TG Monday July 20th, 2026

Tripperhead Gazette

Jul 20, 2026

• The US Government has let lapse sanctions on HK officials, including Justice Secretary Paul Lam.

HKSARG: "The decision of the United States in not renewing the national emergency relating to Hong Kong marks an important step taken by the US side in implementing the consensus reached during economic and trade consultation between China and the US. The HKSAR Government

4:46 PM · Jul 17, 2026 · 7.42K Views

10 Reposts · 14 Likes

Via The Standard: “Among those no longer facing penalties are Hong Kong’s Secretary for Justice Paul Lam Ting-kwok, the head of the Office for Safeguarding National Security in Hong Kong Dong Jingwei, and former Commissioner of Police Raymond Siu Chak-yee.”

Via AP: “The United States said Saturday it did not renew a national emergency declaration over Hong Kong, leading to the lifting of partial sanctions, but it said an executive order that revoked Hong Kong’s special trading status remains in place.”

• Administrators of Wang Fuk Court have had their audit report rejected by owners after complaints of translation and data discrepancies.

• Due to the Iran War-not-war, Cathay has backtracked on restarting Riyadh and Dubai services, pushing the new start date back to late October.

Joel Chan@kjoules

Cathay Pacific passenger services between Hong Kong and Dubai/DXB & Riyadh/RUH, originally scheduled to resume on September 1, have been postponed to October 25 and 26 respectively

In view of the latest developments in the Middle East, Cathay Pacific will postpone the resumption of its daily passenger flights to Dubai and four-times-weekly passenger flights to Riyadh to 25 October 2026 and 26 October 2026, respectively, from the originally planned 1 September 2026. Affected travellers will be offered the flexibility to rebook, reroute or refund their tickets.
Cathay will continue to closely monitor the evolving situation in the Middle East.

9:03 AM · Jul 17, 2026 · 1.39K Views

2 Reposts · 7 Likes

• A 16% increase in Mainland visitors and a 5% increase in everyone else has led to the first half of 2026 seeing 26.7 million visitors to Hong Kong.

Aaron Busch@tripperhead

Hong Kong Provisional Visitor Arrivals June 2026: • 3,722,694 visitors in June; +7% • long haul +16% in June year-on-year • H1 26,712,488 visitors • H1 2026 +13% Y-O-Y

4:31 PM · Jul 17, 2026 · 1.95K Views

2 Reposts · 5 Likes

• After an increase in A&E fees kicked in from January, the hospital department has seen a 3.9% decrease in attendances.

To be honest, I thought it would be greater. 4% seems modest. Perhaps it’s because those who have always overused A&Es (cough cough the elderly) are having their fees waived.

“Meanwhile, 289,799 applications for medical fee waivers were received by June 30, of which 264,087 were approved. The approval rate exceeded 90 percent, while the number of applications was nearly 19 times the annual volume recorded before the reform.”

• Nine fixed penalties issued at $3000 a pop in the first three days of the new ‘no smoking on construction sites’ law.

Aaron Busch@tripperhead

Hong Kong authorities have issued nine fixed-penalty tickets and 110 warnings to contractors since launching a citywide construction site smoking ban last Friday.

scmp.com

9 tickets, 110 warnings issued after construction site smoking ban takes effect

5:54 AM · Jul 20, 2026 · 1.11K Views

1 Reply · 4 Likes

• Seems lots of you liked staying up late or getting up REALLY early for the football world cup, with the F&B industry saying an extra half billion was pumped into the local economy.

Hong Kong Free Press HKFP@hkfp

The World Cup brought an additional HK$500 million in revenue to Hong Kong's restaurants, an industry rep has said, despite games being held in the middle of the night due to the time difference. 🔗 In full: hongkongfp.com/2026/07/20/wor…

4:10 AM · Jul 20, 2026 · 1.43K Views

4 Reposts · 6 Likes

Infantino should take the FIFA Peace Prize off Trump who is mired in an endless “two week war” and hand it to the Spanish football team. I can’t remember the last time the world was so united supporting one country. Buenísimo.

Speaking of World Cups, I’m finally back in town from the cricket world cup qualifiers in Copenhagen. The ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Europe Sub-regional Qualifier B to be precise (which was always a mouthful to spit out on air…). Best I practice up, because come August 12th I’m off to Helsinki for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Europe Sub-regional Qualifier C. But until then, the TG is back to regular programming.

Tripperhead Gazette

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Tripperhead Gazette

TG Monday July 20th, 2026

Tripperhead Gazette

• The US Government has let lapse sanctions on HK officials, including Justice Secretary Paul Lam.

Via The Standard: “Among those no longer facing penalties are Hong Kong’s Secretary for Justice Paul Lam Ting-kwok, the head of the Office for Safeguarding National Security in Hong Kong Dong Jingwei, and former Commissioner of Police Raymond Siu Chak-yee.”

Via AP: “The United States said Saturday it did not renew a national emergency declaration over Hong Kong, leading to the lifting of partial sanctions, but it said an executive order that revoked Hong Kong’s special trading status remains in place.”

• Administrators of Wang Fuk Court have had their audit report rejected by owners after complaints of translation and data discrepancies.

• Due to the Iran War-not-war, Cathay has backtracked on restarting Riyadh and Dubai services, pushing the new start date back to late October.

• A 16% increase in Mainland visitors and a 5% increase in everyone else has led to the first half of 2026 seeing 26.7 million visitors to Hong Kong.

• After an increase in A&E fees kicked in from January, the hospital department has seen a 3.9% decrease in attendances.

To be honest, I thought it would be greater. 4% seems modest. Perhaps it’s because those who have always overused A&Es (*cough cough the elderly*) are having their fees waived.

• Nine fixed penalties issued at $3000 a pop in the first three days of the new ‘no smoking on construction sites’ law.

• Seems lots of you liked staying up late or getting up REALLY early for the football world cup, with the F&B industry saying an extra half billion was pumped into the local economy.

Discussion about this post

Ready for more?

To be honest, I thought it would be greater. 4% seems modest. Perhaps it’s because those who have always overused A&Es (cough cough the elderly) are having their fees waived.