Category Archives: World News

Evergrande lenders appoint receiver to seize Hong Kong HQ – sources

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Crisis at debt-laden Chinese property developer deepens in wake of default last year and failure to sell building

Lenders to the struggling Chinese developer Evergrande Group have appointed a receiver to seize its Hong Kong headquarters, two sources have said, as the world’s most indebted developer struggles to emerge from its debt crisis.

Evergrande is saddled with more than $300bn (£260bn) in liabilities and has been kept alive by a government-run rescue operation since it defaulted on $22.7bn of overseas debts in December last year.

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Germany to extend energy subsidies to smaller firms amid closure fears

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Economy minister says ‘demand shock’ must be addressed, as economists raise fears of recession

Germany plans to extend a scheme subsidising energy costs for big businesses that are heavily dependent on energy to all small and medium-sized businesses, as part of a package of measures designed to avoid a wave of insolvencies.

Robert Habeck, the economy minister, said he anticipated that the subsidies would be in place for a limited time, until efforts on the national and European level to bring down high electricity and gas prices take effect.

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French dentist jailed for mutilating patients with unnecessary work

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Lionel Guedj got rich by carrying out work on healthy teeth of low-income people in Marseille, court told

A multi-millionaire dentist in France has been jailed for deliberately mutilating patients from low-income neighbourhoods of Marseille, in a money-making scheme in which he performed thousands of unnecessary procedures.

Lionel Guedj, 41, was jailed for eight years and his father, Carnot Guedj, 70, who worked part-time for him, was jailed for five years after a court heard harrowing accounts of patients who had booked an appointment for minor issues, such as a cavity or loose crown, and ended up having scores of healthy teeth removed for no medical reason.

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Chinese nut-picker survives 200-mile journey in escaped hydrogen balloon

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Man spent two days aloft after balloon he was using to harvest pine nuts became untethered

A man has been found safe after he spent two days aloft in a hydrogen balloon that became untethered while he was using it to harvest pine nuts from a tree, according to Chinese state media.

The man, identified only by his surname, Hu, and a partner were collecting pine nuts on Sunday in a forest park in Heilongjiang province in north-east China when they lost control and the balloon sailed off on a 200-mile journey.

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Ex-president demands inquiry into Marshall Islands ‘mini-state plot’

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Hilda Heine calls for investigation into Chinese couple’s alleged efforts to bribe officials to help set up tax haven

A former president of the Marshall Islands has called for an investigation into an alleged plot by a Chinese couple to establish a mini-state inside its borders and set it up as a lucrative tax-break haven.

The pair were charged by US prosecutors with bribery and money-laundering offences over a “multi-year scheme” that included establishing a non-governmental organisation, allegedly bribing five Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) officials and attempting to bribe a sixth. One of the five was allegedly given cash to bribe others into supporting the carving out of a Hong Kong-style territory.

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Iran condemns two women to death for ‘corruption’ over LGBTQ+ media links

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Outcry over show trial, which follows Zahra Seddiqi Hamedani talking to BBC about abuse of gay people in Iran’s Kurdish region

Two women have been condemned to death in Iran because of their links to the LGBTQ+ community on social media, human rights groups have reported.

Zahra Seddiqi Hamedani, 31, and Elham Choubdar, 24, were found guilty of a number of charges by a court in Urmia, in the Iranian province of West Azerbaijan, on 1 September but the details of their sentences only emerged this week.

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Mooncake madness: China cracks down on extravagant versions of festival staple

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Modest packaging, capped pricing and auditing of sellers form part of Xi Jinping’s war on societal excess and ‘rampant money worship’

Chinese authorities have launched a crackdown on “sky high” mooncake prices ahead of this weekend’s autumn festival, amid government efforts to curb corruption and societal excesses.

Mooncakes, a small customary dessert baked with varying designs and fillings, are traditionally given to family and friends to celebrate one of the most important holidays in the lunar calendar. Known as mid-Autumn festival in China and Taiwan, it is called Tsukimi in Japan, Chuseok in South Korea, and Tet Trung Thu in Vietnam.

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Temperatures smash records in US west as brutal heatwave continues

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Records broken in Sacramento and Reno, while California close to ordering rolling blackouts to ease strain on power grid

A brutal heatwave enveloping the US west smashed records on Tuesday, as high temperatures and historic energy use strained California’s grid to the brink of its capacity and spurred fire behavior across the state.

Western states are struggling through one of the hottest and longest September heatwaves on record.

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Ukraine launches surprise counterattack in Kharkiv region

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Zelenskiy reports ‘good news’ from northern front as Donetsk People’s Republic says Balakliia ‘encircled’

Ukraine has launched a surprise counterattack in the north-east Kharkiv region, stretching Russian forces who are also facing Ukrainian attacks in the south.

An official representing the Russian-controlled Donetsk People’s Republic said on Tuesday that Ukrainian forces “encircled” Balakliia, an eastern town of 27,000 people situated between Kharkiv and Russian-occupied Izium.

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Hateful tweets multiply in extreme temperatures, US analysis finds

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Scientists logged rises of up to 22% in racist and misogynist tweets when temperatures rose above 42C

Hateful tweets multiply dramatically as temperatures become more extreme, an analysis of 4bn geo-located tweets in the US has found.

Scientists logged rises of up to 22% in racist, misogynist and homophobic tweets when temperatures rose above 42C, and increases of up to 12% when the mercury fell below -3C, according to a study by The Lancet Planetary Health.

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Malaria vaccine a step closer as experts urge Truss not to ‘turn off the tap’ on funding

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Chance to eradicate diseases such as malaria could be lost and UK innovation squandered if global health investment is cut, jab co-creator tells PM

The co-inventor of a groundbreaking vaccine that could eradicate malaria has implored Liz Truss not to squander cutting-edge UK innovation by “turning off the taps” on global health funding.

Speaking as successful results from the latest trials of the R21 vaccine were revealed, Prof Adrian Hill, director of Oxford University’s Jenner Institute, said it would be tragic if Britain cut funding just as scientists were poised to make “a real impact” against malaria.

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A veteran, a mother, a widower: police name victims of Canada stabbing

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Province of Saskatchewan releases names of victims in Sunday’s rampage as police arrest fugitive brother Myles Sanderson

A beloved veteran described as a “hero”, an elder who served as an addictions counsellor, a mother of five and a widower who spent his days volunteering are among the 10 victims of Sunday’s deadly knife attack in western Canada.

Police in the province of Saskatchewan have named the victims of Sunday’s stabbing rampage, their ages ranging from 23 to 78.

Thomas Burns, 23

Carol Burns, 46

Gregory Burns, 28

Lydia Gloria Burns, 61

Bonnie Burns, 48

Earl Burns, 66

Lana Head, 49

Christian Head, 54

Robert Sanderson, 49

Wesley Petterson, 78

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Body of British aid worker captured by Russian proxies shows ‘signs of torture’

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Paul Urey was charged with ‘mercenary activities’ by the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, who say he died of ‘stress’

The body of a British aid worker who was captured by Russian proxies in April has been handed to Ukraine with “possible signs of unspeakable torture”, according to the country’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba.

Paul Urey, 45, from Warrington, Cheshire, was captured in April by pro-Russian separatists, along with another Briton, Dylan Healey.

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Baltimore residents urged to boil tap water after E coli detected

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City officials ‘taking this matter very seriously’ as detection comes amid water access problems in Jackson, Mississippi and New York

E coli has been detected in multiple locations across Baltimore in recent days, city officials have announced.

Residents have been urged to boil tap water for at least a minute after E coli samples were detected in West Baltimore over the weekend. Since then, over 1,500 people in the city of around 600,000 have been affected by the advisory, including multiple schools.

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German inmate’s escape ends in fatal crash in France

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Man on day release hijacked car at gunpoint in Mannheim and then died in head-on collision near Nancy

A German man’s escape from a prison day-release scheme resulted in a cross-border manhunt that ended hours later in a fatal crash in neighbouring France, police said on Wednesday.

The 28-year-old fugitive hijacked a car at gunpoint in Mannheim, 190 miles (300km) south-west of Berlin, on Monday, forcing the driver to take off down a highway before he left her at a rest stop.

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Vineyards await Saint-Émilion wine rankings after 10-year row over 2012 results

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Rankings in 2012 were subject of lengthy legal proceedings, and several top châteaux have pulled out this year

Winemakers in the historic vineyards of Saint-Émilion in France are hoping that prestigious wine rankings unveiled on Thursday will put an end to more than a decade of court cases, legal wrangling and controversy.

The sedate area of Saint-Émilion, with its Romanesque architecture and collection of vineyards classed as a world heritage site, has been at the centre of a long-running row over its famous rankings, which are decided every 10 years.

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Housekeeper to Israel’s defence minister jailed for offering to spy on his employer

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Omri Goren Gorochovsky admitted contacting Black Shadow hacking collective linked to Iran

A housekeeper who worked for Israel’s defence minister has been jailed for offering to spy on his employer for an Iran-linked hacking group.

Omri Goren Gorochovsky, a resident of the central city of Lod, was sentenced to three years in prison by an Israeli court on Tuesday after being found guilty of attempting to pass on information to an enemy entity. Initial espionage charges were dropped under a plea deal.

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German chancellor rejects calls to reverse nuclear power plant closures

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Olaf Scholz says country has enough energy to get through winter after Russia cut gas supplies

The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has rejected calls for his government to commit to a longer-term extension of the life of the country’s nuclear power plants and insisted that Europe’s largest economy would have enough energy to get through the winter.

Scholz shut down criticism from the opposition conservative alliance and at least one leading economist, who have described his coalition’s decision to keep two remaining reactors in emergency reserve rather than letting them produce electricity, as “madness” while the government refuses to reverse its long-term plan to close down the last remaining plants.

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DRC officials tumble as bridge collapses at ribbon-cutting ceremony

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Spectators shout in apparent glee as dignitaries struggle to get off crumpled structure during launch

Dignitaries gathered to inaugurate a footbridge in the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo only for the structure to collapse beneath their feet to the barely concealed delight of onlookers, a video shows.

Just as an organiser cut the ribbon at the ceremony in Mont-Ngafula district in Kinshasa, the bridge buckled, both its handrails broke off and the central section slumped into a stream a couple of metres below.

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Hong Kong journalist union chair arrested weeks before Oxford fellowship

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Ronson Chan was preparing for stint in UK before being arrested for allegedly obstructing a police officer

The head of Hong Kong’s journalist union has been arrested, weeks before he was due to leave for an overseas fellowship at Oxford University.

Ronson Chan, the chair of the Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA), was arrested for allegedly obstructing a police officer and disorderly conduct in a public place.

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