A few weeks ago, the parents’ WeChat group of a top international school in Hong Kong blew up. It all started with one mother’s dilemma: “The essay written by AI is so much better than my daughter’s.

For many electric vehicle (EV) owners in Hong Kong, circling around the car park near home after work to look for an available charging spot has become a daily routine. At weekends, they drive to park at shopping malls, only to find few charging bays available.

Tropical forests are disappearing at an alarming rate, with the loss of approximately 6.7 million hectares of tropical primary forests worldwide in 2024, representing close to an 80% increase over 2023 (see Note 1). Held in November in Brazil, the 2025 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30) was regarded as a major climate summit since the Paris Agreement.

Against the backdrop of the global Web 3.0 boom, which is driving the continuous expansion of the virtual asset market and reshaping the international financial order, building a balanced and robust local Web 3.0 ecosystem has already become a pivotal breakthrough point for Hong Kong’s financial development.

Amid the vicissitudes and uncertain prospects of the world’s political and economic landscape today, global governance has likewise landed in disorder. As a leading governance platform worldwide, the G20 convened its annual leaders’ summit in Johannesburg, South Africa last weekend, underscoring the turmoil in current international affairs.

From major media reports and widely shared posts on social platforms, it is evident that Japan has recently been plagued by unprecedented intrusion from bears on the prowl. Brown bears and Asian black bears have been breaking into densely populated areas at a record-high frequency, even venturing into airport aprons, forcing temporary closures of airports. As of the end of October, more than 170 people have been attacked by bears, resulting in a dozen dead.

Automation and artificial intelligence (AI) are transforming traditional patterns of international trade, enabling developed countries to gain an endogenous comparative advantage in industries that were previously intensive in low-skilled labor, thereby reversing the traditional advantages of developing countries.

In this column last week, we analysed the advantages of captive insurance companies in risk management and cost control. However, not all companies are suited to establishing their own captive insurers. What does it take for companies to achieve the intended risk-diversification objectives while avoiding the creation of new sources of risk?