The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) is to shift its Asia headquarters from Hong Kong to Singapore, it said on Thursday in a letter sent to staff.
The US newspaper said its decision comes after other foreign firms have reconsidered their operations in Hong Kong.
WSJ editor-in-chief Emma Tucker in a letter to staff said that the shift would also involve an unspecified number of layoffs.
Announcing changes to the WSJ’s Asia operations, Tucker wrote: “Some of these changes are structural: We are bringing together our business, finance and economics coverage. Some are geographic: We are shifting our center of gravity in the region from Hong Kong to Singapore, as many of the companies we cover have done.”
On the staff changes, she added: “Consequently, some of our colleagues, mostly in Hong Kong, will be leaving us. It is difficult to say goodbye, and I want to thank them for the contributions they have made to the Journal.”
The union for WSJ employees, IAPE, in a statement said that it was “sorry to learn that eight reporters from the Hong Kong and Singapore offices have been laid off from the company.”
The WSJ also has bureaus in Taipei, Tokyo, New Delhi, Beijing, Seoul and Sydney.
Tucker said a new business, finance and economics group would be created with a mandate to “break news and write ambitious and distinctive features, analysis and enterprise.”
She also said the WSJ was looking to appoint an editor to lead the group, with the position based in Singapore, alongside a number of other journalist roles in Singapore and Hong Kong.
Hong Kong authorities this year introduced a new national security law, with critics saying it expanded the territory’s powers to prosecute dissidents, and that it was scaring foreign businesses away.
The new law expands on a national security law implemented by China in 2020 to quell the huge and sometimes violent pro-democracy protests that swept Hong Kong the year before.
More than 290 people have been arrested, 174 charged and 114 convicted — most of them prominent pro-democracy politicians, activists and journalists — since Beijing’s security law was enacted.
US news outlet Radio Free Asia announced in March it had closed its Hong Kong office, citing concerns about staff safety, while media watchdog Reporters Without Borders last month said a representative was denied entry to the territory.
Hong Kong was once home to a thriving independent media environment. Authorities have since closed several local media outlets, including Stand News and Apple Daily.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
RSS