The Pulse：New Year prices increase, cleaners on strike & interview with physicist Brian Cox

Happy New Year! One that’s predictable about 2018 is that it's going to be more expensive than 2017. Among the prices already slated to go up are those of one popular fast food chain, electricity, public transport, postage, medical expenses, and even leisure activities. Add Hong Kong’s already high property prices and ongoing political uncertainty and it may not come as a surprise that a recent survey ranked Hong Kong as the world's seventh unhappiest city. With us in the studio to talk about labour rights and employment are Lee Cheuk-yan, General Secretary of the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions and Felix Chung leader of the Liberal Party.
For some the beginning of the new year is a time to reflect or maybe set new goals and make resolutions. If you are of a philosophical frame of mind, it may even be a time to consider the really big things like where we’re all going. If hell and handbaskets aren’t the first thing to come to mind you could even consider the nature of the universe, human existence, or whether there really was a big bang. Who better to address some of those issues than British physicist, Professor Brian Cox, a man who’s done much to make physics accessible to TV audiences around the world? Producer Liz Yuen went to talk to him.
Finally this week, on Friday morning Chief Executive Carrie Lam announced that Beijing had accepted the resignation of Secretary for Justice Rimsky Yuen. He’s to be replaced by Senior Counsel Teresa Cheng. We’ll leave you with a fondish farewell to Mr Yuen and wish you all the best for 2018, and we’ll see you next week.