Blaze was world’s deadliest residential fire since 1980, but some survivors and bereaved families say justice has yet to be served

Hong Kong’s leader has apologised for government shortcomings that contributed to a fire that killed 168 people in the city last year, a rare sign of public contrition that nevertheless failed to impress some victims’ families.

The chief executive, John Lee, and seven other officials bowed in apology at the release of a report that pointed to “decades of failure” by government bodies.

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© Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

As ações chinesas fecharam em baixa nesta quinta-feira (29), já que uma onda de ​vendas cada vez mais intensa no setor ​de tecnologia ofuscou a decisão do Federal Reserve de manter as taxas de juros inalteradas.

No fechamento, o índice de Xangai teve queda de 0,8%, enquanto o índice CSI300, que reúne as maiores companhias listadas em Xangai e Shenzhen, recuou 1%.

As ações do setor de tecnologia estiveram entre os principais fatores de pressão, com o índice ChiNext Composite , que ⁠reúne startups, caindo 4,4% e ​registrando o fechamento mais baixo desde agosto de 2025, enquanto o índice ​STAR50 de Xangai , focado em tecnologia, despencou 4,3%, marcando o fechamento mais fraco ⁠desde setembro de 2025.

O CSI 5G Communications , ⁠que acompanha empresas de comunicações 5G, despencou 7,4%.

Em Hong Kong, ​o ‌índice de referência Hang Seng registrou uma ligeira queda de 0,6%, enquanto as ações ⁠do setor de tecnologia da cidade caíram 2,8%.

A fabricante de robôs Yushu Technology, também conhecida como Unitree, , caiu 4,8% depois que seu lucro líquido no terceiro trimestre diminuiu, apesar do ‌aumento ⁠de 70% na ‌receita em relação ao ano anterior, em seu primeiro relatório de resultados desde a listagem na bolsa.

Em toda a região, as ações asiáticas perderam os ganhos anteriores, já ⁠que os resultados corporativos relacionados à IA geraram ⁠reações extremamente contraditórias, aumentando a expectativa em relação aos resultados da Amazon  e da Intel , que serão ‌divulgados ainda hoje.

O Fed manteve as taxas de juros inalteradas, como esperado, nesta quarta-feira, optando por adiar quaisquer mudanças nos custos dos empréstimos até depois das eleições de meio de mandato nos EUA na próxima semana, enquanto aguarda mais dados ‌sobre a inflação, que, segundo o banco central, “continua elevada”.

Em Tóquio, o índice Nikkei avançou 1,10%, a 64.659 pontos.Já em Hong Kong, o índice HANG SENG caiu ⁠0,59%, a 22.958 pontos.

Enquanto isso, em Xangai, o índice SSEC perdeu 0,82%, a 3.651 pontos. O índice CSI300, que reúne as maiores companhias listadas em Xangai e Shenzen, retrocedeu ​1,03%, a 4.041 pontos.

Em Seul, o índice Kospi teve desvalorização de 1,24%, a ​5.937 pontos.. Em Taiwan, o índice Taiex registrou baixa de 1,42%, a 46.368 pontos.

Em Singapura, o índice Strait Times valorizou-se 0,05%, a 5.400 pontos. Em Sydney o índice S&P/ASX 200 avançou 0,50%, a 8.891 ‌pontos.

Undercover reporters ordered 500 drone mesh modems from a Chinese firm, which billed them to Russia’s Alabuga drone plant, investigation by The Insider found. The outlet estimates the firm makes about half the high-power mesh modems that let Russia steer its drones deep into Ukraine. The firm’s director also named US company AMD as the source of a key chip, and AMD says it has not sold to the firm.

Geran drones and Banderol drone-missiles have become Russia’s main weapons against Ukraine’s energy grid. Russia began this winter’s strike campaign against that grid in late September, ISW assessed. Ukrainians’ survival this winter depends largely on how fast the West halts mesh modem sales to Russia, the outlet argued.

What a mesh modem does

A mesh modem links drones into one radio network. Each unit relays data for the others, so if one drone is shot down, traffic reroutes through the rest. Information keeps flowing even if nearly 80% of the drones are downed, Ukrainian defense adviser Serhii “Flash” Beskrestnov said in November 2025.

Range is the other half of the threat. One XK F-359 holds a line-of-sight link over 100–300 km, The Insider says. In theory, a couple of relay drones could keep a whole attack on Kyiv connected. Operators can then send new commands in flight and steer around air defenses. Russia’s Gerbera drones, first built as cheap decoys, increasingly carry these modems.

A modem from an upgraded Gerbera

To trace the part, The Insider’s correspondent in Ukraine examined an unmarked mesh modem from an upgraded Gerbera with a vertical tail fin, a version that appeared this summer. The outlet identified it as Xingkai’s XK F-359, the part Ukrainian intelligence and earlier reporting, Euromaidan Press included, had logged as the XK-F358. The Insider calls that label a misidentification.

Next, The Insider and the Nordsint investigative project contacted Xingkai on WeChat, posing as a Russian military supplier based in Alabuga. A company employee who introduced himself as “Jack Jiang” confirmed the firm is the model’s sole maker. The Insider identified him as Jiang Qin, Xingkai’s director and owner.

500 modems, three banks

The reporters then ordered 500 units for delivery to Alabuga, home to the plant that makes most of Russia’s long-range drones. Jiang invoiced 19.5 million yuan, which The Insider put at about $2.87 million. He offered two ways to pay: dollars to Xingkai’s DBS Bank account in Hong Kong, or yuan to his personal Ping An Bank account.

In the chat, the reporters said outright that the end user was a military production facility. Jiang raised no objection, The Insider reported.

Later, after the reporters asked to update the address, Xingkai sent a revised invoice with “Alabuga” spelled in Latin letters. This time, it routed payment to a China Merchants Bank account in the name of a former Xingkai manager. She left a management post at the company in 2025, according to Tesari corporate records cited by The Insider. None of the three banks answered The Insider’s requests for comment.

Jiang also claimed the modem’s programmable chip is made by AMD. Asked for an AMD license, he refused, saying Xingkai buys the chips through a middleman. AMD told The Insider that Xingkai “is not an AMD customer or authorized partner,” and said it had sold the company nothing. AMD added that it bars exports of its products to Russia that violate US export controls and sanctions.

Russia's state-backed payment firm A7 took in at least 283 tons of cash rubles, worth more than $14 billion, between November 2024 and July 2025, and turned much of it into payments to China that hide where the money came from, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and Russian investigative outlet Proekt reported on 21 October, citing leaked internal records.

Cut off from Western banks over its war against Ukraine, Russia now moves money the way drug gangs launder theirs: cash goes in, and clean-looking wire transfers come out abroad. The overlap is literal.

Last year, UK investigators found that a network laundering British drug gangs' cash had bought a Kyrgyz bank that was handling payments for Promsvyazbank, Russia's state defense bank. That same bank co-owns A7, which "is also likely to facilitate cash-based money laundering," anti-money-laundering expert George Voloshin told ICIJ. On 1 October, the US Treasury named A7 a "significant transnational criminal organization." Most of the market cash pays Chinese suppliers, and China supplies about 90% of the high-priority Western-restricted items Russia imports for its weapons. Drone makers working for the Russian army are among A7's clients, Proekt found in April.

From market stalls to a defense bank vault

Much of the cash came from Moscow's giant Sadovod market, where broker teams known as "departments" collect bags of rubles from traders, the records show. Vans take the numbered bags to an A7 office, where about 50 cashiers count the money before it is trucked to Promsvyazbank. The bank vaults it and credits A7. At its peak, A7 handled at least 58 tons of cash a month.

Russia's central bank has flagged the problem itself. Money of unknown origin comes "primarily" from Moscow's wholesale and retail markets and from illegal crypto exchanges, a senior Central Bank official said in September, as quoted by ICIJ.

Clean money for Chinese factories

A7 then orders shell companies outside Russia to pay its clients' suppliers, mostly Chinese exporters. The money moves through Kyrgyzstan, largely via the state-owned Trading Company of the Kyrgyz Republic, and the wire transfers carry no trace of cash or of Russia. The records list accounts at ICBC, Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, and China Construction Bank. One $287,000 transfer went through Standard Chartered's Hong Kong branch with "Sadovod" recorded as the client.

Chinese banks began refusing Russia-linked payments in December 2023 under the threat of US secondary sanctions. Stripping the funds of their origin makes them easier for Chinese banks to accept, illicit-finance expert Zachary Tvarozna told ICIJ. "The only company that sees everything is A7 itself," Voloshin said.

A7, Promsvyazbank, the Chinese banks, and Kyrgyzstan's economy ministry did not answer ICIJ's questions. A7 has publicly rejected the US accusations, saying it runs "a modern, multi-tiered compliance system."

Sanctioned, but still moving

A7 launched in late 2024, co-owned by Promsvyazbank and led by Moldovan oligarch Ilan Shor, a "sanctioned and convicted criminal fraudster," according to the US Treasury. Ukraine sanctioned its network in February, and the UK followed in May. A7 claimed to have moved more than 7.5 trillion rubles, about 13% of Russia's 2025 foreign trade transactions, and its network also helped Iran sell oil and buy weapons, the Treasury said.

Sanctions did hit A7's crypto side. Daily volume of its ruble token A7A5 fell 96% from its peak by June 2026, blockchain analytics firm Elliptic found. The cash channel is harder to touch: Western banks can see where A7's money lands, but not where it starts.

China disse que as condições para a devolução de Hong Kong, em 1997, não confere ao Reino Unido qualquer direito de supervisionar os assuntos do território após a transferência de soberania.

© MAY JAMES/EPA

Clínicas e salões de beleza disponibilizavam o tratamento sem supervisão médica e ocultando a sua origem humana, cobrando até 15 mil dólares de Hong Kong (1.700 euros) por três sessões.

© MAY JAMES/EPA

De acordo com a investigação, dois grupos são suspeitos de terem criado uma procura artificial pelas ações durante as ofertas públicas iniciais e de terem canalizado parte dos fundos angariados.

© JEROME FAVRE/EPA

A powerful reflection on the pull of nostalgia, on learning to accept that a past life is gone even as you tentatively reach back for it. Tiffany Huang captures the ache of lost opportunities and regretted paths, of staying a course out of duty and responsibility even as your sense of home erodes. It’s a gorgeous, bittersweet read about what it means to move on long before you’ve fully let go.

You unmasked for the first time, revealing smooth cheeks, a sharp chin, and a long nose. You talked about your book, in progress for several years now, about a Hong Kong man drifting aimlessly around the world. I asked you how you felt about the protests and noted the resignation in your tone. You wanted to write a book about what it meant to be a man from Hong Kong; if Hong Kong disappeared, what would happen to the man? You told me about your family, and it was clear we were not meeting to talk about writing anymore. When you spoke, you chose your words carefully. You didn’t ask me about my boyfriend, only how I felt about returning to America. When I hesitated, you did not ask why, and when I spoke, you listened instead of interrupting me. I didn’t want to leave.