An environmental NGO has urged the Hong Kong government to prioritise the climate crisis and strengthen its climate adaptation policies, as the city is expected to endure an extremely hot summer this year.

Friends of the Earth said on Monday that as May drew to a close, Hong Kong and many parts of the world had already experienced mid-summer temperatures ahead of schedule.

“Early onset of extreme heat in many parts of the world is a clear warning of the intensifying climate crisis,” the NGO said in the Chinese-language statement.

“We urge the government to put the climate crisis at the top of its agenda, by placing carbon reduction at the core and setting more aggressive emission reduction targets.”

Authorities should make a thorough climate risk assessment, utilising big data, artificial intelligence, and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to analyse the vulnerability of various districts to extreme heat, torrential rain, storm surges, and sea-level rise, the statement said.

The NGO also called on the government to enhance the city’s infrastructure to withstand the climate crisis, including improving coastal flood defence facilities and drainage systems in older districts.

According to the statement, “global warming is making extreme weather more frequent and severe, and the climate crisis already poses a significant threat to public health, economic security, urban resilience, and social justice.”

Friends of the Earth also called for the protection of vulnerable groups, including the elderly, children, people with chronic illnesses, low-income families, homeless people, and those who work outdoors.

El Niño

Hong Kong has endured particularly high temperatures since early last week.

The Hong Kong Observatory (HKO) issued the “very hot weather warning” three times within a week: last Tuesday, Saturday, and Tuesday.

Choy Chun-wing, the HKO’s acting assistant director, said at a press conference on Thursday that Hong Kong would see “hotter than normal” temperatures this year and next year under the influence of climate change and El Niño.

Sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific will continue to rise, developing into an El Niño event during the summer and autumn, which will persist at least until the end of this year or the beginning of next year, Choy said.

Scientists have warned that the El Niño weather phenomenon will bring hotter temperatures, stronger storms, drought, and flooding.

Planet warming

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has warned that the intensity and frequency of heatwaves have continued to increase since the 1950s due to human-caused climate change. The prevalence of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide – which trap heat in the atmosphere – raises the planet’s surface temperature, with hotter, longer heatwaves putting lives at risk.

See also: How extreme heat became the deadliest silent killer among world weather disasters

Hong Kong has already warmed by 1.7 degrees Celsius since the Industrial Revolution, research NGO Berkeley Earth says. Heat and humidity may reach lethal levels for protracted periods by the end of the century, according to a 2023 study, making it impossible to stay outdoors in some parts of the world.

The administrator of the fire-hit Wang Fuk Court has said it is studying the Lands Tribunal’s judgment after the court denied its bid to extend the statutory deadline for an owners’ meeting.

Replying to media enquiries, Hop On Management, the government-appointed administrator of the housing estate, also said on Wednesday that it would continue to verify signatures in the petition from homeowners and would hold a meeting as requested.

Just a day earlier, the Lands Tribunal denied Hop On’s application to postpone the deadline for convening and holding an owners’ meeting, as required by the Buildings Management Ordinance (BMO), after the company received the homeowners’ petition.

Hop On also said on Wednesday that it made the application due to the extensive preparations for the meeting and that it hoped all homeowners would have a “fair opportunity” to participate in the meeting.

Hop On added that it appreciated the tribunal’s acknowledgement of the administrator’s efforts in contacting homeowners.

In his Tuesday judgment, Judge Gary Lam, presiding officer of the Lands Tribunal, said that the firm’s difficulty in contacting owners was “not insurmountable” as it had managed to collect addresses, phone numbers and email addresses of 1,601 owners out of 1,984 units at the Tai Po housing estate.

He also said it was “plain and obvious” that the BMO does not give the tribunal jurisdiction to extend the statutory deadline for holding owners’ meetings.

Replying to press enquiries, the Home Affairs Department (HAD) said that Lam’s ruling involved the interpretation of the BMO and that the government would study the judgment.

The department also noted that the tribunal gave Hop On and the HAD “credit” for their efforts in issuing notices and convening the meeting, given the exceptional circumstances.

On April 29, Hop On, a subsidiary of real estate giant Chinachem Group, received a petition with 247 handwritten signatures asking the firm to meet with flat owners to discuss long-term resettlement and related financial matters.

The total number of signatures supporting the petition exceeded the 5 per cent threshold needed to convene a meeting stipulated by the BMO.

According to the ordinance, the management committee should issue notice of the meeting within 14 days and hold the general meeting with owners within 45 days.

A Hong Kong official has confirmed that the justice minister sent an internal memo urging department staff to provide information on the sources of allegations of a top government prosecutor’s misconduct.

Deputy Secretary for Justice Horace Cheung confirmed on Wednesday the existence of the internal memo sent by Secretary for Justice Paul Lam on Tuesday.

Cheung also warned the media against asking about unsubstantiated claims, lest such questions fuel those accusations. Continuing to ask about the “unsubstantiated allegations… would only fuel those accusations,” he said, Ming Pao reported.

Cheung appeared to be referring to overseas activist Frances Hui’s allegations that Director of Public Prosecutions Anthony Chau used public funds to pursue a romance with a female subordinate.

Hong Kong authorities have since slammed the viral claims, saying the allegations amounted to “malicious smearing.”

‘Unsubstantiated’

In the English-language memo, which circulated on social media, Lam told Department of Justice (DoJ) staff that he knew messages containing “unsubstantiated allegations against the colleagues involved had been widely circulated both within and outside DoJ.”

“I am most alarmed that those allegations were allegedly based on information provided by ‘insiders’. I have to say that I will be very upset and disappointed if this was true,” he wrote.

Echoing an earlier DoJ statement on Saturday, the justice chief said the matter had been reported to the police and that actions would be taken “if necessary depending on the result of the investigations.”

He also requested that DoJ staff not republish “any message containing those allegations” against Chau, reaffirm the department’s stance if asked about the matter, and disclose any “useful information concerning the source of the allegations” to the department.

Lam also said that the DoJ “always requires its staff to uphold utmost integrity” and that the department has procedures for colleagues to raise concerns and make complaints against suspected misconduct, adding that anonymous complaints would be “unhelpful.”

Neither Lam nor Cheung said whether the department would look into the misconduct allegations against Chau.

Cheung also told journalists on Wednesday that he would not comment further on the incident to avoid “encouraging unhealthy trends.”

In an e-mail response to HKFP’s enquiry, the DoJ confirmed the existence of the memo but said it “has no further comment to make on the matter.”

Chau was the prosecutor in high-profile national security cases, such as those involving the 47 democrats and pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai.

The DoJ also said on Saturday that the allegations against Chau “are completely without factual basis, entirely fabricated, and constitute malicious smearing.”

“It is ill-intentioned for someone to maliciously spread rumours online… and to deliberately smear dedicated prosecutors who perform duties in safeguarding national security,” the statement read.

A US fundraising platform and a coffee association are switching Taiwan’s designation to “Chinese Taipei,” in line with Beijing’s preferred naming convention for the self-ruled island it claims as its own.

GlobalGiving offers fundraising tools in over 175 countries, including China. It has over 20 nonprofit partners in Taiwan.

A spokesperson for the platform did not respond to HKFP’s enquiries as to whether they faced pressure or when the update would take effect. But they said on Wednesday: “We work with thousands of vetted non-profit partners across more than 175 countries, including China, and comply with local laws and regulations in every country where we operate. Following local requirements allows us to build trust and connection between donors and trusted and relevant organizations. “

JustGiving partner Forward Alliance – a Taiwanese national security and civil defence think tank – said on Facebook on Thursday that it had been informed by the fundraising site of the upcoming update. “The change to designate Taiwan as ‘Chinese Taipei’ is unacceptable. It is part of an ongoing campaign to diminish Taiwan internationally,” it said.

Forward Alliance added that it was liaising with other local NGOs and actively engaging with the funding platform to seek a solution.

On April 28, the Specialty Coffee Association’s World Coffee Championships (WCC) also changed the designation of Taiwan’s competitors to Chinese Taipei.

In a statement, the WCC said that the update was “in alignment with the naming conventions used by international sporting bodies,” adding that it did not affect qualification pathways, competitor eligibility or the competition experience.

Disputed status

The Republic of China (ROC) government has ruled Taiwan since 1945 after Japan was defeated in World War II, ending 50 years of occupation. The ROC authorities fully retreated to the island in 1949 after being defeated by the Chinese Communist Party in the Civil War. Beijing has since claimed democratic Taiwan as one of its provinces, threatening to unify it by force if necessary.

See also: Explainer – Is Taiwan a country? The self-ruled island’s disputed status

Taiwan remains a self-ruled democracy of 23 million people, with its own government, currency, borders and passports. However, only a shrinking handful of states recognise it diplomatically, as Beijing seeks to isolate the island on the world stage.

In 1981, the International Olympic Committee settled on using Chinese Taipei in order to allow Taiwan’s athletes to compete, following years of controversy. The teams compete under a generic Olympic flag.

A traveller has been sentenced to six weeks in prison and fined HK$1,800 after attempting to smuggle cigarettes under his stockings while crossing the border from mainland China.

The 49-year-old man received his sentence at the Fanling Magistrates’ Courts on Thursday, one day after he was intercepted at the Lok Ma Chau Spur Line Control Point.

Customs officers seized 1,181 sticks of illicit cigarettes from the traveller, with an estimated market value of about HK$4,800, the Customs and Excise Department said in a statement on Thursday.

Around HK$3,900 in duties would have been charged on that amount of cigarettes, the statement added.

Customs also released a photo appearing to show cigarette packs wrapped around a man’s lower legs underneath his stockings.

The man was arrested on suspicion of contravening the Dutiable Commodities Ordinance and sentenced “for possessing duty-not-paid cigarettes and failing to declare them to Customs officers,” the statement said.

The department welcomed the ruling, saying: “The custodial sentence has imposed a considerable deterrent effect and reflects the seriousness of the offences.”

Hong Kong Customs has arrested six men and seized suspected counterfeit football products worth HK$156 million ahead of the FIFA World Cup 2026, including “highly authentic-looking” player-edition jerseys.

Around 230,000 suspected fake items were seized in an operation codenamed “Clean Sheet,” which ran from May 26 to Wednesday, authorities said on Thursday – hours before the World Cup opening match between Mexico and South Africa in Mexico City.

A 36-year-old male driver was arrested after customs officers discovered two batches of suspected counterfeit goods from two incoming lorries at border crossings with mainland China, said Wayne Chung, a senior inspector of the Intellectual Property Transnational Investigation Unit at the Customs and Excise Department.

The two vehicles were intercepted at the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge Hong Kong Port and the Shenzhen Bay Control Point.

Five men, aged 17 to 30, were arrested on suspicion of selling fake football jerseys on the internet, Chung said.

The six suspects have been released on bail pending further investigation, he added.

According to customs, among the seized goods were around 30,000 player-edition jerseys, replicas of the shirts worn by professional footballers.

These counterfeit jerseys – priced between HK$1,100 and HK$1,300 each, higher than fan-edition shirts – were “highly authentic-looking” and “delicately made,” Chung said.

He added that around 80 per cent of the confiscated items were for export to the Americas.

“Considering this World Cup is the largest ever in scale… we expect that the smuggling of World Cup-related products will become active during the course of the tournament due to increased demand from fans around the world,” Chung told reporters in Cantonese.

This year’s World Cup is being jointly hosted by the United States, Mexico and Canada, marking the first time the event features an expanded 48-team format, up from 32 teams in previous tournaments.

Under the city’s Trade Descriptions Ordinance, importing, exporting, selling, or possessing counterfeit items for sale is an offence with a maximum penalty of a HK$500,000 fine and five years in jail.

A deadly blaze engulfed seven residential towers at Wang Fuk Court in Tai Po on November 26, 2025, killing 168 people. The names of the victims were released on June 10, 2026 by the judiciary, and are listed below as they appeared in a court document.

Hong Kong’s electricity bills are expected to hit a short-term peak in August due to the Middle East conflict, an energy advisory chair has said.

Hong Kong’s current electricity tariff has yet to reflect the impact of the Middle East conflict, which broke out in late February, Simon Wong, chair of the government’s Energy Advisory Committee, said on TVB on Sunday.

The fuel surcharges of Hong Kong’s two utility giants are based on a cost-reimbursement mechanism and are adjusted according to the average cost of the past three months, he explained.

“Based on my calculation, electricity costs may reach a short-term peak in August. After that, costs might fluctuate at a high level, with the possibility of them easing slightly,” he said.

The total electricity tariff will be 5 to 10 per cent higher than before the Middle East conflict, he added.

CLP Power announced on Tuesday that its fuel cost adjustment for June would be 42.6 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh), up from 40.4 cents in May.

The increase of 5.4 per cent is the third consecutive monthly hike since April.

The other power company, HK Electric, said on Friday that its fuel clause charge for June would be 31.3 cents per kWh, an increase of 20.4 per cent from May.

The utility provider said the adjustment began to reflect the significant surge in international fuel prices caused by the Middle East war.

However, due to a “lag effect,” the current figures do not yet fully capture the shift in fuel costs, and the fuel adjustment fee is expected to continue climbing in the coming months, it added.

A Hong Kong basketball coach has been released on bail after he was arrested for allegedly slapping a student on a school court, an incident captured in a viral online video.

Yung Kam-wah was released early Tuesday morning, TVB reported.

The 54-year-old was arrested on Monday on suspicion of common assault after an online video showed a basketball coach forcing a student to slap himself several times.

The incident allegedly happened at Hon Wah College, a secondary school in Siu Sai Wan, independent local media Create City Stories reported last week.

Hon Wah College issued a statement last Tuesday, saying that the incident took place at the school during the 2023-24 academic year, Cable TV reported.

The school added that it had contacted the student to provide support and had suspended Yung from coaching duties.

On the same day, Yung issued an apology on Facebook.

“I want to express my deepest apologies to the student in the video. No matter what rules were broken, what mistakes were made, or what the circumstances were, I should never have punished a student this way,” Yung wrote in a Chinese-language statement.

“I realise that this caused him distress and hurt him, and I sincerely apologise.”

Local media also reported that Hon Wah College students said Yung had been abusive toward pupils for a long time.

“Our generation needs education of love. Under harsh education, students will just want to give up. Our school basketball team used to do well. However, I saw many friends, who were members of the basketball team, quit the team over the past few years because they could not stand the harsh education there,” a student told reporters in Cantonese.

Yung, a former player for the Hong Kong men’s national basketball team, currently serves as the vice chairman of the Hong Kong Basketball Association and works as a sports commentator.

A new UN study has named Hong Kong’s data centres as some of the most carbon-intensive in the world, blaming the city’s heavy dependence on a fossil-fuel-powered energy grid.

The report, titled “Environmental Cost of AI’s Energy Use,” examined the global carbon, land and water impacts of the infrastructure powering AI, saying that by 2030, data centres could consume 945 terawatt-hours.

That is “nearly triple the combined annual electricity use of Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nigeria, countries collectively home to more than 650 million people,” according to a UN press release.

“Indonesia, India, and Hong Kong (SAR) are among the most carbon-intensive grids with carbon footprints 62%, 51%, and 43% higher than the global average, respectively. Poland and Mainland China rank lower with carbon intensities at 30% and 21% higher than the global average,” the UN University’s Institute for Water, Environment and Health said in a report on Wednesday.

In comparison, the carbon footprint of electricity in the US, Germany, and Italy is 18 per cent, 24 per cent, and 32 per cent below the global average, respectively.

Energy in Hong Kong is 67 per cent derived from fossil fuels, 32 per cent from nuclear and just 1 per cent from renewables, the report said.

There is also a water footprint for cooling heat-intensive data centres, as well as a land footprint. “AI-related water consumption could equal the basic annual domestic needs of 1.3 billion people by the end of the decade, while its land footprint may exceed 14,500 square kilometres – roughly twice the size of the Jakarta metropolitan area,” the UN said.

However, Hong Kong was ranked among the lightest for water and land consumption, mostly because its energy mix does not rely on renewable energy sources, which require large amounts land.

As a trade and logistics hub, with around 300 internet service providers, Hong Kong remains a prime location for data centres. Its telecommunication networks connect to 12 external submarine optical fibre cable systems, with more under construction, according to the city’s Digital Policy Office.

The government is building a new 110,00 square metre data facility in Sandy Ridge, 90 per cent of which will be dedicated to data centres, according to a government press release in March.

Daily AI use, not training

The UN report said that day-to-day use of AI models accounted for around 80 to 90 per cent of total energy demand, as opposed to just model training. It cited the case of ChatGPT, which was processing around 2.5 billion prompts per day, with image generation requiring a thousand times more energy than a simple text query.

“China’s DeepSeek, launched in January 2025, attracted more than 20 million daily active users within three weeks, and had about 125 million monthly active users by mid-2025,” the report said.

According to the Digital Policy Office website, “data centre operators are all striving to enhance energy efficiency , so as to reduce their power consumption, their operating expense and also their environmental impacts.”

It cites existing policies by the Electrical and Mechanical Services Department (EMSD), which set rules for ensuring the energy efficiency of buildings and regulate the use of fresh water in cooling towers for air conditioning systems.

The EMSD’s Green Data Centres Practice Guide lays out initiatives for efficient data centre design, procurement, operations and disposal, whilst also promoting the use of assessment tools to measure environmental impacts.

Hong Kong authorities recorded 40 online sexual grooming cases targeting minors in the first four months of this year, the city’s security chief has said, as the government mulls a legal revamp.

Secretary for Security Chris Tang said on Wednesday that police logged 100 such cases in 2025, while a total of 2,156 child sexual abuse cases were recorded over the past three years.

Since last year, the police force has begun tallying figures related to online child sexual grooming, the minister said in a written reply to enquiries by lawmaker Elizabeth Quat.

Online child sexual grooming refers to cases whereby adults befriend children through the internet, typically via social media, online games, or messaging applications, to sexually abuse them.

The government also aims to propose legislative amendments to the city’s sex offence laws this year, Tang said.

“The exercise aims to review and improve the laws on sexual offences in Hong Kong in a comprehensive manner, which includes enhancing the legal protection to children,” Tang said, without elaborating further.

The proposals will be based on two reports published by the Law Reform Commission in 2019 and 2022, which outlined a raft of recommendations to improve the city’s sexual offence laws, he said.

Authorities plan to consult lawmakers and the public on the proposals in the second half of this year and hope to complete the legislative amendments by the end of June next year, when the term of the current administration concludes, he added.

A new set of recommendations for minors regarding the proper use of electronic devices and social media is expected to be ready this year, Tang said.

The Advisory Group on Health Effects of Screen and Social Media Use for Children and Adolescents, established in October, is reviewing scientific evidence and overseas experience and engaging with experts on the matter.

The updated health recommendations are expected to be released this year, he added.

Tang vowed that Hong Kong police would continue to combat crimes relating to online child sexual abuse material through cooperation with other jurisdictions.

Last month, the force arrested nine men in a joint operation with law enforcement in six other jurisdictions targeting online child sexual abuse material.

At a press conference last month, police psychologist Michael Fung warned of the pervasiveness of online sexual grooming of minors, citing a survey conducted by the force and two universities in the city.

The survey said 15 per cent of respondents admitted to having consumed child sexual abuse material on the internet, Fung said, but added the figure represented only “the tip of the iceberg.”

The Department of Health has said Hong Kong’s smoking rate dropped to a record low of 8.5 per cent, but it fell short of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) recommended target.

“Hong Kong’s smoking rate has continued to decline from 23.3 per cent in the early 1980s to 8.5 per cent in 2025, hitting a record low,” the Department of Health said in a statement on Wednesday.

The smoking rate was 9.1 per cent in 2023.

Citing a Census and Statistics Department survey conducted from July to October last year, the department said around 540,000 Hong Kong residents had a daily habit of smoking conventional cigarettes.

“The decline of Hong Kong’s smoking rate to a record low is the result of years of concerted efforts by the public and various sectors of the community, making Hong Kong an international role model for successful tobacco control,” the head of the Department of Health’s Tobacco & Alcohol Control Office, Manny Lam, was quoted as saying in the statement.

However, Lam acknowledged the figure fell short of the city’s goal of lowering the smoking rate to 7.8 per cent – a figure recommended by the WHO.

He attributed the shortfall to Hong Kong’s already low baseline smoking rate. He said that although the smoking rate fell short, it still amounted to a 23.4 per cent decrease from the smoking rate of 11.1 per cent in 2010.

With Hong Kong’s smoking rate already low, “it was difficult to lower it by 30 per cent,” Lam said at a Wednesday press conference, referring to another WHO benchmark.

He also warned of the high costs of smoking, citing studies showing that Hong Kong suffered an economic loss of HK$8 billion annually due to smoking-related health conditions.

Quitting drive

The Department of Health also announced that as part of the “Quit in June” campaign, it would distribute free nicotine patches at community pharmacies, department clinics, smoking cessation clinics, and District Health Centres, as well as non-invasive “ear point” acupuncture patches at designated Chinese medicine clinics.

A new AI service, “Chat to Quit”, developed with the University of Hong Kong’s (HKU) School of Nursing, is also available for personalised and interactive counselling, the department said.

Kelvin Wang, professor at HKU’s School of Nursing, said at the press conference that people could sign up and speak to the AI bot on WhatsApp, and those who had quit smoking after half a year would be invited to take carbon monoxide and cotinine tests.

Hong Kong banned the public possession of vapes and heated cigarettes on April 30.

As of May 23, authorities have issued 39 fixed penalty tickets under the new restriction.