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New Year’s celebrations around the world.

See how the world’s biggest cities rang in the new year

From New York to Paris to Sydney, crowds have marked the start of 2026 with exuberant celebrations filled with thunderous fireworks or drumming.

  • Rod McGuirk and Sheikh Saaliq

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Thick smoke and flames rise as a major fire engulfs several apartment blocks at the Wang Fuk Court complex.

What went wrong before Hong Kong’s apartment inferno

Records show how government departments played down residents’ warnings about corrupt practices and substandard materials that fuelled the deadly blaze.

  • Selam Gebrekidan and Joy Dong
Ciara Morris, second from left, with Peking University classmates on the Great Wall of China in 2019.

I’m no spy, so why does ASIO think my stint in China is a black mark?

This is no joke. If Australia wants to build its Asia capability, it must support citizens with Asian expertise – not label them as un-Australian.

  • Ciara Morris
Jimmy Lai pictured in 2020.

HK media mogul Jimmy Lai convicted under Beijing-imposed national security law

The 78-year-old, an outspoken critic of the Chinese Communist Party and a vocal democracy campaigner, faces potential life imprisonment.

  • Lisa Visentin
Li-Meng Yan and Ranawaka Perera at a friend’s wedding in April 2019.

The married scientists torn apart by a COVID bioweapon theory

In 2020, a Chinese virologist fled to the US, aided by allies of Donald Trump who sought to promote her unproven theories about the origins of COVID-19. Her husband still can’t find her.

  • Katie J.M. Baker
Lachlan Doheny in Hong Kong rugby colours

He gave up on his Wallabies dream to represent Hong Kong. Now he’ll play against Australia instead

Lachy Doheny is one of four Australians in the Hong Kong China rugby squad, who are making their debut Rugby World Cup appearance in 2027. And this week they learned they’ll be playing both the Wallabies and the All Blacks.

  • Iain Payten
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Police carries bodies of victims out of Wang Fuk Court.

In Hong Kong, tragedy fuels a national security crackdown

The Wang Fuk Court towers were still smouldering when Hong Kong authorities shifted gear from crisis to crackdown.

  • Lisa Visentin
HK fires

Graphics and video show Hong Kong fire’s rapid, deadly spread

Investigators are piecing together how the city’s worst fire in decades tore through seven high-rise buildings in minutes.

  • Tom Housden and Matt Willis
Huge crowds lay flowers to pay tribute to the victims of the Tai Po fire.

‘Broken hearts’ and curdling fury as Hong Kong mourns fire victims

As the death toll climbed to 146 on Sunday, residents told how they had complained about the renovations in the 40-year-old towers, and requested they be done one at a time.

  • Lisa Visentin and Daniel Ceng
North Asia correspondent Lisa Visentin on the ground in Hong Kong after the deadly apartment fires.
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'Exasperation and anger': Locals still reeling after Hong Kong apartment blaze

North Asia correspondent Lisa Visentin on the ground in Hong Kong after the deadly apartment fires.