Ecology minister Tse Chin-wan has denied there was a slow response to helping the whale which was found dead in waters off Sai Kung on Monday. But he said there was room for improvement, including giving the Agriculture Fisheries and Conservation Department more powers to protect marine species in future. Violet Wong reports:

Hong Kong police want to enlist the city's army of taxi drivers in their fight against terrorists, with an initiative aimed at teaching cabbies what to do when they overhear their passengers plotting attacks. They say they will teach drivers how to identify terrorist suspects and peculiar objects, as Jamie Clarke reports:

Allowances for newborn babies, further development of the IT industry, and more integration with the mainland were among the ideas put forward to the Chief Executive John Lee on Tuesday, as he launched his consultation sessions ahead of his October Policy Address. He met 21 Hong Kong delegates to the national legislature and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference at government headquarters. Local National People's Congress delegate, Nick Chan, said he brought up the issue of Hong Kong's dwindling birthrate and suggested families should be given financial incentives for having babies. He spoke to Elvis Yu:

An educator has expressed shock that over half of teachers failed an English written proficiency test set by examination authorities. About 1,500 teachers sat for the annual test. A third of teachers also failed the oral component. Mervyn Cheung, chairman of the Hong Kong Education Policy Concern Organisation, said 'new blood' - with high competence in writing skills - was needed in Hong Kong. He also told Ben Tse that many local students stopped honing their English language skills after winning a spot in university:

Electoral officials say Hong Kong now has around 4.3 million registered voters - a drop of more than 80,000 compared to last year. It is the second year running that the figure has fallen, as Damon Pang reports:

The Chinese University of Hong Kong Council has decided to stick with a reform proposal floated by a special task force to downsize and increase the number of outside members, largely in line with a controversial plan proposed by three lawmakers. This emerged after a closed door meeting of the council on Tuesday night, as Kelly Yu reports:

The executive director of the Hong Kong Retail Management Association says it will still take a year or longer for shop sales in Hong Kong to fully recover from the Covid pandemic. He was commenting on the latest government figures for retail sales, which show they jumped 19.6 percent in June from a year ago, marking the seventh straight month of growth. Mike Weeks reports:

HSBC Holdings has reported a 235 percent increase in first-half profit, as it benefited from rising interest rates and the planned sale of its French unit. Violet Wong reports:

Military helicopters have been deployed to deliver supplies to Beijing residents stranded by heavy flooding. Deadly rainstorms have wreaked havoc in the capital, with state media reporting that at least 20 people have died and around 20 are missing. Hailey Yip reports:

A climate change researcher says flooding in Beijing, in the wake of Typhoon Doksuri, took residents by surprise after the city had just suffered through a heatwave. Lawrence Iu, executive director of the think tank Civic Exchange, says Beijing has never recorded such record high rainfall in recent decades. Typhoon Khanun is now threatening northern China. Iu told Samantha Butler that the new storm would have a significant impact on downstream cities: