Day: January 28, 2024

Japan’s lunar craft regains power after upside-down landing

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Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Japan has resurrected a spacecraft that lost power shortly after making a historic lunar touchdown this month, allowing it to resume a mission that seeks to illuminate the origins and composition of the Moon. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (Jaxa) confirmed on Monday that it had established communication with the spacecraft, which now rests on the lunar surface in what appears to be an upside-down position. “Science observations were immediately…

China Evergrande Ordered to Liquidate, Owing $300 Billion

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HONG KONG —  A Hong Kong court on Monday ordered the liquidation of property giant China Evergrande Group, a move likely to send ripples through China’s crumbling financial markets as policymakers scramble to contain a deepening crisis. The decision to liquidate the world’s most indebted developer with more than $300 billion of total liabilities was made by Hong Kong Justice Linda Chan, who noted Evergrande had been unable to offer a concrete restructuring plan despite months of delays. “It is time for the court to say enough is enough,” she…

Evergrande collapse: Hong Kong court orders liquidation of China property giant

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Embattled Chinese development company, Evergrande, has been ordered to liquidate by a Hong Kong court after an 18-month long hearing. Evergrande, which holds the ignominious title of the world’s most indebted property developer with about $300bn in liabilities, failed to convince the court that it had a viable restructuring plan, after having been given seven extensions since court proceedings were first brought in June 2022. However it can still appeal. Justice Linda Chan delivered the ruling on Monday morning, saying “it is time for the court to say enough is…

Japan Says Moon Lander ‘Resumed Operations’

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TOKYO —  Japan’s moon lander has resumed operations, the space agency said on Monday, indicating that power had been restored. After it landed on Jan. 20, JAXA had said that problems with the craft’s solar batteries meant they were not generating power. “Last evening we succeeded in establishing communication with SLIM, and resumed operations,” JAXA said on X, formerly Twitter. “We immediately started scientific observations with MBC and have successfully obtained first light for 10-band observation,” it said, referring to the lander’s multiband spectroscopic camera. The agency posted on X…

Covid-19 origins: researchers challenge early paper pointing to Wuhan market as epicentre of pandemic

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The paper was published in the peer-reviewed Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A: Statistics in Society on January 16. It was first uploaded to the preprint server arXiv in August 2022 ahead of peer review, one month after the 2022 study – described by Stoyan and Chiu as a “prominent study” – was published. In the 2022 study published in the peer-reviewed journal Science, a global team of scientists said their results “provide evidence that the Huanan market was the early epicentre of the Covid-19 pandemic and suggest…

Human Rights Watch dismisses Vietnam govt criticism

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New York-based Human Rights Watch has hit back at the Vietnamese government for accusing the non-governmental organization of fabricating its World Report 2024. The report, published on Jan. 11, accused Vietnam of suppressing people’s rights “to freedom of expression, association, peaceful assembly, movement, and religion,” and said the communist party “severely punishes anyone who challenges its monopoly on power.”  On Thursday, Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Pham Thu Hang called the report “factually inaccurate and fabricated,” claiming that, “the efforts, determination and achievements of the government of Vietnam in ensuring the basic rights…

Evergrande ordered to be wound up by court in Hong Kong

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Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. A Hong Kong court has ordered China Evergrande to be wound up, in a ruling that opens a new and unpredictable phase in the collapse of the world’s most indebted property developer. Hong Kong High Court Judge Linda Chan issued the liquidation order on Monday after the developer was unable to come up with a restructuring plan that would satisfy international creditors, despite months of negotiations. “It would be a…

Kim Jong Un boosts underwater nuclear threat, urges fast submarine build

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North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un has overseen the test-firing of submarine-launched cruise missiles and ordered officials to expedite the North’s nuclear submarine development, state media reported on Monday.   “In the morning of January 28, Kim Jong Un guided the test-fire of the newly-developed submarine-launched strategic cruise missile ‘Pulhwasal-3-31’,” said the North’s state-run Korean Central News Agency. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff announced Sunday that it detected North Korea launching several cruise missiles around 8 a.m., near Sinpo, where the North’s submarine facilities are located. Submarine-launched weapons can be…

Real Estate Giant China Evergrande Will Be Liquidated

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Months after China Evergrande ran out of cash and defaulted in 2021, investors around the world scooped up the property developer’s discounted I.O.U.’s, betting that the Chinese government would eventually step in to bail it out. On Monday it became clear just how misguided that bet was. After two years in limbo, Evergrande was ordered by a court in Hong Kong to liquidate, a move that will set off a race by lawyers to find and grab anything belonging to Evergrande that can be sold. The order is also likely…

Evergrande ordered to liquidate as Hong Kong High Court approves creditors’ bid to wind up world’s most indebted property developer

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China Evergrande Group will be liquidated, after a Hong Kong High Court approved a petition by creditors to wind up the world’s most indebted property developer, making history as the first court-ordered liquidation. Justice Linda Chan granted the winding-up order on Monday morning. The company can still appeal against the order. The provisional liquidator of the company will be named at a 2:30pm hearing today. “The hearing has lasted for one and a half years, and the company still has not been able to bring forward a concrete restructuring proposal”…