Author: DW

In Changchun, northeast China, sits an apartment complex owned by Evergrande Group. There are dozens of buildings and tens of thousands of flats. But it was eerily quiet when we visited.The compound was largely empty. One couple told us they can’t move into their flat because it isn’t finished and the developer has told them they have run out of money to work on it.They were nervous to speak to us and feared criticising the government.”I’m upset and disappointed, because we trusted this developer, Evergrande,” Sunny, not her real name, told us. “What’s happening now is really heartbreaking. I’m having…

At least 11 people died, and 30 people were missing after a bridge collapsed amid torrential rains in northwestern China, state media said on Saturday. “Nearly 20 vehicles and more than 30 people” are missing after the collapse of the highway bridge, local broadcaster CCTV said. The bridge in Zhashui County in Shangluo City, Shaanxi province, collapsed at 8:40 p.m. on Friday local time due to sudden downpours and flash floods, state news agency Xinhua reported, citing authorities. Rescue operations are ongoing, with five vehicles recovered from the water so far. All 11 confirmed deaths were bodies in the retrieved vehicles. Local media visuals…

At least 11 people have died and dozens more are missing after a highway bridge collapsed in northwest China, authorities have said.China’s President Xi Jinping urged all-out rescue efforts following the disaster in Shaanxi province, which comes after heavy storms and flooding. Xinhua News Agency said five vehicles that fell off the bridge have been recovered after the structure crumbled on Friday at around 8.40pm local time.It said rescue operations were still under way on Saturday in the province’s Zhashui county, with some 20 cars and 30 people still missing.This breaking news story is being updated and more details will…

At least 11 people died, and 30 people were missing after a bridge collapsed amid torrential rains in northwestern China, state media said on Saturday. The bridge in Zhashui County, in the Shaanxi province, collapsed at 8:40 p.m. on Friday local time due to sudden downpours and flash floods, state news agency Xinhua reported, citing authorities said. Rescue operations are ongoing, with five vehicles recovered from the water so far. More to follow… ss/fb (AFP, dpa) Source link

I’m pausing for the first moment after a few extraordinary weeks. Time to reflect on what has been, what could have been and what might be to come. The central punctuation point from the fortnight was the shooting. That moment just after 6pm last Saturday when phones would have pinged with push alerts worldwide: “Shots fired at Trump Rally”.I was at home in Washington DC (it immediately became one of those ‘where were you’ moments) and I happened to have the TV on.Within six hours, with my team from DC, I was next to a field in Butler, Pennsylvania, metres from…

Donald Trump and the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy had a “very good phone call” on Friday, according to the former president, after he promised to end Russia’s war with Ukraine if he was re-elected.President Zelenskyy “congratulated me on a very successful Republican National Convention and becoming the Republican nominee for President of the United States”, he said in a post on the social media app Truth Social. The pair agreed to “discuss at a personal meeting what steps can make peace fair and truly lasting”, according to Mr Zelenskyy in a post on X.’The greatest salesman ever’Financial assistance to Ukraine…

Iran will be capable of producing the necessary material for use in a nuclear weapon within “one or two weeks,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Friday. Blinken made the statements at a security forum in the US state of Colorado. National security adviser Jake Sullivan, meanwhile, said the United States has noted “an uptick of public commentary from Iranian officials musing about that possibility” since the April attacks and counterattacks between Israel and Iran and its allies. Iran launched in April an unprecedented barrage of missiles and drones targeting Israel after what Iran said was an Israeli strike on…

The establishment of the “axis powers” in the 1930s paved the way for the Second World War.Agreements signed between Germany, Italy, and Japan in 1936 united them in their expansionist interests and hatred of Western allies. Amid Russia’s war in Ukraine, the Israel-Hamas conflict, and China’s repeated threats of invading Taiwan – some security and military analysts say we are on a similar path again and that Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea are the “new axis powers”.The last time a similar term was used was in 2002 by former US President George W Bush, describing Iran, Iraq, and North…

For 50 years, Cyprus has been split in two by a military border, the constant reminder of a deadly conflict that has never been resolved.The island, visited by more than a million Brits each year, is famed for its crystal clear waters, pristine beaches and rich culture, but the tiny country in the Mediterranean has a bloody history which provokes strong emotion to this day. “We are lost souls,” Greek Cypriot Mario Pischiris says. He was just a boy when war broke out in Cyprus on 20 July, 1974 – exactly 50 years ago.He was forced to flee with his…

Companies and other organizations were dealing with a backlog of orders, canceled appointments and delayed travel plans on Saturday, a day after a technology crash disrupted computer systems globally for several hours. Tens of millions of people from Brazil to Japan were hit by Friday’s massive outage affecting devices running Microsoft Windows, which caused thousands of flights to be canceled, bank services to go offline and several TV channels to fall silent.  CrowdStrike, the cybersecurity firm that caused the outage, blamed the roll-out of a fix for a problem with its software. CEO George Kurtz told the US news channel CNBC he wanted to “personally apologize to every organization, every group and…