As Typhoon Noul barrelled into southern China on Sunday with winds reaching 160km/h (99mph), violent gusts ripped a cot from indoors and flipped it over several metres away, sending the child inside flying to the ground. Hongxing News, a Chinese media outlet, reported that a six-year-old girl lying in her cot in the southern city of Shenzhen was blown from inside a building onto the grass verge outside. Footage released by Hongxing showed a ground-floor grocery shop being battered by the gale,...

International students once saw US colleges as a gateway to a world-class education and career head start but shifting United States immigration policies, tightening visa conditions and high-profile ICE raids are causing them to reconsider. In the first in our series, Phoebe Zhang looks at how Chinese students are preparing for life – and safety – in America. The second instalment in our series is here. Beijing student Lulu Lu was just preparing for bed when she was startled by loud banging at...

Minutes after a Berlin court sentenced a Chinese man to five years in prison for aiding and abetting aggravated rape and sexual coercion, two women who had sat through the trial hugged each other and cried. But the case left one of those women, named Kristina, balancing mixed emotions as she struggled to reconcile her desire to see the perpetrators punished and questions about what justice really meant in a case of this nature. The 32-year-old accused, who was studying medicine, was jailed for...

High-speed rail services and flights across Guangdong province were cancelled on Sunday after Typhoon Noul made landfall in the province, bringing heavy rainfall to large parts of southern China. Noul – the strongest typhoon to hit China so far this year – made landfall at Huizhou city in Guangdong at around 3.50am on Sunday. The National Meteorological Centre issued its first red typhoon warning of the year – the highest alert level in a four-tier system – on Saturday evening. The following...