From a Chinese builder, a money manager runs away with $313 million

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From a Chinese builder, a money manager runs away with $313 million

A corporation that was formerly one of China’s largest property developers claims to have lost communication with a wealth manager who manages $313 million (£235 million) of its assets.

China Fortune Land Development claims that China Create Capital, a company registered in the British Virgin Islands, was meant to invest the cash on its behalf. It informed investors that the matter had been reported to Beijing police. After defaulting on billions of dollars in bonds, the company announced steps to restructure its obligations this month.

According to a document filed this week with the Shanghai Stock Exchange, one of Fortune Land’s overseas subsidiaries signed a deal in 2018 entrusting a company called Wingskengo Ltd. To provide investment management services to the property developer.

The lawsuit goes on to explain how Fortune Land transferred $313 million to China Create Capital as instructed by Wingskengo. The investment was projected to yield a yearly income of 7% to 10% until the deal expired at the end of 2022, according to Fortune Land.

Due to the industry’s debt issue, Fortune Land, like many other large Chinese real estate companies, has had its stock collapse in recent months. Due to its failure to meet its financial obligations, its Shanghai-listed shares have lost more than 70% of their value this year.

Fortune Land said earlier this month that a debt restructuring plan had been agreed by a group of creditors.

After defaulting on billions of dollars in bond obligations earlier this year, the deal presented a possible lifeline to the deeply indebted corporation.

Fortune Land is just one of China’s debt-ridden property developers that has come under fire since Beijing imposed a wide crackdown on the sector’s excessive borrowing last year.

Industry giant Evergrande, which is over $300 billion in debt and has lately defaulted on interest payments on certain offshore loans, is the most high-profile company to be engulfed by the problem.

Meanwhile, rival developer Kaisa, which has $12 billion in offshore debt, failed to repay $400 million in notes that were due to maturity last week.

Bird songs remove celebrities from the Australian music charts

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Bird songs remove celebrities from the Australian music charts

The tweets and squawks of endangered Australian birds were used to create an album that debuted in the top five on the Aria music charts.

Songs of Disappearance is outperforming Abba and The Weeknd, as well as holiday favourites Michael Bublé and Mariah Carey.

BirdLife Australia produced the album, which features the songs of 53 of Australia’s most endangered species. To catch a single fast tweet, some noises necessitated hours of sitting in the woods. 

David Stewart, a wildlife sound recordist, has spent more than 30 years gathering the sounds of Australia’s wildlife, many of which are rarely heard. His bird recordings were included on the album.

A social media campaign was established to push the album into Australia’s Aria music sales charts when it was published on December 3, and it worked. Songs of Disappearance is the first album of its kind to reach the top five charts.

The proceeds will be used to support BirdLife Australia’s conservation efforts.

“This album is a genuinely exceptional record with very rare recordings of birds that may not survive if we don’t come together to conserve them,” BirdLife Australia CEO Paul Sullivan told The Music Network.

“While our campaign is fun, it has a serious component to it, and it’s been encouraging to see bird enthusiasts demonstrating to governments and businesses that Australians care about these important birds,” he added.

According to research by Charles Darwin University, one in every six Australian birds, or 216 out of 1,299 species, is currently endangered. Climate change is pushing species closer to extinction, according to the study, which incorporated input from over 300 bird specialists.

Their habitat was destroyed by the catastrophic bushfires of 2019 and 2020, and BirdLife Australia predicts that the number of vulnerable bird species has increased by up to 25%. 

WHO reports that Omicron is spreading at an unprecedented rate

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WHO reports that Omicron is spreading at an unprecedented rate

The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that the novel coronavirus strain Omicron is spreading at an unprecedented rate around the world.

In 77 nations, cases of the severely modified form have been confirmed. However, at a news conference, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated that it was most likely present in many other countries where it had not yet been detected.

Dr Tedros expressed concern that not enough was being done to combat the mutation.

According to the latest data from the WHO, the variation initially discovered in South Africa in November is better able to escape existing vaccines and carries a higher risk of re-infection, indicating that the level of risk remains extremely high.

Following the advent of Omicron, a number of countries imposed travel bans on South Africa and its neighbours, but this hasn’t stopped it from spreading around the world.

At a press conference on Tuesday, Dr Tedros expressed his concerns about vaccine inequities as some countries rush to implement a booster shot in reaction to Omicron.

Recent investigations into the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine revealed that it produced considerably fewer neutralising antibodies against Omicron than the original strain, but that this deficiency could be overcome with a third booster shot.

According to Dr Tedros, boosters may play an important role in limiting the spread of COVID-19, but it is a priority issue.

In recent months, supplies to the global vaccine-sharing initiative COVAX have surged.

World health officials, on the other hand, are concerned that a shortage of tens of millions of doses, similar to the one that occurred in the middle of this year when India halted vaccine exports, could occur again.

Some susceptible people in underdeveloped countries have yet to receive a single dose.

Amazon has been criticized for the safety of its tornado-damaged warehouse

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Amazon has been criticized for the safety of its tornado-damaged warehouse

Following the death of six workers at a warehouse in the US state of Illinois due to a tornado, Amazon is facing questions about its health and safety policies.

In reaction to the tornado, the corporation claims that its crew acted quickly. When the storm pounded the warehouse on Friday, the roof fell.

Amazon spokesman Kelly Nantel stated in a statement that the business is truly saddened by the losses. Now, there are questions about whether enough shelter was provided if workers were told to go there right away, and whether the shifts should have gone forward that evening at all, given the extreme weather warnings.

According to the corporation, the team worked very swiftly to guarantee that as many employees and partners as possible could reach the shelter in place.

Austin J. McEwen, a 26-year-old freight driver, died in the bathroom, where many workers said they were urged to seek cover after receiving emergency notifications on their cellphones.

Over a 200-mile (322-kilometre) radius, catastrophic storms smashed into six US states on Friday evening, killing nearly 100 people and wrecking homes and businesses. Eight deaths have been confirmed by a candle company in Mayfield, Kentucky.

The storm increased quickly when it hit the Amazon warehouse, with winds reaching 150 miles per hour (241 kilometres per hour), ripping the roof off the football-field-sized facility, according to the National Weather Service. The concrete walls, which were 11 inches thick (28 cm), collapsed in on themselves.

The US Occupational Safety and Health Administration has launched an investigation into the building’s collapse, according to the US Department of Labor. She said that Amazon doesn’t directly hire many of these people, instead of relying on subcontractors, potentially allowing them to avoid questions about whether those workers should have been summoned to work on Friday evening in the first place.

Jeff Bezos, the company’s founder, has also come under fire for tweeting photos of astronauts who had recently returned from a space tourism journey aboard his Blue Origin rocket.

Amazon announced a $1 million (£757,000) donation to the Edwardsville Community Foundation, as well as emergency items such as transportation, food, and water.

According to a new analysis, half of UK families have lost £110 every year since 2019

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According to a new analysis, half of UK families have lost £110 every year since 2019

According to recent research, half of UK households’ discretionary income has decreased in the previous two years.

According to a survey by a left-wing think group, the lowest half of the population’s income has been cut by £110 since 2019. According to the New Economics Foundation (NEF), the richest 5% benefit from an extra £3,300 each year.

Incomes in cities like London have increased six times faster than in the northeast. As a result, the think tank has questioned the government’s levelling up the programme, which attempts to raise living standards and productivity in parts of the UK that have historically been left behind.

According to the NEF study, the poorest half of the population in every region save London and the East of England has had their earnings slashed by an average of £110 per year in the two years after the election, even after accounting for rises in the cost of living. In the northeast of England, the average disposable income has increased by only £20 per year or 0.1 per cent.

On the other hand, incomes in the southeast of England have increased by £550.

Across all areas, single-parent households were the most affected. Incomes in Yorkshire and the Humber, the northwest, and Merseyside fell by around 15 times as much as in London.

Prices are already rising at a rather high rate on a wide range of goods and services as a result of persistent labour shortages, supply chain challenges, and more red tape following Brexit.

The government’s independent forecaster, the Office for Budget Responsibility, predicted at the time of the budget in October that the cost of living might grow at the fastest rate in 30 years. The Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, and the Governor of the Bank of England, Andrew Bailey, have both admitted that household budgets are under pressure. Mr Bailey has even apologised for his role in the incident.

Conservationists say the UK’s plan to outlaw animal trophies is too slow.

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Conservationists say the UK’s plan to outlaw animal trophies is too slow.

Conservationists and campaigners have urged the government to press forward with proposals to prohibit the import of animal hunting trophies sooner rather than later.

The government announced the ban in its long-awaited response to a public consultation on the topic on Friday. However, it did not specify when the legislation would be tabled.

Every year, trophies manufactured from hunted lions and elephants are imported into the United Kingdom.

Every year, hunters from the United Kingdom come to southern Africa, where they pay thousands of pounds to lawfully hunt lions and elephants. They can then return to the UK with trophies such as stuffed heads or horns if they have the proper documents.

Environment Secretary George Eustace stated the amended policy will go further than originally promised when announcing the details.

The import restriction would apply to over 1,000 species, including zebra and reindeer, in addition to endangered and threatened species. According to the latest, incomplete data, elephant tusks, hippo skulls, lions, baboons, and giraffes were among the trophies legally brought back to the UK from southern Africa in 2020, despite the epidemic prohibiting travel.

According to the official data, 335 recorded imports of trophies from animals protected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora occurred between 2015 and 2019.

The Conservative Party’s 2019 election manifesto and the Queen’s Speech that followed included a prohibition on the import of hunting trophies, which Prime Minister Boris Johnson has highlighted multiple times in Parliament.

Labour MP John Spellar will introduce a private member’s bill to prohibit the import of trophies, but it will have little chance of passing without the support of the government.

Despite the fact that 86 per cent of the 44,000 responses to the public consultation called for tighter restrictions on hunting trophy imports and a ban has bipartisan support in the Commons, some conservationists argue that hunting provides funds that can be used to protect endangered animals and their habitats.

Brentford 2-1 Watford: The hosts complete a comeback in a dramatic fashion

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Brentford 2-1 Watford: The hosts complete a comeback in a dramatic fashion

Brentford came back from a goal behind in the final 10 minutes to deny Watford victory. Minutes after captain Pontus Jansson had equalised with a header at the back post, Bryan Mbeumo scored a stoppage-time penalty to make it 2-1.

Watford took the lead for an hour thanks to Emmanuel Dennis’ first-half header, but Brentford’s late surge was rewarded.

Dennis, who has been directly involved in nine of Watford’s previous 12 Premier League goals, went unnoticed in the first half when he tapped in the opener against the run of play.

Brentford had dominated the first 20 minutes, with Shandon Baptiste and Mbeumo going close to scoring, but Watford goalkeeper Daniel Bachmann produced several excellent stops.

Watford’s first corner of the match was earned when Joshua King’s curling effort hit the post and was converted by Dennis. He appeared destined to capture all three points as well, but Brentford came alive late on when Jansson nodded in an equaliser from a curling cross.

As the game entered stoppage time, Brentford poured on the pressure, and substitute Saman Ghoddos was hauled down by William Ekong, setting up a dramatic finish.

For the time being, Mbeumo held his calm to send goalkeeper Bachmann the wrong way, and the victory, which elicited joyful scenes at the Brentford Community Stadium, lifts the Bees to ninth place in the table for the time being.

With only six points separating 14th and 20th in the table, this season’s relegation battle might be a slugfest.

Norwich, Newcastle, and Burnley are now in the bottom three, but Sean Dyche’s team have two games in hand and will leap above 17th-placed Watford if they win both.

Watford looked set to go six points clear of the drop zone until Jansson equalised in the 83rd minute.

Jansson’s first Premier League goal was well-received, and he urged his teammates and the spectators to keep playing for the remaining few minutes.

Brentford retaliated by pinning Watford in their half before Mbeumo calmly netted the winner from the penalty spot.

Hong Kong: Jimmy Lai was found guilty of taking part in the Tiananmen Square vigil

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Hong Kong: Jimmy Lai was found guilty of taking part in the Tiananmen Square vigil

Jimmy Lai, a Hong Kong media mogul, and two other notable campaigners were found guilty of participating in a vigil commemorating the Tiananmen Square tragedy. Jimmy Lai was convicted guilty of participating in the vigil in Tiananmen Square.

They were among the thousands who broke a restriction to attend a vigil remembering the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown in Beijing last June. It has resulted in the indictment of nearly two dozen politicians and activists.

Because they elected to contest their charges, the trio was the last to receive their verdict. They claimed throughout their trial that they lighted lights during the vigil in their personal capacity and that they did not push anyone to join the unofficial rally.

Lai was the creator of Hong Kong’s now-defunct Apple Daily newspaper and has been a vocal advocate of the city’s pro-democracy movement. He was imprisoned earlier this year for participating in pro-democracy demonstrations. Ho is a former journalist who became an opposition politician, while Chow is a former lawyer who served as vice chairwoman of the now-defunct Hong Kong Alliance, which organised the annual vigil.

Both are in custody and have been denied bail because they are facing various charges, some of which are covered by a tough national security law imposed by Beijing on Hong Kong last year.

Hong Kong used to be one of the few areas in China where the incident could still be honoured or even discussed; mainland China is extremely sensitive about the incident, prohibiting any commemorative ceremonies and removing any mentions from social media. However, for the first time in 30 years, Hong Kong authorities prohibited the vigil in 2020, citing Covid limitations. Activists accused officials of caving into Beijing’s efforts to silence pro-democracy voices.

Hundreds of thousands disregarded the restriction to join the vigil that night, tearing down barricades placed around Hong Kong’s Victoria Park.

The ban on the vigil was maintained this year, with a more subdued response.

‘There was no hoax,’ says Jussie Smollett in court

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‘There was no hoax,’ says Jussie Smollett in court

Jussie Smollett, a black actor in the United States, has denied staging a racist and homophobic attack against himself, stating in court that there was no fake.

Mr Smollett, 39, said that on January 29, 2019, he was attacked by two individuals shouting racial obscenities in downtown Chicago. He maintained, through his storey to authorities, that the assailants yelled a Trump slogan and hung him from a noose.

Smollett is accused of lying about the attack and faces six felony disorderly conduct charges.

Prosecutors claim that the actor faked the event to advance his career.

On Monday, Mr Smollett spoke in his own defence, dismissing previous testimony from two Nigerian-born brothers, Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo, who claimed last week that the actor staged the attack himself and paid them $3,500 to carry it out.

According to the Chicago Tribune, Mr Smollett was heading home after getting a sandwich from Subway in the early hours of one of the coldest nights of the year when something out of a Looney Tune adventure happened to him.

Last week, the Osundairo brothers testified that Mr Smollett told them to yell something about Maga country while roughing him up during the allegedly staged assault.

Mr Smollett told the jury on Monday that he didn’t realise the rope was around his neck until he came home to his apartment building after the alleged attack.

He allegedly sought to boost his profile because he was disappointed with his pay on Empire, a TV programme about a hip-hop dynasty, according to officials.

Mr Smollett claimed that by the fifth season of the show, he was being paid $100,000 per episode. During the fallout from the purported hate crime hoax, he was eventually written off the programme.

On Monday, Mr Smollett told the court that the scandal had cost him his job. He might face a three-year prison sentence if convicted. However, given his lack of prior convictions, legal experts believe a lower sentence or probation is more likely.

Sarah Gilbert: The next epidemic could be more deadlier than Covid

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Sarah Gilbert: The next epidemic could be more deadlier than Covid

One of the developers of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine has cautioned that future pandemics could be even more deadly than the current Covid crisis.

Prof Dame Sarah Gilbert, who delivered the 44th Richard Dimbleby Lecture, said additional funding for pandemic preparedness was essential to avoid progress being lost. Vaccines may be less effective against the Omicron variety, she added.

People should remain wary until additional information is available, according to Dame Sarah.

She warned that this is not the last time a virus threatens our lives and livelihoods. The reality is that the next one could be far worse. It could be more contagious, more fatal, or both at the same time. She claimed that the Omicron variant’s spike protein contained changes that increased the virus’s transmissibility.

According to Dame Sarah, lower protection against infection and mild sickness does not necessarily imply reduced protection against serious illness and death. She also called for the rapid improvement shown during the epidemic in delivering vaccines and medicines to become the norm. She stated that there was no reason why a universal flu vaccine could not be created to eliminate the threat of influenza.

In an effort to prevent the spread of the Omicron, the government stated on Saturday that visitors to the UK will henceforth be required to take a Covid test before leaving.

Travelers aged 12 and up will be asked to present documentation of a negative PCR or lateral flow test done no more than 48 hours before departure, starting at 04:00 GMT on Tuesday.

After a growing number of Omicron cases were linked to Nigeria, the nation was placed on the travel blacklist. However, a government-adviser scientist described the new travel rules as closing the stable door after the horse has escaped.

Prof Mark Woolhouse claimed the new rules were too late to make a significant difference to a potential Omicron variant wave in the UK.

On Sunday, 86 new instances of the Omicron strain were reported in the United Kingdom, bringing the total number of cases to 246. On Sunday, 43,992 cases and 54 deaths were reported within 28 days following a positive coronavirus test.

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