Blaze at coal mining company kills 26
China: A fire broke out at a coal mining company in a northern Chinese city yesterday, killing 26 people and injuring at least 38, Chinese state media reported.
Rescue personnel evacuated dozens of people from the building.
The building belongs to Yongju Coal Company and is in Lvliang city in northern Shanxi province, a major coalproducing region.
Videos circulating on social media, some of which were shown on state broadcaster CCTV, showed flames and heavy plumes of smoke coming out of a four-storey concrete building. Some people were shown escaping the building by climbing down drain pipes.
Those dead were almost all workers, according to local media outlet Fengmian News.
President Xi Jinping, who is on a trip to the United States, called for an investigation into “hidden risks” in key industries.
Russia: A Russian artist and musician has been jailed for seven years for replacing supermarket price tags with anti-war slogans.
Sasha Skochilenko has been detained in her home city of St Petersburg since April 2022 on charges of spreading false information about the military.
She was arrested a month after Russia adopted a law effectively criminalising any public expression about the war in Ukraine that deviates from the Kremlin’s official line.
The legislation has been used in a widespread crackdown on opposition politicians, human rights activists and ordinary Russians critical of the Kremlin, with many receiving lengthy prison terms.
The 33-year-old has struggled during her 19 months in pre-trial detention due to several health problems, including a congenital heart defect, bipolar disorder and coeliac disease, requiring a gluten-free diet, her lawyers and her partner said.
Russia’s most prominent human rights group has declared Ms Skochilenko a political prisoner.
Madrid: Spain’s acting Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has been chosen by a majority of legislators to form a new government.
Socialist leader Mr Sanchez was backed by 179 lawmakers in the 350-seat lower house of parliament. Only rightwing opposition deputies voted against him.
The vote came after two days of debate among party leaders, that centred almost entirely on a controversial amnesty deal for Catalonia’s separatists that Mr Sanchez agreed to in return for vital support to get elected PM again.
Mr Sanchez clinched the support of six smaller parties, allowing him to achieve the majority of lawmakers needed to be re-elected and form another minority coalition government with the left-wing Sumar (Joining Forces) party.
Spain’s inconclusive national elections on July 23 left a highly fractured parliament. The centreright Popular Party received the most votes in the elections, but failed to get enough support to form a government because of its alliances with the far-right Vox party. The Socialists finished second with 121 seats but now have the support of the 179 lawmakers with a series of pacts.