Education chief dismisses push for final-year university internships amid AI threat

South China Morning Post - Nov 4, 2026

Hong Kong’s education minister has shot down a suggestion to turn the final stretch of undergraduate degree programmes into an internship period to boost employability, amid a fall in entry-level jobs due to the rise of artificial intelligence (AI). Secretary for Education Christine Choi Yuk-lin said on Wednesday that university courses should not be changed solely to meet manpower needs or be based on single indicators such as labour market supply and demand data. She was responding to lawmaker...

Read full article

More News

US midterm takeaways: Trump’s blame game, Elon’s space lasers and the rest of the world

Follow the SCMP’s live coverage here Democrats won control of both chambers of the US Congress in Tuesday’s midterm elections, dealing a heavy blow to President Donald Trump as voters vented frustration over rising costs and the Iran war. With Democrats set to take over Congress in January, they will have the power to block Trump’s agenda and investigate his administration. Under these conditions, the president is expected to face a far more constrained final two years in office, with...

US midterm takeaways: Trump’s blame game, Elon’s space lasers and the rest of the world

Trump suffers midterms trouncing weeks before Xi meeting

Democrats won control of both houses of Congress in midterm elections as US voters punished President Donald Trump over inflation, corruption and rising healthcare costs. The party was on track for at least 54 Senate seats after upset wins in long-standing Republican strongholds including South Carolina, Texas and Kansas. In the House of Representatives, Democrats were set to pick up dozens of seats and gain a double-figure majority. A collapse in Trump’s approval ratings amid record petrol and...

Trump suffers midterms trouncing weeks before Xi meeting

Ex-HKEX vice-president and mother charged over alleged confidential data access

A former vice-president of the Hong Kong stock exchange’s operator and his mother have been charged by the city’s corruption watchdog over allegedly accessing confidential information of listed companies, which yielded more than HK$500,000 (US$63,720) in investment profits. Geoffrey Tong Po-hang, 39, former vice-president of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX), and his mother Leung Yiu-chun, 68, appeared in Eastern Court for mention on Wednesday afternoon. They jointly face one count of...

Ex-HKEX vice-president and mother charged over alleged confidential data access

As US-Iran war shows, China’s influence can’t secure its line to Gulf oil

China is becoming increasingly important to the Gulf’s economic future. Yet the Gulf remains capable of disrupting China’s own. That is the contradiction exposed by the US-Iran war. Beijing’s importance as an energy customer, investor and technology partner has grown, but its ability to guarantee the maritime routes connecting the Middle East to East Asia remains limited. The next contest in global energy will concern not only who produces and consumes it, but who can preserve access when...

As US-Iran war shows, China’s influence can’t secure its line to Gulf oil

Taiwan flags massive PLA naval mobilisation, spike in air sorties

Taiwan expressed concern on Tuesday over more than 100 People’s Liberation Army naval vessels and mainland Chinese coastguard ships sailing across the western Pacific, including the Liaoning strike group conducting drills in the Philippine Sea. The maritime deployment overlapped with a sharp spike in PLA aerial activity near the island. Taiwan’s defence ministry reported 49 sorties of PLA aircraft in the 24 hours to 6am on Tuesday, marking the highest single-day total this year. The number...

Taiwan flags massive PLA naval mobilisation, spike in air sorties

‘Fake democracy’ or a plus for Beijing? Chinese internet users on the US midterms

Follow the SCMP’s live coverage here Chinese social media users have voiced mixed views on the US midterm elections, criticising American politics while debating the implications of President Donald Trump’s political future for China. Held on Tuesday, the midterm elections saw Democrats win control of both chambers of the US Congress, taking the House of Representatives and the Senate from the Republicans. Democrats reached the 218-seat threshold needed for a House majority and also secured...

‘Fake democracy’ or a plus for Beijing? Chinese internet users on the US midterms

Tencent unveils Hy4 as open-weight AI race with DeepSeek, Z.ai, Alibaba heats up

Chinese tech giant Tencent Holdings has rolled out its latest flagship artificial intelligence model, Hy4, seeking to challenge top open-weight rivals with enhanced agentic capabilities built to power its enterprise software ecosystem. Released on Wednesday, the large language model (LLM) introduced visual understanding for the first time. Hy4 could process images, analyse complex charts and conduct visual mathematical reasoning, according to the Shenzhen-based company. Tencent said the release...

Tencent unveils Hy4 as open-weight AI race with DeepSeek, Z.ai, Alibaba heats up

Democratic-led US Congress to turn up heat on Beijing over AI, Taiwan: analyst

Follow the SCMP’s live coverage here A Democratic-controlled US Congress will ramp up pressure on Beijing over Taiwan, artificial intelligence (AI) and export controls, even if the US midterm results leave Washington’s overall strategy towards Beijing unchanged, according to a Chinese analyst. Zhao Minghao, a professor at Fudan University’s Institute of International Studies, called the results so far a “blue tsunami” and a “big win” for the Democrats that would turn US President Donald Trump...

Democratic-led US Congress to turn up heat on Beijing over AI, Taiwan: analyst

Operator should lose tender marks in future over meter glitch, experts say

Hong Kong authorities should waive related fines and introduce a penalty mechanism for the city’s parking meter operator after a four-hour outage disabled about half of all meters, an industry expert and a lawmaker have suggested. They also called for clearer refund terms for Octopus card users on Wednesday, a day after the government promised to issue refunds to affected drivers. A back-end glitch cut off communication with about 11,000 parking meters from 8.20am to 12.15pm on Tuesday. The...

Operator should lose tender marks in future over meter glitch, experts say

‘I wasn’t on the ballot’: Trump deflects blame as Democrats on track to control Congress

Follow the SCMP’s live coverage here In what appears to be an early attempt to distance himself from the Democrats’ historic gains, US President Donald Trump has sought to shift attention away from his party’s performance in the midterm elections, taking to social media to remind voters that he “wasn’t on the ballot”. “I wasn’t on the Ballot and if I was, we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE! Thank you for your attention to this matter,” Trump wrote as early results showed Democratic gains in places...

‘I wasn’t on the ballot’: Trump deflects blame as Democrats on track to control Congress

John Lee begins Beijing, Shanghai trip to deepen mainland economic ties

Hong Kong’s leader has begun a four-day visit to Beijing and Shanghai to deepen economic ties with mainland China, calling for closer collaboration on finance and innovation and technology (I&T), while pledging to help Chinese enterprises expand overseas. Speaking at the annual Beijing-Hong Kong Economic Cooperation Symposium in the capital on Wednesday, Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu said the Northern Metropolis project would create a new platform for the two cities to cooperate on research...

John Lee begins Beijing, Shanghai trip to deepen mainland economic ties

US voters unleash blue wave, handing Congress to Democrats in rebuke to Trump

Follow the SCMP’s live coverage here After weeks of insults, fearmongering and eye-popping spending on advertising, Americans settled down to vote on Tuesday, unleashing a blue wave that saw Democrats projected to take the House and the Senate, in a sharp rebuke to US President Donald Trump and his controversial governing style. In a stunning development, Associated Press also projected that Democrat James Talarico won the Texas US Senate election, defeating Republican nominee Ken Paxton and...

US voters unleash blue wave, handing Congress to Democrats in rebuke to Trump

Recommended