Get Schooled (2020), the 10-episode series about a government-backed vigilante unit
A new round of negotiations over the Middle East war was set to kick off on Sunday as Iranian negotiators and US Vice-President J.D. Vance arrived in the Swiss host city, even as Tehran said it was closing the Strait of Hormuz again over Israeli attacks in Lebanon. Before boarding his flight to Euro
Hong Kong is the only place in China capable of replicating the financing model of US tech giant SpaceX, which leverages market forces to grow rapidly, former leader Leung Chun-ying has said, urging the city to develop professional services for the emerging aerospace industry. Leung, a vice-chairman
Theatre chain Golden Village (GV) and film distributor Clover Films have added eight more screenings of Dear You in its original Teochew language in Singapore. The additional screenings will take place from June 25 to 29 at GVmax at GV VivoCity. Tickets will go on sale at 3pm on June 22 via GV’s box
Hong Kong families are turning away from long-standing summer school favourites in Britain and North America amid soaring airfares, with education consultants reporting a sharp surge in demand for alternatives in Asia. Applications for British summer schools fell 35 per cent this year as Hong Kong p
Danny Loong did not fully grieve his father’s death until he became a parent himself. For two decades after his father’s passing, Loong remembered him mostly as a provider and disciplinarian: a man who pushed hard, cared quietly and offered little by way of tenderness. “He would ask me, ‘How come yo
Thailand’s crackdown on a loophole that effectively bypasses its restrictions on land ownership by foreigners is causing prospective buyers to delay purchase decisions on luxury villas in resort destinations such as Phuket and Koh Samui, according to agents. Bangkok has stepped up its scrutiny of bu
US Donald Trump has sparred with most of his fellow Group of Seven leaders at some point. But Italy’s Giorgia Meloni this week did something none of them dared: she escalated. Unlike Spanish Socialist Pedro Sanchez, one of the few leaders in Europe who has made political capital of being berated by
A China-led team has developed an AI system to detect space hurricanes, a phenomenon in the Earth’s upper atmosphere that can disrupt satellite signals, radar and radio communications. While the hurricane-like atmospheric phenomenon can have major space weather effects, detection has so far relied o
HKFP Yum Cha returns for a special episode with award-winning journalist Karen Hao. Author of bestseller Empire of AI and founder of the AI Resist List, Karen discusses with HKFP how grassroots movements around the world are taking on the tech elites. Is the recent backlash against the AI roll-out s
China said on Friday it will impose a tariff of 55 percent on beef imports from Australia after shipments from the country hit Beijing’s annual limit. The price of beef in China has trended downwards in recent years, with analysts blaming oversupply and a lack of demand as the world’s se
One of the things Hong Kong superstar Tony Leung Chiu-wai likes about acting is the novelty — “you will never repeat the same role”. When it comes to the changes wrought on his beloved cinema by technology like AI, though, there are some things it seems he would rather keep constan
The investors who excitedly bought into the SpaceX IPO, making Elon Musk a trillionaire, have implicitly made a prediction on the future. The company’s US$1.8 trillion valuation is based on the expectation that its AI business will have revenues of US$322 billion by 2030 – which is quite an ey
Hong Kong Free Press won three honourable mentions at the prestigious Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) Awards on Thursday night – a new record for the newspaper. HKFP photojournalist Kyle Lam’s five shots of the Tai Po fire tragedy were recognised in the Excellence in Photography&
China called Britain’s jailing of two dual Chinese-British nationals for spying on behalf of Beijing “a classic political farce” on Friday, urging the country to rectify its “erroneous actions”. A British court jailed former UK Border Force official Peter Wai and retire
An annual Reuters Institute report on the global news industry has said that Hong Kong journalists are facing “a widening range of intimidation, including tax investigations,” amid a deepening financial crisis among local media outlets. The 2026 Digital News Report said that journalists
A British court on Thursday jailed two dual Chinese-British nationals after they were convicted of spying on Hong Kong dissidents in the UK on behalf of China. Former UK Border Force official Peter Wai, 40, was jailed for 10 years and retired Hong Kong policeman Bill Yuen, 65, was given an eight-yea
Hong Kong leader John Lee has said that China’s top official Xia Baolong concluded his two-day visit by giving “affirmations” and “recognitions” to the local government. Lee spoke to local media on Wednesday afternoon after seeing Xia, director of the Hong Kong and Maca
The Hong Kong government will make it easier for owners of subsidised flats to lease their properties in September by waiving the land premium requirement. The Housing Authority said in a statement on Thursday that it had approved a scheme allowing owners of subsidised sale flats to rent out their u