After winning the Chief Executive election, Carrie Lam promised new blood and diversity in her administration. After months of searching, she said she’d even had a nightmare about not having enough people to swear in on July 1”. Well on Wednesday, she unveiled her new cabinet – which indeed had all the seats filled but they were pretty much filled with same old people. This has encouraged many people to say: “Meet the new boss, Same as the old boss”. With us in the studio to talk about the new cabinet is former Cheif Secretary Anson Chan. In the wake of the United States’ government’s withdrawal from the Paris Agreement on climate change there’ve been suggestions that China could now assume the role of leadership on this matter. Cynics point out that as long as it is so difficult to breathe in so many large Chinese cities it may be premature to talk about PRC leadership on climate issues. However the Mainland is seeing extraordinary growth in solar and wind power production. The 2016-2020 “five-year-plan” for renewables aims to raise total wind generation capacity from 129 gigawatts in 2015 to more than 210 GW by 2020. Solar energy production is set to rise from some 43 to 110 GW. The wind and solar sectors in the mainland have attracted as much as 5.4 trillion yuan in investment and created thousands of jobs. So how is Hong Kong doing in all of this? Well, maybe not so great. The United Kingdom’s “Queen’s Speech” may be delivered by the reigning monarch but is written by her ministers and lays out the government’s legislative agenda. This Wednesday, before heading to the horseracing at Royal Ascot The Queen announced a much scaled-down set of Conservative Party policies. Meanwhile, there was much social commentary about the possible significance of her apparently pro-EU headwear. Well, we’ll leave you to be the judge of that. Goodbye.

Hello and welcome to The Pulse. Sunday is the 21st anniversary of the establishment of the Hong Kong SAR. It is also a moment for Hongkongers and the central government to take stock of Chief Executive, Carrie Lam’s first year in office. Some of that report card should focus on how well or badly she has dealt with Hong Kong’s ongoing housing crisis. This week, a step was taken. After weeks of talking about imposing a tax on vacant properties, on Friday the government announced several measures aimed at tackling housing problems. With us in the studio are members of the Long Term Housing Strategy Steering Committee, Lau Ping-cheung and Fred Li to talk about the new measures. Hong Kong’s birth rate has gone down, but our population is still growing, thanks in part to the daily quota of 150 allowed to settle here from the mainland. 830,000 mainland residents have arrived since the Handover and that number’s expected to reach 1.93 million by 2021. The quota’s controlled by the central government. The Chief Executive says it’s irrelevant to our housing issues. She’d rather look for another 1,200 hectares of land to meet estimated need for the next three decades. Hence the setting up of a Task Force on Land Supply in April, and a currently running five-month public consultation. Some critics, even in the administration, say that even now the government is underestimating how much we’re going to need. Others argue that it’s also underestimating the land already available … from sources on which the government seems unwilling to draw. Last Sunday, the people of Turkey cast their votes in snap presidential and parliamentary elections. President Recep Erdogan, who has been in power for more than 15 years, called for early elections in mid-April, 18 months earlier than planned. After 99% of the votes had been counted he had already won a 52.54% share of the national vote. It gives him increased executive powers to appoint high level government officials and senior judges, to dissolve parliament, issue executive decrees, and impose a state of emergency. Lucky citizens. We’ll leave you with images of the elections. See you next week. Goodbye.