
This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing. An independent committee investigating Hong Kong’s deadly Wang Fuk Court fire will scrutinise the roles of building and home affairs authorities on the 20th day of evidential hearings. Four witnesses from the Buildings Department and the Home Affairs Department are scheduled to give evidence before the judge-led panel on Monday. The inferno broke out on...

Taiwan's Ministry of Finance announced that exports in July reached a record monthly record of US$82.4 billion, an annual increase of 41%. This is the 34th consecutive month of annual growth, exceeding the expected growth rate of 31 to 35%. Statistics Director Cai Mina pointed out that AI demand continues to spread to high-tech products such as semiconductors and servers, which is the main driving force. It is estimated that exports will maintain a growth of more than 40% in the last few months of this year, and the average monthly exports in the fourth quarter may reach 8.3 billion US dollars, a record high. Imports also grew simultaneously, and the trade surplus hit a record high of US$22.3 billion.
During the 2026 China International Fair for Trade in Services, the 2026 World Tourism Cooperation and Development Conference was held in Beijing. The released "World Tourism City Development Report (2025-2026)" shows that Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong rank among the top ten global tourism cities, and China has become the country with the largest number of shortlisted cities.
The 2026 China International Fair for Trade in Services opens in Beijing. The exhibition showcased new technology applications such as robots for cultural exposition, unmanned post office automated services and trendy products overseas, reflecting the deep integration of hard technology with public life and cultural communication.

Market research company Counterpoint Research pointed out that China's Changxin Memory accounted for 10% of the global DRAM market in the second quarter of this year. This news triggered a high sense of crisis in South Korea's semiconductor industry, which worried about the erosion of its technological leadership and called on the government to relax time limits for R&D personnel and increase criminal penalties for technology leaks.

Taoyuan City's first MRT land development project, A10 Shanbi Station, was officially signed. Honghui Photosynthetic Alliance invested nearly 3 billion yuan to plan and build a shopping mall and residential complex. This project combines green building and smart building standards and is expected to enhance the TOD development benefits along the MRT lines and become an important milestone in Taoyuan's rail economy.

Singapore's DBS Bank is being sued for S$1.298 billion by liquidators of four companies linked to the 1MDB scandal. The bank has rejected the allegations, stated it will fight the lawsuit vigorously, and confirmed no financial provisions have been made.