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RTHK:Video News
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Content provided by RTHK.HK. All podcast content including episodes, graphics, and podcast descriptions are uploaded and provided directly by RTHK.HK or their podcast platform partner. If you believe someone is using your copyrighted work without your permission, you can follow the process outlined here https://player.fm/legal.
Video news from Hong Kong and around the world.
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21 episodes
Mark all (un)played …
Manage series 3315931
Content provided by RTHK.HK. All podcast content including episodes, graphics, and podcast descriptions are uploaded and provided directly by RTHK.HK or their podcast platform partner. If you believe someone is using your copyrighted work without your permission, you can follow the process outlined here https://player.fm/legal.
Video news from Hong Kong and around the world.
…
continue reading
21 episodes
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×Tourists, bus enthusiasts and panda-lovers are being invited to take a ride on an open-top double-decker set to ply sightseeing routes in the city. Citybus on Friday introduced a newly re-painted vehicle featuring the six pandas living in Hong Kong. The bus will be used on five sightseeing routes, including two new ones to be launched on March 17. For less than HK$50, travellers can go to tourism hotspots such as Repulse Bay and Aberdeen, or travel on the existing lines between Tsim Sha Tsui, Central and West Kowloon Cultural District. Transport minister Mable Chan said the bus company has worked with Southern District Council, Ocean Park and community groups to come up with the new routes. "Not only will the bus take passengers around, those on board can also feel they're on a lively, cute and happy giant panda bus, which will blend into the scenery of different districts," she said at a press conference. "This not only puts into practice 'tourism everywhere', it's also 'pandas everywhere'. This injects a dose of vibrancy into different areas." The minister said that last year, the company's open-top bus routes carried around 560,000 passengers. The managing director of Citybus, Richard Hall, said the new routes offer stunning views around Hong Kong's shorelines. "These two new routes will run along the dramatic coastline of Hong Kong Island, including the famous Victoria Harbour, the iconic beaches surrounding Southern District, with the incredible sunsets to be seen along the shoreline," he said. The firm said it might paint pandas on more of its buses in future, depending on demand.…
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The vice-chancellor of the University of Hong Kong (HKU) on Friday said the institution would shoulder the financial challenges with the SAR amid a potential funding cut to the education sector. Financial Secretary Paul Chan earlier hinted there was room to reduce education spending with a public deficit of HK$100 billion, pointing to substantial reserves of local universities. At a media luncheon, Zhang Xiang said he hopes any spending cuts would be moderate. “As a responsible community member, HKU will shoulder with the community, we will all together face this challenge,” he said. “We also hope that the government's financial cuts to the higher education will be moderate so we can survive.” Zhang said that while HKU has reserves which it built up over 100 years, much of this money has already been earmarked for future projects. “We are building many buildings, more than 10 buildings on campus. This itself is multi-billion dollars already earmarked for this,” he said. The HKU head added that a large portion of reserves consist of endowment funds from donors that support professorships.…
Many lawmakers on Thursday voiced support for an increase in tram fares, with Hong Kong Tramways saying it needs the rises to stay afloat. The company hopes to put up fares by 30 cents to HK$3.30 for over 12s, by 10 cents to HK$1.60 for children aged 3 to 11, and by 20 cents to HK$1.50 for senior citizens. Managing director Paul Tirvaudey told lawmakers at a transport panel meeting that the firm does not expect passenger numbers to return to pre-Covid levels because of structural changes to the population and economic activities on Hong Kong Island. “Hong Kong Tramways is at the same time very resilient, as it has been profitable in 120 years of existence. But at the same time, it is also still fragile with several critical risks which if not addressed properly, could threaten its long term viability,” he said. “So our ambition at the moment is to keep consolidating Hong Kong Tramways in the long term, for it to contribute even more to the attractiveness of Hong Kong and to the quality of life of its residents.” Legislator Gary Zhang, who supported the fare increase proposal, asked if the company could work on "smart driving", to improve efficiency. Tirvaudey said the company has been looking into this, for example by installing more cameras on trams for investigations and training. "Regarding the most advanced technologies, we had some tests. However, the difficulty would be to extend, to generalise these kind of technologies to 165 trams,” he said. “Our fleet is quite large, and in terms of cost efficiency, it could still be very expensive compared to the benefits. So the return on investment has not been proven at the moment, but this is something that we closely monitor.”…
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Secretary for Culture, Sports and Tourism Rosanna Law on Friday said a recording of the opening ceremony for Kai Tak Sports Park will be aired after editing in order to provide the best viewer experience. The opening show will be held at 6.30pm on March 1. It will be shown by four TV channels at 9.30pm. On an RTHK radio programme, Law stressed that the arrangement is not due to technical constraints, but is to coordinate the transition between different scenes. "We hope to air the programme in one go, so viewers can enjoy a packed programme. After having many considerations, we think going for post-production is better," she said. Asked about claims that post-production demonstrates a lack of professionalism, the minister said there are many ways to show how magnificent and beautiful the sports park is. "We have a strong performance line-up, and they have various collaborations and crossovers," she said. Law added that apart from the line-up already announced, including Hong Kong singers Joey Yung and MC Cheung, and fencing star Vivian Kong, special guests may also feature in the ceremony.…
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President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday that France was entering a "new era" three years after the Russian-Ukrainian war and that he planned to tell US President Donald Trump that he could not "be weak" with Vladimir Putin. Macron also defended Volodymyr Zelensky, the embattled leader of Ukraine, speaking ahead of a planned visit to the White House to meet Trump next week. Macron has sought to coordinate a European response to Washington's policy shift in US-Russia relations, hosting this week two emergency meetings with leaders of EU and non-EU nations, including Germany, Britain, Canada, and Norway. He said he wanted the French to grasp the magnitude of the threat coming from the Kremlin, calling Russia "an existential threat to Europeans." In a Q&A session on social media on Thursday, Macron, 47, declared that France was embarking on a "new era." "We are entering an era in which each of us must ask what we can do for the French nation and the Republic," Macron said after discussing Ukraine with party leaders earlier in the day. Trump has sent shock waves around Europe by saying he is ready to resume diplomacy with Putin to end Russia's war against Ukraine, over the heads of European countries and Kyiv. Trump will meet in Washington with Macron on Monday and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Thursday next week, the White House said. "I'm going to tell him, 'You can't be weak with President Putin. That's not who you are, it's not your trademark, it's not in your interest," Macron said. Meanwhile, the Kremlin said that any British plan to send troops to Ukraine as part of a potential peacekeeping mission would be unacceptable for Russia and that it was monitoring statements by Starmer with concern. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said this week that Moscow views as a "direct threat" the idea of having Nato member troops on the ground in Ukraine, even if they operate there under a different flag. (AFP/Reuters)…
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The government announced on Thursday that 8,500 tickets would be up for grabs for the opening ceremony of the Kai Tak Sports Park on March 1. Tickets will be available starting at 10am on Friday through Urbtix on a first-come, first-served basis, and they will cost HK$10 each. The figure is among the total number of 33,600 seats available for the event, with the government and park operator each responsible for the distribution of 16,800 tickets. More than 8,000 tickets will be distributed for free to underprivileged families, charities and other district organisations. Secretary for Culture, Sports and Tourism Rosanna Law said while the show that starts at 6.30pm would not be broadcast live, the ceremony would be aired later in the evening by four TV channels at 9.30pm. She pointed out that overseas viewers could also enjoy the broadcast. "For overseas viewers, I think they also can [watch] through the apps or through the channels of our different free TV channels... watch it together with the Hong Kong audience at 9.30pm at home in their countries or in their areas," Law said. She said although the park is able to live stream the event, the government decided not to do that because the broadcast version would be able to showcase the park’s facilities better. Singers, celebrities and athletes from Hong Kong and the mainland were among those slated to perform at the ceremony. Law did not reveal how much the ceremony cost, but she said the government would spend its budget wisely. “I have to give special thanks to all the participating artists and also athletes and performers, most of them actually do not require us to provide a special remuneration, aside from the minimum, for example the makeup or hair-do.”…
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Public hospital doctors will start using generative AI to help them draft medical reports from next month. The technology will be used to summarise a patient's clinical data, including lab results, the Hospital Authority said on Thursday. The authority's chief executive, Tony Ko, said the introduction of AI is to save doctors time when preparing their reports. “All the reports have to be finally checked and authorised by the doctor himself, so the doctors will be responsible for the accuracy of the report that truly reflects his or her decision in terms of what the content is to be included in the report,” Ko said. The authority said it will first test the system at Caritas Medical Centre, Princess Margaret Hospital, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Tin Shui Wai Hospital, Tseung Kwan O Hospital and United Christian Hospital. The authority also said that patients will soon be able to get copies of their medical reports via its HA Go app.…
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The city's Ombudsman has urged housing authorities to speed up the turnover of recovered public rental flats, such as by shortening the period between taking back a home and issuing a refurbishment order. A probe by the watchdog revealed that it normally took around two and a half months for a home taken back by the Housing Department to be ready for its next tenants to move in, and nearly three months when the Housing Society carries out the process. "The procedures for the recovery of flats by the Housing Department and the Housing Society, and their arrangements for refurbishment and reallocation of recovered flats need further revamping, to speed up turnover of public housing flats and ensure optimal utilisation of precious public housing resources," Ombudsman Jack Chan said. In the past five years, the Housing Department has recovered 15,700 public housing flats annually on average. The Housing Society, meanwhile, took back around 1,100 units each year. Authorities have taken steps to expedite the refurbishment of recovered flats since the watchdog launched an investigation last year, Chan said. He noted that the Housing Department would issue a refurbishment works order within three days of a public housing tenant moving out, while the Housing Society set the period to within two weeks. The watchdog said in its report that the two-week period "might raise doubts among members of the public as to whether it is reasonable". "[The Housing Society] could bring forward the time for notifying the contractors to start work in the estate," Chan said. He said the Housing Department over the past five years managed to refurbish each recovered flat in 43 days, which is in line with its target. Ninety percent of renovations of homes recovered by the Housing Society met the completion target of 60 days, but Chan said the body should carry out a "comprehensive review" to cut down the refurbishment period. In response, the Housing Department pledged to review and study the recommendations in detail to allocate public housing flats to those in need as soon as possible. The department also noted that it has previously looked into introducing measures such as making sure public housing applicants can move in once the refurbishment of their new home is completed.…
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Police on Wednesday said that a man had been arrested on suspicion of scamming people by sending phishing text messages that start with a hashtag. A little more than a year ago, authorities introduced a scheme under which registered firms and organisations can send messages that start with the symbol, in a bid to combat scams. The force said officers received around 30 reports in the past week about suspected fraud messages with the hashtag. Officers then arrested the suspect, 23, on Monday, and plan to lay charges against him. "After careful planning, officers arrested the man in Mong Kok on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud," said senior inspector Wan Chun-hong from the police's Cyber Security and Technology Crime Bureau. "The suspect was inside a van, and police seized two mobile phones and a radio jammer that was in operation." Wan said at a police briefing that one victim claimed to have lost around HK$22,000 after clicking a hyperlink from a suspicious text message and giving out credit card information. The Office of the Communications Authority said they found that some of the recent suspicious hashtag messages were not sent out by local telecommunication firms. Principal regulatory affairs manager Andrew Lo said people should be extra careful when they see their phone signal dip suddenly from maximum coverage to 2G, as messages they receive during that period could be from people using illicit radio jammers. "The jammers would pretend to be a 2G base station, because under this standard, mobile phones generally won't authenticate the 2G station," he said at the same briefing. "So it's possible to deceive these phones, connect to their network and send fraudulent messages to them." Lo added that extra caution is also needed when the messages involve strange hyperlinks, or that they ask for money.…
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Ride-sharing operators and the taxi trade can coexist under a "balanced and sustainable" framework on regulating car-hailing services, Uber's boss in Hong Kong said on Wednesday. Estyn Chung, Uber Hong Kong’s general manager, also said he's hopeful for further exchanges with the government and the taxi industry. "We believe that a balanced and sustainable regulatory framework will allow taxis and ride-sharing to co-exist for the benefit of all Hongkongers, for Hongkongers to have more choice when it comes to point-to-point transportation," Chung said. "We believe it's really important to protect the flexibility and earnings opportunity of drivers, and also to protect the safety and service quality for all Hongkongers." Representatives from Uber attended an afternoon meeting with government officials to share their views on regulating ride-hailing platforms in the city. Earlier, taxi industry representatives held talks with transport authorities before deciding to call off a planned strike to push for a crackdown on illegal ride-hailing services in the SAR. The government is seeking to introduce a regulatory framework to the Legislative Council on ride-sharing platforms, with authorities stressing illegal services would not be tolerated.…
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The taxi industry has called off a strike next month to push for a crackdown on illegal ride-hailing services, after meeting with transport officials on Wednesday morning. The Hong Kong Tele-call Taxi Association had earlier threatened five days of industrial action from March 5, saying their business was seriously hurt by their unlicensed rivals. The association's chairman, Wong Yu-ting, apologised after the meeting for causing "unease" to the public. He added authorities should be given time to take enforcement action, so a strike was no longer necessary. But Wong maintained the government should take action against ride-hailing service providers. "The number of arrestees (ride-hailing drivers) is actually not the top priority. Most importantly, they should take immediate action to prosecute the drivers, so as to deter others from doing so," Wong told reporters. Ryan Wong, chairman of the Hong Kong Taxi Council, described the meeting as positive and constructive. He said the government would submit a legislative proposal within this year to regulate ride hailing platforms. "The ride-hailing platforms must ensure all the vehicles hailed from their platforms must have legal licence," Wong said. He also hoped the government would require ride-hailing service providers to attend professional training beforehand, and have their vehicles undergo inspections annually. Transport Commissioner Angela Lee said the government was looking at next steps. "The government is now studying with the Department of Justice on fine-tuning existing laws to optimise the enforcement process," she added.…
Record-breaking blockbuster "Ne Zha 2" is set for general release in Hong Kong on Saturday, as it dethroned Disney's "Inside Out 2" and became the highest grossing animated film of all time -- based on domestic ticketing data. It premiered in the city on Tuesday night, after it garnered significant attention in the SAR over the past month, which saw the animated movie break records for the number of distributors and daily screenings for a mainland film in Hong Kong. "We are honoured to bring this world-class phenomenon-level animation to Hong Kong and Macau, allowing viewers to experience the charm of Ne Zha in the theatres," said a representative of Emperor Motion Pictures, which is a co-distributor of the film. Meanwhile, some local fans went to Shenzhen to see the animation, ahead of its SAR release. "I've seen online comments about the animated film, saying it is a good and touching movie with an excellent storyline that's enlightening for viewers," said a Hongkonger who viewed the movie across the border. "I specifically watched the first movie in Hong Kong and came today to watch its sequel here in Shenzhen, as it hasn't been screened in Hong Kong. I want to see what makes this animation so successful in attracting many adults and to learn about the latest development of Chinese animation." A sequel to the 2019 hit "Ne Zha 1", "Ne Zha 2" has already packed out cinemas in China, where it claimed the title of the nation's biggest box-office hit since its release last month. State media, citing ticketing platform, Maoyan, said on Tuesday the fantasy epic had raked in over 12.32 billion yuan (US$1.72 billion), which surpassed "Inside Out 2" that took US$1.7 billion following its release last year. "Ne Zha 2" tells the tale of a rebellious young deity who uses his powers to battle formidable foes after his village is destroyed. The film was released overseas this month, sparking hopes that it would garner similar acclaim abroad. The original "Ne Zha" became what was then China's highest-grossing animated film, after it was released in 2019.…
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Secretary for Health Lo Chung-mau said on Wednesday the government plans to establish up to five community pharmacies in each district, so patients can more easily get their medicine. Speaking on RTHK’s Overview Policy programme, Lo said through the Hospital Authority’s centralised procurement, patients and private doctors can get cheaper medicine for chronic and episodic illnesses at community pharmacies. He said community pharmacies will also help to reduce drug wastage as patients need not take home several months’ worth of medication. “With community pharmacies, citizens will not need to get months of medication at one time. They can get one month of medication after visiting the doctor,” Lo said. “They also don't need to have a monthly follow-up appointment to get the same medicine. Instead, they can go to a community pharmacy to fill a prescription,” he added. The health minister also expressed the hope that citizens would consult their own family doctors first for minor illnesses or chronic diseases. He added residents can select a general practitioner in their neighbourhood from a list of eligible doctors provided at District Health Centres (DHC). Currently, there are seven DHCs in the city, located in Kwai Tsing, Sham Shui Po, Southern District, Tsuen Wan, Tuen Mun, Wong Tai Sin and Yuen Long. Lo also said the government has subsidised family doctors in the community to provide screening services for diabetes and hypertension for eligible citizens.…
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