China has executed a man found guilty of killing at least 35 people in a car attack in November, in what is thought to be the deadliest attack in the country for a decade. Fan Weiqiu, 62, injured dozens more when he drove his car into people exercising outside a stadium in the southern city of Zhuhai. State media said a second man was executed for a separate attack that came days later. Xu Jiajin, 21, killed eight people in a stabbing spree at his university in the eastern city of Wuxi. Authorities said Fan was driven by “dissatisfaction” over how his property had been divided following his divorce, while Xu carried out his attack after “failing to obtain his diploma due to poor exam results”. Fan was detained at the scene on 11
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Jan 10 – The US has announced an increased $25m (£20.4m) reward for information leading to the arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on the day he was sworn in for a third six-year term in office. The inauguration ceremony was overshadowed by recrimination from the international community and Venezuelan opposition leaders. Rewards have also been offered for information leading to the arrest and or conviction of Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello. A new reward of up to $15m for Defence Minister Vladimir Padrino has also been offered. The UK also issued sanctions on 15 top Venezuelan officials, including judges, members of the security forces and military officials. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said those sanctioned were responsible for “undermining democracy, the rule of law, and human rights violations”. Foreign
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Jan 7 – Meta is replacing its independent fact-checking program on Facebook and Instagram with a “community notes” system, similar to the approach adopted by X (formerly Twitter). Under this model, users will contribute to contextualizing and clarifying the accuracy of posts. Announcing the change in a video alongside a company blog post, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the use of third-party moderators had proven “too politically biased” and signaled a return to the company’s focus on “free expression.” Joel Kaplan, Meta’s new head of global affairs, replacing Sir Nick Clegg, said the reliance on independent fact-checkers had been “well-intentioned” but often resulted in “unfair censorship” of users. However, critics argue the move is politically motivated and could have dangerous implications. Ava Lee, from the campaign group Global Witness, said
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Nov 9 – A senior official at COP29 climate change conference in Azerbaijan appears to have used his role to arrange a meeting to discuss potential fossil fuel deals, the BBC can report. A secret recording shows the chief executive of Azerbaijan’s COP29 team, Elnur Soltanov, discussing “investment opportunities” in the state oil and gas company with a man posing as a potential investor. “We have a lot of gas fields that are to be developed,” he says. A former head of the UN body responsible for the climate talks told the BBC that Soltanov’s actions were “completely unacceptable” and a “betrayal” of the COP process. As well as being the chief executive of COP29, Soltanov is also the deputy energy minister of Azerbaijan and is on the board of