The Hong Kong government has announced it will provide diesel and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) subsidies for public and commercial vehicles, amid higher fuel prices due to the ongoing Middle East war.

The diesel subsidy of HK$3 per litre will run for two months, from 12am on Thursday to 11.59pm on June 29, finance chief Paul Chan told reporters on Wednesday.

He said the subsidy, which will benefit public and commercial vehicles, as well as vessels that use diesel fuel, would be reflected in the listed price at petrol stations, and the government would reimburse the price difference to oil companies or distributors.

The government proposed the diesel subsidy scheme earlier in April, with an estimated expenditure of HK$1.8 billion, and the proposal was “swiftly approved” by the legislature, Chan said.

The finance minister also said the LPG subsidy of HK$0.5 per litre for taxis, minibuses and school buses would run for two months. The measure will benefit around 16,900 taxis, 3,440 minibuses and 170 school buses in the city.

Authorities plan to roll out the LPG subsidy in late May, he said, without saying exactly when.

See also: Hong Kong to see ‘shocks, volatility’ in oil supply amid Middle East war, leader John Lee says

Chan said that due to the ongoing Middle East conflict, the cap price for LPG at dedicated filling stations would rise by over HK$1 per litre – an increase of more than 28 per cent.

“Given that the majority of minibuses and taxis run on LPG, this will place significant pressure on their operations,” he said in Cantonese.

Transport minister Mabel Chan said at the Legislative Council on Wednesday that the LPG subsidy would cost the government around HK$38.4 million.

She said the expenses would be “reallocated internally” through three bureaus: the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau, the Environment and Ecology Bureau, and the Transport and Logistics Bureau.

Tse Chin-wan, the environment and ecology minister, told the media at the legislature on Wednesday that the government would sign contracts with oil companies and conduct audits to prevent abuse of the subsidies.

China will ban the sale of drones in Beijing and require users to apply for permission for all flights in the capital under strict regulations that enter force on Friday.

Officials have cited public security for the new rules, which also forbid bringing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or their core components into Beijing.

E-commerce platforms will be banned from shipping UAVs to Beijing, though drone owners who have completed real-name registration of their gadgets before May 1 will be allowed to take them in and out of the capital.

Drone users in the city of 22 million will have three months after the new rules kick in to register their devices with local police stations.

Several sellers across the city had already removed drones from displays ahead of the rules change, AFP saw Tuesday. An employee at a DJI outlet in central Beijing said the gadgets were being boxed up for transport to other cities.

DJI, which is the world’s largest drone maker and has been sanctioned by the US government over security concerns, is dominant in the Chinese market but now faces being locked out of its home capital by the new rules.

The city’s airspace will be closed to all drone flights without prior approval from authorities, with fines of up to 10,000 yuan ($1,463) for illegal flights and possible confiscation of the drone.

Organisations or individuals caught selling drones or 17 core components will also face fines under the new rules.

‘One-size-fits-all’

Drone storage rules will also be tightened in the capital, with individuals allowed to keep at most three drones at a single location within Beijing’s sixth ring road.

Online, many users complained that the new rules were onerous and left them with few opportunities to fly their gadgets in Beijing.

“This is a crazy one-size-fits-all system,” one user wrote on the social media platform WeChat.

Others said they would sell their drones ahead of the new rules.

At one drone-flying school in central Beijing, staff told AFP they were worried about how they would acquire new drones or components when their stock breaks or needs maintenance.

But they hoped that educational and sports facilities like theirs would eventually receive some exemption from the rules.

The new regulations hold that exemptions may be provided for special purposes like counter-terrorism, agriculture, education and sport.

“As the capital, Beijing faces more challenges in low-altitude airspace safety, making it more urgent to strengthen the management of UAVs,” Beijing municipal official Xiong Jinghua said when the rules were announced in March.

National laws have also been tightened this year in China, with illegal drone flights now punishable by up to 15 days detention and UAVs required to provide real-time data to authorities during flights.

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 domestic worker has been arrested on suspicion of child abuse after allegedly putting her employer’s two toddlers in a dog cage on two occasions.

Police said they received a report on Tuesday from the children’s mother, who alleged that the Indonesian domestic worker had put the two boys, aged two and three years, in a dog cage on two separate occasions in February.

The mother said she saw the incident on surveillance footage broadcast to her mobile phone.

The 32-year-old domestic worker was arrested at a residential estate in Tsing Yi on Tuesday on suspicion of ill-treatment or neglect by those in charge of a child or young person.

The mother also reported the case to the worker’s employment agency before deciding to file a police report.

The case has been passed to the Kwai Tsing police crime unit for further investigation.

The two toddlers did not have any visible injuries and had been discharged from hospital after treatment, according to local media reports.

The mother – a single parent who has three boys and a dog – began hiring the domestic worker in mid-2023, local media reported, citing unnamed sources.

Call for regulation

In a statement emailed to the media on Wednesday, lawmaker Elaine Chik expressed concern about the case and called for strengthened early warning and prevention measures to combat child abuse.

She urged employers to prioritise hiring domestic workers with first aid training, nursing, or child psychology backgrounds, adding that hiring agencies should advise workers on managing stress when caring for infants.

Chik, a member of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB), also called on authorities to implement mandatory training on Hong Kong child protection laws and to look into establishing a regulatory authority to oversee standards for domestic workers.

The lawmaker also said she would bring up the incident at the Legislative Council and ask the government to provide follow-up measures for child abuse cases.

The United States led a group of regional countries in calling China’s actions during a dispute over the Panama Canal a “threat,” prompting backlash from Beijing on Wednesday.

Washington and Beijing accuse each other of seeking to control the Panama Canal, a vital trade link between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

Panama took control of two of the canal’s ports previously operated by a Hong Kong-based conglomerate following a decision by the Panamanian Supreme Court in January.

Since then, Washington has alleged China detained two Panama-flagged ships in response to the takeover, while China has threatened Panama with payback and rejected the US claims.

The United States led countries including Bolivia, Costa Rica, Guyana, Paraguay and Trinidad and Tobago on Tuesday in calling China’s actions “a blatant attempt to politicize maritime trade and infringe on the sovereignty of the nations of our hemisphere”.

“Panama is a pillar of our maritime trading system, and as such must remain free from any undue external pressure,” the US State Department said in the joint statement.

“Any attempts to undermine Panama’s sovereignty are a threat to us all.”

China’s foreign ministry slammed the statement as a “smear” on Wednesday.

“It is the United States that is politicizing and over-securitizing the port issue,” ministry spokesman Lin Jian told a news briefing.

“It is the United States that is hypocritically posturing and spreading rumors and smears everywhere.”

Trump returned to office last year vowing to seize back US control of the Panama Canal, which was handed over in a deal reached by former president Jimmy Carter, who vowed that the US would respect its sovereignty.

After Panama’s moves against the Hong Kong-based company, Trump declared victory and the canal issue largely disappeared as a point of contention between the countries.

In a national security strategy last year, the Trump administration vowed aggressively to promote US interests in Latin America against outside powers led by China.

A government official has said authorities will “look into” the situation after a resident at the fire-hit Wang Fuk Court found rubbish and other items that did not belong to his flat when he retrieved his belongings.

The resident of Wang Cheong House, the first block hit by the blaze, told reporters on Tuesday that he found items such as cigarette butts, face masks, and drink packets that he believed were left behind by construction workers who had entered his unit.

He also found other items that did not belong to his flat, which he believed were his neighbours’, local media reported.

“When our neighbours come up looking for their things, will they know that their belongings have been placed in my flat?” said the resident.

Deputy Chief Secretary Warner Cheuk said at a press conference on Tuesday: “Regarding the situation where it appears people had discarded items in the flats, I will have to look into that.”

Tuesday marked the ninth day of Wang Fuk Court residents returning to their units to retrieve their belongings.

On that day, residents of Wang Cheong House, which sustained the most fire damage, and Wang Tao House were allowed to return to their homes in batches.

The blaze broke out in November last year and engulfed seven of the Tai Po housing estate’s eight blocks, killing 168 people and displacing thousands.

‘Easy to say’

On Tuesday, resident Ma Chung-kui, who plays the zheng, salvaged his collection of the traditional Chinese musical instrument from his flat at Wang Tao House.

He said he hoped to return to his flat again, as the three-hour time slot was only enough for him to retrieve a third of the instruments.

“How could I let go? That’s crazy. It’s easy to say, but not to do,” he said, referring to Cheuk’s earlier remarks advising residents to be mentally prepared to “let go” of some of their belongings and prioritise things with sentimental value.

Another family, who returned to Wang Cheong House, laid down flowers to mourn their parents, who died in the fire.

At the same Tuesday press conference, housing chief Winnie Ho also addressed concerns about why residents were not allowed to take the lift to their flats. She said that the water used to combat the blaze might have rusted the metal components of the lifts.

“We take residents’ safety very seriously. We understand that residents wish to take the lifts to make it easier for them to get in and out, but safety must be our top priority,” Ho said.

Hong Kong residential estate Richland Gardens has sparked controversy after announcing the hiring of non-local workers as security guards.

The owners’ corporation of Richland Gardens – a government-subsidised housing estate in Kowloon Bay – announced on Threads on Monday that its management company was training a group of “non-local security guards,” who started working on Monday.

The announcement also included a photo of 30 security guards in blue and black uniforms.

According to the owners’ corporation, most of the security guards came from Guangdong province and are fluent in Cantonese. They have also obtained certificates after completing relevant security training courses in Hong Kong.

The estate’s management company turned to non-local hires after finding it difficult to hire full-time local security guards, the Threads post said.

“Most Hong Kong security guards prefer to work part-time. After the management company took over security work in 2023, it had seen a turnover of more than 200 security guards,” the Chinese-language post read.

The move has sparked criticism online, with netizens questioning why the estate chose to hire non-local workers amid the rising unemployment rate in the city.

Some asked whether the management company turned to non-local hiring to save labour costs.

In the Facebook group “We Are Richland Garden-ers,” some netizens said they were worried about the estate’s security, as they could not verify if the non-local workers had committed any crimes in mainland China.

The owners’ corporation defended the hiring and denied it was to save costs, saying that the salaries of non-local security guards are “similar” to those of local staff.

Richland Gardens’ management company is Pacific Extend, according to the owners’ corporation.

Last year, Pacific Extend – a subsidiary of Hong Kong conglomerate Shui On Group’s SOCAM Development – was acquired by Chinese firm Wuhan Tianyuan Property Management, the Hong Kong Economic Times reported.

Expanded schemes for non-local workers

In 2023, the Hong Kong government increased the quota for non-local workers in the construction and transport industries and in residential care homes, citing a labour shortage.

It also launched the Enhanced Supplementary Labour Scheme (ESLS) in September 2023, which allows Hong Kong employers to import workers for 26 types of jobs that were previously only open to local residents, such as security guards, cashiers, hair stylists, sales assistants, and waiters.

In January, the labour and welfare chief Chris Sun told the legislature that as of December 31, a total of 96,195 non-local workers had been approved to work in Hong Kong, including 4,984 working as security guards.