Hongkong Electric has apologised for a power outage that hit various parts of Hong Kong Island in the small hours of Wednesday. There were dozens of reports of people trapped in lifts and fire alarms going off, while some traffic lights malfunctioned. The power firm says a fault in its supply system led to a voltage dip, triggering the outage. It is investigating the root cause of the fault and will submit a report to the government. The government says it is "highly concerned" by the incident and has asked Hongkong Electric for its report in four weeks' time. Frank Yung reports:

An electrical engineering professor says Hongkong Electric may need to fine-tune its blackout contingency plans or enhance staff training, once it finishes its investigation of what caused Wednesday's outage in parts of Hong Kong Island. Edward Lo from the Polytechnic University, described the incident as "weird", saying Hongkong Electric had an excellent track record. He spoke to Samantha Butler:

Two MTR stations also suffered power cuts on Wednesday afternoon. The railway firm says they were not related to the earlier blackout on Hong Kong Island and stressed that train services were not affected. Leung Pak-hei reports:

The Hospital Authority says staff will inspect toilets at Accident and Emergency units at public hospitals every hour with immediate effect, as part of efforts to better ensure patient safety. The announcement came after the death of a patient who passed out in a toilet at Eastern Hospital's A&E unit following a 12-hour wait to be seen. The authority also says it has reminded staff to step up patrols in A&E waiting halls and arrange those with higher risks to areas close to where medical workers are present. Meanwhile, health secretary Lo Chung-mau has also acknowledged the problem of long waiting times at the A&E units, as Ada Au reports:

The health secretary Lo Chung-mau says the government has no plans so far to expand a pilot scheme to be launched next month that will provide subsidised healthcare for Hong Kong citizens living in the Greater Bay Area. At the moment, the planned programme will be limited to just one hospital in Shenzhen. Maggie Ho reports:

The government says there are more places at international schools because of the pandemic. The Education Bureau says some non-local students might have moved back to their hometowns with their families. Violet Wong reports:

Greenpeace says a survey it commissioned indicates that very few people support the idea of the government forging ahead with both the Northern Metropolis and mega-reclamation off Lantau Island at the same time. It said it asked the Public Opinion Research Institute to phone up a thousand people last month. It said around half of them had concerns about the prospects for the Kau Yi Chau artificial islands plan - previously known as "Lantau Tomorrow Vision". Despite this, the government says it will push ahead with the projects to meet the demand for land. It said picking only one of the projects was not "viable" and that it was time to discuss how, not whether, the reclamation plans should proceed. Greenpeace's senior campaigner, Chan Hall-sion, told Violet Wong more about its survey findings:

A survey by a youth organisation has found that students taking the university entrance exam this year are experiencing lower levels of stress compared to those who sat the exam amid the Covid pandemic in the past few years. Some oral exams of the DSE have already been held, while the written exams begin on Friday. Hok Yau Club recently interviewed more than 700 DSE candidates. The club’s Student Guidance Consultant, Clement Ng, said lower stress levels could be partly due to students not having to take rapid antigen tests prior to the exam. He spoke to Ben Tse:

HSBC has reached out to shareholders urging them to vote down a proposal by its largest stakeholder, the Chinese insurer Ping An, to split the business. Kenny Hodgart reports:

The death toll from a fire that swept through a Beijing hospital on Tuesday has risen to 29, with all but three of the victims said to be patients. Dozens of others were wounded in the inferno - one of the deadliest in the capital in at least 20 years. 12 people have been detained in connection with the blaze, including the facility's director. Kelly Yu reports: