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GENERAL

GeneralJune 3, 2026

MTR Corp boss Jacob Kam elected chairman of Hong Kong’s largest business chamber

The non-executive chairman of Hong Kong rail giant the MTR Corporation has been elected as the new head of the city’s largest business chamber for a one-year term. Jacob Kam Chak-pui, 64, took over as chairman of the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday following an election among members, expressing “strong confidence” in the city’s economic development. Kam, previously the chamber’s vice-chairman, said he believed the market outlook was rebounding as the global macroeconomic...

South China Morning Post1 min read

GeneralJune 3, 2026

FBI kill man holding hostages in California after 12-hour standoff following bomb threat

A man holding hostages inside a building in California that houses a bank branch and school district office has been shot and killed by the FBI, police said on Wednesday. The suspect was killed in “an officer-involved shooting involving Federal Bureau of Investigation personnel”, the Bakersfield Police Department said in a statement. The stand-off ended about 12 hours after police were called to the building, police said. All the hostages are free and none was harmed, police said. The stand-off...

South China Morning Post1 min read

GeneralJune 3, 2026

Kenya health minister says US Ebola quarantine centre will proceed despite deadly protests

Kenya’s health minister said on Wednesday that the US-funded quarantine centre would proceed, days after deadly protests erupted over the project. The US-built facility at Kenya’s Laikipia Air Base was due to open last week, according to US officials, to quarantine Americans arriving from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which is battling a major Ebola outbreak. But it has been temporarily blocked by a court order, and triggered protests on Monday that killed two people, according to a...

South China Morning Post1 min read

GeneralJune 3, 2026

Sweden outlines child care policy amid registration row over infant in Hong Kong

Swedish authorities who have taken over the care of the daughter of a Hong Kong couple with a troubled parenting history have said that whether a child faces risks at home is one of the key factors when deciding if intervention is needed. But the social services department of Sweden’s Linkoping municipality declined to comment on the legal status of the couple’s daughter Lily on Wednesday, saying doing so would harm those involved. The preschooler’s case came to light through her parents’ social...

South China Morning Post1 min read

GeneralJune 3, 2026

Want to save the planet? Stop being so polite to AI chatbots

Skipping pleasantries like “please” and “thank you” when talking to chatbots could save enough energy to power the annual needs of 760,000 residents in sub-Saharan Africa, highlighting the massive but often hidden environmental toll of artificial intelligence, according to a new UN report. Released by the Institute for Water, Environment and Health under the United Nations University, the UN’s academic arm, the study published on Wednesday also warned that the true cost of AI extended far beyond...

South China Morning Post1 min read

GeneralJune 3, 2026

Hong Kong launches DeepSeek-based AI model designed to run on domestic chips

The Hong Kong Generative AI Research and Development Centre (HKGAI) has officially launched a new DeepSeek-based large language model that can run on domestic chips, as the government-backed lab seeks to commercialise its products and export Chinese AI overseas. The HKGAI-V3 model, built on DeepSeek V4, has achieved “significant improvements” in efficiency and agentic capabilities, the centre said on Wednesday. The home-grown model delivered over tenfold improvement in the efficiency of token...

South China Morning Post1 min read

GeneralJune 3, 2026

China plans compute futures in Shanghai as AI computing demand surges

China is preparing to launch compute futures in Shanghai, signalling a push to link financial markets to computing power as the global AI boom drives new demand for digital infrastructure. The Shanghai municipal government has released guidelines stating the new financial derivative would form part of efforts to turn the city into a global wealth management hub. It is the first time Shanghai’s authorities have explicitly mentioned compute futures in an official document. “In light of the central...

South China Morning Post1 min read

GeneralJune 3, 2026

Chinese AI lets everyday users command quantum computing with natural language

Quantum computing has long carried an aura of exclusivity, cloaked in dense academic papers and ultra-cold laboratory systems understood by only a small circle of physicists and mathematicians. However, a Chinese start-up has changed quantum computing into something closer to an AI chatbot. On May 15, Shanghai-based Youshu Quantum Technology unveiled what it described as the world’s first agent-driven quantum computing platform. UnitaryLab 2.0 is designed to allow users to operate quantum...

South China Morning Post1 min read