Day: November 21, 2023

North Korea claims to have launched its first spy satellite

Media Library

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. North Korea has claimed to have successfully launched a military spy satellite into orbit for the first time, two months after Russian president Vladimir Putin pledged to support Kim Jong Un’s space ambitions. The Malligyong-1 reconnaissance satellite reached orbit following a rocket launch from a site in the west of the country on Tuesday night, North Korean state media reported on Wednesday morning. The Korean Central News Agency said Pyongyang’s…

North Korea claims successful spy satellite launch

Media Library

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. North Korea has claimed to have successfully launched a military spy satellite into orbit for the first time, two months after Russian president Vladimir Putin pledged to support Kim Jong Un’s space ambitions. The Malligyong-1 reconnaissance satellite reached orbit following a rocket launch from a site in the west of the country on Tuesday night, North Korean state media reported on Wednesday morning. The Korean Central News Agency said Pyongyang’s…

Tech war: China approves Broadcom-VMware merger with conditions, in sign of thaw with US

Media Library

Broadcom’s US$61 billion takeover of software maker VMware won approval from Chinese regulators, albeit with a list of conditions it must fulfil. Still, the nod from China completes the last hurdle for the companies, which said the agreement will close on Wednesday. The combination of the US chip maker and cloud software company is one of the biggest technology mergers ever and had already received clearance from the EU, UK, South Korea and Japan. There is no legal impediment to closing in the US under merger regulations. The companies had…

Hong Kong leader John Lee skipped Apec. Did the city win or lose and when will he get US sanctions against him lifted?

Media Library

In the past, Lee would shrug off the sanctions, berate the US and then declare confidently that Hong Kong would seek business elsewhere, whether it was the regional grouping Asean, the Middle East or other belt and road countries. “The world is a very big place,” Lee said several times before. Could recent candid remarks on Hong Kong-US ties from city leader John Lee be a subtle call for a recalibration of ties? Photo: Sun Yeung Lee’s candour, however, might not have been spontaneous but carefully choreographed to signal to…

China urged to fix services ‘weak link’, increase investment in zero-to-one innovation

Media Library

Amid China’s quest to extract more economic potential, the world’s second-largest economy should strengthen inadequacies in the services sector as well as original innovation, urged a former high-ranking official known for his economic insights. The underdevelopment in tertiary industries that serve manufacturers is sapping the growth momentum of subsectors from the digital economy to decarbonisation, said former Chongqing mayor Huang Qifan. The lag is associated with underinvestment in zero-to-one innovation, which lead to technological breakthroughs or the reshaping of an industry, added Huang, who also worked as a senior official…

Journalist Dies in Hospital in China Hours After Police Raid

Media Library

Washington —  A media watchdog on Tuesday called on the international community to take action as details emerged about the death of a dissident journalist, seemingly at the hands of police in China. Freelance journalist Sun Lin died in a hospital Friday, just hours after a police raid on his home in the eastern city of Nanjing. A friend of the journalist, named Sun Liyong, told VOA Mandarin that nurses at the hospital have said that Sun Lin’s clothes were ripped when he was admitted. “He was sent to the…

S Korea suspends inter-Korean military deal, resumes surveillance

Media Library

South Korea has suspended a landmark military agreement with the North to resume surveillance activities near the border between the two states, a countermeasure to Pyongyang’s illegal satellite launch that violated the United Nations Security Council resolution. South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol on Wednesday endorsed his Cabinet’s approval of a motion of the suspension, according to a statement from the South’s Presidential Office.  The decision follows close on the heels of North Korea’s satellite launch despite international warnings late Tuesday. The North’s state-run Korean Central News Agency later reported…

Biden Highlights Efforts with China, Mexico to Combat Fentanyl

Media Library

WASHINGTON —  U.S. President Joe Biden highlighted “strong international coordination” by his administration to halt the flow of fentanyl and the ingredients used to produce the deadly drug following his diplomatic engagements with leaders of China and Mexico last week. “We’ve focused on prevention, harm reduction, treatment and recovery,” he said on Tuesday during a meeting at the White House to address the scourge of the illicit drug that has killed more than 200,000 Americans in recent years. “But this challenge also has roots outside our borders, outside the borders…

Embezzlement case shines light on Vietnamese corruption

Media Library

A recent multi-billion dollar embezzlement scandal in Vietnam is just the “tip of the iceberg” in the country’s corrupt banking system – and the government is ill-equipped to address it, experts told Radio Free Asia. Last week, the Vietnamese Ministry of Public Security released the conclusion of its investigation that found that Truong My Lan, the chairwoman of Van Thinh Phat Group, or VTP, had embezzled 304 trillion dong (US$12.5 billion) by using “ghost companies” and the Saigon Joint Stock Commercial Bank, or SCB, the group’s affiliate bank.  The case…