分类： society

BEIJING – A devastating explosion at a fireworks manufacturing facility in southern China has claimed 21 lives and left 61 people injured, according to official Chinese state media reports released Tuesday.

The accident unfolded on Monday afternoon at a factory operated by Huasheng Fireworks Manufacturing and Display Co., located in Liuyang—a county-level city administered by Changsha, the capital of Hunan province. Liuyang has long been recognized as one of China’s most prominent centers of fireworks production, with deep historical roots in the industry stretching back more than 1,000 years.

Aerial footage broadcast by China’s state-owned CCTV on Tuesday morning revealed lingering white smoke still rising from sections of the blast site, where industrial buildings have been left collapsed or severely damaged by the force of the explosion.

In response to the disaster, Chinese authorities dispatched nearly 500 professional rescue workers to the scene, and moved quickly to evacuate all residents from nearby high-risk zones. The evacuation order was prompted by the presence of two unharmed black powder storage warehouses adjacent to the explosion site, which posed major secondary hazard risks for first responders. To mitigate these risks and prevent follow-up accidents during search and rescue operations, crews implemented safety protocols including continuous water spraying and site humidification to neutralize residual explosive materials. Three specialized search and rescue robots were also deployed to assist in accessing unstable, high-risk areas of the site to locate missing people and clear debris.

Shortly after the blast, Chinese President Xi Jinping issued formal instructions calling for all-out efforts to locate any remaining missing people and provide urgent medical care to the injured. He ordered authorities to accelerate the investigation into the root cause of the explosion, hold responsible parties legally accountable per national safety regulations, and strengthen systemic public safety management across China. President Xi also emphasized the urgent need for nationwide risk screening and hazard control enforcement across all high-risk key industries, to prevent similar deadly accidents from occurring.

As of Tuesday’s official updates, the person in charge of the Huasheng facility has been taken into police custody, while the formal investigation into the cause of the blast remains ongoing.

Liuyang’s connection to fireworks production dates to the Tang Dynasty, between 618 and 907 CE. According to Guinness World Records, the first formally documented firework was developed by Li Tian, a Tang Dynasty monk who lived near modern Liuyang. Li discovered that packing gunpowder into hollow bamboo stalks created powerful loud explosions, and he bundled these stalks together to create the traditional Chinese New Year firecrackers, a tradition that remains central to Chinese cultural celebrations to this day.

This latest explosion marks another fatal industrial accident in China’s fireworks industry this year. In February, during the Lunar New Year holiday period, two separate deadly blasts at fireworks retail shops killed multiple people across the country, prompting calls for tightened safety oversight ahead of this year’s peak production and celebration season.

NEW YORK — The 2026 Pulitzer Prizes, one of the most prestigious honors in global journalism, have named their latest recipients, recognizing groundbreaking investigative work spanning international surveillance, U.S. presidential power shifts, and community tragedy, just one week after a high-profile security incident targeting a major Washington journalism event.

The Associated Press took home the coveted 2026 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting for a years-long probe into mass surveillance infrastructure and its human and societal impacts within China. Over three years of work that involved combing through thousands of official documents and conducting dozens of on-the-ground interviews, the AP investigation uncovered a key, underreported link: U.S. tech firms have contributed to building the foundational framework of the Chinese government’s mass monitoring and citizen policing system. The project also exposed longstanding regulatory gaps across multiple U.S. presidential administrations that have allowed both American technology companies and Chinese officials to evade rules designed to block Beijing from accessing sensitive restricted materials, including cutting-edge advanced computer chips.

In this year’s award cycle, Reuters secured two Pulitzer distinctions. The outlet won the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting for its in-depth examination of how former President and current U.S. President Donald Trump has leveraged the authority of the federal government and the influence of his political base to expand unilateral executive power and target political opponents, award judges confirmed. Reuters also took home a prize in the newly revived beat reporting category for its rigorous coverage of social media conglomerate Meta.

The breaking news Pulitzer went to the *Minnesota Star Tribune* for its on-the-ground coverage of a 2025 mass shooting at a Minneapolis-area Catholic school. Judges commended the outlet’s work for its remarkable “thoroughness and compassion” in covering the devastating attack that unfolded during the first school Mass of the academic year. The shooting left two children dead and more than a dozen other people injured; the gunman was later found dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.

This year’s award announcement, delivered via online livestream with the traditional awards dinner scheduled for later in the year, comes just over a week after a violent security incident outside the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in Washington D.C., one of the most high-profile annual gatherings for U.S. journalists. A gunman rushed a security checkpoint outside the venue and exchanged gunfire with Secret Service agents; he has since been charged with attempting to assassinate Trump, who made his first appearance as sitting president at the annual event.

Administered by Columbia University in New York, the Pulitzer Prizes recognize outstanding journalism produced in 2025 by U.S.-based newspapers, wire services, digital news outlets, magazines, and broadcaster websites that center text-focused submissions. Entries can include multimedia components such as video, photography, graphics, and audio alongside core written work. Beyond journalism, the 2026 awards also honor outstanding achievement in books, music, and theater.

Established in 1917 through a provision in the will of iconic newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer, the awards carry a $15,000 cash prize for most winning entries, while the prestigious Pulitzer Prize for Public Service is awarded a gold medal. All winners are selected by the Pulitzer Prize Board, which counts AP Executive Editor Julie Pace among its newest appointed members this cycle.

SYDNEY, Australia — One month after a father-son terrorist attack left 15 Jewish worshipers dead at a Hanukkah gathering on Sydney’s iconic Bondi Beach, Australia’s highest-level formal inquiry into growing antisemitism and social cohesion has convened its first public hearings, kicking off a two-week examination of how hate targeting Jewish communities has spread across Australian institutions and broader society. The massacre, which authorities confirmed was inspired by the Islamic State group, marked the deadliest antisemitic attack in modern Australian history and came amid an unprecedented nationwide surge in hate crimes against Jewish people that has shaken a community long unaccustomed to such widespread levels of threat.

The attack was carried out by Sajid and Naveed Akram, a father and son who were legally licensed to own the firearms they used – a striking detail in a country that has kept some of the world’s strictest gun control regulations for nearly 30 years, following the 1996 Port Arthur massacre. Sajid Akram was killed by responding police at the scene, while Naveed Akram survived his wounds and has been charged with terrorism, 15 counts of murder, and 40 counts of attempted murder; he has not entered any pleas to the charges.

In opening remarks at Monday’s first sitting, commission head Virginia Bell connected the sharp rise in Australian antisemitism to parallel surges across Western nations, noting the clear tie between escalating tensions and the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in October 2023. “It’s important that people understand how quickly those events can prompt ugly displays of hostility toward Jewish Australians simply because they’re Jews,” Bell said. Additional hearings on targeted topics will be held throughout the year, with the commission’s final binding report and policy recommendations due for publication in December.

All witnesses who appeared before the commission on opening day were Jewish Australians, many of whom requested to testify under pseudonyms to protect their personal safety from further harassment. For community members, the hearing was a chance to lay bare the daily fear that has reshaped life for Australia’s small Jewish population after a year of mounting attacks. Sheina Gutnick, the daughter of 62-year-old victim Reuven Morrison – who died after charging one of the gunmen with a brick to stop the attack – recounted a harassment incident she experienced a year before the massacre: while walking through a Sydney shopping mall carrying her infant child, a stranger verbally abused her after spotting her Star of David necklace, with no bystanders stepping in to intervene. “I felt shocked, exposed and unsafe,” Gutnick told the commission. She added that she now avoids large public family gatherings and hesitates to travel to certain neighborhoods across Sydney.

Data presented to the inquiry underscores the scale of the surge: in the 12 months following the October 2023 start of the Israel-Hamas war, more than 2,000 antisemitic incidents were reported to the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, which tracks hate crime against Australian Jewish communities. That figure represents a more than fourfold increase from the previous annual record of just under 500 incidents recorded the year before the war. While similar increases have been documented in the United Kingdom and other Western countries, witnesses told the commission the speed and severity of the shift has been particularly jarring for Australia’s tight-knit Jewish community, which had never before faced such a volume of serious, violent threats.

Toby Raphael, vice president of Sydney’s Newtown Synagogue, which was defaced with swastikas during a 2025 wave of antisemitic attacks, told the commission that constant fear has become the new normal for Australian Jews. “Now everyone is scared all the time,” Raphael said. He recalled that just a few years ago, he had reassured synagogue congregants that no security was needed for weekly services; today, the synagogue is guarded, and Raphael serves on a parent-led security team at his son’s Jewish day school, which is also protected by armed professional security guards. “Why do kids have to go to school like that? This is the world that the Jews of Australia live in now and it needs to change,” he said.

The rise in high-profile antisemitic attacks predated the Bondi Beach massacre: last August, the Australian government cut diplomatic ties with Iran after concluding the Iranian state had orchestrated at least two separate antisemitic attacks on Australian soil. Many witnesses told the commission the ongoing escalation has pushed them to consider leaving Australia entirely to seek safety for their families elsewhere. Alex Ryvchin, a leader of a major Australian Jewish organization whose home was targeted in an arson attack in early 2025, told the commission he had warned for months that the unaddressed rise in antisemitism would lead to mass casualties. “This was January, and by December there was a horrific massacre which has transformed us permanently,” Ryvchin told the hearing. He added that he now believes Australia is “on a path to catastrophe” if urgent action is not taken.

The Bondi Beach massacre has also reignited national debate over gun regulation in Australia, a policy area that has remained largely settled since the 1996 Port Arthur shooting that led to the country’s strict current laws. The Royal Commission released an interim report in April that examined gaps in law enforcement and security response to antisemitic crime, and recommended that Australian policymakers prioritize passing nationally consistent gun laws and implementing a new national weapons buyback program. Federal and state governments are currently reviewing the proposal and considering further regulatory changes.