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AdvertisementClimate changeOpinionHong Kong OpinionKen ChuOpinion | When travellers think sustainability, make them think Greater Bay AreaThe joint efforts of policymakers, businesses and young people can help visitors turn climate action into everyday action
Reading Time:4 minutesWhy you can trust SCMPKen ChuPublished: 5:30am, 28 Jul 2025Earlier this year, Hong Kong launched its first fully electric ferry. In June, jurisdictions within the Greater Bay Area development zone marked a national event for the environment. Against this backdrop, a quiet but important shift is under way.AdvertisementPolicymakers in the Greater Bay Area are no longer just thinking about sustainability; they are setting it in motion. With the development zone becoming a hub for experimentation in smart infrastructure and climate innovation, the time is ripe to consider a low-carbon tourism corridor linking cities through cleaner and smarter ways to travel.
Guangdong province, Hong Kong and Macau are already re..

USCIS new director said the present US citizenship is easy and can be memorized. The US citizenship test, officially known as the Naturalization test, is an examination that an applicant has to take to become a naturalized American citizen. This test is not for green card holders unless they are applying for citizenship. The new director of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service said the existing test is too easy and the answers can be memorized. The Donald Trump administration is planning to bring back the 2020 version of the test. US Citizenship test
First, the applicants have to submit Form N-400 seeking for naturalization. They need to pass a background check and meet residency and other requirements. Then there have to attend an interview where they take two tests: English and a civic test. In the civic test, there are 100 questions; the officer asks the applicant 10 and the applicant must answer at least six correctly. During the first term of Donald Trump, there w..

CBP posted the photo of a sniffer dog inspecting the cooked head of a pig as CBP alerted travelers to US to declare all food items. The Customs and Border Police Saturday issued a reminder to people traveling to the US that they are required to declare meats, fruits, vegetables, plants, seeds, soil, animal as well as plant and animal products they are carrying to the country. This is not a new rule but recently there have been several cases where non-declaration of these items got travelers penalized. The post drew attention as the social media reminder was accompanied by a photo of a CBP detection dog inspecting a cooked pig's head wrapped in aluminum foil. What does the rule say?
According to CBP rules, all travelers entering the United States are required to declare meats, fruits, vegetables, plants, seeds, soil, animals, as well as plant and animal products (including soup or soup products) they may be carrying. The declaration must cover all items carried in checked baggage, ..

AdvertisementHong Kong societyHong KongHong Kong Economy2,000 people left without power in Hong Kong after water leak in buildingThree care homes for elderly among those affected at I-Feng Mansions in To Kwa Wan
Reading Time:1 minuteWhy you can trust SCMPHarvey KongPublished: 12:20am, 27 Jul 2025Updated: 12:27am, 27 Jul 2025About 2,000 people, including residents in three care homes for the elderly, were left without electricity on Saturday evening after a water leak in a Hong Kong complex prompted the power provider to suspend the supply.
AdvertisementUtility firm CLP Power said the electrical systems in I-Feng Mansions in To Kwa Wan were suspected to have been affected by water leakage, causing problems with the electricity supply to parts of the residential complex.
“Under the instruction of firefighters, CLP Power suspended the electricity supply to the premises at around 6.15pm so that the building’s electricians could conduct further investigation and repairs,” a company spokesma..

AdvertisementAccidents and personal safetyHong KongHealth & EnvironmentMan dies in Hong Kong after collapsing on board yacht due to suspected heatstrokePolice say 54-year-old was on board yacht near Bluff Island’s Ung Kong Wan
Reading Time:1 minuteWhy you can trust SCMPHarvey KongPublished: 11:17pm, 26 Jul 2025A man has died in Hong Kong after collapsing on board a yacht due to suspected heatstroke, the Post has learned.
AdvertisementPolice said the vessel was near Bluff Island’s Ung Kong Wan when the 54-year-old collapsed, with his wife reporting the incident shortly after 5pm.
Heatstroke was suspected to have been the cause, according to a source.
“Officers arrived at the scene after receiving the report, with the man being airlifted by helicopter to Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital for treatment while he was unconscious,” the force said.
“He was later certified dead, with his cause of death to be determined by an autopsy.”
AdvertisementThe Observatory issued a “very hot weat..

Representational image A pet groomer in North Carolina has been arrested after disturbing videos surfaced showing her punching and slamming dogs during grooming sessions. Kirsten Rhea Taylor, 28, was taken into custody on Thursday in Mooresville and charged with four counts of felony animal cruelty, reported New York Post. Authorities identified her as the employee seen in videos recorded at Classy Critters, a local pet grooming business. The footage was captured by a co-worker and posted to Facebook, sparking public outrage and prompting an immediate investigation by Iredell County Animal Services. The videos reportedly show Taylor hitting dogs multiple times and roughly handling them, including slamming one frightened dog against a wall. At least four client-owned dogs were seen being treated aggressively, police said. Due to the serious nature of the allegations, the case was handed over to the sheriff’s office, which later issued arrest warrants. The owner of Classy Critters confir..

Donald Trump (AP file photo) US president Donald Trump on Friday said he was never informed that his name appeared in files related to Jeffrey Epstein, the late sex offender. Speaking to reporters in Scotland, Trump denied a report by The Wall Street Journal which claimed that the attorney general had briefed him in May. “No, I was never, never briefed, no,” he said.BREAKING: Trump Blasts Reporters To Their Faces For 'Making A Very Big Thing' About Epstein FilesWhen asked about Ghislaine Maxwell’s recent interview, Trump avoided details. “I have nothing to say about it. She is being talked to by a really smart man. I don’t know anything about the conversation,” he said. On the subject of a possible pardon for Maxwell, Trump dismissed it. “A lot of people have been asking about pardon. This is not the time to be talking about pardon,” he said. Trump reiterated what he told reporters before flying to Scotland. “You’re making a very big thing about something that’s not a big thi..

AdvertisementUS-China relationsEconomyChina EconomyChinese eyeing US degrees turn more discerning – is the opportunity still worth the risk?US has ‘pre-eminent global research universities, for now,’ professor says as data shows Chinese still want American degrees but are pickier
Reading Time:5 minutesWhy you can trust SCMPRalph Jenningsin San FranciscoPublished: 6:00am, 26 Jul 2025Updated: 6:15am, 26 Jul 2025Jason Lin of Xiamen surprised his mother this year by applying to 10 undergraduate schools in the United States and receiving a US$15,000 annual scholarship from Brandeis University near Boston. There, he intends to earn a master’s degree in economics over the next five years.
AdvertisementBut to his mother, it’s like he’s venturing into the wild, compounding the anxiety parents often feel when their adult children leave the nest.
She’s afraid of “instability” in the US. And Lin, 19, has concerns that even a traffic ticket could get him deported. But he weighed the pros and cons, ..

AdvertisementChina-EU relationsOpinionWorld OpinionLanxin XiangOpinion | How the EU has marginalised itself on the global stageTrump’s “America first” stance should have forced the EU to address its own strategic vulnerabilities and pursue a more multipolar world strategy
Reading Time:3 minutesWhy you can trust SCMPLanxin XiangPublished: 5:30am, 26 Jul 2025The summit between the European Union and China has turned out to be a non-event, the worst so far. The reason for this is not too difficult to understand.AdvertisementAfter US President Donald Trump returned to the White House, the EU has found itself falling between two stools, torn between Washington and Beijing. Europeans were surprised when Trump won the US presidential election in 2016 but viewed it as a one-off aberration. Without the challenge posed by Trump, though, EU leaders might not see the need to make any fundamental changes.European leaders have made three miscalculations. First, they cannot grasp the sea change broug..

Representational photo (Getty Images) Starlink faced a major service outage on Thursday, affecting users across the United States and several other countries. Thousands of users reported sudden internet disruptions and, in many cases, complete blackouts. Cities like Los Angeles, New York, Dallas, Seattle, and Washington, DC were among the worst hit. Users in Canada, the UK, Germany, Brazil, Mexico, and the Philippines also faced similar problems. Outage tracker DownDetector showed a spike from 3,400 reports at 3:09 p.m. ET to nearly 58,000 by 3:24 p.m. The number began dropping after 4 p.m., but issues continued, according to Newsweek. Starlink confirmed the disruption on its website, saying the team was investigating. In a post on X, the company said, “We are actively implementing a solution
we appreciate your patience.”Elon Musk also responded, saying, “Service will be restored shortly. Sorry for the outage. SpaceX will remedy root cause to ensure it doesn’t happen again.” The outag..