Firefighters battled the blaze as dusk fell, with thick black smoke billowing from the 31-storey towers and orange flames lighting up the night sky

International News via Reuters:

At least four people have died and an unknown number are trapped after a massive fire engulfed multiple high-rise towers of a residential complex in Hong Kong’s northern Tai Po district on Wednesday, the government and Fire Services Department said. 

 Firefighters battled the blaze as dusk fell, with thick black smoke billowing from the 31-storey towers and orange flames lighting up the night sky.

The Wang Fuk Court housing complex, where the fire started, is home to 2,000 residential apartments. The Fire Services Department told Reuters it does not yet have a figure for the number of people who may still be inside.

One resident surnamed Wong, 71, broke down in tears, saying his wife was trapped inside one of the buildings.

   Three people are in critical condition having suffered burns and one is in serious condition, the government said, while others including some fire services staff have also been injured. 

BUILDINGS SURROUNDED BY SMOKE AND FLAMES

People gathered on a nearby overhead walkway, watching in dismay as smoke billowed from the buildings, some of which were clad in bamboo scaffolding, with local media reporting the units were under renovation.

Frames of scaffolding were seen tumbling to the ground as firefighters battled the blaze, while scores of fire engines and ambulances lined the road below the complex, according to Reuters witnesses.

Wang Fuk Court is one of many high-rise housing complexes in Hong Kong, which is one of the most densely populated areas in the world. Tai Po, located near the border with mainland China, is an established suburban district with a population of about 300,000. 

The complex is under the government’s subsidised home ownership scheme. It has been occupied since 1983, according to property agency websites.

Hong Kong is one of the last places in the world where bamboo is still widely used for scaffolding in construction.

The government moved to start phasing out the city’s use of its bamboo scaffolding in March, citing safety. It announced that 50% of public construction works would be required to use metal frames instead.

   The fire department said it received reports at 2:51 p.m. (0651 GMT) that a fire had broken out in Wang Fuk Court. It was upgraded to a No. 5 alarm, the highest, at 6:22 p.m.

 Hong Kong’s Transport Department said that due to the fire an entire section of the Tai Po road, one of Hong Kong’s two main highways, has been closed and buses are being diverted. 

  Five people died after a fire broke out in a densely populated residential building in Hong Kong’s bustling Kowloon district in April last year.

Reporting by Joyce Zhou, Tyrone Siu, Jessie Pang, Anne Marie Roantree, Clare Jim and Greg Torode; Writing by Farah Master; Editing by Christopher Cushing and Sharon Singleton

Between 1,500 and 1,800 jobs are set to be eliminated at Allianz Partners over the next 12 to 18 months

International News via Reuters:

German insurance group Allianz plans to cut up to 1,800 jobs in its travel insurance division, mainly in call centres, as artificial intelligence increasingly replaces manual processes, a source familiar with the plans told Reuters on Wednesday.

Between 1,500 and 1,800 jobs are set to be eliminated at Allianz Partners over the next 12 to 18 months, the source said.

Allianz Partners employs 22,600 people, roughly 14,000 of whom handle customer inquiries and claims by phone.

Reporting by Alexander Huebner, Writing by Miranda Murray, Editing by Madeline Chambers

In predominantly Catholic Poland, the struggle for LGBT equality for years was branded by those in power as a dangerous foreign ideology

International News via Reuters:

The EU’s highest court ruled on Tuesday that same-sex marriages must be respected throughout the bloc and rebuked Poland for refusing to recognise a marriage between two of its citizens that took place in Germany.

The court said Poland had been wrong in not recognising the marriage of the couple when they moved back to Poland, on the grounds that Polish law does not allow marriage between people of the same sex.

“It infringes not only the freedom to move and reside, but also the fundamental right to respect for private and family life,” the court said.

FREEDOM TO HAVE ‘NORMAL FAMILY LIFE’

In predominantly Catholic Poland, the struggle for LGBT equality for years was branded by those in power as a dangerous foreign ideology. However, the current government has been working on a bill to regulate civil partnerships, including same-sex unions.

The EU Court of Justice made the binding ruling at the request of a Polish court handling the case of the men who had contested the refusal to transcribe their German marriage certificate in the Polish registry.

The couple, who wed in Berlin in 2018, have been identified only by their initials in the case.

“This ruling is historic,” said Pawel Knut, the lawyer representing the couple. “It marks a new beginning in the fight for equality and equal treatment for same-sex couples.”

He said that Poland’s Supreme Administrative Court would now have to decide whether to perform the transcription or not, but that he believed Tuesday’s ruling was binding upon it.

EU citizens have the freedom to move to other member states and to have “a normal family life” there and upon return to their country of origin, the court said.

“When they create a family life in a host member state, in particular by virtue of marriage, they must have the certainty to be able to pursue that family life upon returning to their member state of origin.”

The court said this did not require member states to allow marriage between people of the same sex in their national laws.

But they are not allowed to discriminate against same-sex couples in the way they recognise foreign marriages, it added.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s pro-European coalition government’s work on pushing through the bill on same-sex unions has been held back by resistance from his conservative coalition partner.

Poland’s nationalist President Karol Nawrocki has also said he would veto “any bill that would undermine the constitutionally protected status of marriage”.

Reporting by Bart Meijer, additional reporting by Anna Wlodarczak-Semczuk and Kuba Stezycki; Editing by Alison Williams and Ed Osmond

The case underscores growing regulatory scrutiny of Big Tech’s push into generative AI, as platforms with massive user bases such as WhatsApp become key gateways for new services

International News via Reuters:

Italy’s antitrust watchdog said it may impose interim measures on Meta as it widened a probe into whether the U.S. tech giant abused its dominance by blocking rival AI chatbots from its messaging service WhatsApp.

The case underscores growing regulatory scrutiny of Big Tech’s push into generative AI, as platforms with massive user bases such as WhatsApp become key gateways for new services.

On Wednesday, the authority said it was widening an investigation it had opened in July to cover updated terms for WhatsApp’s business platform, which helps firms manage customer communications, and newly added AI chatbot tools in the messaging app.

Also on Wednesday, the watchdog said it started a procedure to impose potential interim measures, which may include suspending the new terms and limiting further integration of Meta AI into WhatsApp while the probe continues.

WHATSAPP HITS BACK AT “UNFOUNDED CLAIMS”

“We strongly reject these unfounded claims,” a WhatsApp spokesperson said in a statement.

The spokesperson added that the WhatsApp API business interface “was never designed to be used for AI chatbots and doing so would place severe strain on our systems”.

The Italian regulator had previously alleged Meta abused its dominant position by integrating its Meta AI assistant into WhatsApp without users’ consent, a move that might harm its competitors.

On Wednesday, Italy’s antitrust authority said Meta changed WhatsApp Business Solution terms on October 15 to ban companies offering AI services from using the platform if those services are their main feature.

The new service terms apply immediately to newcomers and from January 15, 2026, to firms already on WhatsApp.

The authority warned the moves could shut competitors out of WhatsApp’s large user base – more than 37 million in Italy – and distort competition in AI chatbot services, given consumers’ reluctance to change habits, which makes switching to rival services harder.

WhatsApp took issue with this argument.

“The recent update does not affect the tens of thousands of businesses who provide customer support and send relevant updates, or the businesses using the AI assistant of their choice to chat with their customers,” the spokesperson said.

The investigation is due to conclude by the end of 2026.

Companies that breach EU competition rules by abusing a dominant position can be fined up to 10% of their worldwide turnover.

Reporting by Elvira Pollina in MilanAdditonal reporting by Keith WeirEditing by Tomasz Janowski, Kirsten Donovan

The men were part of a group of four consisting of two New Zealand-based guides and two clients climbing the 3,724-metre Mount Cook when they fell from a ridge

International News via Reuters:

The bodies of two climbers, including one from the U.S., have been recovered after the pair fell to their deaths from New Zealand’s highest mountain during a summit attempt, police said on Wednesday.

The men were part of a group of four consisting of two New Zealand-based guides and two clients climbing the 3,724-metre (12,218 ft) Mount Cook, or Aoraki, when they fell from a ridge onto the west side of the mountain late on Monday. None of the men have been named by police.

Authorities were notified at around 11:20 p.m. (1020 GMT) on Monday, and a search and rescue team located two members of the group uninjured in the early hours of Tuesday.

Helicopters continued to search through the night and located the two missing climbers deceased at 7 a.m. on Tuesday. Their bodies were recovered around midday.

“We can now begin the process of returning these men to their families,” Canterbury Aoraki Area Commander Inspector Vicki Walker said in a statement.

“I want to thank all of those involved in the rescue and recovery. It has been a difficult period, most of all for the families of the two climbers and the wider community.”

Walker said one of the climbers was a U.S. national.

The New Zealand Mountain Safety Council said in a statement that one of the men who died was an internationally qualified mountain guide who was a “respected and valued member of the guiding community”. The other was his client.

Search and Rescue pilot Nigel Gee told local news outlet 1News that the two climbers had been connected by a rope when they fell from the ridge.

“They both slipped and went possibly about a 1,500-foot slide,” he said.

Over the past century, dozens of climbers have died on Mount Cook, where rockfalls are common and avalanches often occur at higher altitudes. Scores more have died in the surrounding national park, which is known for its mountains and glaciers.

Reporting by Christine Chen in Sydney; Editing by Sonali Paul