China inaugurated the world’s highest bridge on Sunday. The Huajiang Canyon Bridge, built in the mountainous province of Guizhou, spans a 625-meter gorge and a river winding below.

The structure, which took three years to build, breaks the record held by the Duge Bridge, also known as the Beipanjiang Bridge, located in the same province. At 565 meters high, it has been relegated to second place.

 

State television footage showed cars driving across the immense structure, its blue pylons fading into the clouds.

 

According to authorities, the bridge will reduce travel time between the two banks from two hours to two minutes. This project should not only facilitate transportation, but also stimulate economic development in the region.

 

The southern province of Guizhou already boasts a series of spectacular bridges. According to the Xinhua news agency, nearly half of the world’s 100 tallest bridges are located there.

A 22-year-old woman who worked in two nurseries in the UK was sentenced on Friday to eight years in prison for molesting 21 babies, acts that were “gratuitous” and “sadistic”, according to the judge.

 

It’s the kind of story every parent of a toddler fears. Indeed, a young woman, Roksana Lecka, aged 22, was sentenced on Friday to eight years in prison for molesting 21 babies in two British nurseries where she worked. These were “gratuitous” and “sadistic” acts, according to Sarah Plaschkes, the judge in charge of the case. The young woman committed numerous “acts of cruelty” in the two establishments where she was employed between October 2023 and June 2024 on the outskirts of London, Sarah Plaschkes emphasized in her decision. The young woman, who said she was addicted to cannabis, admitted to committing such acts against seven children under the age of 16, and the court in Kingston, south-west of the capital, found her guilty of similar acts against 14 others at her trial.

 

These children were “pinched, slapped, hit, slapped and kicked. You pulled their ears, hair and toes“, listed the judge, ”multiple acts of gratuitous violence” perpetrated when she was out of sight. Surveillance videos from the second nursery, Riverside, show Roksana Lecka pinching and scratching children on the arms, legs and abdomen, or kicking a little boy in the face.

 

Numerous parents were present in the room to witness the verdict, and recounted on the stand the impact of this violence on their children and themselves. “These children were so innocent and vulnerable. They couldn’t speak, they couldn’t defend themselves (…) they were totally helpless and Roksana attacked them”, said an indignant mother.

 

The judge described his behavior as “sadistic”, while the Irwin Mitchell law firm, representing 18 of the families, questioned how Lecka’s assaults could have gone “unnoticed”, before they were discovered in June 2024.

China has evacuated nearly two million people from cities in the southern province of Guangdong ahead of the arrival of super typhoon Ragasa, international media reported on Wednesday, citing local authorities. Particularly heavy rains are expected.

By midday, the typhoon was advancing from east to west along the Chinese coast, where the authorities had closed schools and halted transport and most economic activities in a dozen major cities, including the technology hub of Shenzhen.

 

Typhoon Ragasa is the biggest storm of the year, notes the BBC. At least 14 people have died and more than 100 are missing after a landslide breached a natural dam on a river in eastern Taiwan. The super typhoon also claimed two lives in the northern Philippines.

 

The rupture, which occurred on Tuesday as the super typhoon struck the island, released the waters of a lake that had formed in the upper reaches of the Mataian River, washing away a bridge, flooding a nearby town and trapping hundreds of people.