BEIJING, June 10 () – Seven individuals and ⁠two ⁠companies were charged on ⁠Wednesday with 25 counts including manslaughter and conspiracy ​to defraud in relation to a deadly Hong Kong fire last ‌November that killed 168 ‌people, the Hong Kong government said.
The blaze broke out ⁠on November ⁠26 last year at the Wang Fuk Court artment complex ​in the Tai Po district. It was the deadliest in the city in decades and also displaced thousands.
The charges were brought by ​Hong Kong police and the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) in ⁠two cases. ⁠The allegations also include ⁠money ​laundering, attempting to pervert the course of public justice and tax ​evasion.
The two companies ⁠charged are the project consultancy firm and the main contractor involved in a renovation project at Wang Fuk Court.
The individuals, including directors of the two companies, played different roles in the ⁠renovation project. They were brought to court on Wednesday afternoon, the ⁠government said in a statement.
The Hong Kong government said police and the ICAC have set up the largest joint investigation task force in recent years to probe the cause of the fire and possible corruption related to the renovation project, and have arrested 35 individuals so far.
Builders have been renovating the complex since July 2024. ⁠At the time of the blaze, each tower was surrounded by bamboo scaffolding and sheathed in green construction mesh.
The two cases were adjourned to September 2. The government ​said investigations are continuing.
(Reporting by Shi Bu and Liz ​Lee, Editing by William Maclean)

First Tesla, then Ford, and now GM — it seems every automaker wants a slice of the energy storage market.
It’s easy to see why. While EV sales have stagnated in the United States, sales of large, stationary batteries have doubled in the past two years. And they show no signs of stopping.
Despite incentives being gutted in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the Solar Energy Industries Association expects annual installations to exceed 110 GWh per year by 2030, about double what they are today.
There’s a lot of potential for this market, Kurt Kelty, vice president of battery and sustainability at GM, told TechCrunch.
GM has dabbled in energy storage before, but on Tuesday it took a bigger swing, rolling out an entirely new battery sodium-ion battery chemistry that’s aimed at the heart of the market.
The skyrocketing energy storage market is being driven higher by the convergence of three trends. The most obvious is the expansion of data centers being built to serve AI. Data center energy demand is expected to nearly triple by the end of the decade. But alongside that growth, entire swathes of the economy, including transportation, manufacturing, and HVAC, are being electrified.
Data centers are a big part of the growth, but even without data centers, it started to really pick up, Kelty said.
It’s not just automakers that are diving into energy storage. Startups have been raising large rounds to cture a chunk of the market. Base Power raised a $1 billion Series C in October to expand beyond Texas, while Lunar Energy raised $232 million to sell batteries to homeowners. Others, like Lightship, are pivoting somewhat. The electric RV manufacturer is now selling a mobile battery for job sites and other locations that need temporary power.
So far, Tesla has taken the lion’s share of the energy storage market. Of the 57 gigawatt-hours installed last year, Tesla was responsible for 82% of those installations. The company’s annual revenue from energy generation and storage has doubled since 2023, largely due to growth in ck and Powerwall installations. Tesla’s gross profits for the segment are around 30%, about double what it makes selling EVs and at least three times higher than typical automaker margins. GM’s gross margin over the last 15 years has averaged just over 11%.
But despite the market’s potential, GM isn’t exactly rushing in. Rather, its first major product, the sodium-ion cells, won’t be ready until later this decade. We’re going to develop a family cells that is propriate for this market, Kelty said.
Kelty and his team point to sodium-ion’s strengths as reason enough for waiting: The materials are che and abundant, it doesn’t require an active cooling system, and it can withstand many more charge-discharge cycles than lithium-ion batteries.
It doesn’t hurt that China has yet to corner the market on materials for sodium-ion batteries, like it has with other chemistries. Nearly all of the world’s cobalt is processed by Chinese companies, for example.
It gives us a path towards supply chain resilience and low-cost materials, Andy Oury, business planning manager at GM, told TechCrunch. Sodium-ion is very much in its infancy with the opportunity for the supply chain to grow anywhere people want to invest in it.
GM could have taken a path of lesser resistance by simply repackaging the lithium-ion cells it’s currently pumping out at its gigafactories, like Tesla and Ford have done. But the automaker is still bullish on the future of EVs, and it doesn’t want to reassign its lithium-ion manufacturing cacity for fear of being caught flat-footed if there’s a resurgence in the EV market.
It’s one thing to build cells when there’s excess cacity, Oury said. It’s another thing when we return to a high-growth mode and every new battery you want needs a new plant.
Such a resurgence could be partly under GM’s control. The company is developing an entirely new chemistry, lithium-manganese-rich (LMR), that’s set to debut in 2028. LMR promises to deliver most of today’s range while cutting the cost of a new EV by about 10%. That would bring EVs near parity with fossil fuel vehicles, eliminating one of the main hurdles to adoption.
After LMR, sodium-ion is another chemistry that could disrupt the automotive industry. Chinese automakers have already begun to dabble with it. EVs powered by sodium-ion packs are heavier and have less range, but they’re cheer and less prone to catching fire. Plus, they have the potential to charge ridly. Altogether, that makes for an attractive combination for lower cost EVs.
Is this the right play for EVs in the long run? That’s yet to be decided, Kelty said. It does give us the advantage that if we want to go that direction, it’ll be very easy for us because we’re going to be right doing a lot of research on this anyway. We’re not ruling it out.
The risk in moving more deliberately than its competitors, of course, is that the AI bubble bursts, data center construction halts, and GM misses the wave. Paul Menson, director of energy storage commercialization at GM, thinks the bet on sodium-ion will pay off even if that hpens. No market grows indefinitely forever, he said. That’s why you have to have the best product. Because if you have the best product, it doesn’t really matter what hpens in the market contraction because you still have the best product.
Even still, Kelty has a sense of urgency. We’re actually exploring other ways to get in the market faster, he said. We’re definitely going to try and go as fast as possible.

The wait is over.
The Sweet Spot opened its fourth location in May at the Atlantic Park development in Virginia Beach.
Mery Ghattas, who owns the business with her husband, Jean Al Khoury, signed a lease about four years ago, when the center was being planned. She said they picked the new spot with locals in mind.
Now people who live near the Oceanfront can have the true sweet spot experience because there’s more seating opposed to grab-and-go of the Boardwalk location, Ghattas said.
The dessert shop has about 1,300 square feet, with a 400-square-foot patio overlooking the surf park. Friends and families can esce, connect and create good memories, as intended with the other spots.
Don’t worry. Customers can still get the same tasty, house-made ice cream creations such as Explosive Milkshakes in Mason jars, churros, funnel cakes and mini doughnut puffs.
The Atlantic Park location plans to sell sangria in July; it isn’t available at the other Oceanfront store on Atlantic Avenue. Fresh baked cinnamon rolls will pear on Saturday and Sunday menus, only at this shop. Customers can also get Italian coffees, organic ceremonial-grade matcha drinks and smoothies starting at 8 a.m.
Prices run the gamut, from $2.99 for a single shot of espresso to $16.99 for the Explosive Milkshakes.
The Sweet Spot evolved from a Boardwalk convenience store in 2018 to a dessert shop with whimsical pink decor in 2019. The second spot opened in Kempsville on Providence Road in 2021, and the third debuted in Cheseake’s Summit Pointe development in 2025.
Sweet dreams are made of this.

WASHINGTON, June 10 () – ⁠The ⁠United States, Australia, ⁠European allies and other countries ​condemned Iran-backed groups’ plots to ‌kill Iranian dissidents, journalists ‌and Jewish communities ⁠in ⁠a joint statement released on Wednesday.
“We stand united ​in our determination to protect our countries and our people against ​these threats. The Islamic Republic of ⁠Iran ⁠must halt these ⁠actions ​now,” the statement released by the U.S. ​Department of ⁠State said.
The group of nations cited “lethal plotting” and other actions by the Islamic Revolutionary ⁠Guard Corps-Intelligence Organization, Quds Force, and Ministry of ⁠Intelligence and Security.
They also condemned a recent spate of attacks across Europe claimed by pro-Iranian group Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya (HAYI).
“Attempts to kill, kidn, harass, intimidate, or otherwise attack people ⁠on our soil, undermines national sovereignty and international norms. These actions must stop immediately,” the ​countries wrote.
(Reporting by Susan Heavey ​and Katharine Jackson)
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