RTHK：Video News RTHK.HK

Police on Saturday said they have arrested a truck driver on suspicion of causing a light rail carriage to derail, and disrupting light rail services in the western New Territories for about three hours.

It is suspected that a plank, measuring 50 centimetres by 20 centimetres, fell from the truck the man was driving onto the light rail tracks.

Officers arrested the 49-year-old man for dangerous driving.

The incident occurred at around 9:40am, when a carriage derailed near Chung Uk Tsuen Station and affected light rail routes 610, 614, 615, and 715.

As a result, services were suspended at Lam Tei, Nai Wai, Chung Uk Tsuen and Hung Shui Kiu stations. But there were no injuries.

The MTR Corporation said it's investigating the incident, adding a preliminary investigation found that the train involved was not speeding.

Citing sources, lawmaker Gary Zhang, the deputy chairman of the subcommittee on matters relating to railways at the Legislative Council, said the incident happened at a busy crossing.

“Although the incident is unrelated to the operations and maintenance of the light rail services, I think the MTR Corporation can still use technology to prevent similar incidents from happening again. For example, they can consider installing AI cameras at its junctions, or maybe install some vehicle-based detection systems so that early detections can be done,” he said.

Zhang doesn't expect the incident to trigger any penalty mechanisms.

Separately, the city’s transport chief Lam Sai-hung said that he had expressed concern about the incident.

The Electrical and Mechanical Services Department (EMSD) has conducted an immediate investigation at the scene of the incident and will study improvement measures along with the MTR Corporation.
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Last updated: 2024-05-18 HKT 17:58

An infectious disease expert on Saturday warned that Hong Kong could be hit by a double whammy in which its peak influenza seasons are dominated by two flu virus strains -one after another this year.

Speaking on a Commercial Radio programme, Ivan Hung, who's also a professor at the University of Hong Kong, said that the influenza virus infections have rebounded to a relatively high level in recent time, as residents have low immunity to influenza after three years of the pandemic.

He said while the peak flu season dominated by the A subtype H-3 virus strain ended last October, infections have continued this year , and the SAR also has to contend with a peak season dominated by the A subtype H1 flu virus strain.

"In January we have already had the influenza peak season for the subtype H3 virus, and then starting in April and May, we had the peak season that's dominated by the subtype H1 virus.”

“While the H1 virus-led inflections might ease from June and July, there's a chance that we might see the H3 virus making a comeback to form another small peak season from August and September ,” he explained.

“But I think overall, the H3 virus-dominated peak season might be less serious compared with the one seen last year,” he added.

The infectious disease expert again called on parents to take their children to get a flu vaccine shot prior to the summer vacation, as there were many serious cases of children infected by the subtype H1 virus.

He also noted that the city’s Scientific Committee on Vaccine Preventable Diseases had recommended that the Department of Health increase the procurement of the nasal vaccine to raise vaccination rates, as young children were more willing to receive the nasal vaccine.

Separately, Hung predicted that the new Covid variant - KP.2 strain - that was discovered in the city’s sewage system, will replace the current prevalent variant - JN.1 - as the dominant Covid strain. But he said the new variant will not cause severe cases.

Social welfare lawmaker Tik Chi-yuen on Saturday criticised the government’s latest strategy to ease poverty by saying that such strategies are not “precise” or “accurate” in alleviating poverty as they did not include other groups that also require social support.

His remarks came after authorities earlier identified around 950,000 elderly people, single parent households, and subdivided flat tenants for targeted poverty alleviation.

Speaking on an RTHK programme, Tik said the latest strategy could not comprehensively reflect the city’s poverty situation.

"I am not against having these target groups, but I think there aren't enough targeted groups, because there are also the disabled, the chronically ill, the mentally ill, and so on. So I think it's not 'broad' enough in terms of identifying the families who need key assistance.”

“Secondly, the targeted groups are also not 'precise' enough, as it's very general to say that there are over 900,000 people [in these groups], but what about different levels… within them?” he commented, adding that the strategy is not “accurate”.

The legislator also believes that the government must maintain and improve the so-called “poverty line”, instead of “abandoning” the gauge, as it could reflect whether those targeted measures to tackle poverty are having an effect.

The ‘poverty line’ uses Hong Kong median household income as the sole gauge to measure poverty. The government earlier said such a gauge is no longer appropriate, and it will come up with a more accurate way of monitoring poverty levels later this year.

“The latest strategy is target group-based, and the poverty line is income-based, these two have different calculation methods and are not comparable,” Tik noted.

Separately, Chua Hoi-wai, the chief executive of the Hong Kong Council of Social Services, which represents some 480 non-governmental social services organisations (NGOs), said some government-led projects to tackle poverty aren't effective enough in offering help.

He cited the “Strive and Rise Programme” the government set up as an example and said that such a project, despite having positive feedback in recent times, is only supporting a limited number of people.

“There were about 2,000 pupils covered in the previous cohort under the programme, and about 4,000 covered in the current cohort. All these numbers are far [smaller] compared with poverty figures showing tens of thousands," Chua told RTHK.

The programme cited was aimed at addressing inter-generational poverty issues by pairing under-privileged students with volunteer mentors - along with financial support:

“The government might need to explain to the public why the number of assisted pupils is so small?” he asked.

Transport minister Lam Sai-hung on Saturday said future taxi fleets will have to allow digital payments, install video recording technology, and should respond to complaints.

Lam told a Commercial Radio programme that he hopes this government initiative to step up taxi management will enhance service standards.

"We hope the fleet management will... shift the culture of the whole taxi industry, because we have got to change. If we go on like this, the taxi industry will just get worse and people will have less and less confidence in it," he said.

The official said applications for taxi fleet licences are closing at the end of the month, and the licences will be issued in mid-2024.

He said the fleets should start operating within a year.

Meanwhile, Lam said the upcoming taxi fare hike is needed so the industry can stay financially sustainable.

He said taxi drivers earned HK$17,000 to HK$20,000 a month on average last year, and some of them had seen their income fall.

"After taking into account inflation, some taxi drivers - for example those working on Lantau - earned a lower income than they did in 2019. We think this isn't good for the taxi sector's long term development," he said.

"The cost of gas and insurance have also gone up. We considered these factors before reaching the decision."

The minister said they had also considered if people would accept a fare hike, before announcing that flagfall for all taxis will rise by HK$2 from July 14.

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority on Friday announced that a pilot electronic renminibi programme had been expanded to Hong Kong to include cross-border usage of the digital currency.

It marks the first time since the launch of the e-CNY pilot scheme in 2019 that the nation's official digital currency was available for use outside of the mainland.

The programme, backed by Beijing, allows Hong Kong residents to open digital yuan wallets using a local mobile number via an app developed by China's central bank - the People's Bank of China.

The expansion of the programme permits users to make payments in retail shops and some online stores in Hong Kong, Macau and other Greater Bay Area cities as well as in other places covered by the pilot scheme.

Hongkongers who use the e-CNY wallets can pay up to 2,000 yuan for each transaction, and are limited to use up to 50,000 yuan worth of purchases per year.

The apps are operated by four mainland banks, namely Bank of China, Bank of Communications, China Construction Bank as well as Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, while users can top up their e-CNY wallets from 17 banks, including HSBC, Hang Seng Bank and Standard Chartered Bank.

Speaking at a press briefing, the authority's deputy chief executive, Howard Lee, said the expansion of the pilot scheme would make it more convenient for Hongkongers to shop on the mainland.

"This is going to provide an additional means, a safe and secure means for people in Hong Kong to use this wallet across the border when they go there and they have a need to make a payment, or vice versa for mainland users coming to Hong Kong," he explained.

"There are already some other means that can be used for this purpose, but we thought that different people might have different preferences, so one more option is always better than one fewer option."

However, Hong Kong users currently cannot make peer-to-peer (P2P) transactions, or electronic money transfers from oneself to another through the e-CNY wallets.

Russian president Vladimir Putin was in Harbin on Friday to promote trade ties between the two nations on the final day of his state visit in China.

Lying just a few hundred kilometres from the border with Russia, Harbin has long served as a key hub for cross-border trade and cultural exchange.

The Russian president attended the opening ceremony of a China-Russia trade expo and was accompanied by Vice President Han Zheng.

Speaking at the ceremony, Putin hailed energy ties between the two countries and promised to "strengthen" them.

"Russia is ready and able to continuously power the Chinese economy, businesses, cities and towns with affordable and environmentally clean energy," he said.

"As the world is on the threshold of the next technological revolution, we are determined to consistently deepen bilateral co-operation in the field of high technologies and innovations," he added.

Putin arrived in Beijing on Thursday on his first trip abroad since his March re-election, meeting President Xi Jinping for talks in which the leaders framed their nations' ties as a stabilising force for the world.

The two men later ditched their ties for a less formal meeting over tea at the Zhongnanhai leadership compound. Footage from broadcaster CCTV also showed the leaders embracing.

An editorial in the Global Times newspaper on Friday cited the importance of burgeoning trade ties between the two countries, saying China had been Russia's largest trading partner for 13 straight years.

"These achievements are not easy and have been achieved by both countries overcoming various external challenges and unfavourable factors, highlighting the solid foundation of the China-Russia relationship," the editorial said. (AFP/Reuters)