A transgender alum has sued her former secondary school over “discriminatory” policies that barred her from having long hair.

Oscar Fung, who studied at Lung Kung World Federation School Limited (LKWFSL) Lau Wong Fat Secondary School in Tai Kok Tsui from 2019 to 2025, filed a writ in the District Court on Thursday, local media reported.

According to the writ, Fung experienced gender dysphoria at the age of 14 when her parents separated.

During the Lunar New Year holiday in 2024, Fung decided to grow out her hair. However, she was reprimanded at school after the break because her hair exceeded the length permitted for male students and was accused of violating school rules.

The writ stated that Fung was scolded by two teachers for almost 30 minutes one day, with the teacher threatening to withdraw her from science competitions she was representing the school in.

Fung felt embarrassed and angry as other students witnessed the scene. She was then sent to the disciplinary teacher, who accused her of “cosplaying as a girl” and told her to cut her hair.

The writ also mentioned that Fung had filed a complaint with the Equal Opportunities Commission, but it was dismissed.

‘Injury to feelings’

Fung alleged in the writ that the school had breached the Sex Discrimination Ordinance, as female students were allowed to grow long hair while male students were not.

She asked the court to declare the school’s rules discriminatory and to order it to pay damages for “injury to feelings,” a term under the ordinance.

The writ also stated that one of the school’s vice principals, Pang King-fai, had twice dismissed the Sex Discrimination Ordinance.

During a meeting with Fung before the 2023-24 school year ended, Pang said the school was not subject to the Sex Discrimination Ordinance.

The second instance was during a ceremony on the first day of school for the 2024-25 academic year in September 2024. Pang told pupils publicly that male students’ hairstyles did not fall under the ordinance, and any challenges would be handled through disciplinary measures.

According to the writ, another vice principal, Li Wing-yee, told Fung that if she did not abide by the school’s rules, she should change schools.

A hearing for the case has been scheduled for July 15, according to the Judiciary’s website.

A former police officer who led daily press briefings during the 2019 protests and unrest has been appointed to a top post leading the Hong Kong government’s media relations department.

Authorities announced on Monday that John Tse would begin the role as head of the Information Services Department (ISD) on Tuesday.

Tse was previously appointed in June 2024 as an information coordinator at the Chief Executive’s Office, where he formulates public relations and media strategies.

Prior to that, he was a communications secretary at the office, whose responsibilities included managing Chief Executive John Lee’s social media, and the principal assistant secretary in the Security Bureau.

Tse is best known as the former chief superintendent of the police force’s public relations branch.

He led daily press conferences during the anti-extradition protests in 2019, when police would announce arrest figures and deployments.

In 2020, Tse was awarded the chief executive’s “commendation for government/public service” for his “outstanding contribution in relation to the handling of social incidents.”

‘Most suitable candidate’

Tse’s appointment as director of the Information Services Department comes after the government launched open recruitment for the position, as well as for the head of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department.

The recruitment broke the authorities’ long-standing tradition of appointing administrative officers to top roles. The requirements for the jobs included “political acumen.”

According to the government statement on Monday, Tse was identified as “the most suitable candidate” following a selection process.

“Mr Tse has extensive experience in public administration, is highly skilled in handling media and public relations, and possesses outstanding leadership and management capabilities,” Secretary for the Civil Service Ingrid Yeung said in the statement.

Tse was rumoured to be up for the job even before the government announced the recruitment.

According to political insiders in October, Tse would be replacing then-ISD chief Apollonia Liu, who at the time was rumoured to be moving to the permanent secretary role at the Security Bureau. Liu took up the new post in February.

Over 60 per cent of Hong Kong’s homeless are unfamiliar with how to apply for medical waivers, and nearly three-fifths are reducing medical visits due to increased public hospital fees, an NGO has found.

ImpactHK, which serves the city’s homeless, surveyed 120 people from February 1 to March 31 to understand how medical fee reforms were affecting the community.

The survey was done after a sweeping public hospital fee overhaul came into effect on January 1, which increased prices of some services, such as accident and emergency (A&E).

At the same time, authorities relaxed the threshold for medical waivers, allowing more people to qualify for more affordable healthcare.

ImpactHK’s survey, however, found that only 38.7 per cent of respondents indicated they understood how to apply for the waivers.

Around 32 per cent said they had a slight idea, while almost 30 per cent said they had no knowledge at all.

Citing its figure that 73 per cent of respondents knew that the fee waivers existed, ImpactHK said there was a “high awareness, low mastery” gap.

It urged the government to simplify documentation requirements for the waiver applications. Currently, applicants must submit income proof for at least the past six months.

The NGO said that the homeless face challenges in keeping documents in order while living on the streets, which are subject to frequent sweeps by authorities.

Some banks charge HK$50 for each physical monthly statement, and while access to digital statements may be exempt from administrative fees, it is difficult for those who are homeless to have a smartphone and a phone number, the NGO said.

ImpactHK urged automatic fee waivers for people experiencing homelessness who are registered with outreach teams to “bypass the digital and administrative divide.”

It also said that NGOs should be allowed to act as correspondence addresses for those who are homeless, as they do not have a fixed abode.

60% cutting hospital visits

The increased public hospital fees were part of the government’s sweeping subsidy reforms, which authorities said were needed to strengthen the sustainability of the healthcare system.

Under the new pricing structure, A&E patients classified as urgent, semi-urgent or non-urgent – per the Hospital Authority’s five-tier triage system – are charged HK$400, up from HK$180. Those categorised as critical or emergency are treated for free.

Fees for general outpatient clinics and specialist outpatient clinics also increased.

According to ImpactHK’s survey, almost 60 per cent of respondents said they were reducing their trips to the hospital as a result of the increased fees.

Almost 30 per cent said they were seeking other subsidised alternatives for medical services, and around 13 per cent said they were cutting down on other expenses to handle the burden of increased medical fees.

See also: Less-urgent visits to Hong Kong public hospitals’ A&Es down 21% after fee rise

Regarding the medical waiver applications, ImpactHK said around one-third of respondents indicated they were worried that the information they provided would be insufficient and that the process would take too long.

The NGO also said the current waiver threshold of HK$7,575 for a single-person household was “unrealistically low.” It proposed increasing the threshold to the median monthly income, which stands at HK$10,500 as of the last quarter of 2025.

Hong Kong Disneyland Resort has recorded a 36 per cent drop in net profit in its latest fiscal year, although other figures, including hotel occupancy rate and guests’ per capita spending, trended upwards.

The theme park announced its results for its 2024-25 fiscal year, ending in September 2025, on Monday.

Amid rising costs, Disneyland saw a net profit of HK$536 million, down from HK$838 million in the 2023-24 fiscal year.

The park’s attendance was also down, from around 7.7 million to 7.5 million, while the hotel occupancy rate improved.

The resort has three hotels – Hong Kong Disneyland Hotel, Disney’s Hollywood Hotel and Disney Explorers Lodge. The overall occupancy rate rose from 73 per cent during the last fiscal year to 80 per cent, the park said.

Per capita spending also increased by 2 per cent, the statement said.

“Our steady performance is a testament to the resort’s resilience and timeless appeal,” Tim Sypko, managing director of Hong Kong Disneyland Resort, said in a press release on Monday.

The park is set to expand with the addition of new Pixar- and Marvel-themed experiences. The new Pixar attractions will coincide with the animation studio’s 40th anniversary and the upcoming release of Toy Story 5.

Opened in September 2005, Hong Kong Disneyland Resort had struggled to turn a profit for nearly a decade before turning the ship around in the 2023-24 fiscal year.

Before that, it had suffered nine consecutive years of losses. The park had three years of steep losses of over HK$2 billion from the 2019-20 fiscal year to the 2021-22 fiscal year amid the 2019 protests and unrest, followed by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The park relies heavily on tourists. For the 2024-25 fiscal year, 64 per cent of visitors were inbound guests, while the remaining were local.

Hong Kong Disneyland Resort is currently celebrating its 20th anniversary, with festivities to continue until early June.

A Hong Kong political commentator charged with disclosing details of a national security investigation will stand trial in October.

Wong Kwok-ngon, known by his pen name Wong On-yin, appeared at the District Court on Tuesday.

Judge Stanley Chan said the pre-trial review would take place behind closed doors on August 11, and the trial would begin on October 9.

Before the hearing began on Tuesday, Judge Chan told those in the public gallery that police would take down their names if they called out words of encouragement for Wong after the hearing ended.

Chan noted that at the court mention last month, after the hearing ended and he had left the room, people made comments of support to the defendant.

Wong, 72, has been detained since his arrest in December for allegedly divulging in a YouTube video details of enquiries made by police during a national security investigation.

The offence falls under the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance, a homegrown security law known as Article 23. It was added to the ordinance in May as part of subsidiary legislation, and Wong is the first to be charged under the new law.

Wong is also charged with sedition over videos posted on YouTube between January 3 and December 6 last year. He plans to plead not guilty to both charges.

The defendant, who continues to represent himself, told the court he had dropped his legal aid application.

Asked by the judge whether he had legal knowledge for self-defence, Wong said he had “three law degrees” and was confident of handling the case.

The prosecution has set aside eight days for its case and plans to go through around 30 commentary videos on Wong’s YouTube channel. The transcripts of the videos run to more than 900 pages.

The prosecution added that it had lined up six witnesses, all police officers.

Wong was taken in by national security police in December, on the same day he was set to appear at a press conference about the fatal Wang Fuk Court fire, which had occurred days before. He was then released.

He was arrested four days later on suspicion of “prejudicing of investigation of offences endangering national security” and “doing an act that has a seditious intention with a seditious intention.”

A mainland Chinese tourist was rescued after falling into the sea while reportedly taking photos at a lookout point near Clear Water Bay.

Police said they received a report just before 11am on Sunday that a woman lost her footing near a lighthouse by Fat Tong Mun, a channel separating Clear Water Bay and Tung Lung Chau, and fell into the sea. She was saved by somebody on a passing boat.

According to the police investigation, she fell from a three-metre-high cliff.

The 46-year-old was conscious when police arrived. She was sent to Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital in Chai Wan for treatment, police added.

Local media reported that the woman was hiking with two friends when the incident happened. They stopped at the lighthouse for photos, and she slipped and fell. Hikers in the area alerted police.

She was reportedly rescued by a man in his 70s who was passing by on a fishing boat and heard her cries for help.

Located on an island called Tung Lung Chau, the lighthouse is a popular photo spot, according to conservation NGO Green Come True. But it cautions visitors to be safe and not get too close.

“However, please be aware that the lighthouse is located below the cliff. For safety reasons, it is recommended that you do not get too close for photography,” the NGO wrote in a Facebook post in 2024.

The incident comes a week before mainland China’s five-day Labour Day Golden Week holiday. Authorities expect that around 980,000 visitors from the mainland will cross the border, an increase of 7 per cent compared with last year.

Ahead of the Easter holiday, the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department said that with more visitors expected at country parks during the break, the public should follow direction signs when hiking and refrain from standing close to cliff edges.

More than 201,000 people took part in Hong Kong’s annual Cinema Day on Saturday, enjoying discounted HK$30 tickets at theatres citywide.

The Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau hailed the event as a “great success.”

In a Facebook post on Sunday, the bureau said that this year’s Cinema Day drew 201,519 moviegoers, with 1,694 screenings held across 52 cinemas in the city.

Saturday’s attendance was up around three per cent compared with last year, when around 195,000 people went to the cinema for discounted tickets.

Among the popular movies attracting cinemagoers on Saturday was Night King, a local comedy that came out last year but was re-released as a director’s cut this month.

Local media reported that some Shenzhen residents travelled to Hong Kong to watch films at discounted prices.

Fourth Cinema Day

Hong Kong held its fourth Cinema Day amid years of box office slumps and theatre closures.

This year’s Cinema Day saw a record high occupancy rate of 81 per cent, compared with 67 to 77 per cent in previous years.

However, the total number of cinema seats has fallen from almost 43,000 at the end of 2020 to around 36,800 in July 2025.

Cinema Day was introduced in 2023 as part of the government’s “Happy Hong Kong” campaign to boost the city’s economy, as years-long Covid-19 measures dampened sectors from tourism to entertainment.

The 2023 event attracted over 221,400 filmgoers – the highest so far.

According to a government statement earlier this month, Cinema Day attracts over three times as many admissions as on a usual day. Cinema Days from 2023 to 2025 saw over 600,000 moviegoers purchase discounted movie tickets, the statement read.

Cinema Day is sponsored by the Cultural and Creative Industries Development Agency under the Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau.

A Hong Kong actor convicted of rioting at the Legislative Council during the 2019 pro-democracy protests and unrest has lodged an appeal at the Court of Final Appeal.

The top court is scheduled to hear a leave to appeal application from Gregory Wong, the Judiciary’s website showed on Thursday. No hearing date has been set yet.

Wong, 47, was jailed for six years and two months in March 2024, after being found guilty of rioting in the Legislative Council on July 1, 2019.

Protesters stormed the legislative complex that day, breaking glass windows and doors and scrawling protest slogans on the walls.

Some also sprayed black paint on Hong Kong’s emblem inside the legislative chamber, while others vandalised the portraits of previous Legislative Council presidents.

During the trial, Wong’s lawyer argued that the actor had gone to the Legislative Council to hand a portable charger to a reporter.

Wong was among 14 defendants charged in the rioting case. Eight pleaded guilty, including activists Owen Chow, Ventus Lau and Althea Suen.

Six others pleaded not guilty, sitting through a 34-day trial. Except for two of them, who were journalists reporting on the incident, the remaining defendants were found guilty.

Wong’s application to the top court comes after he lost his appeal at the Court of Appeal last month.

The appeal hearing also saw six other defendants in the original case appeal their sentences, convictions or both. All of their appeals were rejected.

Dengue fever poses a “moderate” risk to Hong Kong, a health official has said after the city recorded its first local case of the infection this year.

Albert Au, head of the Centre for Health Protection (CHP), said in an RTHK radio programme on Wednesday that rising temperatures and the imminent rainy season made environments more favourable for mosquito breeding.

“The infection rate for mosquito-borne diseases in Southeast Asia and neighbouring regions remains high,” Au said in Cantonese. “So we think the risk of an outbreak cannot be neglected.”

Hong Kong is investigating a local case of dengue fever after a 21-year-old man, who had not travelled outside the city lately, tested positive for the dengue virus.

According to a government statement on Tuesday, the man developed symptoms including fever and a rash last week, and is currently in stable condition in hospital.

He told authorities he had recently been bitten by mosquitoes near a construction site in Penny’s Bay on Lantau, where he works.

Environmental inspections showed there were “multiple sites conducive to mosquito breeding” there, including drainage channels with weeds and leaves, as well as stagnant water, the statement read.

The man lives at Tai Wo Estate in Tai Po. The CHP has set up a consultation booth at the estate to provide health assessments and dengue fever antibody tests for people with symptoms.

12 imported cases this year

So far, 12 other cases of dengue fever have been recorded this year, all of them imported.

Dengue fever, a viral infection transmitted to humans through mosquito bites, is most commonly recorded in warmer climates, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Most people experience mild or no symptoms, although severe cases – often caused by multiple infections – can lead to death.

Au said there might have been undiagnosed imported cases of dengue fever in the community that transmitted the virus locally. However, authorities have not found epidemiological links between the man’s case and other previously recorded imported cases.

In 2025, the city recorded 59 cases of dengue fever, all imported. In 2024, there were 161 cases, five of which were local.

According to the government statement, the 21-year-old’s household contacts and workers at the construction site are so far asymptomatic.

Members of the public are advised to inspect their homes and prevent water accumulation to remove potential mosquito breeding grounds.

The Hong Kong government is seeking to confiscate HK$127 million in assets belonging to pro-democracy media mogul Jimmy Lai, following his conviction and jail term under the national security law.

Lai has been summoned to the High Court on July 8 to hear the government’s application. The case will be presided over by Esther Toh, one of the three judges who heard his national security trial.

In a writ submitted to the High Court earlier this month, the secretary for justice listed assets to be “forfeited” to the authorities.

The list includes credit balances in bank accounts belonging to or linked to the Apple Daily founder.

Fifteen bank accounts under Lai’s name – 10 with HSBC, two with Hang Seng Bank and three with Shanghai Commercial and Savings Bank – have over HK$32 million.

The government is also seeking to seize bank accounts belonging to 17 companies linked to Lai. It is also demanding that Lai give up shares in 17 companies, some of which overlap with the 17 firms whose assets the government is seeking to seize.

Among the companies whose assets and shares the government wants to seize are Dico Consultants Ltd, which has over HK$404,302 in its HSBC account, and Lai’s Hotel Properties Ltd, which has over HK$3.1 billion in its four HSBC accounts.

Dico Consultants was at the centre of Lai’s fraud case relating to an alleged lease violation. Lai was accused of allowing the company to occupy parts of Apple Daily’s headquarters in Tseung Kwan O, despite the newspaper premises being rented for printing and publishing.

Lai was jailed for five years and nine months in December 2022 after being found guilty of fraud, but the conviction was overturned by the Court of Appeal in February this year.

The government also applied to seize HK$10 million in bail money that Lai had given to the court in December 2020, before he was later denied bail and remanded.

The media mogul was jailed for 20 years in February after being found guilty of conspiring to collude with foreign forces and of sedition, both offences under the Beijing-imposed national security law.

The jail term is the longest handed down so far for a national security offence. His lawyers have said that Lai will not appeal.

Hong Kong will launch a public consultation this quarter on its first five-year blueprint in tandem with China’s, Chief Executive John Lee has said, earlier than previously announced.

Speaking at his weekly press conference on Tuesday morning, Lee said, “The government is working hard and aiming to release the public consultation documents for the five-year plan within this quarter.”

Lee announced in February, ahead of the Two Sessions in Beijing, that Hong Kong would launch its first blueprint alongside China’s 15th Five-Year Plan. The following month, he said public consultations for the city’s five-year plan would be conducted in the fourth quarter of this year.

The chief executive also said on Tuesday that the inaugural plan would be “closely related to livelihood issues,” encompassing areas such as economic development, property, housing and education.

“The five-year plan will create a synergising force in society… and provide more certainty for businesses to pursue development,” he said in Cantonese.

Since the 1950s, five-year plans in China have set the stage for the country’s social and economic development initiatives outlined by the Chinese Communist Party.

The government is formulating “thematic studies on various areas” and drafting public consultation documents, Lee said. Authorities will then consult those studies and public views before publishing an official five-year plan by the end of the year.

The Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Bureau’s website has already set up a dedicated page on the city’s “proactive alignment” with China’s five-year plan.

Lee added that the plan would ensure Hong Kong can integrate into the national blueprint and contribute to the success of One Country, Two Systems.

The government has already established a “coordination mechanism” with the Legislative Council to take forward “studies and thematic research,” he said.

A former administrator at an international kindergarten has been jailed for two years and one month after pleading guilty to accepting over HK$640,000 in bribes to help secure admissions for children applying to the school.

Fatima Rumjahn, an ex-administrator at the English Schools Foundation’s (ESF) Wu Kai Sha International Kindergarten, appeared at the West Kowloon Law Courts Building on Monday to receive her sentence.

She was charged nearly four years ago with taking money from 13 parents and a middleman in exchange for moving children up the kindergarten’s admissions waitlist.

Handing down the sentence, Deputy District Judge Amy Chan said Rumjahn “took advantage of the parents’ wish to provide better education for their children and proactively offered to help them jump the queue.”

Rumjahn pleaded guilty in October 2024 and agreed to be a prosecution witness in the hope of receiving a lighter sentence. She testified against the 13 parents and the middleman, who was helping his business partner’s daughter secure admission.

The 14 other defendants were found guilty in February and sentenced in early April to up to one year and two months.

According to the prosecution’s case, Rumjahn accepted bribes while working at the kindergarten between September 2018 and August 2021, promising to give the children priority admission. Those children had already passed their admission interviews but were at the bottom of the waitlist, the court heard.

Judge Chan also ordered Rumjahn to pay back the HK$640,000 to ESF as compensation.