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  • Want to live in London or New York? Good luck if you’re renting | CNN Business

    Want to live in London or New York? Good luck if you’re renting | CNN Business

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    London
    CNN
     — 

    In May, Viveca Chow hurriedly transferred $3,700 over her phone while standing in the lobby of a building in Queens, New York. She made the upfront payment to secure an apartment minutes after seeing it.

    It was a moment the 28-year-old lifestyle influencer — forced to leave her previous accommodation after the landlord increased her monthly rent by $1,000 — described to CNN as “dystopian.”

    Yet it is something that Chow, along with millions of renters in big cities, has come to expect as part of the fight for affordable housing. Her realtor urged her to pay the holding deposit on the spot to secure the one-bedroom unit.

    In many urban centers, an influx of workers and students after the pandemic has collided with a lack of accommodation for rent, high levels of inflation, and rising interest rates that are trapping some people in the rental market when they would otherwise be buying a home.

    Average rents in New York and Sydney grew by an inflation-busting 4.7% and 6.9% respectively in the year to August, according to real estate firm Knight Frank. While growth in rental costs in both cities has slowed compared with its pandemic peaks, average rents are still at all-time highs.

    In other places, rents are rising even faster. In London, the average annual rise in the cost of a rental property exceeded 17% in April and again last month, the biggest jumps since real estate agency Hamptons started collecting the data in 2014.

    That runaway growth far exceeds both inflation and pay raises in the United Kingdom.

    Many are struggling to meet the costs.

    According to property website Realtor.com, affordability in the New York metropolitan area deteriorated the most out of the 50 largest US metro areas in the year to July. The share of median household income in the New York area eaten up by the median rent rose from 35% to 37% in that time.

    Based on one approach, housing costs are judged affordable if they account for no more than 30% of the typical household income, Realtor.com said. This is also the benchmark used by the UK Office for National Statistics when assessing private rents.

    In London, the destination for many UK college students looking for work after graduating, renting has become “entirely unaffordable” for that cohort, said SpareRoom, the UK’s biggest room search site, in a recent analysis.

    The platform used the ONS’s measure of affordability in its study and the average graduate starting salary of £29,000 ($36,000) a year. According to SpareRoom’s latest Quarterly Rental Index, average monthly room rent reached £971 ($1,190) in the second quarter, up by almost a fifth compared with the same period in 2022.

    Barnaby Scudds is feeling the pain. The public relations executive moved to London in March after graduating last year and now pays £975 ($1,195) a month to rent a room, which gobbles up more than half of his monthly paycheck.

    “I’m paid well for the work that I do, and yet it’s still difficult,” he told CNN.

    Even at those prices, rooms get snapped up fast.

    “It is very difficult because properties come on at about six o’clock in the morning generally, and they are normally gone by six o’clock in the evening,” he said.

    A property for rent in London, seen in August.

    Matt Hutchinson, communications director at SpareRoom, told CNN that the UK’s chronic lack of supply of rental properties was to blame.

    Beyond problems afflicting most global cities, such as a proliferation of short-term rentals offered through platforms like Airbnb, the shortage of places for long-term rent in London is exacerbated by local factors.

    Since 2016, the UK government has increased taxes on purchases of second homes and cut the amount of tax landlords can claim back. Put simply, being a landlord in the UK isn’t as lucrative as it used to be.

    “[It] is a much more tight-margin experience than it was six, seven years ago. And a lot of people are just selling up and leaving the market,” Hutchinson said, adding that rising interest rates, as well as higher costs for labor and materials, had discouraged many from investing in rental properties.

    In a recent note about rental markets in 10 cities worldwide, Liam Bailey, global head of research at Knight Frank, concluded: “Affordability of housing is set to become the leading political issue within the next 12 months.”

    London’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, last month reiterated his call for rent control, urging the UK government to impose a two-year rent freeze for the capital’s 2.7 million private tenants. It is a version of a policy proposed by politicians and campaigners over the years as a way out of the affordability crisis.

    But rental caps, while instinctively appealing, are generally “a bad idea,” Nikodem Szumilo, director of the Bartlett Real Estate Institute at University College London, told CNN.

    “It benefits people who live in the rent control unit and maybe the politicians who impose the policy, but nobody else,” Szumilo said, noting that rental caps discouraged home builders from investing in new units, which in turn limited supply growth in places where demand might be rising.

    A better way, Szumilo argues, is to simply make it easier to build more homes. Tokyo, the world’s most populous city, housing more than 37 million people, has a “very deregulated market” where rents are “relatively stable,” he said.

    Lifestyle influencer Viveca Chow feels lucky to have found a rent-stabilized apartment in New York City.

    Policies that help people become homeowners — for example, offering subsidies on down payments or on mortgages for first-time buyers, as the UK government has done — are also effective, Szumilo said, because they help ease demand in the rental market.

    Still, Chow in New York is grateful for rent control.

    She and her partner live in one of the city’s coveted rent-stabilized units, which means the $3,700 they pay each month can’t increase by more than 3.75% if they renew the lease for another year. That’s below the 4.7% annual increase in rental costs in the city recorded by Knight Frank at the start of August.

    That “doesn’t necessarily mean it’s cheap,” Chow said, but the cap provides a welcome safety net after the instabilities — and indignities — of her last place.

    “We didn’t even have a kitchen, a proper kitchen. It was like a kitchen nailed to the wall. So I was like, you’re not raising $1,000 on me!”

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  • Memorial from broken headstones to mark desecrated Jewish cemetery in Belarus | CNN

    Memorial from broken headstones to mark desecrated Jewish cemetery in Belarus | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    When a large Jewish cemetery was paved over last century to create a sports ground in Belarus, the headstones were used to make roads and buildings.

    Decades later, the desecrated stone slabs began to emerge during renovation works. Now, thanks to the hard work of a charity based in Belarus and the United Kingdom, the headstones will be given the respect they deserve as part of a new memorial on the site.

    The haunting structure will be erected at the site of the former cemetery in Brest, crafted from broken bits of headstones that have resurfaced over the past two decades in the city and the surrounding area.

    Brest, also known as Brest-Litovsk, had been a hub of Jewish life before World War II, with Jewish residents first recorded there in the 14th century. It was home to more than 20,000 Jews before the war. After the Holocaust, only about 10 remained, according to Yad Vashem, Israel’s national Holocaust memorial center.

    Tens of thousands of people are believed to have been buried in the cemetery, among them famous rabbis and talmudic sages, but today there is little evidence their graves ever existed.

    The first stage of the desecration began during the war, when the Nazis tried to destroy the cemetery by selling off the headstones. That destruction continued under the Soviets in the post-war era, when they proceeded to use the religious markers for paving slabs and building works – before later covering the whole site in asphalt to create a running track and football stadium, according to representatives of the Jewish community in Belarus today. The sports facilities, although run down, still exist on the site and are open to the public.

    All traces of the once-sprawling cemetery had been lost until the late 1990s, when parts of the broken stones began to resurface during construction work in and around the city.

    “Currently there’s nothing there to say it’s a cemetery,” said Debra Brunner, chief executive and co-founder of The Together Plan, a charity spearheading the memorial project.

    Over the past few years, hundreds of remnants of matzevot – the Hebrew word for headstones – have been collected and stored in a warehouse, where they have been photographed, cataloged and added to a detailed and searchable database. They will now form part of a large memorial at the site.

    Artur Livshyts and The Together Plan team work to photograph and catalog the salvaged headstones in 2021.

    “There are 1,287 pieces with any sign of writing and probably between 2,000 and 2,500 more pieces but with no signs of writing,” said Artur Livshyts, co-director of The Together Plan, whose US partner organization is called The Jewish Tapestry Project.

    Earlier this year, Livshyts, one of around 20,000 Jewish people living in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, was contacted by a young couple who had just bought a dilapidated house in Brest which had stood empty for more than 20 years.

    Brunner said: “It was in very bad condition but they bought it to renovate it. During their building works they discovered that the basement was constructed out of matzevot. It turns out that after the war the family who lived in this house had used the matzevot as building materials.”

    After that family suffered a series of misfortunes, people said this was “a curse from the headstones,” Brunner said.

    “When this new couple discovered the headstones they felt compelled to do the right thing and so they reached out to the Jewish community in Brest to ask what to do.”

    Artur Livshyts (center) helps to load some of the headstones collected from a house in Brest earlier this year.

    The memorial, which Brunner and Livshyts hope will be in situ by the end of 2024, aims to “acknowledge and honor the community that was so brutally extinguished, and educate visitors about Brest’s vibrant Jewish community of today,” according to the charity.

    The memorial will be located on a corner of the site, away from the sports facilities. It will feature a black granite plaque with writing in English, Russian and Hebrew, while the surrounding area will be landscaped with trees, grass and wild flowers. The Brest municipality is supportive of the concept and has pledged to maintain its upkeep once it opens, according to The Together Plan.

    The office of the mayor of Brest has not yet responded to CNN’s request for comment on the project. Belarus, under President Alexander Lukashenko, has come under international pressure over its role in Russia’s war in Ukraine and repression of civil society.

    The charity estimates that it must raise around $325,000 for the memorial – a third of which has been pledged by a donor, Stephen Grynberg, with a close connection to Brest’s Jewish past.

    Grynberg’s late father, Jack, was one of the handful of Brest’s Jewish residents to survive the Holocaust. The Los Angeles-based film maker told CNN that dozens of his relatives were killed by the Nazis.

    The cemetery was covered with tarmac and transformed into a sports stadium and running track, which remains in use today.

    In the 1990s, Grynberg worked as an interviewer for the Shoah Foundation, an initiative set up by Hollywood legend Steven Spielberg to record the testimonies of Holocaust survivors. Inspired by its work, he persuaded his father to try to open up about his wartime experiences and together they traveled back to Brest.

    “That trip was really profound for me,” Grynberg, 60, told CNN. “What I came to learn was that there were 70 to 100 family members in this town and they all perished. Dad’s grandparents on both sides, uncles, aunts, cousins. His whole family other than his nuclear family was murdered.”

    He added: “In 1997 there were no signs of the cemetery. We were taken there and our guide said ‘this is where the cemetery was.’ Like so many things with the Holocaust, you can’t really understand them, you just have these complicated visceral feelings. I was just trying to compute the idea of them bulldozing a cemetery and building on it. That was the empty feeling I had.”

    In 2015, Grynberg returned to Brest, where he heard about the instances of headstones resurfacing during construction work, and met with Brunner and Livshyts.

    Embracing their vision for a memorial at the former cemetery site, Grynberg commissioned Texas-based designer Brad Goldberg – whose family had taken in Grynberg’s father when he first arrived in the United States and knew him well – to come up with a plan for it.

    Stephen Grynberg is pictured with his late father, Jack.

    “I’m not sure but I don’t think I had any relatives in this cemetery because my family came to Brest,” said Grynberg, who explained that his grandparents had moved to Brest, so his ancestors are likely to have been buried elsewhere in Belarus. “These are all people buried there before the war. It really feels more about my connection to what this town is.”

    The intention, he said, is not to replicate a cemetery, but to bring “dignity back to the people who are buried in this place.”

    In a telephone interview with CNN, Goldberg said his design comprises two large arcs enclosing a large space on the site, which will feature some of the broken stones.

    “I call it an embrace,” he said. “This embrace is meant to house those headstones that are still intact.

    “It isn’t a cemetery,” he added. “They are all facing in different directions as if they are having a conversation with each other.

    “One rabbi that we have consulted has described it as being about life rather than about death.”

    Livshyts told CNN: “This will lay the stones to rest, back where they belong. I call it historical justice.”

    He added: “Of course we can’t locate the actual bodies to the stones that are there but at least we can bring back the stones and have them standing where the cemetery used to be.”

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  • India’s parliament passes landmark bill to reserve a third of seats for women | CNN

    India’s parliament passes landmark bill to reserve a third of seats for women | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    India’s parliament passed a landmark bill Thursday that will reserve a third of its seats in the lower house and state assemblies for women, in a major win for rights groups that have for decades campaigned for better gender representation in politics.

    A total of 215 lawmakers from the upper house voted in favor of the bill, which was introduced by prime minister Narendra Modi’s government in a special parliamentary session on Tuesday. It was approved by the lower house on Wednesday.

    “A historic moment in our country’s democratic journey!” Modi wrote on Twitter after its approval. “With the passing of this bill, the representation of women power will be strengthened and a new era of their empowerment will begin.”

    Six attempts to pass the bill, first introduced in 1996, have failed, at times due to strong disapproval from some lawmakers.

    In India, the world’s largest democracy of 1.4 billion people, women make up nearly half of the country’s 950 million registered voters but only 15% of lawmakers in parliament and 10% in state assemblies.

    Despite being voted through, the implementation of the quota could take years as it depends on the redrawing of electoral constituencies, which will happen after the completion of India’s once-in-a-decade census.

    That huge census project was meant to take place in 2021, but was delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic, and has been stalled ever since.

    Nonetheless, the bill’s passage in parliament will be seen as a further boost to Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ahead of national elections next year.

    While India has made progress on women’s issues in recent years, it remains a deeply patriarchal country and has some of poorest participation numbers for women in politics.

    It has, since its independence in 1947, had one female prime minister. India Gandhi served as the country’s leader twice before her assassination in 1984.

    India’s current President, Droupadi Murmu, who was appointed to the position last year became only the second woman to take the seat.

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  • World must learn from Bosnian war in dealing with sexual violence in Ukraine conflict, report says | CNN

    World must learn from Bosnian war in dealing with sexual violence in Ukraine conflict, report says | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    The world must learn from the mistakes made after the war in Bosnia to avoid putting Ukrainian victims of rape and conflict-related sexual violence through decades of trauma, a new expert report has warned.

    Ukrainian prosecutors and independent investigators from the United Nations and other international organizations have said there is mounting evidence that Russian troops are using rape and sexual violence as part of their campaign of terror in Ukraine – similar to the systematic use of rape by the Bosnian Serb army during the Bosnian war in the early 1990s. Russia has denied the allegations.

    The report by the New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy, a US-based think tank, is set to be released and discussed in a debate in the UK Parliament on Thursday.

    It says that if the world wants to avoid the repeat of the trauma faced by the victims in Bosnia, it needs to focus on the victims first in Ukraine. Many in Bosnia have waited for decades before coming forward and the vast majority of sexual crimes committed there have gone unpunished.

    “Rape was one of the main aspects of the war in Bosnia and yet when we look at the Dayton Peace Accords, there were no women around the table, there were no survivors of conflict-related sexual violence,” said Emily Prey, one of the report’s lead authors, referring to the 1995 agreement that ended the Bosnian war.

    “They didn’t have a say in the peace (negotiations), and so instead of a real, sustainable, lasting peace, the Dayton Accords actually only froze the conflict,” she told CNN.

    Prey said that when considering survivors of conflict-related sexual violence, it is crucial to put aside biases and stigma and make sure everyone who is impacted is included.

    “We often think sexual violence is a crime that only happens to women, but it’s a crime that happens to everyone. Women and girls, men, boys, people with diverse gender identities,” Prey said.

    “Men who were victims of conflict-related sexual violence in the Bosnian war are only just coming forward to say that they survived this crime, and so they have gone decades without receiving the support that they need. And we’re seeing this in Ukraine as well.”

    Prey added that children born of wartime rape are often forgotten as well. Between 2,000 and 4,000 children were born just from the documented cases of wartime rapes in Bosnia, although the real number is likely much higher.

    “If we don’t really think about conflict-related sexual violence enough, then we especially don’t think about children born of wartime rape. In Bosnia, they were called the ‘Invisible Children’… and they have been fighting for years to get recognition because they’ve faced barriers and difficulties throughout their lives,” she added.

    The report also says it will be crucial for Ukraine’s allies to be ready to prosecute perpetrators on behalf of Ukraine. This can happen either under the UN’s Genocide Convention or in national courts under the principle of universal jurisdiction, which allows national or international courts to prosecute individuals for crimes against international law committed in other territories.

    Prey said a recent case of a Bosnian Serb soldier charged with murder and rape that was transferred from Bosnia to Montenegro, where the accused was living, was a good example of this mechanism working well.

    The International Criminal Court has already issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin and launched an investigation into alleged Russian war crimes in Ukraine. Several countries including Lithuania, Germany, Sweden, and Spain have all opened their own investigations into alleged Russian atrocities.

    However, Prey said these cases could be costly and lengthy, which means there needs to be an extra focus on providing immediate help to the victims, including psychological and social support, free health care and free legal aid.

    “They might not see any conclusion to a court case for 10 or 20 years,” she said. “And survivors of conflict-related sexual violence, they deserve more than that. They deserve justice for themselves, accountability, but they also need to live, they need to take care of their families, they need to pay their bills and they need the support for this.”

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  • WhatsApp adds rival in-app payment options in India commerce push | CNN Business

    WhatsApp adds rival in-app payment options in India commerce push | CNN Business

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    New Delhi/New York
    Reuters
     — 

    WhatsApp said on Wednesday that it will offer credit card payments and services from rival digital payment providers within its app in India, the latest bet by the Meta-owned service to boost commerce offerings in its biggest market.

    WhatsApp has more than 500 million users in India, though regulators there have capped its in-app WhatsApp Pay service to only 100 million people.

    People shopping on WhatsApp could also pay using popular services like Alphabet Inc’s Google Pay, Paytm and Walmart’s PhonePe but only after being redirected outside WhatsApp.

    Payments via those rival services -— and any others that run on India’s instant money transfer system UPI — will now be possible directly within WhatsApp, Meta said in a blog post. New in-app options for credit and debit cards will also be offered.

    The additions bolster Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s plan for business messaging to become the “next major pillar” of the company’s sales growth, an agenda that has assumed greater urgency as Meta’s core ads business and metaverse project have come under pressure.

    While WhatsApp Pay users will remain capped in India, there is no such limit on the number of users permitted to transact with businesses on WhatsApp using the other methods, a Meta spokesperson said.

    With some 300 million people spending about $180 billion via India’s UPI each month, the new transaction options could serve as a powerful lure to attract businesses to pay Meta for access to WhatsApp users.

    To date, WhatsApp has limited its end-to-end shopping experiences in India to pilot programs like that with online grocery service JioMart, run by India’s richest person, billionaire Mukesh Ambani, and the metro systems in the cities of Chennai and Bengaluru.

    Moving forward, the new payment tools will be available to any company in India that uses WhatsApp’s business platform, which mainly serves large companies, according to the blog post.

    Meta is also expanding its Meta Verified subscription program to businesses globally, giving companies a mechanism to validate authenticity and elevate their content in users’ feeds, a separate blog post said.

    Monthly subscriptions will be available on Instagram and Facebook in a handful of countries to start and will expand to WhatsApp at a later date, costing $21.99 per Facebook page or Instagram account or $34.99 for both, according to the post.

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  • Five Americans back on US soil after release from Iranian detention | CNN Politics

    Five Americans back on US soil after release from Iranian detention | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    Five Americans freed from Iranian detention this week returned to US soil early Tuesday following an initial stop in Doha, Qatar, a US official tells CNN.

    Emad Shargi, Morad Tahbaz and Siamak Namazi, along with two Americans who have not been publicly named have arrived in the Washington, DC, area, after they were released Monday as part of a wider deal that includes the US unfreezing $6 billion in Iranian funds.

    The freed Americans will have the option to participate in a Department of Defense Program known as PISA (Post Isolation Support Activities) to help them acclimate back to normal life now that they are back in the United States.

    The return of the five Americans, all of whom had been designated as wrongfully detained, caps a significant diplomatic breakthrough after years of complicated indirect negotiations between the US and Iran, who do not have formal diplomatic ties.

    The group was flown out of Tehran on a Qatari government jet to Doha on Monday, before taking off for the Washington, DC, area to be reunited with their families, according to a senior administration official. Namazi’s mother, Effie Namazi, and Tahbaz’s wife, Vida Tahbaz, who had been previously unable to leave Iran, were also on the flight from Iran to Doha, the official said Monday.

    After a year of indirect negotiations, the deal began to broadly come together in Doha about seven months ago and the first tangible public steps took place about five weeks ago, when four of the Americans were transferred to house arrest. The fifth American was already under house arrest.

    President Joe Biden on Monday celebrated their release “after enduring years of agony, uncertainty, and suffering.” But while the release stood as the latest high-profile deal negotiated by his administration to secure the release of Americans deemed wrongly detained abroad, Biden drew criticism from some Republicans who likened the agreement to a “ransom payment.”

    A senior Biden administration official said Monday that the deal “has not changed our relationship with Iran in any way,” noting the US would still work to hold Iran accountable for its human rights abuses and to constrain its nuclear program.

    This story has been updated with additional information.

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  • Starbucks bets on China with $220 million roasting and distribution center | CNN Business

    Starbucks bets on China with $220 million roasting and distribution center | 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
     — 

    Starbucks says it has poured more than $200 million into a new campus in China, in a sign of how the Chinese consumer remains crucial to the global coffee chain despite a major economic slowdown.

    The beverage giant opened the massive facility in eastern China on Tuesday that will serve as its main production and distribution center nationwide, supplying fresh coffee to thousands of Chinese stores, it said in a statement. The site is home to a large coffee roasting facility and an area that lets visitors see how drinks are made.

    Starbucks (SBUX) says it has committed a whopping 1.5 billion yuan or about $220 million to the project, the largest investment it has ever made for a coffee manufacturing and distribution center outside the United States.

    That’s nearly 50% more than the $150 million it had previously allocated in 2020, which was already higher than the $130 million announced earlier that year.

    Asked why the amount was raised twice, a company spokesperson told CNN that “additional capital investments were made to further elevate the advanced technologies and equipment used.”

    The opening of the 80,000 square-foot (7,400 square-meter) “innovation park,” located in the city of Kunshan, about an hour from Shanghai, comes after a year-long delay.

    Starbucks had previously said the facility would be “operational in summer 2022,” though the timeline was given in November 2020, as China grappled with disruptive pandemic-related restrictions. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday on reasons for the delay.

    China has long been one of the most important growth drivers for Starbucks, serving as its second-biggest market worldwide and top overseas market.

    But CEO Laxman Narasimhan says the company is “still in our early days in China,” noting that coffee consumption in the historically tea-drinking nation remains relatively low.

    On an earnings call last month, he pointed to how revenue in China had rebounded earlier this year after the company’s sales in the country were dented by Covid-19 restrictions, which were lifted late last year.

    China’s economic growth is set to slow this year as it continues to reel from the effects of a crisis-hit property sector and choppy consumer confidence. But new data on Friday suggested the downturn was stabilizing.

    “As one of the largest consumer markets in the world, China presents tremendous opportunities for Starbucks,” Narasimhan said in the statement.

    He said the new space would improve its supply chain and sustainability goals, particularly as the facility is set to become the company’s most energy-efficient coffee manufacturing plant in the world.

    “I couldn’t be prouder of the China team’s visionary thinking,” Narasimhan added. “As Starbucks’ largest and fastest-growing international market, we will continue to deepen our investment and reinforce our unwavering long-term commitment to the China market.”

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  • Sydney Marathon runners hospitalized as Australia swelters in unusual spring heat wave | CNN

    Sydney Marathon runners hospitalized as Australia swelters in unusual spring heat wave | CNN

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    Reuters
     — 

    A sweltering heat wave in Australia took its toll on runners in the Sydney Marathon on Sunday, with 26 people taken to the hospital and about 40 treated for heat exhaustion by emergency services.

    Large parts of Australia’s southeast, including Sydney, are experiencing a spring heat wave, the national weather bureau said, with temperatures Monday expected to peak at up to 16 degrees Celsius (60 Fahrenheit) above the September average.

    The rising heat wave has been building in the country’s outback interior over the weekend and is likely to last until Wednesday across the states of South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales.

    The Bureau of Meteorology said it expected several early spring records to be broken over the next few days, calling the heat “very uncommon for September.”

    “A reprieve from the heat is not expected until Wednesday onwards, as a stronger cold front crosses the southeastern states,” the weather bureau said in a Facebook post on Sunday.

    Temperatures in Sydney’s west are expected to hit 36 degrees Celsius (96.8 Fahrenheit) on Monday before dropping to about 22 degrees Celsius (71 Fahrenheit) on Thursday, the weather bureau forecasts showed.

    The heat wave has also elevated the risks of fires, with several regions given “high” fire danger ratings, and authorities urging residents to prepare for bushfires. About 50 grass or bushfires are burning across New South Wales but all have been brought under control.

    Australia is bracing for a hotter southern hemisphere spring and summer this year after the possibility of an El Niño strengthened, and the weather forecaster said the weather event could likely develop between September and November.

    El Niño can prompt extreme weather events from wildfires to cyclones and droughts in Australia, with authorities already warning of heightened bushfire risks this summer.

    A thick smoke haze shrouded Sydney for several days last week as firefighters carried out hazard reduction burns to prepare for the looming bushfire season.

    Australia’s hot spring follows a winter with temperatures well above average. Scientists warn that extreme weather events like heat waves are only going to become more common and more intense unless the world stops burning planet-heating fossil fuels.

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  • Three generations of First Nations men share their views on Australia’s referendum | CNN

    Three generations of First Nations men share their views on Australia’s referendum | CNN

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    Brisbane, Australia
    CNN
     — 

    Before Australians last voted in a referendum on First Nations people in 1967, Uncle Bob Anderson set up a table and chair at a tram stop in central Brisbane.

    From his rail-side office, he’d tell anyone who would stop and listen that Australia counted its horses, cows, sheep and goats, but not its Indigenous people. “My question to you is, do you think they should be?” he’d say.

    Some 56 years later, the Ngugi Elder sat on a chair under the hot Brisbane sun on Sunday, his wispy white hair covered in a straw hat, his presence a sign of support for another referendum concerning his people.

    Nearby, thousands of people gathered for “Walk for Yes” rallies in multiple cities around Australia ahead of the October 14 vote.

    On that day, some 17.5 million registered voters will be asked whether Australia should change the constitution to include a permanent body made up of First Nations people to advise the government on matters affecting them.

    Now 94, Anderson says a Yes vote isn’t just important for him but the country.

    “By talking and walking together as a nation and as a society, we will share a common destiny,” he said.

    But less than four weeks out from the vote, polls suggest the split between the supporters and opponents is widening, in favor of no change to the constitution.

    Veteran grassroots Aboriginal activist Wayne Wharton wore the reason for his objections on his T-shirt, as he shouted at Yes supporters on a bridge in central Brisbane.

    “You’re a thief, a liar and a gatekeeper,” he yelled, to a mix of ages and races walking by. “Give back what you stole, give back what you stole, give back what you stole.”

    Aboriginal activist Wayne Wharton delivers his message to supporters at the

    The 62-year-old Kooma man told CNN on the phone that fundamentally people are being asked the wrong question.

    “In a well-meaning country and a country seeking justice, this question would never have been raised or tabled. The question that would have been offered would have been a question about [a] treaty or just occupation,” he said.

    Like Anderson, Wharton remembers the curfews that confined First Nations people to the outskirts of town between sunset and sunrise, the racial slurs hurled at him and his family, the abuse of his ancestors forced to live in missions, and the theft of First Nations children under policies of assimilation that later prompted a national apology.

    Wharton said he wants “liberation, freedom and restitution” delivered through negotiation by the hundreds of Aboriginal nations with people occupying their land.

    “I’ve seen many things change in my 60 years, and as the White bigots that created this continent of privilege die, the next generations have a greater sense of fairness and justice,” Wharton said.

    “I believe in my children’s time a lot of this will be overcome. And that’s why I want to make sure that the door of opportunity is always going to be there for those people when the opportunity comes to create a just occupation, that the mechanism will be there and that it wouldn’t have been hijacked by some desperates in 2023 that changed the constitution.”

    Other First Nations people see it differently, including Nick Harvey-Doyle, who at 31 is half the age of Wharton, and a third of the age of the Aboriginal Elder Anderson.

    From his New York apartment, Harvey-Doyle, an Anaiwan man from New South Wales, co-organized a walk across Brooklyn Bridge on Saturday, attended by more than 350 people, mostly Australians, calling for a Yes vote.

    “I’m from a really small country town that has about 10,000 people and I think there’s about 8,000 Australians in the New York tri-state area. To me, that’s almost essentially a whole country town worth of votes,” he said.

    Nick Harvey-Doyle is studying in New York and is calling for a Yes vote.

    Harvey-Doyle is a former lawyer who is studying at New York University with a Roberta Sykes Scholarship that provides funding for Indigenous students to undertake postgraduate research abroad. Sykes, who died in 2010, was the first Black Australian to study at Harvard, and fought for a Yes vote in the 1967 Referendum.

    That referendum, to count Indigenous people in Australia’s Census figures, passed with over 90% approval.

    Harvey-Doyle implored Australians living overseas to cast their votes to improve the life outcomes for First Nations people, who have lagged behind the country’s non-Indigenous population in heath and welfare statistics for decades.

    “We as Aboriginal people don’t feel like we have carriage over our most intimate and important personal affairs,” he said.

    “I think Aboriginal people do have a different way of life from non-Indigenous people and the current structures and institutions we have in place, don’t always acknowledge that and aren’t always in the best cultural place to service our needs.

    “Actually having a body that exists that is enshrined in the constitution that allows us empowerment, to give advice over our own lives and our own issues is actually super important.”

    More than 350 people walked across Brooklyn Bridge in New York to call for a Yes vote in the Australian Voice referendum.

    According to the Australian Electoral Commission, as of Sunday, more than 96,000 registered voters were outside Australia – including those living abroad and some 58,000 who have notified the commission that they’ll be traveling on October 14.

    While voting is compulsory within Australia, being overseas is considered a valid reason not to vote. More than 100 polling centers will be open worldwide to enable people to vote in person, or they can return a postal ballot. Overseas voting starts early, on October 2.

    To pass, the referendum needs the majority vote across the country, as well as the majority of people in at least four states.

    Indigenous people won’t determine the outcome of this vote – that will be up to millions of other non-Indigenous Australians, some of whom object to Indigenous people being given a special place over others within the constitution, calling the vote “divisive.”

    Wharton says the concept of millions of non-Indigenous voters deciding what’s best for 3% of the population is racist in itself.

    However, Harvey-Doyle says he’s wary of the message a no vote would send in the country and beyond.

    “If we vote No, it says that we are really happy to be apathetic towards the poor life outcomes that some average Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people experience, and I feel like that goes against what it means to be Australian to give everyone a fair go,” he said.

    “It’ll be a really sad global position for us to put ourselves in, if we do vote No.”

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  • Child killed as Italian Air Force jet explodes into a fireball after takeoff | CNN

    Child killed as Italian Air Force jet explodes into a fireball after takeoff | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    A jet from the Italian Air Force’s aerobatics squadron crashed during a practice run near the northern city of Turin on Saturday, killing a 5-year-old child and leaving her 9-year-old brother with severe burns when the car they were in was struck by burning debris from a huge fireball.

    The MB-339 jet had exploded moments after takeoff at around noon local time, officials said, according to the Italian Fire Brigade.

    The pilot, who survived, could be seen ejecting with his parachute opening moments before the jet struck the ground, the fire brigade said.

    He is currently being treated for burns at Giovanni Bosco Hospital in Turin, officials added.

    The Frecce Tricolori aerobatic jets, part of the Italian Air Force, were practicing a formation ahead of the 100-year celebrations of the Italian Air Force that are set to take place Sunday. The planes had just taken off from Turin’s Caselle airport when one of the jets started to lose altitude, as seen on multiple videos that were shared on social media.

    The crash happened inside the airport perimeter.

    The airport tweeted that it was closed temporarily.

    Italian media reported that the jets hit a flock of birds just after takeoff, according to CNN affiliate Sky24.

    The car which held the 5-year-old child and her family had been driving along a country road parallel to the airport, according to local media reports.

    Her brother survived and is now being treated for severe burns at the Regina Margherita Children’s Hospital in Turin, the hospital confirmed.

    Their parents have also reportedly suffered burns.

    The Italian Air Force said it was “dismayed and astonished” by the jet crash, according to a statement made by the Italian Chief of Staff of the Air Force and Air Squadron General Luca Goretti.

    The Pony 4 aircraft, piloted by Major Oscar Del Do’, had lost altitude and crashed to the ground shortly after the formation had taken off, the statement said.

    The Italian Air Force has not confirmed the exact cause of the accident, but has hypothesized there was a bird strike during the very first phases of takeoff.

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  • Protests erupt in Iran, one year after Mahsa Amini’s death | CNN

    Protests erupt in Iran, one year after Mahsa Amini’s death | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Protests erupted throughout Iran on Saturday to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the death of Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old women who died in the custody of Iran’s morality police after being arrested for allegedly not wearing her headscarf properly.

    Video obtained by CNN showed demonstrations throughout multiple cities in Iran, including capital city Tehran, Mashad, Ahvaz, Lahijan, Arak, and the Kurdish city of Senandaj.

    Many of the protesters chanted, “Women, Life, Freedom” – a popular rallying cry used after nationwide protests erupted following Amini’s death last year.

    Some protesters also chanted death slogans against Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

    Authorities deployed armed guards in many cities as a show of force and police officers were seen chasing protesters in the northern city of Lahijan.

    Rallies commemorating Amini’s death were held in other cities around the world like Paris, Brussels and Berlin.

    Many said they felt the need to raise their voices when so many in Iran could not.

    Hundreds gathered in London on Saturday to mark the one-year anniversary. “We just wanted to let everyone know that this is not going to finish,” a female protester told CNN.

    “Our battle has started and we are not going to stop until freedom for Iran, until a revolution, until we kick the mullahs out of the power.”

    Protest organizer Ellie Borhan was also seen in videos cutting her hair on stage in front of the crowd.

    Iranians march outside the White House on Saturday.

    ‘Detention and persecution’ of family members

    The news comes after Iranian journalists and rights groups said Amini’s father Amjad had been detained by authorities on Saturday.

    Iranian journalist Maziar Bahari, also the founder of the IranWire activist outlet, told CNN that Amjad Amini had been regularly summoned by security officers in the months following his daughter’s death.

    He was detained “for a few hours” on Saturday, Bahari said.

    The family had visited her grave in the western Kurdish city of Saqqez on Friday, the eve of the one-year anniversary, IranWire reported on Saturday.

    Helicopters were seen hovering over the Aichi cemetery with numerous military personnel and police officers also stationed throughout the area, IranWire added.

    Amjad was detained by authorities the following day for three to four hours, along with his son – who was warned that he would be banished to a remote village if he encouraged people to attend ceremonies marking the anniversary of Amini’s death, Bahari told CNN.

    Amini’s uncle Safa Aeli, who lives in the city of Saqqez, was also arrested by authorities earlier this week, according to a family member and reports by the Human Rights Activists News Agency.

    Responding to claims by Iranian journalists and rights groups, authorities strongly denied reports of Amjad Amini’s detention, claiming instead they had prevented “an assassination attempt” – reported the IRNA state media news outlet.

    The Political, Security, and Social Vice Governor of Kurdistan arrested several members of “a terrorist group” who wanted to assassinate Amini, IRNA said in a post on Telegram, describing the claims by Iranian journalists and rights groups as “false”.

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  • Lee knocks out power to tens of thousands as it brings fierce winds and coastal flooding to Maine and Canada | CNN

    Lee knocks out power to tens of thousands as it brings fierce winds and coastal flooding to Maine and Canada | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Post-tropical cyclone Lee is bringing heavy rain, destructive winds and coastal flooding to Canada and Maine, knocking out power to tens of thousands, lashing the coasts with big waves and spurring calls to stay indoors.

    Lee, once a powerful hurricane, is churning maximum sustained winds of 60 mph as it spreads north after making landfall Saturday on Long Island in Nova Scotia, one of Canada’s Atlantic provinces, according to the National Hurricane Center.

    It’s expected to steadily weaken over Sunday and Monday, with conditions improving across rain and wind-battered areas of the northeast US and Canada.

    The cyclone is forecast to turn eastward and move quickly to the northeast, across the Canadian Maritimes on Sunday, and into the North Atlantic by early Monday, National Hurricane Center Director Michael Brennan said in a video update Saturday.

    For now, tropical storm force winds are extending out about 290 miles from what’s left of Lee’s core on Saturday, downing trees and power lines and leaving many in the dark.

    In Nova Scotia, 130,250 customers are without power Saturday while 38,000 in New Brunswick were in the dark, according to an outage map by Nova Scotia Power.

    In Maine, nearly 60,000 homes and businesses were without power, according to poweroutage.us. Photos from across the state showed toppled trees near homes and on roadways as powerful winds battered the area.

    Winds of 83 mph were recorded in Perry, Maine, and 63 mph in Roque Bluffs, Maine.

    Utility power crews were out assessing damages and actively responding to downed utility lines and other damage caused by the storm Saturday.

    On top of the fierce winds, Lee is also stirring up dangerous surf and life-threatening rip currents along the US East Coast, Atlantic Canada and other areas.

    “We’ll see very high waves and coastal erosion and minor coastal flooding,” Brennan said.

    Another inch of rain was expected over parts of eastern Maine and New Brunswick, and Lee continues to threaten flooding in urban areas of eastern Maine in the United States and New Brunswick in Canada, according to the hurricane center.

    People watch rough surf and waves, remnants of Tropical Storm Lee, crash along the shore of Bailey Island, Maine, on Saturday.

    In Canada’s New Brunswick province, north of Maine, officials cautioned residents to prepare for power outages and stock up on food and medication for at least 72 hours as they encouraged people to stay indoors during what they forecast would likely turn into a storm surge for coastal communities.

    “Once the storm starts, remember please stay at home if at all possible,” said Kyle Leavitt, director of New Brunswick Emergency Measures Organization. “Nothing good can come from checking out the big waves and how strong the wind truly is.”

    A downed tree is shown in a yard in Fredericton on Saturday.

    In the US, states of emergency have been declared in Maine and Massachusetts. President Joe Biden has authorized the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to step in to coordinate disaster relief and assistance for required emergency measures.

    Boston’s Logan International Airport saw a spike in flight cancellations Saturday with 23% of all flights into Boston and 24% of flights originating out of the city canceled, according to the flight tracking website FlightAware.

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  • Russia gives Kim Jong Un an inside look at its warplanes and frigates | CNN

    Russia gives Kim Jong Un an inside look at its warplanes and frigates | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspected warplanes, toured an airfield and visited a Pacific Fleet frigate on Saturday as the latest stop on his tour of Russia took him to Vladivostok.

    Russian state media reported that Kim had met the Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu at the Knevichi airfield in Vladivostok before both men were accompanied by the commander-in-chief of the Russian Navy, Admiral Nikolai Evmenov, on a visit to the Pacific Fleet frigate Marshal Shaposhnikov.

    The North Korean leader was shown the ship’s central command center and its modern missile weapon control systems, the Russian Ministry of Defence said via Telegram.

    The Russian defence ministry added that Admiral Evmenov had talked to Kim about the “expanded capabilities of the new control systems, which allow Kalibr sea-based cruise missiles to be effectively used against sea and coastal targets at a distance of more than 1,500 kilometers from the ship.”

    Afterwards Kim was gifted a replica of the ship and left a comment in the frigate’s guest book, though the ministry did not reveal what he wrote.

    The stop in Vladivostok is Kim’s latest in a tour of Russia and its Far East region that follows his meeting with President Vladimir Putin earlier this week, at which the North Korean leader appeared to endorse Moscow’s war on Ukraine.

    The meeting has led to speculation around the potential for some kind of military cooperation between Moscow and Pyongyang.

    The ministry said on Saturday that the frigate had been selected to showcase the modernization within the Far East region “which clearly demonstrates the capabilities of the shipbuilding industry.”

    Earlier in the morning, Kim and Shoigu had toured the Knevichi airfield in Vladivostok, according to Russian state news agency RIA Novosti, where Kim was shown Russian aircraft including the Tu-160, Tu-95MS and Tu-22M3.

    Kim also saw the Su-34, Su-30SM, Su-35S fighter jets along with the Su-25SM3 attack aircraft, RIA added.

    The Kinzhal hypersonic missile system and Russia’s Tu-214 long-haul passenger airplane were also on display, it said.

    On Friday, North Korean state media reported Kim had been “deeply impressed” by a visit to a Russian aircraft manufacturing plant.

    Kim toured facilities for aircraft design and assembly at the Komsomolsk-on-Amur Yuri Gagarin Aviation Plant, where he was struck by “the rich independent potential and modernity of the Russian aircraft manufacturing industry,” the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.

    He met test pilots, climbed aboard a Su-57 fifth-generation fighter jet, and watched a test flight of the airplane, KCNA said.

    The facility Kim toured on Friday is Russia’s largest aviation manufacturing plant and builds and develops warplanes for the ministry of defense, including Su-35S and Su-57 fighter jets, according to the Russian state media agency TASS. Kim’s late father, Kim Jong Il, visited it in 2002.

    On Friday’s visit Kim “expressed sincere regard for Russia’s aviation technology” and how it had undergone “rapid development, outpacing the outside potential threats, and wished the plant success in its future development,” KCNA reported.

    After the tour and a luncheon, Kim left a message in the visitor’s book saying, “Witnessing the rapid development of Russia’s aviation technology and its gigantic potential” before signing it with the date and his name.

    According to a Russian government press release on Friday, Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov said Moscow saw “the potential for cooperation both in aircraft manufacturing and in other industries” with North Korea.

    “This is especially relevant for achieving the tasks our countries face to achieve technological sovereignty,” he said in a statement circulated on Telegram.

    North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visits an aircraft manufacturing plant in the city of Komsomolsk-on-Amur in Russia on September 15, 2023.

    While exact details remain scant on what sorts of talks have taken place behind closed doors, observers say it’s clear what each is looking for from the other.

    Moscow is desperate for fresh supplies of ammunition and shells as its war with Ukraine drags on – and Pyongyang is believed to be sitting on a stockpile.

    Meanwhile, after years of sanctions over its nuclear weapon and missiles program, North Korea is equally in need of everything from energy to food to military technology, all of which Russia has.

    When the two leaders met at the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia’s Amur Region, a reporter asked Putin whether Russia would help North Korea “launch its own satellites and rockets” – to which Putin responded, “That’s exactly why we came here.”

    The Russian president also said Kim “shows great interest in space, in rocketry, and they are trying to develop space.”

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  • The West fears a closer Russia and North Korea. China may not | CNN

    The West fears a closer Russia and North Korea. China may not | CNN

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    Hong Kong
    CNN
     — 

    A rare meeting between Russia’s Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un at a space launch center in the Russian Far East earlier this week has triggered alarm from countries from South Korea and Japan to Ukraine, the United States and its partners in Europe.

    But China, the biggest economic lifeline for both Moscow and Pyongyang whose border lies less than 200 miles (321 kilometers) from where the two leaders met, may have a different view.

    Rather than look to oppose or limit cooperation between Russia and North Korea, Beijing may see more benefits than risks for itself in this emerging axis, analysts say – particularly in regard to its great power rivalry with the US.

    And while it’s unclear exactly how much insight Chinese officials have into negotiations between North Korea and Russia, analysts say the meeting itself may not have gone forward with some level of consideration of China’s ties to the two.

    “(Given) the importance of the support that China provides to both, China is of course looming in the background,” said Alexander Korolev, a senior lecturer in Politics and International Relations at the University of New South Wales in Australia.

    “China is too important for both North Korea and Russia, so for them it would be foolish to do something behind China’s back that it wouldn’t like,” he said. “The China factor is there.”

    Neither North Korea or Russia has released details of any agreements reached during the more than five hours Putin and Kim spent together during a tour of the Vostochny Cosmodrome, closed-door talks, and a lavish state dinner – where both leaders toasted to their countries’ growing friendship.

    But observers say it’s clear what each is looking for from the other.

    Moscow is desperate for fresh supplies of ammunition and shells to feed what’s become a war of attrition in Ukraine – and Pyongyang is believed to be sitting on a stockpile. Pyongyang, after years of sanctions over its nuclear weapon and missiles program, is in need of everything from energy to food to military technology – all of which Russia has.

    To be sure, North Korea potentially pumping munitions into Russia could raise awkward optics for China, which accounts for the vast majority of North Korea’s trade and remains Russia’s most powerful diplomatic partner after its Ukraine invasion.

    The international community has long looked to Beijing to exert pressure over its government to follow the rules.

    And in recent months Beijing has been at pains to frame itself as a proponent of peace in the conflict in Ukraine – part of a bid to win back lost goodwill in Europe, which has recoiled over Beijing’s decision to continue to strengthen its ties with Russia despite its war.

    Beijing has already signaled what its official response to any military cooperation between the two would be, with its Foreign Ministry this week repeatedly telling reporters that Wednesday’s meeting was “between the two countries” – implying it’s not China’s business.

    But while China itself has appeared careful to avoid any large-scale military support of Russia, analysts say it may see potential support from North Korea as a boost to its own geopolitical calculus, where Russia remains a crucial partner amid rising tensions with the West.

    “(If) North Korea is really prepared to provide ammunition to Russia, it would be good for the Chinese expectation that Russia doesn’t experience a major military defeat in the battlefield in Ukraine,” said Li Mingjiang, an associate professor of international relations at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University.

    “In that respect, it’s good for China’s geopolitical interests … in terms of China and Russia on the one hand and Western countries on the other,” he said.

    China, which supported communist North Korea in the Korean War some 70 years ago, has maintained a complicated relationship with its rogue neighbor.

    Like Russia, it has backed past United Nations sanctions against North Korea’s weapons programs – though it’s also been accused of practicing an arbitrary implementation of these controls and in recent years has blocked efforts to strengthen sanctions and led efforts to ease them.

    Now, as China feels constrained by what it sees as an increasingly hostile US and its allies, it may welcome a stronger coordination with both Russia and North Korea as counterweights, analysts say.

    In that vein, a shift in the relationship between Russia and North Korea which sees Moscow lending support to Pyongyang could also take pressure off China – and strengthen its position in the region.

    “China would support a more capable North Korea in many respects – economically, militarily – and a North Korea that continues to serve as a troublemaker for the US,” said Li.

    One reason? “When you have a more assertive North Korea it will lead to some sort of incentive for the US and South Korea to seek China’s cooperation in terms of dealing with North Korea,” he said.

    Meanwhile, mutual support between the two sanctions-hit neighbors could mitigate international pressure on China over its strong ties to both.

    “Since China is not the sole supporter of either, it reduces China’s isolation for its support of both,” Yun Sun, director of the China Program at the Stimson Center think tank in Washington, who said that while their tightening of ties is not without drawbacks for Beijing, its leaders would still likely see this as a “net gain.”

    Even a transfer of military technology from Russia to North Korea, which may be concerning to China given its interests in regional stability, may have a silver lining, according to Sun.

    China has a stake in avoiding seeing tensions between North Korea and US-allied South Korea escalate into conflict, which could spark to an influx of refugees across its own borders — as well as American military response.

    “Such a (military technology) transfer will be destabilizing for the region, but China will turn the table and blame the US and its allies for pushing both Russia and North Korea in a corner. This reinforces China’s opposition to the ‘Asian NATO’ it sees US as orchestrating,” she said.

    But despite the potential gains, experts also say China is not immune to the risks that can come from a stronger Russia or a stronger North Korea.

    “Beijing has a large stake in global trade,” said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul.

    “(It) can ill afford collateral damage from destabilizing pariah state behavior, such as the invasion of Ukraine and habitually threatening the use of nuclear weapons,” he said.

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  • US will redirect millions of funds for Egypt to Taiwan and Lebanon | CNN Politics

    US will redirect millions of funds for Egypt to Taiwan and Lebanon | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    The Biden administration has notified Congress that it will withhold $85 million in aid to Egypt that had been conditioned on Cairo’s progress in its treatment of political prisoners, instead diverting that money to Taiwan and Lebanon, sources with knowledge of the matter told CNN.

    The administration said it would redirect $55 million worth of that funding to Taiwan and $30 million to Lebanon, the sources said.

    However, the administration will allow Cairo to access $235 million of the total of $320 million in foreign military financing that is conditioned on human rights issues, a senior State Department official said Thursday.

    The US provides more than $1 billion in foreign military financing to Egypt and the vast majority of it is not conditional.

    Secretary of State Antony Blinken “determined that it is in the US national security interest to waive certain human rights related conditions” and allow the $235 million to go to Egypt.

    “What I’m describing today reflects our current assessment that Egypt’s cooperation merits the national security waiver for fiscal year 2022,” the official said.

    “Our position on the very serious human rights situation in Egypt absolutely has not changed and we’re going to continue to raise those issues in Egypt consistently and at the most senior levels,” they added.

    The conditions around the $85 million – “that Egypt is making clear and consistent progress in relieving political prisoners, providing detainees with due process and preventing harassment of American citizens” – cannot be waived, the official explained.

    “The Secretary is determined that Egypt has not fulfilled his conditions and therefore we are reprogramming that 85 million,” the official said.

    The Wall Street Journal first reported on the redirection of the funds.

    Last month, a group of 11 House Foreign Affairs Committee Democrats called on Secretary of State Antony Blinken to withhold all $320 million in conditional foreign military financing over concerns about Cairo’s human rights abuses.

    “We acknowledge the historic, deeply rooted bilateral U.S. – Egypt relationship, based in shared social, economic, and political ties,” wrote the lawmakers, led by House Foreign Affairs Committee Ranking Member Rep. Gregory Meeks.

    “Nonetheless, we are strongly concerned by reports from both the State Department as well as numerous credible human rights and civil society organizations about the persistent and continued systemic violations of human rights in Egypt,” the letter continued.

    “As we continue to stand for the prioritization of basic human rights in our foreign policy and call on the Administration to adhere to the spirit and letter of the law in ensuring progress in the U.S.–Egypt relationship, we call on you to withhold the full $320 million of FY22 FMF until Egypt’s human rights record significantly improves,” it concluded.

    Meanwhile, the administration has been working to bolster Taiwan’s defense capabilities in preparation for a potential conflict with China, and in July announced a new weapons package for the self-governing island valued at up to $345 million.

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  • Taliban welcomes China’s new ambassador to Afghanistan in lavish ceremony | CNN

    Taliban welcomes China’s new ambassador to Afghanistan in lavish ceremony | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    The Taliban has welcomed Zhao Sheng as China’s new ambassador to Afghanistan during a lavish ceremony held at the presidential palace in Kabul on Wednesday.

    China is among a handful of countries, including Pakistan, Iran and Russia that have maintained a diplomatic presence in Afghanistan since the Taliban retook control of the country in 2021.

    In the palace ceremony, Taliban Prime Minister Mohammad Hasan Akhund shook hands with Zhao and “accepted the credentials of the new Chinese Ambassador,” the prime minister’s office said on X, formerly known as Twitter.

    “The Honorable Prime Minister of the Islamic Emirate thanked the leadership of China for the appointment of Mr Zhao Sheng as ambassador and expressed hope that this appointment would elevate the diplomatic relations between the two countries to a higher level and the beginning of a new chapter,” Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said in the statement

    According to the prime minister’s office, Zhao said that China was “a good neighbor of Afghanistan” and “fully respects Afghanistan’s independence, territorial integrity and independence in decision-making.”

    Zhao added that China does not have a policy of interference in Afghanistan’s internal affairs, and it does not want Afghanistan “to become its area of influence.”

    The Taliban prime minister said relations between the two countries had “been on a good level” and “expressed his hope for taking more steps to further strengthen the bilateral relations,” according to Mujahid.

    China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement the appointment was the “normal rotation of China’s ambassador to Afghanistan” and was “intended to continue advancing dialogue and cooperation” between the two countries.

    The ministry said, “China’s policy toward Afghanistan is clear and consistent.”

    China, a neighbor of Afghanistan with substantial investment in the region, was cautious about the potential security challenges posed by the abrupt return of the Taliban following the US withdrawal in August 2021.

    Since then, Chinese officials have stressed increasing cooperation with Afghanistan, along with other regional neighbors, on issues such as anti-terrorism cooperation, “economic collaboration” and boosting “regional stability and development.”

    In May, China, Afghanistan and Pakistan vowed to strengthen trilateral ties on security and counterterrorism at a meeting of the three country’s foreign ministers in Islamabad.

    Speaking at that meeting, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Qin Gang said China attached “great importance to the friendship with Afghanistan and Pakistan.”

    Notably from the meeting, the three sides agreed to cooperate on China’s Belt and Road trade and infrastructure program, through which China has heavily invested in the region.

    They also agreed to forge closer economic ties by extending the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) to Afghanistan “so as to promote connectivity, improve cross-border trading, enhance the economic integration of the three countries and achieve sustainable development.”

    CPEC is a $60 billion Belt and Road flagship project that links China’s western Xinjiang region to Pakistan’s strategic Gwadar port on the Arabian Sea with a network of roads, railways, pipelines and power plants.

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  • Birkenstock heads for Wall Street in another blow to Europe | CNN Business

    Birkenstock heads for Wall Street in another blow to Europe | CNN Business

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    London
    CNN
     — 

    German shoemaker Birkenstock has filed for an initial public offering in New York, becoming the latest European company to choose the United States as the place to raise money on the stock market.

    The iconic footwear brand said in a filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission Tuesday that it planned to list on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “BIRK.” It didn’t disclose its target share price or the proposed date of the listing.

    The Financial Times, citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter, reported Tuesday that Birkenstock was seeking a valuation of more than $8 billion.

    In its filing, the company said revenue in the six months to the end of March had risen 19% from the same period in the 2021-22 financial year but that its net profit had fallen 45%. Birkenstock said inflationary pressures had pushed up the cost of labor and materials.

    The family business traces its origins back to 1774 when church archives mention Johannes Birkenstock, who worked as a cobbler in Langen-Bergheim, Germany.

    In 2021, the Birkenstock family sold most of the company to L Catterton, a private equity firm backed by LVMH — the owner of luxury brands such as Tiffany & Co. and Dior, with brothers Christian and Alex Birkenstock retaining a minority stake.

    The planned IPO marks another milestone for the shoemaker, which joins the ranks of high-profile European companies seeking a public offering across the pond rather than at home. British chip designer Arm is gearing up for a blockbuster IPO on the Nasdaq this week.

    The listings come after an 18-month slump in the IPO market. As the world’s major central banks have jacked up interest rates to combat inflation, the appetite among investors for riskier assets has waned. US grocery delivery firm Instacart has also revealed plans to list on the Nasdaq in the near future, albeit at a significant discount to recent valuations.

    “It’s safe to say the US is leading the [IPO] revival at this stage, and other financial centers, most notably London, have a lot of work to do to compete better going forward,” Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at Oanda, told CNN.

    Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets at Hargreaves Lansdown, added in a note Wednesday: “Birkenstock’s step shows that the IPO engine is whirring back to life after an 18-month downturn. Hopes that the end of the interest rate hiking cycle is in sight [are] also driving more confidence.”

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  • An explosive Elon Musk biography is just hitting shelves. But the book’s acclaimed author is already walking back a major claim | CNN Business

    An explosive Elon Musk biography is just hitting shelves. But the book’s acclaimed author is already walking back a major claim | CNN Business

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    Editor’s Note: A version of this article first appeared in the “Reliable Sources” newsletter. Sign up for the daily digest chronicling the evolving media landscape here.



    CNN
     — 

    Walter Isaacson’s highly anticipated biography on Elon Musk is hitting shelves on Tuesday — and he is already walking back a major claim.

    Isaacson reported in his book that Musk had abruptly turned off Ukraine’s access to his Starlink satellite internet system last year just as the country was launching an underwater drone attack on a Russian fleet in Crimea, depriving the Eastern European country’s forces of critical communications for the assault and rendering the offensive a failure.

    “He secretly told his engineers to turn off coverage within 100 kilometers of the Crimean coast,” fearing the sneak attack would lead to a “mini-Pearl Harbor” scenario and nuclear war, Isaacson wrote in the book, according to an excerpt obtained and first reported by CNN. “As a result, when the Ukrainian drone subs got near the Russian fleet in Sevastopol, they lost connectivity and washed ashore harmlessly.”

    That explosive claim, which set off alarms and triggered a tsunami of questions about Musk’s role as a key figure potentially determining the fate of Vladimir Putin’s ruthless war, turned out not to be quite as Isaacson had told it. Musk pushed back last week, writing on X that Starlink was never activated over Crimea and that he had actually received “an emergency request from government authorities” to enable the service, with the “obvious intent being to sink most of the Russian fleet at anchor.”

    “If I had agreed to their request, then SpaceX would be explicitly complicit in a major act of war and conflict escalation,” Musk wrote.

    Perhaps more importantly, Isaacson subsequently walked back the bombshell claim, which had received significant media coverage and was published as an “untold story” book excerpt in The Washington Post.

    “To clarify on the Starlink issue: the Ukrainians THOUGHT coverage was enabled all the way to Crimea, but it was not,” Isaacson posted on X, effectively reiterating what Musk had said. “They asked Musk to enable it for their drone sub attack on the Russian fleet.”

    “Based on my conversations with Musk, I mistakenly thought the policy to not allow Starlink to be used for an attack on Crimea had been first decided on the night of the Ukrainian attempted sneak attack that night,” Isaacson added in a follow up post. “He now says that the policy had been implemented earlier, but the Ukrainians did not know it, and that night he simply reaffirmed the policy.”

    The correction has cast a pall over the biography from Isaacson, a highly respected author who has written acclaimed biographies on historic visionaries, including Steve Jobs, Benjamin Franklin, and Albert Einstein. Isaacson, a professor of history at Tulane University and former head of CNN, has for years enjoyed such a sterling reputation in the media industry that newsrooms have often taken his reporting to be fact.

    Now, Isaacson is having to grapple with an embarrassing problem. A spokesperson for his publisher Simon & Schuster told me on Monday that “future editions of the book will be updated” to no longer include the error.

    Newsrooms, meanwhile, are updating their stories in the wake of the mischaracterization. Over the weekend, The Post updated the excerpt it had published and offered a correction to its readers.

    “After publication of this adaptation, the author learned that his book mischaracterized the attempted attack by Ukrainian drones on the Russian fleet in Crimea,” the correction stated. “Musk had already disabled (‘geofenced’) coverage within 100 km of the Crimean coast before the attack began, and when the Ukrainians discovered this, they asked him to activate the coverage, and he refused. This version reflects that change.”

    CNN also updated its story on Monday, noting Isaacson had backpedaled his initial claims.

    “After this story published, Walter Isaacson clarified his explanation regarding Elon Musk restricting Ukrainian military access to Starlink, a critical satellite internet service,” an editor’s note said. “This story has been updated to reflect that change.”

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  • Kim Jong Un to visit Russia at Vladimir Putin’s invitation | CNN

    Kim Jong Un to visit Russia at Vladimir Putin’s invitation | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Kim Jong Un will travel to Russia at the invitation of his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, Pyongyang and Moscow said on Monday, amid warnings from the United States that the two leaders could strike an arms deal.

    The US government said last week that such a meeting could take place as part of Russia’s efforts to find new suppliers for weapons to use in its war against Ukraine.

    Neither country specified when or where the visit would take place, nor what would be on the agenda of any potential face-to-face. The Kremlin said in a statement Monday that Kim would pay an official visit to Russia “in the coming days,” while North Korean state media said they would “meet and have a talk.”

    However, it appears likely that the two leaders will see each other in the far eastern city of Vladivostok, where they met for the first time in April 2019. Putin reportedly arrived in Vladivostok on Monday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, according to state TV Russia 24. Kim, meanwhile, appears to be on a train heading to Russia, a South Korean government official told CNN.

    The visit will be Kim’s first foreign trip since the Covid-19 pandemic. With its borders sealed because of that for much of the past three years, North Korea has only recently begun to relax travel restrictions.

    It will also be only Kim’s 10th trip since assuming power in 2011. All of those came in 2018 and 2019, as the North Korean leader engaged in negotiations over his nuclear weapons and missile programs in three meetings with then-US President Donald Trump – one in Singapore, one in Hanoi and one in the demilitarized zone (DMZ) separating North and South Korea.

    Kim also made four trips to China over those two years to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. The remaining trip was to the DMZ in 2018 to meet with then-South Korean President Moon Jae-in.

    Vladivostok lies 130 km (80 miles) from the border with North Korea.

    The North Korea leader is said to prefer traveling in an upscale armored train – as did his father before him – but rail travel accounts for less than half of his foreign trips. Three of this nine trips have been made in planes and two, both to the DMZ, by car.

    Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu also visited Pyongyang in July in an attempt to convince it to sell artillery ammunition.

    Last Tuesday, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan warned that North Korea it will “pay a price” if it strikes an arms deal with Russia, though he did not elaborate on these potential repercussions.

    North Korea is already under United Nations and US sanctions imposed over Pyongyang’s weapons of mass destruction program.

    The potential Putin-Kim meeting could lead to Pyongyang getting its hands on the sort of weapons those sanctions have barred it from accessing for two decades, especially for its nuclear-capable ballistic missile program.

    It also comes after more than a year and a half of war in Ukraine has left the Russian military battered, depleted and in need of supplies.

    Following Monday’s announcement from both countries, the White House urged North Korea to “not provide or sell arms to Russia.

    “As we have warned publicly, arms discussions between Russia and the DPRK are expected to continue during Kim Jong-Un’s trip to Russia,” said National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson in response to Russia and North Korea’s announcement.

    The statement also urged the country to “abide by the public commitments that Pyongyang has made to not provide or sell arms to Russia.”

    After reports emerged of North Korean arms sales to Russia in September 2022, a North Korean Defense Ministry official said at the time that Pyongyang had “never exported weapons or ammunition to Russia before and we will not plan to export them.”

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  • How booming Vietnam offers the US an alternative to China | CNN Business

    How booming Vietnam offers the US an alternative to China | CNN Business

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    Hong Kong
    CNN
     — 

    President Joe Biden is in Vietnam for a visit intended to deepen economic ties between Washington and Hanoi as part of efforts to reduce America’s reliance on China.

    The former foes have formally upgraded diplomatic ties to a “comprehensive strategic partnership,” a symbolic yet highly important move that experts say will solidify trust between the nations as America seeks an ally in Asia to counteract political tensions with China and advance its ambitions for key technologies, such as chipmaking.

    Companies from Apple (AAPL) to Intel (INTC) have already pushed deeper into the country to diversify their supply chains, maxing out many Vietnamese factories and helping fuel an economic expansion that continues to defy a global slowdown.

    On Monday, the White House announced a “landmark deal” between Boeing and Vietnam Airlines worth $7.8 billion, which is expected to support more than 30,000 jobs in the United States. Reuters has reported that the carrier will buy 50 Boeing 737 Max jets.

    Biden’s visit, which followed the G20 summit in India, is the first by a US president to Vietnam since Donald Trump’s 2019 trip. He has met with Vietnamese General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and other leaders to “promote the growth of a technology-focused” Vietnamese economy, as well as discuss ways to improve stability in the region, according to the White House.

    In recent years, their trade has already soared under an existing partnership agreed in 2013, so the elevation in relations is “just catching up with the reality that already exists,” Ted Osius, president of the US-ASEAN Business Council and a former US ambassador to Vietnam, told CNN.

    The United States imported nearly $127.5 billion in goods from Vietnam in 2022, compared with $101.9 billion in 2021 and $79.6 billion in 2020, according to US government data.

    Last year, Vietnam became America’s eighth largest trading partner, rising from 10th place two years earlier.

    The two sides have been moving closer as US officials, particularly Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, have repeatedly pointed to the importance of “friend-shoring.”

    The practice refers to the movement of supply chains toward allies in part to shield businesses from political friction.

    “Rather than being highly reliant on countries where we have geopolitical tensions and can’t count on ongoing, reliable supplies, we need to really diversify our group of suppliers,” she said in a speech last year at the Atlantic Council think tank.

    Those tensions add to a litany of pressures, including rising labor costs and an uncertain operating environment that have already made corporations think twice about how much business they do in China, which is still considered the factory of the world.

    But increasingly, it has competition. During the US-China trade war, which started in 2018, businesses of all sizes began moving manufacturing to emerging markets such as Vietnam and India over tariffs.

    After the pandemic broke out, corporations were increasingly forced to consider strategies known as “China plus one,” which meant spreading out production hubs as a way to reduce reliance on a sole manufacturing base.

    The latest exodus could cost China dearly: In a 2022 report, Rabobank estimated that as many as 28 million Chinese jobs directly relied on exports to the West and could leave the country as a result of “friend-shoring.”

    Some 300,000 of those jobs, focused on low-tech manufacturing, are expected to move to Vietnam from China, analysts wrote.

    From an industrial perspective, the country has been booming for years, said Michael Every, a Rabobank global strategist who authored the report. Relatively lower wages and a youthful population have provided Vietnam with a solid workforce and consumer base, bolstering the case to invest in the nation of 97 million people.

    A fruit vendor walking past an Apple store in Hanoi

    But companies hoping to make the switch may already be too late, as some factories are so stretched, customers must wait, he said.

    Alicia García-Herrero, chief economist at Natixis, pointed to what she called “overheating,” saying demand for manufacturing in Vietnam has outstripped supply in some cases.

    “Too many companies [are] going to Vietnam,” she told CNN.

    Vietnam enjoyed an advantage, as it was first in the region to build up supply chain capabilities “for many, many sectors” years ago, she explained.

    Shortly after Biden landed in Vietnam on Sunday, the White House announced a new semiconductor partnership.

    “The United States recognizes Vietnam’s potential to play a critical role in building resilient semiconductor supply chains, particularly to expand capacity in reliable partners where it cannot be re-shored to the United State,” it said in a statement.

    The semiconductor industry has emerged as a key source of tension in US-China relations. Beijing and Washington are both racing to boost their prowess in the sector, and each side has recently enacted export controls aimed at limiting the other’s capacity.

    The United States needs a trusted partner for its supply of chips, and Vietnam can do just that, Osius said.

    Intel sees it that way. The California-based chipmaker has committed $1.5 billion to a sprawling campus located just outside Ho Chi Minh City, which it says will be its largest single assembly and test facility in the world.

    Osius expects more investments in the field to follow as Washington shores up ties with Hanoi.

    “The significance of Vietnam in that supply chain will increase,” he predicted. “We’re going to see an acceleration when it comes to collaboration in tech.”

    The International Monetary Fund projects Vietnam’s growth will slow to 5.8% from 8% last year as it copes with less overseas demand for its exports.

    But that compares favorably with a global growth forecast of 3%, and is noticeably faster many of the world’s major economies, such as the United States, China and the eurozone.

    “As the rest of Asia underwhelms, Vietnam will still be one of the fastest growing economies,” Natixis said in a recent research note.

    That’s compelling for corporations looking for bright spots in an otherwise gloomy environment.

    Such interest was noted in March, when the US-ASEAN Business Council led its biggest-ever business mission to Vietnam. The delegation consisted of 52 American firms, including corporate heavyweights such as Netflix (NFLX) and Boeing (BA).

    Of course, companies still have reservations over factors such as Vietnamese tech regulations, which they fear could include limits on the “transfer of data across borders, or too many rules requiring data localization,” according to Osius.

    In some cases, businesses are also concerned by how the country’s infrastructure still pales in comparison to a longtime trade powerhouse like China’s.

    For example, “there isn’t a sufficient port capacity for some of the goods to be exported as quickly as companies want them to be moved,” Osius said.

    Politically, Vietnam shares many similarities to China in that it is an authoritarian one-party state that tolerates little dissent.

    But overall, businesses simply want an easy way to hedge their bets.

    Vietnam is an obvious choice, because it’s a cheap alternative to manufacturing in China, said García-Herrero.

    For various sectors, transitioning isn’t difficult, because many Chinese suppliers also moved there because of US tariffs, she explained. “It’s the most similar because you have the same providers as in China.”

    The Biden administration, too, will likely be keen to secure that alternative.

    “It’s quite clear that they’re trying to set up a series of foreign policy victories ahead of 2024 [by] signing a strategic comprehensive partnership with Vietnam,” said Every, the Rabobank analyst.

    — CNN’s Kyle Feldscher, Jeremy Diamond and Kevin Liptak contributed to this report.

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