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Tag: domestic-international news

  • China’s defense minister warns against ‘playing with fire’ on Taiwan during Russia meeting | CNN

    China’s defense minister warns against ‘playing with fire’ on Taiwan during Russia meeting | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    China’s defense minister Li Shangfu on Tuesday warned against “playing with fire” when it comes to Taiwan in a veiled jab at the United States as he addressed a security conference in Russia.

    Speaking at the Moscow Conference on International Security, Li said attempts to “use Taiwan to contain China,” would “surely end in failure,” according to state-run news agency Xinhua.

    Li’s comments echoed previous statements by Chinese officials but the location of his speech was significant and symbolic given Moscow’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

    China’s ruling Communist Party claims the self-governing democracy of Taiwan and has vowed to take control of it, by force if necessary. It has repeatedly castigated American interactions with the island, with which Washington does not have official diplomatic ties, including for the sale of US arms to Taipei.

    Li, who was sanctioned by the US in 2018 for purchases of Russian weapons, joined the Moscow security conference as he began a six-day trip to Russia and its close ally Belarus.

    Senior defense officials from more than 20 “friendly states,” including Belarus, Iran and Myanmar will also attend the forum, Russian state media previously reported, citing Moscow’s defense ministry, which organizes the annual event. No Western countries were invited, state media said.

    The visit is Li’s second to Russia since assuming his role as defense chief earlier this year. It comes as Beijing has continued to bolster its security ties with Moscow, despite its unrelenting assault on Ukraine, which has triggered a humanitarian disaster with global ramifications.

    In a pre-recorded message to the same Moscow conference, Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the US of adding “fuel to the fire” of global conflicts, including through its support of Ukraine.

    China has used similar rhetoric in its own official comments about the conflict, despite maintaining that it remains a neutral party and a proponent of peace.

    Li on Tuesday also told attendees that China’s military was “a firm force in maintaining world peace,” and that Chinese leader Xi Jinping aimed to stabilize global security in “a world of chaos.”

    “We are willing to work with other militaries to strengthen mutual trust in military security strategies and practical cooperation in various specialized fields,” Li added, according to Xinhua.

    Russian state-run media Sputnik also cited Li as saying that military relations between China and Russia do not target any third party – a point Chinese officials have made in the past. The Xinhua report did not include the statement.

    Li met with his Russian counterpart Sergei Shoigu to discuss cooperation between the two countries’ militaries, Xinhua said. China and Russia regularly carry out joint exercises – including a joint naval patrol off the coast of Alaska in recent weeks.

    The Chinese defense chief also held bilateral meetings with Iran, Saudi Arabia, Kazakhstan, Vietnam and other countries’ defense departments and military leaders on the sidelines of the conference.

    Li’s comments on Taiwan come on the heels of a backlash from Beijing as Taiwan’s Vice President William Lai, a front-runner in the island’s upcoming presidential race, makes planned stopovers in the United States during travel for an official visit to Paraguay.

    China’s foreign ministry condemned the stopover on Sunday, calling Lai a “trouble maker through and through.”

    The US maintains an unofficial relationship with Taipei after formally establishing diplomatic relations with Beijing in 1979, but is bound by law to provide the democratic island with the means to defend itself.

    During a speech in New York, Lai declared Taiwan will “never back down” to threats from China.

    “No matter how great the threat of authoritarianism is to Taiwan, we absolutely will not be scared nor cower, we will uphold the values of democracy and freedom,” he said.

    China has in recent years ramped up its military intimidation of the island, including following meetings between Taiwanese leaders and US lawmakers.

    Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has also drawn increased attention to Taiwan as a potential security flashpoint in Asia.

    Despite broad differences with the geopolitical circumstances of Russia and Ukraine, the optics of a seemingly more powerful aggressor launching an attack driven by a vision of unification have heightened focus on China’s intentions toward Taiwan.

    Some analysts have suggested that China was watching Western reaction to Russian aggression in Ukraine with an eye to understanding possible responses to any potential, future moves against Taiwan.

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  • Australian surfers rescued in waters off remote Indonesian island after 38 hours missing at sea | CNN

    Australian surfers rescued in waters off remote Indonesian island after 38 hours missing at sea | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Four Australian surfers who went missing after their boat was struck by a storm in a remote part of Indonesia have been rescued after more than 38 hours at sea, according to parents of the missing tourists.

    Australians Steph Weisse, Will Teagle, Jordan Short and two unnamed Indonesian nationals were found “bobbing on surfboards” by a surf charter boat involved in the frantic rescue to locate the group.

    Dramatic video of that moment showed both the stranded castaways on their surfboards cheering and hollering alongside their rescuers as they realized they had successfully found each other in a vast expanse of ocean.

    A further search picked up Australian Elliot Foote, however one Indonesian crew member remains missing.

    Foote’s father, Peter Foote, said his son was separated from the rest of the group because he’d gone looking for assistance.

    “He left his mates bobbing in the water to go to search for help. The charter boat found them and then went and found Elliot,” Peter said.

    “I’m really happy it’s all turned out well and I hope he continues with his holiday,” Peter told CNN.

    “He’s in a great place to celebrate, with his girlfriend [Weisse] and 10 mates in paradise. He’s still got eight nights to enjoy then I’m looking forward to him coming straight home.”

    The group’s boat was last seen Sunday evening local time after they encountered bad weather and heavy rain on a journey to the remote Pinang island from Nias, a popular surfing destination some 150 kilometers from Indonesia’s Sumatra Island.

    A second boat with the rest of the party successfully reached Pinang Island Sunday evening, the families said, helping to raise the alarm.

    While Indonesian authorities conducted search and rescue efforts with support from the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the families of the four Australians said the surf charter boats made all the difference by using their local knowledge of the currents to locate where the group may have drifted.

    According to their families, the four Australians were on a surf trip in Indonesia to celebrate Foote’s 30th birthday.

    Wil Teagle was with fellow surfer friends who travelled from Nias island

    Friends in Australia have hailed what they described as a near miraculous rescue.

    “Now that all four have been found we can just be so so grateful,” Ellie Sedgwick, who described herself as Weisse’s best friend since they were 17, told CNN.

    “Her mum and I were speaking the whole way through, just saying if anyone can survive this, it’s Steph,” she added.

    “It’s funny because Steph actually had that conversation with us before she left. The last thing she said to us was, it’s amazing that you know we only get one life…we kept replaying that conversation over and over in our heads.”

    In a statement issued Tuesday afternoon, DFAT said “the Australian Government expresses its deep gratitude” to those involved in the search and rescue efforts.

    Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs Penny Wong said in a tweet that the government will “continue to provide support to the four Australians and their families.”

    “The search continues for a crew member who is still missing,” she wrote. “Our thoughts are with them and their loved ones.”

    The names of the Indonesian crew who were on board the boat have not been shared yet by authorities.

    Indonesia has long been a popular destination for Australian tourists thanks to its proximity and a wealth of budget flights to places like Bali.

    The western island of Sumatra is one of Indonesia’s less commonly traveled destinations but the coral-fringed islands around Nias are popular with intrepid surfers and boast multiple world class breaks, particularly around Lagundri Bay.

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  • Russia’s ruble hits a 17-month low to the dollar as the Ukraine war bites | CNN Business

    Russia’s ruble hits a 17-month low to the dollar as the Ukraine war bites | CNN Business

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    London
    CNN
     — 

    The ruble hit a 17-month low against the dollar Monday, highlighting the growing squeeze on Russia’s economy from Western sanctions and a slump in export revenues.

    The Russian currency has lost nearly 40% of its value this year, weakening past 100 rubles to the dollar, as Moscow’s war in Ukraine takes a heavy toll.

    The fall in the ruble’s value is one of several negative indicators for the Russian economy, even as President Vladimir Putin insists that Western sanctions are having a limited effect.

    — This is a developing story and will be updated.

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  • Niger junta says ‘high treason’ evidence gathered to prosecute ousted president Bazoum | CNN

    Niger junta says ‘high treason’ evidence gathered to prosecute ousted president Bazoum | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    The National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland (CNSP) of Niger, the military council that toppled the government in July, said in a statement on Sunday that they have gathered the necessary evidence to “prosecute” Niger’s ousted President Mohamed Bazoum for “high treason” and “undermining” the security of the country.

    “The Nigerien government has to date, gathered the necessary evidence to prosecute the deposed president and his local and foreign accomplices before the competent national and international authorities for high treason and undermining internal and external security of Niger,” the CNSP said.

    The CNSP said Bazoum regularly receives visits from his doctor and the last visit was on Saturday, August 12.

    They added that the doctor did not raise any problem as to Bazoum’s state of health and members of his family.

    On July 26, the CNSP seized power in Niger, sparking international condemnation and renewed uncertainty in a volatile part of Africa beset by coups and militant extremism.

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  • Villavicencio assassination a ‘disturbing moment’ for Ecuador democracy, former running mate says | CNN

    Villavicencio assassination a ‘disturbing moment’ for Ecuador democracy, former running mate says | CNN

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    Quito, Ecuador
    CNN
     — 

    The assassination of Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio marks a “disturbing moment” for the region and democracy, his successor and former running mate Andrea González Náder has told CNN in an exclusive interview.

    “You never have enough time to process something so shocking and so sobering as the assassination of a presidential candidate (on) such a level of violence and so soon – so close to the presidential elections,” Náder told CNN’s Rafael Romo in an interview in the capital Quito on Saturday.

    “This is a disturbing moment for the whole region and for the world’s democracy,” she said.

    Náder was named as the new presidential candidate for Villavicencio’s Movimiento Construye political party following his death during a campaign rally on Wednesday as violence and crime escalates in the South American country.

    She was seen wearing a bulletproof vest at a candidacy acceptance ceremony in the capital on Friday.

    “Náder was chosen by Fernando Villavicencio and the Movimiento Construye as the designated successor to step in as president in the event of his absence,” the party said in a statement published online on Saturday.

    Villavicencio, 59, an anti-corruption campaigner and lawmaker, was outspoken about violence caused by drug trafficking in Ecuador. His campaign had promised a crackdown on crime and corruption that gripped the country in recent years.

    His killing came 10 days before the first round of the presidential elections, scheduled to take place on August 20.

    His widow Veronica Sarauz expressed disagreement with Náder’s appointment in the wake of her husband’s passing and blamed the state for his murder, demanding answers as to why it happened.

    “The state was in charge of Fernando’s security. The state is directly responsible for the murder of my husband. They did not protect him as they should have protected him,” Sarauz told a news conference on Saturday.

    The 59-year-old was laid to rest in a private ceremony at the Monteolivo cemetery in northern Quito on Friday.

    “The state still has to give many answers about everything that happened. His personal guards did not do their job,” she said.

    Fernando Villavicencio speaks during a campaign rally in Quito.

    Villavicencio’s assassination prompted an outpouring of condemnation from inside Ecuador and around the world.

    The suspected shooter died in police custody following an exchange of fire with security personnel, authorities said.

    Six others – all Colombian nationals – have also been arrested in connection with the killing, believed to be members of organized criminal groups.

    While authorities have not yet announced any confirmed links between gangs to Villavicencio’s assassination, the Ecuadorian Army Command announced the dispatch and deployment of 4,000 personnel – 2,000 military members and 2,000 police officers – to the Zonal 8 Detention Center in Guayas province “to establish control over weapons, ammunition and explosives within the prison.”

    A high profile prisoner José Adolfo Macías Villamar, more popularly known by his alias “Fito” and jailed after being convicted of drug trafficking – is currently incarcerated in the prison, sparking concerns by the authorities.

    Villavicencio – also a former journalist – had said in a televised interview on July 31 that he had been threatened by Macías and warned against continuing with his campaign against gang violence for the leadership.

    Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso announced Saturday that Macías “and other dangerous prisoners” would be relocated to the La Roca maximum security prison after drugs, weapons, ammunition and explosives were found.

    Images released by the armed forces on Saturday showed Macías being restrained and searched inside the facility. Macías as well as his gang members have not yet publicly commented on the assassination.

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  • Where in the world is Wagner warlord Prigozhin? At large and in charge, apparently | CNN

    Where in the world is Wagner warlord Prigozhin? At large and in charge, apparently | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Late last week, imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny was handed a harsh judgment: After a court hit him with a new 19-year sentence in a penal colony, he was sent immediately to a punishment cell.

    It was a stark contrast to the fate of Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Russian mercenary group Wagner. Back in June, Prigozhin led the abortive mutiny that presented the biggest challenge to Russian President Vladimir Putin in over two decades of rule. While Prigozhin’s troops stopped short of Moscow, a furious Putin said in a televised speech that those on the “path of treason” would face punishment. Almost two months later, in the case of the Wagner chief, this simply hasn’t happened.

    Clearly, the price for confronting Putin is not fixed. Perhaps more surprisingly, Prigozhin hasn’t even kept a low profile since the June uprising.

    Just weeks after the insurrection, Prigozhin popped up on the sidelines of the recent Russia-Africa summit in St. Petersburg, shaking hands with a dignitary from the Central African Republic (CAR).

    To be sure, the mercenary boss was not striking a martial pose: While subscribers to his Telegram channel have become accustomed to seeing him in camouflage and tactical gear, Prigozhin was spotted in a polo shirt and mom jeans, cutting a seemingly more mild-mannered figure than in months past.

    But pity the poor Russian diplomat who has to explain why Prigozhin – whose forces shot down Russian military aircraft and killed Russian military servicemembers on their march toward the capital – remains at large.

    That’s exactly what happened when CNN’s Christiane Amanpour confronted Andrei Kelin, the Russian ambassador to the United Kingdom, about the bizarre spectacle of Prigozhin’s post-mutiny appearance.

    Wagner’s insurrection, Kelin conceded, might constitute a form of “high treason.” But the ambassador went on to explain that Putin has decided to let bygones be bygones.

    “The president has qualified it when it has started, then it was all over,” Kelin said. “Now he’s traveling someplace, so we do recognize some hero deeds by Wagner groups,” alluding to Wagner’s apparent battlefield successes around the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut.

    Amanpour, however, pressed Kelin further.

    “What I would like to understand, why is it that people like (jailed dissident Vladimir) Kara-Murza, the intellectual, others, Navalny are in jail for verbally protesting and disagreeing with the Russian government, but… Prigozhin, who tried to commit a coup against the Kremlin, maybe even against the President himself – an armed coup – is still wandering around free in Russia? He was photographed meeting with African leaders during this week’s summit in St. Petersburg, why is he not in jail for treason?”

    Kelin evaded at first, saying he didn’t recall that Russian soldiers died during the Wagner mutiny. Pressed by Amanpour, Kelin conceded that he had no explanation. Longtime observers, too, are searching for explanations about Prigozhin’s future.

    Andrei Kelin, Russia's ambassador to the United Kingdom, was interviewed by CNN's Christiane Amanpour on August 4.

    Experts believe that the Wagner boss still has value to Putin, even though the stature of both men has diminished.

    “Prigozhin’s stock with the Kremlin has clearly taken a hit,” said Candace Rondeaux, director of Future Frontlines, an open source intelligence service at the think tank New America. “But since Putin lost even more stock after the mutiny it seems he believes some utility remains in keeping Prigozhin around.”

    Prigozhin’s business acumen – and his skill at concealing commercial gains through an opaque network of front companies and offshore operations – are an asset for Putin’s Russia, which has been hit by sweeping Western economic sanctions, Rondeaux said.

    “At this point, Prigozhin’s networks of shell companies are the best insurance Putin has to keep Russia’s war economy,” she said. “But it’s not likely to stay that way forever – eventually something has got to give. And there is a good chance once it does we’ll see more spectacular events closer to the border between Poland and Belarus.”

    Rondeaux was referring to the recent relocation of some Wagner fighters to Belarus. The move – apparently part of a deal brokered to end the June mutiny – has already raised alarms in Poland, a NATO member next door to Belarus.

    Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki recently said that 100 troops from Wagner were moving toward a thin strip of land between Poland and Lithuania, with the possible intent of posing as migrants to cross the border.

    It’s unclear exactly how many Wagner troops are in Belarus, and whether or not they have access to heavy weaponry. But Morawiecki seemed to be pointing to one potential scenario for Wagner mischief: Promoting some kind of destabilization along NATO’s eastern frontier.

    And then there are Prigozhin’s plans for another region: Vulnerable and unstable countries in Africa, where Wagner has already conducted a series of operations.

    Speaking after Wagner fighters relocated to Belarus, Prigozhin suggested he remained focused on this core African market.

    “To ensure that there are no secrets and behind-the-scenes conversations, I am informing you that the Wagner Group continues its activities in Africa, as well as at the training centers in Belarus,” Prigozhin said in an audio message shared on Telegram accounts associated with the Wagner group.

    Prigozhin’s forces are already implicated in activities in Sudan – where Wagner has supplied the militia battling Sudan’s army – and has operated extensively in the CAR and in Libya.

    He may also sense opportunities in Niger, after a recent military coup threatened to spark a major regional crisis. In a recent Telegram message, Prigozhin hinted that Wagner might be ready to offer its services there.

    “What happened in Niger has been brewing for years,” Prigozhin said. “The former colonizers are trying to keep the people of African countries in check. In order to keep them in check, the former colonizers are filling these countries with terrorists and various bandit formations. Thus creating a colossal security crisis.”

    Then followed his hard sell. “The population suffers,” he said. “And this is the (the reason for the) love for PMC Wagner, this is the high efficiency of PMC Wagner. Because a thousand soldiers of PMC Wagner are able to establish order and destroy terrorists, preventing them from harming the peaceful population of states.”

    That might be dismissed as pure bluster and salesmanship. But it’s worth noting that Prigozhin’s sale pitch was at odds with the view of the Russian Foreign Ministry, which called for the “prompt release” of Nigerien President Mohamed Bazoum by the military.

    And that’s where things can still get interesting back in Russia. By defying Putin and evading punishment, Prigozhin seems to have built and sustained a competing center of gravity to the Kremlin.

    In a recent analysis, Tatiana Stanovaya, senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, said Prigozhin had effectively chipped away at the “power vertical” – Putin’s longstanding system of top-down rule.

    “Putin’s much-hyped ‘power vertical’ has disappeared,” she wrote. “Instead of a strong hand, there are dozens of mini-Prigozhins, and while they may be more predictable than the Wagner leader, they are no less dangerous. All of them know full well that a post-Putin Russia is already here – even as Putin remains in charge – and that it’s time to take up arms and prepare for a battle for power.”

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  • Russia says it shot down Ukrainian missiles over key Crimea bridge | CNN

    Russia says it shot down Ukrainian missiles over key Crimea bridge | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Russian officials say multiple missiles were shot down over the crucial bridge connecting the annexed Crimea to the mainland on Saturday, the latest in a series of apparent Ukrainian attacks in the region.

    The bridge is one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s pet projects and has frequently been targeted as a hated symbol of occupation.

    Two Ukrainian missiles were shot down on Saturday afternoon, the Russia-appointed Head of Crimea Sergey Aksyonov wrote in a post on Telegram, adding that the bridge was undamaged.

    Photos and videos circulating on social media platforms showed white smoke billowing from the bridge. CNN has not independently verified the images.

    An update from Aksyonov said later Saturday that another Ukrainian missile had been shot down in the area.

    “Another enemy missile was shot down over the Kerch Strait. Thank you to our air defense troops for their high professionalism and vigilance!” Aksyonov wrote on Telegram.

    Oleg Kryuchkov, an adviser to the Russian-appointed Head of Crimea, said special services put up a “smoke screen,” which are used to conceal any damage caused.

    Russia’s defense ministry also said earlier Saturday that its forces had destroyed 20 Ukrainian drones launched at the peninsula overnight.

    Following the attempted strikes, Russia’s foreign ministry condemned Ukraine for what it described as a “terrorist attack.”

    “The Crimean bridge is an object of purely civilian infrastructure, attacks on which are unacceptable. It has been subjected to such attacks since the autumn of last year, which also led to the death of civilians,” Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said.

    “Such barbaric actions cannot be justified and will not go unanswered,” Zakharova continued.

    Meanwhile, traffic has resumed on the Crimean bridge, according to the Crimean bridge operative information Telegram account, after it was temporarily blocked.

    The Crimean bridge is a vital artery for supplying Russia’s war on Ukraine, allowing people and goods to flow into the Ukrainian territories that Moscow has occupied in the south and east of the country.

    Also known as the Kerch Bridge, it holds personal value for Russian President Vladimir Putin. In the Kremlin narrative it marks the “reunification” of Crimea with the Russian mainland.

    In October, the bridge was partially destroyed when a fuel tanker exploded and damaged a large section of the road. The Kremlin was quick to blame Kyiv for that explosion, and Putin alleged that it was an act of “sabotage” by Ukrainian security services.

    The bridge was also hit by two strikes in July in an attack a Ukrainian security official told CNN Kyiv was responsible for.

    Last week the head of the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) Vasyl Maliuk said that any explosions that happen to Russian ships or the Crimean bridge are “an absolutely logical and effective step.”

    Maliuk said that if the Russians wanted such explosions to stop “they have the only option to do so – to leave the territorial waters of Ukraine and our land.”

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  • Russia’s ‘August curse’ sees war come home | CNN

    Russia’s ‘August curse’ sees war come home | CNN

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    Moscow
    CNN
     — 

    In years past, the month of August was often greeted in Russia with a degree of caution, even alarm. Russians spoke in whispered tones of their “August curse” to explain the unusually high number of deadly accidents, terrorist attacks, or outbreaks of war.

    For a long time now that curse seemed to have been lifted and almost forgotten, reducing the month to just another hot summer interlude.

    But this year, it appears to be back with a vengeance.

    For a start, Russians are witnessing a massive upsurge in Ukrainian attacks bringing the Kremlin’s war home, making Moscow pay a price and giving ordinary Russians a taste of the horrific violence Ukraine has suffered since last February.

    In the Black Sea, Russia’s military and commercial fleets have come under attack from Ukrainian naval drones this month, threatening Russian supply and trade routes.

    And every day in August so far has seen the news media carry reports of small-scale but incessant Ukrainian drone attacks targeting official buildings, military installations, or commercial and residential premises.

    Most are shot out of the sky, according to officials, by bolstered air defenses. But enough get through to give Russians pause.

    “We’re all shocked that it’s happening here,” one unnamed woman told local media in Moscow.

    “But we are not politicians so we don’t want to comment,” she added.

    There has been a strict crackdown on dissent in Russia, particularly around criticisms of the war in Ukraine.

    Another woman appeared on local media with her face blurred to protect her identity: “I have two kids and want to stop being ashamed that they were born in this time,” she said.

    Other Russians are apparently now taking their opposition a step further, with August witnessing an unprecedented spike in arson attacks against military recruitment offices across the country – more than two dozen fire-bombings in just over a week, according to Russian state media.

    Officials say vulnerable citizens, like pensioners, are being duped into carrying out attacks by Ukrainian agents posing as police or creditors calling in loans and forcing them to act.

    But a source linked to one Russian partisan group denies Russians are being coerced, telling CNN that the Kremlin wants to hide the growing discontent in society.

    “If people weren’t angry with the authorities, they wouldn’t do anything,” the source told CNN.

    The second week of August was no less fraught than the first, and with far more dead and injured.

    A mysterious explosion ripped through an industrial plant in the small Russian city of Sergiev Posad, about two hours drive from Moscow, sending a dark mushroom cloud billowing into the skies.

    The authorities insist it was a safety lapse at a firework factory, denying reports of sabotage at what was once a leading manufacturer of military optical equipment, like night goggles and gun sights.

    Still, the blast caused horrific damage: 440 apartments and 20 private homes struck, according to Russian state media; 184 cars destroyed; 84 people injured, 1 killed, and at least 8 more still missing.

    Russia’s August curse is back indeed.

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  • Chinese property giant Country Garden flags loss of up to $7.6 billion as it nears default | CNN Business

    Chinese property giant Country Garden flags loss of up to $7.6 billion as it nears default | CNN Business

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    Hong Kong
    CNN
     — 

    One of China’s biggest property developers says it has burned through up to $7.6 billion in the first half of the year, compounding the crisis coursing through the country’s embattled real estate sector.

    Country Garden warned investors in a Hong Kong stock exchange filing Thursday that it would likely record a loss of 45 billion to 55 billion Chinese yuan (about $6.2 billion to $7.6 billion) for the six months through June.

    That compares with a profit of approximately 1.9 billion yuan ($264.3 million) for the same time last year.

    The disclosure lays bare the financial woes currently facing Country Garden, a massive builder of hundreds of thousands of homes annually across China.

    The developer, which employs some 300,000 people, has a massive debt pile that’s being compared to that of Evergrande, the world’s most indebted property group.

    In recent weeks, the company has become the latest sign of China’s economic troubles, as it teeters on the brink of default and, by its own admission, works to save itself.

    Country Garden shares plunged 8.7% in Hong Kong Friday following its loss warning, as well as a report from Chinese news outlet Yicai that the firm was preparing for a debt restructuring, citing unidentified sources.

    CNN has not independently confirmed Yicai’s reporting.

    The company had said in its filing that it would “consider adopting various debt management measures,” without elaborating further, as well as lean on a task force newly set up to “cope with” its challenges. Country Garden did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

    As of early afternoon in Hong Kong Friday, its stock had reached a record low of 95 Hong Kong cents, below its previous low of 98 Hong Kong cents reached in October 2008.

    Earlier this week, Country Garden stoked concerns by missing two bond payments, according to analysts. The company did not respond to multiple requests for comment from CNN on the matter.

    Its failure to pay up raised concerns about its overall liabilities, which racked up to a whopping 1.4 trillion yuan (about $194 billion) as of the end of last year.

    Some of the company’s debt — roughly $4.3 billion in onshore and offshore bonds — will come due or “become puttable” through the end of 2024, meaning the company will face obligations to bondholders, according to Moody’s.

    For the rest of this year alone, “we estimate that CGH needs to fulfill at least $137 million of bond interest payments through the rest of 2023,” Morningstar analyst Jeff Zhang wrote in a report Thursday.

    News of the missed payments led to the company being downgraded, with Moody’s bumping down its credit rating from B1 to Caa1 on Thursday.

    The downgrade reflects Country Garden’s cash flow problems, “in view of its deteriorated liquidity and financial flexibility, sizable refinancing needs and still-constrained access to funding,” Kaven Tsang, a Moody’s senior vice president, said in a report.

    “The negative outlook reflects the uncertainty over Country Garden’s ability to service its debt obligations, including coupon payments, in a timely manner over the next [six to] 12 months,” he added.

    Zhang also said Morningstar believed the missed payments “may not be an isolated event.”

    “Country Garden is likely to default,” he wrote in his report.

    The company is working to stem the bleeding.

    In its filing Thursday, it attributed the expected first-half loss to a series of problems, from falling property sales to lower profit margins.

    New home sales by China’s 100 biggest developers dropped by 33% in July from a year ago, according to data released last week.

    “Facing such an extremely difficult situation industry-wide, the company [has] worked together to carry out self-rescue by all means,” Country Garden told investors.

    But “the overall market has not yet recovered, the absolute scale of the industry has declined, and the capital market needs time to restore its confidence.”

    The company also detailed how its chairwoman, who is also its controlling shareholder, had personally tried to contain the crisis.

    Since the company’s listing in 2007, Yang Huiyan and her family have pumped in approximately 38.6 billion Hong Kong dollars ($4.9 billion), in the form of new loans and share and bond purchases, the firm said in its filing.

    Some of that debt — about 6.6 billion Hong Kong dollars ($844 million) is unsecured, it added.

    But Yang alone won’t be able to turn things around. In its report, Moody’s cited “the absence of new external financing” as one reason it now considers the firm’s liquidity “weak,” compared to its previous classification of “adequate.”

    The assessment was reached despite Yang’s willingness to provide “funding support to the company,” the agency added.

    One of China’s wealthiest women, Yang has seen her own fortune plunge recently, dropping 84% since June 2021, or $28.6 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires index.

    That’s the biggest wealth drop of any billionaire in the world over the past two years, according to its calculations.

    The impact of Country Garden’s problems won’t be felt in China alone, according to Alfredo Montufar-Helu, head of the China center for economics and business.

    “The global economy is losing one of its engines of growth,” he told CNN.

    “That’s why everyone should care about what is happening to real estate. Real estate is the main drag right now on confidence levels, on demand, and on industrial productivity.”

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  • German man accused of spying for Russia | CNN

    German man accused of spying for Russia | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    A German national who worked for a government agency that equips the German armed forces, has been arrested on suspicion of spying for Russia, the German Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement Wednesday.

    The man was employed the Federal Office of Bundeswehr Equipment, Information Technology and In-Service Support– and is alleged to have passed information to the Russian intelligence service, the federal prosecutor’s office said.

    “The defendant is strongly suspected of having worked for a foreign intelligence service,” it added. “Starting in May 2023, he approached the Russian Consulate General in Bonn and the Russian Embassy in Berlin several times on his own initiative and offered cooperation.”

    “On one occasion, he passed on information he had obtained in the course of his professional activities for the purpose of forwarding it to a Russian intelligence service,” the statement said.

    The man was arrested in the western Germany city of Koblenz and as part of the investigation, his and workplace were searched. An arrest warrant was issued by a Federal Supreme Court judge on July 27, 2023, the federal prosecutor’s office said.

    “The investigation was conducted in close cooperation with the Federal Military Counter-Intelligence Service and the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution,” the federal prosecutor’s office said.

    The man was brought before the Federal Supreme Court investigating judge on Wednesday. The judge ordered that he be remanded in custody, the federal prosecutor’s office said.

    The Federal Office of Bundeswehr Equipment, Information Technology and In-Service Support has almost 12,000 people working for it, including 18,000 soldiers, according to Reuters.

    In December, a German citizen who worked for the country’s foreign intelligence service was arrested on charges of spying for Russia.

    It comes after a large expulsion of Russian diplomats, many of whom are alleged to be operating as spies, from European countries last year following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

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  • 41 dead in new Mediterranean migrant shipwreck tragedy | CNN

    41 dead in new Mediterranean migrant shipwreck tragedy | CNN

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    Rome
    CNN
     — 

    Forty-one people reportedly died in a migrant shipwreck near the Italian island of Lampedusa, survivors say, the latest tragedy amid a spike in efforts in people making the dangerous sea crossing from North Africa to Europe.

    The survivors told the Red Cross that the migrant boat left Sfax, Tunisia several days ago. They said they were wearing life jackets and were able to crawl on a remnants of a different shipwrecked boat, according to the Red Cross.

    The Italian Coast Guard confirmed with CNN that it transported the survivors to Lampedusa after they were rescued by a private vessel. It is unclear how many people in total were on board.

    As of Tuesday, 93,754 people have arrived in Italy by boat this year, a sharp increase from 2022, according to the Italian government.

    Lampedusa, not far from Sicily and the closest Italian island to Africa, is a major destination for migrants seeking to enter European Union countries.

    It has facilities to host fewer than 500 people but is currently over capacity at 1,577, with 1,100 due to be transferred to Sicily on Wednesday, according to the Red Cross.

    This incident marks the latest in a string of tragedies occurring off Lampedusa.

    On Sunday, three bodies were recovered, including a 3-year-old child and a pregnant woman, and at least 30 people were missing after two migrant boats sank off the Italian island, the Italian Coast Guard said in a statement.

    Earlier this year Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni blamed the rising number of migrants on the “political situation” in Tunisia.

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  • Why China has few good options to boost its faltering economy | CNN Business

    Why China has few good options to boost its faltering economy | CNN Business

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    Hong Kong
    CNN
     — 

    Every few days for the past several weeks, a parade of Chinese leaders and policymakers have publicly vowed to do more to boost the sputtering economy, usually by promising to support the beleaguered private sector.

    Sometimes investors appear to have gained confidence from these pledges, sending shares higher.

    More often though, they’ve ignored the flurry of official messaging, hoping for more tangible stimulus measures that economists and analysts tell CNN are now unlikely to come because China has become too indebted to just pump up the economy like it did 15 years ago, during the global financial crisis.

    “We have had plenty of vague promises already, which don’t amount to a great deal so far,” said Robert Carnell, regional head of research for Asia-Pacific at ING Group.

    Except for some incremental steps to help the property market, currently mired in its worst slump in history, and tweaks to interest rates, there have been few signs of the government providing real money to struggling consumers or businesses.

    “Chinese policymakers appear unlikely to enact any major monetary or fiscal stimulus, likely fearing doing so could exacerbate China’s growing debt risks,” said Craig Singleton, senior China fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington-based non-partisan think tank.

    “At most, we can expect meager, mostly-supply side measures ostensibly aimed at, among other things, attracting more private capital and boosting electric vehicle ownership,” he added.

    After a strong start to the year after Covid restrictions were lifted, the world’s second largest economy has lost momentum.

    Since April, a slew of disappointing economic data and population statistics has sparked concern that China may be facing a period of much slower growth and possibly even heading for a future comparable to Japan’s.

    China’s economy barely grew in the April to June months compared with the previous quarter, as an initial burst in economic activity following the end of pandemic restrictions faded. Signs of deflation are becoming more prevalent, sparking concerns that China could enter a prolonged period of stagnation.

    Based on Japan’s experience in the 1990s, there is the risk that China is entering “a liquidity trap,” a scenario in which monetary policy becomes largely ineffective and consumers hold on to their cash rather than spend it, said Alicia Garcia-Herrero, chief economist for Asia Pacific for Natixis, a French investment bank.

    “In other words, there is a risk that Chinese corporates and households, pushed by their very negative sentiment about the economic outlook, prefer to disinvest and de-leverage in the light of falling revenue generation.”

    To get the economy back on track, Beijing needs to match its words with action, according to analysts.

    China “conspicuously” refrained from the giant Covid-era support seen in developed economies, according to analysts at the UBS Global Wealth Management. Fiscal stimulus, for instance, amounted to just a third of the aid offered in the United States, with no nationwide cash handouts.

    While this helped China avoid the rampant inflation shock seen elsewhere, disposable household income fell as wages and property asset values simultaneously stalled, they said in a recent research note.

    Interest rate cuts are not enough, unless they are accompanied by fiscal measures to boost demand.

    “A comprehensive policy mix — covering monetary and fiscal stimulus, including infrastructure, property, and consumption, alongside structural reforms,” would be helpful to rebuild confidence, they said.

    China’s economic trajectory is of great concern for global investors and policymakers who are counting on it to drive global expansion. But, Beijing appears to have run out of ammunition.

    Back in 2008, Chinese leaders rolled out a four trillion yuan ($586 billion) fiscal package to minimize the impact of the global financial crisis. It was seen as a success and helped boost Beijing’s domestic and international political standing as well as China’s economic growth, which soared to more than 9% in the second half of 2009.

    But the measures, which were focused on government-led infrastructure projects, also led to an unprecedented credit expansion and massive increase in local government debt, from which the economy is still struggling to recover. In 2012, Beijing said it wouldn’t be doing it again. The costs were just too high.

    China’s debt woes have only deepened during the Covid-19 pandemic, when three years of draconian restrictions and a real estate downturn drained the coffers of local government.

    Analysts estimate China’s outstanding government debts surpassed 123 trillion yuan ($18 trillion) last year. Nearly $10 trillion of that figure is so-called “hidden debt” owed by risky local government financing platforms.

    In June, Zhu Min, a former senior official at the International Monetary Fund who previously served at China’s central bank, was quoted by Bloomberg as telling the Summer Davos forum in Tianjin that he didn’t believe China would unveil massive stimulus, as the nation was already struggling with high debt levels.

    “No [fiscal stimulus] has been announced, which seems to indicate that Chinese policymakers are still wary about a too rapid increase in public debt,” said Garcia-Herrero.

    And even if Beijing were to take action, it would be less effective than in 2008, Garcia-Herrero said.

    “An infrastructure-led fiscal stimulus would need to be much bigger to have the same economic impact,” she said.

    It also implies that, if action is taken, public debt in China would jump well above the current 100% of GDP, which would place the economy “among the most indebted in the world,” she added.

    What’s worse, under President Xi Jinping, Beijing appears to have doubled down on its strategy to strengthen the party’s control over the economy, analysts said.

    A “correct response” to the economic slump would be for Beijing to return to a pro-market reform path and let the private sector play a bigger role, according to Derek Scissors, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

    But signs are “limited” that the government is considering that direction, he said.

    According to Singleton, “China’s new economic leadership team has few tools to meaningfully revive growth.”

    “Beijing’s steadfast, albeit unsurprising, refusal to acknowledge the role Xi’s economic mismanagement has played” in exacerbating China’s problems will gravely compound its broader systemic risks, he said.

    The property sector will likely be a drag on growth for years to come, Singleton said, adding that the country’s alarming debt levels and timid consumers domestically and abroad won’t help either.

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  • Two Israelis arrested after Palestinian man killed in West Bank | CNN

    Two Israelis arrested after Palestinian man killed in West Bank | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Two Israelis have been arrested for questioning and five others detained following the reported killing of a Palestinian man in the West Bank, Israel Police said in a statement Saturday.

    It is rare for Israeli settlers to be arrested for attacks on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. They are almost never prosecuted, even if arrested.

    A Palestinian man was shot and killed by Israeli settlers in the village of Burqa, near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said late Friday.

    It is the first accusation from the Ministry that settlers have killed a Palestinian villager since February, and the second this year, although both Palestinian officials and international observers regularly document violence by settlers against Palestinians.

    The ministry said Qusai Jamal Maatan, 19, was fatally shot in the neck by Israeli settlers during an attack on his village. Two others were injured, according to the ministry.

    Maatan was buried Saturday morning.

    The IDF said in a statement that they arrived after reports of “violent clashes between Israeli civilians and Palestinians,” and that “it was reported that during the clashes, Israeli civilians shot toward the Palestinians and as a result, there was a Palestinian casualty.”

    The IDF also said Israeli civilians were reportedly injured by rocks hurled at them.

    There was no immediate comment from the Shomron (Samaria) Council, which represents settlers in the northern West Bank and would not normally issue a statement on Shabbat.

    A legal aid group that defends settlers said Saturday that the settler who shot the Palestinian was acting in self-defense after Palestinian villagers began harassing an Israeli shepherd.

    Honenu, the legal group, said the incident began when Palestinians from Burqa threatened the shepherd from Oz Zion – a settler outpost – which is illegal not only under international law but under Israeli law.

    The shepherd called other settlers “to prevent deterioration,” Honenu said, after which dozens of Palestinians attacked them with clubs, fireworks and rocks.

    One of the settlers was hit in the head with a rock “at point blank range and was seriously injured,” according to Honenu, and he managed to defend himself with a licensed gun he was carrying.

    He is currently in intensive care following an operation at Shaare Zedek hospital in Jerusalem, and under arrest, Honenu said.

    The second Israeli settler who was arrested helped transport him to the hospital, Honenu said.

    Honenu attorney Nati Rom said: “My client acted according to the law, and as is required of any licensed firearm holder – to protect his life and the lives of other civilians.”

    A statement released by the Israeli military said both Israelis and Palestinians threw stones in the West Bank confrontation.
    The army has imposed a closed military zone on the area while investigations by Israel Police and the Shin Bet security agency (ISA) are ongoing.

    The US State Department qualified the incident as a “terror attack”.

    In a statement released on Twitter, now known as X, it said: “We strongly condemn yesterday’s terror attack by Israeli extremist settlers that killed a 19-year old Palestinian.”

    “The US extends our deepest sympathies to his family and loved ones. We note Israeli officials have made several arrests and we urge full accountability and justice.”

    The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates strongly condemned attacks by what they referred to as “organized and armed terrorist settler militias” against unarmed Palestinian citizens in Burqa.

    The ministry expressed concern over the lack of real punishment for attacks by settlers on Palestinian villagers, saying the incidents have emboldened settlers to commit further crimes. The ministry accused Israeli government ministers and their followers of incitement.

    The coalition government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu includes two parties primarily supported by settlers, Israelis who live in the West Bank in order to cement the country’s hold on the Palestinian territory. Settlements are considered illegal under international law. Israeli asserts the West Bank is “disputed,” not “occupied,” and denies that the settlements are illegal.

    The United Nations warned last month of a dramatic rise in West Bank settler attacks on Palestinian people and property, with nearly 600 such incidents registered during the first half of the year.

    The UN humanitarian agency OCHA said it had recorded 591 settler-related incidents in the territory in the first six months of 2023, resulting in Palestinian casualties, property damage, or both.

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  • Ukrainian drone strikes are bringing the war home to Russia. What does it mean for the conflict? | CNN

    Ukrainian drone strikes are bringing the war home to Russia. What does it mean for the conflict? | CNN

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    London
    CNN
     — 

    Ukrainian drone strikes taking place inside Russia once seemed an unthinkable prospect. But such attacks have become an increasingly common feature of Moscow’s war – with an emboldened Kyiv warning that more will come.

    A string of drone strikes have peppered Russian cities including Moscow throughout the summer. Friday saw one of the most dramatic yet – sea drones targeted a major Russian port hundreds of miles from Ukrainian-held territory, leaving a warship listing.

    They have distracted from a Ukrainian counteroffensive that is yet to produce tangible results on the battlefield, and brought the war home to Russia.

    But they are not without risk for Kyiv, which is attempting to seize the front foot in the war while maintaining relations with Western nations wary of any hint of escalation.

    Here’s what you need to know.

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned last week that war is “gradually returning” to Russia, after the latest in a series of drone attacks to take place inside the country that Moscow has pinned on Kyiv.

    Last weekend’s incidents saw buildings in Moscow targeted by drones. On Tuesday, a drone struck the same skyscraper in Moscow that was hit on Sunday.

    It followed two similar attempted attacks that were reported by Russian officials earlier in July, and numerous such incidents in June. In May, an apparent drone attack above the Kremlin led to dramatic images of blasts in the skies above the seat of Russian power.

    Ukraine has typically not taken direct responsibility for the attacks, though its responses have become more bullish in recent weeks. “The distance and deniability between Kyiv and these attacks is significantly less,” Douglas Barrie, a senior fellow for Military Aerospace at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), told CNN. “There now seems to be almost a tacit recognition that it was (them).”

    Ukrainian Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, whose Digital Transformation Ministry oversees the country’s “Army of Drones” procurement plan, had said there would be more drone strikes to come as Kyiv ramps up its parallel summer counteroffensive aimed at pushing Russian troops out of Ukrainian territory.

    It is difficult to establish exactly which weapons systems are being used in the attacks, and precisely which buildings are being targeted, with both the Russian and Ukrainian sides refusing to be drawn on the details of the incidents.

    But there are clearly vast differences between these attacks, which are limited in scope, have caused few casualties and have not been aimed towards residential buildings, with those that Moscow has launched indiscriminately at Ukrainian population centers.

    “Whether or not they’re actually arriving on their intended targets, the targets do seem to be buildings that are linked with the prosecution of the war in Ukraine,” Keir Giles, a Russia expert at Chatham House and the author of books on Russia’s invasion and foreign policy, told CNN. “In that respect, it’s a very different approach to what we’ve seen in Russia, with indiscriminate terror attacks.”

    Giles notes there is “an open question of exactly how Ukraine is doing the attacks.” But the strikes have “shown up the incapacity of Russia’s defenses,” he added.

    The one-way unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that have seemingly been launched “carry a pretty small warhead and they’ve been used in small numbers, so in terms of direct military affect, it’s limited to put it mildly,” said Barrie.

    “The kinds of systems that Ukraine is using are simple, comparatively speaking, but for their purpose they’re effective,” Barrie added.

    Crucially, there is no suggestion that the weapons have been donated by the West. “These are systems (Ukraine) can manufacture themselves,” Barrie said, allowing Kyiv to send military messages to the Russian people alongside its defensive war at home, which NATO nations have been supporting with military aid.

    “It’s fundamentally about showing that Moscow is not out of reach,” Barrie said.

    The attacks appeared to have targeted buildings involved in Russia's war effort.

    Kyiv will happily accept the limited military impact of the drone attacks, because the strikes play a far more important role in the war.

    “Ukraine has identified that Russian popular opinion and attitudes to the war is one of the key areas that they need to target in order to bring the war to an end,” Giles said. “As long as Russia can pretend that the war is something that happens elsewhere, nothing is going to dent that popular support.”

    Ukrainian officials have openly discussed the propaganda element of the strikes. Yurii Ihnat, a spokesman for Ukraine’s Air Force, said the latest drone attacks on Moscow were aimed at impacting Russians who, since the Kremlin invaded Ukraine in February 2022, felt the war was distant.

    “There’s always something flying in Russia, as well as in Moscow. Now the war is affecting those who were not concerned,” he said. “No matter how the Russian authorities would like to turn a blind eye on this by saying they have intercepted everything … something does hit.”

    Early signals suggest that the recent attacks have caused unrest among an already jittery class of military pundits in Russia.

    Noting criticisms from at least one prominent military blogger that Russia had not secured buildings against such attacks, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) wrote in a recent update that “Russian authorities will likely struggle to balance the need to quell domestic concern over continuing drone attacks deep within the Russian rear with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s continued refusal to fully mobilize Russian society for the war and its corresponding consequences.”

    A dramatic drone incident in May appeared to target the Kremlin.

    Assessing public opinion in Russia is notoriously difficult. But anecdotal accounts at least speak to the impact of drone strikes on those in the vicinity of the attacks.

    “My friends and I rented an apartment to come here and unwind, and at some point, we heard an explosion – it was like a wave, everyone jumped,” one witness told Reuters after last weekend’s strike in Moscow. “There was a lot of smoke, and you couldn’t see anything. From above, you could see fire.”

    “It does seem to be achieving the kind of startle value that you might expect, where Russians are realizing that they are not personally protected from what is being done in Ukraine,” Giles said of the early indications of the strikes’ consequences.

    Whether the trend will cause a wider rupturing of Russian support for the war is far from clear.

    On the one hand, Putin’s longstanding pretext for the war has relied on baseless claims that Ukraine was a threat to Russian security, and that the so-called special military operation in the country was needed to defend Russia’s interest. Playing up recent attacks could be used to support that argument as the war drags on.

    But after almost eighteen months of disorganization and discord, the reality that Russia’s military plans are flailing has been increasingly hard to deny. And Putin’s authority has previously appeared most vulnerable at moments when the impact of the war hits home in Russia – such as during last year’s chaotic military mobilization, and during June’s Wagner rebellion.

    In that context, it is easy to see why regular reminders of the conflict inside Russia serve Ukraine’s strategic interests.

    For all of its intended propaganda impact, sending drones into Russia is not a risk-free move for Kyiv.

    The most immediate consideration is a reprisal; the Kremlin has tended to link attacks on Ukrainian cities to previous strikes on Russia, in a “tit-for-tat” approach intended to cause panic in Ukraine.

    But Ukrainians are by now well acquainted to the threat of Russian air bombardments, and there has been no evidence that such assaults have dented determination in the defensive effort there.

    A more prominent concern is how the West reacts to such strikes. A year ago, the prospect of Ukraine sending drones into Russia was unthinkable, given the tacit contract between NATO nations and Kyiv that the West would readily support a defensive war, but would be more wary of any actions that draw NATO into direct conflict with Russia.

    There is nothing to suggest Ukraine has used NATO-provided weaponry in Russia – doing so is likely a bridge they would not consider crossing at this time – but it has clearly become more emboldened to take the war to Russia. And in return, Western leaders appear generally relaxed about the approach.

    “The long-standing prohibition on striking into Russia that has been put in place by the suppliers … was misplaced and misconceived,” Giles said. “For all of this period, it has played Russia’s game by Russia’s rules.”

    There does remain a degree of variance in how Western leaders view attacks on Russian territory, with the United States being particularly concerned. “As a general matter we do not support attacks inside of Russia,” White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters late last month, according to Reuters.

    But Kyiv’s confidence and an increasing willingness to chip away at Russian support for the war will likely mean that such strikes remain a feature of the conflict.

    “It’s impossible to tell how this will develop but we should certainly expect at least this level of a steady drumbeat of demonstrations of Russian vulnerability to continue,” Giles said.

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  • Deadly communal violence flares in India a month before world leader summit | CNN

    Deadly communal violence flares in India a month before world leader summit | CNN

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    Gurugram and New Delhi
    CNN
     — 

    Separate outbreaks of violence this week, including the alleged shooting of three Muslim men by a police officer on a train, have exposed the deep communal fissures in India weeks before it welcomes Group of 20 (G20) leaders to the capital.

    Violence erupted in the northern state of Harayana state on Monday after a right-wing Hindu organization led a religious procession in the city of Nuh.

    Clashes spread to several districts of the finance and tech hub, Gurugram, also known as Gurgaon, home to more than 1.5 million people and hundreds of global firms, where violent mobs predominantly targeted Muslim-owned properties, setting buildings ablaze and smashing shops and restaurants.

    At least six people died, including a cleric who was inside a mosque that was set alight, and more than 110 people have been arrested, authorities said.

    Gurugram’s district counselor urged residents to remain home and ordered the closure of some private education institutes and government offices.

    As the violence unfolded, about 1,300 kilometers (807 miles) south in Maharashtra on a train traveling to Mumbai, another deadly attack demonstrated the depth of the country’s sectarian divide.

    Haryana Police conduct checks near Nuh Chowk on August 1, 2023 in Gurugram, India.

    A police officer opened fire on a moving train, killing four people, including a senior constable and three Muslim passengers, according to local reports and some family members CNN has spoken with.

    In a video that has emerged of the aftermath and quickly gone viral, the officer can be seen standing over a lifeless body, rifle in arm, as terrified travelers huddle at the end the coach.

    The officer glances at the body, then scans the carriage before saying: “If you want to vote, if you want to live in Hindustan (India), then there’s only (Narendra) Modi and Yogi (Adityanath).”

    Referencing the country’s leader, and the Hindu monk turned chief minister of India’s most populous state, he appeared to be advocating for their popular, but deeply divisive policies.

    One of the victims, Asgar Ali, was a bangle seller on his way to take a new job in Mumbai when the fatal attack took place, his cousin Mohammed told CNN, adding that Ali is survived by a wife and four children.

    “We haven’t heard a lot from the authorities,” he added. “But I believe this happened because we are Muslim.”

    Police have arrested the officer and a motive is yet to be determined, authorities have said. However, opposition politicians and activists have called the attack a “hate crime” that targeted India’s Muslim minority population.

    Police haven’t released the names of the passengers. CNN has contacted the Maharashtra police but is yet to receive a response.

    Asaduddin Owaisi, a member of parliament and leader of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen political party called it a “terror attack that specifically targeted Muslims.”

    Another lawmaker and member of India’s main opposition Congress party, Jairam Ramesh, said it was a “cold-blooded murder” that was the result of a polarized media and political landscape.

    The image of India that Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) want to project is one of a confident, vibrant, and modern superpower – and it will be one they want on display in India when G20 leaders meet in New Delhi next month.

    But analysts say these scenes of violence underscore an uncomfortable reality as the BJP’s Hindu nationalist policies gain momentum in the world’s largest democracy after nearly a decade of Modi’s rule.

    On Wednesday, hundreds of members from the Hindu extremist right-wing Bajrang Dal group took to the streets in several cities, including Delhi, burning effigies and chanting slogans against Muslims in protest against what they called “Islamic jihad and terrorism.”

    Asim Ali, a political researcher based in New Delhi and no relation to Asgar Ali, said that official silence over sectarian assaults and rhetoric is encouraging for the radical groups and such attacks have become “more brazen” since BJP ascended to power nearly a decade ago.

    “When you don’t take action against these elements, the message that gets sent is that it’s okay,” he told CNN. “If the government spoke (against it), it would help.”

    Ethnic violence has been raging in the northeastern state of Manipur for the last two months, a topic that has received little public comment from Modi.

    Ali fears sectarian tensions may only worsen next year as India heads into a bitterly fought election with Modi seeking a third term and an opposition building a coalition to unseat him.

    The latest communal violence come against a broader rise in hate crimes against minority groups.

    A study by economist Deepankar Basu noted a 786% increase in hate crimes against all minorities between 2014 and 2018, following the BJP’s election victory.

    The BJP, however, says it does not discriminate against minorities and “treats all its citizens with equality.”

    But Basu’s study shows – and news reports indicate – the brunt of these hate crimes targeted Muslims. And activists point to a host of recent incidents that they say contribute to India’s sharp communal divide.

    Last month, the BJP chief minister of the state of Assam, Himanta Biswa Sarma, blamed Muslims for the soaring prices of tomatoes. His accusation came weeks after he lashed out at former US President Barack Obama, saying Indian police should “take care of” the many “Hussain Obama” in the country, referring to the country’s Muslims.

    Former US President Obama is not a Muslim.

    Meanwhile Adityanath, the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh who was referenced by the police officer allegedly involved in the train shooting, is among the most divisive of the BJP politicians.

    Since he took office, the state has already passed legislation that, critics say, is rooted in “Hindutva” – the ideological bedrock of Hindu nationalism.

    It has protected cows, an animal considered sacred to Hindus, from slaughter, and made it increasingly difficult to transport cattle. It also introduced a controversial anti-conversion bill, which makes it difficult for interfaith couples to marry or for people to convert to Islam or Christianity. Some cities named after historic Muslim figures have also been renamed to reflect India’s Hindu history.

    Adityanath is also known for his provocative rhetoric against Muslims.

    He once praised former US President Donald Trump’s travel ban barring citizens of several Muslim-majority countries and called for India to take similar measures, according to local channel NDTV.

    India has one of the largest Muslim populations in the world with an estimated 170 million adherents, roughly 15 percent of its 1.4 billion population.

    Adityanath’s cabinet members have previously denied allegations they are promoting Hindu nationalism.

    But prominent Muslim author and journalist, Rana Ayyub, who has written extensively about India’s sectarian shift, says the current political rhetoric “emboldens” radical right wing groups who feel increasingly protected and untouchable in today’s India.

    “It feels like an Orwellian novel playing out in front of you,” she said, adding she fears for the safety of her Muslim friends and family. “I think the silence of the country is a tacit approval for these hate politics.”

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  • A Niger coup leader meets with Wagner-allied junta in Mali | CNN

    A Niger coup leader meets with Wagner-allied junta in Mali | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    General Salifou Mody, one of the Niger officers who seized power in a military coup last week, visited Mali on Wednesday, according to the Mali presidency, amid speculation of a possible interest in the Wagner mercenary group, which has a presence in the country.

    Mali’s transitional president, Assimi Goïta, hosted Mody and a large Nigerien military delegation on Wednesday, according to pictures and a statement posted on Facebook by the Mali presidency.

    Mody called the meeting “part of a complex regional context,” the Mali presidency said, and thanked Malian authorities “for their support and accompaniment since the seizure of power by the CNSP,” referring to the National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland where Mody is vice president.

    Hundreds of Wagner contractors are stationed in Mali at the invitation of the country’s military junta, to quell an Islamist insurgency brewing in an area where the borders of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger meet.

    Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin last week celebrated the coup in the landlocked West African country, saying his private military company could also help with situations like the one unfolding in Niger.

    The dramatic ouster of Niger’s President Bazoum last week alarmed Western leaders, including the US and France, which are both key stakeholders in Niger’s crackdown on local Islamist insurgencies.

    US officials have warned that the Russian mercenary group could now seek new opportunities in Niger. “I would not be surprised to see Wagner attempt to exploit this situation to their own advantage as they’ve attempted to exploit other situations in Africa to their own advantage,” State Department spokesperson Matt Miller said Wednesday.

    Miller added that “any attempt by the military leaders in Niger to bring the Wagner forces into Niger would be a sign, yet another sign that they do not have the best interests of the Nigerien people at heart.”

    A number of CNN investigations, and others by human rights groups, have established Wagner’s involvement in and complicity with atrocities against civilian populations in Sudan, Mali and the Central African Republic, where they have been employed to assist local defense forces against rebellions and insurgencies, and suppress opposition.

    The coup has provoked a split reaction from countries in the Sahel region, where the threat of militant extremism in recent years has destabilized local governments and led to volatility.

    On Monday, Mali and Burkina Faso’s governments said they would consider any military intervention “an act of war” against them and put their armies on standby.

    Mali presidency’s statement said General Mody told his host he had come to explore “ways and means to strengthen our security cooperation, at a time when some countries are planning to intervene militarily in our country.”

    The statement comes after the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on Sunday threatened to use force if Niger’s ousted president, Mohamed Bazoum, was not reinstated within one week.

    ECOWAS also imposed a travel ban and asset freeze for the military officials involved in the coup attempt, as well as for their family members and civilians who accept to participate in any institutions or government established by the officials.

    Burkina Faso and Mali expressed their solidarity with Nigerien authorities and said they would not participate in any measures against Niger by ECOWAS, calling the sanctions “illegal, illegitimate and inhuman.” Guinea also expressed its solidarity with Niger on Monday.

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  • International Space Station Fast Facts | CNN

    International Space Station Fast Facts | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Here’s a look at the International Space Station (ISS), a spacecraft built by a partnership of 16 nations: United States, Canada, Japan, Russia, Brazil, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

    Information on ISS crews and expeditions can be found here.

    The ISS includes three main modules connected by nodes: the US Laboratory Module Destiny, the European Research Laboratory Columbus, and the Japanese Experiment Module Kibo (Hope). Each was launched separately and connected in space by astronauts.

    Mass: 925,335 pounds (419,725 kilograms)

    Habitable Volume: 13,696 cubic feet (388 cubic meters)

    Solar Array Length: 239 feet (75 meters)

    The ISS orbits Earth 16 times a day.

    As of June 22, 2023, 266 spacewalks have been conducted for station assembly and maintenance.

    November 1998 – A Russian Proton rocket places the first piece, the Zarya module, in orbit.

    December 1998 – The space shuttle Endeavour crew, on the STS-88 mission, attaches the Unity module to Zarya initiating the first ISS assembly sequence.

    June 1999 – The space shuttle Discovery crew, on mission STS-96, supplies two modules with tools and cranes.

    July 2000 – Zvezda, the fifth flight, docks with the ISS to become the third major component of the station.

    November 2000 – The first permanent crew, Expedition One, arrives at the station.

    November/December 2000 – The space shuttle Endeavour crew, on mission STS-97, installs the first set of US solar arrays on the station and visits Expedition One.

    February 2001 – Mission STS-98 delivers the US Destiny Laboratory Module.

    March 2001 – STS-102 delivers Expedition Two to the station and brings Expedition One home. The crew also brings Leonardo, the first Multi-Purpose Logistics Module, to the station.

    September 16, 2001 – The Russian Docking Compartment, Pirs, arrives at the ISS.

    June 2002 – STS-111 delivers the Expedition Five crew and brings the Expedition Four crew home. The crew also brings the Mobile Base System to the orbital outpost.

    December 2002 – STS-113 delivers the Expedition Six crew and the P1 Truss.

    May 3, 2003 – Expedition Six crew return to Earth on Soyuz TMA-1. Crew members Kenneth Bowersox and Don Pettit are the first American astronauts ever to land in a Soyuz spacecraft.

    July 29, 2003 – Marks the 1,000th consecutive day of people living and working aboard the ISS (this is a record for the station, but not for space).

    August 10, 2003 – Russian Cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko marries his fiancée Ekaterina Dmitriev from space. The bride and groom exchange vows over a hotline set up for the event. Dmitriev stands next to a life-sized picture of Malenchenko.

    April 22, 2004 – The second of four gyroscopes that stabilize the orbiting outpost of the ISS fails. NASA officials say this does not pose an immediate threat to the crew. An extra spacewalk will have to be conducted to the fix the electrical component box thought to be at fault.

    November 2, 2005 – Fifth anniversary of continuous human presence in space on the ISS.

    February 3, 2006 – SuitSat-1, an unmanned space suit containing a radio transmitter is deployed as a part of an ISS spacewalk. The suit is supposed to transmit recorded messages in six languages to school children and amateur radio operators for several days before reentering Earth’s atmosphere and burning up, but it goes silent shortly after its deployment.

    March 31, 2006 – Arriving with the crew of Expedition Thirteen is Marcos Pontes, the first Brazilian astronaut. Staying eight days, Pontes conducts scientific experiments before returning to Earth with the crew of Expedition Twelve.

    July 7, 2006 – The arrival of Thomas Reiter of Germany via the Space Shuttle Discovery returns the station’s long-duration crew to three for the first time since May 2003 and the Columbia shuttle disaster. Reiter is the first non-US and non-Russian long-duration station crewmember, and he remains onboard during the first part of Expedition Fourteen.

    September 9, 2006 – Space Shuttle Atlantis docks with the ISS, delivering the P3/P4 truss and its solar wings before undocking September 21 and returning to Earth.

    September 20, 2006 – Arriving with the crew of Expedition Fourteen is Anousheh Ansari, an American businesswoman. She spends about eight days conducting experiments and blogging about her experiences before returning to Earth with two of the three members of Expedition Thirteen.

    December 2006 – Arrival of Flight Engineer Sunita Williams via space shuttle mission STS-116. Williams replaces Reiter, who returns to Earth with the crew of STS-116.

    April 7, 2007 – Charles Simonyi becomes the fifth space tourist when he accompanies the Expedition Fifteen crew to the ISS. He spends 12 days aboard the space station before returning to Earth with the crew of Expedition Fourteen.

    June 10, 2007 – Space Shuttle Atlantis docks with the the ISS to install a new segment and solar panel on the space station and retrieve astronaut Williams, who has been at the space station since December. Williams is replaced by Flight Engineer Clayton Anderson, who will return to earth aboard Discovery on Mission STS-120.

    June 15, 2007 – Four days after ISS’s computers crash, two Russian cosmonauts bring them back online. The computers control the station’s orientation as well as oxygen production. The crew used Atlantis’ thrusters to help maintain the station’s position while its computers were down.

    October 25, 2007 – Space Shuttle Discovery docks with the ISS. In the days while docked with the ISS, the Discovery crew delivers and connects Harmony to the ISS, a living and working compartment that will also serve as the docking port for Japanese and European Union laboratories. Discovery and ISS crew also move an ISS solar array to prepare for future ISS expansion, planning a special spacewalk to repair damage to the solar array that occurred during its unfurling.

    November 14, 2007 – ISS crew move the Harmony node from its temporary location on the Unity node to its permanent location attached to Destiny.

    February 9, 2008 – Space Shuttle Atlantis arrives. Its crew delivers the European-made Columbus laboratory, a 23-foot long module that will be home to a variety of science experiments. Atlantis remains docked with the ISS for just under nine days.

    March 9, 2008 – “Jules Verne,” the first of a series of European space vessels designed to deliver supplies to the ISS, launches from the Ariane Launch Complex in Kourou, French Guiana. The vessels, called Automated Transfer Vehicles (ATV), are propelled into space atop an Ariane 5 rocket, and are designed to dock with the ISS with no human assistance. The Jules Verne will wait to dock with the ISS until after Space Shuttle Endeavour’s March mission is completed.

    March 12, 2008 – Space Shuttle Endeavour docks with the ISS.

    March 24, 2008 – Endeavour detaches from the ISS. While docked, crew members make five spacewalks to deliver and assemble the Dextre Robotics System, deliver and attach the Kibo logistics module, attach science experiments to the exterior of the ISS, and perform other inspection and maintenance tasks.

    April 3, 2008 – The unmanned European cargo ship Jules Verne successfully docks with the ISS. Able to carry more than three times the volume of the Russian-built Progress resupply vehicles, the Jules Verne contains fuel, water, oxygen and other supplies.

    April 10, 2008 – Two members of Expedition 17 crew arrive at the ISS via a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. Travelling with them is Yi So-yeon, a space flight participant and South Korea’s first astronaut. Yi later returns to Earth aboard an older Soyuz spacecraft along with members of the Expedition 16 crew.

    June 2, 2008 – Space Shuttle Discovery docks with the ISS. Discovery is carrying Japan’s Kibo lab, a replacement pump for the station’s toilet, and astronaut Gregory Chamitoff, who is replacing Garrett Reisman as part of the station’s crew.

    June 11, 2008 – Discovery undocks with the ISS after its crew successfully delivers and installs the Japanese-built Kibo lab, delivers parts to repair the ISS’s malfunctioning toilet, collects debris samples from the station’s faulty solar power wing, and retrieves an inspection boom left behind during a previous shuttle mission. Station crewmember Reisman departs with Discovery.

    October 12, 2008 – The Soyuz TMA-13 capsule carrying two Americans – flight commander Michael Fincke and computer game millionaire Richard Garriott, and Russian flight engineer Yuri Lonchakov – lifts off from Kazakhstan. It docks with the ISS on October 14.

    March 12, 2009 – Orbital debris from a prior space shuttle mission forces the crew of Expedition 18 to temporarily retreat to its Soyuz capsule.

    August 24, 2011 – Russian emergency officials report that an unmanned Russian cargo craft, the Progress-M12M that was to deliver 3.85 tons of food and supplies to the ISS, crashed in a remote area of Siberia.

    May 19, 2012 – SpaceX’s launch of the Falcon 9 rocket, the first private spacecraft bound for the ISS, is aborted a half a second before liftoff. SpaceX engineers trace the problem to a faulty rocket engine valve.

    May 22, 2012 – The unmanned SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The rocket carries the Dragon spacecraft, which is filled with food, supplies and science experiments and bound for the ISS.

    May 25, 2012 – The unmanned SpaceX Dragon spacecraft connects to the International Space Station, the first private spacecraft to successfully reach an orbiting space station.

    October 7, 2012 – SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, with its Dragon capsule carrying 1,000 pounds of supplies bound for the ISS, launches from Florida’s Cape Canaveral. It is the first of a dozen NASA-contracted flights to resupply the International Space Station, at a total cost of $1.6 billion.

    May 9, 2013 – The crew discovers that the ISS is leaking ammonia. The crew performs a spacewalk and corrects the leak two days later.

    November 9, 2013 – Russian cosmonauts perform the first ever spacewalk of the Olympic Torch ahead of the 2014 Sochi Winter Games.

    December 11, 2013 – A pump on one of the station’s two external cooling loops shuts down after hitting a temperature limit, according to NASA. The malfunctioning loop had been producing too much ammonia, possibly the result of a malfunctioning valve.

    December 24, 2013 – Astronauts complete a repair job to replace the problematic pump. Their spacewalk lasts seven and a half hours, and is the second ever spacewalk on Christmas Eve. The first was in 1999 for a Hubble Repair Mission.

    March 10, 2014 – After five and a half months aboard the ISS, Expedition 38 astronauts return to earth aboard the Soyuz TMA-10M spacecraft.

    September 16, 2014 – NASA announces that Boeing and Space X have been awarded contracts to build vehicles that will shuttle astronauts to and from the space station.

    December 15, 2015 – Astronaut Tim Peake is the first British European Space Agency astronaut to arrive at the ISS.

    March 2, 2016 – NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko land in the Kazakhstan desert after a nearly yearlong mission on the ISS.

    August 3, 2018 – NASA selects nine astronauts, seven men and two women, for missions in spacecraft developed by Boeing and SpaceX. The flights, scheduled for 2019, will be the first launches to space from US soil since the Space Shuttle program was retired in 2011, and the first in capsules developed and built by the private sector.

    June 2019 – NASA announces the ISS is opening for commercial use. The newest NASA directive is intended to allow “commercial manufacturing and production and allow both NASA and private astronauts to conduct new commercial activities aboard the orbiting laboratory.”

    October 18, 2019 – NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Christina Koch conduct the first all-female spacewalk outside of the ISS. The spacewalk last seven hours and 17 minutes.

    May 30, 2020 – SpaceX and NASA’s Falcon 9, bound for the ISS, launches. This is the first crewed spaceflight to launch from US soil since 2011. The astronauts spend two months working on the ISS, then return to Earth on August 2.

    November 16, 2020 – The SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft with four astronauts on board safely docks with the ISS. The spacecraft launched from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center on November 15 and marks the first fully operational crewed mission for SpaceX.

    April 21, 2021 – Russia announces that it is ready to start building its own space station with the aim of launching it into orbit by 2030, according to Interfax news agency. The project will mark a new chapter for Russian space exploration. Russia, which signed a memorandum of understanding in March to explore establishing a joint lunar base with China, will notify its ISS partners regarding its departure from ISS at a future date.

    June 16, 2021 – NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough and European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Pesquet conduct a spacewalk to install solar arrays on the space station. After technical delays, the work is completed four days later. The arrays are rolled up like carpet and are 750 pounds (340 kilograms) and 10 feet (three meters) wide. They will provide a power boost to the space station.

    January 31, 2022 – NASA reveals it intends to keep operating the ISS until the end of 2030, after which the ISS will be crashed into a remote part of the Pacific Ocean known as Point Nemo.

    April 9, 2022 – The first crew entirely comprised of private citizens reaches the ISS.

    July 26, 2022 – Russia announces it is planning to pull out of the ISS after 2024, ending its decades-long partnership with NASA at the orbiting outpost.

    October 6, 2022 – A SpaceX capsule carrying a multinational crew of astronauts docks with the ISS after a 29-hour trek. The mission launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 12 p.m. ET on October 5. The four crew members included astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada of NASA, astronaut Koichi Wakata of Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, and cosmonaut Anna Kikina of Roscosmos, the first Russian to travel on a SpaceX spaceflight.

    October 24, 2022 – According to NASA, the ISS fires its thrusters to maneuver out of the way of a piece of oncoming Russian space junk.

    December 22, 2022 – Two NASA astronauts carry out a spacewalk to install a new solar panel on the ISS. The spacewalk lasts about seven hours.

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  • US Ambassador Kathleen FitzGibbon arrives in Niger | CNN Politics

    US Ambassador Kathleen FitzGibbon arrives in Niger | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    US Ambassador Kathleen FitzGibbon arrived in Niger on Saturday, the State Department announced, taking up her post as the United States and partners continue to grapple with the military takeover in that country.

    “Ambassador Kathleen FitzGibbon has traveled to Niamey to lead our diplomatic mission in Niger and bolster efforts to help resolve the political crisis at this critical time. As a career senior diplomat with significant experience specializing in West Africa, she is uniquely positioned to lead U.S. government efforts in support of the American community and the preservation of Niger’s hard-earned democracy,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement.

    FitzGibbon arrived in the capital city of Niamey more than three weeks after members of the presidential guard detained democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum and his family and declared themselves the new leaders of the country. US officials continue to insist that there is a window to convince the junta leaders to step down and restore democratic rule to the West African nation, which serves as a critical partner to the US in the region.

    However, diplomatic efforts – including a trip to Niger by Acting Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland – thus far have not yielded any progress, and the prospect of a military intervention by the Economic Community of West African States still looms.

    State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel said Wednesday that FitzGibbon, who was confirmed by the Senate in late July after a lengthy wait, “is going there to lead the mission during a critical time and to support the American community and to coordinate on the US Government’s efforts.”

    “Her arrival does not reflect a change in our position, and we continue to advocate for a diplomatic solution that respects the constitutional order in Niger, and for the immediate release of President Bazoum and his family,” Patel said. “We remain committed to working with African partners to promote security, stability, and democratic governance in the Sahel, and Ambassador FitzGibbon will be an integral piece of that when she gets to post in Niamey.”

    It is unclear, however, what sort of diplomatic engagements FitzGibbon will be able to hold amid the state of uncertainty in Niger.

    A source told CNN that one of the first things FitzGibbon intends to do is call Bazoum. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has spoken with the detained president numerous times, but Nuland was not permitted to visit him during her trip to Niamey.

    Nuland was also not granted a meeting with the self-proclaimed new leader of Niger, General Abdourahmane Tiani, and instead met with the self-proclaimed chief of defense, Gen. Moussa Salaou Barmou, and three colonels supporting him.

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  • Apple to issue iPhone 12 update in France after sales halted over radiation levels | CNN Business

    Apple to issue iPhone 12 update in France after sales halted over radiation levels | CNN Business

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    Paris
    CNN
     — 

    Apple plans to update iPhone12 software for users in France after the country’s regulators ordered a pause on sales of the 2020 model over radiation concerns.

    “We will issue a software update for users in France to accommodate the protocol used by French regulators. We look forward to iPhone 12 continuing to be available in France,” an Apple (AAPL) spokesperson told CNN Friday.

    France’s National Frequency Agency, the ANFR, ordered Tuesday an immediate withdrawal of the iPhone 12 from the French market, saying it exceeded European radiation exposure limits. The ANFR also ruled that for iPhone 12s already in use, Apple must adopt “all necessary corrective measures to bring the telephones into conformity as soon as possible” or it would have to recall the devices.

    Apple told CNN Friday that the suspension of sales was related “to a specific testing protocol used by French regulators and not a safety concern.”

    “Since it was introduced in 2020, iPhone 12 has been certified and recognized as meeting or exceeding all applicable SAR regulations and standards around the world,” Apple said.

    SAR is a measure of the rate of energy absorption by the body from the source being measured, according to the French regulator. But experts and regulators generally say not to worry.

    “After discussions and as requested by the ANFR, Apple has assured me that it will be rolling out an update for the iPhone 12 in the next few days,” France’s minister for the digital economy Jean-Noel Barrot posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, Friday.

    The French regulator is preparing to rapidly test this update, “which will eventually bring the model in line with the European standards applied in France” and subsequently allow Apple to resume sales, he added.

    The sales suspension came on the same day Apple unveiled the iPhone 15 and the iPhone 15 Pro, its newest iterations of the iconic product, at its annual keynote event in California.

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  • US says it has no evidence that Huawei can make advanced smartphones ‘at scale’ | CNN Business

    US says it has no evidence that Huawei can make advanced smartphones ‘at scale’ | CNN Business

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    Editor’s Note: Sign up for CNN’s Meanwhile in China newsletter which explores what you need to know about the country’s rise and how it impacts the world.


    Hong Kong
    CNN
     — 

    Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo says the US government has no evidence that Huawei can produce smartphones with advanced chips “at scale,” as it continues to investigate how the sanctioned Chinese manufacturer made an apparent breakthrough with its latest flagship device.

    On Tuesday, Raimondo told US lawmakers that she was “upset” by news of the launch of Huawei’s Mate 60 Pro during her visit to China last month.

    “The only good news, if there is any, is we don’t have any evidence that they can manufacture 7-nanometer [chips] at scale,” she told a US House of Representatives hearing.

    “Although I can’t talk about any investigations specifically, I promise you this: every time we find credible evidence that any company has gone around our export controls, we do investigate.”

    Analysts who have examined the smartphone said it represented a “milestone” achievement for China, suggesting Huawei may have found a way to overcome American export controls.

    US officials have long argued that the company poses a risk to US national security, using it as grounds to restrict trade with the company. Huawei has vehemently denied the claims.

    TechInsights, a research organization that specializes in semiconductors and took the phone apart for analysis, says it includes a 5G Kirin 9000s processor developed by China’s leading chipmaker, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC).

    That surprised many because SMIC, a partially state-owned Chinese company, has also been subject to US export restrictions for years. It has not responded to previous requests for comment from CNN.

    TechInsights also found two chips belonging to SK Hynix, a South Korean chipmaker, inside the handset.

    A SK Hynix spokesperson told CNN earlier this month that it was aware of the issue and investigating how that was possible, since the South Korean firm “no longer does business with Huawei” because of US export controls.

    Huawei declined to comment on the capabilities and components of its phone.

    Raimondo said Tuesday that US officials were “trying to use every single tool at our disposal … to deny the Chinese an ability to get intellectual property to advance their technology in ways that can hurt us.”

    In 2019, Huawei was added to the US “entity list,” which restricts exports to select organizations without a US government license. The following year, the US government expanded on those curbs by seeking to cut Huawei off from chip suppliers that use US technology.

    That left the company, once the world’s second largest smartphone seller, in bad shape.

    As of the second quarter of 2023, Huawei was no longer in the top five of mobile phone vendors in China, let alone globally, according to Counterpoint Research.

    But its new phone is a big help for the company — and may pose a challenge to Apple’s (AAPL) market share in China, according to Ivan Lam, a senior analyst at Counterpoint.

    Huawei is scheduled to hold a product launch event next Monday, where new phones are expected to be the main focus, according to Toby Zhu, a Canalys mobility analyst.

    Other devices, like tablets or earphones, may also be shown off. Huawei has not publicly released details of the event.

    In the coming months, the firm plans to release another 5G phone, possibly under Nova, its mid-range lineup, Chinese news outlet IT Times reported Tuesday, citing unidentified industry sources. Huawei declined to comment.

    Zhu said the phone was widely expected to come with 5G capability, powered either by the “Kirin 9000s chip or another chip.”

    If it does, the new model could become even more popular than the Mate 60 Pro, which starts at 6,999 yuan (about $959), because of its relative affordability, he added.

    While Raimondo was unhappy with the timing of Huawei’s launch, analysts say it was unlikely to have been arranged to coincide with her presence in China.

    It was likely “a marketing campaign aimed at winning over customer interest before the iPhone 15 hits the market,” analysts at Eurasia Group wrote in a report.

    The move helped the Shenzhen-based company capture the second spot in China’s smartphone market in the first week of September, ahead of Apple’s big event, said Lam of Counterpoint.

    — Rashard Rose and Mengchen Zhang contributed to this report.

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