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This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing. What we know so far: 44 people, including a firefighter, have died. Some 279 are still missing Among those hospitalised, 45 are in serious condition The eight residential blocks in the estate had been undergoing renovations since July 2024, sheathed in bamboo scaffolding and green mesh Authorities say the rapid spread of fire was “unusual”, with styrofoam material found in buildings Government will launch investigations, including criminal probes, to find cause of deadly blaze Blazes in three of the...

HONG KONG (AP) — Firefighters battled a blaze at a high-rise residential complex in Hong Kong for the second day on Thursday, as the death toll rose to 55 in one of the deadliest blazes in the city’s modern history.Thick smoke continued to pour out of the Wang Fuk Court complex, a dense cluster of high-rise towers housing thousands of people in Tai Po district, a northern suburb near the border with the mainland. Flames can still be seen inside the buildings Thursday evening.Hong Kong leader John Lee said contact had been lost with 279 people around midnight Thursday. Rescues...

Pray for search and rescue authorities in Hong Kong today. At least 36 people have died and 279 people are unaccounted for, officials say. Residents remain trapped on higher floors of the buildings. https://t.co/iclSJYO8p1 pic.twitter.com/FtoFH3FyZ5— CNN (@CNN) November 26, 2025Officials said 279 people are 'uncontactable.' Meanwhile, 29 people remain hospitalized, with 7 in critical conditions, officials said. The fire, which tore through bamboo scaffolding ubiquitous in the city, appears to be the most deadly blaze in Hong Kong in nearly three decades. 900 other residents have managed to flee to shelters. Clips of the fire look apocalyptic: BREAKING: At least...

HONG KONG, Nov 26 (Reuters) – A massive fire ripped through multiple high-rise residential blocks in Hong Kong’s northern Tai Po district on Wednesday, killing at least 14 people and injuring scores as authorities struggled to bring the blaze under control. Firefighters battled the orange flames into the night as thick black smoke billowed from the 32-story towers, which were sheathed in bamboo scaffolding – whose use the government began phasing out in March for safety reasons – and green construction mesh. The cause of the blaze was not immediately known.

Two Chinese nationals and two U.S. citizens have been charged with a scheme to illegally export advanced Nvidia chips to China in violation of U.S. export controls, the Department of Justice said on Nov. 20.In a file photograph, the logo of Nvidia Corporation during the annual Computex computer exhibition in Taipei, Taiwan, on May 30, 2017. Tyrone Siu/ReutersLi Cham, 38, a California resident, and Chen Jing, 45, who resides in Florida on an F-1 nonimmigrant student visa, are the two Chinese nationals accused of the illegal exporting scheme. The two U.S. citizens are Ho Hong Ning, 34, a Florida resident...

Thousands of people were evacuated from their homes in Hong Kong overnight so experts could defuse a large US-made bomb left over from World War II that was discovered at a construction site. Police said the bomb was nearly 5 feet in length and weighed about 1,000 pounds. It was discovered by construction workers in Quarry Bay, a bustling residential and business district on the west side of Hong Kong island. “We have confirmed this object to be a bomb dating back to World War II,” said Andy Chan Tin-Chu, a police official, speaking to reporters ahead of the operation....

The $1 million Hunter Biden’s Chinese business partner Patrick Ho wired him in 2017 is the subject of a separate bribery investigation. Recall that in 2017 the the FBI raided the offices and intercepted the communications of Chi Ping “Patrick” Ho, a Chinese national suspected of espionage who was a business partner with Hunter and Joe Biden’s slimy brother Jim Biden. Patrick Ho was later put on trial and found guilty of bribing government officials around the world to advance the interests of the Chinese Communist Party. The crooked Department of Justice hid Hunter Biden’s connections with Patrick Ho during...

Chinese property giant Evergrande's shares were taken off the Hong Kong stock market on Monday after more than a decade and a half of trading. It marks a grim milestone for what was once China's biggest real estate firm, with a stock market valuation of more than $50bn (£37.1bn). That was before its spectacular collapse under the weight of the huge debts that had powered its meteoric rise. Experts say the delisting was both inevitable and final. "Once delisted, there is no coming back," says Dan Wang, China director at political risk consultancy Eurasia Group. Evergrande is now best-known for...

A federal judge denied a motion Monday for a new trial in the case of a Chinese-born engineer convicted of conspiring to export U.S. defense technology to China. U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney rejected Chi Mak's motion after a hearing that included testimony from several defense witnesses. Carney set Mak's sentencing for March 24. Mak could face up to 45 years in prison. Mak, 67, was convicted last May of conspiring to export U.S. defense technology to China, including data on an electronic propulsion system that prosecutors said could make submarines virtually undetectable. A jury also found him guilty of...

Shenghua Wen, 42, received around $2 million (€1.7 million) from North Korean officials to ship firearms and ammunition from California. A Chinese national in California has been sentenced to eight years in prison for shipping firearms and ammunition to North Korea. North Korean officials paid Shenghua Wen around $2 million (€1.7 million) to ship two containers of weapons and other items from Long Beach in California to North Korea via Hong Kong in 2023, according to the US Attorney's Office in Los Angeles. The 42-year-old pleaded guilty in June to one count of conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic...

🚨 BREAKING: AG Pam Bondi has fired Maurene Comey, daughter of James Comey, from her role as top DOJ prosecutor in Manhattan. pic.twitter.com/UcXj5Au0IZ— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) July 16, 2025

Trump’s Blackrock deal is far from over. Generations of sending American jobs, tech, and manufacturing to China was equivalent to feeding wild tigers near the local kindergarten. And now jungles are full of tigers used to getting their way. I made the tiger photograph in the wilds of India. I made the video below in the wilds of Darien Gap. At an Embera village called Bajo Chiquito. Notice the Georgia Bulldogs tattoo. Maybe this guy is going to Georgia. And the man to his right. Wearing the cross. As many do. And the nice watch. After crossing through Darien Gap....

President Donald Trump eliminated trade exemptions with China and Hong Kong this week to combat illicit substance imports. As part of his sweeping executive orders instituting tariffs on various nations this week, the president eliminated exemptions to address deceptive shipping practices from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and Hong Kong. Recognizing China’s role in the ongoing U.S. opioid crisis, the president suspended duty-free de minimis treatment for shipments valued at $800 or less. Under “duty-free de minimis,” shipments could enter the United States free of import duties or taxes so long as they were valued at $800 or less....

Jimmy Lai, Catholic imprisoned for crticizing the CCP, heads to trial; Trump promises to "get him out"Almost five years since Communist China charged Jimmy Lai for allegedly breaching its draconian National Security Law (NSL), the show trial of the Hong Kong media mogul, pro-democracy activist, and Catholic convert, is still ongoing. Most recently, President Trump promised to "get him out" of jail. "It'll be easy to get him out," said Trump, "but people don't talk about it."On March 11, Sebastien Lai, Jimmy’s son, urged for his dad’s liberation from the long arms of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), according to...

A finance worker at a multinational firm was tricked into paying out $25 million to fraudsters using deepfake technology to pose as the company’s chief financial officer in a video conference call, according to Hong Kong police. The elaborate scam saw the worker duped into attending a video call with what he thought were several other members of staff, but all of whom were in fact deepfake recreations, Hong Kong police said at a briefing on Friday. “(In the) multi-person video conference, it turns out that everyone [he saw] was fake,” senior superintendent Baron Chan Shun-ching told the city’s public...

"The ship was in the midst of a southbound transit through the canal when it suffered the casualty, Under orders from U.S. 3rd Fleet commander Vice Adm. Nora Tyson, Zumwalt is now stopped for repairs at the former U.S. Naval Station Rodman, he said." Hutchison Whampoa Limited controls former U.S. Naval Station Rodman.

A BlackRock-led consortium has agreed a $22.8 billion deal to buy two major Panama Canal ports owned by a Hong Kong-based conglomerate following intense pressure from US President Donald Trump over alleged Chinese interference in the critical trade route. The sale is a victory for Trump, the Financial Times noted. The president had repeatedly suggested the US could take the Canal back, citing national security concerns: The waterway is controlled by Panama, but the ports at either end are privately owned. This deal brings two at either entry to the Canal under US ownership. The BlackRock-led group will acquire a...

Hong Kong will file a complaint on recent US tariffs imposed on the city to the World Trade Organization, claiming the United States has completely ignored the city's status as a separate customs territory, chief secretary Eric Chan said on Tuesday (Feb 11). "This is absolutely inconsistent with the WTO rules. Of course, they have totally disregarded Hong Kong is a separate customs territory," Chan, the China-ruled city's number two official, told reporters. "We will file a complaint to the WTO regarding this unreasonable arrangement," he said without giving specifics. Chan was responding to a US decision to impose 10...

Effective Feb. 4, the Postal Service will temporarily suspend only international package acceptance of inbound parcels from China and Hong Kong Posts until further notice. Note the flow of letters and flats from China and Hong Kong will not be impacted.

To defend and burnish Tulsi Gabbard’s image as her political star was rising, her congressional campaign hired a public-affairs firm in 2017 that tried to suppress coverage of an alleged pyramid scheme connected to her Hindu sect, according to interviews, emails and Federal Election Commission records. Gabbard, a former House member who is now President Trump’s nominee for director of national intelligence, was raised in the Science of Identity Foundation, a sect tied to a direct-marketing firm accused of running a pyramid scheme in several countries. Neither Gabbard, the sect nor the firm, QI Group, wanted the relationships scrutinized. Gabbard’s...