Spirit of Hong Kong Awards: Gaza nurse’s obstacle-laden road to becoming a professor

South China Morning Post - Oct 11, 2026

On six occasions, Hammoda Abu-Odah, a Gaza nurse-turned Hong Kong scholar was offered an opportunity to study overseas. But each time, border closures and travel restrictions prevented him from taking them up. Abu-Odah had obtained a nursing degree in his native Gaza but set his sights on an academic career abroad. He kept working, teaching and conducting research, despite the many challenges that prevented him from leaving. Finally, on the seventh attempt, he made it to Hong Kong, where he...

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Paul Chan highlights 4 priorities ahead of Apec finance ministers’ meeting this month

Paul Chan highlights 4 priorities ahead of Apec finance ministers’ meeting this month

The Apec finance ministers’ meeting in Hong Kong this month will focus on fiscal policies that support livelihoods, digital infrastructure financing, inclusive finance and young financial talent, underlining the city’s role as an international financial centre, the finance chief said. “These four priorities are areas of strength for Hong Kong and fields in which we can make an active contribution,” Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po wrote in his weekly blog on Sunday. “Hosting the finance...

Admission scores fall for Hong Kong physiotherapy courses amid jobs crunch

Admission scores fall for Hong Kong physiotherapy courses amid jobs crunch

Admission scores for physiotherapy degree programmes at three Hong Kong tertiary institutions fell by as much as 10 per cent this year compared with 2025, amid gloomy career prospects in the sector, the latest data shows. The decline prompted the professional body for physiotherapists to call on the government to halt healthcare funding cuts in the next budget, saying they had contributed to a jobs crunch in the sector. Across four institutions, 23 per cent of students admitted to physiotherapy...

Nanotechnology expert Antonio Facchetti joins HKUST from Georgia Tech in the US

Nanotechnology expert Antonio Facchetti joins HKUST from Georgia Tech in the US

Materials scientist and chemist Antonio Facchetti, formerly of the Georgia Institute of Technology in the United States, has joined the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology as a chair professor in its newly established department of materials. Facchetti, who was elected to the US National Academy of Engineering last year for his “contributions to the engineering of commercially viable electronic materials and devices”, researches semiconductors, dielectrics for thin-film and...

New HK$122 million lifeguard outsourcing contract sparks public spending concerns

New HK$122 million lifeguard outsourcing contract sparks public spending concerns

A controversial decision by Hong Kong authorities to award a lifeguard and first aid services contract worth more than HK$122 million (US$15.6 million) to a company previously found to have failed to provide the required staffing at swimming pools has sparked concerns over whether public funds are being used prudently. The Leisure and Cultural Services Department on Saturday defended the decision, saying it was satisfied with Spotlight Enterprises’ performance over the past two years and that it...

Spirit of Hong Kong Awards: biotech firm eyes cervical cancer test breakthrough

Spirit of Hong Kong Awards: biotech firm eyes cervical cancer test breakthrough

Hong Kong biotech entrepreneur Ricky Chiu Yin-to is seeking to make cervical cancer screening easier through urine-based HPV testing, using sample-concentration technology developed by his company. His company, Phase Scientific, made its name during the Covid-19 pandemic through its rapid antigen test, Indicaid. The product received US emergency-use authorisation in July 2021, was used in Hong Kong community testing and sold in more than 30 countries. At the start of the pandemic, the firm...

More support needed for ethnic minority children with special needs, charity says

More support needed for ethnic minority children with special needs, charity says

A non-profit children’s education organisation in Hong Kong has urged the government to expand support services for preschool-aged ethnic minority children with special needs to more districts, after a pilot project found that 95 per cent of participants showed improvement. Heep Hong Society said on Sunday that many ethnic minority families faced multiple barriers when seeking support for children with special educational needs (SEN), including language difficulties, financial constraints and...

Hangzhou is doubling down on tech – minus the viral hype

Hangzhou is doubling down on tech – minus the viral hype

A year ago, a Unitree robot kickboxing could light up social media. When DeepSeek released its latest open-source artificial intelligence (AI) model, developers around the world rushed to test it. This year, however, Hangzhou’s latest technology bets have barely made a ripple. The city’s “New Eight Steeds” – eight deep-tech companies in fields ranging from smart glasses and inference graphic processing units (GPUs) to compute-in-memory chips and space computing – are a very different proposition...

Bar Association urges proxy cap, electronic voting to curb building bid-rigging

Bar Association urges proxy cap, electronic voting to curb building bid-rigging

The Hong Kong Bar Association has suggested capping the number of proxies a person can hold at homeowners’ meetings, without restricting who may act as a proxy, stressing that improving transparency and introducing an electronic voting system could help to deter abuse in large-scale maintenance procurement. Speaking to the South China Morning Post, association chairman Jose-Antonio Maurellet expressed reservations about a government proposal to restrict an owner’s representative to a relative or...

How a museum masterpiece’s life-size replica sparked rare US-China collaboration

How a museum masterpiece’s life-size replica sparked rare US-China collaboration

For anyone who has visited the Chinese galleries at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, there is one work that stops them in their tracks. Stepping into Gallery 206, home to Chinese Buddhist art, visitors are met by a monumental wall – over 15 metres wide and 7.5 metres tall (nearly 50 feet by 25 feet) – covered in a Buddhist assembly so vast and majestic that it momentarily erases the Manhattan bustle outside. Here stands the Medicine Buddha, a 14th century Yuan dynasty (1279-1368)...

'Enemies in the Outfield' blends baseball into dating show

'Enemies in the Outfield' blends baseball into dating show

Tving’s “Enemies in the Outfield” is carving out a niche with a novel format that combines baseball and romance. The dating reality show brings together singles who support rival professional baseball teams and has them watch actual games at the ballpark. The Hankook Ilbo spoke with the show’s producers and hosts about what sets the program apart and what viewers can expect as the season unfolds. A roundtable interview for the Tving original variety show was held at a cafe in Seoul’s Seodaemun District on Wednesday afternoon. It was attended by producer Lee Ki-yeon and hosts Lee Yong-jin, Hwang Jae-gyun and Jung Ye-in. First released on Sept. 14, “Enemies in the Outfield” follows men and women who support different Korean baseball league teams as they watch games together at actual stadiums while looking for romance. The show has drawn attention for incorporating real league games into its romantic storyline. It also adds a love triangle involving a third participant, as well as choices between romance and season tickets. Meanwhile, the experienced hosts, who are well verse

US expects S. Korea to 'uphold' alliance standards amid intelligence cooperation concerns: senior official

US expects S. Korea to 'uphold' alliance standards amid intelligence cooperation concerns: senior official

WASHINGTON — A senior U.S. official said Friday that Washington expects Seoul to "uphold" the standards of their decadeslong alliance, amid heightened concerns over apparent friction in the countries' intelligence cooperation. "We expect the ROK to uphold the standards of our decadeslong alliance, in particular concerning matters of intelligence and counterintelligence," the senior U.S. administration official told Yonhap News Agency in a written statement, referring to South Korea's official name, the Republic of Korea. The statement was provided in response to an inquiry from Yonhap News Agency regarding the state of bilateral intelligence cooperation. The remarks follow growing speculation over bilateral friction after South Korea's National Intelligence Service acknowledged it was excluded from a June trilateral meeting, also involving Japan, on North Korean cyber threats. Local media reports indicated the agency was left out at Washington's request. South Korea and the United States have faced signs of friction in the intelligence field after Seoul Unification Minister Chung Dong-

N. Korea slams US human trafficking report as grave provocation

N. Korea slams US human trafficking report as grave provocation

North Korea on Saturday slammed a U.S. government report on its human trafficking situation as a "grave politically-motivated provocation" revealing Washington's "hostile" policy toward Pyongyang. The U.S. State Department released the 2026 Trafficking in Persons Report on Thursday (local time), placing North Korea in the lowest Tier 3 group of countries for anti-human trafficking efforts, alongside China, Russia, Iran and Cuba. It was the 24th consecutive year Pyongyang was placed in the category. "Recently the U.S. Department of State committed another grave politically-motivated provocation of malignantly slandering the DPRK through the '2026 Trafficking in Persons Report' which is full of lies, fabrications, prejudice and hostility," a spokesperson for North Korea's foreign ministry said in an English statement carried by the country's Korean Central News Agency. "This clearly proved once again the U.S. vicious and malicious intention to politicize and weaponize human rights and use them as the primary lever for its hostile policy toward the DPRK." DPRK stands for North Korea's offici

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