And Alibaba's AI glasses go on sale at US$500 a pop.
Mōrena and welcome to Friday's wrap of the main business and political headlines from around the world.
First up, hundreds are still missing and at least 75 people are confirmed dead after a devastating fire at a high-rise public housing complex in Hong Kong.
More than 270 people have been reported missing and thousands of residents are in evacuation shelters. Nearly 40% of the people who lived in the complex were 65 years old, or older
The BBC reported Chinese President Xi Jinping as expressing condolences to the victims, including a firefighter said to have died in the line of duty.
The fire, which is the city's deadliest in more than 60 years, has led to the arrest of three men on suspicion of manslaughter connected to the fire, the BBC reports.
A police spokesperson said investigators were looking into the alleged actions, or failure to act, of the men, two of whom are directors of a construction firm while the other is an engineering consultant.
"We have reason to believe that those in charge at the company were grossly negligent, which led to this accident and caused the fire to spread uncontrollably, resulting in major casualties."
In the United States, a suspected shooter of two national guard members in Washington DC has been named as 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal.
the alleged gunman worked with CIA-backed military units during the US war in Afghanistan, and moved to the US in 2021.
The two wounded guard members have been named as Sarah Beckstrom, 20, and Andrew Wolfe, 24. Both had only been sworn into service less than 24 hours before the shooting.
Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, meanwhile, has said US President Donald Trump's proposal for ending the war in Ukraine could be the basis for future agreements but that no final version exists yet.
“In general, we agree that this can form the basis for future agreements,” Bloomberg reports Putin as saying during a news conference in Kyrgyzstan following the Collective Security Treaty Organization summit. “But it would be impolite of me to talk about any final versions now. There are none.”
Trump had earlier this week said there had been "tremendous progress" made on his peace proposal, which had drawn criticism from Ukraine and parts of Europe.
Over to France, where President Emmanuel Macron has announced a plan to introduced voluntary military service of 10 months from mid-2026 in response to "accelerating threats" on the global stage, The Guardian reports.
The move comes nearly 30 years after France scrapped conscription and would be mostly aimed at people aged 18 and 19.
"France cannot remain idle," Macron reportedly said. "We cannot return to the time of conscription... This hybrid army model corresponds to the threats and risks ahead, bringing together national service youth, reservists, and the active army.”
Finally today, CNBC reports Chinese tech giant Alibaba has launched its artificial intelligence-powered smart glasses, in a bid to rival Meta's push into what some believe could be the next big consumer device.
Alibaba's Quark AI glasses will cost US$536 and be integrated with Alibaba's version of ChatGPT, called Qwen AI.
The lenses of the glasses are effectively screens and the device has a camera built into the frame. Meta's glasses, revealed in September, cost US$799. Tech analysis firm Omdia has estimated shipments of AI glasses will exceed more than 10 million units in 2026, which would be double this year's number.
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