Hong Kong will strive to achieve a full resumption of travel with the mainland as soon as possible. That came from Chief Executive, John Lee, after he visited the Lok Mau Chau border check point on Sunday, shortly after it reopened to quarantine-free travel for the first time in three years. The Immigration Department says more than 45,000 people entered or exited Hong Kong via land checkpoints on Sunday, with about 33,000 of those heading north. Damon Pang reports:

Hundreds of Hong Kong visitors flocked to Macau on Sunday as ferry services between here and the gambling SAR resumed for the first time in three years. And many of those making the trip were bent on visiting Macau's casinos, as Vanessa Cheng reports:

Travellers began streaming into the mainland by air, land and sea on Sunday, with many eager for long-awaited reunions, as Beijing opened borders that have been shut since the start of the pandemic. That came a day after the 40-day Spring Festival travel rush started, as Mike Weeks reports:

Government pandemic advisor, David Hui, has warned that the government may need to lower the cross-border travel quota if public hospitals see a surge in Covid patients as the border with the mainland opens up. But he also wants to see an end to the outdoor mask mandate and the dropping of isolation orders on many of those infected with the coronavirus, as Kelly Yu reports:

Epidemiologist, Benjamin Cowling, says it is too late to impose vaccine requirements on arrivals from the mainland given that the border has already opened, and there will be fewer Covid infections there in about two to four weeks' time. Mainland arrivals do not need to be fully-vaccinated to enter Hong Kong, unlike international arrivals. Professor Cowling also said imposing a PCR test on arrivals from the mainland just caused "trouble" for recovered patients, and the key measure to control the Covid situation was the quota - which he said "made sense". Cowling spoke to Ben Tse:

The government says the LeaveHomeSafe system has been officially shut down, more than two years after it was launched. It says the visit records of Covid patients have all been deleted but people can keep the mobile phone app if they want to. Damon Pang reports:

Police Commissioner Raymond Siu says fake news about the force must be cleared up within two hours to prevent confusion. He also says he believes relations between police and the public are improving but more needs to be done. Vanessa Cheng reports:

Police and firefighters say they believe a fatal blaze on Sunday afternoon in Shau Kei Wan was suspicious. Annemarie Evans reports:

The Financial Secretary, Paul Chan, says he is ready to "go global" to tell good stories of Hong Kong as anti-Covid measures here are almost fully relaxed. He said this would start this week with the Asian Financial Forum. Mike Weeks reports:

It took 15 ballots, a midnight vote and a near-fistfight in the US chambers of Congress, but Kevin McCarthy was finally elected Speaker of the House of Representatives on Saturday. But not without making some concessions. McCarthy claims he will be a more effective leader because of the drawn-out process, but others are wondering whether he will even be able to keep the position. RTHK's Washington correspondent Barry Wood told Samantha Butler that it marked an "ominous start" to McCarthy's tenure as speaker:

There has been further shelling in various parts of Ukraine on Sunday after the end of what President Vladimir Putin said was a 36-hour ceasefire by Russian forces. President Volodymyr Zelensky had said Putin's offer of a truce to mark Orthodox Christmas was deceitful. He said peace in Ukraine would only be restored when Russian forces were expelled. Annemarie Evans spoke to RTHK's Moscow correspondent, Fred Weir, and asked him why President Putin wanted a ceasefire: