Hong Kong lawmakers have called on the government to intervene in the case of an infant left in legal limbo after his parents refused DNA testing required for a birth certificate on privacy and religious grounds following a home birth.The legislators also said on Monday that the parents’ actions deviated from standard behaviour, emphasising child protection must take priority over individual rights.The case came to light through social media posts on a page called “Save Lily”, run by a Hong Kong couple identified as Mr Tsang and Ms Kwan. The pair, who are unmarried, previously lived in Europe for several…
Author: Isla
The share of renewable energy in Indonesia’s national energy mix rose to 18.3% in the first quarter of 2026 from 15.75% in 2025, Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry data showed, as Southeast Asia’s largest economy seeks to increase the contribution of cleaner energy sources. The ministry’s 2025-2029 strategic plan targets renewable energy to account for between 17% and 21% of the country’s energy supply this year. According to data from the ministry’s Directorate General of New and Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation, 9.75 percentage points of the first-quarter renewable energy mix came from the power sector, while 8.55 percentage points…
Jakarta. The world’s top badminton players will converge at Jakarta’s Istora Gelora Bung Karno this week as the prestigious Polytron Indonesia Open 2026 gets underway, with 248 athletes from 22 countries competing for a total prize purse of $1.45 million (around Rp 25 billion). The BWF World Tour Super 1000 tournament, one of the most coveted events on the international badminton calendar, will take place from June 2-7. In addition to offering valuable world ranking points, the tournament is renowned for the electric atmosphere created by Indonesian fans at the iconic Istora Senayan arena. This year’s edition features an array…
GDP growth could rise by an additional 1.5 percentage points above baseline projections, bringing the UAE’s GDP to an estimated $790 billion by 2031The UAE has a significant opportunity to unlock health and economic value through early and effective obesity intervention. According to a recent report by AI economics policy advisory Whiteshield, commissioned by leading medicine company Lilly, accelerated intervention could help more than 1.2 million adults in the UAE transition out of obesity by 2031.In an accelerated intervention scenario, where innovative weight loss solutions reach 57 percent of adults living with obesity, prevalence could fall by 15 percentage points…
An Emirates flight from Edinburgh to Dubai has been forced to divert to Manchester to refuel after supply problems in the Scottish capital.A number of flights from Edinburgh and Glasgow airports were delayed on Sunday evening as a result of jet fuel delivery problems.Neither is connected to the Exolum pipeline, which supplies Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, all in London, as well as Manchester and some Royal Air Force bases, with fuel brought by road to the two Scottish airports.An Edinburgh airport representative said fuel supplies were a matter for individual airlines. An issue with drivers caused the supply problems, but this…
The visit of U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio to New Delhi marks a signal of the Trump administration’s approach to its relations with India, as indeed to the Indo-Pacific region. Yet even as the visit served to reaffirm bilateral warmth, it left open deeper questions about the durability of U.S. strategic commitment to the region, particularly amid growing perceptions that Washington may be quietly recalibrating its Indo-Pacific posture. This Ambassadors’ Round Table will bring together senior diplomats to assess what Rubio’s visit reveals about the current state of U.S.-India relations, the institutional resilience of the Quad, and whether the…
It is encouraging that the government is addressing the near-automatic salary increment system for Hong Kong’s civil servants. Under the current regime, only 38 civil servants were denied an annual pay rise last year. The government is proposing a forced ranking system, whereby the bottom 10 per cent do not receive an increment. This is a genuine policy departure, The Caspian Post reports via South China Morning Post. Forced ranking, famously used by Jack Welch at General Electric, was traditionally reserved for highly individualistic, metrics-driven roles. Even then, the results were often disastrous. Microsoft abandoned its stack ranking system in…
India and Myanmar on Monday agreed to maintain close engagement on matters related to critical minerals and rare earths, with both countries aiming to take bilateral cooperation forward in these strategic sectors.Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri, in a special briefing on the visit of Myanmar President U Min Aung Hlaing to India, said that the issues related to critical minerals and rare earths were discussed between the two sides during the meeting of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Myanmar President.”Issues related to critical minerals and rare earths did come up during the discussion today. This has been a subject of…
Kam Wah Chung and Company was a home, a general store, a community center and a medical clinic, where co-owner Ing Hay served as a beloved doctor to residents across the region.Courtesy of the Oregon Historical Society / OPBListen to audio from OPB journalistsIn Eastern Oregon’s John Day, a 160-year-old building holds one of the biggest collections of traditional Chinese medicine in the world. Kam Wah Chung and Company, once part of a thriving Chinatown, was owned and operated by Lung On and Ing Hay for over half a century. It was a home, a general store, a community center…
The Foreign Secretary will meet Chinese vice-president Han Zheng and her counterpart Wang Yi for bilateral discussions that are expected to last several hours on Tuesday. Talks are expected to focus on the series of major crises around the world, including wars in Iran and Ukraine and the outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. China’s relationship with Russia, with which it has shared enduring strategic ties since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of its neighbour in 2022, is also expected to be discussed. Critics have pressured Labour to take a harder line on Beijing, including over issues like…