tycoon

The 77-year-old founder of the Apple Daily newspaper is charged with foreign collusion over 2019 protests.

Hong Kong judges have postponed the trial of media tycoon Jimmy Lai until he is provided with a heart monitoring device and related medication.

Friday’s decision marked the second delay to the case this week after his lawyer said he had suffered heart palpitations.

The 77-year-old founder of the Apple Daily newspaper is charged with foreign collusion under Hong Kong’s national security law, which Beijing imposed following widespread pro-democracy protests in 2019.

Closing arguments in the long-running trial were originally expected to begin on Thursday, but all court sessions were suspended due to bad weather.

As the court resumed on Friday, defence lawyer Robert Pang said that Lai had heart “palpitations” and had experienced the feeling of “collapsing”, but added that the tycoon did not want attention to be concentrated on his health.

Lai has been kept behind bars since December 2020, reportedly in solitary confinement, and concerns have previously been raised over the septuagenarian’s welfare.

‘The world is watching’

The three-judge panel adjourned the case to Monday to allow time for prison authorities to outfit Lai with a wearable heart monitor and provide medication.

The sprawling trial, which began in December 2023, is entering its final stages as Western nations and rights groups continue to call for Lai’s release.

Aside from the collusion charge – which could land him in prison for life – Lai is also charged with “seditious publication” related to 161 op-eds carrying his byline.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said on Thursday that “the world is watching how Hong Kong treats its journalists”.

“The prolonged detention of Jimmy Lai not only destroys Hong Kong’s historic reputation as a free and open society, but also as a trusted hub for business,” said CPJ regional director Beh Lih Yi.

US President Donald Trump told a Fox News radio programme on Thursday that he had previously brought up the Lai case with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

“I’m going to do everything I can to save him … you could also understand President Xi would not be exactly thrilled,” the outlet quoted Trump as saying.

The Hong Kong government said on Wednesday it “strongly disapproved and rejected the slanderous remarks made by external forces” regarding Lai’s case.

Lai is a British citizen and his son Sebastien reiterated in March calls for the Keir Starmer administration to do more, saying: “I don’t want my father to die in jail.”

Two prosecution witnesses, Chan Tsz-wah and Andy Li, also accused Lai of financially backing an advocacy group that ran overseas newspaper advertisements supporting the 2019 protests.

Lai has denied calling for sanctions against China and Hong Kong and said he never advocated separatism.

Apple Daily was forced to close in 2021 after police raids and the arrests of its senior editors.

Closing arguments are due to begin in the national security trial of Jimmy Lai, 77, a fierce critic of China’s Communist Party.

United States President Donald Trump has renewed his promise to “save” jailed Hong Kong tycoon Jimmy Lai, who is on trial for alleged national security crimes over his pro-democracy activism and antipathy towards China’s Communist Party.

“I’m going to do everything I can to save him. I’m going to do everything … His name has already entered the circle of things that we’re talking about, and we’ll see what we can do,” Trump told Fox News Radio in the US.

Trump’s remarks came as closing arguments in Lai’s high-profile trial.

Closing arguments have been pushed from Friday to Monday after Lai’s lawyer said he had experienced heart palpitations.

The delay marks the second in as many days, after Hong Kong courts were closed due to bad weather.

Trump previously pledged to rescue Lai during an interview last October, just weeks before his election as president, and had said he would “100 percent get him out”.

Lai is one of the most prominent Hong Kongers to be charged under the city’s draconian 2020 national security law, and his cause has made international headlines.

The 77-year-old is a longtime opponent of China’s Communist Party thanks to his ownership of Apple Daily, a now-shuttered pro-democracy tabloid newspaper.

Thank you, President Trump, for your support for Jimmy Lai at this critical time.

“I’m going to do everything I can to save [Jimmy Lai]. I’m going to do everything…His name has already entered the circle of things that we’re talking about, and we’ll see what we can do. I… pic.twitter.com/EmscQHYQmX

— #FreeJimmyLai (@SupportJimmyLai) August 14, 2025

He is facing two counts of “colluding with foreign forces” and a separate charge of sedition in the long-running national security trial that began in December 2023.

If found guilty, he could spend the rest of his life in prison. He has always protested his innocence.

Lai was first arrested in 2020, just months after Beijing imposed the new national security law on Hong Kong, which criminalised the city’s pro-democracy movement and categorised public protests as acts of secession, subversion and terrorism.

The law was later expanded in 2024 to include further crimes such as espionage and sabotage.

Lai has been in detention continuously since December 2020 and is serving separate prison sentences for participating in a banned candlelight vigil and committing “fraud” on an office lease agreement.

He has spent more than 1,600 days in solitary confinement, according to the United Kingdom-based Hong Kong Watch, despite his age and health complications.

Lai was also denied the lawyer of his choice during trial and access to independent medical care.

A verdict in his trial is expected within days.

Alleging widespread and egregious violations of housing and tenant laws, Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta sued Southern California real estate tycoon Mike Nijjar in Los Angeles County Superior Court on Thursday.

In the lawsuit, Bonta accused Nijjar, family members and their companies of subjecting tenants to vermin infestations and overflowing sewage, overcharging them and violating anti-discrimination laws.

The suit says that Nijjar is one of California’s largest landlords, operating multibillion dollars in holdings. Nijjar family companies, commonly known as PAMA Management, own 22,000 rental units, primarily in low-income neighborhoods in Southern California.

The suit follows a more than two-year California Department of Justice investigation into Nijjar’s holdings, Bonta said.

“PAMA and the companies owned by Mike Nijjar and his family are notorious for their rampant, slum-like conditions — some so bad that residents have suffered tragic results,” Bonta said in a statement. “Our investigation into Nijjar’s properties revealed PAMA exploited vulnerable families, refusing to invest the resources needed to eradicate pest infestations, fix outdated roofs and install functioning plumbing systems, all while deceiving tenants about their rights to sue their landlord and demand repairs.”

Bonta is seeking penalties against Nijjar and his family business entities, restitution for tenants, disgorgement of ill-gotten gains and injunctive relief barring Nijjar and PAMA from continuing unlawful business practices.

A representative for Nijjar said he forcefully rejects the claims in the lawsuit.

“The allegations in the complaint are false and misleading, and its claims are legally erroneous,” Nijjar attorney Stephen Larson said in a statement. “We look forward to demonstrating in court that Mr. Nijjar and his companies are not only compliant with the law, but they provide an extraordinary service to housing those disadvantaged and underserved by California’s public and private housing markets.”

Nijjar’s real estate empire has long been on authorities’ radar.

In 2020, LAist detailed wide-ranging dangerous conditions at Nijjar’s properties dating back years, including a fire at a PAMA-owned mobile home in Kern County that resulted in the death of an infant. The mobile home was not permitted for human occupancy, according to the report and Bonta’s lawsuit. Two years later, The Times wrote a series of stories about Chesapeake Apartments, a sprawling 425-unit apartment complex in South L.A., where Nijjar’s tenants complained of sewage discharges, regular mold and vermin infestations and shoddy repairs. Chesapeake had the most public health violations of any residential property in L.A. County over the previous five years, according to a Times analysis at the time.

Prior attempts at accountability for Nijjar and his companies have been spotty and ineffective. After the 2016 mobile home fire that killed the infant in Kern County, the California Department of Real Estate revoked the licenses associated with Nijjar’s company at the time. In response, Nijjar and family members reorganized their business structure, the suit said.

The L.A. city attorney’s office resolved a nuisance abatement complaint against PAMA at Chesapeake in 2018, only for the widespread habitability problems to emerge. A similar case filed by the city attorney’s office against a PAMA property in Hollywood remains in litigation more than three years after it was filed. In the meantime, Nijjar’s companies have settled multiple habitability lawsuits filed by residents.

Bonta said that PAMA has taken advantage of lax and piecemeal accountability efforts and its low-income tenants’ vulnerability. Most residents, he said, have low or fixed incomes with few alternatives other than to endure the shoddy conditions in their rentals.

The lawsuit alleges that the habitability problems at PAMA properties are “ongoing business practices” — the result of decisions to make cheap repairs rather than necessary investments in maintenance, the use of unskilled handymen, lack of staff training and failure to track tenant requests.

“Nijjar and his associates have treated lawsuit after lawsuit and code violation after code violation as the cost of doing business and have been allowed to operate and collect hundreds of millions of dollars each year from families who sleep, shower, and feed their children in unhealthy and deplorable conditions,” Bonta said. “Enough is enough.”

Besides tenants’ living conditions, the suit alleges Nijjar and PAMA have induced residents into deceptive leases, discriminated against tenants on public assistance programs and issued unlawful rent increases.

The suit contends PAMA’s leases attempt to invalidate rights guaranteed under law, including the opportunity to sue and make repairs the landlord neglected and deduct these costs from the rent. The company has told Section 8 voucher holders that there are no units available when others are being rented to applicants without vouchers, the complaint said.

The case alleges that PAMA has violated California’s rent cap law on more than 2,000 occasions. The law limits rent increases to 5% plus inflation annually at most apartments. PAMA, the suit says, shifted mandatory shared utility costs, which used to be paid by the landlord, onto tenants’ bills in an attempt to evade the cap. The combination of the new utility costs and rent hikes resulted in total increases of up to 20%, more than double the allowable amount, according to the suit.

Interim report into sinking of superyacht that killed 7 off coast of Sicily said the vessel was ‘vulnerable’ to strong winds.

Investigators in the United Kingdom say a sudden blast of powerful wind was likely behind the capsizing of a superyacht owned by British tech billionaire Mike Lynch, which sank off Sicily last year, killing seven people.

Lynch, 59, and his 18-year-old daughter Hannah were among those who died when the 56-metre Bayesian overturned in the early hours of August 19. The voyage was meant to be a celebratory outing following Lynch’s acquittal in a major fraud case in the United States just two months earlier.

In a preliminary report released on Thursday, the UK’s Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) found that the vessel was “vulnerable” to strong winds – potentially even less severe than those recorded at the time of the incident. The report noted that this vulnerability was unknown to the yacht’s owner and crew, as it had not been documented in the stability guidance available on board.

The agency launched its probe because the Bayesian was registered in the UK. However, it acknowledged that access to key evidence remains limited due to an ongoing criminal inquiry by Italian authorities.

According to the UK report, the Bayesian had been moved the day before the accident to what was believed to be a safer location in anticipation of thunderstorms. But at about 4:06am local time, with the vessel in a motoring state, sails stowed and the centreboard raised, it was hit by winds exceeding 70 knots (81 mph), which caused it to capsize within seconds.

“You have the wind pushing the vessel over and then you have the stability of the vessel trying to push the vessel back upright again,” said MAIB investigator Simon Graves. “What our studies found was that the Bayesian may have been vulnerable to high winds, and these winds were likely present at the time of the accident.”

Among the other victims were Jonathan and Judy Bloomer – both British nationals – Chris and Neda Morvillo from the US, and Canadian Antiguan chef Recaldo Thomas. Fifteen people survived, including Lynch’s wife, Angela Bacares.

Efforts to recover the yacht have stalled since May 9, when a diver was killed during the operation. Salvage work resumed on Thursday. Graves said the final report will cover additional factors such as possible escape routes and what took place on board.

“There’s still more to uncover,” he said. “Once we gain access to the yacht itself, we’ll be able to paint a fuller picture of the timeline and decisions made.”