The government has announced it will start accepting applications for civil service jobs from university students in their second-last year. The move is intended to help tackle manpower shortages in the public sector by readying students to start work as soon as they graduate. Wendy Wong reports:

An employment specialist says if the government wants to boost its manpower, it should consider other measures, including importing labour, encouraging ethnic minorities and women back into the workforce or extending the retirement age. Roy Ying, co-chair of the advocacy and policy research committee at the Hong Kong Institute of Human Resource Management, says searching earlier for university graduates will not make much difference. He told Vicky Wong that government jobs had always been a popular choice, especially among science and engineering students, due to the higher pay:

DAB lawmaker Nixie Lam backs the government's university initiative, saying it will help attract talented students. She also suggested that officials take a more proactive approach by organising more career talks at universities for students. She spoke to Wendy Wong about the importance of reaching out to potential candidates and providing them with information to help them make the right decisions about their future careers:

The Privacy Commissioner has called on the government to regulate credit reference databases after finding that breaches by a Kowloon Bay software firm had put the personal data of some 180,000 people at risk. Ada Chung said it was crucially important that the privacy of borrowers be properly protected. Hailey Yip reports:

Foodpanda and Deliveroo are in the sights of the Competition Commission. The watchdog is launching a two-week consultation on proposed changes made by Hong Kong's dominant online food delivery platforms on requirements that they impose on partnering restaurants. Frank Yung reports:

The district court has sentenced a gas station worker to 22 months in jail for attempting to lure girls into prostitution. Violet Wong reports:

An online video appears to show a flat in Tuen Mun being struck by lightning on Thursday morning. The flat in a high-rise block was hit by lightning three times within seconds, when the thunderstorm warning was in force. Former assistant director of the Observatory, Leung Wing-mo, said the incident was rare but normal, as lightning conductors have their limitations. The spokesman for the Meteorological Society told Violet Wong that people should not be worried about their safety:

Tamar and the skyline of Central will serve as a back drop for a Dutch artist's inflatable work that he says is all about friendship and connections. Florentijn Hofman's giant, yellow rubber duck ignited a frenzy here 10 years ago when it floated off Tsim Sha Tsui. This time, there are two of them and they will be on the other side of the harbour, as Natale Ching reports:

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority says the SAR's biggest green bond sale to date - with an issuance of nearly US$6 billion in multiple currencies - was massively oversubscribed, as Aaron Tam reports.

He was seen as a national hero in Australia after winning several military honours, including the Victoria Cross. But now Ben Roberts-Smith has lost a defamation case against three newspapers who accused him of committing war crimes in Afghanistan. Instead a judge found the papers had effectively proved most of the allegations against him. Australian civil courts require a lower threshold to prove accusations than criminal courts. RTHK's Australia correspondent, Gerry Gannon, told Ben Tse about the impact of the trial on the reputation of the military:

Russia has seen stepped-up attacks on its soil since Moscow began its military offensive in Ukraine. Just this week, its foreign ministry said the West was "pushing the Ukrainian leadership towards increasingly reckless acts" after a drone attack on residential areas of Moscow. Ukraine has denied any direct involvement. Aaron Tam spoke to RTHK's Moscow correspondent Fred Weir and asked him if these attacks were starting to have a psychological impact on Russians: