The Government Flying Service says chances are very slim of finding 27 crew members alive from an engineering vessel that snapped in two over the weekend, as the city was being battered by the first typhoon of the year. On Saturday, authorities rescued three of the crew, but said gusts of up to 140 kilometres an hour had hampered efforts, along with 100 wind turbines located at the site of the incident. The typhoon number eight storm signal had been in force from Friday evening until late Saturday afternoon, as Typhoon Chaba made its way through Hong Kong. Frank Yung reports:

A lawmaker who posed for a group photo with President Xi Jinping last week has since tested positive for the coronavirus. DAB lawmaker Stephen Ho was one of about 100 officials granted close contact with the president for a photo call on Thursday, during events to mark the 25th anniversary of the handover. Ho is the second member of the DAB party to have tested positive around President Xi's visit. Tam Yiu-chung, Hong Kong's sole representative to the National People's Congress Standing Committee, tested positive on Thursday and was absent from all events. On Sunday, Hong Kong reported 1,681 new local Covid cases, as a cluster involving a Kwun Tung hotpot restaurant continued to grow. Damon Pang reports:

The Chief Executive John Lee has held his first cabinet meeting where he set out as a key task finding ways for a limited reopening of the border with the mainland. But he stressed the city must not export health risks. Lee - who was sworn into office on Friday - said there was a need to conduct more PCR Covid tests for high risk groups to rein in the outbreak. Frank Yung reports:

The new Secretary for Justice, Paul Lam, says maintaining and promoting the rule of law will be one of his primary missions. He pledged “to serve Hong Kong with zeal and humility”. Maggie Ho reports:

The chairman of the Lan Kwai Fong Group, Allan Zeman, says President Xi’s speech commemorating the 25th anniversary of the handover was moderate, optimistic, and refreshing. During his speech, Xi declared the One Country, Two Systems principle a success and stressed there was no reason to change it. President Xi's visit to Hong Kong was his first outside the mainland during the entire pandemic. Zeman told Janice Wong that this sent a “strong” message to the world and showed his love and admiration for the city:

A think tank has urged the newly-established Home and Youth Affairs Bureau to work on restoring government’s relations with young people, and explore new ways to communicate with them. The Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups made the call after it surveyed around 1,000 local youngsters and found more than half of them did not think there was mutual trust between the two sides. A spokesman for the group, Alan Yip, said the government should let young people take part in community development. He spoke to Frank Yung:

After a one-day delay due to the typhoon over the weekend, the Hong Kong Palace Museum finally opened its doors to the public on Sunday morning. More than 900 treasures from the collection of the Palace Museum in Beijing are on display on rotation. Some of the pieces are being shown in Hong Kong for the first time. As Kelly Yu reports, the new culture, sports and tourism minister, Kevin Yeung, says the museum will help nurture a sense of national identity in Hong Kong people:

A green group has called on the government to further increase the plastic bag levy, saying a proposed increase to $1 is not enough to tackle Hong Kong's plastic waste problem. Greeners Action surveyed 800 residents in June and found over 75 percent thought the levy would deter people from using more plastic bags if it was at least $2. Angus Ho, the group's Executive Director, said supermarkets should also shoulder part of the responsibility of reducing unnecessary plastic use. He spoke to Kelly Yu:

Executive Councillor and former head of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, Joseph Yam, says he does not think the US will wage a “financial war” against China, but even if it does, it is unlikely to affect Hong Kong. Maggie Ho reports:

In the United States, the July 4 holiday weekend has been jamming airports with their biggest crowds since the pandemic began in 2020. About 2.5 million passengers went through security checkpoints at US airports on Friday. But some 1,500 flights were cancelled over the weekend in the US. RTHK’s US economics correspondent, Barry Wood, said there had been an explosion of travel as the country emerged from the pandemic. He told Samantha Butler that flight cancellations were the result of overbooking by airlines and staffing problems in the sector: