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Christian Brothers kept nine child abusers in religious order due to Gospel imperative to help ‘the needy’, court documents reveal

The Christian Brothers has deliberately kept nine convicted child abusers, one who is currently behind bars, as members of its religious order because it says it has a “Gospel imperative” to “care for all Brothers” and “the needy”. Court documents also reveal the head of Christian Brothers Oceania met with representatives of the Holy See in an attempt to obtain support six months before it declared it was going broke and could not afford to meet abuse claims from survivors, but received no financial assistance. The Christian Brothers on Thursday obtained a moratorium on all current and future civil claims by abuse survivors, throwing dozens of pending trials into chaos and halting hundreds more cases in their tracks. The order says it is about to go broke and cannot afford to meet the claims of survivors. It is instead proposing a scheme that would sell off its remaining property, worth about $217m, and divide the proceeds to pay out survivors. An affidavit filed by Brother Gerard John Brady, the head of the Christian Brothers Oceania province, told the court that it had about 176 brothers still in the order, most of which were in Australia. Nine of those are convicted child sex offenders. One is behind bars. More current brothers had been accused of child abuse. Br Brady said the order’s Oceania leadership team had made a decision to keep them in the order as brothers. “While dismissal of an offender from the Christian Brothers is an option open to us, I believe that it is not always the appropriate response,” he said. “Accommodating known sex-offenders in the wider community following their discharge remains a difficult issue for society. The [Oceania leadership team] believes that the Christian Brothers have obligations both to the wider community and to the offender.” He said that offenders would become a “burden for taxpayers to shoulder” if they were moved out into society, because they often have no means of financial support. The leadership team also took the view that it was their responsibility to “care for the needy”. “Further … we have an obligation under canon law to care for all Brothers,” he said. “We accept that this philosophy requires us to continue contact with and support of those found to have committed serious criminal offences. We see this as a Gospel imperative. Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email “We acknowledge that victims and members of the wider community may interpret such support as preferring the interests of offenders over victims. However, we are conscious of ensuring that our support of the Brothers does not undermine seeking justice for, or compromising the protection of, victims and survivors.” He said that if an offender lived in the wider community, without the congregation’s support, he might not “seek nor receive treatment for his offending behaviour”. “We believe that, if the Christian Brothers keep an offender within the Congregation, we are able to monitor his behaviour and support treatment,” he said. “We take responsibility for doing so. We believe that society is more likely to be protected by an offender remaining part of the Congregation and being monitored.” The affidavit also reveals that Br Brady met with representatives from the Holy See, the centre of Catholic power in the Vatican and the intitution that embodies the authority of the Pope, to seek support. The meetings occurred from January. Br Brady said the engagement was part of a broader plea to other Catholic institutions to warn them of the Christian Brothers Oceania province’s “severe financial position and expectation that it will be facing insolvency in the near term”. Brady also asked whether other institutions could “provide any support to the Province (the nature of the support depending on the institution and its circumstances).” “No financial support has been forthcoming,” he wrote in the affidavit. One of the other institutions the Christian Brothers has sought support from is Edmund Rice Education Australia. That entity was created in 2007 and now runs former Christian Brothers schools in Australia. Vast holdings of land have been transferred to EREA from the Christian Brothers over the past decade. Property records show the transfers have included multimillion-dollar homes in Sydney, including a five-bedroom Strathfield home, complete with a back yard pool, worth an estimated $4.7m. A property transfer document signed by the former head of the Christian Brothers in Oceania, Peter Clinch, reveals that home was given to Edmund Rice for $1. EREA says it will not be selling off the properties to help the Christian Brothers. But the Christian Brothers says it will not attempt to stop survivors suing EREA. It estimates the property transfers are worth $540m, though EREA financial documents suggest it has received land worth $891m from the Christian Brothers. In Australia, children, young adults, parents and teachers can contact the Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800, or Bravehearts on 1800 272 831, and adult survivors can contact Blue Knot Foundation on 1300 657 380. In the UK, the NSPCC offers support to children on 0800 1111, and adults concerned about a child on 0808 800 5000. The National Association for People Abused in Childhood (Napac) offers support for adult survivors on 0808 801 0331. In the US, call or text the Childhelp abuse hotline on 800-422-4453. Other sources of help can be found at Child Helplines International

China says man who flew plane into Beijing skyscraper had mental health problems

Chinese authorities said the man who flew a small plane into Beijing’s tallest skyscraper last week was a 66-year-old who had mental health problems. The statement published on Thursday offered the most detailed official account yet of the highly unusual incident that occurred in Beijing’s central business district on the evening of 26 June. Beijing has some of the world’s strictest aviation control policies and planes are rarely seen flying over the capital. Drones and light aircraft are forbidden from flying over the city without permission. Despite this, a small propeller aircraft crashed into Beijing’s tallest building, the China Citic tower, the headquarters of the state-owned financial services group. The tower is around 8km (five miles) from the Zhongnanhai compound where leader Xi Jinping lives. Thursday’s statement from the Chaoyang district government, where the Citic tower is located, said the pilot was a man surnamed Liu, a divorced 66-year-old who lived alone and had obtained a private pilot’s licence in 2024. The statement said that on the afternoon of the incident, he took off from a general aviation airport in Pinggu district, on the far outskirts of eastern Beijing. “During the independent flight, he deviated from the designated area and lost contact with the airport, subsequently colliding with the high-rise building and dying at the scene,” the statement said. The authorities said that Liu suffered from chronic insomnia and anxiety and that he had repeatedly written in a diary about “ending his life”. “The comprehensive investigation concluded that this was a case of endangering public safety caused by personal reasons,” the statement said. The authorities said 13 people suffered injuries in the crash, none of which were life-threatening. China has in recent years suffered from a spate of what have been called “revenge against society” attacks – deadly rampages committed by people apparently driven to breaking point by personal grievances. Authorities are reluctant to acknowledge such incidents, and when they do, the perpetrator is often described as an isolated, unstable individual. On the night of the plane crash in Beijing there was a heavy police presence around the China Citic tower with officers ordering people not to take pictures. The authorities did not release any official statement about the crash until nearly 24 hours later. Although pictures and videos initially circulated on social media, many were quickly deleted. A search for China Citic tower or terms related to the plane crash on the social media platform Weibo on 3 July only produced posts unrelated to the incident. A search for “A plane crashed into the Citic tower” produced one relevant post that was from 2 July: “The most ridiculous news I heard today … [a person] crashed a plane into the Citic building … where did you get that from? There’s no such thing”. • International helplines can be found at befrienders.org. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123. In the US, you can call or text the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14.

A deadly strain of bird flu has landed on Australian shores. Does it pose a risk to pets?

The deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu has arrived on the Australian mainland and, while there’s no evidence yet of mass animal mortality, authorities are on high alert. The virus has killed millions of birds and thousands of marine mammals since it began spreading around the globe in 2021. The risk to humans is low – but should we be worried about our pets? How far is bird flu spreading in Australia? Five cases have been confirmed since late June – four in Western Australia and one in South Australia – all in migratory sub-antarctic birds. Results of a further suspected positive detection in a giant petrel found in New South Wales, north of Newcastle, were pending as of Friday. The federal government analysed Australia’s 800 different birds and 350 mammals threatened by the disease. It assessed more than 150 native and unique bird species, and more than 10 mammal species including sea lions and fur seals, as being at “very high risk” of extinction or major decline if they caught the disease. Could bird flu spread among our pets? Along with birds and poultry, the virus can also be fatal for cats and dogs. The Australian government said in its advice that overseas infections were “infrequent” and usually resulted from “dogs or cats being exposed to sick or dead birds, other animals infected with [bird flu], consumption of raw pet food or unpasteurised (raw) milk”. Sheep, pigs, and horses were also considered low risk. On Sunday the threatened species commissioner, Dr Fiona Fraser, urged the public to avoid touching potentially sick birds in the wild and to keep pets away from wild birds. Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email “Pet cats and dogs which come into contact with sick birds could capture H5 bird flu themselves and all mammals are susceptible to H5 bird flu, so that includes our pet cats and dogs,” she said. “And it’s generally good practice to keep your pets away from wildlife anyway.” In an article for the Conversation, Prof Ricardo J Soares Magalhães, a veterinary science expert at the University of Queensland, said the risks were very real for back-yard chickens if an outbreak occurred, particularly if they were free range, and advised keeping chickens housed as much as possible. The Tasmanian government has noted in its advice that no reptiles have been reported to be affected. A general practitioner vet and senior lecturer at the University of Sydney, Dr Anne Quain, told Guardian Australia it was important to take precautions to minimise risks because H5 bird flu was “highly pathogenic” and there were no vaccines for cats or dogs. “The infection can cause respiratory or neurological signs,” she said. “There are reports of fatalities in cats and (less commonly) dogs elsewhere in the world.” What are the symptoms of bird flu in pets? The Australian government says in its advice that signs of the disease “may be subtle or mistaken for other illnesses”. They vary between species, but can include fever, lethargy, discharge from eyes or nose, difficulty breathing and neurological signs, such as tremors or seizures. The president of the Australian Veterinarian Association, Dr Diana Barker, said signs of bird flu included lethargy, swelling and fever. She advised bird owners to isolate animals suspected of having the virus and call clinics rather than bringing the bird in, to minimise the risk of spread. “Right now, the risk to common household pets in Australia is low, and there is no cause for alarm,” she said. “However the public must remain vigilant … Most cases overseas have been linked to specific exposures, most commonly cats eating infected wild birds or infected raw meat. “Dogs appear far less susceptible and typically show only mild signs.” One study, published by the American Veterinary Medical Association, found domestic cats infected with H5N1 had overall mortality rates of 50 to 70%. Should I keep my cat locked inside and my dog on a leash? Sean Dooley from BirdLife Australia advised that cats should be kept indoors in general for bird safety. Owners should keep their cats indoors in the case of an outbreak – both to curtail potential spread and protect cats from falling severely ill, he said. Dog owners should keep them on the leash at the beach, particularly along the southern coast and after heavy storms, which tended to cause more dead birds to wash up onshore. “If we do find a bird flu spread here then there is going to need to be a change in behaviour if people want to protect their pets,” he said. What else should pet owners do? Quain said the best way to prevent the infection was to “minimise or eliminate the risk of exposure to wildlife or infected animals” – making sure outdoor animal runs couldn’t be accessed by wildlife. “While we know cats are likely to be more susceptible than dogs, it would be wise to avoid allowing dogs to mix with potentially sick birds or their carcasses,” she said. “Avoid leaving pet food or water in areas where wild birds or animals can have contact with it.” Quain said in other countries, raw poultry and unpasteurised milk were sources of infection, particularly in cats. “If you have any contact with sick or dead birds yourself, even if you’ve worn gloves, shower and change clothes before contact with cats and dogs,” she said. Additional reporting by Petra Stock

3,000% bonuses but a growing wealth divide: South Korea grapples with its AI chip boom

When South Korea’s most high-profile divorce case returned to court last month, the lawyers were arguing not just about the breakdown of a relationship, but also the exact date at which to value shares in one specific company. The judges’ decision in Seoul could change the value of business tycoon Chey Tae-won’s assets by billions of dollars. The shares were in the holding company behind SK Hynix, the manufacturer of chips powering AI systems around the world. South Korea is one of the world’s biggest makers of these high-value chips and the country is seeing an unprecedented wealth boom from their rise. From workers in tech firms collecting six-figure bonuses, to ordinary people seeing massive investment returns – all of it driving a surge in luxury spending. But only a small slice of the population is cashing in, sparking a wider debate about who should have a share in the profits of the country’s most valuable industry. As South Korea grapples with widening inequality, calls are growing for some of the earnings – or the taxes they generate – to be spread more widely. *** The huge wealth surge has been driven by two companies – Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix. The pair dominate the global supply of high-bandwidth memory, the specialised chips that AI systems need to run. Analysts project their combined operating profits could rise almost sevenfold this year. Their success has pushed South Korea’s main stock index – the Kospi – to record highs. The chipmakers have begun sharing those record profits with their staff on a scale the country has never seen. At Samsung, a memory-chip worker on a base salary of 80m won ($51,300) could receive bonuses close to 600m won ($384,900) this year, most of it in stock. That is roughly 17 times the average annual salary at a small South Korean firm. SK Hynix paid its workers a bonus of nearly 3,000% of their monthly salary earlier this year. Based on forecast profits, next year’s payout is projected to be several times larger. The signs of this flourishing wealth are dotted across the country. In satellite cities built around the chip factories south of Seoul luxury sales are surging. In the first weeks of May, jewellery sales at one department store jumped 146%, while watch sales rose 85%. In Icheon, where SK Hynix has its main campus, imported car registrations surged 108% in February. Apartment prices near semiconductor company bus routes are rising at four times the wider Seoul average. Not everyone benefiting from the AI boom works in a chip factory. After watching financial videos online a few years ago, Brian Lee, a retiree in Seoul bought small amounts of SK Hynix and Samsung shares – and then forgot about them. His SK Hynix return is now 1,264%. “This is the result of my hard work, plus luck,” he says. “I feel guilty, and at the same time, even though I have yet to cash it out, I tend to spend more,” he said, adding he has started looking at collector watches. Who owns the profits? The explosion in wealth has driven questions about who is entitled to a share in the profits – and how to spread the wealth more evenly across society. “Over the years, the semiconductor industry benefited enormously from government support,” says Kim Yong-jin, professor of business administration at Sogang University in Seoul, pointing to decades of state investment in research and industrial policy. “So they have to think about society itself.” The president’s chief policy adviser was drawn into the argument in May, floating what he called a “citizen dividend”, arguing the wealth rested on foundations built by all Koreans over half a century. Though some critics saw it as a plan to hand out cash or seize company profits outright, he later framed it more narrowly as a way to channel surplus tax revenues back to the public through structured investment. Opposition politicians called his comments akin to communism and the presidential office distanced itself from the plan. The question of shared gains is not only political. Samsung’s largest union nearly brought production to a halt in May, demanding a guaranteed share of profits, before a last-minute deal averted a strike. But the deal upset some in the company, as those in the phone and appliance division were set to receive only a fraction of what those working in chip making did. South Korea has long grappled with inequality. It has one of the highest rates of elderly poverty in the developed world, while rising housing and living costs have deepened pressure on many households. More Koreans feel their living standards have worsened than improved, despite the wealth piling up elsewhere. Manufacturing employment has fallen year on year for nearly two years. Nearly a million small businesses closed in 2025, with many owners left carrying huge debts. The income gap between the richest and poorest households hit a six-year high. “Everyone is talking about the boom, but most Koreans can’t feel it,” says Kyusuk Cho, a graduate student in information studies. “Life is getting more expensive and jobs are harder to find.” Strip out the two chipmakers – who make up more than 50% of the Kospi index – and the rest of the economy is barely moving. Kim Yong-jin says the gains should be shared between those who invested, those who worked, and the society that made it possible, in a way that strengthens the country over the long run, but that South Korea has yet to build a framework for how. “We need a consensus on how to share these profits,” he says. “That is the most important part.”

NSW records first suspected case of deadly H5 bird flu as virus reaches Australia’s east coast

New South Wales has its first suspected case of the deadly H5 bird flu in a giant petrel that was found near Hawks Nest, north of Newcastle, on the state’s coast. If CSIRO testing confirms it is the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain, it would mark the first detection of the deadly disease on the Australian east coast. Five cases have already been confirmed since late June – four in Western Australia and one in South Australia – all in migratory subantarctic birds. The NSW agriculture minister, Tara Moriarty, said the disease had so far not been detected in any poultry flocks, captive or other wild birds in NSW. The bird was found unwell by a member of the public who contacted authorities. Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email She said initial testing at NSW labs had confirmed the petrel was positive for H5 influenza. Testing by the Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness was needed to confirm it was the highly pathogenic strain of the disease that has devastated wildlife populations globally. “This latest development is incredibly concerning for both agriculture and for wildlife,” Moriarty said. “The impact of H5 worldwide on wild birds and poultry has been devastating. But NSW and the rest of the country have been preparing for this moment for many years.” The New South Wales government said last week it had surveillance in place for early detection after the arrival of deadly H5 bird flu in other parts of the country. Moriarty said NSW was working with the federal and other state and territory governments. A state coordination centre at the Department of Primary Industry and Regional Development in Orange was managing surveillance operations. She urged anyone who saw a sick or dead bird to contact the emergency hotline and report its location. “There are no other birds that have been found to be positive for H5 at the moment, but we are now increasing our surveillance,” she said. The minister said the government had trained more than 500 people in government and private veterinary services in surveillance for the disease. “So they’re checking this area of the state, around Hawks Nest and the mid-north coast and other high-risk parts of the state, looking for birds,” Moriarty said on Friday. “That includes fisheries officers, people in national parks, people in agriculture – looking for birds that might look ill, so that we can see if there are any more.” The NSW chief veterinary officer, Dr Jo Coombe, said “this is an isolated case at this stage”. “It doesn’t mean it’s going to be the last case, but at this point there is no evidence of spread to any wild birds,” she said. Coombe said symptoms of deadly H5 bird flu included lethargy, respiratory signs such as watery eyes or difficulty breathing, and paralysis or difficulty walking. She warned people to avoid contact with sick or dead birds and requested they record the location and report it to authorities. The Invasive Species Council renewed its call for an urgent $200m in federal funding for conservation measures to support the bird flu response by reducing other threats to wild species. “The best defence we have is to make Australia’s wildlife as resilient as possible before widespread outbreaks occur. That means rebuilding healthy populations that are better able to withstand disease and recover afterwards,” the council’s policy director, Carol Booth, said.

Ukraine war briefing: Both sides vow to escalate fighting after Russia’s deadly Kyiv barrage

Ukraine and Russia have promised fresh assaults after Moscow launched a huge barrage on Kyiv, killing at least 27 people, tearing open apartment buildings and sending tens of thousands of people to shelters. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Thursday his forces would “definitely” retaliate for the overnight pummelling of the capital as he inspected the site of an apartment block partially destroyed in the attack. In Moscow, the Kremlin vowed to further ramp up the “pressure” on Kyiv as rescuers scoured the rubble for survivors. Mayor Vitali Klitschko described it as the “enemy’s most massive attack on the capital”. Zelenskyy urged allies to send more air defences and asked the US for licences to manufacture Patriot air defence missiles. “Air defence supplies for Ukraine are an absolute and critical priority,” he said on Facebook. The EU’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, said she would propose new sanctions on Moscow over the attack, while UN chief António Guterres reiterated his call for a ceasefire. Donald Trump “wants this war settled so the senseless killing ends”, a US official said in Washington after the Kyiv barrage. The president “remains optimistic that we’ll ultimately get a peace deal done”, the official said. US efforts to broker a ceasefire have so far failed. Zelenskyy called on Ukraine’s allies to discuss speeding up air-defence aid at the Nato summit in Ankara next week, which Trump will attend, and has said he hopes to have a meeting with the president on the summit sidelines. ‌ A Ukrainian publishing house said it had lost about 800,000 books when a warehouse was destroyed in Russia’s strikes on Kyiv. BookChef Publishing, which is one of Ukraine’s largest publishers and includes books by George Orwell and Barack Obama, posted pictures on Telegram of the destroyed building with smouldering piles of rubble around and firefighters working at the scene. The Ukrainian branch of the Red Cross, meanwhile, said its key warehouse was destroyed in the strikes, with about $2m worth of humanitarian aid lost. German prosecutors have accused Ukrainian “state authorities” of ordering the 2022 explosives attack on the Nord Stream gas pipelines linking Russia with Europe, a charge likely to ignite tensions between Kyiv and Berlin, its biggest military backer. Deborah Cole reports that a suspect who was arrested last August in Italy and extradited to Germany in November was indicted this week. Zelenskyy said on Wednesday he was yet to receive full details of the indictment and it was too early to comment. Two people were killed and ⁠another eight injured in Russian attacks overnight on ⁠Ukraine, officials ⁠said on Telegram in the early hours of Friday. In ⁠the bordering Sumy region, two people were killed and ⁠one injured after drones hit a house, the regional ‌military administration chief said. In Kryvyi Rih, in central Ukraine, seven people were injured after ‌a missile strike, said the city’s defence council head. Russian attacks on Thursday killed three people in ⁠eastern Ukraine, regional officials said earlier. One person died and three were injured around the town of Nikopol, near the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia ⁠nuclear power plant, according to the Dnipropetrovsk region’s governor, and a seven-year-old ‌child was killed ‌and two other children injured further north-east near the town of Synelnykove. In the Donetsk region, Russian forces bombed the town of Oleksandrivka, killing one person and injuring two, the governor said. A suspect has been identified in the investigation into a parcel bombing that seriously wounded a sanctioned Ukraine-born multimillionaire and two others in Monaco, the principality’s prosecutor’s office said. “An arrest warrant has been issued for the suspect, who will be the subject of an Interpol red notice from this evening,” the prosecutor’s office added on Thursday. France’s Le Figaro daily and BFMTV said the suspect, who was captured on CCTV wearing a black fisherman’s hat, is believed to be a woman who tried to pass as a man.

‘I have successfully defended my personal dignity’: woman wins rare MeToo court victory in China

A woman in China has won a rare legal victory in a workplace sexual harassment case. The woman, a former intern and employee at Beijing Grassland Alliance, an environmental NGO, was awarded 5,000 yuan (£554) in emotional damages, to be paid by her former manager, who the court ruled had sexually harassed her. The manager was also ordered to write an apology to her. The case is as a rare example of an employee winning a claim about sexual harassment in a country where the MeToo movement enraged millions of women, but was quickly snuffed out by the authorities. Discussion of sexual harassment briefly surged on social media but was then censored to prevent the conversation snowballing into a wider social movement, with the hashtag #MeToo blocked. The ruling was originally made in January and upheld on appeal last week. “I have successfully defended my personal dignity,” said the woman, who asked to be referred to by her nickname, Xiong, to protect her privacy. She said the result “exceeded her expectations”. Xiong joined the Beijing Grassland Alliance as an intern in early 2022 in Fujian, a province in south-east China where she was studying at the time. Soon after she started she said that her manager, a man ten years her senior, started sexually harassing her. His behaviour included joking about her bra size, holding her hand and sending her sexually suggestive text messages. In one message submitted as evidence, her manager said: “Don’t get caught up in romance and hang around with your girlfriend, think about me more”. In another, he said: “I have a special fondness for you”. Xiong detailed her experience in an essay published on WeChat last year, in which she said she did not immediately identify her manager’s jokes about her bra size as harassment. “I didn’t realise it was sexual harassment, the atmosphere was cheerful and my embarrassment and sense of weirdness seemed out of place,” Xiong wrote. Xiong said that when she tried to speak to people in her industry about the experience her concerns were brushed off. It was only after talking to DeepSeek, a Chinese AI chatbot, that she felt like her suffering was acknowledged, she said. She left the NGO in 2024 and last year filed a lawsuit against her former manager. Beijing Grassland Alliance did not respond to a request for comment and Xiong’s former manager could not be reached for comment. Only since 2021 have victims of sexual harassment had the right to sue perpetrators, including companies, for civil liability. But cases are extremely rare. A 2018 study found only 34 judicial decisions from 2010 to 2017 where workplace sexual harassment was the primary issue. The majority of those cases were brought by employees who had been fired after being accused of sexual harassment. May Lu, managing partner at Shanghai Yaowang law offices who specialises in employment issues, said that in recent years there were more cases of victims of sexual harassment filing lawsuits, thanks to the influence of the MeToo movement and the development of Chinese laws. “But overall, we could not say it is common to see such cases successfully filed,” Lu said. “One of the reasons is culturally it is difficult for females speak up about sexual harassment”. The global conversation about combatting sexual harassment, sparked by revelations about Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein in 2017 ignited heated discussion in China, with many women sharing their own experiences online. But many of these testimonies were censored by the authorities. In 2018, Zhou Xiaoxuan, a former intern at the state broadcaster CCTV accused a high-profile TV presenter, Zhu Jun, of forcibly kissing and groping her. The accusation went viral and Zhou, also known by her nickname Xianzi, became one of the most recognisable faces of China’s nascent MeToo movement. But she lost her legal case against Zhu on the grounds of insufficient evidence. Zhu, who denied the claims, also counter-sued Zhou for defamation, although this case was later dropped. In 2021, the professional tennis player Peng Shuai disappeared after she publicly accused the former vice-premier Zhang Gaoli of coercing her into sex. She later reappeared and said that there had been a “misunderstanding” about her social media post and that she had never made sexual assault allegations. Zhang did not comment publicly on the allegations. Xiong’s case succeeded in part because she was able to provide evidence from WeChat conversations between herself and colleagues at Beijing Grassland Alliance, including with her former manager. These included apologies from her former manager for making her feel uncomfortable. The manager argued at court that the apologies were an attempt to smooth over a professional relationship rather than an admission of guilt. The ruling also acknowledged power imbalances in the workplace . “As a team leader, an individual’s words and deeds have a far greater impact on employees than those of ordinary colleagues,” the judgement said. “Therefore, a leader should be more circumspect regarding the scale of their words and deeds, and fully respect the personal dignity of female employees.”

‘Give him any award, and he’ll come running’: Narendra Modi racks up honours on overseas trips

As Narendra Modi touched down in Seychelles over the weekend, the archipelago nation in the Indian Ocean swiftly bestowed one of its “highest” honours upon the Indian prime minister. Modi beamed as he accepted the Guardian of the Blue Horizon award from Patrick Herminie, the Seychelles president, complete with a trophy and certificate. Observers soon pointed out that several things appeared to be off about the award. The certificate misspelled “republic” as “repubblic”, and even “Seychelles” as “Seycheeles”. The award, it transpired, had only been created three days before Modi’s arrival and he was the first and only recipient. To add to the furore, when run through software, the certificate was widely flagged as AI-generated. The opposition Congress party were quick to jump on the controversy, claiming: “Give him [Modi] any award, and he’ll come running.” “They were in such a tearing hurry that they even got the official name of the Republic of Seychelles wrong,” the Congress politician Supriya Shrinate said on social media. Modi’s Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) hit back, saying it was a “proud moment for India” for him to receive the award for his “green leadership”. On Thursday, the Seychelles foreign ministry responded with a statement claiming that a “working draft” had accidentally been circulated and that an “authentic and duly approved” version had now been issued. “The Guardian of the Blue Horizon distinction is genuine,” added the foreign ministry. As critics have pointed out, Modi has shown a notable penchant for receiving awards, at home and abroad, over his 12 years in power. Last month, days before Modi’s visit to Israel, the Israeli parliament quickly created what it claimed to be one of the country’s highest honours, the medal of the Knesset, which was bestowed on Modi when he landed. Again, he is the only recipient to date. In 2019, Modi also became the first recipient of India’s Philip Kotler presidential award, given to the prime minister for his “outstanding leadership of the nation”. According to the government’s press release, the honour was to be bestowed annually to the leader of a nation. However, no other leader has since been given the award and its website lies dormant. It is privately acknowledged that accolades and awards have become an expectation during Modi’s foreign trips. Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, the author of a biography of Modi, said the global push for prizes was symptomatic of the prime minister’s personality-driven politics. “The intention behind collecting these awards – often bestowed in circumstances that raise eyebrows – is to convey to supporters and potential converts that Modi is being honoured across the world over because of his greatness and that India’s rising clout is because of Modi’s personality,” he said. In the past year Modi has also become the first foreign head of state to receive Ethiopia’s Great Honour Nishan and the order of the Republic of Trinidad & Tobago. The BJP says the awards are a recognition of Modi’s international stature.