State media say the death toll from a highway collapse in Guangdong province has risen to 48 and rescue work is ongoing. As Chloe Feng reports, President Xi Jinping also called for increased efforts to save lives and eliminate dangers as the rainy weather continues in the region:

The government says the trial for its pay-as-you-throw scheme will continue as planned, despite participants saying it has been a struggle. The environment minister, Tse Chin-wan, said officials had always said the trial would last about two months. Officials have earlier said it remains to be seen whether a full roll out of the waste-charging scheme will still go ahead as planned on August 1. Damon Pang reports:

Privacy Commissioner Ada Chung has criticised the Consumer Council over a data breach last September, saying the watchdog contravened the Personal Data Ordinance. A hacker group had used ransomware against the council, resulting in a data leak affecting more than 450 people. The Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data says the council allowed staff to use virtual private networks (VPNs) to connect to its server when they were working from home but failed to enable multi-factor authentication. The commissioner told Vanessa Cheng that the council had not taken all steps to protect personal data:

A think tank has anticipated that an increase in the public housing supply will shorten the waiting time for public rental flats from the current 5.8 years to 4.6 years by 2027. The vice president of the Our Hong Kong Foundation, Ryan Ip, told Anne Chan that the government should prioritise improving the quality, especially the size, of public housing, as the housing supply catches up with demand:

An AI scholar at Lingnan University says the growing use of big data across many industries means there is a need to train more data analysts and manpower for this area. Sam Kwong is the acting Dean of the university's new School of Data Science, which comprises three divisions, including Artificial Intelligence and Industrial Data. It will offer a variety of courses from programming, statistics, and machine learning. Professor Kwong told Samantha Butler that in most cases in future, AI will not replace jobs, but supplement them:

The government says heat-related work injuries surged from 12 in 2022 to 29 last year, as Hong Kong logs more hot days over the summer. Responding to an RTHK enquiry, the Labour Department said it believed there had been a rise in the number of reported cases due to an increase in public awareness over the issue. It all comes as US scientists have predicted a one-in-three chance that this year could be the hottest on record. Dr Tim Wong is an emergency medicine specialist at Queen Elizabeth Hospital. He shared some tips with Natale Ching about identifying heat exhaustion and heat stroke:

Schools in Cambodia have started to reduce classes by two hours as a heatwave produces scorching temperatures. All public schools are now required to operate from 7 to 10 am while afternoon sessions will begin one hour later from 2 to 5 pm. Temperatures in Phnom Penh have been around 39 degrees celsius. RTHK's Southeast Asia correspondent, Luke Hunt, told Annemarie Evans that the temperatures were not only affecting children's education but compounding a years-long drought:

Hong Kong's economy grew 2.7 percent in the first quarter of the year, according to preliminary data released by the government. Simon Lee, honorary fellow at the Chinese University's Asia-Pacific Institute of Business, said growth in the three-month period was better than he expected, but noted that it also came off a relatively low base last year when the border had just reopened and economic activity was starting to pick up again. He told Chloe Feng that he was cautious about the city's outlook going forward:

The Inland Revenue Department says it expects a 12 percent increase in the amount of tax it collects this year, following a drop last year. Vanessa Cheng reports:

Authorities say about 180,000 mainland visitors travelled to Hong Kong on May 1 - the first day of the nation's Golden Week holiday. The tourism sector says the figure was in line with expectations. But as Kelly Yu reports, some tourists say they were not that impressed with the city's May Day pyrotechnics display: