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  • OPEC Fast Facts | CNN

    OPEC Fast Facts | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Here’s a look at the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, headquartered in Vienna, Austria.

    The purpose of OPEC is to “coordinate and unify the petroleum policies of its Member Countries and ensure the stabilization of oil markets in order to secure an efficient, economic and regular supply of petroleum to consumers, a steady income to producers and a fair return on capital for those investing in the petroleum industry.”

    OPEC members collectively supply about 28.89% of the world’s crude oil production.

    Together, OPEC members control about 79.49% of the world’s total proven crude reserves.

    OPEC member countries monitor the market and decide collectively to raise or lower oil production in order to maintain stable prices and supply.

    A unanimous vote is required on raising or lowering oil production.

    Each member country controls the oil production of its country, but OPEC aims to coordinate the production policies of member countries.

    Oil and energy ministers from OPEC member countries usually meet twice a year to determine OPEC’s output level. They also meet in extraordinary sessions whenever required.

    Read More: Oil and Gasoline Fast Facts

    Algeria – 1969-present
    Congo – 2018-present
    Equatorial Guinea – 2017-present
    Gabon – 1975-1995; 2016-present
    Iran – 1960-present
    Iraq – 1960-present
    Kuwait – 1960-present
    Libya – 1962-present
    Nigeria – 1971-present
    Saudi Arabia – 1960-present
    United Arab Emirates – 1967-present
    Venezuela – 1960-present

    Angola – 2007-2024
    Ecuador – 1973-1992; 2007-2020
    Indonesia – 1962-2009; 2016
    Qatar – 1961-2019

    September 14, 1960 – OPEC is formed in Baghdad, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela.

    November 6, 1962 – OPEC is registered with the United Nations Secretariat (UN Resolution No. 6363).

    1973-1974 – Due to United States support of Israel in the Arab-Israeli conflict, the members of OPEC decide to raise the cost of oil from $3/barrel to around $12/barrel.

    October 1973 – OPEC issues an embargo against the United States, halting oil exports. Customers in the United States experience long lines at gas stations and shortages.

    March 18, 1974 – At an OPEC meeting, seven members lift the ban on exports to the United States: Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Egypt and Abu Dhabi. Libya and Syria refuse to drop the ban, and Iraq boycotts the talks.

    December 31, 1974 – Libya lifts its oil embargo against the United States.

    November 2007 – Ecuador rejoins OPEC after a 15-year absence.

    May 2008 – Indonesia announces that it will leave OPEC in 2009.

    January 1, 2009 – Indonesia suspends its membership in OPEC.

    January 1, 2016-November 30, 2016 – Indonesia rejoins OPEC, but suspends its membership after 11 months.

    July 2016 – Gabon rejoins OPEC.

    May 25, 2017 – Equatorial Guinea joins OPEC.

    June 22, 2018 – OPEC announces that the Republic of the Congo has joined the organization.

    December 3, 2018 – Qatar’s state oil company, Qatar Petroleum, announces that the country will leave OPEC on January 1, 2019. One of OPEC’s oldest members, Qatar says it plans to focus on natural gas production.

    January 1, 2020 – Ecuador leaves OPEC.

    March 2020 – To offset the collapse in demand caused by the coronavirus pandemic, OPEC unveils a plan to reduce output among its members by 1 million barrels per day, and says it will seek an additional 500,000 barrels per day in cuts from longstanding allies, including Russia.

    April 1, 2021 – OPEC and allied producers announce that they have agreed to gradually increase their output over the next three months. The move follows a sharp increase in oil prices, and a call from the United States to keep energy affordable.

    October 5, 2022 – OPEC and its allies, known as OPEC+, announce they will cut oil production by 2 million barrels per day, the biggest cut since the start of the pandemic.

    January 1, 2024 – Angola leaves OPEC. Oil minister Diamantino Azevedo said earlier that membership was not serving Angola’s interests.

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  • China’s narrowing trade slump boosts recovery prospects, but challenges persist | CNN Business

    China’s narrowing trade slump boosts recovery prospects, but challenges persist | CNN Business

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    Beijing
    Reuters
     — 

    China’s exports and imports shrank at a slower pace for a second month in September, customs data showed on Friday, adding to the recent signs of a gradual stabilization in the world’s second-biggest economy thanks to a raft of policy support measures.

    The trade report should provide some encouragement to authorities, although stiff challenges remain in an economy facing persistent deflationary pressure, a long-running property crisis, a slowdown in global growth and geopolitical tensions.

    Outbound shipments in September declined 6.2% from a year ago, following a drop of 8.8% in August, and beating economists’ forecast for a 7.6% fall in a Reuters poll.

    The figures were backed up by new export orders in an official factory survey two weeks ago which showed improvement last month, partly because of a peak export shipping season for Christmas products and favorable base effects.

    “There’s increasing evidence that the cyclical upturn in the global electronics sector is driving a bottoming-out of global trade and China’s trade data is the latest sign,” said Xu Tianchen, senior economist at the Economist Intelligence Unit.

    “This gives reason for optimism about a rosier trade picture in 2024,” he said.

    South Korean exports to China, a leading indicator of China’s imports, fell at their slowest pace in 11 months in September. Semiconductors make up the bulk of their trade, signaling improving appetite among Chinese manufacturers for components to re-export in finished goods.

    Global trade activities, represented by the Baltic Dry Index, also reported notable growth in September.

    However, Lv Daliang, spokesperson of the General Administration of Customs, said at a press conference earlier on Friday that China’s trade still faces a complex and severe external environment.

    Thanks to gradual recovery in domestic demand, imports also fell at a slower pace, down 6.2%. They missed the 6.0% decline forecast in the poll, but came in better than a 7.3% contraction in August.

    That resulted in a broader trade surplus of $77.71 billion in September, compared with a $70 billion surplus expected in the poll and $68.36 billion in August.

    Overall, economists say it’s too early to make a call on how domestic demand will pan out in coming months as the crisis-hit property sector, uncertainties in employment and household income growth, as well as weak confidence among some private firms, pose risks to a durable economic rebound.

    The $18 trillion economy started losing steam from the second quarter after a brief post-Covid bounce, prompting policymakers to roll out several measures to shore up the recovery in the face of a sluggish housing market, high youth unemployment and mounting local debt repayment pressure.

    China’s consumer prices faltered and factory-gate prices shrunk slightly faster than expected last month compared with a year earlier, inflation data released earlier on Friday showed, indicating that deflationary pressures persist in the economy.

    Yet, authorities can take some comfort from recent data including upbeat factory activity and retail sales while the past Golden Week holiday travel edged up 4.1% from pre-pandemic 2019 levels.

    In order to help the economy meet the government’s annual growth target of around 5%, China is considering issuing at least 1 trillion yuan ($137.00 billion) of additional sovereign debt to fund infrastructure projects, as Beijing prepares to bring a new round of stimulus, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter.

    Most analysts have been reiterating in recent months that policymakers will need to go further than introducing piecemeal measures in order to bolster the economic recovery.

    “Whatever does emerge from Beijing over the coming months, it likely won’t be quick enough to make any meaningful difference to 2023,” said Robert Carnell, regional head of research Asia-Pacific at ING in a note.

    “At best, it should be viewed as a pain management tool for the transition to a less leveraged economy.”

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  • The IMF sees greater chance of a ‘soft landing’ for the global economy | CNN Business

    The IMF sees greater chance of a ‘soft landing’ for the global economy | CNN Business

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    London
    CNN
     — 

    The International Monetary Fund (IMF) sees better odds that central banks will manage to tame inflation without tipping the global economy into recession, but it warned Tuesday that growth remained weak and patchy.

    The agency said it expected the world’s economy to expand by 3% this year, in line with its July forecast, as stronger-than-expected growth in the United States offset downgrades to the outlook for China and Europe. It shaved its forecast for growth in 2024 by 0.1 percentage point to 2.9%.

    Echoing comments made in July, the IMF highlighted the global economy’s resilience to the twin shocks of the pandemic and the Ukraine war while warning in its World Economic Outlook that risks remained “tilted to the downside.”

    “Despite war-disrupted energy and food markets and unprecedented monetary tightening to combat decades-high inflation, economic activity has slowed but not stalled,” IMF chief economist Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas wrote in a blog post. “The global economy is limping along,” he added.

    The IMF’s projections for growth and inflation are “increasingly consistent with a ‘soft landing’ scenario… especially in the United States,” Gourinchas continued.

    But he cautioned that growth “remains slow and uneven,” with weaker recoveries now expected in much of Europe and China compared with predictions just three months ago.

    The 20 countries using the euro are expected to grow collectively by 0.7% this year and 1.2% next year, a downgrade of 0.2 percentage points and 0.3 percentage points respectively from July.

    The IMF now expects China to grow 5% this year and 4.2% in 2024, down from 5.2% and 4.5% previously.

    “China’s property sector crisis could deepen, with global spillovers, particularly for commodity exporters,” it said in its report

    By contrast, the United States is expected to grow more strongly this year and next than expected in July. The IMF upgraded its growth forecasts for the US economy to 2.1% in 2023 and 1.5% in 2024 — an improvement of 0.3 percentage points and 0.5 percentage points respectively.

    “The strongest recovery among major economies has been in the United States,” the IMF said.

    The agency expects that inflation will continue to fall — bolstering the case for a “soft landing” in major economies — but it does not expect it to return to levels targeted by central banks until 2025 in most cases.

    The IMF revised its forecasts for global inflation to 6.9% this year and 5.8% next year — an increase of 0.1 percentage point and 0.6 percentage points respectively.

    Commodity prices pose a “serious risk” to the inflation outlook and could become more volatile amid climate and geopolitical shocks, Gourinchas wrote.

    “Food prices remain elevated and could be further disrupted by an escalation of the war in Ukraine, inflicting greater hardship on many low-income countries,” he added.

    Oil prices surged Monday on concerns that the latest conflict between Israel and Hamas could cause wider instability in the oil-producing Middle East. Brent crude prices were already elevated following supply cuts by major producers Saudi Arabia and Russia.

    High oil and natural gas prices, leading to skyrocketing energy costs, helped drive inflation to multi-decade highs in many economies in 2022. The latest jump in oil prices could cause a fresh bout of broader price rises.

    Bond investors are already on edge. They dumped government bonds last week in the expectation that the world’s major central banks would keep interest rates “higher for longer” to bring inflation down to their targets.

    The IMF also pointed to concerns that high inflation could become a self-fulfilling prophecy. If households and businesses expect prices to go on rising, that could cause them to set higher prices for their goods and services, or demand higher wages.

    “Expectations that future inflation will rise could feed into current inflation rates, keeping them high,” the IMF noted.

    It added that the “expectations channel is critical to whether central banks can achieve the elusive ‘soft landing’ of bringing the inflation rate down to target without a recession.”

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  • China relaxes capital controls to entice badly needed foreign investment | CNN Business

    China relaxes capital controls to entice badly needed foreign investment | 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
     — 

    China is allowing foreigners in Shanghai and Beijing to move their money freely into and out of the country, in a significant move toward relaxing its strict capital controls as it tries to woo overseas investors.

    The news was announced just weeks after official data showed foreign direct investment (FDI) in the country had hit a record quarterly low amid a slump in business confidence.

    Foreign investors — either individuals or companies — at the Shanghai pilot free trade zone, where tens of thousands of firms are located, can remit their funds without any restriction or delay, according to a statement from the city government posted Thursday.

    The funds need be “real and [legally] compliant” and related to their investments in China, it said. The rules, which do not apply to mainland Chinese nationals, took effect on September 1.

    Shanghai’s free trade zone is one of China’s largest and is slightly bigger than the city of Seattle.

    It’s home to Tesla’s Gigafactory as well as the country headquarters of hundreds of multinationals, including HP, AstraZeneca and BlackRock.

    On the same day, the Beijing city government proposed similar regulations, pledging to facilitate cross-border fund flows for foreign businesses. It’s seeking public feedback on the proposal.

    The policies are aimed at attracting foreign investment to build an open economy, the government said.

    China maintains a “closed” capital account, which means companies and individuals can’t move money in or out of the country except in accordance with strict rules.

    The Chinese currency has weakened more than 6% against the US dollar since the start of April, as economic growth lost momentum and its central bank eased monetary policy more aggressively than its Western peers. A weak currency could further reduce a country’s investment appeal and accelerate the outflow of capital.

    Thursday’s measures are the latest effort by Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s government to woo foreign capital and stabilize ties with the West.

    A gauge of FDI in China plunged in the second quarter, hitting its lowest level since 1998, when records began, according to data published by the State Administration of Foreign Exchange last month.

    Separate statistics published by the commerce ministry Sunday showed that its measure of FDI dropped more than 5% during the first eight months of 2023, compared with a year earlier.

    Business confidence among American firms in China appears to have plummeted.

    On Tuesday, a survey by the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai showed that only 52% of respondents were optimistic about their five-year business outlook, the lowest level since the survey began in 1999. That compares with 55% in 2022 and 78% in 2021.

    Foreign companies and investors have grown wary of rising risks in the world’s second largest economy, including a slowdown marked by weak domestic demand and a housing crisis, Beijing’s desire to prioritize national security over economic growth and deteriorating relations between China and many Western countries.

    China has made a series of moves recently to stabilize foreign trade and investment, including cutting a tax on stock trading for the first time since 2008.

    On Monday, the People’s Bank of China met with a number of top Western companies, including JP Morgan, Tesla and HSBC, pledging to further open up the financial industry and “optimize” the operating environment for overseas companies.

    The latest relaxation in capital controls is part of a policy package announced by Beijing and Shanghai, the country’s two biggest cities, to facilitate foreign trade and investment.

    Expatriates working at foreign enterprises in the Shanghai free trade zone — including employees from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan — can transfer their income abroad without restriction, according to the rules.

    Beijing’s policy contains similar measures. It also promised to make it easier for foreign companies to transfer data overseas with “fast-track” channels and encouraged them to invest in the city’s high-end manufacturing, services and green industries.

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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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  • Climate change has ravaged India’s rice stock. Now its export ban could deepen a global food crisis | CNN Business

    Climate change has ravaged India’s rice stock. Now its export ban could deepen a global food crisis | CNN Business

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    Harayana, India
    CNN
     — 

    Satish Kumar sits in front of his submerged rice paddy in India’s Haryana state, looking despairingly at his ruined crops.

    “I’ve suffered a tremendous loss,” said the third generation farmer, who relies solely on growing the grain to feed his young family. “I will not be able to grow anything until November.”

    The newly planted saplings have been underwater since July after torrential rain battered northern India, with landslides and flash floods sweeping through the region.

    Kumar said he has not seen floods of this scale in years and has been forced to take loans to replant his fields all over again. But that isn’t the only problem he’s facing.

    Last month, India, which is the world’s largest exporter of rice, announced a ban on exporting non-basmati white rice in a bid to calm rising prices at home and ensure food security. India then followed with more restrictions on its rice exports, including a 20% duty on exports of parboiled rice.

    The move has triggered fears of global food inflation, hurt the livelihoods of some farmers and prompted several rice-dependent countries to seek urgent exemptions from the ban.

    More than three billion people worldwide rely on rice as a staple food and India contributed to about 40% of global rice exports.

    Economists say the ban is just the latest move to disrupt global food supplies, which has suffered from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as well as weather events such as El Niño.

    They warn the Indian government’s decision could have significant market reverberations with the poor in Global South nations in particular bearing the brunt.

    And farmers like Kumar say market price rises caused by poor harvests doesn’t result in a windfall for them either.

    “The ban is going to have an adverse effect on all of us. We won’t get a higher rate if rice isn’t exported,” Kumar said. “The floods were a death blow to us farmers. This ban will finish us.”

    Satish Kumar with whatever is left of his rice crops.

    The abrupt announcement of the export ban triggered panic buying in the United States, following which the price of rice soared to a near 12-year high, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.

    It does not apply to basmati rice, which is India’s best-known and highest quality variety. Non-basmati white rice however, accounts for about 25% of exports.

    India wasn’t the first country to ban food exports to ensure enough supply for domestic consumption. But its move, coming just one week after Russia pulled out of the Black Sea grain deal — a crucial pact that allowed the export of grain from Ukraine — contributed to global concerns about the availability of grain staples and whether millions would go hungry.

    “The main thing here is that it is not just one thing,” Arif Husain, chief economist at the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) told CNN. “[Rice, wheat and corn crops] make up bulk of the food which poor people around the world consume.”

    Workers in India sift through rice grains in capital New Delhi.

    Nepal has seen rice prices surge since India announced the ban, according to local media reports, and rice prices in Vietnam are the highest they have been in more than a decade, according to customs data.

    Thailand, the world’s second largest rice exporter after India, has also seen domestic rice prices jump significantly in recent weeks, according to data from the Thai Rice Exporters Association.

    Countries including Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines, have appealed to New Delhi to resume rice exports to their nations, according to local Indian media reports. CNN has reached out to India’s Ministry of Agriculture but has not received a response.

    The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has encouraged India to remove the restrictions, with the organization’s chief economist, Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas, telling reporters last month that it was “likely to exacerbate” the uncertainty of food inflation.

    “We would encourage the removal of these types of export restrictions because they can be harmful globally,” he said.

    Now, there are fears that the ban has the world market bracing for similar actions by rival suppliers, economists warn.

    “The export ban is happening at a time when countries are struggling with high debt, food inflation, and declining depreciating currencies,” Husain from the WFP said. “It’s troubling for everyone.”

    Indian farmers account for nearly half of the country’s workforce, according to government data, with rice paddy mainly cultivated in central, southern, and some northern states.

    Summer crop planting typically starts in June, when monsoon rains are expected to begin, as irrigation is crucial to grow a healthy yield. The summer season accounts for more than 80% of India’s total rice output, according to Reuters.

    This year, however, the late monsoon arrival led to a large water deficit up until mid-June. And when the rains finally arrived, it drenched swathes of the country, unleashing floods that caused significant damage to crops.

    The heavy floods have affected the country's farmers.

    Surjit Singh, 53, a third generation farmer from Harayana said they “lost everything” after the rains.

    “My rice crops have been ruined,” he said. “The water submerged about 8-10 inches of my crops. What I planted (in early June) is gone… I will see a loss of about 30%.”

    The World Meteorological Organization last month warned that governments must prepare for more extreme weather events and record temperatures, as it declared the onset of the warming phenomenon El Niño.

    El Niño is a natural climate pattern in the tropical Pacific Ocean that brings warmer-than-average sea-surface temperatures and has a major influence on weather across the globe, affecting billions of people.

    The impact has been felt by thousands of farmers in India, some of whom say they will now grow crops other than rice. And it doesn’t just stop there.

    India's rice stock is piling up as a result of the ban.

    At one of New Delhi’s largest rice trading hubs, there are fears among traders that the export ban will cause catastrophic consequences.

    “The export ban has left traders with huge amounts of stock,” said rice trader Roopkaran Singh. “We now have to find new buyers in the domestic market.”

    But experts warn the effects will be felt far beyond India’s borders.

    “Poor countries, food importing countries, countries in West Africa, they are at the highest risk,” said Husain from the WFP. “The ban is coming on the back of war and a global pandemic… We need to be extra careful when it comes to our staples, so that we don’t end up unnecessarily rising prices. Because those increases are not without consequences.”

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  • Customs officers seize over $380,000 worth of cocaine off bus from Mexico | CNN

    Customs officers seize over $380,000 worth of cocaine off bus from Mexico | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    US customs officers in Texas discovered nearly two dozen packages of cocaine on a commercial bus coming from Mexico.

    Field operations officers with the US Customs and Border Protection seized the “significant amount” of narcotics at the Roma International Bridge in Roma, Texas, the agency reported. Roma is along the Rio Grande in South Texas, roughly 50 miles northwest of McAllen.

    Officers came across the drugs on August 12, according to a news release Tuesday. After the bus arrived, officers conducted a canine and non-intrusive inspection.

    The examination uncovered 22 packages that contained nearly 50 pounds of cocaine, the agency said.

    The seized narcotics had a street value of more than $380,000, CBP said.

    The agency has seized more than 65,000 pounds of cocaine since October 2022, CBP data shows.

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  • US Customs and Border Protection sends resources to remote Arizona area after increase in migrant crossings | CNN

    US Customs and Border Protection sends resources to remote Arizona area after increase in migrant crossings | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    US border officials are increasing personnel and transportation resources at Ajo, Arizona, one of the most isolated and dangerous areas on the Southwest border, to deal with a recent increase in migrants and an ongoing heat wave.

    “Border Patrol has prioritized the quick transporting of noncitizens encountered in this desert environment, which is particularly dangerous during current weather conditions, to Border Patrol facilities where individuals can receive medical care, food and water,” a spokesperson for US Customs and Border Protection said in a statement.

    An excessive heat warning is in effect for Ajo until Sunday evening. “Dangerously hot conditions” and high temperatures of 106 to 112 degrees are expected, according to the National Weather Service.

    The spike in migration at Ajo is driven by human smuggling organizations shifting the flow of migrants to some of the most dangerous terrain, including the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge and the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument near Ajo, according to the Border Patrol.

    Currently, the average time in custody at the Ajo station is 15 hours, with some migrants spending a portion of those hours outside waiting to be transported, according to the Border Patrol. The agency said the fenced-in outdoor space is covered by a large canopy and migrants have access to large fans, meals, water, and bathroom facilities. The outdoor area is only used for adult men, while women, children, and members of vulnerable populations are held inside the station.

    “USBP has utilized outdoor shaded areas only when necessary and for very short times while they await onward transportation to larger facilities,” said the agency’s spokesperson. “The Ajo Border Patrol Station is not equipped to hold large number of migrants due to historic trends in this area.”

    After arriving at Ajo Station, migrants are screened and then transported to other locations for immigration processing, with the closest large Border Patrol facility or shelter 2.5 hours away, according to the Border Patrol.

    The agency would not disclose the Ajo facility’s capacity to CNN, citing security concerns.

    The Tucson Border Patrol sector encountered more than 24,000 migrants in June, making it the second-busiest sector on the southern border during the month, according to Border Patrol data.

    Border Patrol officials report no deaths have occurred at Ajo station or the surrounding areas since the beginning of the heat wave and since the increase in migrant encounters.

    Across the state, Arizonans have experienced extreme heat over the past weeks, with Phoenix recording 31 consecutive days with a high temperature of 110 degrees or above. The streak of high temperatures made July the hottest month on record for the city.

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  • Landmark Google trial opens with sweeping DOJ accusations of illegal monopolization | CNN Business

    Landmark Google trial opens with sweeping DOJ accusations of illegal monopolization | CNN Business

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    CNN
     — 

    US prosecutors opened a landmark antitrust trial against Google on Tuesday with sweeping allegations that for years the company intentionally stifled competition challenging its massive search engine, accusing the tech giant of spending billions to operate an illegal monopoly that has harmed every computer and mobile device user in the United States.

    In opening remarks before a federal judge in Washington, lawyers for the Justice Department alleged that Google’s negotiation of exclusive contracts with wireless carriers and phone makers helped cement its dominant position in violation of US antitrust law.

    The Google case has been described as one of the largest US antitrust trials since the federal government took on Microsoft in the 1990s, and involves some similar arguments about the tying of multiple proprietary products. The multi-week trial is expected to feature witness testimony from Google CEO Sundar Pichai, as well as other senior executives or former employees from Google, Apple, Microsoft and Samsung.

    The effects of Google’s alleged misconduct are vast, DOJ lawyer Kenneth Dintzer told the court.

    “This case is about the future of the internet, and whether Google’s search engine will ever face meaningful competition,” Dintzer said, adding that Google pays more than $10 billion a year to Apple and other companies to ensure that Google is the default or only search engine available on browsers and mobile devices used by millions.

    Also anticompetitive, the Justice Department said, are Google’s contracts to ensure that Android devices come with Google apps and services — including Google search — preinstalled.

    The deals guarantee a steady flow of user data to Google that further reinforces its monopoly, the US government said, leading to other consequences such as harms to consumer privacy and higher advertising prices.

    “This feedback loop, this wheel has been turning for 12 years, and it always turns to Google’s advantage,” Dintzer said. The practice ultimately affects what consumers see in search results and prevents new rivals from gaining scale and market share, he added.

    For Google’s opening statement, attorney John Schmidtlein said that Apple’s decision to make Google the default search engine in its Safari browser demonstrates how Google’s search engine is the superior product consumers prefer.

    “Apple repeatedly chose Google as the default because Apple believed it was the best experience for its users,” he said.

    The Google case “could not be more different” from the historic Microsoft litigation at the turn of the millennium, Schmidtlein continued.

    Where the Microsoft case revolved around that company’s alleged harms to Netscape, a small browser maker, the Google case is based on claims that Google search has harmed a much larger and more powerful entity: Microsoft and its Bing search engine, Schmidtlein said.

    “Google competed on the merits to win preinstallation and default status” on consumer devices and browsers, he insisted, attacking Microsoft as a failed search engine developer.

    “The evidence will show that Microsoft’s Bing search engine failed to win customers because Microsoft did not invest [and] did not innovate,” Schmidtlein added. “At every critical juncture, the evidence will show that they were beaten in the market.”

    And Schmidtlein argued that forbidding Google from being able to compete for default status on browsers and devices would lead to its own harms to competition in search, stating that contracts ensuring that Android devices come with certain apps preinstalled such as Google Maps and Gmail also promotes competition — against Apple.

    “Google’s Android agreements are important components of a business model that has sustained the most important competitor to Apple for mobile devices in the United States,” Schmidtlein said.

    Google has previously said that consumers choose Google’s search engine because it is the best and that they prefer it, not because of anticompetitive practices.

    But DOJ prosecutors said Tuesday that they plan to present evidence in the case that Google knew what it was doing was illegal and that the company “hid and destroyed documents because they knew they were violating the antitrust laws.”

    “The harm from Google contracts affects every phone and computer in the country,” Dintzer said.

    Kent Walker, Google’s president of global affairs, and Rep. Ken Buck from Colorado were in attendance for the opening. Buck, a vocal tech industry critic, is the former top Republican on the House antitrust subcommittee — which in 2020 released a widely publicized investigative report finding that Amazon, Apple, Google and Facebook enjoyed “monopoly power.”

    Kent Walker, President of Global Affairs and Chief legal officer of Alphabet Inc., arrives at federal court on September 12, 2023 in Washington, DC. Google will defend its default-search deals in an antitrust trial against the U.S. Justice Department which begins today.

    The trial marks the culmination of two ongoing lawsuits against Google that started during the Trump administration.

    In separate complaints, the Justice Department and dozens of states accused Google in 2020 of abusing its dominance in online search but were eventually consolidated into a single case.

    Google’s search business provides more than half of the $283 billion in revenue and $76 billion in net income Google’s parent company, Alphabet, recorded in 2022. Search has fueled the company’s growth to a more than $1.7 trillion market capitalization.

    “This is a backwards-looking case at a time of unprecedented innovation,” said Walker in a statement, “including breakthroughs in AI, new apps and new services, all of which are creating more competition and more options for people than ever before. People don’t use Google because they have to — they use it because they want to. It’s easy to switch your default search engine — we’re long past the era of dial-up internet and CD-ROMs.”

    The trial may also be a bellwether for the more assertive antitrust agenda of the Biden administration.

    At the time the lawsuit was first filed, US antitrust officials did not rule out the possibility of a Google breakup, warning that Google’s behavior could threaten future innovation or the rise of a Google successor.

    Separately, a group of states, led by Colorado, made additional allegations against Google, claiming that the way Google structures its search results page harms competition by prioritizing the company’s own apps and services over web pages, links, reviews and content from other third-party sites.

    But the judge overseeing the case, Judge Amit Mehta in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, tossed out those claims in a ruling last month, narrowing the scope of allegations Google must defend and saying the states had not done enough to show a trial was necessary to determine whether Google’s search results rankings were anticompetitive.

    Despite that ruling, the trial represents the US government’s furthest progress in challenging Google to date. Mehta has said Google’s pole position among search engines on browsers and smartphones “is a hotly disputed issue” and that the trial will determine “whether, as a matter of actual market reality, Google’s position as the default search engine across multiple browsers is a form of exclusionary Conduct.”

    In January, meanwhile, the Biden administration launched another antitrust suit against Google in opposition to the company’s advertising technology business, accusing it of maintaining an illegal monopoly. That case remains in its early stages at the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.

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  • China is huge for chip designer Arm. That’s a risk for its new investors | CNN Business

    China is huge for chip designer Arm. That’s a risk for its new investors | CNN Business

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    Hong Kong
    CNN
     — 

    As British chip designer Arm prepares to raise about $5 billion in an initial public offering (IPO) on Thursday, its China business has become a serious point of concern.

    The SoftBank-owned firm used many pages of its IPO prospectus to warn investors of risks related to its exposure to China at a time of rising tension between Washington and Beijing over chip technology.

    Its regulatory filing last month revealed that a quarter of its sales come from China, through an unusual relationship with an entity it does not control and with which it has a complex history.

    Arm China is “an entity that operates independently of us and is our single largest customer,” the company said in its prospectus. “Neither we nor SoftBank Group control the operations of Arm China.”

    Arm, which is based in Cambridge, added that the scale of its business in China made it “particularly susceptible to economic and political risks,” which could be worsened by tensions between the country and the United States or the United Kingdom.

    The company has long been vulnerable in this area, which may have already contributed to a lower market valuation than SoftBank was expecting.

    Arm blamed an economic slowdown in China as well as “factors related to export control and national security matters” for slower growth in royalty revenues from China in its fiscal year to March. Total revenue from China did increase in that period, however.

    Royalties are hugely significant for Arm, which gets a fee from each chip developed using its products. The company relies on royalties and licensing for most of its income.

    Arm said Wednesday it priced its shares at $51 each, raising as much as $4.9 billion. The tally could rise to $5.2 billion if banks exercise an option to buy additional shares, valuing the chip designer at as much as $54.5 billion.

    That’s less than the $64 billion valuation implied when SoftBank bought a remaining 25% stake in the company from its Vision Fund unit just last month.

    Arm has declined to comment.

    Concerns about China are likely to have been “built into IPO pricing expectations already, although a worst-case scenario of increased US sanctions [or] trade restrictions probably is not,” Kirk Boodry, an investment advisor at Astris Advisory, a Japanese investment research firm, told CNN.

    Arm was publicly listed until 2016, when Japan’s SoftBank bought it for $32 billion.

    Four years later, SoftBank tried to sell Arm to Nvidia for $40 billion, in what would have been the biggest chip deal of all time. But it didn’t pass muster with global antitrust regulators, and was called off in February 2022.

    Now, Arm’s return to the stock market is being closely watched as it promises to be the biggest US IPO since 2021.

    SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son has touted it as an AI company that could have “exponential growth,” and promised that ChatGPT-like services will eventually be offered on Arm-designed machines.

    “The value of chips, and Arm’s technology, has maybe never been more in demand from the global economy,” said Kyle Stanford, lead venture capital analyst at PitchBook.

    But Arm is a middleman in the semiconductor industry, which is a key source of tension in US-China relations. Both countries are racing to boost their prowess in the sector, and each side has recently enacted export controls aimed at limiting the other’s capacity.

    “Chip tensions will never go away,” Stanford argued. “Political and regulatory pressure is likely to increase.”

    On Tuesday, former US Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Jay Clayton told US lawmakers that large public companies with major exposure to China should be prompted to disclose specific risks associated with the country, “and what type of scenario planning they have done in the event of abrupt decoupling.”

    Although US officials have insisted that America is not seeking to decouple from China, they have pointed to the importance of reducing its reliance on the world’s second largest economy.

    In its filing, Arm said it held just a “4.8% indirect ownership interest in Arm China,” through a 10% non-voting stake in a SoftBank-controlled entity that owns less than half of the Chinese company.

    While such convoluted corporate structures aren’t unique in China, “in my view, it is very problematic,” said Ivana Delevska, founder and chief investment officer of asset manager Spear Invest.

    “Investors of other companies are just waking up to this fact in light of increased tensions,” she added.

    Arm has had trouble with Arm China before. In its filing, it said the business has a record of late payments.

    “Although these historical issues did not have a material impact on our operations, any future failure to pay us the amounts we are owed … could have a material adverse effect on our business,” Arm said.

    Arm China has also been subject to a legal battle with its former CEO, Allen Wu.

    Since April 2022, Wu and entities effectively controlled by him have lodged several lawsuits in Chinese courts against Arm China, “seeking to challenge certain aspects of Arm China’s corporate governance and the actions of Arm China’s board of directors,” Arm said in its filing.

    As of August, the cases had been resolved in favor of Arm China, it said, but the outcome could still be appealed. potentially hurting the British firm in the future.

    That hasn’t stopped many of the biggest names in global tech from jumping on board.

    Companies including Apple (AAPL), Google (GOOGL), Nvidia (NVDA), AMD (AMD), Samsung and TSMC (TSM) have indicated interest in acting as cornerstone investors in the offering, according to a filing last week.

    Delevska said the interest reflected Arm’s strong position in the industry and had helped to prop up its overall valuation.

    “I believe it is good timing for the IPO,” she added. “Investors will just have to price in the China risk.”

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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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  • US government and 17 states sue Amazon in landmark monopoly case | CNN Business

    US government and 17 states sue Amazon in landmark monopoly case | CNN Business

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    CNN
     — 

    The US government and 17 states are suing Amazon in a landmark monopoly case reflecting years of allegations that the e-commerce giant abused its economic dominance and harmed fair competition.

    The groundbreaking lawsuit by the Federal Trade Commission and 17 attorneys general marks the US government’s sharpest attack yet against Amazon, a company that started off selling books on the internet but has since become known as “the everything store,” expanding into selling a vast range of consumer products, creating a globe-spanning logistics network and becoming a powerhouse in other technologies such as cloud computing.

    The complaint alleges Amazon unfairly promotes its own platform and services at the expense of third-party sellers who rely on the company’s e-commerce marketplace for distribution.

    For example, according to the FTC, Amazon has harmed competition by requiring sellers on its platform to purchase Amazon’s in-house logistics services in order to secure the best seller benefits, referred to as “Prime” eligibility. It also claims the company anticompetitively forces sellers to list their products on Amazon at the lowest prices anywhere on the web, instead of allowing sellers to offer their products at competing marketplaces for a lower price.

    That practice is already the subject of a separate lawsuit targeting Amazon filed by California’s attorney general last year.

    Because of Amazon’s dominance in e-commerce, sellers have little option but to accept Amazon’s terms, the FTC alleges, resulting in higher prices for consumers and a worse consumer experience. Amazon also ranks its own products in marketplace search results higher than those sold by third parties, the FTC said.

    Amazon is “squarely focused on preventing anyone else from gaining that same critical mass of customers,” FTC Chair Lina Khan told reporters Tuesday. “This complaint reflects the cutting edge and best thinking on how competition occurs in digital markets and, similarly, the tactics that Amazon has used to suffocate rivals, deprive them of oxygen, and really leave a stunted landscape in its wake.”

    The states involved in the case are Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Nevada, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin.

    The complaint was filed in the US District Court for the Western District of Washington, and seeks a court order blocking Amazon from engaging in the allegedly anticompetitive behavior. Khan declined to say Tuesday whether the agency will be seeking a breakup of the company, saying the case is currently focused on proving Amazon’s liability under federal antitrust law.

    The suit makes Amazon the third tech giant after Google and Meta to be hit with sweeping US government allegations that the company spent years violating federal antitrust laws, reflecting policymakers’ growing worldwide hostility toward Big Tech that intensified after 2016. The litigation could take years to play out. But just as Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his spectacular wealth have inspired critics to draw comparisons to America’s Gilded Age, so may the FTC lawsuit come to symbolize a modern repeat of the antitrust crackdown of the early 20th century.

    In a release, Khan accused Amazon of using “punitive and coercive tactics” to preserve an illegal monopoly.

    “Amazon is now exploiting its monopoly power to enrich itself while raising prices and degrading service for the tens of millions of American families who shop on its platform and the hundreds of thousands of businesses that rely on Amazon to reach them,” Khan said. “Today’s lawsuit seeks to hold Amazon to account for these monopolistic practices and restore the lost promise of free and fair competition.”

    “Today’s suit makes clear the FTC’s focus has radically departed from its mission of protecting consumers and competition. The practices the FTC is challenging have helped to spur competition and innovation across the retail industry, and have produced greater selection, lower prices, and faster delivery speeds for Amazon customers and greater opportunity for the many businesses that sell in Amazon’s store,”said David Zapolsky, Amazon’s Senior Vice President of Global Public policy and General Counsel. “If the FTC gets its way, the result would be fewer products to choose from, higher prices, slower deliveries for consumers, and reduced options for small businesses—the opposite of what antitrust law is designed to do. The lawsuit filed by the FTC today is wrong on the facts and the law, and we look forward to making that case in court.”

    For years, Amazon’s critics including US lawmakers, European regulators, third-party sellers, consumer advocacy groups and more have accused the company of everything from mistreating its workers to forcing its third-party sellers to accept anticompetitive terms. Amazon has unfairly used sellers’ own commercial data against them, opponents have said, so it can figure out what products Amazon should sell itself. And the fact that Amazon competes with sellers on the very same marketplace it controls represents a conflict of interest that should be considered illegal, many of Amazon’s critics have said.

    The lawsuit represents a watershed moment in Khan’s career. She is widely credited with kickstarting antitrust scrutiny of Amazon in the United States with a seminal law paper in 2017. She later helped lead a congressional investigation into the tech industry’s alleged competition abuses, detailing in a 450-page report how Amazon — as well as Apple, Google and Meta — enjoy “monopoly power” and that there is “significant evidence” to show that the companies’ anticompetitive conduct has hindered innovation, reduced consumer choice and weakened democracy.

    The investigation led to a raft of legislative proposals aimed at reining in the companies, but the most significant ones have stalled under a barrage of industry lobbying and decisions by congressional leaders not to bring the bills up for a final vote.

    Lawmakers’ inaction has left it to antitrust enforcers to police the tech industry’s alleged harms to competition. In 2021, President Joe Biden stunned many in Washington when he tapped Khan not only to serve on the FTC but to lead the agency, sending a signal that he supported tough antitrust oversight.

    Since then Khan has taken an aggressive enforcement posture, particularly toward the tech industry. Under her watch, the FTC has sued to block numerous tech acquisitions, most notably Microsoft’s $69 billion deal to acquire video game publisher Activision Blizzard. It has moved to restrict how companies may collect and use consumers’ personal information, and warned them of the risks of generative artificial intelligence.

    Throughout, the FTC has scrutinized Amazon — suing the company in June for allegedly tricking millions of consumers into signing up for Amazon Prime and reaching multimillion-dollar settlements in May with the company over alleged privacy violations linked to Amazon’s smart home devices.

    But the latest suit against Amazon may rank as the most significant of all, because it drives at the heart of Amazon’s e-commerce business and focuses on some of the most persistent criticisms of the company. In a sign of how threatening Amazon perceived Khan’s ascent to be, the company in 2021 called for her recusal from all cases involving the tech giant.

    Khan has resisted those calls. On Tuesday, the FTC said it held a unanimous 3-0 vote authorizing the lawsuit; Khan was among those voting to proceed.

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  • Microsoft, Amazon facing UK antitrust probe over cloud services | CNN Business

    Microsoft, Amazon facing UK antitrust probe over cloud services | CNN Business

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    London
    CNN
     — 

    Microsoft and Amazon could be in hot water over apparently making it difficult for UK customers to use multiple suppliers of vital cloud services.

    The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), the country’s antitrust regulator, said Thursday it was launching an investigation into the UK cloud infrastructure services market to determine whether players were engaged in anti-competitive practices.

    Cloud computing firms, such as Microsoft and Amazon Web Services (AWS), use data centers around the world to provide remote access to computing services and storage. This “cloud infrastructure” forms the foundation for how software applications, such as Gmail and Dropbox, are developed and run.

    The CMA probe has been initiated following a report from Britain’s media and communications regulator Ofcom, which found that the supply of cloud infrastructure in the United Kingdom is highly concentrated and competition limited.

    “We welcome Ofcom’s referral of public cloud infrastructure services to us for in-depth scrutiny,” CMA CEO Sarah Cardell said in a statement.

    “This is a £7.5 billion market that underpins a whole host of online services — from social media to [artificial intelligence] foundation models. Many businesses now completely rely on cloud services, making effective competition in this market essential.”

    The CMA said it would conclude its investigation by April 2025.

    The probe is the latest evidence of increased scrutiny of big tech companies by European regulators, which have tightened rules in recent years in areas such as data protection and targeted advertising.

    The European Digital Services Act, which came into force at the end of August, reflects one of the most comprehensive and ambitious efforts by policymakers anywhere to regulate tech giants. It applies to companies including Amazon (AMZN), Apple (AAPL), Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), Snapchat, TikTok and Meta (META), the owner of Facebook and Instagram.

    According to Ofcom, last year Microsoft and AWS had a combined market share of 70-80% in the UK cloud infrastructure services market. Google is their closest competitor with a share of 5-10%.

    In its report, Ofcom identified features of the market that make it more difficult for customers to change providers or to use multiple providers, such as switching fees.

    “If customers have difficulty switching and using multiple providers, it could make it harder for competitors to gain scale and challenge AWS and Microsoft effectively for the business of new and existing customers,” Ofcom wrote.

    The report also raised concerns about the software licensing practices of some cloud providers, particularly Microsoft.

    Both Amazon and Microsoft said they would engage “constructively” with the CMA.

    But a spokesperson for AWS added that the company disagreed with Ofcom’s findings. “We… believe they are based on a fundamental misconception of how the IT sector functions, and the services and discounts on offer,” the spokesperson said, noting that “the cloud has made switching between providers easier than ever.”

    A spokesperson for Microsoft added: “We are committed to ensuring the UK cloud industry remains innovative, highly competitive and an accelerator for growth across the economy.”

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  • The world will pay a high price if China cuts off supplies of chipmaking materials | CNN Business

    The world will pay a high price if China cuts off supplies of chipmaking materials | CNN Business

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    Hong Kong
    CNN
     — 

    Just one month after China announced it would curb exports of germanium and gallium, both essential for making semiconductors, its overseas shipments of the materials fell to zero.

    Beijing says it has since approved some export licenses but the restrictions are a stark warning that China has a powerful weapon it can deploy in the escalating trade war over the future of tech. The curbs came after the United States, Europe and Japan restricted sales of chips and chipmaking equipment to China to cut off its access to key technology that can be used by the military.

    “It is still early to tell how tight the restrictions would be. [But] if China ends up blocking a large amount of exports, it will cause a disruption in the supply chain for the immediate consumers,” said Xiaomeng Lu, director for geotechnology at Eurasia Group.

    China enjoys a near monopoly on the production of the two elements. Last year, it accounted for 98% of the global production of gallium and 68% of refined germanium production, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS).

    While there are alternatives for the United States and its allies, constructing an independent supply chain for gallium and germanium processing could require a “staggering” investment of over $20 billion, according to Marina Zhang, an associate professor at University of Technology Sydney. And it could take years to develop.

    “Refining technologies and facilities for processing gallium and germanium cannot be built overnight, particularly considering the environmental implications of their extraction and mining,” she wrote in July.

    But there may be no other option but to do so.

    Although the minerals account for only “several hundred million dollars” in global trade, according to Zhang, they are critical to the supply chains of the international semiconductor, defense, electrical vehicle and communications industries, which are each worth hundreds of billions of dollars.

    China has dominated the production of both elements for at least a decade.

    Gallium is a soft, silvery metal and is easy to cut with a knife. It’s commonly used to produce compounds that can make radio frequency chips for mobile phones and satellite communication.

    Germanium is a hard, grayish-white and brittle metalloid that is used in the production of optical fibers that can transmit light and electronic data.

    Neither is found on their own in nature. They are usually formed as a byproduct of mining more common metals: primarily aluminum, zinc and copper.

    The processing of the elements can be “costly, technically challenging, energy-intensive and polluting,” according to Ewa Manthey, a commodities strategist at ING Group.

    “China dominates production of these two metals not because they are rare, but because it has been able to keep their production costs fairly low and manufacturers elsewhere haven’t been able to match the country’s competitive costs,” he said.

    From 2005 to 2015, China’s production of low-purity gallium exploded from 22 metric tons to 444 metric tons, according to data compiled by the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

    Analysts from the think tank said China’s leading position in the aluminum industry has allowed it to establish a dominant share of global gallium production.

    Moreover, China’s government has implemented strategic policies to boost production, including a requirement for the country’s aluminum producers to create the capacity to extract gallium.

    This is why, over the past 10 years, manufacturing gallium has become essentially economically nonviable outside China.

    Between 2013 and 2016, Kazakhstan, Hungary, and Germany all ceased primary production of gallium. (Germany announced in 2021 it would restart production because of rising prices.)

    There are alternative suppliers, though.

    According to the USGS, Russia, Japan, and Korea produced a combined 1.8% of global gallium in 2022. For germanium, Canada’s Teck Resources is one of the world’s largest producers. American company Indium Corporation is also a top global manufacturer of germanium compounds and alloys.

    And Canada’s 5NPlus and Belgium’s Umicore produce both elements.

    But “it would take time to bring online alternative sources of supply,” Chris Miller, author of “Chip War” and an economic historian, told CNN.

    It could also be expensive.

    Global mining companies can get into the business of selling germanium and gallium if China seeks to choke off supply, said Gregory Allen, director of Wadhwani Center for AI & Advanced Technologies at CSIS.

    “This would not be instantaneous, but some global mining and refining firms have signaled their intent to do so.”

    In July, Russian state owned conglomerate Rostec told Reuters that it’s ready to boost output of germanium for domestic use after China announced curbs on exports.

    Netherlands-based Nyrstar also said it was looking at potential germanium and gallium projects in Australia, Europe and the United States.

    “Even if users run out of supplies of these minerals, gallium can be swapped for silicon or indium in the wafer making process,” Lu from Eurasia Group said.

    Zinc selenide is a lesser but functional substitute for germanium in certain applications, she added.

    Recycling is another option.

    Last year, the US Defense logistics Agency introduced a program to recycle optical-grade germanium used in weapon systems.

    “Factory floor scrap has already accounted for a source of supply. Germanium scrap is also recovered from decommissioned tanks and other military vehicles,” Lu said.

    In August, China didn’t sell any germanium or gallium outside its borders. The numbers could bounce back in September, as the Commerce Ministry said it had approved some export licenses for Chinese companies.

    Initially, prices for the two elements are likely to rise, Manthey said.

    Prices of gallium stood at 1,965 yuan ($269) per metric ton on Tuesday, up more than 17% from June 1, according to ebaiyin.com, a Chinese metal trading service website.

    Prices for germanium increased about 3% during the same period.

    “Higher prices will in turn increase competition by making production more cost-competitive again in countries like Japan, Canada and the US, which will in turn reduce China’s dominance in both markets,” Manthey said.

    “It will take time to build processing plants, but over time, the markets and supply chains will adjust,” he added.

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  • India restricts laptop, PC imports to boost local manufacturing | CNN Business

    India restricts laptop, PC imports to boost local manufacturing | CNN Business

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    CNN
     — 

    India has placed restrictions on the import of computers and laptops in a surprise move from the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi which has been trying to encourage domestic manufacturing in the tech sector.

    Importers will now need to apply for licenses in order to bring laptops, tablets, personal computers and other electronic devices into the country, according to a notice issued by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry on Thursday. Previously, the import of such items was unrestricted.

    The ministry didn’t provide a reason for the change in rules, however Modi has aggressively pushed his “Make in India” campaign, which promotes local manufacturing in a bid to create more jobs. It follows a similar curb on smart TV imports in 2020.

    India’s electronic imports stood at $19.7 billion in the April to June period, up 6.25% from the same period in 2022, according to Reuters.

    CNN has contacted Apple

    (AAPL)     and Samsung

    (SSNLF)    , top laptop sellers in the South Asian country, for comment but has not yet received responses.

    India’s push to manufacture domestically comes at a crucial time for the world’s most populous nation, as companies look beyond China to secure crucial supply chains.

    India’s working-age population is expected to hit one billion over the next decade, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Its large and young labor force makes the country a big draw for global companies seeking alternative manufacturing hubs to China.

    Earlier this year, India’s commerce minister, Piyush Goyal, said Apple was already making between 5% and 7% of its products in India.

    “If I am not mistaken, they are targeting to go up to 25% of their manufacturing,” he said at an event in January.

    In June, US chipmaker Micron

    (MICR)     announced a new factory in the western state of Gujarat, calling it the country’s first semiconductor assembly and test manufacturing facility.

    The venture will see Micron invest up to $825 million and create “up to 5,000 new direct Micron jobs and 15,000 community jobs over the next several years,” according to the company.

    Foxconn, the world’s largest contract electronics maker and a key supplier to Apple, is also looking to expand its manufacturing operations in India.

    Last month, it abruptly announced it was exiting an ambitious $19.4 billion joint venture with Vedanta

    (VEDL)    , an Indian metals and energy conglomerate, to help build one of the country’s first chip factories.

    But, the company said it was still committed to investing in Indian chipmaking and was applying to a government program that subsidizes the cost of setting up semiconductor or electronic display production facilities in the country.

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  • US escalates tech battle by cutting China off from AI chips | CNN Business

    US escalates tech battle by cutting China off from AI chips | 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/Washington
    CNN
     — 

    The Biden administration is reducing the types of semiconductors that American companies will be able to sell to China, citing the desire to close loopholes in existing regulations announced last year.

    On Tuesday, the US Commerce Department unveiled new rules that further tighten a sweeping set of export controls first introduced in October 2022.

    The updated rules “will increase effectiveness of our controls and further shut off pathways to evade our restrictions,” US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said in a statement. “We will keep working to protect our national security by restricting access to critical technologies, vigilantly enforcing our rules, while minimizing any unintended impact on trade flows.”

    Advanced artificial intelligence chips, such as Nvidia’s H800 and A800 products, will be affected, according to a regulatory filing from the US company.

    The regulations also expand export curbs beyond mainland China and Macao to 21 other countries with which the United States maintains an arms embargo, including Iran and Russia.

    The measures, which have affected the shares of major American chipmakers, are set to take effect in 30 days.

    The original rules had sought to hamper China’s ability to procure advanced computing chips and manufacture advanced weapons systems. Since then, senior administration officials have suggested they needed to be adjusted due to technological developments.

    Raimondo, who visited China in August, said the administration was “laser-focused” on slowing the advancement of China’s military. She emphasized that Washington had opted not to go further in restricting chips for other applications.

    Chips used in phones, video games and electric vehicles were purposefully carved out from the new rules, according to senior administration officials.

    But these assurances are unlikely to placate Beijing, which has vowed to “win the battle” in core technologies in order to bolster the country’s position as a tech superpower.

    China’s Foreign Ministry criticized the Biden administration’s new rules Monday, before they were officially unveiled.

    “The US needs to stop politicizing and weaponizing trade and tech issues and stop destabilizing global industrial and supply chains,” spokesperson Mao Ning told a press briefing. “We will closely follow the developments and firmly safeguard our rights and interests.”

    As part of ongoing dialogue established by Raimondo and other US officials with their Chinese counterparts, Beijing was informed of the impending updates, according to a senior administration official.

    “We let the Chinese know for clarity that these rules were coming, but there was no negotiation with them,” the official told reporters.

    The tech rivalry between the world’s two largest economies has been heating up. In recent months, the United States has enlisted its allies in Europe and Asia in restricting sales of advanced chipmaking equipment to China.

    In July, Beijing hit back by imposing its own curbs on exports of germanium and gallium, two elements essential for making semiconductors.

    Shares of US chipmakers fell Tuesday following the announcement of new export controls.

    Nvidia’s (NVDA) stock closed down 4.7%, while Intel (INTC) slipped 1.4%. AMD (AMD) shares ended 1.2% lower.

    In its filing, Nvidia said the rules imposed new licensing requirements for exports to China and other markets such as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Vietnam.

    The company said its A800 chip, which was reportedly created for Chinese customers in order to circumvent last year’s restrictions, would be among the components affected.

    However, “given the strength of demand for our products worldwide, we do not anticipate that the additional restrictions will have a near-term meaningful impact on our financial results,” Nvidia said.

    The broader US chipmaking industry is also examining the impact of the new rules.

    The Semiconductor Industry Association said in a statement Tuesday that while it recognized the need to protect national security, “overly broad, unilateral controls risk harming the US semiconductor ecosystem without advancing national security as they encourage overseas customers to look elsewhere.”

    “We urge the administration to strengthen coordination with allies to ensure a level playing field for all companies,” added the group, which represents 99% of the US chip sector.

    The measures are also being reviewed in Europe. On Tuesday, ASML, the Dutch chipmaking equipment manufacturer, said it was evaluating the implications of the rules, though it did not expect them “to have a material impact on our financial outlook for 2023.”

    During a call Wednesday about the company’s third-quarter results, ASML chief executive Peter Wennink said the updated export restrictions would affect between 10% and 15% of the firm’s sales to China.

    On Tuesday, the US Department of Commerce added 13 Chinese entities to a list of firms with which US companies may not do business for national security reasons.

    They include two Chinese startups, Biren Technology and Moore Thread Intelligent Technology, and their subsidiaries.

    The department alleges that these companies are “involved in the development of advanced computing chips that have been found to be engaged in activities contrary to US national security.”

    CNN has reached out to Biren and Moore Thread for comment.

    — Anna Cooban contributed reporting.

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  • US judge set to decertify Google Play class action | CNN Business

    US judge set to decertify Google Play class action | CNN Business

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    A US judge plans to free Google from having to defend against a class action by 21 million consumers who claimed it violated federal antitrust law by overcharging them in its Google Play app store.

    Monday’s decision by US District Judge James Donato in San Francisco could significantly reduce damages that Google, a unit of Alphabet, might owe over the distribution of Android mobile applications.

    Consumers claimed they would have paid less for apps and enjoyed expanded choice but for Google’s alleged monopoly. Google has denied wrongdoing.

    Donato said his Nov. 2022 class certification order should be thrown out because his decision, also announced Monday, not to let an economist testify as an expert witness for the consumers eliminated an “essential element” of their argument for certification.

    The judge said he couldn’t decertify the class immediately because Google had been appealing his November order. He directed lawyers for Google and the consumers to try resolving that issue before a Sept. 7 hearing.

    The class action included consumers from 12 US states and five territories, who were not part of a similar case against Google brought by various state attorneys general.

    Class actions let plaintiffs sue as a group, and potentially obtain larger recoveries at lower cost than if they were forced to sue individually.

    Lawyers for the consumers did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Google and its lawyers did not immediately respond to similar requests.

    The case is part of wide-ranging antitrust litigation that includes 38 states and the District of Columbia, and companies including Epic Games and Match Group.

    The case is In re Google Play Store Antitrust Litigation, US District Court, Northern District of California, No. 21-md-02981.

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  • China’s top chipmaker may be in hot water as US lawmakers call for further sanctions after Huawei ‘breakthrough’ | CNN Business

    China’s top chipmaker may be in hot water as US lawmakers call for further sanctions after Huawei ‘breakthrough’ | CNN Business

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    Hong Kong
    CNN
     — 

    Shares in SMIC, China’s largest contract chipmaker, plunged on Thursday, after two US congressmen called on the White House to further restrict export sales to the company.

    The comments came after Huawei Technologies introduced the Mate 60 Pro, a Chinese smartphone powered by an advanced chip that is believed to have been made by SMIC.

    Last week’s launch shocked industry experts who didn’t understand how SMIC, which is headquartered in Shanghai, would have the ability to manufacture such a chip following sweeping efforts by the United States to restrict China’s access to foreign chip technology.

    TechInsights, a research organization based in Canada specializing in semiconductors, revealed shortly after the launch that the smartphone contained a new 5G Kirin 9000s processor developed specifically for Huawei by SMIC.

    This is a “big tech breakthrough for China,” Jefferies analysts said Tuesday in a research note.

    The development has fueled fears among analysts that the US-China tech war is likely to accelerate in the near future.

    US representative Mike Gallagher, chair of the US House of Representatives committee on China, called on the US Commerce Department on Wednesday to end all technology exports to Huawei and SMIC, according to Reuters.

    Gallagher was quoted as saying SMIC may have violated US sanctions, as this chip likely could not be produced without US technology.

    “The time has come to end all US technology exports to both Huawei and SMIC to make clear any firm that flouts US law and undermines our national security will be cut off from our technology,” he said.

    Shares in SMIC, which stands for Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation, sank 8.3% in Shanghai and 7.6% in Hong Kong on Thursday. Hua Hong Semiconductor, China’s second largest chip foundry, tumbled 5.8%.

    Texas Republican Michael McCaul, who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee, was quoted by Reuters as saying he was concerned about the possibility of China trying to “get a monopoly” in the manufacture of less-advanced computer chips.

    “We talked a lot about advanced semiconductor chips, but we also need look at legacy,” he reportedly said, referring to older computer chip technology which does not fall under export controls.

    “I think China is trying to get a monopoly on the market share of legacy semiconductor chips as well. And I think that’s a part of the discussion we’ll be having,” he said.

    Chinese state media have touted the development as a sign the country had successfully “broken US sanctions” and “achieved technological independence” in advanced chipmaking.

    Meme makers on the Chinese internet have even crowned US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo the unofficial brand ambassador for the Mate 60 series.

    The memes poke fun at the idea that that US sanctions, which are implemented and enforced by the US Commerce department, may have indirectly led to the launch of the new phone as China’s homegrown firms had to work with the available technology.

    Raimondo visited China last week, when the phone was launched. The memes have gone viral online and been reported on by state broadcaster CCTV.

    Before Thursday, SMIC’s shares in Hong Kong had rallied more than 20% within two weeks due to investor optimism. Huahong Semiconductor jumped 11%.

    CNN has reached out to Gallagher’s and McCaul’s offices for comment, but has yet to receive a response.

    Huawei was added to a blacklist in May 2019 by the US Commerce Department over national security concerns. That means companies have to apply for US export licenses to supply technology to Huawei.

    SMIC was also put on the same list in 2020, as US officials were concerned it could use American technology to aid the Chinese military. SMIC has denied having any relationship with the Chinese military.

    “The fact that China has achieved a big breakthrough in [semiconductor] tech will likely create more debate in the US about the effectiveness of sanctions,” said the Jefferies analysts.

    They expect the Biden administration to tighten chips ban on China, which was introduced in October 2022, in the next few months, further limiting China’s access to advanced US semiconductors.

    “Overall the US-China tech war is likely to escalate,” they said.

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  • Google’s antitrust showdown: What’s at stake for the internet search titan | CNN Business

    Google’s antitrust showdown: What’s at stake for the internet search titan | CNN Business

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    CNN
     — 

    Google will face off in court Tuesday against government officials who have accused the company of antitrust violations in its massive search business, kicking off a long-anticipated legal showdown that could reshape one of the internet’s most dominant platforms.

    The trial beginning this week in Washington before a federal judge marks the culmination of two ongoing lawsuits against Google that started during the Trump administration. Legal experts describe the actions as the country’s biggest monopolization case since the US government took on Microsoft in the 1990s.

    In separate complaints, the Justice Department and dozens of states accused Google in 2020 of abusing its dominance in online search by allegedly harming competition through deals with wireless carriers and smartphone makers that made Google Search the default or exclusive option on products used by millions of consumers. The complaints eventually consolidated into a single case.

    Google has maintained that it competes on the merits and that consumers prefer its tools because they are the best, not because it has moved to illegally restrict competition. Google’s search business provides more than half of the $283 billion in revenue and $76 billion in net income Google’s parent company, Alphabet, recorded in 2022. Search has fueled the company’s growth to a more than $1.7 trillion market capitalization.

    Now, the company is set to defend itself in a multiweek trial that could upend the way Google distributes its search engine to users. The case is expected to feature testimony from high-profile witnesses including former employees of Google and Samsung, along with executives from Apple, including senior vice president Eddy Cue. It is the first case to go to trial in a series of court challenges targeting Google’s far-reaching economic power, testing the willingness of courts to clamp down on large tech platforms.

    “This is a backwards-looking case at a time of unprecedented innovation,” said Google President of Global Affairs Kent Walker, “including breakthroughs in AI, new apps and new services, all of which are creating more competition and more options for people than ever before. People don’t use Google because they have to — they use it because they want to. It’s easy to switch your default search engine — we’re long past the era of dial-up internet and CD-ROMs.”

    The trial may also be a bellwether for the more assertive antitrust agenda of the Biden administration.

    In its initial complaint, the US government alleged in part that Google pays billions of dollars a year to device manufacturers including Apple, LG, Motorola and Samsung — and browser developers like Mozilla and Opera — to be their default search engine and in many cases to prohibit them from dealing with Google’s competitors.

    As a result, the complaint alleges, “Google effectively owns or controls search distribution channels accounting for roughly 80 percent of the general search queries in the United States.”

    The lawsuit also alleges that Google’s Android operating system deals with device makers are anticompetitive, because they require smartphone companies to pre-install other Google-owned apps, such as Gmail, Chrome or Maps.

    At the time the lawsuit was first filed, US antitrust officials did not rule out the possibility of a Google breakup, warning that Google’s behavior could threaten future innovation or the rise of a Google successor.

    Separately, a group of states, led by Colorado, made additional allegations against Google, claiming that the way Google structures its search results page harms competition by prioritizing the company’s own apps and services over web pages, links, reviews and content from other third-party sites.

    But the judge overseeing the case, Judge Amit Mehta in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, tossed out those claims in a ruling last month, narrowing the scope of allegations Google must defend and saying the states had not done enough to show a trial was necessary to determine whether Google’s search results rankings were anticompetitive.

    Despite that ruling, the trial represents the US government’s furthest progress in challenging Google to date. Mehta has said Google’s pole position among search engines on browsers and smartphones “is a hotly disputed issue” and that the trial will determine “whether, as a matter of actual market reality, Google’s position as the default search engine across multiple browsers is a form of exclusionary Conduct.”

    In January, meanwhile, the Biden administration launched another antitrust suit against Google in opposition to the company’s advertising technology business, accusing it of maintaining an illegal monopoly. That case remains in its early stages at the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.

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  • 6 migrant workers were hit and injured by an SUV outside a North Carolina Walmart, and authorities are searching for the driver, police say | CNN

    6 migrant workers were hit and injured by an SUV outside a North Carolina Walmart, and authorities are searching for the driver, police say | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Six migrant workers were hit and injured by an SUV outside a North Carolina Walmart in what appears to be an “intentional assault” Sunday afternoon, and authorities are looking for the driver involved, police said.

    The incident happened after 1 p.m. outside the store in the city of Lincolnton, about 38 miles northwest of Charlotte, according to the Lincolnton Police Department.

    All six injured were taken to a local hospital with various injuries, police said, adding that none of the injuries appeared life-threatening.

    Police described the driver involved in the incident as “an older white male” who was driving an older model mid-size black SUV with a luggage rack.

    The department didn’t provide details on the circumstances of the collision, or what led police to believe it may have been intentional.

    “The motives of the suspect are still under investigation,” Lincolnton Police said on Facebook.

    Police released surveillance images of a black SUV and asked for the public’s assistance in identifying the vehicle and its driver.

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