The Chief Executive-elect, John Lee, has asked the High Court to spare him from punishment over his failure to submit copies of consent for election advertisements on time to the Electoral Affairs Commission. He ran three election ads in April, but failed to submit copies of relevant documents within one working day of their publication, an offence punishable by a HK$5,000 fine and six months in prison. Timmy Sung reports.

Legislators have been debating scrapping the MPF offsetting mechanism, which is expected to be voted on, later on Thursday. Sharp divisions have emerged over the proposed changes that were first mooted more than a decade ago. Violet Wong reports from Legco.

A unionist lawmaker says it is high time to scrap the MPF offset mechanism to improve retirement protection for workers across the city. Lam Chun-sing, who's also the chairman of the Federation of Hong Kong and Kowloon Labour Unions, said the arrangement seriously affected workers' rights, as over $50 billion of MPF payments had been used in the past by employers to offset redundancy and long-service payments. Lam also told Samantha Butler that the government had already pledged to roll out a long-term subsidy scheme to help companies meet the extra costs.

Health authorities have reported 558 new Covid infections. It includes 257 from PCR tests and over 300 rapid test results that were later verified by further testing. Meanwhile, the Centre for Health Protection says it has detected 14 cases that might be the new Omicron subvariant. Aaron Tam reports.

A patients' rights group is urging the government not to extend the vaccine pass to specialist outpatient clinics from Monday. Alex Lam, chairman of Hong Kong Patients' Voices, says some 40,000 people attend these clinics everyday, and the plan would deprive those without the vaccine pass of the right to access public healthcare. To use the pass, a person needs three Covid jabs unless they can provide proof of an exemption. Lam told Ben Tse that it was wrong for authorities to punish people by depriving them of medical services.

The government has announced it will recognise medical qualifications from 23 more universities outside of Hong Kong. Among them is Shanghai's Fudan University, as Frank Yung reports.

The Chief Executive Carrie Lam has expressed deep sorrow over the death of the renowned entrepreneur, Hu Fa-kuang. Dubbed Hong Kong's "elevator king", the founder of Ryoden Development passed away on Saturday at the age of 98. He also help found the forerunner of the Liberal Party, as Damon Pang reports.

The World Bank has cut its growth forecast for China this year and warned that coronavirus disruptions could slow recovery in the world's second largest economy. Beijing says it will boost operational efficiency at Chinese ports to improve trade with the rest of the world. Aaron Tam reports.